Describes the classical age of Chinese philosophy (500-200 B.C.) that coincides with the final decline of the Chou empire and the period of 'warring states' (403-221 B.C.), an exceptional era in Chinese history when there was no central authority which could claim to rule the entire civilized world. In the absence of a single unified state power enforcing conformity, there blossomed a hundred schools of thought. Philosophical argument and rational debate flourished in China as never before or since.