We couldn’t see some of the documents at that time, and some were simply incomprehensible. I'm just introducing it.

Has anyone seen the writings of the Xia Dynasty? It seems to be called Xia Zhuan. Anyway, I haven't seen it.

The Xia Dynasty's music is most recommended to the "Nine Songs" and "Nine Debates" written by Xia Qi, but what we see now has been processed and polished by Qu Yuan.

The calendar of the Xia Dynasty is the earliest calendar in our country. At that time, the month could already be determined based on the direction pointed by the handle of the Big Dipper's rotating handle. The Lunar Calendar started with the so-called "Jian Yin" month when the handle pointed due east by north. "Xia Xiaozheng", which is preserved in "Book of Dadaili", is an important existing document about the "Xia Calendar". According to the order of the twelve months of the lunar calendar, it records the stars, weather, objects, and agricultural and political affairs that should be performed in each month. To a certain extent, it reflects the development level of agricultural production in the Xia Dynasty and preserves my country's most ancient and precious scientific knowledge.

In the Xia Dynasty, agricultural civilization reached a very high level. Archeology has found that in the Xia Dynasty, there were various agricultural products such as cereals, rice, wheat, bean sprouts, and melons. Xia implemented a tax system of "fifty tribute", and each tribe had to pay taxes to the central government based on a certain proportion of their income. The well field system of later generations also existed in the Xia Dynasty, but it had not yet been promoted on a large scale.

It is said that Yi Di, a minister of Yu, began to make wine, and Shaokang, the king of Xia, invented the brewing method of wine. In order to meet the needs of agricultural production and explore the laws of farming seasons, the lunar calendar sometimes called the Xia calendar, which is still popular in modern times, was invented in that era.

Animal husbandry has developed to a certain extent. There are a large number of slaves engaged in animal husbandry, and there are also some clan tribes that specialize in animal husbandry. Horse breeding was given great emphasis. In addition, the pottery industry may have become an independent and extremely important industry in the Xia Dynasty. As for bronzes, bronze knives from the Erlitou Culture have been discovered in China. If the Erlitou culture is considered to be the culture of the Xia Dynasty, then this bronze is from the Xia Dynasty. The form of Xia Dynasty bronzes is very close to pottery. It has a short history of casting bronze, so bronzes have not formed a good standard, so it looks a bit like pottery, exactly the same as the pottery unearthed in Xia Dynasty. It is relatively primitive. It does not have many patterns and has small Dots and simple lines.

The tools used by the Xia Dynasty people were mainly stone tools. Cars appeared in the capital of the Xia Dynasty, but it is not yet confirmed whether they were rickshaws or horse-drawn carriages, because the ruts were only 1 meter wide, unlike the 2-meter-wide ruts of the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty had already confirmed the use of horse-drawn carriages.

The characters of the Shang Dynasty were oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. I can't get it here. I'll go to Xunlei and download some fonts. There are a lot of them.

The merchants have been a predominantly agricultural nation from the beginning. Shang Tang once sent Hao people to help the Ge people farm the land. In the oracle bone inscriptions, the question "Qi Shou Nian" (will there be a good harvest) is repeatedly seen, which reflects the importance that the rulers of the Shang Dynasty attached to agriculture. In the field of animal husbandry, in addition to the remains of six animals unearthed in the Shang Dynasty, there are also elephant bones, indicating that elephants were trained in the north at that time. He also mastered the technique of castrating pigs and began artificially raising freshwater fish. The handicraft industry is all managed by the government, with fine division of labor, huge scale, large output, many types, and high level of craftsmanship. In particular, the casting technology of bronzes has reached its peak. It became a symbol of Shang Dynasty civilization. Moreover, the Shang Dynasty people had already invented primitive porcelain. The white and delicate white pottery was of a high standard, with lifelike shapes and fine carvings, which showed the superb skills of the jade craftsmen of the Shang Dynasty. Silk fabrics include plain weave, leno with skein weave, and crepe with thousand grains. Jacquard technology has been mastered.

The progress of agriculture and handicrafts in the Shang Dynasty promoted the development of commodity exchange, and many merchants led ox carts and took boats to engage in long-distance trafficking. In the late Shang Dynasty, traders specializing in various transactions appeared in the cities. Lu Shang once slaughtered cattle in Chaoge and sold rice in Mengjin.

Since the Shang Dynasty, Chinese music has entered the era of historical trust. Folk music and court music have made great progress. Due to the development of agriculture, animal husbandry, and handicraft industries, bronze smelting has reached a very high level, which has led to a leap in the production level of musical instruments, and a large number of exquisite and luxurious musical instruments have appeared. Music and dance are the main forms of court music. The ones that can be verified include "Sanglin" and "Dahu", which are said to be the music and dance of Shang Tang and composed by the minister Yi Yin. There are mainly three types of people engaged in music professional work: "witches", music slaves and "blind" people. There is very little material about the folk music of the Shang Dynasty. "Book of Changes Gui Mei Shang Liu" and "Yi Tun Liu Er" are folk songs of the Shang Dynasty.

The oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty have a variety of character creation methods such as pictograms, meanings, phonetic sounds, pretense, and reference, and are already mature characters. Among the unearthed oracle bone inscriptions, the General Secretary found 4,672 characters, and scholars have recognized 1,072 characters. Because the oracle bone inscriptions are written on hard materials, the fonts are square. At the same time, the bronze inscriptions were cast, so the fonts were round.

Edit this paragraph Scientific Development

Astronomy: The Shang Dynasty calendar has been divided into large and small months, stipulating 366 days as a cycle, and using the end of the year to adjust the synodic moon and The length of the tropical year. There are records of multiple solar eclipses, lunar eclipses and new stars in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty.

Mathematics: There are numbers up to thirty thousand in the oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty, clear decimal system, the concepts of odd numbers, even numbers and multiples, and preliminary calculation capabilities.

Optical knowledge has been applied very early. The slightly convex mirror unearthed in the Shang Dynasty can illuminate the entire human face on a smaller mirror surface.

The writing used in the Western Zhou Dynasty was Dazhuan, so you’d better write it yourself.

King Wu of Zhou destroyed many small states and established larger princely states. He forced the small states of slavery to accept the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty. It was divided according to the close relationship between the princes and the Zhou royal family. In order to consolidate his ruling position, the king of Zhou adopted the feudal system of "building vassals together and splitting the land for the people". The "well field system" was the basis of social production relations in the Zhou Dynasty and the economic basis on which the nobility relied for survival. Agriculture was still the main social and economic sector.

Rituals and punishments

The Zhou Dynasty had strict etiquette and punishments. "Rituals are not given to common people, and punishments are not given to officials." The Zhou rites were based on the patriarchal clan system formed under the patriarchal social system and were used to mediate and adjust the conflicts and relationships within the ruling class. Punishment was used to control and suppress civilians and slaves, including the death penalty, blackmail, exile, flogging, redemption and a set of litigation and trial systems, which were extremely cruel.

Business and Transportation

Bronze agricultural tools were more widely used than in the Shang Dynasty, drainage and water diversion techniques were better mastered, and mulberries and fruits were cultivated among crops. There are many handicraft industries, and the division of labor is more detailed than in the Shang Dynasty. It is known as the "hundred industries". Commerce has further developed, and a larger market has appeared in the "guo" and "capital".

The Western Zhou Dynasty implemented the well-field system. Each male main labor force was granted a hundred acres of farmland (equivalent to more than 31 acres today), and the allocated fields were changed between cultivators every three years. At that time, the mature farming system was widely adopted, which made great progress in agricultural production.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, commerce was developed and there were merchants who specialized in trading activities. Sea shells, clams, and tortoise shells used for divination were often contributed and exchanged from distant places. Seashells were also used as currency at that time and were measured in units of pennies. Boats and carriages were important means of transportation.

Social life

Collecting was the main source of daily life for civilians at that time, while hunting was a recreational activity for the nobles.

Wars and exchanges

After the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, it continued to use troops and often had wars with neighboring countries such as Jingchu, Guifang, Yanyun, Dongyi, and Huaiyi, with each other winning. burden. On the contrary, it is more about friendly exchanges and economic and cultural exchanges with neighboring countries.

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a heyday of Chinese culture.

Economy

In the Spring and Autumn Period, iron farm tools began to be used, but in order to popularize it (it began to be popularized during the Warring States Period), in the Spring and Autumn Period, in addition to using lump iron to smelt, they also mastered the smelting of pig iron. advanced technology. The use of iron tools made it possible to reclaim wasteland on a large scale and promoted the development of private fields. It also provided sharp tools for the handicraft industry. Oxen farming became more and more common. The development of cattle farming technology can only be achieved if it is coordinated with the use of iron tools. can perform its functions. In terms of bronze smelting, new techniques such as gold, silver, and red copper inlay were invented. The unearthing of a large number of casting pottery models in Houma shows that the bronze smelting and casting and mining industries were large-scale and high-level during this period. After the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, various vassal states began to use currency extensively. The circulation of metal currency promoted the development of handicraft industry and commerce.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the widespread use of iron farm tools and the promotion of ox farming greatly improved agricultural productivity. Many wastelands were reclaimed into fertile farmland, farming techniques shifted from extensive to intensive farming, and agricultural output increased significantly. Private land increased, the well-field system collapsed, and land relations developed towards privatization. The princes had to implement reforms one after another, recognizing the private ownership of land, allowing land sales, and collecting land taxes from landowners. The enthusiasm of farmers for production increased. Due to the needs of war, the number of horses increased. The animal husbandry industry in the Central Plains has basically become a vassal of agriculture, and there are very few people who specialize in animal husbandry production.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the carving patterns on bronzes tended to be meticulous and neat, with light and flexible shapes, and gold inscriptions appeared. The surviving bronze swords of Wu and Yue are rare in the world for their exquisite smelting and tempering, skillful alloying technology, excellent outer plating, and pattern casting. Sectors such as salt boiling, iron smelting, and lacquerware were developed. Iron tools are mainly handicraft tools and agricultural tools. The silk fabrics of Qi State and the lacquerware of Chu State were of very high quality. Some craftsmen became individual producers and operators, living together in "shops" in the city, producing and selling at the same time. Gongshu Ban "Lu Ban", known as the ancestor of craftsmen, lived in the late Spring and Autumn Period. Cast metal currency originated in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Jin was one of the first areas to cast and use coins. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, the price of grain in Yue State was sixty yuan per stone at its most expensive and thirty yuan at its cheapest.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, a new tax system came into being. In the fifteenth year of Lu Xuangong (594 BC), the initial tax per mu was implemented. The state levied a certain physical tax on landowners based on the land area. This was the beginning of the ancient field tax. In the first year of Lu Chenggong (590 BC), Qiu Jia was established, and a certain amount of military tax (A) was levied according to the land area, thus combining the tax and tax into one. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the collection of local taxes was very common. In the seventh year of Duke Jian (408 BC), the State of Qin implemented the physical local tax system of "initial tax on grain". During the Warring States Period, tax systems varied across countries. The Qin State first implemented the household registration system and used it to collect land rent tax and "Touhui" (population tax) based on the head count.

Culture

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a period of great development of Chinese culture, which realized the historical transformation from the religious and superstitious culture of divination to the human-centered rational humanistic culture in the history of Chinese thought and culture. In the transition period of the Spring and Autumn Period, although the traditional concepts since the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties still played a huge role in people's hearts and exerted a widespread influence. The political authority of Emperor Zhou and his princes was shaken and declined, the situation of learning in the government was broken, and the subsequent changes in all aspects of society, such as the downward movement of academics and the transfer of classic culture to the private sector, also caused some changes in people's ideological concepts. These changes were the historical conditions for the ideological and cultural transformation of the Spring and Autumn Period to be realized.

Religion

There was no widely popular religion during the Spring and Autumn Period, because Taoism only began to appear in the Han Dynasty, and Buddhism was also introduced to China during the Western Han Dynasty. However, there may also have been some lesser-known primitive religions during the Spring and Autumn Period.

Art

The art of the Spring and Autumn Period was mainly sculptures on bronze vessels. The famous three-legged sheep-headed tripod is a bronze artwork from the Spring and Autumn Period. In 1923, a large number of bronze tripods and jues from the Spring and Autumn Period were unearthed in Xinzheng City. Compared with the bronzes from the Western Zhou Dynasty, the craftsmanship has been greatly developed. The patterns on bronze vessels are also very particular.

Technology

The book "Mozi" describes the principle of levers similar to scales. This is the earliest theory of the lever principle.

Iron tools and cattle farming were promoted during the Spring and Autumn Period, promoting the development of history.

In terms of astronomy, physics, and medicine, China in the Spring and Autumn Period was at the leading level in the world.

The theory of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, which was formed during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, incorporated the entire world, including astronomy, into the Five Elements system. "Heaven" not only uses celestial phenomena, but also uses various physical phenomena to show the "mandate of heaven". Therefore, people have to use various symbols to understand the "mandate of heaven", which has changed the previous method of using people's hearts to understand the destiny of heaven. These symbols should be displayed in the "Wude Zhuan". Shown in "Five Elements Luck". The observation of celestial phenomena is not only applicable to national politics, especially abnormal celestial phenomena, which are of great importance because they are related to the "mandate of heaven". During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, some exquisite medical technologies were invented and applied clinically. "Lingshu." "Four Seasons Steam" records the earliest abdominal puncture in the history of Chinese medicine.

Traditional Chinese agriculture only began to take shape during the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Spring and Autumn Period, people invented new agricultural tools such as iron plowshares, iron hoes, flails, and stone mills that had not existed before.

The bronze casting of the Spring and Autumn Period is also a characteristic of this era, represented by the bronzes of Zeng State, Chu State, and Xu State.

Philosophical Thought

The source of Chinese thought and culture is the Book of Changes. As one of the Six Classics of Confucianism, the "Book of Changes" has a long process of formation and development. What later generations call Hetu and Luoshu are manifestations of burning divination bones and a reflection of the interconnection and interpenetration of rational thinking and image thinking realized by ancient ancestors in their long-term life and divination practice.

It is said that Fu Xi summarized it, arranged the yarrow repeatedly, and painted it as Bagua, including the phenomena of all things in the world. This is the original Yi. Later, it is said that after careful study by King Wen of Zhou Dynasty, he standardized and organized it into sixty-four hexagrams and three hundred and eighty-four lines. With the hexagrams and line lines, it was called "The Book of Changes". It uses simple images and numbers, and uses the oppositional changes of yin and yang to explain complicated social phenomena, showing tens of thousands to infinite numbers. It has the characteristics of using less to express more, using simplicity to express complexity, and is full of changes. The reason why it is called "Yi" has three meanings according to Zheng Xuan: first, simplicity, second, change, and third, difficulty. It means that the principles of all things change and remain unchanged, phenomena are constantly changing, and some of the most basic principles remain unchanged. This abstracts the simple dialectics that is very rich in theory from the dialectical development of the objective world. It is said that in the late Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius explained and discussed the "Book of Changes" and completed the ten wings, which is the "Book of Changes". In this way, "The Book of Changes" developed into a philosophical work that expounded the changes in the universe with extensive and profound contents. The academic origin of Chinese civilization is very early, but it did not develop until the Spring and Autumn Period. The academic thought at this time can be said to be the golden age of Chinese civilization. The Chinese call this period the period of "philosophers and hundreds of schools of thought".

Edit this paragraph Political System

During the Warring States Period, each vassal state gradually formed a central bureaucracy with the division of responsibilities between generals and generals under the king, and the division of civil and military powers. The prime minister, also known as the prime minister or the prime minister, is the leader of all officials. A general, also known as a general, is the leader of military attaches. The State of Qin began to establish the position of prime minister in the second year of King Wu (309 BC). The most noble among the prime ministers was called Xiangbang. The highest military position was originally created by Daliang, and it was not until King Zhao of Qin that he established the position of general. The State of Chu has always regarded Jin Yin as the highest official position, and Zhu Guo or Shangzhu Guo as the highest military officer with a slightly lower status. The subordinate military attachés in each country are called Wei, or they are called Guo Wei or Du Wei. The secretary of the king is called the censor and has the responsibility of supervision. The establishment of counties is more common, and a pattern of counties unified by counties is gradually formed. It turns out that officials are hereditary and each has his own fiefdom. Beginning in the middle period of the Warring States Period, the monarchs began to provide officials at all levels with a certain amount of grain as salary, or as rewards of gold and coins. At the same time, a seal and talisman system was formed. Officials were appointed and dismissed based on their seals, and troops were mobilized based on their military talismans. Thus concentrating all power in the hands of the king. Below the county level, there are township, li, and gathering organizations. There are three elders and court officials in the village, and there are some upright people in the village. Ju is a village, with the organization of Wu and Shi. Five families form a Wu and have a Wu leader, and ten families form a Shi and have a Shi chief.

At the beginning of the Warring States Period, reforms in various countries further systematized the law.

The "Book of Laws" compiled by Li Kui of the Wei State includes the laws of robbery, thieves' laws, prison laws, arrest laws, miscellaneous laws and specific laws. The law governs stealing, and the law governs killing. Prison law and arrest law are the procedures for detecting and arresting thieves. Miscellaneous laws are punishment provisions for crimes other than theft and thieves. Specific laws are provisions that mitigate or aggravate punishment for crimes depending on the circumstances. The Qin State originally had the punishment of genocide. Shang Yang's reform established the law of sitting together, and also formulated strict laws, which added corporal punishment, large-scale punishment, and punishments such as chiseling the top, pulling out the ribs, and cooking in a wok. Other countries are also competing to enact harsh laws. For example, Qi has punishments such as cooking, killing, boiling, and golden knives. Chu has punishments such as killing, dismembering, boiling, piercing the ears, whipping, flogging, cutting, palace, shackles, gravel, extermination of family, Yi clan, and three tribes. Yan There are punishments such as mutilation, disembowelment, imprisonment, and torture.

Edit this paragraph Technological Progress

During the Warring States Period, iron farm tools had been widely used in production instead of wooden and stone farm tools. They facilitated felling forests, building water conservancy projects, reclaiming wasteland, and deep plowing. , promoting the development of agricultural production. While plowing and weeding, farmers pay attention to identifying the properties of the soil and choosing different crops for planting according to local conditions. Fertilization technology has improved, people know how to use fertilizer juice to dress seeds, and manure, green manure and plant ash are widely used. Begin to pay attention to seed selection, prevent and control insect diseases, implement border seeding methods, sow seeds at an appropriate density to facilitate ventilation and waterlogging, and be good at bacon, weeding, thinning and grasping the farming season. The two-crop-a-year system has been widely promoted, which has greatly increased the annual output per unit area. Li Kui of the Wei State once estimated the grain output at that time and said that in a normal year, one acre of land (about one-third of an acre today) could produce one and a half stone of millet (about 41 kilograms today). During large, medium and small harvests, It can reach six stones, four and a half stones, and three stones. When the small, medium, and large harvests are insufficient, it can only be one stone, seven buckets, and three buckets. The average farmer needs one and a half dan of food per person per month, and a family of five eats 90 dan in a year. In a normal year, a family farming 100 acres of land can produce enough food for the whole family for a year and a half.

During the Warring States Period, the handicraft industry developed greatly, and the production level of iron smelting, bronze casting, lacquerware, and silk weaving industries all improved significantly. He had already mastered the pig iron smelting technology of high-temperature liquid reduction method, and was able to forge high-carbon steel for the sword body, and the art of softening cast iron began to appear. The production of bronze ware generally uses casting, welding, lost wax methods and gold and silver inlay processes, resulting in gold coating, gilding and engraving techniques on the surface of bronze ware. The shape of the bronze ware is light, thin and smart, and the patterns are delicate and complex, which is a superb technology and art. level. It has been able to produce lead and barium colored glaze. The lacquerware manufacturing industry has become an independent handicraft industry. The lacquerware produced is made of wood, with more than ten colors of lacquer including black, red, yellow, blue, purple and white. Various lustrous and beautiful patterns are painted on the utensils. Driers were invented. There are brocades and hand-knitted fabrics with complex structures and patterns. Some large private craftsmen appeared, such as Yidun, who was a prisoner in Lu State, Qing, a widow who mined cinnabar in Badi, Qin State, and Guo Zong, who smelted iron in Zhao State, etc.

In order to meet the needs of commercial development, there were many types of coins and large quantities of coins in circulation during the Warring States Period. The styles of copper coins in different countries are different. Qi and Yan mainly have knife-shaped coins, Jin and Jin mainly have spade-shaped cloth coins, Qin and Zhou mainly have round coins with holes, and Chu mainly has ant-nosed coins shaped like shells. . The gold coins include Ying Yuan and Chen Yuan from Chu State pressed into cubes. In the early years of the Warring States period, every stone of millet in the Wei State was sold for 30 yuan. Each farmer's family planted 100 acres of land. In a normal year, after excluding food and taxes, there was still 4500 millets left, which could be sold for 1,350 yuan. In terms of money, each household will spend 300 yuan in addition to the commune to worship the Spring and Autumn Festival. Each person will spend 300 yuan on clothing for a year. The whole family will spend 1,500 yuan, which is less than 450 yuan.

Prose creation flourished during the Warring States Period, with various historical prose, prose by various scholars and other prose works. These proses are all written in words that are close to spoken language. Some are as arrogant as Zhuangzi, some are eloquent, some are passionate, some are colorful, some are like the fables of Han Feizi, some are as thorough as Mencius, or some are logically rigorous. The perfect combination of realism and romanticism gives Qu Yuan's poems great artistic appeal. Song Yu's works, while imitating Qu Yuan, developed and created Chu Ci, transformed Fu style from Sao style, and had a great influence on the literary creation of future generations.

Major social changes

A. Development of agricultural production

1. Further promotion of iron tools: A large number of iron tools have been unearthed in various places, indicating their widespread use. Methods have been improved, providing material prerequisites for the development of agricultural production.

2. Promotion of animal power plowing: In addition to cattle plowing, there is also horse plowing, covering a wider area.

3. Advances in farming technology: soil identification and fertilization technology were more than a thousand years earlier than in Europe.

4. Types and distribution of food crops: Due to different soils and climates in different countries, different crops are grown, and the varieties of food crops are also different.

5. Improvement in agriculture: At that time, one stone was equivalent to 60 kilograms today. It can be seen that there was no fundamental breakthrough in China's agriculture, and the foundation was laid at that time.

B. Development of handicrafts and commerce

1. Development of handicrafts

Types: Handicrafts in the Warring States Period, including household handicrafts as a sideline to agriculture, and independent The individual handicrafts operated include large-scale handicrafts run by wealthy people and government-run handicrafts run by governments of various countries.

Personnel: There are farmers, handicraftsmen, dependent poor, hired workers (sharecroppers), slaves, and official slaves.

Technology: The textile industry has new products with local characteristics. Carpentry includes rules (compasses), moments (curved rulers), ropes (ink fountains), hidden wooden sticks, etc. Mining and prospecting technology.

Products: bis, sword heads, seals, etc. made of colored glaze (i.e. glass).

2. Development of commerce

The development of agriculture and handicraft production and the expansion of social division of labor have brought about the development of commerce. The government also recognized the legal existence of merchants and levied various taxes.

Types of merchants: (1) Ordinary merchants who sell in rows and peddlers and women who run small businesses. (2) Wealthy businessmen have both political status and strong financial resources. For detailed information on merchants during the Warring States Period, please refer to Sima Qian's "Historical Records·Biographies of Huo Shi".

3. The rise of cities

With the development of agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce, the formation of a centralized authoritarian system promoted the concentration of politics, economy, and culture, giving rise to urban Representative examples of its development are Linzi and Yanxiadu in Qi State, Ying and Dingtao in Chu State, and Handan in Zhao State. Cities are the strongholds where the ruling class exercises its power over the countryside and where officials, landlords, businessmen, and loan sharks live together. The city dominates the countryside politically and exploits the countryside economically.

4. The activity of monetary relations

With the development of commodity exchange, currency relations have become active. During the Warring States Period, not only various countries minted currency, but also many cities minted currency. Therefore, the styles and types of currencies in various places were different. There are no less than hundreds of Warring States currencies discovered after liberation. Judging from its casting materials, there are copper coins and gold coins. According to its shape, it can be divided into: knife coins, which are popular in Qi, Yan and other countries; shovel coins, which are circulated in the three Jin and other countries; yuan coins, which are circulated in Qin and Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties; copper shells (ant nose coins), which are circulated in Chu State. There are also gold coins minted in Chu State: Ying Yuan and Chen Yuan. The wide variety and large circulation volume reflect the development of commodity exchange at that time. The variety of currencies also reflects the great regional differences.

With the development of currency, usury also became popular. In addition, there are policies that emphasize agriculture and suppress business.

During the Warring States Period, the social economy was advancing rapidly, but development was uneven among regions. Qi and Wei not only had good natural conditions, but also had early social reforms, so they became relatively developed countries in the early Warring States Period. The Qin State was originally relatively backward. Because it was located in the fertile wilderness of Guanzhong, the reform was relatively thorough. Therefore, it came from behind and became the most powerful country in the late Warring States Period. Chu had the largest territory, fertile land, and developed handicrafts and commerce. It was once a powerful country along with Qi and Qin, but was destroyed by Qin because of its weak military strength.

C. Landlords and Peasants

Three social contradictions during the Warring States Period: the contradiction between the feudal landlord class and the peasant class, the internal contradiction between the landlord class, and the contradiction between the landlords and the remaining slave owners. .

The main contradiction is that between landlords and farmers. And constituted the main contradiction of China's feudal society.

1. Types of landlords

The feudal monarch is the general representative of the landlord class and the largest land owner.

Aristocratic feudal landowners: the four great princes of the Warring States Period: Qi Mengchang Jun Tian Wen, Zhao Pingyuan Jun Zhao Sheng, Wei Xinling Jun Wei Wuji, Chu Chunshen Jun Huang Xie, they have political status, and economically collect from the fiefdom Households paid taxes and were allowed to lend money at usury. They had diner in their homes and owned slaves. They were a conservative class among the landowners.

Military bureaucratic landlords: Mainly rely on military exploits and political talent to obtain land and power. Some of the sources are former generals and ministers. For example, Duke Cuo of Wei State was rewarded with 400,000 acres of land at one time, and Wang Jian asked for land. Some used the money rewarded by the monarch to buy fields, such as Zhao Kuo.

Wealthy landowners: rely on economic means to make a fortune, mainly large handicraft owners and big businessmen.

Commoner landlords: Homeowners became landlords by purchasing land through becoming officials or doing business. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" records that Ning Yue, a yeoman farmer in the state of Zhao, wanted to get rid of the hard work of growing crops. After studying, he became the teacher of Zhou Weigong, the king of the Western Zhou Dynasty. He obtained a lot of land and became a landlord.

Although the above-mentioned landlords are not exactly the same politically and economically, they collectively constitute the ruling class of society, and their power is constantly expanding.

2. Types of farmers

Citizens: They were the main part of farmers at that time. They were granted land by the state. Farmers paid taxes to the state, performed corvee and military service, and had independent economy and production. Able, but unable to migrate, can be called farmers.

Sharecroppers: No land, but some production tools. Renting land from landlords means relying on farmers.

Yeoman farmers: First, they are the scholar-bureaucrat class, and second, they are soldiers who have achieved military merit.

Farmers: not only do they not have land, but they also do not have the most basic production tools and seeds, so they have to sell their labor power.

3. Conflict between peasants and landlords

They were exploited by various taxation corvees such as the "cloth levy, millet levy, and labor service levy" in the feudal state, and were subject to usury Exploitation and exorbitant taxation intensified the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class.

Edit this paragraph Scientific Development

During the Warring States Period, the outstanding astronomer Gan De of Qi had "Astronomical Astrology", and Shi Shen of Wei had "Astronomy". They discovered that among the five planets, Yinghuo (Mars) and Venus (Taibai) have retrograde phenomena, measured the length of the rendezvous period of Venus and Jupiter, and determined that the period of Mars is 1.9 years and that of Jupiter is 12 years, which is consistent with modern science. The measurements are very similar. Shi Shen's measurement of the distance of the 28 stars and the extreme degrees of some other stars was a major achievement in early quantitative observations of stars. Later generations collectively called their works "Gan Shi Xing Jing".

During the Warring States Period, the division and arrangement of the twenty-four solar terms were generally complete, which played an important role in agricultural production. The Qin Dynasty implemented the Zhuanxu calendar, with the first ten months of Xia Zheng as the beginning of the year and September as the end of the year.

In the "Mo Jing" during the Warring States Period, there are many geometric propositions, such as two parallel lines being equidistant, three points forming a straight line, the radii of the same circle are equal, and the four corners of a rectangle are all right angles. wait. He invented the calculation tool Calculation, using ten small sticks arranged in different shapes to represent numbers and perform calculations, which greatly accelerated the calculation speed. In addition, the Eight Optical Articles were also an important achievement of the Mo Jing. "Kao Gong Ji" contains simple calculations of fractions and the concepts and names of special angles. "Zhou Bi Suan Jing" may have been written in the early Han Dynasty, but it is a summary of the experience of pre-Qin surveying, which uses quite complicated fractional arithmetic and square root methods.

Mechanical knowledge is also well explained in the "Mo Jing". He believed that force is the means of transferring and changing the movement of the human body. He pointed out that the balance of the lever is related to the weight of both ends and the length of the moment arm. He also found that the size of the ship has a certain equilibrium relationship with the depth of its sinking in the water. It is a simple expression of the principle of buoyancy.

Philosophical Thoughts

During the Warring States Period, the dramatic changes in society put forward a series of requirements for academic culture. Coupled with the formation of the scholar class and the promotion of rulers, many schools of thought emerged one after another, forming A situation where a hundred schools of thought contend. At that time, in addition to Confucianism and Taoism, the most influential schools were Mohism represented by Mo Zhai, Legalism represented by Han Fei, Yin Yang Family represented by Zou Yan, and famous schools represented by Gongsun Longzi. , the military strategist represented by Sun Bin, the peasant family represented by Xu Xing, the political strategist represented by Zhang Yi, Gongsun Yan, and Su Qin, the miscellaneous family represented by Lu Buwei, etc. Each school wrote books, taught disciples, participated in politics, criticized each other, and penetrated each other. Academic thought was extremely prosperous. Qin unified the six kingdoms, advocated Legalism, used Yin and Yang schools, burned books and harassed Confucian scholars, and was superstitious about violence. It took the Legalist theory's over-exaggeration of monarchical power to the extreme.