207, 始春秋

Shih3 ch'un1 ch'iu1

Begin spring autumn

This period began with the Spring, and Autumn epoch, 

Shih see line 134. 

Ch'un see line 57. 

Ch'iu see line 58. [With the transfer of the Court (see line 203) the period known later on as the Spring and Autumn may be roughly said to have begun, although the work of Confucius which gave its name to the epoch starts only from B.C. 722. Pere Zottoli strangely mistakes the last two words for the book, and translates by "Initio apparuit Chronicorum liber." The book could scarcely have appeared at the beginning of the period it describes.] 

208. 終戰國

Chung1 chan4 kuo2

End fight state

and ended with that of the Warring States. 

Chung see line 113. 

Chan is composed of 戈 ko spear as radical, with tan single as phonetic. 

Kuo see line 155. [The Spring and Autumn period, as chronicled by Confucius, ended in B.C. 484, after which the States quarrelled among themselves for two hundred years, the greater coercing or absorbing the less powerful, until the event related in lines 211, 212. There is an historical work, the 戰國策 Chan kuo ts'e, which records the troubles of these times, covering the period B.C. 362-255.] 

209. 五霸强

Wu3 pa4 ch'iang2

Five chief strong

Next, the Five Chieftains domineered, 

Wu see line 15. 

Pa is composed of 月 yueh moon, its old radical, and an obsolete phonetic, and originally referred to the new moon. It is now classed under radical 雨 yu rain. [The Five Chieftains were Dukes 桓 Huan, 文 Wen, 襄 Hsiang, 穆 Mu, and Prince 莊 Chuang. They were the rulers of various States under the Spring and Autumn period.] 

Ch'iang is composed of 虫 ch'ung insect as radical, with 弘 hung the clang of a bow as phonetic, and originally meant a fierce kind of fly. It is now classed under radical 弓 kung a bow, and is also written 強. 

210. 七雄出

Ch'i1 hsiung2 ch'u1

Seven male come-forth 

and the Seven Martial States came to the front. 

Ch'i see line 84. 

Hsiung is composed of 隹 chui birds as radical, with 厷 kung the arm as phonetic, and is defined as 鳥父 niao fu the male of birds (line 18). [The States alluded to as flourishing during the second epoch were 秦 Ch'in, 楚 Ch'u, 齊 Ch'i, 燕 Yen, 漢 Han, 趙 Chao, and 魏 Wei.] 

Ch'u was originally a picture of luxuriant vegetation, and meant to go in, a sense which is still, though rarely, attached to it. Its modern radical is 凵 , an obsolete word meaning to contain. [Pere Zottoli translates this line by "septem potentes exorti sunt," by which he refers to men and not to States, since he always translates the latter by "regna." He does not however mention in his notes the names of the seven heroes to whom he alludes. Ho Hsing-ssu gives them in his commentary as the Princes of the first six States given above, with the Prince of the 梁 Liang State as the seventh. The translation adopted is based on Wang Hsiang's commentary.]