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Rh But it will be observed that these four States had from their situation grand opportunities for increasing their territory and their population; and the consequence was that before the end of the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw period each of them occupied an extent of country many times larger than the Royal Domain, while Ts‘oo was nearly as large as all the Middle States, as those of Chow proper were called, together. The way in which it and Tsin proceeded was by extinguishing and absorbing the smaller States adjacent to them, and by a constant process of subjugating the barbarous tribes, which lay on the south and west of Ts‘oo, and on the north and east of Tsin. Ts‘in lay farther from the settled parts of the country, and its princes had not so much to do in absorbing smaller States, but they early established their sway over all the Jung, or the wild hordes of the west. The leadership, which I have said in the preceding paragraph is improperly ascribed to duke Muh of Ts‘in as being over the feudal States belonged to him in his relation to the Jung. The sea forbade any extension of the border of Woo on the east, but it found much land to be occupied on the north and south, and its armies, going up the Këang or Yang-tsze, met those of Ts‘oo, and fought with them for the possession of the country between that great river and the Hwae.

The States of Chow proper had little room for any similar expansion. They were closely massed together. From the first immigration of the ancestors of the Chinese tribe, their course had been eastwards and mainly along the course of the Yellow River, and most of the older occupants of the country had been pushed before them to the borders of the sea. Ts‘e extended right to the sea, and so did Ke which the other absorbed. Then came the small States of K‘e and Keu, the latter of which had a sea border, while they do not seem to have ever thought of pushing their way into what is now called the promontory of Shan-tung. The people of both K‘e and Keu were often taunted by the other States with belonging themselves to the E barbarians. South from Keu there was a tract extending inland a considerable way, occupied by E tribes and the half-civilized people of Seu, and reaching down to the hordes of the Hwae, which Loo pleased itself with the idea of reducing, but which it was never able to reduce. Altogether there was, as I have said, hardly any room for the growth of these middle States. Ts‘e was the strongest of them, and longest maintained its independence, ultimately absorbing Sung, which had itself previously absorbed Ts‘aou. Of the others, Heu, Ts‘ae, Ch‘in, the two Choo, Loo, and in the end 118]