Regarding the feudalization of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, in fact, whether it is a summary of the previous dynasties or a reference to the later generations, it has a great role. Especially in promoting Sinicization reforms and admiring Confucianism, it is beneficial to almost every other country. Then let's walk into the feudalization activities of the Northern Zhou And specifically examine its construction process.
The feudalized attitude of the Northern Zhou Emperor
The Northern Zhou regime was a regime established by the Yuwentai clique, and the actual power of the Western Wei Dynasty was controlled by the Yuwentai family, and a series of reform measures implemented by the Northern Zhou to promote the process of feudalization were realized on the basis of inheriting the feudal reform of Yuwentai, so Yuwentai's attitude towards reform after the establishment of the Western Wei regime was very important.
The ancestors of the Yuwen family were a Xianbei clan with the same family origin as the Han people, and gradually became a relatively powerful family among the Xianbei clan in the subsequent development process. "At the beginning of Tianxing, Haojie moved to the capital of The Dynasty, and the tomb moved to Wuchuan Yan with the custom", the ancestors of the Yuwentai family moved to Wuchuan Town as Haojie in the early years of Tianxing and settled here, Yu Wentai was born in the Xianbei family of Northern Weibian Town.
Yuwen Tai's mother, Wang Shi, was a Han Gaomen clan, and his father Wang Yi (王罴) was also a class with a certain social and political status in Wuchuan. His great-grandfather Yuwen Ling "led a five-hundred-horseback to Wei, worshiped the lord of the capital, and gave the title of Marquis of Anding" Yuwen Tai's father was a Haojie of the Wuchuan generation, and his mother's family was a good family son of Wuchuan, which can be seen that the Yuwentai family has a prominent position. Therefore, Yuwentai has been able to live in a superior position since childhood, and his mother is a Han chinese, so Yuwentai has been exposed to Han culture since childhood and has been deeply influenced by Han culture.
Yuwen Tai actually had the military and administrative power of Western Wei, which was located in the Guanlong region, and most of the original six towns soldiers were under the control of Gao Huan of Eastern Wei, plus Yuwen Tai had been exposed to Han culture since childhood, and in the process of his development, he naturally chose people and strategies that were beneficial to his power. Therefore, during Yuwen Tai's reign, a large number of Han Chinese were reused to stabilize the rule of the Western Wei regime.
However, while Reusing a large number of Han scholars, Yuwen Tai used the original backward policy of xianbei to rule the Guanlong Han people, who had already been deeply feudalized, not only could not win over the Han people in Guanzhong, but also would be rejected by the Han scholars. In order to consolidate the newly established Western Wei regime, Yuwen Tai chose to continue the feudal reform of the Northern Wei Dynasty and vigorously promote the reform of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the direction of reform was to further carry out Sinicization reform.
In social practice, the Six Towns Uprising provided unprecedented opportunities for the rise of new warlords, and Yuwen Tai was one of them. The de facto ruler of the Western Wei dynasty, Yuwen Tai, rose gradually in a series of uprisings and wars in the late Years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Yuwen Tai followed his father Yuwen Qiu to kill Wei Keguo during the Liuzhen Uprising, and then Yuwen Tai's father Yuwen Tai joined the rebel army in Huaishuo Town and died in Dingzhou.
The practical experience in the Six Towns Uprising made Yu Wentai deeply inspired and experienced by politics, and In the practice process of participating in the Six Towns Uprising, Yu Wentai's personal experience accumulated considerable experience for him, and his political and military talents were also tempered in the process of practice.
After the establishment of the Western Wei regime, Yuwen Tai believed that the Western Wei regime was the orthodox regime that inherited the same lineage as the Northern Wei and the Northern Wei, and accused Gao Huan of arbitrarily expelling the emperor, but at this time, the internal and external situations faced by the newly established Western Wei regime should not be underestimated, and there were Eastern Wei and Liang Dynasties looking at the tiger, and internally it was necessary to deal with the relationship between the remnants of Hou Mochen Yue, the old department of He Bayue, and the various tribes that followed Emperor Xiaowu into the Guanzhong region. At that time, the most urgent thing facing the Western Wei regime was how to find a way to survive and develop in the current situation of internal and external troubles, and Yuwen Tai chose to continue the feudal reform path of the Northern Wei after summarizing the experience accumulated in the war and the lessons of the demise of the Northern Wei.
The background of the military and the reliance on conquest to seize power made Yuwen Tai and his successors pay special attention to army building. The establishment of the prefectural military system in 535 was the initiation of the feudalization of the yuwen father and son's army.
The composition of the Ruling Clique of Northern Zhou of Western Wei was mainly composed of the Six Towns soldiers in the Army of He Bayue, the Army of Hou Mo Chen Yue, and the Humble nobles who entered the Guanguan with Emperor Xiaowu of Wei, plus the Han warriors of Guanlong who could rely on them after occupying the Guanzhong area. Therefore, after the establishment of the Western Wei Dynasty, the ruling class was mainly the nobles of the Guanlong region and some xianbei nobles, a large number of Han people in the Guanlong area joined the army, and a large number of Han nobles became army generals, such as Li Hu, Li Bi Zhao Gui and others were all great generals of the Pillar State.
These Han nobles all occupied a very important position in the Eight Pillar Kingdom, and Yuwen Tai, who held the actual military and political power, established the Guanlong clique in order to unite the Xianbei nobles and the powerful clans in the Guanlong region. The Guanlong clique was the most dominant ruling group during the Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties, and this clique was mainly established through military power and then united the Xianbei nobles and han warriors.
The formation of this ruling group had an extremely important impact on the reforms carried out by the Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties, which also reflected the political will of the Western Wei Emperor to advocate the unity of Hu and Han and gradually Sinicize, which also laid the foundation for the feudalization activities of the Later Northern Zhou Emperors.
Confucianism is the guiding ideology of rule
In the process of rising in the war and personally experiencing the practice of war, Yuwentai was able to more clearly see the real reasons for the demise of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which was conducive to Yu Wentai's choice of the correct guiding ideology that was more conducive to the development of the Western Wei regime and stability after he seized real power.
The rulers of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties chose Confucianism as the guiding ideology for the following reasons:
First, the study of Confucian classics in family studies.
Yuwen Tai advocated Confucianism, and after he grasped the actual power, he used Confucian political theory as the guiding ideology for governing the country and influenced the subsequent Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Tai also asked the Confucian Lexun to "teach the sons, in the museum for six years, and share the scriptures with the Confucians", and established the Taixue to promote Confucian education in society, and his sons were deeply influenced by Confucian education.
After the establishment of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Emperor Xiaomin Yuwen Jue stipulated that as long as the royal children received their studies and education under the teacher, they must learn Confucian etiquette and act in accordance with Confucian etiquette, "self-proclaimed Wang Jian below, and bound the practice of disciple etiquette, inferior to the teaching of scripture, and even have a disciplined approach."
Later, emperor Yuwen Yu of the Ming Dynasty, "young and studious, reading qunshu, good at belonging to literature, and beautiful words", when he was young, he read qunshu to receive Education in Confucian thought, so Yuwen Yu also vigorously promoted Confucianism after he ascended the throne, sorting out a subset of Confucian classics and history, and Emperor Yuwen Yong of Zhouwu also attached special importance to Confucianism, and even promoted Confucianism as official learning. Even emperor Xuan of Zhou, who was absurd and cruel in the late Northern Zhou Dynasty, still vigorously promoted Confucianism in his thinking. He repeatedly "learned from the door and performed the ritual of interpretation", and also posthumously sealed Confucius to build a temple to worship his ancestors.
Therefore, one of the reasons why the rulers of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties chose Confucianism as the ruling ideology was that they attached great importance to Confucian education in their family studies, and they received Confucian education from an early age, and after becoming rulers, they also chose to serve Confucianism as their own politics.
Second, the influence of Northern Wei ruling thought.
The Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties were established on the basis of inheriting the rule of the Northern Wei, and after the establishment of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou, they were deeply influenced by the Northern Wei when choosing the guiding ideology of the rule.
Northern Wei ruling ideology is generally gradually carried out Sinicization reform, which is also the mainstream of the northern Wei period ruling ideology, in the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty due to the comprehensive and thorough Sinicization reform carried out by Emperor Xiaowen caused dissatisfaction in the six towns and some Xianbei nobles and led to the countercurrent of Xianbei, but the ruling ideology of the Northern Wei period had an extremely profound impact on the western Wei and Northern Zhou, and The actual ruler of the Western Wei Dynasty, Yuwen Tai, learned the successful experience of Northern Wei rule and the lessons of its final demise. He believed that the Northern Wei Dynasty was able to achieve unification in the Central Plains precisely because the rulers were able to carry out Sinicization reforms according to the time and time.
But its failure was also due to its radicalization in its Sinicization reforms and its neglect of the soldiers of the Six Towns and the humble nobles who remained in the Six Towns. Because after Yuwen Tai came to power, he did not completely Sinicize like Emperor Xiaowen, but adopted a more moderate way to carry out Sinicization reforms to ease the contradictions between the Xianbei people and the Han people. Militarily, the Han surname in the army was changed to the Xianbei surname, and the Xianbei surname was restored, and at the same time, a large number of Han ethnic groups were absorbed into the army, and the Han people in the Guanlong area were actually allowed to enter the army organization through the measures of superficial humility.
Politically, the reform measures of Sinicization were implemented, a large number of Han scholars were reused, and the Han scholars Su Qi and Lu Wei carried out official reforms in accordance with the Zhou Rites, and established the six-official system modeled on the Zhou Rites, the essence of which was to establish a feudal ruling order combining Hu and Han under the guidance of the rites to realize people's affirmation of the orthodox status of the Western Wei regime; the prefectural soldier system created during the Northern Zhou Period of the Western Wei Dynasty was a combination of the Xianbei Eight-Part Lord System and the Six-Army System in the Zhou Dynasty. Yuwen Tai also promoted the "Six Edicts" with Confucianism as the main content, which was used as a programmatic document for the reform of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties.
Third, reuse Han Confucian scholars.
After the establishment of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties, the six towns of Xianbei soldiers and the Guanlongshi clan jointly formed the basis of the ruling group, and their ruling area was the Central Plains region, which had already been deeply feudalized, so in order to stabilize the ruling base and realize the strength of the Western Wei Northern Zhou, the ruling class reused a large number of Han scholars, most of whom were extremely Confucian.
For example, When Yuwen Tai was in power, Su Qi and Lu Wei were deeply used. Lu Jie's family was also proficient in Confucianism, and he was "a young scholar, a scholar of the scriptures, a talented man, and a doctor of Taixue." Lu Wei has been studying a subset of Confucian classics since he was a child, and he is familiar with Confucian classics and has a fairly high Confucian quality.
Su Shu was also a representative of the Han scholars with high Confucian attainments. Su Qi helped Yuwen Tai carry out a large number of reforms guided by Confucianism, drafted the "Six Edicts", and worked with Lu Jie to reform the official system based on The Zhou Li. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Han scholars Lexun and Ming Kerang, who were proficient in Confucian classics, were also highly valued by the rulers.
The gradual course of feudalization practice
The gradual course of feudalization practice is mainly reflected in the process of the establishment and development of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou regimes, the measures implemented by the rulers in the Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties can reflect the gradual process of feudalization practice, and the feudalization practice in the Western Wei period is mainly embodied in the Confucian political ethics guiding ideology of "first ruling the heart and cultivating the heart".
"First Cure the Heart -- Confucian Ethics and Moral Indoctrination." The reform of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties with Confucian political ideas as the guiding ideology was mainly manifested in the six edicts drafted by Su Qi, the most important of which was "First Rule the Heart", which guided all other practical reform activities.
Yuwen Tai's edict put forward the idea of "ruling the heart first", so that the Confucian idea of governing the country and managing the government penetrated deep into the entire class, attached importance to feudal moral cultivation, and "first ruled the heart" with the Confucian example of a gentleman who "is a handsome man with a right, who dares to be not right" as the core, believing that the ruler should cultivate himself and abide by the Confucian way, and take the Confucian loyalty and filial piety, benevolence, and courtesy as the standard for the ruler's self-cultivation. Therefore, the "first rule of mind" first put forward extremely high requirements on the monarch and the official himself, and in the subsequent reform practice, the monarch and the official were required to demand themselves in accordance with the series of propositions put forward by the "first rule heart".
"Dun indoctrination" - to popularize the basic concept of Confucian governance. Under the guidance of Confucianism, which is mainly based on the first rule of the heart, the rulers of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties carried out a large number of reform practices, all of which reflected the guiding role of Confucianism. Among them, the "Dun indoctrination" clearly puts forward the indoctrination of the people in what ways and in what requirements after the officials have cultivated themselves. The rulers also demanded that officials educate the people, so that the country was governed by the officials first, and the heart was ruled first.
Zai Shou is the foundation of governing the people, but before managing the people, we must first clear their hearts, and there must be no greed or distractions, and officials are required not only to be honest and honest in their official style and not to be greedy for goods and wealth, but also to achieve purity, harmony, moderation, and tranquility, so that their thinking can remain quiet and quiet, so that they can see the truth and clearly observe the merits and wrongs.
Then he indoctrinated the people, "teach them to be filial, make the people loving, teach them to be benevolent, make the people harmonious, teach them with courtesy, and make the people respectful." "First govern the heart, educate the people" requires officials to use Confucian thought to purify the heart and cultivate themselves, and then to educate the people with the Confucian idea of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness, and to unify the people's thinking with the Confucian principle ethics, so that the people will submit to the rule of the feudal landlord class, which is conducive to the ruler's governance of the people.
Yuwentai also established Taixue, Guozixue and various types of schools, and attached importance to Confucian education for his children and all strata of society, so that Yuwentai solved the development direction of the Western Wei regime from the guiding ideology, ensuring that the Western Wei regime would always move forward on the road of feudalization, and then determine the prospects of its ruling politics.
The continuity of the Northern Zhou monarchs promoted the use of Confucian rule.
The emperors of the Northern Zhou Dynasty also vigorously promoted Confucianism to take Confucian political ethics as the guiding ideology of northern Zhou governance, and after Emperor Xiaomin Yuwen Jue ascended the throne, he used Lexun to "rule The Doctor of Taixue and turn to the Xiaoshi clan under the doctor", And Yu Wenjue also stipulated that the children of the imperial family should learn Confucian etiquette, "self-praise Wang Jian below, and bundle the etiquette of practicing disciples", it can be seen that Yu Wenjue also attached great importance to Confucian culture during his reign, and promoted Confucian culture as the mainstream idea of the society at that time.
Emperor Yuwen Yu of the Ming Dynasty received a good Confucian cultural education and was very fond of Han culture. The guiding ideology of reform advocated by Emperor Wu of Zhou during his reign can be seen that Emperor Wu of Zhou attached importance to the people and agricultural production of benevolent government.
Yuwen Yong attached great importance to Han culture, vigorously promoted Confucianism, and pushed Confucianism into official learning, so that Confucianism once again achieved a unique status. "The Imperial Palace of Great Virtue gathers hundreds of officials and Shamen and Taoist priests to personally preach the rites." Emperor Wu of Zhou spoke for the officials and monks of the Great Virtue Hall and the Daoist priests themselves, and the representative writings of Confucianism were written in the second year of Jiande, "In the second year of Jiande, "in the second month of December, the group of ministers and Shamen, The Taoists, etc., the emperor raised the throne, and the three religions were distinguished, with Confucianism as the first, Taoism as the second, and Buddhism as the second."
Emperor Wu of Zhou established the Three Religions to precede Confucianism with Buddhism, so a very important point of the reform of Emperor Yuwen Yong of Zhou Wu was to first establish Confucianism in a higher position in ideology, and then use Confucianism as the idea of Northern Zhou's governance reform. At the same time, the emperors also attached importance to the use of Confucianism to cultivate talents, and in the process of popularizing Confucianism, the guiding ideology of governing the country in Confucianism was also promoted in society, which promoted the Sinicization of the Xianbei people and accelerated the feudalization process of the Northern Zhou regime. Yuwen Tai and Emperor Wu of Zhou carried out many effective reform measures under the guidance of Confucianism.