People often think that Confucianism was pedantic during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, bent on restoring the Zhou rites, so it was not welcomed by the princely states.
In fact, this perception was deliberately distorted by later generations of Confucian dynasties, in order to emphasize the Confucian idea of "loyalty" in order to maintain the stability of its own rule.
From the time Confucius pioneered Confucianism, Confucianism did not return the princely states to the order of the "Zhou Li". Confucius's pursuit of "honoring the king and destroying the yi" is exactly the national policy formulated by Guan Zhong and others for the Spring and Autumn hegemons such as qi huangong, which shows that Confucius actually advocated the spring and autumn hegemony.
Mencius's Confucianism was also not a defense of Zhou Tianzi. He was a little more ruthless than Confucius, and gave the Zhou royal family a bottom of the salary, in fact, he wanted to overthrow the rule of the Zhou royal family and start a new stove.
To know what kind of method Confucianism pursued in the pre-Qin period, we should not be limited to the image propagated by the great unified feudal dynasty in later generations, but directly analyze the ideas and behaviors advocated by Confucius, Mencius and others.
All the sons and hundreds of families appeared to end the chaotic world, whether it was the Manifestation of Confucianism and Taoism, or other last stream doctrines.
This is what Hu Shi said:
I mean that all the sons, since the old man, Kong Qiu, and Han Fei, are all worried about the chaos of the world and think of salvation, so their learning should be in time.
The root cause of the chaotic world at this time was that the weak Zhou royal family was no longer able to adjust the distribution of benefits among the various princely states.
As strong as the Qin, Chu, Qi, Jin and other large countries, the inherent interests can no longer meet the needs of their development, so they encroach on the small neighboring countries. In this process, small countries such as Huang and Wei had to choose to accept the asylum of large countries at the expense of some of their interests in order to maximize their own interests.
In this way, the alliance of different interest groups in the Spring and Autumn Period was formed, and the encroachment of the big powers on the small countries also became a direct combination and confrontation between the alliances with the major powers as the main body.
In the final analysis, it is because there are so many interests and not enough points.
Therefore, Confucius founded Confucianism, and the proposed method was to find more benefits, that is, to "open source" interests through the way of "Yiyi". But just in time for the late Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States gradually took shape, resulting in their ideas not being accepted.
At this time, the changes of the times ushered in the first major change in Confucianism, that is, Mencius developed "benevolence" into "benevolent government" and put forward a new idea of "royal way".
As we said before, it was because the limited interests at that time could not meet the development needs of the great princely states such as Qi, Qin, Chu, and Jin, so the mutual encroachment between the alliances of various princely states was formed, and the chaotic era of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty also came from this.
In 475 BC, with the division of the Three Families of Wei, Han, and Zhao as the demarcation point, the Spring and Autumn Period ended, and Chinese history officially entered the Warring States stage.
The fundamental difference between these two stages is that the Spring and Autumn Period is a struggle for hegemony, while the Warring States is a hegemon. There is a big difference between the two.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, although the princely states were strong and weak, the difference in strength was not particularly large, and no country could single-handedly destroy the alliance of other countries. That is to say, if you want to develop, you must unite with small countries that are sheltered by yourself to strengthen your strength and give yourself time to develop.
Therefore, during the Spring and Autumn Period, there was basically no war of annihilation. A large country that breaks through a small country will either elect the heirs of its monarch to rebuild itself, or after a few months it will allow its citizens to choose a descendant of the monarch and re-establish the state. There is almost no direct annexation.
However, the Warring States are different, after the development of the Spring and Autumn Period, the various princely states have been divided into one, two, and three grades in national strength, of which the first-class princely states have seven, that is, the later Warring States Seven Xiong, namely Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, and Qin. In terms of their national strength, they no longer care about the increase of each small country on their own, so they carry out a war of annihilation and direct annexation.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, what resources were the various princely states fighting for?
In fact, there are only two: land and population.
The essence of this stage was an agrarian society, the use of land resources was the main source of state revenue, and grain was the most important strategic material at that time. What is most needed in the development of land resources is the agricultural population that can engage in farming, and these two things determine the strength of the country.
Therefore, how to increase the arable land and how to increase the population that can engage in farming has become an urgent need of the princely states.
Mencius's "royal way" was born from this.
Mencius proposed to let the princely states implement "benevolent government", to put it bluntly, it is to let them be better to the people, improve the social status of the peasants, make the tax and labor a little easier, make the peasants richer, and the state policy is more inclined to the peasants, and it is best to give some humanistic care from time to time.
To what extent? Quite simply, better than other countries.
If other countries kill peasants at every turn, then they only need to do not kill peasants; if other countries want to collect more than 80% of the peasants' income from farming, then they only need to collect six or seven achievements.
In short, the ruler wants to make the peasants of all countries feel that living in this country is happier than living in other countries.
In this way, the agricultural population of other countries will inevitably continue to flock to their own countries, and the development of land will be more adequate, and the soldiers will be replenished. With both grain reserves and an abundant army, the land problem will be solved very well. What has been formed is a virtuous circle, and national strength is bound to flourish.
Most importantly, the development of the country will attract the population of other countries, then it is invisibly a weakening of other countries. Under the circumstances of this and the other, the unification of the world is naturally just around the corner.
The Spring and Autumn Warring States were not a dynasty, they all belonged to the Eastern Zhou. At this time, there was also a Zhou Tianzi, who was the authentic co-lord of the world. If Zhou Tianzi was as tyrannical as Xia Jie and Shang Yi, it would not matter, but this suzerainty was so incompetent that it was difficult to even protect itself.
Then, when there is no threat to the various princely states, whoever destroys this Zhou kingdom is a rebellion and rebellion, and the reputation in the history books will be very difficult to hear.
How can this be avoided? Mencius proposed a reasonable logic.
In the book of Mencius, such as "Ten Thousand Chapters" and "Teng Wengong" and other chapters, he often tells a truth to the princely states in the form of stories.
In ancient times, how did the succession of the thrones of Yao and Shun proceed? After Yao's death, it was supposed that Yao's son Danzhu should inherit the position of co-lord of the world. Therefore, in order not to compete with Dan Zhu for the common lord of the world, Shun hid elsewhere.
However, I did not expect that the princes of the world would not go hajj to Dan zhu, but instead went to hajj Shun. This made Shun have to be the co-lord of the world.
The same thing happened with shun and yu's succession of thrones. Shun died in the wilderness of Cangwu, and the princes did not go on a pilgrimage to Shun's son Shang Jun, but instead went on a pilgrimage to Da Yu, who had made meritorious contributions to the water, so Yu became the new co-lord of the world.
After Yu, it was originally Zen who also gave up to Yi, but Yu's son Qi was very virtuous, and the princes were very recognized, not hajjing Yi, but hajjing Qi, so he inherited Yu's position.
Mencius's implication for these truths is obvious.
His "benevolent government" initiative is the "king's way" he pursues, and this "king" is not the king of Zhou, but by attracting the hearts and minds of the people of the world, a new "king" is set up to take the zhou and replace it.
Therefore, what Mencius really admired was to let the princely states that practiced their "royal way" become the new co-lords of the world, rather than let the princely states return to the zhou tianzi.
In fact, if you change the era, such as the heyday of the Zhou Dynasty, or even a period of slight stability, Mencius's ideas may be accepted by many princely states.
However, in such an era of war and chaos, the princely states have experienced hundreds of years of war and chaos, and they feel empathy for the shortcomings of the sub-feudal system, and naturally do not want to return to this state.
Mencius's failure was not that his ideas were ineffective and feasible, but that in this era of war and turmoil, only part of the needs of the princely states could be met, not their ultimate needs.