The kingdom of Qin, rising from the western valley of the Wei, begins to grow from 350 BC. Its leaders are tough, uninterested in moderate discourse and Confucian scholarship. In 417 BC they had occupied Lin-Tsin, one of the centers of the cult of the Yellow River at its confluence with the Luo (the other center of the cult was at Ye where Ximen Bao had put an end to the human sacrifices at about the same time). Since the Qin desired the river god’s protection for their family, each year they sacrificed a princess in “marriage.”[396] [397] The methods of the Qin were radical, one could even say bloodthirsty. But their leaders well understood the importance, to their own power, of economic development of the regions under their control. They had a marvelous understanding of how to combine development with territorial expansion.
The three projects that we describe below are destined to have an extraordinary future — they remain in service today after more than 2,000 years of uninterrupted use.
