Autumn and Winter Check-in Challenge Prime Minister Wang Juan said to the First Emperor: "The princes have just been eliminated, and the Yan Kingdom, the Qi Kingdom, and the Chu Kingdom are remote, and it will be difficult to deter them if the princes and kings are not set up there." I ask that you princes be appointed as princes, and I hope that the emperor will agree. "The First Emperor discussed this matter with the ministers, and the ministers thought it was very good. Tingwei Li Si said: "King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou divided their sons and princes with the same surname, but later their relationship was estranged and attacked each other, just like enemies, the princes attacked each other, and Zhou Tianzi had no way to prohibit them. For example, if the unification is achieved by relying on the gods of His Majesty, the whole country has set up counties, and the sons and meritorious heroes reward them with public taxes, so that it is easy to control. There are no two hearts in the world, this is the way to stabilize the world. It is inappropriate to set up princes. The First Emperor said, "The world is in trouble, and there are no more wars, because of the existence of princes and kings." Now relying on the blessing of the ancestors, the world has just been calmed, and if the princes are divided again, it will be a war!Isn't it very difficult to make the world peaceful?Captain Tingwei is right!”
So he divided the world into thirty-six counties, and each county had a warden, a lieutenant, and a prison. Change the name of the common people to "Qianshou". and rewarded the people with drink. The weapons of the world were confiscated, all gathered in Xianyang, destroyed and melted them, and cast them into musical instruments such as bells, and also cast twelve bronze figures, each weighing a thousand stones, and placed them in the court. Harmonization of the legal system and standards for measuring length, weight, and capacity. The size of the road for vehicles should also be uniform. In addition, the text is also unified. The 120,000 wealthy families in the world were relocated to Xianyang. The Ancestral Temple, Zhangtai Palace, and Shanglin Yuan are all on the south bank of Weishui. Every time Qin destroyed a prince, it imitated the country's palace, replicating it on the slope of the hill north of Xianyang, facing Weishui in the south, and from Yongmen to the east to the place where Jingshui and Weishui meet, the surrounding palaces and corridors were connected to each other. The beauties and musical instruments received from the princes of various countries were placed in the palace chambers.
A few years later, Chun Yuyue advised Qin Shi Huang to divide the princes and kings, but Qin Shi Huang remained silent and finally agreed to Li Si's proposal to burn books. Just like Li Si saw, what Qin Shi Huang cared about most was not feudalism, but the situation of "princes working together" and "Mo Zhineng one" like before could not appear again, so Qin Shi Huang never canonized several princes and kings from the time he was called emperor to his death.
These reform measures had a significant impact on China's later feudal dynasties. In particular, the political management system of the county system has had a more far-reaching impact and has been used in China for a long time. So why did Qin Shi Huang at that time abolish the system of feudal princes that had lasted for thousands of years and replace it with a county system?The following is analyzed and explained from four aspects:
1. The feudal vassal system is a state management model that is compatible with the slave social system.
In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, with the slave uprising, a large number of slaves fled, the slave system went into decline, the emerging landlord class sprung up, when Qin Shi Huang unified the country, the feudal lord economic system based on private ownership of land has been fully established, slavery went to extinction, Qin Shi Huang chose the county system ** centralized state management model to conform to the trend of social development, so that the political ambitions of the emerging landlord class have been fully exerted and displayed.
Second, the sub-sealing system has its inherent defects.
Since the feudal system is based on blood kinship, that is, the patriarchal system, only when the leader is strong, no one is obedient, and when you are weak, no one takes you seriously, so why bother to say that the blood relationship is far away. After Qin Shi Huang unified China, he saw the congenital defect of the feudal system, so he firmly vetoed the suggestion that many courtiers and counties should be parallel, and completely abandoned the feudal system.
Third, the state management system of the county system has a basis for successful practice.
The county system was not an invention of Qin Shi Huang, he only perfected and reformed this management system. Through the practice of a period of history, it has been proved that the county system is obviously better than the feudal system for strengthening the centralization of power and strengthening national management.
Fourth, the results of the great discussion.
In fact, after Qin Shi Huang unified the whole country, his territory expanded, and there was also a great discussion on what kind of local administrative system to establish, and the focus was on whether the counties were under the control of the counties or the feudal princes. However, Li Si, the court commander, strongly rejected public opinion and advocated the complete abolition of the feudal vassal system and the full implementation of the county management system. Obviously, Li Si's proposition is the most in line with the requirements of imperial power and unity. Therefore, it was adopted by Qin Shi Huang, and the county system of state management was thoroughly implemented throughout the country.
In the thirty-fourth year of Qin Shi Huang, Dr. Chun Yuyue and others admonished: Now His Majesty is the emperor, and his son is the puppet, once there is a conspiracy to usurp power, who will defend the royal family?Chun Yu Yue Yishi stirred up a thousand waves, and a large-scale court discussion was launched again in Xianyang Palace.
At this time, Wang Juan has been dismissed, and Li Si, the new prime minister of the empire, further pointed out that these people are typical "teachers from the past and not the present", for the majesty of His Majesty, in order not to be deceived by the formation of a party, His Majesty should order to burn the poetry books and hundreds of works of the sons except for the Doctor's Hall, and severely punish those who talk about poetry and books. Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng once again agreed.
This is the cause of the famous "book burning and Confucianism" incident. And this incident that led to Qin Shi Huang being nailed to the pillar of historical shame was also caused by the dispute over the division of feuds and counties. In this incident, in addition to the county system, Li Si's proposition also carried a lot of private goods, and even suspected of suppressing political opponents;This is the struggle, where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and there is a scheme called Yangmou, which suppresses you for legitimate reasons and leaves you with nothing to say. And what Chun Yuyue said was quickly fulfilled after the death of Qin Shi Huang. It can be seen that Li Si and others, who advocated the county system at that time, may not be correct;And Wang Juan and Chun Yuyue, who advocated the feudal system, were not necessarily stubborn, and they were not necessarily disloyal to the empire. Judging from the above, the focus of the dispute between the two sides is that it is not an absolute national feud, but only a feud in remote areas, as well as the arch guard of the royal family. The former guaranteed the Empire's control over remote places;The latter ensured the inheritance of imperial power and long-term stability. And judging from the later dynasties, before there was absolute local control, it seems that no one was as extreme as Qin Shi Huang did. They either chose to coexist with the county system, with the county system adopted in the interior and the remote areas, such as Liu Bang in the Western Han Dynasty, Sima Yan in the Western Jin Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty
In terms of transportation, even if the Chi Road was opened, in the face of an unprecedented huge territory, Qin Shi Huang was not sure whether the Xianyang Imperial Court could control remote places. This can be seen from Qin Shi Huang's many parades and stone carvings: if the place is very stable, will I run around every day when I am full?
So, with such a choice, was there no other solution at that time, and Qin Shi Huang could only choose one of the two?If this is the case, it is indeed not surprising that Qin Shi Huang would choose the county system because of the lessons of the Zhou Dynasty.
But in fact, no. As early as the Warring States period, various countries invented a new feudal system - feudal monarchy.
We can basically determine the characteristics of feudal monarchy: serving in the local or ** office, having the right to collect rent and taxes, managing the people, and having no military power. Obey the laws and regulations of the state, and although there is hereditary power, the state appoints them.
In other words, this kind of feudal monarchy can control remote areas and defend the royal family, and there is not much danger of "tree soldiers", and it can be well compatible with the county system.
For Qin Shi Huang, the perfect combination of Central Plains counties + remote feudal monarchs is not too advantageous compared to the single county system. So, Qin Shi Huang also insisted on refusing to divide the feuds and adopting a single county system?
In that era when the family was important, Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng did not trust his brothers and sons at all. It seems that it is not for nothing that all kinds of rumors about Qin Shi Huang's "mean and unkind" and "unkind" have been circulated. So, why was Qin Shi Huang so ruthless?
Looking at his early experience, some clues may be found.
In the eighth year of the reign of King Qin, his younger brother Chang'an Jun Chengjiao rebelled against Qin and returned to Zhao;In the same year, her biological mother, Zhao Ji, supported Chang Yu to launch a rebellion;A few years later, Fa Xiaoyan Dan sent assassins to assassinate Yingzheng;In the twenty-third year of the reign of King Qin, Xiong Qi, a very trusting relative of Changpingjun, rebelled against Qin and became self-reliant. In the era of Qin Shi Huang after Changping Jun, there were almost no clans surnamed Ying, princes, and even relatives and nobles who appeared in the court of the Great Qin Empire.
Happy people spend their childhood ** for a lifetime, and unfortunate people use ** for a lifetime ** childhood. The position is high and widowed, which is also one of the reasons for being called a widow. The higher the status, the more lonely it is, not to mention a confidant. This is also a kind of sadness in life.
Although there are countless twists and turns in each of them, the direct impact of frequent betrayals on Ying Zheng is that it is difficult for him to give enough trust to the clans, concubines and princes around him from now on. Perhaps this is the internal reason why he insisted on refusing to divide the princes from the beginning;And the re-exhortation of Wang Juan, Chun Yuyue and others has already angered the rebels, and Li Si can successfully use his strength to defeat political opponents, burn books and destroy Confucianism, and monopolize power.
In other words, Qin Shi Huang's insistence on refusing to divide the princes was largely not because of the county system and the feudal system itself, but because Ying Zheng, who had betrayed too much, wanted to create an imperial power structure that was absolutely safe and no one could threaten him.