In 359 BC, after winning the absolute trust of Duke Xiao of Qin, Shang Martin began to implement the reform law in the Qin state and promulgated the first set of reform decrees. Ten years later, in 350 B.C., shang martingale continued to deepen reforms and introduced a number of institutional changes: unified weights and measures, the abolition of well fields, the opening of the mo, the forcing of the separation of people from households, and the reform of the county system that had a profound impact on future generations.
Although as early as the time of Qin Wugong, there were records of counties in the Qin State, but how the county system operated at that time was not clear to posterity. It is generally believed that the Shang martingale transformation method was the beginning of the comprehensive implementation of the county system reform in the Qin State. The county system of the Qin State was the basis of the political system of the Chinese dynasties for more than two thousand years, and has developed and evolved to this day. It can be seen that the impact of the reform of the county system in Shangmartin County is great.
However, although the county reform of Shangmartin had a great impact, the founder of the county system was not Shangmartin. As mentioned above, even in the Qin state, there are records of the establishment of a county system during the Qin Wugong period; if you look at the scope of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the earliest princely states that established the county system were not the Qin state, but the southern Chu state.
The Eighteenth Year of Zuo Chuan Zhuang Gong records: "In the beginning, King Kequan of Chuwu made Dou Yinzhi. After King Wu of Chu usurped the throne, he annexed the state of Quan in the early expansion of the country, immediately changed the state of power to Quan County, and made Dou Miao the county of Quan County.
The reason why King Wu of Chu wanted to establish the county system was to overcome the drawbacks of the sub-feudal system.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Zhou royal family has long practiced the sub-feudal system, so that its strength has deteriorated. Therefore, in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou royal family was crushed by the small Xishen State and the Inuyasha, and an era ended here. With the lessons of the Zhou royal family, King Wu of Chu resolutely created a new ruling system- the county system.
The biggest difference between the county system and the sub-feudal system is that the county officials cannot be hereditary, but are appointed by the monarch and can be replaced at any time. Later, Dou Miao was killed for rebellion, and King Wu of Chu made Yan Ao a county governor; when King Wen of Chu, Yan Ao was derelict in his duties and was killed by the government. Through the direct control of the county officials, the office can completely control the officials, fame, fortune, and resources of the whole country, which greatly enhances the degree of centralization of the country.
The ability to greatly enhance the centralization of power is the fundamental reason why the county system began to become popular during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The Chronicle of shangjun records: "And the collection of small townships is gathered into counties, and the orders and orders are placed, and the thirty-one counties are counties." "On the surface, there is nothing special about shangmartin's county system reform, but it is the same as the old system. In reality, however, Martingale has quietly launched a key change.
When King Wu of Chu created the county system, the sub-feudal system was in full swing. Therefore, the county system founded by King Wu of Chu will inevitably leave the shadow of a partial feudal system. After serving as the county magistrate of Quan County, Dou Rebelled against the city, and King Wu of Chu was forced to send a large army to surround and kill him. Although the Ruo'ao clan behind Dou Miao was powerful, the Dou Ao rebellion was obviously not supported by the Ruo Ao clan. Because Dou Bobi and Dou Qi in the same period as Dou Miao were highly valued by the Chu royal family, they were not at all implicated in the Dou Miao rebellion. Therefore, if Dou Mu rebelled against the city, he could only lead the Quan County soldiers to rebel. This also means that Dou Miao not only controls the administrative power of Quan County, but also controls the military power of Quan County!
In fact, it was born out of the county system of the Chu State under the sub-feudal system, and the county Yin was the highest official of the county, and completely controlled all the economic, political, military, and other powers of the county. After annexing the Southern Shen State and the State of Xi in the early Spring and Autumn Period, the Chu people also changed them to Shen County and Xi County respectively. Later, when the State of Chu participated in the Central Plains Hegemony, the armies of Shen and Xi were the main force of the Chu army for a long time, and the commander of their army was The Two Counties Yin.
When King Wu of Chu first created the county system, he did not realize the need to strip away administrative and military powers, so he let The County Yin inherit all the powers under the sub-feudal system.
However, with the passage of time, the drawbacks of this county system have become more and more obvious.
During the reign of King Ling of Chu, he destroyed the State of Chen and the State of Cai successively, and incorporated them into the State of Chu and became two counties. In order to strengthen his control over these two places, King Chu Ling also appointed his younger brother Gongzi renunciation as the Duke of Cai, stationed in the old land of Cai Guo. In 529 BC, under the impetus of Shuren Guancong, Gongzi abandoned his illness and took advantage of the leadership of King ChuLing to go out, and led the army of Cai and Chen Erdi to attack the capital of Yingdu, easily overthrowing the rule of King Chuling and becoming the King of Chuping!
The main reason for the fall of King Chu Ling was his own unpopularity. But without the support of the army, then the difficulty of Usurping the throne of King Chuping would be much greater!
It is precisely because the county system of the Chu State did not strip away the separation of military power and administrative power, and its county yin was often held by the gong clan, so the county yin could pose a huge threat to the office. In other words, this system of counties can still threaten centralization.
Although the County System of the Chu State is still insufficient in promoting the centralization of power, it is obviously more conducive to the rule of the upper echelons than the sub-feudal system. After realizing this, other countries in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty gradually followed the example of the Chu state and began to introduce a county system.
What is surprising is that the country that is most actively promoting the reform of the county system is precisely the state of Chu's long-term rival for hegemony, the State of Jin.
The decentralization system of the Jin state was completely different from that of the Chu state, but for the county system, the Jin people were quite sure. Around the time of the Jin Dynasty, the Jin people gradually implemented the county system. After the Destruction of the Luan Clan, The Prefecture (州县; present-day southeast of Qinyang, Henan) became a masterless yi. Fan, Zhao, and Han all wanted to take it for themselves, and for a time there was a dispute over it, but it was hindered by affection, and in the end, no one dared to openly take it for themselves. After Han Qi became zhengqing, he first urged Jin Jun to give the prefecture to Zheng Ren Boshi, and only after Bo shi's death did he take the prefecture into his arms through various means. Subsequently, afraid of people gossiping, Han Qi changed the prefecture and county again.
The emergence of prefectures and counties proves that Jinguo is learning from its competitors and implementing the county system. Later, the Qi and Yang tongue clans were destroyed, and the Jin people divided the feudal estates of these two families into ten counties and distributed them to ten Jin masters. This shows that the county system has been widely implemented in the Jin Dynasty.
However, did the county system of the Jin Dynasty separate the administrative power from the military power? There is no clear record in the historical records.
In 552 BC, Luan Ying was expelled from the country by the Jin state. In 550 BC, with the support of Duke Zhuang of Qi, the resentful Luan Ying secretly returned to the Jin state and plotted a rebellion. To this end, Luan Ying first went to Quwo Town, Fengyi of the Luan clan (quwo town in present-day Shaanxi County, Henan), and visited Quwo's doctor Xu Wu. Under the organization of Xu Wu, Luan Ying successfully met with the people of Quwo and won the full support of the People of Quwo. With the support of Qu Wo's army, Luan Ying went all the way into the Jin capital Daiyi and almost kidnapped the Duke of Jinping! Quwo, which is supposed to be the same as the prefecture, is a county under the Luan clan. Luan Ying was able to organize Qu Wo's army to enter Daiyi, indicating that the Jinguo County Yi Dafu, like the Chu State County Yi County Yin, was also in charge of all the military, administrative, economic, and other powers in the county.
In 500 BC, Zhao Martin was angry and killed because he was dissatisfied with the procrastination of his clan Zhao Wu (Handan Wu). To this end, Zhao Ji, the son of Handan Wu, and his courtiers occupied the city of Handan and launched a rebellion. In the end, the Handan rebellion triggered an eight-year-long scuffle in Liuqing, bringing the jin hegemony to an end.
The Luan Ying Rebellion and the Handan Rebellion fully proved that the Jinguo county system was completely copied from the Chu State and did not change in the slightest.
After entering the Warring States, the three families were divided into Jin, and the situation in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty underwent a completely new change. The State of Wei in the Three Jin Dynasties took the lead in changing the law successfully during the reign of Marquis Wen of Wei, and its national strength was greatly enhanced, and it once dominated Eastern Zhou. Since the State of Wei was the vanguard of the change of law by the Warring States powers, would the Wei people carry out in-depth changes to the county system of the State of Chu?
After Wei Wenhou came to power, there was a blowout explosion in the Wei kingdom. Among the many talents, Wei Wenhou relied most heavily on Li Wu. It was Li Wu's change of law that allowed Wei Guo to embark on the road of prosperity and strength, and to lead the way in the Three Jins.
Before Li Wu became Xiangguo, he served as the sheriff of Shangdi (上地, in present-day Yulin, Suide, and Fuxian in Shaanxi). Because Shangdi was on the border between Qin and Wei, it was often invaded by Qin troops. In order to improve the military skills of the shangdi military and civilians, Li Wu specially issued a "training order": "Whoever has a dispute over right and wrong must be judged by archery." The one who shoots the target wins, and the one who doesn't shoot loses! ”
Encouraged by the "Xi Shooting Order", the upper ground soldiers practiced archery day and night. In this atmosphere of chasing after each other, the archery skills of the upper ground soldiers have been greatly improved in a short period of time. Since then, every time the Qin army invaded, it would often be shot and defeated and flee.
As the sheriff of Shangdi County, Li Wu was also responsible for the military skills of Shangdi's soldiers, indicating that the Wei county system still did not separate administrative power from military power. The experience of another historical figure also directly confirms this.
Wu Qi, the Defender of Wei, served as the Defender of the Western River of the State of Wei, and was not only responsible for the administrative affairs of Hexi, but also had to undertake the heavy responsibility of military defense. In order to prevent the invasion of the Qin army, Wu Qi also personally created the "Wei Wu Pawn", which made all the countries smell different, and was famous all over the world. At the time of Marquis Wu of Wei, Wu Qi even led 50,000 Wei soldiers to break 500,000 Qin troops in Yinjin (present-day Eastern Huayin, Shaanxi), and won an unprecedented victory for the State of Wei against the State of Qin!
Both Li Wu and Wu Qi controlled military power when they served as local counties, which fully proved that the county system of the Wei state still did not strip administrative and military powers.
From King Wu of Chu to the Warring States, the county system (county system) has been used for nearly four hundred years, but there has been no major change; so has Shang Martin discovered the shortcomings of the county system in the past when implementing the county system? Will he change that?
A year after the Battle of Changping, King Zhao of Qin decided to attack Handan again. However, under the stubborn resistance of the Zhao state, the Qin army did not progress smoothly and suffered repeated setbacks. Because the war was extremely difficult, the Qin soldiers and soldiers complained continuously, and they became more critical of logistics supplies.
There was a lot of complaint in the army, and Hedong County, the front-line supply base of the Qin Army, naturally crashed into the muzzle of the gun and was repeatedly complained about. The sheriff of Hedong County was none other than Wang Ji, a friend of Xiangguo Fan Sui. At present, Fan Sui is being used heavily, and he says one thing in front of King Qin Zhao. Even the famous "God of War" Bai Qi was persecuted to death for offending Fan Sui. With such a powerful backstage, Wang Ji was naturally arrogant and arrogant, and no one looked down on him. He chose to ignore all the complaints from the front-line sergeants.
At this time, someone around him advised him: "Why don't you reward those military officials?" ”
Wang Ji replied with a big grin, "I can't interject with the Great King yet!" Wang Ji thought that as long as Fan Sui was there, the Heavenly King Lao Tzu would not be able to overthrow him, let alone those lowly military officials?
The person next to him listened and continued to patiently exhort, "It's not like this." Now although you are favored by the king, your feelings cannot surpass your father and son; no matter how despicable the officials in the army are, after all, they are fearsome. Haven't you heard the story of 'three people becoming tigers'? You have great power, but you have long despised the officers in the military, can you guarantee that they will not complain? Can you shut their mouths with military orders? What the mouth wants to move, even if it does not have wings, will fly! Therefore, it is better to reward the officers in the army and treat them with courtesy! ”
Unfortunately, Wang Ji took these words as the wind in his ears.
Later, the angry Qin generals went around preaching that Wang Ji had fornicated with the princes. When King Qin Zhao, who was being tortured by the battle in Handan, heard about it, he killed Wang Ji in a fit of rage! Wang Ji's killing heralded the great rout of Fan Sui's forces in the Qin state.
As the defender of Hedong, Wang Ji was mainly engaged in daily administrative affairs and did not need to go to the front to lead the war. This shows that the Qin State County Guard is no longer in charge of the military! This was an epoch-making change, and the county system of later dynasties was finally fully formed in the late Warring States period.
So, was the separation of military power and administrative power in the county system of Qin State started with the Shang martingale transformation law?
One of the most important measures of the Martingale Transformation Method is to reward agriculture and war. In order to motivate the people of the Qin State, Shang Martin set twenty knighthood ranks, clarifying the promotion path of the low-level people. When the title reaches the level of the fifth doctor, it can obtain the "tax yi" of three hundred households; when the knighthood reaches the level of the chief, it can get the "gift" of three hundred households, and the "tax yi" of three hundred households is rewarded. The so-called "taxation" is the reward of land tax; the so-called "gift of yi" is the reward of fengyi. Although it is uncertain whether the "grant of yi" still includes military power, the emergence of the concept of "tax yi" shows that the Shang martingale has deliberately stripped the counties of administrative and military powers during the reform process.
It is concluded that in the process of the development of the county system, it was the first time that Shang Martin stripped the county of administrative and military powers, and made key changes after King Wu of Chu. The fundamental purpose of Shangmartin's efforts to strip counties of administrative and military power was to strengthen centralized power, making it difficult for counties and counties to support themselves and threaten the rule of the monarch.
After this key change in shangmartin, the county system was basically fixed. For more than two thousand years, the county system was basically inherited.
——End——
The author | Desire Cloud: a science and engineering man who likes history and now lives in Shenzhen
Pictures | from the network,
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