The dramatist Shang Yang is a representative of Legalism, with lofty moral integrity and firm belief. He sacrificed his life for the success of Qin's political reform. In order to defend the new law, Shang Yang tried his best to be mean and ungrateful, based on the law, and resolutely put an end to human feelings and even humanity. What he said on his lips is that benevolence is merciless, which means that the law is benevolence, but this benevolence is very merciless. Because the rule of law is famous for its coldness and inhumanity. It is this inhuman law that can bring true love to people. Because governing the country according to law can realize justice, fairness and justice in the world. The logic is that the affairs of a country cannot be decided by one person, but should be based on criminal law. Justice, fairness and justice, which can only be realized when there is a special holy king in a society ruled by man, can also be easily realized after the rule of law replaces the rule of man. These views are no strangers to us, and this is the modern legal thought. But unfortunately, although Shang Yang claimed to be a legalist more than two thousand years ago, the law of this legalist school is by no means today's law. As a character in TV series, Shang Yang has advanced legal thoughts in modern times, which is no big deal. But we must know that Shang Yang in history is by no means like this. Shang Yang is also a representative figure of Legalism in history. However, in the TV series, the legalists at that time were divided into three schools: legalists, magicians and dignitaries, and Shang Yang was given the status of legalists, which is not in line with history. In history, it is true that some people divided legalists into three schools: legalists, magicians and legalists, but that was in the Han Fei era after Shang Yang 100 years ago. Han Fei is a master of legalism. In the process of summing up the thoughts of Legalists, he combined Shang Yang's method, Shen Buhai's technique and Shen Dao's potential to form his own magical potential thought and become a representative of Legalists. The magic potential thought provided a powerful ideological weapon for Qin Shihuang to unify the world. In addition, Shang Yang in history is not as upright and noble as Shang Yang in TV series. In the TV series, Shang Yang never entered the political arena of Qin State by bribery after he entered Qin State. But in history, Shang Yang got the chance to meet Qin Xiaogong by bribing Qin Xiaogong's favorite Jing Ke. Historically, Shang Yang did not go to prison to protect the law, but tried to escape. Because of his own laws, people without identification could not stay in hotels, so he was arrested and sent to the government, leaving a suicide idiom. In the play, Shang Yang's political reform was a great success, which made Qin rich and powerful. This is a historical fact, but in the play, the Qin people supported Shang Yang's political reform so much that Shang Yang had an excellent reputation. On the day of his execution, a large number of ordinary people spontaneously shouted that Shang Jun was wronged. I'm afraid there is a huge gap between this and historical facts. Shang Yang has a bad reputation in history, and his unkindness is a famous brand term for Shang Yang's evaluation. Of course, this situation is related to the opposition between Confucianism and Legalism, which has been dominant for a long time, but it cannot be said that it is directly related to Shang Yang's way of doing things.
Shang Yang's political reform undoubtedly helped Qin lay the foundation for a strong country, but whether Shang Yang's political reform can win the sincere support of the people of Qin is indeed a conclusion to be verified. You can do a simple thinking. A poor and weak country suddenly became strong in a short period of 19 years. Moreover, it is not by robbery, nor by natural wealth, large population or advanced technology and rich resources. Qin is a small country with a small population and backward production technology. There is only one explanation for the sudden rise of such a small country in a short period of time, and that is the cruel oppression of the people. As we all know, the Warring States period is an era of great changes. In order to strengthen themselves, various vassal States are striving to implement political reforms. During the Warring States period, several big countries experienced great political reforms, while other countries that did not implement political reforms or did but did not produce results gradually declined and were eventually merged. The most obvious feature of implementing the reform is to change the backward national management system (political, military, economic and even cultural), improve efficiency, and finally maximize state power. The political system reform is mainly reflected in two points: first, the traditional aristocratic hereditary bureaucracy is changed into a meritocratic selection bureaucracy; The first is to change the feudal system of hereditary territory into the county system. Change the inefficient and lifeless aristocratic hereditary system into an efficient and dynamic centralized system. Apart from King Wuling of Zhao's riding and shooting of Khufu, this military reform is mainly to change the past military system. The traditional military system was led by hereditary aristocrats, regardless of civil and military skills, but after the reform, full-time military commanders led troops to war. Moreover, the generals with troops have an assessment system, emphasizing the on-the-spot command ability of generals, which greatly improves the combat effectiveness of the army. Economic change is the most critical. For agricultural countries, the traditional mining field system and slavery hindered the production efficiency during the Warring States period, which is a serious problem. The most important measure for countries to reform one after another is economy. By abolishing the mining field system and slavery, the fiefs under the county system were gradually abolished, and taxes were collected by the state in a unified way, which improved production efficiency. In addition to the improvement of production efficiency brought about by the change of production organization form, the unified tax will also nationalize part of the income originally intercepted by hereditary nobles, thus enriching Qiang Bing and making the nobles poor. Before Shang Yang's political reform, all six countries in Shandong had carried out political reform. Among them, Wei is the most thorough one, including Li Kui, Wuqi and Ximen Bao, so Wei can become the most powerful country in the early Warring States period. On the basis of the implementation of the new law in Wei for one hundred years, which greatly improved the production efficiency, Qin can surpass Wei in only 19 years. There is only one possibility, that is, its reform not only changed the traditional inefficient production mode, but also intercepted the income of the nobility and exploited the farmers to a greater extent.
This is not a simple guess, but is supported by data. In the book Economic History of Qin and Han Dynasties in China (version 1994), it is mentioned that the physical objects exploited by Qin State through taxation and other means account for two-thirds of farmers' total income, while labor accounts for one-seventh of farmers' total working time. According to this data, 2/3 of 6/7 of all working hours are exploited, totaling121,and 1/7 is deprived of labor, totaling 15/2 1, that is, 5/7 (China Qin and Han dynasties. We can do simple reasoning without more references to prove it. According to Mencius, during the Warring States period, countries basically adopted the tithe system, that is, they collected one tenth of the total harvest. Of course, this is only tax, not including labor. The implementation of the initial tax mu in land has changed the inherent land system, and the tax system adopted is also a tithe system. However, due to the increase of state expenditure, it was raised to one-fifth in a short time, and because the tax revenue was too high and there was great resistance, it was quickly cancelled. These two data provided by the above facts can basically reflect the approximate range of tax rates in various countries during the Warring States Period, that is, between 10% and 20%. Even if the highest ceiling of 20% is adopted, it is far lower than that of Qin State. Looking at the situation of labor, according to the above data, labor in Qin accounts for 1/7 of farmers' labor time. Considering the small population of Qin State and many national large-scale construction projects, Xianyang Xindu was overhauled and completed at a high speed during the Shang Yang political reform. Since then, the most famous projects are the excavation of Zheng Guoqu at the end of the Warring States Period and the construction of the Great Wall, Afangshan and Mausoleum in the north after the establishment of the Qin Dynasty. The time for farmers in Qin to serve hard labor is certainly much longer than that of farmers in six countries in Shandong. That is to say, the labor service of Shandong six countries will not be higher than 1/7, so the upper limit is 1/7. Combined with the above-mentioned tax rate ceiling of 20%, the final data is that the total amount of exploitation in Kanto countries will never exceed 3 1.4% and be less than 1/3. This figure of less than 1/3 is already a very high estimate, because it is quite rare for countries to raise their taxes to 20%, usually only 10%. In fact, the working hours of people in other countries are far below the level of Qin. Assuming that according to110, the total amount of exploitation in various countries only accounts for 19% of all farmers' labor achievements, less than 1/5. The above two figures can generally reflect that the proportion of farmers' overall labor achievements exploited in six countries in Shandong is between 1/5 ~ 1/3, which is far less than 5/7 of that in Qin, and its maximum is less than half. This shows that Qin exploited the cruelty of the bottom people. It is no accident that a poor and weak country can rise rapidly in just 19 years. It is the product of Qin's cruel oppression of the working people. Will such a new law, which cruelly squeezes the blood and sweat of ordinary people, win the sincere support of ordinary people? Don't even think about it. Absolutely impossible. The tragic political reform of Shang Yang is rare in the history of China, and a crackdown that killed more than 700 people on the Weihe River is also unique. We usually describe this crackdown as a crackdown on the crazy counterattack of aristocratic forces, which may not be the case.
Shang Yang was later sentenced to death for car cracking. In the TV series, he tried every means to cover it up with the crazy revenge of the old clan, which is obviously unreasonable. If a virtuous minister who has won the support of the people of the whole country is finally killed by the restoration forces, then the restoration forces will inevitably be more resolutely countered. This, in the play wily Gan Long unexpectedly did not expect? Although personal grievances should be reported, we should not lose the overall situation, otherwise Gan Long would not have endured it for more than 20 years. In fact, although Shang Yang's political reform helped the State of Qin to enrich Qiang Bing, he was only a pawn in the political reform of the State of Qin. With the success of the political reform, the people of the whole state of Qin, including the traditional hereditary nobles, were severely squeezed and exploited. Social contradictions are accumulating day by day and will break out sooner or later. Qin only used Shang Yang's death at an appropriate time to quell this social contradiction (successful reform). The cruel means of smashing cars is just an extreme and intuitive tool to quell public anger. In fact, in the 20 years of Shang Yang's political reform, the strength of the hereditary old nobles has been disintegrated and destroyed (the false fief system made them lose their fief and economic foundation; It is impossible to make waves by destroying the fief armed forces. It is quite unwise and foolish to kill a wise man loved by the people of the whole country simply to quell or completely put out the counterattack of aristocratic forces in TV dramas. Because of course, hereditary nobles can be completely destroyed for this reason, and once the sages of the people are cracked, the social influence will be more profound and the prestige of the monarch will be lost. Shang Yang was split in history because Shang Yang was resolutely opposed by the ruling and opposition parties, and the king of Qin was willing to throw away this piece that had completed its task. The reason why Shang Yang was killed in the play is quite unwarranted. The top ten criminal evidences are all planted. Even if Shang Yang insists on governing the country according to law, he must find a legitimate reason to die, otherwise it will not harm the law. The old clan broke the law many times in the process of framing Shang Yang, but it was not punished, which was far from the original intention of Shang Yang's firm protection. What else are we talking about protecting the law with death?
Although it is also mentioned in the play that Shang Yang's political reform is only a unique form of governing the country in the war era (the world of great struggle). However, from beginning to end, the whole drama is promoting a universal concept of the supremacy of the rule of law. This is not a rigorous view of history. There is no panacea in history. Different times and periods have different political systems to adapt. This is as absurd as a doctor prescribing a panacea to all patients and bringing out universal political ideas. Qin was strong because of the rule of law, but it also lost its country because of the strict rule of law. It can be seen that the rule of law is not omnipotent! In troubled times, striving for the world, governing the world and prosperous times, there should be different strategies for governing the country. The rule of law remains unchanged, how to deal with the rapidly changing world? Take troops in troubled times, strive for the world by law, govern the country by virtue, and prosper the country by virtue. Among them, Legalism contains many aspects of militarist thoughts, which are mixed in troubled times, so in fact, only Legalism, Taoism and Confucianism are worthy of attention. This is the essence of the key political thought gradually recognized and formed after the founding of the Han Dynasty. Since then, this law has never changed in the history of more than 2,000 years. In troubled times, legalists are the main ones, and heavy punishment and heavy law are violent. At the beginning of the world, the Taoist thought of inaction was the main idea, and the state did not seize the people's strength and lived in peace with the people's livelihood. After recuperation, he entered a period of peace and prosperity, with Confucianism as the mainstay. The above is just a rough outline, in fact, various ideas are still mixed together. There are not only legalists in troubled times, but also some Taoist and Confucian ideas. Governing the world requires not only the inaction of Taoism, but also the rule of law of Legalists. Prosperity is not only Dehua, but also Legalists and Taoists. It's just that different times have different emphases. There is still a key issue to be clarified here. The rule of law emphasized by Shang Yang's political reform is essentially different from the rule of law emphasized by the rule of law today. The rule of law emphasizes that severe punishment is a knife and a powerful stripping of people's power; The legal system, on the other hand, takes the just law as the rope, regulates illegal acts and safeguards justice and fairness. It is a homonym, with different words and different meanings. It is no problem to put modern legal thoughts on the TV series Shang Yang, but it is not appropriate if history and reality are confused. This is also a key point in writing this article.