School of Diplomacy

The School of Diplomacy (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zōng héng Jiā), or the School of Vertical and Horizontal Alliances was a political and diplomatic clique during the Warring States period of Chinese history (476-220 BCE). According to the Book of Han, the school was one of the Nine Schools of Thought (Chinese: 九流; pinyin: Jiŭ Liú).

According to the Han Fei Zi, a contemporary work on Legalist Philosophy, supporters of "Vertical Alliance" encourage the weak multitude to attack the one strong side whilst the Horizontal Alliance promote the one strong side attacking the weak multitude. They are all fickle and capricious, change sides frequently and are unable to decide who their master is. Both Su Qin of the Vertical Alliance clique and Zhang Yi of the Horizontal Alliance clique issue many plans and schemes that are politically subjective.'

The origins of the terms "Vertical" and "Horizontal" are geographic and are based on either a North-South axis (i.e. vertical) or an East-West axis (i.e. horizontal). Thus the six states allied on the North-South axis were known as the "Vertical Alliance" whilst those on the East-West axis aligned with the State of Qin were termed the "Horizontal Alliance".

"Zong" indicates the "He Zong", or Vertical Alliance, the "weak multitude against the one strong side", made up of the six states of Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei united against Qin. "Heng" indicates the "Lian Heng", or Horizontal Alliance, the "one strong side to smash the weak multitude", thus illustrating the different diplomatic policies of the two sides.

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