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[[underlined]] APPENDIX II. [[/underlined]]  20. 
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See, [[underlined]] e.g., [[/underlined]] the [[underlined]] Lun yü [[/underlined]] ("Analects"), bk. VII, chapt. 30, where a ruler of Lu (Confucius' native state) is criticized for marrying a princess of Wu; the point being not at all that the latter state was "barbarian", but that since the two ruling houses involved were members of the same clan (the one, incidentally, to which the Chou kings also belonged), the marriage, according to ancient Chinese ideas about clan exogamy, was an incestuous one. 
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adventurer (or, more probably, body of adventurers) going out into the wilderness and founding a community among "barbarians". On the contrary, such an action has actually occurred over and over again. To it, in fact, has been largely due the spread of the Chinese civilization, especially in the southern and western parts of the country (where we can often trace the process at work in the full light of the written record). 
The "history" of Wu is however admittedly legendary, or at best traditional, prior to about the beginning of the 6th century B.C. The recorded list of its rulers falls into two quite distinct categories. The earlier of these, embracing the long period of well over half a millennium between the alleged founding of the state and the beginnings of its reliable history, contains the names of only 14 chieftains but attributes to each an average reign of nearly 40 years---a duration entirely too long for credibility. In the second portion of the list, however, spanning the far briefer interval of not much over a century which covers Wu's historical importance, this figure drops abruptly; since to each of its 7 rules it ascribes an average reign barely in excess of 16 years---less than half that given in the earlier portion of the list, and shorter than the average reigns of the contemporary kings and feudal princes of ancient China proper. [[superscipt]] (54) [[/superscript]] Obviously the older part of the list is in-
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On the latter point, see my paper, "The Chronology of Ancient China", cited in note 50 (page 78 of the text). It is only fair to say that of these 7 rulers of Wu, the reigns of several were cut short by assassination, death in battle, and suicide. 
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