The martingale transformation method is the most far-reaching reform method in China. Its leader and reform architect Shang Martin implemented two changes in the Qin state, making the Qin state the strongest princely state in the Warring States. It laid the foundation for the eventual unification of the six kingdoms of the Qin State, and also laid the foundation for the formation of China's feudal society. Nowadays, when we study the law change measures of ShangMartin, we will find that other law change policies are easier to understand, except for the "prohibition of fathers and sons and brothers living in the same house". Why did this article become a policy that Shang Martingale pushed when changing the law, and it was mentioned in both changes?
The "small family system" mentioned twice in the martingale transformation method
In fact, shang martingale's policy of "prohibiting fathers and sons from living in the same house" in these two changes was to implement the "small family system" in the Qin state.
When Shang Martin changed the law for the first time, he proposed to force the implementation of the small family system in the Qin State, which is the so-called "branch of the alien son".
At the time of the second transformation of the Shang martingale, the "heterogeneous family" was supplemented and improved. That is, to eliminate the residual Rongdi customs, to prohibit fathers and sons and brothers from living in the same room, and to implement the policy of small families. It is stipulated that where two or more sons in a household reach the age of household establishment and do not live apart, the household registration tax shall be doubled.
In these two changes, the small family system implemented by ShangMartin in the Qin State was not without purpose. Rather, it is in line with his overall strategy of rewarding farming. In order to understand the real purpose and reasons for Shang Martin's implementation of the small family system, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze it in conjunction with his overall strategy.
Open source, weak people, easy customs
The overall strategic goal of the Martingale Transformation Method is to reward farming, and all his policies are in the service of this goal. Therefore, from the analysis of this strategic goal, we can conclude that the small family system can bring three major benefits to the Qin state: open source, weak people, and easy customs.
Open source: Because the Martingale in the Qin State implemented taxation by household and population. The introduction of the small family system will expand the number of households, and thus the base of taxation. This is obvious, so it can be said that the reason why the Qin state can become rich in the short term is because it has implemented the small family system, expanded the base of tax collection, increased the exploitation of the people, and greatly increased the government's financial resources.
Weak people: An important idea of the Martingale Transformation Law is that the weak people cannot make the people form a powerful family. The implementation of the small family system is the most direct embodiment, and the small family system means that it is difficult for large families and large families to exist. A family with two adult sons must be separated, otherwise the heavy taxes they face are difficult for them to bear. These small, separated families gradually become alienated by the separation of families, and the strength of the small families is weak and cannot compete with the powerful state apparatus.
Yi Customs: This point seems to be less relevant to reward farming battles. It seems to be to eliminate the fusion of the Rongdi customs of the Qin state and the culture of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong. But in fact, it is still the same as the first two points, because the custom of Rongdi has the custom of "father dies and marries mother". This is because in the war-torn Rongdi tribe, it is necessary to maintain the strength of the family, so there is this custom of the father dying and the son marrying the mother. Therefore, the abolition of this custom is also conducive to the weak people policy and small family system implemented by Shang Martin in the Qin State.
It can be seen from this that the implementation of the small family system in the two changes of the Shang martingale was achieved through the policy of prohibiting fathers and sons and brothers from living in the same room, and this policy also brought the benefits of open source, weak people and easy customs to the Qin state. However, if we consider it from a deeper level, the small family system is essentially the policy of Shang Martin to establish the "small peasant economy", which is the basic economic system of China's feudal society, in the Qin Kingdom.
The small peasant economy, the basic economic system established by the Shang martingale in the Qin state
Today, when we think of a smallholder economy, we think of it as a backward economic system. However, in the Warring States period more than two thousand years ago, it was in essence an economic system that was very advanced and adapted to the conditions of social productive forces at that time.
The Warring States period in which Shang Martin lived was precisely the period when China's slave society was disintegrating and the feudal system began to be established. At that time, the slave-owning economy represented by the "well field system" had collapsed, and how to establish a new social and economic system that adapted to the conditions of the productive forces at that time was a question of the times, and the answer given by Shang Martingale was the small peasant economy.
During the warring states period when the war was raging, especially in the Qin state in the western region, there were many wastelands waiting to be developed, and the collapse of slavery made the economic model based on state ownership or slavery simply not suitable for this urgently needed "large-scale development". Because slave owners had vast amounts of land and wealth by blood, they had no incentive to reclaim these wastelands. And because the slaves had no personal freedom, and the land they reclaimed was not profitable to themselves, they did not have the ability and motivation to expand the area of cultivation. The emerging landlord class and the free citizens became the best candidates for reclaiming wasteland.
Therefore, the overall strategic goal of rewarding farming warfare in the Shang martingale transformation method is to stimulate these emerging landlord classes and people to reclaim wasteland and expand production. So Shang Martin implemented taxation according to hukou and population in the Qin kingdom, not only for the sake of open source and more taxation, but also to note that not taxing according to the field is to encourage these small families to reclaim more wasteland, because there is not much difference between the tax levied by your family to reclaim ten acres of wasteland and one acre of wasteland, which is essentially to use policies to reward farming, in today's parlance, it is "more work and more gain".
And this policy of prohibiting fathers and sons and brothers from living together brought about small families became workers in this huge factory in the Qin State, and everyone was stimulated to expand production, and the production enthusiasm of the Qin people was fully mobilized, and what should be done when the land of the Qin State was almost reclaimed? Then, by expanding the war, coupled with the military merit system implemented by the Shang Martingale, civilians can obtain land and knighthoods through military merit. This in turn made the people of the Qin state, in addition to working hard to expand production, become fanatical supporters of expansion and annexation. Thus the Qin state became the country of tigers and wolves, the Qin army became the division of tigers and wolves, and the Qin state became a well-organized, efficient and coordinated machine, crazy production and combat, and the six kingdoms of Shandong could not be defeated.
Through the compulsory small family system combined with other measures to reward farming, Shang Martin took the lead in establishing and improving the small peasant economic system in the Qin State, and also made the feudal system first established and perfected in the Qin State. Although there were also landlords and powerful manor economies in later generations, this was only a deformed product brought about by the crazy merger of land. In general, the small family system established by Shang Martin has always been the mainstream of China's feudal society. The small-scale peasant economic system has also been the basic economic system of feudal society for more than two thousand years.