From the magical-religious or mythical interpretations of archaic societies to modern political theories, the questions related to the state and political power exist in an endless dialogue. However, a definitive answer regarding their origin and necessity has not been given. The Holy Grail of political science has yet to be found.

The same questions continually resurface, updated of course, keeping as a main point of convergence the estimation that politics is meant to intervene in the conflicts of social groups and interests to put things in order and organization. In contrast to theological and philosophical interpretations, a stream of thought developed that aimed to speak about politics and the state by sidelining the revealed reason, overlooking theoretical assumptions that had little or no relation to reality, and seeking answers in lived, real human experience.

In modern times, these thinkers were characterized as "technicians of politics". Xiang Yang in ancient China, the ancient Greek Sophists, and Machiavelli belong to this school of thought. Their political view does not introduce a new political system, nor does it propose a new ideology; it mainly concerns the techniques of politics, searching for the real truth of political relations, as well as the means that allow politics to function effectively.

It constitutes a realistic perspective, distanced from religious and philosophical approaches, its method being empirical and its goal effectiveness. Their analysis is characterized by the careful study of political practice and the thorough observation of experience, as it emerges from the management of human affairs in relation to the organization and operation of the state.

Their conclusions, historically justified and methodically organized, are not limited to a mechanical record of repeated behaviors. They focus on the software of political relations and aim at the realization of specific political objectives. Their fixation on practical experience does not mean that they are pragmatists, disconnected from the broader philosophical and political thought.

All of them possess a detailed understanding of the political and philosophical environment of their time and a deep knowledge of the political history of the world within which they operate. Xiang Yang is well acquainted with the oldest texts, the Confucian political tradition, the political views of the Taoists as well as other schools, the sophists with pre-Socratic philosophy and Machiavelli with ancient Greek and Latin literature.

Therefore, their views carry ideological and philosophical references from other systems of thought, which, processed, are functionally integrated into their own proposal. Their political views are mainly oriented and developed around the techniques of organizing political power and the state.

In addition to the common method of political analysis, they meet in common places regarding the nature of humanity and power, the state and its role, the corruption of leaders and officials as well as the corruption of the people, the economy and development, institutions and reforms, taxes and legislation, laws and the criminal system, ethics and justice, gods and religion, letters and arts, war and peace, the unequal distribution of wealth and nouveau riche.

Although their ideas do not necessarily coincide, they attempt, in a similar if not identical logic, to interpret all these parameters in the organization and operation of human society. Official history - the history of the victors - did everything in its power to keep their ideas in the dark, to exorcise and distort them as much as possible, since it could not control them.

Xiang Yang was for centuries a "political guilt" in the collective memory of China, Machiavelli from the 16th to the 19th century had passed into silence, "his voice remained without echo," according to Hegel, while the ancient Greek sophists, for two thousand years, were, if not vanished, certainly confined to the "ideological Spinalonga" of Plato’s authority and, secondarily, Aristotle’s.

Their modernism shook the world of political ideas of their time, as they severed politics from religious ties and freed it from any real or nominal morality. Their realism terrified the ruling class of their times and their "pessimistic" view of politics was unsettling. Moralists and philosophers, along with the religious priesthood, treated them hostily.

"From the time of the Greek sophists to this day," notes J. Burnham, "whoever reveals the truth about power through objective research is stigmatized as a subversive." Today, Xiang Yang, Machiavelli, and the Greek Sophists continue their misunderstood journey in the field of the history of political ideas, still enduring the moral, political, and verbal violence of every semi-literate virtuous person.