Guan Zhong, the founder of the Spring and Autumn Civilization
After nearly half a century of settling in the new capital, the Zhou royal family, which was forced to move eastward under the threat of the dog Rong, was born in about 723 BC, a distant relative of the Zhou royal family, Guan Zhuang, a doctor of the Qi state, who was a very knowledgeable super genius. Guan Zhong and his friend Bao Shuya worked as a businessman together, which not only allowed him to be well-informed, but also established a deep friendship with Bao Shuya, and regarded each other as confidants.
Gongzi Jiao, who was assisted by Guan Zhong, failed in the competition for the throne of Qi with Gongzi Xiaobai, who was assisted by Bao Shuya, and Gongzi Xiaobai became the Duke of Qi Huan, and Gongzi Jiao was killed by Duke Qi Huan, and Guan Zhong was naturally one of the people that Duke Qi Huan planned to kill. Fortunately, Uncle Bao's strong persuasion (Uncle Bao said that Guan Zhong is a genius in the world, and he wants Duke Huan to think about the strength and prosperity of Qi State, forget old grievances, and reuse Guan Zhong), Guan Zhong was not only not killed, but also reused, replacing Uncle Bao to assist Qi Huangong. This is somewhat similar to the later situation of Li Shimin's reuse of Wei Zheng, which also shows that Duke Qi Huan was a very intelligent monarch. With a super genius like Guan Zhong who has insight into human nature, it is natural to do a far-reaching career.
In the political aspect, Guan Zhong established a set of strict methods for evaluating, appointing, and promoting officials at all levels. For example, in the appointment and management of officials, it is necessary to "receive rewards for their work," "receive rewards for their merits," and "reward them for their merits," and punish them for their crimes.
Guan Zhong replanned and rectified the administrative management of the Qi State: "Three countries and one contempt." This policy divided the people into four groups: sergeants, peasants, craftsmen, and merchants, and lived in fixed areas according to their respective specialties.
The so-called "three countries" is to divide the capital of Qi and its suburbs into three types of regions, the area of providing soldiers, the area of handicraft production, and the distribution of the business population. Of the total 21 townships (2,000 households per township according to the Chinese and Qi languages), 3 are artisans (about 6,000 households) and 3 are merchants (about 6,000 households). The largest number of people near the national capital is naturally the soldier families who occupy 15 townships, a township has ten companies, a company has four miles, a mile has ten tracks, a track has five, each family can provide a soldier, a township of 2,000 families can provide 2,000 soldiers, five townships is 10,000 soldiers, plus full-time officers and others, about 11,000 people are an army, led by the marshal of Wuxiang. There are more than 30,000 soldiers in 15 townships, divided into left, middle and right armies, with Qi Jun leading the central army and the two Shangqing each leading the five townships as the left and right armies.
Families of soldiers live in solidarity with each other, fight at night, and can distinguish friend from foe when they hear sounds; Fighting during the day, as long as you see your face, everyone can recognize it. For example, the five families in the most basic track have lived together for generations, relying on each other for good and evil, and can "strengthen the code and strengthen the war". Such a pro-soldier army was very effective in combat and gradually became the model of army organization in various vassal states.
In the vast wilderness (vast area outside the national capital) of the Qi State, there were 30 peasant households in one city, and each city had a priest. Ten Yi is a pawn, and each pawn has a division. Ten soldiers are one township (about 3,000 peasant households), and each township has a township division. The three townships are one county (about 9,000 peasant households), and each county has a county division. The ten counties are one genus, with a total of 5 genera (about 450,000 rural households). Each genus has a doctor, and there are five doctors in total. At the beginning of each year, the doctors of the five genera report the situation in the genus to Qi Huan Gong and supervise their merits. As a result, the whole country was formed as a unified whole. This is Wu Qida.
In 21 townships near the capital of Qi, there are 42,000 professional families, as well as several powerful families. Each family is divided into 4 people, including powerful families, according to 4Calculated by 50,000 families, there are about 180,000 people in and around the capital of Qi. This is naturally not the main part of the population of Qi State, and about 1.8 million people of 450,000 peasant households in the wilderness land are the main body of the population of Qi State. Coupled with the tens of thousands of magnates in the wilderness, there should be 2 million people in the Qi country, and if this is really the case, the population of China in the Spring and Autumn Period should be very spectacular, and it will be more than 10 million.
The average agricultural grain production in Qi is about 9 taxes, and farmers consume nearly 90 percent of the grain they produce, and one-ninth of the surplus grain can be handed over, and it is normal for 1.8 million rural people to support 180,000 people in the country. Therefore, it can be inferred that the more than 30,000 soldiers and nearly 100,000 family members in the national capital are not engaged in agriculture, and these soldiers are full-time soldiers. These circumstances also show that the degree of self-arming of each vassal state in the Spring and Autumn Period was low, and it was not that all the people were soldiers during the Warring States Period, and after that, the degree of competition for survival gradually increased by nearly ten times.
From these measures to rectify the planning of administrative regions, it can be seen that within the vassal states, the traditional system of sub-feudal should have basically disappeared, but has become an administrative regional planning system with obvious subordinate relationships between superiors and subordinates. As well as the ** assessment and promotion measures introduced above, it seems that it has nothing to do with the sub-feudal system according to blood relationship. The situation of other vassal states is not very clear, but in Qi State, after the reform of Guan Zhong, there is basically no place for the feudal system, and it is basically a centralized administrative relationship.
This kind of specialized division of labor among academics, agriculture, industry, and commerce in their respective industries allows them to specialize, which is conducive to raising the standards of various industries or to the development of industries, especially the development of handicraft industries. At that time, some handicrafts belonged to the high-tech industries of the time, and the people of the time were brought together, which was naturally conducive to the exchange of experience and the promotion of technological progress.
Guan Zhong believes that this kind of people's division of four industries has four advantages: first, "talk to things, show each other by skill", people in the same industry live together, easy to exchange experience, improve skills; The second is to "talk to each other for profit, show each other for time" and "show each other to know the price", which has a great effect on promoting the production and circulation of commodities; The third is to create a professional atmosphere, so that the people are content with their own business, so as not to "see foreign objects and move", through the active isolation of this residential area, can reduce the degree of mutual jealousy or envy of all classes, is conducive to people are content with the status quo; Fourth, it is necessary to create a good social and educational environment invisibly, so that children can be exposed to it from an early age and naturally master professional skills under the influence of their parents and brothers.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty and the early Spring and Autumn Period, the degree of armed forces in the Chinese region was not high, and in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the strength of the entire Chinese region could resist the harassment of the surrounding areas, and the threat from the surrounding areas was not a big problem. At the beginning of the Western Weekend period, the authority of the Zhou royal family declined, and it was difficult to lead the various vassal states, and the Huaxia region gradually became actually in a state of large and small vassal states, and it was difficult for the Huaxia region to resist the harassment of the surrounding barbarian forces with its overall strength, that is, the power was dispersed, and the barbarian regional forces became stronger, becoming a major threat to the Huaxia region.
Guan Zhong, who made the Qi State rich and strong, made the best strategy that was most beneficial to the Chinese ethnic groups, guiding the Duke of Qi Huan to use the strong national strength of the Qi State to safeguard the interests of the Chinese ethnic groups and help the surrounding vassal states resist foreign aggression. The establishment of the politically correct banner of "Zhengyi", which is beneficial to the Chinese ethnic group, guided other Spring and Autumn hegemons in the future. It filled the vacancy of foreign power in the early Spring and Autumn period in China, which was a masterpiece of Guan Zhong, so it was called "the protector of Chinese civilization" by later generations.
Guan Zhong, who is a descendant of the Zhou royal family, also encouraged Qi Huan Gong to pull up the politically correct banner of "respecting the king", which is combined with "respecting the king", and "respecting the king" is "respecting the king", and I don't know how the effect of "respecting the king" is? However, the effect of "Yiyi" had a great impact, defeating the Beirong who invaded Yan and stopping the invasion of the Di people. Confucius praised Guan Zhong and said: "Guan Zhong assisted Duke Qi Huan to be the overlord of the princes and the world." If there is no Guan Zhong, we will all wear our hair loose, open our clothes, and become common people under the rule of barbarians." There is no doubt that Guan Zhong is a great national hero who resists foreign enemies and defends the interests of the Chinese nation.
The most influential reform of Guan Zhong is the change of the traditional "well field system", which is also the embodiment of Guan Zhong's most profound wisdom and the most creative institutional innovation, which is the most important change in China's cultivated land system, which is the basis of the cultivated land system of the great outbreak of oriental civilization. This is Guan Zhong's "equalizing the land and sharing the goods with the people", converting the land of the public land and distributing it to the peasants, and implementing the self-employment of one household at a time; The laborer and the landowner receive a certain percentage of the land income, and the labor rent is changed to the rent in kind on a share-sharing basis. This was accompanied by a tax reform that levied taxes of varying amounts according to the fertility of the soil. At that time, the Qi State ** collected taxes every two years, three-tenths of the harvest in the bumper year, two-tenths of the middle year, one-tenth of the inferior year, and no harvest in the famine year, and then collected after the famine was alleviated. It is estimated that the average agricultural tax burden in Qi is about one-ninth.
"Dividing the land and implementing separate household management can make the people consciously grasp the agricultural time." They will know the morning and evening of the season, the urgency of time, and the threat of hunger and cold. They will consciously wake up early and go to bed late, and the whole family cares about labor and works tirelessly. If we do not implement the distribution of land and profits, we will not be able to make full use of the geographical advantages, and we will not be able to give full play to the talents. If the agricultural season is not informed, the people will not grasp it; If agriculture is not taught, the people will not be active. With such a deep understanding, even a considerable number of modern people can hardly have such an understanding. In the era of the "well field system", people were managed to work, and after the implementation of the household contract responsibility system similar to the current one, the peasants consciously worked, not only the management burden of the first class decreased, but more importantly, the peasants' labor enthusiasm was greatly improved, and the agricultural production efficiency was much better.
Since then, the land of China has opened a wave of reform from east to west, and after more than 300 years, it finally affected the farthest Qin State, contributing to the rise of the Qin State. Historian Lu Simian said, "During the Spring and Autumn Period, the eastern part of the North China Plain was the most economically and culturally developed". Lu Simian didn't say. In fact, it was the birth of the super genius Guan Zhong that prompted the land of Qilu to take the lead in land reform and began to lead Chinese civilization. This is an example of the difference in the degree of regional development brought about by accidental factors (for example, the emergence of Guan Zhong, a genius, is accidental, and his move towards the core of Qi leadership is also accidental).
The use of public wealth is often "exhausted", which is due to the failure to effectively exercise the identity of the person in charge of public property rights. As a result, there is a law that logging and hunting in public areas are allowed only to take place in the appropriate season, thus reflecting the proper status of the person in charge of the property rights of public wealth. This is the earliest natural environment preservation**. This also reflects Guan Zhong's deep understanding of public property rights.
Guan Zhong, who has a deep understanding of the principles of economics, has innovated in taxation. For example, Duke Qi Huan discussed with Guan Zhong the strategy of increasing financial resources, Princess Qi Huan Zhang levied taxes on houses, trees, livestock, etc., Guan Zhong denied them one by one, in his opinion, directly collecting property from the people will naturally lead to national dissatisfaction. The best way is to "take what is invisible, so that people do not get angry", and put forward the method of "tax at price". pointed out that "only the official mountains and seas are allowed." That is, to monopolize the sale of salt and iron, thus prompting it to soar and obtain excess profits, which is equivalent to taxation. That is, the taxation is invisibly levied and the dissatisfaction of the people with the taxation is reduced. With his own understanding of economics, Guan Zhong's innovation is very beneficial to the country. At that time, Qi was only one of the vassal states, and compared with other vassal states, it had the advantage of salt and iron production, and could earn more export income from salt and iron through monopoly sales. Of course, taxation can also fool one's own citizens by imposing taxes.
Since then, some regimes seem to understand whether they understand it or not, and they have concocted a monopoly of salt and iron. Qi State can obtain rich export income by monopolizing the sale of salt and iron, and your great unification dynasty also monopolizes salt and iron, so why bother? What is even more exaggerated is that some people who are more than gourds not only monopolize the sale of salt and iron, but also carry out the nationalization of salt and iron production, resulting in a substantial decline in the production efficiency of salt and iron, and the maintenance of production costs at a relatively high level, so that it is difficult for the state to obtain more profits from monopolizing the sale of salt and iron, and the tax role of monopoly sales of salt and iron has been greatly reduced. This kind of Dong Shi Xiao Feng is indeed sad, there are many examples of such Dong Shi Xiao Feng, this is the tragedy that later generations did not correctly understand the connotation of Guan Zhong's monopoly on salt and iron sales, this is not Guan Zhong's fault. Guan Zhong did this: open the salt pond and let the people produce it themselves, and it was purchased and purchased by the people, and at the beginning, the salt sold by Qi to other vassal states could be dozens of times the cost price, and the profits were very rich. The mines are state-owned and private, and the iron-smelting workshop industry is opened, which is operated by the private sector independently, and only the iron produced is purchased and sold, so as to obtain monopoly sales profits for ironware.
Guan Zhong has a deep understanding of the connotation of the market economy, and has carried out a series of strategies to reduce the cost of market operation and the cost of international development. For example, in the international field, relying on the hegemony of Qi State, the mediation of the reduction of tariffs of various vassal states has brought it to a low level of 1%, which has greatly improved the international environment.
Seventy-five years after Guan Zhong's death, "Lao Tzu" was born, and another 20 years later, Confucius was born. Living before the two founders of Chinese culture, it was almost a barbaric era of culture, but Guan Zhong had such a profound understanding, which is indeed amazing. Guan Zhong had a great influence on Confucius, and was also the founder of Legalism, which had a great influence on the hundred schools of thought after that, and was an unprecedented ancient economist, whose level of understanding of economic theory was comparable to that of modern economists. Therefore, it is not too much to say that Guan Zhong was the founder of the Spring and Autumn civilization.
The increase in peasants' enthusiasm for labor will lead to an increase in grain yield, an increase in population density, and a further increase in the efficiency of social operations and the improvement of people's living standards. The improvement of living standards and the increase in population density have promoted the increase in the speed of social development, and the development of Chinese civilization has gradually accelerated, and it is about to enter the era of great explosion.
Portrait of Guan Zhong, the great market economist, opened the first driving force of the reform of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which was particularly advanced. The results of the reform stimulated the various vassal states, and finally led to earth-shaking changes in the land of China. In the end, land gradually moved from state ownership to private ownership, and the result was a great increase in the enthusiasm of the peasants for labor and the enthusiasm for reclaiming wasteland, which brought about a doubling of population and great economic development, and laid the foundation for the emergence of the glorious Chinese civilization in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.