Traditional authority eliminates social unrest and chaos.
The Warring States Period is a natural continuation of social and historical changes from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period. From the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the political authority of the royal family in the Zhou Dynasty gradually declined, and its control over the princes also gradually declined. The early governance model of large-scale regional countries with the feudal system, patriarchal clan system and ritual hierarchy as the core established by the founding of the Western Zhou Dynasty was gradually abandoned. By the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the phenomenon that the monarch lost his position and the doctor was in power became more and more serious, showing the scene of "the ceremony collapsed and the music was bad" and "there was no way in the world".
At that time, the two most influential vassal states in the Central Plains-Jin and Qi-were in decline. The State of Jin has long been dominated by six ministers, namely Zhao, Han, Wei, Zhi, Fan and Bank of China, and gradually divided up. Qi was gradually controlled by Tian from Chen. According to Zuo Zhuan, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Yan Ying, the prime minister of Qi, went to Qi to discuss the situation between the two countries with Dr. Jin. Uncle Xiang thinks that the state of Jin is "the government is out of the house, the people have nothing to rely on, and you don't worry about the sky to entertain your worries"; Yan Ying said: Qi "abandoned his man and returned to Chen." The two sighed and sighed, "This season (end) is also."
The political crisis in Jin and Qi eventually evolved into a political event of "three ethnic groups divided into Jin" and "Tian Dai Qi". Marked by these two events, the historical curtain of the world upheaval in the Warring States period officially opened. Generally speaking, the Warring States period is an era of all-round upheaval that integrates the triple characteristics of "war", "chaos" and "change".
With the change of national strength, weak countries gradually merged, forming a coexistence situation of big countries represented by "seven heroes" such as Korea, Zhao, Wei, Qi, Chu, Qin and Yan. With the expansion of the merger war between countries, the tragic degree of the war has been continuously strengthened. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops were used when the two sides fought. The war lasted for months or even years, and there were huge casualties on the battlefield. The tragic situation of "killing people in the city for profit" and "killing people in the wild for profit" frequently appears, which puts forward more stringent requirements for the comprehensive improvement of administrative management ability, economic absorption ability and social mobilization ability of various countries.
With the gradual disintegration of traditional authority, the warring States society showed a comprehensive disorder. Sima Qian described in Historical Records that during the Warring States Period, countries "strived to be strong (editor's note: the same as" strong ") and joined hands with the enemy". And "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" said, "Today, there are more and more people who seek to merge, cheat and fight endlessly." This chaotic state of fierce annexation of great powers, frequent wars and social unrest and disorder has brought great challenges to governance transition of various countries.
"If the rules of the world are different, the country is illegal." Under the background of "striving for strength" in the world, the old governance model is becoming increasingly ineffective, the new order has not yet been formed, and everything is changing in chaos, which brings great pressure to the governance capacity of all countries. More and more people of insight realize that new ideas of governance reform are needed to cope with the changes in the new situation. Implementing effective governance reform measures has gradually become a core task related to the life and death of all countries.
Countries are competing to carry out political reforms, and governance is gradually changing.
Governance transition, a country in the Warring States Period, was promoted by political reforms in other countries. In the early Warring States period, Wei Wenhou, the monarch of Wei State, first appointed Li Kui as prime minister and carried out political reform measures. Sima Qian wrote in Historical Records: "Wei used Li Ke to be a powerful monarch as much as possible. After the world fights for the Warring States. " This means that Li Kui's political reform kicked off the Warring States period.
Li Kui's political reform carried out "to eat and work, but to make meritorious deeds", which broke the traditional hereditary system of knighthood; Compiling legal classics in law and emphasizing "rule of law"; Economically, we should "do what we can", encourage small farmers to increase production input, and set up a "leveling law" to provide necessary protection for social production. Ban Gu said in Hanshu that the reform "made Wei rich and strong".
The reform laid the foundation for the prosperity of Wei, and also brought the chain effect of demonstration. Since then, many countries have carried out political reform activities, including Wuqi to Chu, Shen Buhai to North Korea, Zou Ji to Qi, Shang Yang to Qin, and Zhao Wuling to ride and shoot. Among them, Shang Yang's reform of Qin was the most thorough and lasting.
Originally named Wei Yang, Shang Yang was renamed Gong Sun, also known as Gong Sun Yang. Because of his meritorious service in the Qin Reform, he was later named Shang Yang after being named "fifteen cities of Shang Dynasty". Historically, Gong Sunyang's "learning less about criminal names" was greatly influenced by Li Kui and Wu Qi, and later he served as the retainer of Wei Xianggong Sun CuO. However, Shang can't be put to good use unless it is reused in Wei. He heard that Qin Xiaogong announced the order of seeking the virtuous, so he took Li Kui's Fa Jing to the State of Qin, and was appreciated by Qin Xiaogong. In 356 BC, Qin Xiaogong started political reform with Shang Yang as his eldest brother.
Before and after Shang Yang's political reform, there were two reforms: the first reform strengthened residents' control, rewarded farming and weaving, weakened aristocratic privileges, enhanced comprehensive national strength and strengthened centralization. In the second political reform, the government adopted the policy of "clearing land for farmland, leveling taxes" and "forbidding citizens, fathers, sons and brothers to rest indoors", fully implemented the state land grant system, and strengthened the state's control over small farmers' production; Measures such as "gathering small (metropolitan) townships and cities as counties, ordering, honesty, and thirty-one counties" and "leveling with buckets" have been taken to promote the county system and strengthen the effective control of the central government over the localities; At the same time, the capital was moved to Xianyang, which made clear the strategic orientation of Qin's eastward advancement.
With the goal of "enriching the people", Shang Yang's political reform further strengthened and consolidated the degree of centralization in economic and political systems, promoted the improvement of Qin's comprehensive national strength, and became the longest-lasting, widest-ranging, most effective and influential political reform in all countries.
Generally speaking, the political reforms and measures taken by countries during the Warring States period were different, but the goals were the same. Under the severe situation of merger war and "ploughing war" pressure, the newly-born regional countries aim at improving the national governance ability, and strengthen the administrative execution, resource absorption and social mobilization of state power as the core means, thus driving the national governance transition.
Centralized government forms small-scale peasant economy.
The formation of centralized state power with national capacity as the core and the establishment of agricultural production mode with individual small-scale peasant economy as the cornerstone are two key variables to understand the world changes in the Warring States period. The former determines the trend of the state power structure, while the latter lays the foundation of the basic mode of production in society. The governance reform triggered by these two basic fields not only provided the institutional basis, technical reserve and ideological preparation for the formation of the governance model in Qin and Han Dynasties, but also was the key to the "deep reform" and "structural reconstruction" of China ancient society.
First of all, in terms of political reform, the "county system" has solved the problem of vertical regional management of cross-regional countries and strengthened the direct control ability of central power of various countries to local governments; Replacing Shi Qingshilu with professional bureaucrats has promoted the mobility of social strata and promoted administrative management techniques such as salary system, "accounting system" and term assessment system. The production management and resident management system with land grant system, "village system" and "household system" as the main contents has established the direct relationship between the state and residents, and effectively realized the integration of production management, resident management and grass-roots governance. As a result, the implementation of the meritorious service system reshapes the political identity of residents, making "those who make meritorious service shine, those who fail to do anything lose", reshapes the political relationship between residents and the state, and successfully penetrates the tentacles of state power into the grassroots society.
Secondly, in terms of economic reform, Li Kui's measures of "doing according to one's ability" and Shang Yang's measures of "abandoning mines and opening museums" are the most representative, focusing on the effective control and comprehensive allocation of social resources such as land (fields) and labor (people) by state power; Adopt the method of national land grant system, distribute the land to individual farmers' families at the average scale of 100 mu per household, and collect the surplus output from farmers according to the land grant standard. In order to ensure the implementation of land grant standards and tax collection tasks, countries have further strengthened household registration management. "Guanzi" records: "The number of cases is fixed. This is not something that users can avoid. If there is occlusion, the author can't suffer from it, which can save the author half of the work. " The Book of Shang Jun emphasizes that "within four borders, couples are famous in the world, the names of the living and the names of the dead". All these emphasize the direct control and management of small farmers by the state.
Specifically, with the land-grant system as the link, the individual peasant families originally submerged in the village community established direct contact with the state, further strengthened the organic combination of land and individual peasant families, and formed what Mencius called a "500-acre home", which directly gave birth to and consolidated the small-scale peasant economic production mode with individual farmers as the main body in ancient China, and also led to the "path dependence" of the state on the small-scale peasant economy and the "system dependence" of the small-scale peasants on the state politically. This symbiotic interaction between the state and the small farmers has both the "obedience-control" relationship at the institutional level and the "agency-dependence" relationship at the management level, which has had a far-reaching impact on shaping the traditional relationship between China society and state power.
In the long river of human history, the social upheaval in the Warring States period was just a flick of a finger. However, judging from the overall pattern of the evolution of ancient civilization in China, the change of the world in the Warring States and governance transition means that the early civilizations of the three generations, represented by Xia, Shang and Zhou, have now entered the late stage of disintegration. On the other hand, the imperial governance pattern based on the governance of large regional countries in the Qin and Han Dynasties, tempered by the social transformation of the Warring States, is in a state of gradual germination. The history of the Warring States period, more than 250 years, connects the two thousand years before and after, integrates past lives, casts future generations, and becomes the hub of China ancient society ~