But before the arrival of the shogunate era, Japan had a history of centralization. At that time, the emperor was really in power and the whole country was under his control.
Maybe some readers will be surprised? Because Yun once said in the previous Geopolitics 25: Why did ancient Japan split? The fragmented geopolitical structure led to Japan being doomed to split under the conditions of agricultural civilization. In that case, why can Japan have centralization?
This is actually thanks to China.
Why do you say that? The cloud is interpreted here.
The relatively credible development history of Japan originated from Yamato in the Middle Ages.
There were many countries in early Japan (tribes should be accurate), and there was neither a unified civilization nor a unified country. However, by the fourth century, Yamato had taken control of the Kansai Plain. Yamato, the predecessor of the Japanese emperor, is also the home of the Japanese nation and nation.
Yamato's occupation of the Kansai Plain this time is very important to Japan's later history. Because in the traditional farming era, the lowland plain rich in water resources is the most basic and important prerequisite for the development of civilization.
Japan has many mountains, but not many plains. Among a limited number of lowland plains, the Kansai Plain with Kyoto-Osaka as the main axis and the Kanto Plain with Tokyo-Yokohama as the core are the largest, and their geographical strength is far above other plates. It is the only two core geographical plates in Japan that have the ability to control the whole country.
At that time, the geographical value of Kansai was far above Kanto. Because the Kansai Plain is located farther west than Kanto, it can better receive the radiation of Chinese civilization from the East Asian continent and naturally radiate the high-value lowlands in the Seto Inland Sea. Due to the limited overall geographical strength of Japan, the development of local civilization is quite backward. Therefore, accepting the radiation of the strongest civilization in the world at that time can greatly enhance the geographical value of the Kansai Plain, thus gaining the realistic strength to overwhelm the Kanto Plain.
On this basis, Yamato began a journey of expansion, and finally occupied most of Japan except Hokkaido in the 5th century (that is, China's Southern and Northern Dynasties).
However, it needs to be pointed out in particular that this so-called occupation is by no means the unified centralization of Qin Shihuang's style, but the feudal princes of the Zhou Dynasty. In addition to the core area of Kansai, the land in other places was enfeoffed to the royal family and big noble. Although they surrendered to the central government, they retained considerable autonomy internally.
Why is this happening? This is determined by the level of civilization development. To achieve great unification, there is a basic material condition, that is, the geographical connection between internal plates must be close to a certain extent-figuratively speaking, there must be convenient land and water channels to connect. With this premise, all departments can be integrated in culture and economy, and the central government can realize effective direct control over all places.
However, it costs money to build a post road on land; As for the navigation channel, to be able to adapt to offshore navigation, low-level canoes are definitely not acceptable, at least there must be decent construction ships.
However, at this time, the development level of Japanese civilization was not high, and it was still in a slave society. Similar to the Western Zhou Dynasty in China, there are not so many resources to do these things. Therefore, we can only adopt the enfeoffment system like the Western Zhou Dynasty, where each family is in charge and politically submits to Yamato. King Yamato at this time was actually equivalent to the emperor of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Although he can give orders to the world, except for the core area of the headquarters, other places can only be indirectly controlled by governors.
In the 6th century, things changed gradually. On the one hand, after a hundred years of operation, the strength of other sub-geo-plates has been greatly improved, and the strength advantage of Yamato's national headquarters has been relatively reduced; On the other hand, the land that can be developed at the level of civilization at that time has been divided up, and it is impossible to obtain territory through expansion.
Since you can't make a cake, if the aspirant wants to expand, he will get the cake. As a result, powerful princes began to challenge Yamato; Within the imperial court, the royal family and nobles who were qualified for fiefs also began to make trouble. Everyone hopes to strengthen himself by digging the corner of Yamato.
This is basically the situation in China at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The enfeoffment system is unsustainable, and the royal rule is facing a great threat. If it continues, the best outcome of Yamato will be the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which will be unified but not dead. A little carelessness, the royal family of Shiwan series will come to an end.
However, the Yamato royal family avoided this fate. The reason why it can be done is still at home.
At this time, China has just entered the period of the Second Empire in Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the level of civilization development has been greatly improved during this period.
As the main geo-plate that is most receptive to China's radiation, Kansai borrowed the east wind from China this time. After absorbing the achievements of China's new civilization, the strength of the Yamato people has obviously increased again, and it has gained obvious advantages over other geographical plates.
The famous Dahua innovation in Japanese history came into being under this historical background. It is precisely because of the sudden increase in the strength of this department that Yamato can suppress the threat of governors from all directions.
However, the significance of large-scale innovation goes far beyond this. In view of the fact that the level of Japanese civilization has developed to a certain extent at this stage, there are certain resources to build a minimum internal transportation system; Coupled with the influence of China's new civilization, Japan has made great progress in technology and political system. This series of objective conditions, coupled with the super strength of Yamato headquarters, made it possible for Japan to achieve centralization for the first time.
The first to be cut off is the aristocratic family within the department. Through internal centralization, this department can unite the strength of unifying the whole country, and then bring huge overall benefits. Therefore, the centralization of Yamato headquarters grew rapidly and eventually suppressed the old aristocracy-similar to Shang Yang's political reform in Qin State.
After completing the internal integration, the Ministry, with its strong strength, successfully suppressed the Quartet, finally achieved reunification, and established a centralized regime for the first time in history. It was during this period that the name "Japan" officially appeared. As for the title of Yamato King, it was replaced by a more China-like "Emperor". After the completion of Dahua innovation, Japan entered the centralized Nara era and heian period from the feudal Asuka period.
For the royal family, centralization is of course their most desirable political system. It would be perfect if you could live forever under this system-at least the emperors in Nara era and early Heian period must have had such a big dream in the Spring and Autumn Period.
However, such a wonderful time did not last long. From the mid-Heian period, the Japanese entered the customs politics, and the emperor was put on hold. Later, with the dispute of Genhei, the Kamakura shogunate, Muromachi shogunate, Antu Taoshan era, Edo shogunate and Japan returned to the separatist state for thousands of years. Without centralization, the emperor lost all real power.
Here, there must be a question: why can't Japan's centralization last long?
Geographically, the emergence of centralization has an inherent geographical condition, that is, the core geographical plate of this department has absolute strength to suppress other sub-geographical plates.
After the reform of Dahua, the Japanese army headquarters with Kansai Plain as the core has indeed achieved overwhelming strength. However, in Geopolitics 25: Why Ancient Japan Divided, Yun analyzed the geopolitical structure of Japan. Although the scale of Kansai or Kanto is relatively dominant, it is not enough to suppress the whole of Japan. Therefore, Yamato's surreal strength is not entirely based on the geographical strength of the Kansai Plain itself, but is largely obtained by the east wind of China and relying on the first-Mover advantage. In other words, this advantage is only technical, not innate.
However, with the passage of time, the scientific and technological advantages of the Kansai Plain gradually spread, and the civilizations of other geographical plates also caught up. The first-Mover advantage is supplemented, and the Kansai Plain has no obvious advantage in volume-especially the Kanto Plain, whose geographical strength is still above Kansai. This makes it difficult to suppress the whole country with Kansai.
This is the difference between Japan and China. China, as a master of centralization in his early days, relied on the geographical advantages of the Yellow River Basin to suppress all forces. Later, although with the development of civilization and the diffusion of technology, the geographical strength of the Yangtze River basin was fully released and surpassed that of the Yellow River basin. However, the geographical relationship between the two is very close, so they do not conflict, but merge into a super-strong version of the core of the Yangtze River-Yellow River civilization, which further provides stronger support for centralization.
But Japan does not have such conditions. The Kansai Plain is not only limited in strength, but also has a geographical conflict with the Kanto Plain, which cannot be integrated with the Japanese civilization level in the farming era.
Therefore, after China's dividend was exhausted, Kansai was unable to control the whole country, and the conflict with Kanto became increasingly fierce, which eventually led to the collapse of Japanese centralization-moreover, it could not be unified throughout the farming era.
Geographical structure determines that the collapse of centralization is the inevitable result of the historical development of ancient Japan.
However, another problem has come. Why does the emperor still exist? Moreover, in the thousand years when the vassal regime and disputes were endless, the royal family still retained the nominal sovereignty; With so many people in power, no one wants to abolish this system.
Are warlords all living Lei Feng? Or do they like to have an uncle as their master because they are poor? Of course not. In doing so, warlords actually have their own difficulties. The inside story of this, Yun continues to interpret in the next section.