The Formation Process and Characteristics of Feudalism and Centralization in Ancient China

Many people understand the term "feudalism" simply as a political system that distinguishes slavery. In fact, "feudal" in ancient China means "partition". The author would like to talk about some of the understandings of "feudalism" which means "partition".

The word "feudal" should be viewed separately. The word "feudal" means to delimit the boundaries of a country. The way it was done was that Zhou Tianzhi gave you this piece of land, and then he sent someone to plant a tree on the border to show that the land was yours. This is called "sealing". And "Jian" means to appoint a ruler. Three more concepts came into being here. The "world", "country" and "family"

In ancient times, people were divided into three classes - nobles, commoners and slaves. The slaves were classified into six types, namely, the soap, the slaves, and the slaves. Slaves can be categorized into six types, namely, soap, mikoshi, li, bureaucrats, servants, Taiwan. In the Shang Dynasty, the common people were divided into two kinds of people, one is the livestock people and the other is the general common people. The so-called livestock people were the members of the tribes who were not nobles. They were a very awkward social group. They belonged to the ruling tribe (Shang) but were not nobles. They didn't want to work, but they didn't have a job, and if they did work, it would be a disgrace. So they depended on the nobles to support them, so they were called livestock people. The nobles were divided into the sons of heaven, the vassals, the ministers, and the scholars.

The Son of Heaven had the world, and the heaven was feudalized. So the vassals had a state, and the vassals feudalized the state. So the ministers had homes, and the ministers had nothing feudalized. So the scholar only has a body. That's where the cultivation of the body comes from.

So why was it necessary to "feudalize" it in the pre-Qin era? I think it is inseparable from the ancient social form and productivity.

First of all, there is the question of social form.

Where did people come from? Westerners say God made them. The Chinese say, it was pinched by Nuwa. Science says, no! Man evolved from apes.

At the beginning of mankind, we lived in a small, fixed group. In biology, this is called a population. In humans it's called a tribe.

So China did not start out as a whole country. Rather, it was a confederation of tribes, large and small, scattered across the land of China.

The word "China" speaks volumes. In ancient times, people believed that the sky was round and the earth was square. It was such a big place, and the country in the center was called China. It was the most powerful, and the countries around it were called clans. "Clan" means fence. Where was China? Probably in the area of Henan and Shaanxi today. People used to call it the Central Plains. That's why it's called "The Middle Kingdom of Your Lord". The Southern Song dynasty could only barely survive in the small area of Jiangnan. So only counted as partial security.

Since it is a confederation, there must be a central government. This central government is "China" - the most powerful of the tribes such as the Xia, Shang and Zhou. And each of the tribes that were members of the confederation were independent political entities. They were nominally under the authority of the central government. But they had their own relatively complete state apparatus and sovereignty. That is to say, everyone is actually similar but there is a tribe is more powerful, so we decided that this tribe to become "China" to organize the central government. Although everyone had their own armies and people, they could not defeat "China", and it was impossible for "China" to exterminate the other tribes to the point of complete subjugation. So "China" simply did a favor and "feudalized" the world, and all the chiefs became vassals.

But there is also an obvious problem here. That is, this kind of rule is based on the absolute strength of "China" and the relative weakness of the vassals. Once the "China" decline and the rise of the vassals. I'm afraid that the world is in chaos, and the change of the center of the world is not far away.

Just as the Shang Tang destroyed Xia, the Xia tribe to the ghost side, today's Hexi Corridor area. The latter speculation is of course only a fashionable statement today while the former is well-documented.

The Western Zhou Dynasty, after many years of war, saw the phenomenon of ethnic integration in the north, where the distinction between tribes was no longer particularly obvious, while the south was still a barbaric land, so the Western Zhou Dynasty adopted a parallel approach of local "feudalism", such as the Chu and Shu, and direct appointment. Since there was already ethnic integration in the north, why didn't the Zhou directly incorporate all of the north into its own territory? I think there are a few reasons:

One, there has been a tradition of feudalization since ancient times.

Two, although there was a fusion of ethnic groups, there were boundaries thrown between them. Unified leadership is not as good as regional autonomy

Three, the division of feudalism helped to open up the territory and consolidate the border defense to avoid the Western Zhou directly facing the nomads to disturb

Four, the Zhou did not have the strength to rule over such a vast area

Why not?

We come to the second question - social productivity.

Because the level of social productivity was so low at that time, it was totally unrealistic to establish a unified state, or at least it was not convenient to unify the administration. For example, Fujian flooding, want to relieve the people put the officials and can not make their own how to do it? Make a report. So after writing the report sent to the capital do not know how long. To the capital until the emperor to see and do not know how long. The emperor looked at the organization of a seminar and do not know how long until the reply down people are basically starved to death. So the autonomy of the district has its advantages. Otherwise, according to the map of the Yuan Dynasty, China's territory is not east to the Pacific Ocean; west to the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Danube line; north to the Arctic Ocean; south to the Central and Southern Peninsula?

So the Western Zhou Dynasty had no choice but to implement the "feudal". But the rulers of the Zhou Dynasty were smart enough to invent an economic system to go along with the "feudal" system, namely the well-field system.

The total amount of arable land was counted because the population and productivity of the country was counted. So the Western Zhou put a lot of factors together to calculate a number in the beach to the vassal state to each acre of land every year to be commissioned this is called "tribute". So not only control the economy of the vassal states also strengthened their own strength can be said to be two birds with one stone. But people can't meet the future of those scholars in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, even if they are sophisticated, they can't imagine the use of iron to improve productivity and the emergence of private land and the disintegration of the well-field. So the economic foundation on which the Western Zhou "feudalism" depended was gone. The Zhou Dynasty was bound to decline. This is the inevitability of history, but also the tragedy of history.

Finishing with the Son of Heaven and then talking about the vassals. Because of the vassal also existed "feudal" this problem, so get to the end of the often big tail big fall power aside. But this is a gradual historical process that can't be seen at once. Moreover, the problems that people can understand today might not have been understood at that time. This is the limitation of history. We can't force the ancients because we have hundreds of years more accumulated than they did.

The first thing that went wrong was the state of Lu. When the state of Lu was under the Duke of Xi, it was called the Jisun clan in its subsequent generations because of the reign of the Duke Jiyou. Jiyou's brother Qingfu, and the Mengsun and Shusun clans after Shujia. These three families all started at the time of Duke Huan, so they were called the "Three Huan". Due to the over expansion of the power of the ministers and dukes, the palace was finally divided into three. The first was to be the first of the three to be exiled, and the second was to be the first of the three to be exiled.

The most interesting thing was the state of Jin. Jin was afraid that the sons would compete for the throne, and since Duke Xian, the sons of dukes and grandsons of kings have not been made noblemen and have gone to other countries to earn a living. So much so that it allowed its own ministers to become big. In Zhao Dun's case, he even dared to kill the king. In the end, the three kingdoms were divided into Jin. When I think of Duke Wen of Jin's domination of the central plains, Duke Xiang's own father's system was not only lamentable.

Why did the ministers get so big? Because of the two words "feudalism", because as long as the ministers have their own capital, under certain conditions, they will expand their power to the extent that they can influence the king of the country. There is a way to restrain? Yes, there is, and that is to centralize power.

This is the reason why the Legalist ideology flourished at the beginning of the Warring States period. It was because the rulers understood how they got their seats and how they kept them. So they changed their laws to establish a feudal system and a centralized system of power.

The most successful of these was the Shang Yang reforms of Duke Xiaodong of Qin. Literally all the kings of Qin before Duke Xiaogong were public officials, but after Shang Yang, they felt they had a lot of money in their pockets. After Shang Yang, the kings felt that they had more money in their pockets, and they changed their title to king since King Hui. This is of course just speculation. But Shang Yang's formalization of the county system, the economic recognition of private ownership of land and the payment of rent by the acre, and the military recognition of military service have made Qin a great power in the west and a nibbling away at the six eastern states.

It was only after the destruction of the six kingdoms that Qin finally ended the nearly 1,000-year "feudal" system and replaced it with the "county" system. It was only after the destruction of the six states that the "feudal" system finally came to an end and the "county" system was introduced. It was only after the destruction of the six states that the "state" and the "family" became the "country" of today

But there is a problem that should not be overlooked.

Why? I think the problem is also in the "feudalism".

History has always been a gradual process. Nothing happens in one go. So although the Qin state fell largely due to its brutal rule, but also because in the "feudal" system in people's hearts and minds y rooted in the case of the direct implementation of the county system caused by the six countries after the legacy of the general dissatisfaction of the aristocrats around the cause of the "chopping wood for the soldiers. The world gathered and responded. They won the grain and the scenery from it. Shandong magnates then rose up together and died Qin clan carry on."

History is a lesson to be learned, so Liu Bang took one such approach -- the parallelism of counties and states. But Liu Bang also kept a hand. It was only the same-sex kings. The first thing I want to say is that I'm not going to be able to do that, but I'm going to be able to do that, and I'm going to be able to do that. The first time I saw this, I was able to get the ball rolling, and I was able to get the ball rolling, and I was able to get the ball rolling.

Maybe Liu Bang did not think of it or he could not estimate so much at that time, more likely Liu Bang's heart is more than enough.

Because there is a problem that is obvious is that the vassals serve you Liu Bang may not be subject to your son. And even if you do submit to your son, what about the descendants of the vassals?

The answer is no. The power and ambition are both expanding at the same time. The power and ambition are both expanding at the same time. The Seven Kingdoms Rebellion is an example of this. Although Liu Pi, the king of Wu, was largely forced to rebel by Yao Yao, the state of Wu had all the conditions for a rebellion, and Liu Pi's failure to rebel did not mean that his son would not rebel, and his son's failure to rebel did not mean that his grandson would not rebel, and his descendants would not rebel.

Wu was located in today's Jiangsu Province since ancient times is the land of fish and rice, rich land. Sima Qian said, "Frying copper to get money, boiling water for salt." At that time asbestos on the circulation of copper money Liu Pi opened his own copper mine to create copper money. The whole country was like a money-making machine. Wu could sun-dry salt in the sea. Salt was an important commodity at that time, especially in the inland area, it could be sold at a high price. Therefore, the king of Wu was very rich. There were no taxes in Wu, and the king paid all the taxes himself. What is this called? It was called buying people's hearts. So the central government would not stand by and could not tolerate such a strong local power.

So it was necessary to cut the feud. The settlement of the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion also laid the groundwork for Emperor Wu's sweeping reforms.

After the Han Dynasty, there was basically no more "feudalism". The reason why I say no is because there are two monsters in history. One was the Western Jin Dynasty and the other was the Ming Dynasty. The former made a mess of the Eight Kings Rebellion until the five hu moved the kingdom of Western Jin. The latter did not have a kingdom but also had a Jingnian campaign.

It is to "feudal" as a social form of adaptation and productivity relatively lagging behind the system in the great integration of nationalities and the development of productive forces in the torrent of the inevitable exit from the stage of history. The "feudal" system was gradually replaced by the "cognac" system. The meaning of the word "feudal" was gradually forgotten by the later generations.

Because in a monarchical, centralized state, no local power was allowed to exist, let alone a local independent political entity. Even the hand-to-hand generals had to be cut down one by one, not to mention the powerful feudal lords.

As the saying goes, "How can he sleep in his own bed?"

Of course, any kind of system his existence has his significance "Feudal" system in history for the consolidation of national unity, promote the integration of nationalities, open up the country's territory has made a monumental contribution. Also for us to flow down the Eastern Zhou and the Great Han legend of the countless stories and heroes unlimited yearning.