Tang Taizong admonished his ministers, saying, "The ruler is the boat; the people are the water; the water can carry the boat, but it can also overturn it." What does this idea originate from?

The ruler of a country is like a boat, and the people are like water. Water can propel a ship, but it can also overturn it and sink it. The people can support the ruler and embrace him, but likewise, if the ruler is brutal and fails to work for the welfare of the people, the people will rise up against him.

Tang Taizong quoted these words to defend his rule.

This reflects his idea of governance, which emphasizes the relationship between the ruler and the people.

In the early Tang Dynasty, with Tang Emperor Li Shimin as the representative ruler, the tradition of "the people are the foundation of the state" had already been transformed into a guiding ideology with clear concepts. In the second year of the Zhenguan reign, Emperor Tang Taizong said to his ministers, "Everything must be done for the sake of the people; the state is based on the people, the people are based on food and clothing, and the food and clothing are based on the people's right to be fed without losing their right to be fed." ("Zhenguan Political Essentials" involved in the agricultural chapter) This ring tightly interlocked "three for this" idea, meaning that the people and agriculture as one of the characteristics of the "people for the state" idea has become a guide to the dominant ideology of the ruling party at the time, it is under the guidance of this idea, resulting in the It is under the guidance of this idea, which led to the creation of the miracle of the reign of Zheng Guan in the early Tang Dynasty on the basis of a hundred wastes waiting to be done and people's livelihoods in ruins, opening up a channel of comprehensive political, economic and cultural prosperity.

The first thing that rulers of the early Tang Dynasty did was to fear the people. Tang was established on the basis of the death of Sui, they witnessed the whole process of Sui's death, and personally felt the great power of the peasant uprising at the end of Sui. Emperor Tang Taizong often organized his ministers to discuss the causes of Sui's death, and he was good at accepting advice, to a large extent, he also learned the lessons of the death of Sui. Tang Taizong was ready to build Qianyuan Hall, Minister Zhang element to Qianyuan this Sui early construction, Qianyuan Bi Gong, Sui Dynasty disintegration phase admonition, so that Taizong fierce introspection. "The king of the boat, the people of the water, water can carry the boat, water can overturn the boat." This is Xunzi's famous saying, because of Taizong experienced the change of the Sui dynasty overthrowing the boat, the water can carry the boat can also overthrow the boat into the Tang Taizong mantra, many people mistakenly think that this is the Tang Taizong's famous saying and forget Xunzi's "all rights reserved". (In fact, Xunzi also quoted from the "biography", is not the original copyright owner.) However, it is also this fear of the people, so that he had to pay attention to the "people for the state".

The second is the quiet people. Tang Taizong's guiding ideology of "the people are the basis of the state" has directly resulted in a strategy to pacify the people in order to quiet the state. At that time, the people were to caress the peasants, and the quiet people were to quiet the peasants and the agricultural production. They through the implementation of equalization of land, incentives for land reclamation, tax reform, light levies, advice on agriculture and mulberry, do not violate the farming season, increase the population, build water conservancy and other measures to make the farmers get recuperated and agricultural production to get faster recovery and development, so as to protect and develop the fundamental interests of the people; in the economic development of the basis of the strength of the country, in a not too long period of time, to achieve the rule of Zhenguan. Historian Du You said: "Since Zhenguan later, Taizong motivated fine for the reason, to eight, nine years frequently to the abundance of rice bucket four or five money, horses and cattle cloth wild,....... To fifteen years, rice is worth two dollars per bucket." ("Tongdian" Volume VII) grain prices from the original bucket of rice and silk prices, down to bucket of rice four or five money, and then down to bucket of rice two money, this is indeed a rare scene of governance.