Is it a historical inevitability or an accident that the ancient Chinese political model is moving towards authoritarianism rather than democracy? Why?

Historical necessity. The prerequisite for democracy is the birth of capitalists, which can also be said to be the prosperity of commerce.

(1) The economic base determines the superstructure. The decentralized, closed and self-contained nature of the small peasant economy, as well as its fragility and conservatism in its own development, and the landlord class's defense of its own interests, and the private ownership of land enacted since the establishment of the feudal state, made the small peasant economy vulnerable to fragmentation. The small peasant economy needed the existence of the feudal dictatorship to survive.

(ii) Consciousness has a facilitating effect on matter. Since Confucius and Mencius, the Confucian masters put forward the idea of Confucianism, and then Dong Zhongshu put forward the doctrine of "heaven and man", the formation of "depose the hundred schools of thought, the sole respect for Confucianism" situation, so that the monarchical dictatorship is more in line with the ruler's thinking, but also enhance the ruler's rule over the country, consolidate the state! Rule so that the people are all for the official leveling of the world for the purpose of the king's services, but also a great help to the autocratic rule.

(3) From slave society to feudal society is the progress of history. Slavery society has low productivity, low level of development and backward social system; and later on, the rapid increase of social productivity and the strong development of handicraft business and agriculture have proved that slavery is no longer adapted to the society, and then developed into feudalism, which is the progress of the society.

(4) Since ancient times, kings emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce. Yang Yang change of law put forward the "agricultural" statement, the conservatism of the small peasant economy is increasingly embodied, but also makes the foundation of the country is easy to rule; and the merchant is more cunning, and "the world is all for profit; the world is bustling, all for the sake of profit," the merchant is easy to mess the country. Therefore, the feudal monarchs emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, inhibited the circulation of commercial capital, and prohibited the dissemination of commercial ideas, so as not to interfere with the foundation of the country. So it was not until the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing that the sprout of capitalism arose in the development of handicrafts in Jiangnan.

(5) The monopolization and suppression of merchants by the powerful nobles, landlords and other privileged classes. Historically, "imperial merchants" were commercial activities exclusively supplied to the imperial court. However, the suppression and monopolization of merchants by the privileged classes such as the powerful nobles and eunuchs is one of the important reasons for the slow development of commerce. "The social status of merchants was even worse than that of peasants and workers, and they could not participate in the decision-making of the state government, which was also the reason why the development of commerce was not fast. Under these circumstances, businessmen could only survive by being subordinate to the powerful and the rich, which prevented the feudal society from moving towards democracy.

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