From the decline of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the unification of the Qin Dynasty, it was an era of great change in the history of our country. During the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the weakening of the power of the Zhou Dynasty, the power of the local vassal states became stronger and stronger.
As a result, it entered an era of competition for hegemony, the collapse of "Lile", and the decline of the feudal system, the patriarchal system, and the Jingtian system. The Warring States period was the era of the establishment of the centralized system, the prefecture system, and the small peasant system. It is the starting point of the country's march towards centralization and unification.
The Qin Dynasty's "unification of the world" marked that China had entered a new era of centralization.
Qin Shi Huang had the courage to pursue the innovation of the political system after dominating the world, and he changed the ruling system during the Zhou Dynasty and began the system construction of "absolute monarchy" and "centralization". While consolidating the power of individual rule, it also promoted the development of ancient Chinese political civilization.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were more than 170 vassal states large and small in China, and fierce struggles broke out directly in order to grab land and annex forces.
Until the Warring States period, only a dozen countries remained. Among them: Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, Qin seven powers. And the struggle between them is even more intense.
The princes and kings of the Seven Kingdoms all wanted to annex other countries and "dominate the world". In order to enhance their national strength, various countries began to change their laws, first Li Kui of Wei, then Wu Qi of Chu, and then Shang Yang of Qin.
Among them, Shang Ying's reform of the law was the most effective, and it was precisely like this that the Qin State jumped from the weakest of the Seven Kingdoms to one of the strongest powers, so that it was finally able to annex the Six Kingdoms.
Shang Ying, Gongsun clan, Ming Ying, Wei Guoren, he was greatly influenced by Li Kui and Wu Qi, so he liked to study criminal name spells very much. Shang Ying first came to Wei to seek appreciation, and met the king of Wei through the recommendation of the minister of state, Uncle Acne, but was not reused by the king of Wei.
Later, Qin Xiaogong recruited talents, and Shang Ying came to Qin to admonish Qin Xiaogong. He answered Qin Xiaogong's questions about the concept of governing the country and changing the law to strengthen the country. After a long talk between the two, Qin Xiaogong knew that he had met a rare talent, so he was extremely happy, and handed over the reform strategy to Shang Yang to implement.
However, before the implementation of the law, there were some accidents, and the ministers and people in the country discussed it, which also caused Qin Xiaogong to hesitate.
In order to determine the relevant matters of the reform of the law, Qin Xiaogong convened a court meeting to discuss the matter with the ministers, but the old ministers, in order to protect the ancient law and the old rites, stubbornly slandered the new law as a "fallacy" and strongly advocated it"There is no fault in the ancient law, and there is no evil in etiquette."
And Shang Ying pointed out-for-tatHow can the previous policy be applied to the current Qin State, the emperors are different, the national conditions are different, how can the previous system remain unchanged? He actively advocated "".At that time, it was legislated, and it was made according to the matter".This made the opposing ministers speechless and uneasy. This debate also strengthened Qin Xiaogong's determination to change the law.
The Shang Dynasty reform was mainly carried out from three aspects: political, economic and military. In terms of politics, Shang Ying advocated the abolition of the aristocratic hereditary system established in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the implementation of absolute monarchy in **, and the implementation of the county system in the local area. The power of the local nobility was centralized and exercised by the King of Qin.
The monarch implemented "strict rule by law, and heavy punishment for minor crimes", and pioneered cruel punishments such as Lian practice. In terms of local governance, the county and township governors are set up to govern, and the townships and towns are counties, and the counties are directly led by the county, and they are also appointed and dismissed by the county and regularly evaluated.
Strongly urge to change the old habit of "not punishing doctors", emphasized"Those who do not obey the king's orders, violate the prohibition of the country, and disorder the system will not be forgiven.", these greatly weakened the power of the clan aristocracy and maintained the monarch's ** centralized system.
On the economic front, the abolition of the well-field system, the encouragement of peasants to open up land, and the development of land for their own private land policy, the Qin state rapidly expanded the cultivated area and greatly increased agricultural taxes.At the same time, the law of weights and measures was promulgated to unify weights and measures and implement standards. In order to consolidate the finances of the Qin Dynasty, he actively pursued the policy of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce", insisting on agriculture-oriented, stimulating agricultural production and inhibiting commercial development. and the imposition of a family production system of agricultural self-sufficiency.
In terms of military affairs, the monarch system was actively promoted, and twenty titles were established, and titles were awarded according to the number of enemies killed by generals on the battlefield. This greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the soldiers to go into battle to kill the enemy, and made the army of Qin invincible on the battlefield.
This change laid the foundation for the Qin state to develop into the most powerful state in the late Warring States period, and then to unify the country.
After the Battle of Changping, the other vassal states could no longer withstand the fierce attack of the Qin State. Under the powerful offensive of the Qin state and the intensification of contradictions between them, the six kingdoms rapidly declined.
In 238 BC, King Yingzheng of Qin came to power in person, and when he saw that the time was ripe, he began to unify the country. From 230 to 221 BC, the Qin state destroyed five other kingdoms except Han. At this time, China was reunified after 549 years after the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
However, the political, economic, and social aspects established by this reunification of China have undergone fundamental changes from those in the past. Ying Zheng learned the lesson of the fall of the Zhou Dynasty, and he paid great attention to strengthening the centralization of power.
Qin Shi Huang pioneered the emperor system and put forward the idea of emperor. He combined the words "emperor" and "emperor" not only to concentrate power in his own hands, but also to deify himself in order to prevent others from prying eyes on his throne.
In the "Seven Frame Inscriptions" left by Qin Shi Huang, the word "emperor" was repeatedly expounded, and these materials show that Qin Shi Huang put forward various aspects of ideological connotations around the emperor system and constructed the outline of the emperor's thoughts.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, some thinkers put forward the ideas of "Holy King" and "Ming Jun" to standardize the behavior of monarchs from the level of morality and cultivation. For example, "Guanzi", "Mencius" and other literature, which put forward many norms and requirements for the monarch's own cultivation.
Qin Shi Huang absorbed these political ideas and innovated them, transforming them into emperor thoughts, which constituted the theoretical system of the emperor system.
The emperor system was born, and there was a new development of political civilization, and the next step was to consider how to exercise imperial power in the first and local areas.
In order to better weaken the power of the prime minister and strengthen the imperial power, Qin Shi Huang reformed the ** institution. He set up the Three Princes and Nine Secretaries, which was the first administrative system centered on the imperial power. The three dukes are the prime minister of the first hundred officials, the imperial historian who is responsible for supervising the hundred officials, and the Tai Lieutenant who holds military power, of course, the official position of the Tai Lieutenant is just a fictitious position.
Under the three dukes, there are nine secretaries, and they have a clear division of labor, each performing its own duties, but they contain each other, and no institution can hold the power alone, so that the power of the prime minister is effectively weakened and the imperial power is strengthened.
* After the power is held by the emperor, it is necessary to consider the establishment of local official positions. There was also a fierce debate in the Qin Dynasty about what kind of local administrative system to establish after the unification of Qin.
Many ministers represented by Prime Minister Wang Juan believed:
Vassals would help the emperor manage the vast territory, pay taxes, and quell wars when the enemy invaded.
But Captain Liss disagreed. He thinks:
Most of the princes who were feudal in the Western Zhou Dynasty were children with the same surname, but later they gradually became estranged and even turned against each other, which led to the fall of the Zhou Dynasty. Today, it is under the rule of His Majesty, so it is better to set up counties. For those who have made meritorious contributions, they will be rewarded with public taxes. In this way, no one has an opinion, and the peace of the country can be guaranteed. ”After hearing this, Qin Shi Huang felt that it was very reasonable, so he resolutely supported Li Si's proposition despite the opposition of his ministers. He said:
In the past hundred years, the world has been in turmoil, and the main reason is because of the feudal kings. If it is just peaceful today, if the division is implemented here, it will be an enemy, isn't this asking for hardship? Eventually, the county system was implemented throughout the country.The success of the county system in replacing the feudal system meant the collapse of the aristocracy and the rise of the bureaucracy.
"Great unification" was an important feature of ancient Chinese politics. The formation of the "great unification" state form of the Qin Dynasty was the result of political and social transformation, all of which was closely related to the system of "making up households and uniting the people".
Therefore, exploring the emergence and political effect of the system of "household and people" will not only help to understand the reasons for the formation of China's "great unification", but also help to deepen the understanding of the law of China's long-term political evolution from the perspective of the grassroots of society.
The reason why China has a long history of 5,000 years without interruption is that "making up households and uniting the people" plays a vital role.
The so-called "household registration and people" refers to a system in which the state registers members of society according to their household registration through the compilation of household registration, and uses this to distribute land and levy servitude.
"Since the Qin Dynasty, all households that can independently establish a household and enter the local household registration sequence are collectively referred to as 'household Qi Min'. "Household compiler" refers to the unified establishment by the state; Those who unite the people refer to whether they are officials or people, peasants or soldiers, they are all equal in form. ”"Organizing households and gathering the people" is not a population information system in the general sense, but an important mechanism for establishing state responsibility, and has become the basic basis for making soldiers and disposing of the people, collecting tribute, stipulating food, promoting military service, and organizing military brigades.
Through the "organization of households and the people", the state has redefined the relationship with the people, and also reshaped the organization of the grassroots of society, creating conditions for the construction of China's "great unification" national form.
The "Household Qi Min" originated from the struggle for hegemony among the princes during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and the basic driving force of its origin was due to the intensification of competition between countries. The pre-Qin period was a period of early Chinese state growth and a time of fierce competition among many state entities.
The various vassal states have completely controlled manpower through "arranging households and people" to ensure that the national structure of 'people have land, land and wealth' is stable and perfect.
Through this institutional change, the Qin State completely changed the previous political model with clan and aristocracy as the basic political and social unit, and turned to the individual family as the basic unit of national governance and social life.
On this basis, successive dynasties have inherited and developed the system of "compiling households and uniting the people", making it an unavoidable issue in the transformation of China's political system.