War is the worst part of human kind history. It is very hard to describe what happens in war and no one will ever know what really happens during war. If a veteran or a firsthand witness from war told us the stories, we will not be able to relate nor understand the inhumane detail. Based on the previous stories we read specifically Iliad, we can learn how they disrespect the defeated party in the war. For example, Hector wanted to take Patroclus body when he was murdered but the Greek were able to recover Patroclus body. Achilles disrespected Hector’s corpse but was recovered by Priarm. Both situations were able to divert from disrespect. It is not uncommon for them to make sure that they will show how powerful they are by torturing the dead and disrespecting their mourning rituals.

In contrast, the decline of Zhou had a different discipline in war defeat. They had an arrangement “Battle started with an agreement on both sides, states that were in mourning for their rulers were not attacked, and, if a state was defeated, the conqueror respectfully continued the ancestral sacrifices for the vanquished ruling lineage.”(Early Chinese Literature, 1314). Zhou is in throne but slowly taken over by Chu, Wu and Yue in the South and Qin in the west. All parties have their unique discipline to follow through their agreement.

For some reason, I do see that Asians have more discipline throughout history. Like Japanese military leader, when they fail or did something wrong, they will take their life away. They cannot live with their failure and it is respectful for them to honor their family by killing themselves.

I do hope the war will end soon. I do hope we can live harmoniously. However, we all have different perspective in life that sometimes we all clash. I just hope that the winning party can humbly take their winning and do not mangle the dead bodies, let them come home to their native soil. There is no point of rubbing it to the losers. We need to follow Zhou’s agreement with their enemy. We should be able to bring home all fallen soldiers or civilians caught in the horrific war.

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