Author(s)

Elvis Li

Corresponding Author

Elvis Li

Abstract

This paper first attempts to summarize the driving forces of human society development during the Spring-Autumn and Warring States periods in Eastern Zhou, and then by expounding a list of idioms, historical events, and folktales, it tries to demonstrate them to be the significant evidence to support the well-established concept that rights and obligations evolution of nobles and commoners is consistent with the human society improvement. Notably, some evidence looks quite weird or even unreasonable in contemporary perspectives, which is causing confusions to the general public. The paper elaborates the proper interpretations to illustrate them to be the sound reflection of the traditions or society activities of that time.

Keywords

Nobles, Commoners, Feudalism, Rights, Obligations, the Spring-Autumn period, the Warring States period