Now speaking of the organization of the Han Dynasty.
At that time, there were the so-called Sangong and Jiuqing, which was the most of the **.
The prime minister, the imperial captain, is called the three dukes, and the prime minister is in charge of administration and is the head of civil officials; The lieutenant is in charge of the military and is the head of the military attaché; The Imperial Historian is in charge of supervision, and assists the Prime Minister in supervising all political facilities. It is the deputy prime minister.
Excerpted from the first lecture of Qian Mu's "Political Gains and Losses in China's Past Dynasties" "Han Dynasty and Han Dynasty ** Organization".
Regarding the Three Princes, Chinese people actually have a lot of confused understanding.
Mr. Qian Mu said, "Prime Minister Taiwei Yushi Dafu is called the Three Dukes", which refers to the Han Dynasty, and before that, there were many ways to say the Three Dukes.
First of all, for the word gong, it should refer to the first three generations. The previous generation is the father, the second generation is the ancestor, and the third generation is the father. There is even a title, the previous generation is the biggest, the last two generations are the father, and the last three generations are the Tai, so the last three generations can also be called the Taigong.
The life span of the ancients was generally short, and it was rare to see the last three generations, once they became Tai or Gong or Tai Gong, most of them were already ancients, so Tai Gong also refers to the ancestors. Later, whether it is Tai or Gong or Tai Gong, it can be identified as an ancestor.
In the feudal era, the semantics of the duke were further expanded, and it became the highest rank of the fifth rank of the feudal era, that is, the duke.
According to modern research, the word gong is not used as a title in the oracle bone inscription, that is to say, the duke, as a title of the lord, should be a matter after feudalism, or even a matter of the Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, it is concluded that the fifth-class lord was formed in the Zhou Dynasty, and the previous Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty may have titles, but they are not fifth-class.
I myself have a logical reasoning about the distinction of the fifth rank.
In the Yanhuang era, a tribal federation was formed in the world, and the power structure of this federation (identified as the power structure) was mainly three levels, the highest level, which was the co-master. Under the co-lord, there are four uncles according to the direction. Below the four uncles were the chiefs of other tribes.
The two levels of co-lord (i.e., king) and the four uncles are very clear. As for whether the tribal chiefs were graded or not, we do not know. It is more likely that there is no division, and everyone sits on an equal footing, which is conducive to the unity within the tribal federation.
There were too many levels of internal division, and the chiefs were gone.
It's like the United Nations today. The purpose of the United Nations is that all countries are equal, and superpowers such as the United States, China, and Russia (with large land and population) and small countries such as the Vatican, Monaco, Nauru, Liechtenstein, and Malta have complete equality in national status.
In fact, within the United Nations, there are five permanent members, which are actually the highest level, the second class is the 10 non-permanent members, and then the other member states.
This structure is highly similar to that of the Yanhuang period in China.
The establishment of the power hierarchy is to maintain the balance of power, but the hierarchy itself has lost its fairness and is unbalanced.
This is a contradiction.
The solution to this contradiction is to remove the balance? One is that it cannot be eliminated at all, and the other is that if it is really eliminated, there will be an even greater imbalance. Therefore, the approach taken is to separate more levels, which also creates a greater imbalance.
It can be imagined that in the Yanhuang era, the co-owners were dissatisfied with themselves as just an empty shelf of power and wanted to take power upward. Similarly, Sibo is also an empty shelf of power, and the real power is in the hands of the chiefs, and they also want to collect power upward.
But this power is not something that can be taken away, it requires political compromise.
The way to political compromise is to decentralize power. Among the chiefs of these tribes, the large tribes are equally dissatisfied with the equal power of themselves and the small tribes. So, there is another level, so there are children.
And the subordinate sub-level, in fact, has a certain amount of damage to Bo. In order to meet the needs of Count to further expand his power control, he rose one level and became a marquis.
After having a marquis, if there are fewer marquises, the number of counts can naturally increase. In the past, there were only four counts, but now many people have been promoted to earls, and they are all happy.
Even so, it was still not completely straightened out, and some of the marquis rose one more level, the duke. And under the viscount, it is subdivided into one level, the baron. The Fifth Rank was formed.
During the Yan and Huang periods, Sibo had nominal management rights over other tribes in the region, but in fact this management power was very limited, and it was only a right to contact and negotiate. When the fifth-rank lord system was formed, this control was completely lost among the lords, and the nominal control was concentrated in the hands of the king. The so-called fifth-class lords are just status, and the lords are completely independent from each other.
Among the fifth-class lords, the one with the most real power is the second-class lord, that is, the marquis. The Marquis is the main component of the First Class, or the Upper First Class of the Second Class. In comparison, the duke is both small and empty. Generally, dukes are given only two kinds of people, one is the princes of the previous dynasty, and the other is the brother of the founding head.
According to the available information, there were only eight dukedoms in the Zhou Dynasty, namely the Kingdom of Ji and the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Jiao Guo, a descendant of Emperor Yan. Zhu Guo, a descendant of Emperor Yao. Chen Guo, a descendant of Emperor Shun. Qi Guo, a descendant of Xia Yu. Song Guo, a descendant of Shang Tang.
The other two ducal states were Yu and Yu.
The first feudal monarch of Yu is the younger brother of King Cheng, and there is a legend of Tongye sealing his younger brother in history. It means that King Cheng's younger brother is not qualified to be a duke, but because King Cheng was young, he once joked to his younger brother, and the Duke of Later Zhou was sealed in order to show that the king was full of promises.
In fact, there are two countries in the beginning of the kingdom of Yu, the two younger brothers of King Wen, Yu Zhong and Uncle Yu, one is Dongyu and the other is Xiyu.
In the history books, it has always been determined that Yu Zhong and Uncle Yu are their names, and they take Yu as their clan, so the two vassal states are called Yu Kingdom, and in order to distinguish them, people call them Dongyu and Xiyu.
In my opinion, Uncle Zhonghe is not a name, but a serial number between brothers. Uncle Bo Zhong Ji, the ancients did not have a name, only the order of the father and himself. The eldest is the uncle, the second is the middle, and some historical sources say that the third is the uncle, and the fourth is the season. However, in later sports competitions, the third place was the third place, and it seemed that the serial number was three.
Liu Bang's original name was Liu Ji, which means Liu Laosan.
King Wen's two younger brothers, called Zhong and Shu respectively, seem to indicate that they do not have names. The children only have a serial number and no name, which only indicates that their father is not a prince. Therefore, it is probably wrong to say that King Wen is Xibohou.
The surname (name) later evolved into the surname Guo, and Guo Guo and the country have the same sound, and later called the princes' fiefs the country, which is very likely to be Yu, but in order to distinguish it from Yu, it was written as a country.
These eight dukes, although the title is high, but the land area is the same as that of the marquis. Therefore, the duke is actually a false lord.
In the feudal era, this was very particular about this, and it could not be called indiscriminately. For the title of feudal king, it is usually added to the end of his clan. For example, the feudal monarchs of the Song Dynasty are called Song Dukes, and the princes of Yu or Yu can be called Yu Gong or Yu Gong. And some princes, just marquis, can only be called a certain marquis, for example, the state of Lu is a marquis, and its feudal lord is called the marquis of Lu. Zheng Guo was the earl, and his feudal lord was called Zheng Bo. And the state of Chu is the viscount, and the feudal lord is called the son of Chu. Xu Guo is a baron, and the feudal monarch should be called Xu Nan.
But the relevant historical materials have been confused since when, and the princes are all called indiscriminately, but they are rarely called uncles and sons, and it is almost difficult to see men called men. If you read the "Historical Records", this title is very confusing. For example, in the state of Qin, I think that Zhou Tianzi has never made Qin a prince, and the so-called first seal when King Ping moved eastward is probably a historical fact forged by Qin after he unified the world.
Because the duke is actually a void, he loses the sense of honor of his title. In order to make up for it, the Son of Heaven set up three dukes in the royal court and raised his status to a very high level. And these three dukes are not dukes, and they can't even inherit like ordinary dukes, and their function is to help the Son of Heaven deal with the affairs of the princes.
The so-called affairs of the public family, internally, are the affairs of the Son of Heaven's family, and externally, they are the affairs of the princes.
In this way, the gong has a semantic, that is, the affairs of the clan, which later further evolved into the meaning of public power today.
After all, in order to show the lofty status of the three dukes, in addition to the three dukes, they also gave additional benefits, that is, sealing their sons. For example, the Duke of Zhou, who was the head of the three dukes, lost the right to be a feudal monarch, and in order to make up for it, he named his son Yu Lu, the marquis.
Let's expand on it a little more, Zhou Gong, I don't believe in historical evaluation, he has sealed many of his sons, which is unique in history.
The feudal system was developed according to the patriarchal system. A very important sign of patriarchy is the establishment of suzerainty, not or not just the feudal statehood that we call today.
The right to establish a clan can also be understood as the right to establish a clan, and the vast majority of the surnames we understand today are clans, that is, the clans established by the princes. There are two types of sectarian powers, one is large and the other is small. The so-called great sect refers to the king's descendants, whose clan can be passed down from generation to generation. The so-called small sect refers to the son-in-law of the king, and the clan established can only be passed down for three generations. Three generations later, there is no clan.
Lu Hou is not a prince and belongs to Enfeng. And Duke Zhou also has seven sons who are entitled, and it is Duke Zhou who is arrogant.
According to current historical sources, the three dukes of the Zhou Dynasty were Sima, Situ and Sikong. The credibility of this statement is not high, and it is more likely that the fifth division is an official position, and the third public is an honorary status.
In other words, the Three Princes can be either any of the three divisions of the Five Divisions, or other high-status honorable persons.
Another statement, the three princes are Taishi, Taifu, and Taibao, which is also not very credible.
These three positions are all princes, but the responsibilities they have by the prince's side are different. Taishi, who should be the head of the Prince's Mansion, is mainly the principal of the Prince's School. Taifu is the prefect of many of the prince's teachers, that is, the dean. Taibao is the chief of the prince's security section.
It is unknown whether these three people were directly promoted to the third duke after the crown prince ascended the throne, or because it was easier to be appointed as the third duke, they were mistakenly identified as the third duke.
The three dukes set up in the Han Dynasty were, as Mr. Qian Mu said, the prime minister, the imperial lieutenant and the imperial historian.
This setting is also related to the opening of the Shang Dynasty.
Shang Ying opened the mansion and served as the prime minister, and the military power was not in the hands of Shang Ying, but in the hands of the Tai Lieutenant. The Imperial History was the earliest liaison between the Prime Minister and the Emperor (Wang). Subordinate to the king, not to the prime minister.
In other words, when Shang Ying opened the government, the earliest separation of administrative power, military power and imperial power was formed.