-the general plan of the feudal rulers of China after the "Great Unification"

"Under the sky, is the land of kings? Territory, is it a king? " This poem in The Book of Songs, Xiaoya Beishan, was used by the literati in China feudal period to give a good definition of the emperor's property: everything in China belongs to the emperor! In this way, on the one hand, it laid a good ideological foundation for the legitimacy of the emperor, on the other hand, it also gave the emperor a sense of satisfaction. Because of this, the idea of "belittling the people" is constantly strengthened, and it is logical to implement unreasonable ruling policies in China. Although there is also a saying that "the people are the most important, the country is the second, and the monarch is the light", from a historical point of view, it is obvious that the emperors did not take it seriously. Moreover, our people are basically educated (fool education), so they can be said to be docile and good citizens who understand the hierarchical concept of monarch and minister, and do not need to give more favors. As a result, the common people have become an inexhaustible resource for rulers, and soldiers need to pay taxes and eat food. Although some wise emperors knew how to support the people and enrich the people, they only learned a lesson from changing dynasties, or had to take some appeasement measures to consolidate their power. If ordinary people dare to disobey, they will be falsely accused of being anti-thugs and then suppressed by iron and blood. Such examples abound in history books, and those who are interested can go and see for themselves. Here are no examples for the time being.

In terms of foreign policy, since the unification of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the rulers of all previous dynasties have been influenced by Confucianism, taking the idea of "kingly way" and "harmony is the most important" as the guiding principle, and adopted moderate measures such as good communication, mutual accommodation and relocation, hoping to take the opportunity of benevolence and courtesy, serve people with morality, and make all ethnic groups come to the DPRK. Furthermore, the emperor of China always likes to pretend to be the son of heaven, and to show his supreme authority everywhere. They think that the country they rule is the center of the world, the richest and most civilized place in the world, while other countries are uneducated barbarians, poor and barbaric places, and they can only rely on China to receive education and rewards from China. Therefore, in foreign exchanges, the Central Plains Dynasty has always been based on satisfying its vanity as a "civilized country in the Central Plains". For foreigners or nomads, regardless of military advantages or disadvantages, rulers of past dynasties always behave like saints: when they are at a military disadvantage, as long as they can maintain their nominal supremacy, they will not hesitate to agree to harsh conditions of "old coins" and "old gifts" and even ignore the heavy land compensation price. Even if it is superior in the military, it will not hesitate to give huge amounts of gold, silver, jewelry, silks and satins, tea and other items in return, in exchange for the attachment of the other party, but it has no regard for the actual interests of the country. The people of China paid a heavy price for the arrogance, ignorance and vanity of the feudal rulers of China, and the cruel oppression of their own people. In this regard, the following interview will give several examples:

During the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, foreign envoys were especially favored by Emperor Wu. In order to show off the wealth of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty asked them to cruise with him and gave them a lot of money. It was not enough for Emperor Wu to do this, so he came to a pool of meat forest and performed acrobatics, magic and wrestling. Look. They are also allowed to visit granary warehouses everywhere, hoping to make foreign envoys fear and submit with huge material accumulation. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were dozens of large-scale natural disasters recorded in Hanshu, with an average of one major disaster every year, and 5-6 times a year in severe cases. These disasters, coupled with the profligacy of Emperor Wu, led to the emptiness of the government treasury at that time, and the people had been exiled in large numbers.

Emperor Yang Di was overjoyed. He invited the western countries to the Sui Dynasty and ordered the counties along the way to give a banquet to see him off. In order to welcome envoys from all over the world, Yang Di built a huge theater outside the end gate of the Imperial City. The theater was brightly lit for half a month, and even ordered people to wrap the trees in the city with cloth and silk to show off their wealth to the envoys. Emperor Yang Di also asked people to lead foreign envoys into restaurants to eat and drink. The guest was full of food and drink, and the answer was: "Eating and drinking here is always free." However, the people who paid for the various profligacy of Emperor Yang Di had a heavy burden at this time, and even the tragic situation of eating bark wild vegetables and cooking soil and eating people appeared, and they were ready to rise up at any time.

In the Tang Dynasty, foreign businessmen came to China in succession. In order to cater to the vanity psychology of the feudal rulers in the Tang Dynasty, foreign businessmen either came under the banner of tribute or accompanied their envoys in the name of "tribute", which not only satisfied the psychology of the rulers of the Tang Dynasty who claimed to be a country of heaven, but also became a shortcut for foreign businessmen to plunder wealth, and each got his place. No matter which country's "envoys" come to Tang, they should enjoy free preferential treatment in transportation, accommodation and safety as usual; When they returned, the Tang government generally held a farewell ceremony by the crack hon temple and the guest reservation department, and presented a considerable number of gifts. Every year, as many as 500 thousand coins are distributed to temples in the name of "tribute messengers" The Tang government spent as much as 13000 yuan a year, not counting the generous rewards given to foreign businessmen in the name of envoys, but only the cost of entertaining them with food. In order to meet the vanity of the feudal rulers in the Tang Dynasty and the needs of foreigners, the burden on the people had to be increased again.

In Song Dynasty, the rulers were greedy for pleasure. In order to make peace, they sent a large number of "year-old coins" and "year-old gifts" to Liao, Xia and Jin every year: 1004. Song and Liao entered into a "love alliance", stipulating that the Northern Song Dynasty would give Qidan 65,438+202,000 silver and 202,000 silk each year, which were called "year-old coins". 1044, Song and Xia concluded a peace treaty, which was known as "Qingli Peace" in history, and it was stipulated that Yuan Hao would cancel the title of emperor and accept the conferment of the Song Dynasty; The Song Dynasty gave Xixia 72,000 taels of silver,153,000 taels of silk and 30,000 Jin of tea every year, which was called the "New Year's Gift". The Khitan took the opportunity to blackmail, and in the Northern Song Dynasty, 6,543,800 pieces of silver silk were added to Liao, totaling 500,000 pieces. After Song and Jin destroyed Liao in 1 120 years, the Northern Song Dynasty increased1000000 yuan every year on the basis of the original "old money" given to Liao and transferred it to the Jin Dynasty as "old money from Yanjing". These "old coins" and "old gifts" were all borne by the people, which brought great disasters to the people.

During the Ming Dynasty, in order to maintain China's political supremacy and glory, the rulers adopted a selfish tribute trade to attract overseas countries to pay tribute to China. The most representative of this tribute trade is Zheng He's seven voyages to the West. The so-called tribute trade, in addition to being painted with a strong political color, made Ming Chengzu happy, and the actual income of the country and the people was very small. To put it bluntly, this tribute trade is an unequal exchange. Not only that, the rulers of the Ming dynasty often only emphasized the "decency" of big countries, regardless of economic losses, and most of the rewards greatly exceeded the value of tributes. At the same time, it consumes a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources, and the welcoming, building and building, "banquet", accommodation and transportation are all free. Therefore, there is a deficit every year. This trade, which only emphasized the political influence and neglected the economic effect, soon exposed the national economic losses and people's disasters: just two years after Zheng He's voyage to the West, the Jiangnan area with the most developed economy in the Ming Dynasty had already experienced serious economic difficulties, in which the Suzhou government defaulted on taxes for four consecutive years, totaling more than 7.66 million stones, and a large number of residents fled. More than 33,400 households in the whole government were dismissed for death, desertion and joining the army. The phenomenon of people fleeing all over the country is becoming more and more serious. The national accumulation since Hongwu has been exhausted. It is followed by increasingly acute social contradictions, crises and political turmoil.

In the Qing Dynasty, in order to show the great kindness and wealth of China in the early stage, even the tribute envoys from Vietnam and other countries had to make grand arrangements and reception when they arrived; Later, he was afraid of foreign ships and guns, so he "measured China's material resources and won the favor of the country", thinking that giving more money and things would make them submit, as long as the empress dowager and emperor of the Qing Dynasty did not lose their dignity, what was it to give foreigners some land and money? With regard to the rule by the people, the words of Empress Dowager Cixi-"Give a foreign surname rather than a domestic slave"-have clearly expressed the aspirations of rulers of past dynasties: Can humble people compare with foreigners? !

It was after the "Great Unification" that the feudal rulers in China despised the people, and concentrated the human and financial resources collected at will as their private property. Under the vanity of maintaining a "central civilized country", they lavished rewards on foreign countries and nomadic peoples, instead of investing in major projects beneficial to the national economy and people's livelihood to promote the development of domestic production, resulting in tangible benefits for foreign countries and nomadic peoples, while the local people paid for it, leaving the people destitute. This gives people a bitter feeling: China people under the rule of past dynasties are not their own, but foreigners or nomads are the real China people, and only they can enjoy the treatment that China people deserve. As for our own people, they are just untouchables and slaves in the eyes of the rulers. It is precisely because of this that the people under the rule of past dynasties did not have a heartfelt sense of identity with the court. When a dynasty fell, most people were indifferent. For the new dynasty, the people will not enthusiastically support it: isn't it just a change of dynasty? In the future, I will still live the life I should like in the last dynasty.

Writing here, I can only use a sentence in Zhang's "Goat Tongguan Nostalgia" in the Yuan Dynasty to express my lament for the ancient people of China: Xing, the people are struggling; Death, people suffer!