The titles before the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were very important, because in addition to the dukes, the level of the titles was directly linked to the size of the territory, and the general dukes and marquises had fiefs of hundreds of miles, and the dukes were after the ancient emperors, including the Qiguo after Xia Yu (that is, the Qiren Worried Heaven), the Song Kingdom after the Shang Tang, the Yu Kingdom after the Zhou TaiWang and the Wu King's brother's Yu Kingdom (that is, the two goods of the Lips and Dead Teeth), these four were the highest status of the Zhou Dynasty than the Duke of Wednesday, and when the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties communicated, The Duke of Xiyu also had the ability to stand alone with the King of Zhou to compete with Duke Wu of Zheng and Marquis Wen of Jin, as well as the rebellious king of Quwo and the Marquis of Jin, indicating that the status and power of these principalities in Western Zhou were still great.
If you take the two dimensions of strong and prosperous time and strength, the Spring and Autumn Period was roughly Qin, Jin, Song, Zheng, Lu, Qi, Chu, etc., if you go back to the early days of the Western Zhou Dynasty, then there are Yu, Yu, Wei and other most consorted feudal states, and then to the Warring States still exist, Qin, Jin, Qi, Chu only, the problem of Yan is too far away from the Central Plains, the sense of existence in the Spring and Autumn Period has not been strong, but also to avoid being annexed.
From the perspective of strength, in several versions of the Five Powers, Qin, Qi, Chu, and Jin all had positions. Zhongshan has always been the experience baby of the Central Plains countries, and itself is not in the unified system. Therefore, Jin is the northernmost of the major powers, and further north than it, Zhongshan and Yan are not one and the same. Therefore, the countries that have been strong and survived are left with Qin, Jin, Qi, and Chu, plus a partial Yan.
Among the great powers that were destroyed, Zheng, Song, Lu, Yu, and so on were all surrounded by the above-mentioned countries. Even in the Warring States era, the process of the destruction of the Six Kingdoms of the East was also the first Han Wei in the center, Zhao was beaten to a state of near death, and then Yan, Chu, Qi, Yan and Zhao at the end of the Warring States period were not a level of state at all, Wei was even more rampant in The early years of the Warring States, why did he live shorter than Yan.
After Duke Wu of Jin usurped the throne and Xiaozong replaced Emperor Dazong as the monarch of the Jin Dynasty, he was very suspicious of the clan in his heart, and after The son of duke Wu of Jin succeeded to the throne, he wantonly slaughtered the clan. After Duke Wen of Jin seized the throne from his nephew, he was even more suspicious of the clan, and although there was no massacre, there were almost no clan relatives in the important positions of the Jin state, except for the descendants of Han Wan, the uncle of the Duke of Jinwu.
The Jin Dynasty weakened the clan and reused the scholar-doctor, which was the pot of Quwo Daijin. The entire Quwo Daijin lasted for three generations, and it did not end until the end of the Gonggong and his father, so the Xiangong began to eliminate the Gong clan in large quantities in order to avoid another incident similar to the Quwo Daijin, resulting in the lack of effective restraint of the secretaries of state above the court. During the time of Duke Wen and Duke Xiang, the secretaries of state who followed Duke Wen into exile were still there, and there was still a tacit understanding/friendship between the monarch and the secretaries, so Duke Wen Xianggong was still able to control the secretaries.
Linggong took the throne at an early age, the first generation of secretaries basically died, the second generation of secretaries began to appear, and political affairs relied on Zhao Dun to decide, at this time Zhao Dun had already attacked the power of the Jin dynasty, and there were already signs of the discord between the power of the monarch and the secretaries. By the time Zhao pierced the Linggong and was not held accountable, the subsequent Jin monarch could no longer control the secretaries of state.
There are many Qing Dafu who were born in the old Gong clan, the Zhonghang clan and the Zhi clan are also gong clans, and the Luan clan Sanhao, who was in charge of the government before, is also a gong clan, and the adopted son of the Zhao clan of the Han clan is still slightly retreating. Zhao Dun reformed the Gong clan dafu directly changed the life of the Hou Gong clan, and the subsequent Jin monarchy declined all the way, and the mourning Gong Zhongxing was only in vain (it just so happened that Zhao Wu, who had a weak family power, was in charge). Zhao Dun's replacement of the Gong clan doctor directly disintegrated the foundation of the Jin dynasty (the prince's going abroad was originally the normal state of spring and autumn and had little impact on the state government), so the Zhao clan was quickly destroyed.
Before Zhao Dun, Liu Qing's land was to be reclaimed and redistributed by the monarch after Liu Qing's death, but after Zhao Dun forced Jin Cheng to establish Liu Qing as a gong clan, he conferred the gong clan doctor on Qing's concubine, and the remaining son to Qing's other sons, and Qing's concubine to serve as a public official. The monarchy was further weakened. After that, Luan Shu, Zhi Bo and other emperors gradually became accustomed to it. In the later period, the monarch became one puppet after another, and the Jin state was divided, and Zhao Dun's contribution was indispensable.
Zhao Dun was indeed not shallow in this regard, but then again, in the case of not dividing the dukes, this piece of fat meat of the Jin Kingdom would be divided by the courtiers sooner or later. Because there was no concept of centralized power at that time, the total score of such a large place as the Jin State could be sealed out to govern, it was easy to divide the seals, and it was not easy to take it back every time, and there would always be incompetent monarchs and powerful courtiers.
In the era when people's ideological understanding had not yet reached the age of pursuing peaceful competition, force was the greatest reliance, so after the Jin Dynasty exorcised many nobles from the Jin State (as to whether this matter was right or not, it was left alone), the bureaucracy of the Jin State began to enter the era of the rule of the Scholars, and after the gradual development of the later period, especially after the rise of the Scholars' families, it officially belonged to the form of the cabinet system (only the form, far from the real cabinet system). It is to control and manage the country through the balance of power.
No political system can be independent of the background of the times, the six-secretary system is very advanced, but in the Spring and Autumn Period, which emphasizes the separation of fiefs and blood relations, without a strong monarch, this advanced system is bound to collapse. Instead, look at the other two great powers at that time, Qin, Chu. The backwardness of the royal power made it impossible for both countries to oppose the Jin state, but it continued the state to the greatest extent. It is believed that if Jin Wengong were to choose again, he would choose to be long-term and mediocre rather than strong but short-lived.
Due to its central location, the Jin State had fought wars against the surrounding princely states in all directions, and there were many victories. The State of Chu was located in the south, the south was a wasteland, the western part of Bashu was not a climate, and the eastern Wuyue did not rise until the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. That is, the place where the Chu state fought was the small state and the State of Qi in the Central Plains south of the Yellow River. In addition to the peak of influence in the Central Plains, except for the period of King Zhuang of Chu, the influence in other periods was at most as good as that of the Jin State, and its influence in other countries was far inferior to that of the Jin State.
The Huanzhuang clan that the Jin Dynasty killed. But it also left the Han clan, the Luan clan, and later the Hao clan. These Gong clan doctors who are most closely related to the Jin Dynasty can balance the relationship between the monarch and the 6 Qings. After all, blood is thicker than water. The key moment is still some of their own people can be relied on.
But in Jin Li Gong destroyed the Hao clan, jin mourned the Gong destroyed the Luan clan, and later the Yang Tongue clan. Therefore, Liu Qing wants to weaken the Jin Room. Destroy the Gong clan first. Although the Three Huans controlled the government of the State of Lu, they were originally the clan of the State of Lu. Therefore, the State of Lu was not destroyed by the original surname until his death, the State of Chu was still there, the State of Yan was still there, and the State of Qin was still there, but it was the power of the State of Jin and the State of Qi that fell directly into the hands of foreign surnames and directly disintegrated from within, which is that qin shi huang did not have a different surname as king after unifying the six kingdoms.
When Wang Qifa Chu was in Chu Dynasty, he sold flaws to the First Emperor and said that if he fought a war for the Great King, no matter how great the merits were, he could not be crowned marquis. Therefore, since the First Emperor unified China, we all know a truth, and there is no good end for kings with different surnames. Either be killed or usurped the throne.