Influenced by the unified social reality after Qin and Han dynasties, people often imagine and build ancient countries into a centralized country. Sima Qian wrote Historical Records, describing the rise and fall of Xia, Shang and Zhou as the change of the unified dynasty. Of course, later generations built it for a reason, and this tendency has long existed in ancient literature. In Poetic Birds, Yin people call it "the territory of the son of heaven is everywhere", in Poems of Beishan it is called "Nine Selections", and Zhou people call it "Universal World", "Murphy's Land" and "Wang Chen". In fact, the "universal world" and "Murphy Wang Chen" in Shang and Zhou Dynasties are different from the unified countries after Qin and Han Dynasties.
According to the research of scholars in recent years, the country of Shang Dynasty is an alliance between the two countries. Some scholars call this alliance "the alliance of countries", while others call it "tribal countries" or "early countries". The so-called "tribe" refers to a social group based on blood relationship, which evolved from tribal organizations in primitive times, and is the early form of China country.
Judging from the situation reflected by Oracle Bone Inscriptions, there are two characteristics in the relationship between the Shang State and other countries: on the one hand, they coexist with each other; on the other hand, the Shang State is superior to other countries. Look at the coexistence relationship first. There is a word "bi" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Mr. Lin Yun pointed out that the word "bi" here is used as a verb, which means "intimate combination". Oracle Bone Inscriptions is often referred to as "Sheng Wang" or "". Don't worry about Bedanbo, okay? "(Part B, 3387)" Clothes make many offspring more aggressive than dogs? " (Preface 5.2.2) Mr. Lin Yun believes that "Oracle bone inscriptions do reflect that many countries in the Shang Dynasty had an alliance with the Shang king, and those who can be known by the examination are ghosts, dragons, wells, dragons, dogs, violence, reunion, hope and so on. Shang said that most of these Oracle bones explicitly involved conquest. It is not difficult to find the situation of the League of Nations at that time. The poem "Long Hair" describes the process of Shang Tang's cutting, "Gu and Wei both cut, Kunwu and". Gu, Wei and Kunwu are allies of Xia Guo. Similarly, Shangshu Pastoral Oath describes the attack of King Wu of Zhou Dynasty, among which "I am a friend of the country". Shi Di Yi. The Shang Dynasty and its allies were unequal. According to the data of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the business countries not only "compare" with other countries, but sometimes "order" other countries. For example, "turtle hair cloth, binzhen ... mesh ■■ square?" ("Pre-editing" 6.60.6) ",Zhen, Lingwang ■■■ Fang? "(Beijing-Tianjin 4386)" Guihai, Zhen, Tomb, Hou Fa ... "("Zhang Jin "368) The" order "here is obviously the relationship between command and obedience. At the same time, Wang Shang, as the leader of the League of Nations, has the functions of collecting tribute from allies, patrolling allies, arbitrating disputes between countries and punishing countries.
After Zhou Bang overthrew the rule of Yin Bang, he established a new alliance between Fang and Guo-Zhou. On the whole, there is no fundamental difference in the national structure and nature between Zhou and Shang countries. The main difference lies in the replacement of "* * *": Zhou rose from a small country to a "* * *" country, and Shang fell from a "* * *" country to an ordinary country. After the week, people called this process "recommendation". The so-called "praise and seal" is nothing more than the establishment of a birthright between Zhou Wang and existing countries with different surnames and the formation of a new national alliance. But in Zhou literature, most of them are called "princes". At the same time, Zhou people also "feudal" a number of vassal States with the same surname. The traditional saying is "feudal relatives, relying on governors to sift around." Although this explanation makes sense, there are still problems. Because the enfeoffment system of Zhou people actually continued until the Spring and Autumn Period, not only among the royal family, but also among the princes, and even "there are two cases of doctors". Simply using the theory of "vassal shielding" to explain it is obviously unconvincing. It is true that the enfeoffment system has important political significance, but from a commercial point of view,
Generally speaking, from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the feudal system of Zhou people showed two stages: the Western Zhou Dynasty was "the emperor founded the country"; During the Spring and Autumn Period, "princes established clans". Judging from the distribution of tribal population, "A Clan of Governors" is a continuation and reprint of "The Founding of the Emperor". However, under the concept of "kingdom of kings" and "vassal state" at that time, the furniture, vassal state and doctor of the kingdom had roughly similar but not exactly the same clan regime characteristics.
The kingdom of the son of heaven is the highest political entity or country with the royal family as the core. In fact, Wang mainly ruled the region. This political pattern of "Wang Bang" and "ruling the world" is called "internal administration" (Wang Ji) and "external use" (outside discipline) system. The order of "oral administration" and "external use" in the Zhou Dynasty showed a gradual decline. In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the dynasty had a strong control over overseas governors. When Zhou Kangwang acceded to the throne, he instructed, "Men guard the back hall, an ordinary country, but only report sports to one person." ("Gu Ming Shangshu") At that time, many princes attended the ceremony of Kang Wang's accession to the throne, expressing their firm obedience to Zhou Wang's orders and saying, "One or two ministers escorted and dared to hold a funeral. (ditto) By the early Spring and Autumn Period, this flourishing age had ceased to exist, and Zhou Zheng made a Covenant as an obvious example. The reason, in its own words, is that the princes are sitting on their backs; In its own words, it is the growth of clan organizations. The foundation of clan politics is clan organization. Under the clan system, when the population of a clan reaches a certain number, a new clan will be derived, and the original matriarchal clan will become a phratry. As a secondary form of clan organization, clan organization still retains this feature to some extent. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, Wang Bangqiang, a new vassal, was weak. Later, the power of the vassal States continued to grow. On the other hand, due to the continuous enfeoffment, Wang Bang developed slowly. When the vassal States and Wang Bangli check and balance each other, the conflict between them is inevitable. " The hegemony of the prince is similar to the hegemony of the kingdom. From the internal structure of clan politics, the main body of political power is the clan aristocracy, and in Wang Bang it is the royal family. In the royal family, it was further condensed into the "patriarch". In the Zhou royal family, the struggle for state power is directly reflected in the struggle for the status of "patriarch". This is the reason for the royal civil strife in the Spring and Autumn Period. The main objects of clan politics are civilians, the rule of nobles over civilians and the rule of patriarchs over civilians. Some poems in "Poems of National Style" show people's antipathy and dependence on nobles. For aliens, the Zhou royal family has a religious and ethical relationship with them, although they are not related by blood. The king is regarded as the direct descendant of God, while the world is regarded as the people of God (lower in rank). Therefore, from the perspective of God, there is a sacred "quasi-"blood bond between the royal family and the aliens, and between the royal family and the aliens. It is based on the belief that kingship is God's "voter" and represents God's rule of the world. Zhou Guo's so-called "oral" is "oral".
The vassal state is a secondary state power and political organization with the public as the core. Judging from the vassal's initial feudal status, it is necessary to hold a conferring ceremony to grant people territory, and the principal officials of the feudal status should also be appointed by Zhou Wang. "Zuo Zhuan" records that in the twelfth year of Gong, Guan Zhong went to the royal family to see the king, who was received by Wang Shangqing. Guan Zhong refused: "I am a minister, a secretary and a son of heaven." It can be seen that Wang Ting intervened in the politics of vassal states to some extent. The vassal States should bear certain obligations to the dynasty, such as sending troops to help the war, paying tribute and making pilgrimage. But this is only one side of the problem. On the other hand, for an existing vassal state, its internal affairs are not limited by dynasties in terms of succession to the throne, appointment of doctors, and handling of specific economic and political affairs. Within the clan, who will be the chief in power is the last point. Although there is also a struggle for the throne within the clan, power will definitely fall within the clan. Once this principle is destroyed, it means the collapse of a clan and the collapse of the country (or changing the surname). "Three clans divided into Jin" and "Tian Dai Qi" are examples. The reason why vassal States have such great independence. In the vassal state, the relationship between the vassal and the doctor's family is directly manifested as the political relationship between the vassal and the doctor. Today, we tend to pay too much attention to the political relations of princes and doctors, while people at that time paid more attention to clan relations. Words such as praising ancestors and praying for "eternal use by future generations" in bronze inscriptions regularly reflect the importance of clan organization and clan interests. The vassal was independent, and it also maintained a formal vassal relationship with the king of Zhou, which was the inevitable result of clan politics at that time. In essence, there is little difference, or almost the same, between the countries with the same surname (or marriage) in the Zhou Dynasty and the countries with different surnames in the Shang Dynasty.
Doctor's home is a grass-roots political power and a hidden country with family organization as the core. "Wang Hou Li Shi" prevailed in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. In the relatively credible literature of the middle and early Western Zhou Dynasty, he was not called "doctor". As mentioned earlier, "establishing a nation by princes" is not only a political act, but also related to the population expansion of mass organizations, which is similar to "establishing a country by emperors" in the early Zhou Dynasty. "Prince married" defends the public. Doctors' homes exist as a "branch" of the public. At first, it was also "granting land to the people", but on the surface it did not have the state form of modern concept. Some scholars have noticed that there are kingdoms and vassal states in the Zhou Dynasty, which is a step forward than Zhou Li's "kingdom" model, but they still haven't noticed the relative national nature of doctor furniture. In fact, the vassal States were surrounded at the beginning of the week. It has gone through a long historical period. So is the doctor's house. By the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, many doctoral regimes not only did not listen to the command of the governors, but also competed with them, almost forming a completely independent state power. In this sense, it can be said that there is no qualitative difference between "three Huan weak Lu" and "Zhou Zheng crossed toes" "Three clans are divided into Jin" is a continuation of "vassal hegemony" within a country. Mr. Li made a concrete study on the doctor's residence in Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He pointed out that during the whole Spring and Autumn Period, there were many family-based social organizations in Lu, which could not be roughly counted 15. They maintain a relationship with the monarch, but they are very independent. (65438+) The "patriarch" is of course a doctor. Therefore, lujun actually does not interfere in who will be the doctor of each family. (2) The doctor's home is based on the city. Dr. Qing built a building in Beijing for political convenience, and the real lair was fief. Family has fiefs, uncle has fiefs, and history has fiefs. The vassals in the fief were all arranged by the family themselves. The monarch doesn't care. (3) The family has its own armed forces. The armed forces of the doctor's family are composed of family members and ordinary people in fiefs, so they have great independence. When they listen to the doctor, Lu Jun can't give orders directly. This is very similar to the political situation in Western Europe in the Middle Ages that "my lieutenants are not my lieutenants". It is precisely because the armed forces of "home" are independent that the confrontation between "home" and "country" is possible.
From the relationship between the kingdom, the state of Hou and the doctor's family, we can see that the state of Zhou Dynasty has dual characteristics: on the one hand, it has the nature of national alliance; On the other hand, it has the color of aristocratic monarchy. The deep reason for this historical situation is clan politics, which is a blood country. Blood relationship (or religious ethics) is like a chain, which binds the order of the whole kingdom and the world. Ignoring the ethnic organizations at that time, it is difficult to deeply understand the particularity of the country at that time.
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