Introduction: When the ancient Chinese agricultural peoples were oppressed, why did they always resist last? Social background, monarchical influence, and especially class issues are psychological gaps that they cannot overcome
In the ancient history and society of ancient China, the power of the king is the greatest, which is why the monarch was regarded as a mythical figure in ancient China, and why so many people like to be emperors, and even give up their family love and love in order to be emperors. After all, in the history of ancient China, power has always been that eternal topic, and ancient China was a patriarchal society, in which a man may be able to resist the temptation of money, may be able to resist the temptation of beauty, but it is too difficult to resist the temptation of power.
Therefore, there will be so many power struggles in history, but the higher the status, the greater the responsibility, this is an eternal and unchangeable topic, the status of the monarch is of course high, but at the same time the monarch has to do a lot, the rise and fall of a person's country and the monarch also have an inseparable relationship, therefore, the responsibility of the monarch as a management class is also very important.
Ancient farmers were responsible for food production and were vital to society as a whole
However, in the historical development of ancient China, there was a class of people whose responsibilities and obligations were equally great, but they did not have the same power as the monarch, but although their power was not large, they had a heavy burden on them. This class is the people of the agricultural class, that is, the peasants. Agricultural peoples have played an important role in Chinese history. They were responsible for the production of grain; we all know that ancient Chinese society was a society that emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, and the development of agriculture was of vital importance to the whole society, so the peasants actually made a great contribution to the development of society.
The main body of China's ancient economy was an agrarian nation, and peasants shouldered the heavy responsibility of paying taxes
And fiscal revenue is often linked to the overall strength of a country, and a country's comprehensive strength, especially in the era of cold weapons, economic strength often determines the country's military strength, even now, it is the economic foundation that determines the superstructure. Therefore, the agricultural nation may not be remarkable, may be too ordinary, but the agricultural nation is the top priority to support the development of a country.
Farmers are a large group, and water can carry boats and overturn boats
However, the development of every thing has its two-sided existence, Tang Taizong once said, water can carry a boat can also overturn the boat, although the individual seems that the social status is not high, the income is not high, and there is no big state power in the hands, but it cannot be ignored that a country has only one monarch, one or two ministers, but the peasants are a very large group, and the individual does not seem to have any influence, but if it is combined, the impact will be a dynasty.
Just as Tang Taizong said: Water can carry boats and overturn boats, and the power of a water droplet is not very powerful, but the power of a vast ocean cannot be ignored. However, on this basis, we can find an interesting phenomenon of the agricultural peoples in China's history, that is, they are often unable to resist the oppression they have suffered at the first time, and they cannot say the deepest influence in their minds at the first time, even if they are large in number and the foundation of a country's development, but this class is the most vulnerable class.
Today we will mainly analyze the agricultural class in ancient Chinese history.
Look at why people in this class are always unable to rebel against the oppression they have received, why they are always unable to conform to their hearts.
The agrarian ethnic groups have a large population and low social status, and are the first to be harmed
The first point is because of the problem of social status
。 The agrarian people, though important, are the largest class in a country. But the agrarian peoples are also the lowest socially ranked class in this society, they have no power in their hands, they do not have great wealth, and if they encounter a national crisis, they do not even have the opportunity to protect themselves, and basically every time they are the first to bear the harm.
Moreover, the life of their class is not guaranteed, and if they encounter a well-developed historical period, such as the rule of Wenjing, such as the rule of Zhenguan, or like the yongle prosperous kang yongqian, such a brilliant golden stage of history is fine. If they encounter a period of great historical chaos such as the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, or the Three Kingdoms, two Jin, and Northern Dynasties, the survival of agricultural peoples will become a question of life and death that threatens them. Therefore, social status is an important obstacle to the expression of their own aspirations by agricultural peoples.
The agrarian peoples were greatly influenced by the monarch
Second, it would be nice if the agrarian nation could meet an enlightened monarch
Like the first monarchs of the Tang Dynasty, their control over society is not very tight, the social atmosphere is still relatively enlightened, and some small events will not be punished greatly, but if they encounter emperors like the monarchs of the Qing Dynasty, even a word problem may lead to the sins of the Nine Tribes, and the agricultural nation will have even less opportunity and courage to oppose.
again
If you want to rebel against a policy or a treatment, then it is necessary to rebel against a group of the imperial court, many times the arms are not twisted thighs, just some people who have no power and no status, no wealth to rebel against some people who have the ability, wealth, power, and status, which is basically impossible in ancient China.
Besides, the first person to stand up is always the first person to be impacted, and many times it is like this, the first person to start out does not get a good result, and it is always the later people who gradually work hard to get the desired result. For example, Chen Shi and Wu Guang, who first launched the uprising, the results of their uprising were ultimately attributed to Liu Bang's body, even Xiang Yu, so under the premise that it was impossible to determine whether it would succeed, or under the premise that it was necessary to pay a huge price, no one was willing to be the first person to eat crabs.
Therefore, the style of tying hands and feet makes it impossible for the agricultural nation to stand up in time to resist the unfair treatment it has received. Therefore, in ancient times, the agrarian peoples were also the most involuntary, their lives were most vulnerable to threats, their security was also the most vulnerable, and on this basis they also had to bear the heavy responsibilities of the family and heavy taxes. Therefore, in fact, social status is a big shackle that imprisoned the ancient agricultural peoples.
The problem of class is the insurmountable psychological divide of the agrarian nation
The second big reason is the problem of class. You can think about what it was like when there was an emperor in ancient Chinese history. All men lived an orderly life under the emperor's domination, and each class had its own things to do. In that case, they were a whole, an orderly group.
However, in this case, if you encounter a tyrant, then you can only live a little tightly, and the social situation you face is not so enlightened, but the life of the vast majority of people can still go on. Man is like this, seeking advantage and avoiding harm, and we also said above that if the agricultural nation resists, it will inevitably face the end of paying a huge price.
Therefore, the vast majority of people are not willing to resist under the conditions that they can live on, and they will not resist for others. Moreover, the agrarian nation cannot represent itself in that historical context, and Marx once said that the agrarian nation is a bag of potatoes assembled by a single potato, and they cannot represent themselves at all but by others, and this representative must also give them the rain and sunshine they need from above.
Therefore, the peasants are not actually representative of themselves, they cannot do it at all, because the class of the agrarian nation is actually very large and complex, and in this class, the population is large, and there are many things to consider, so it can be said that in this class it can be said that there is a mixture of fish and dragons, so when people in this class encounter things, they are not able to deal with them very well.
The agricultural people are influenced by the historical background and cannot control their own destiny
At the same time, under the influence of the historical background of China at that time, they could not touch the most fundamental opportunity for historical development, so this class actually had no way to fully control its own destiny and the development of the country, which is why Marx said that they must be represented by others.
In fact, this is not the fault of the agrarian class, but the fundamental drawbacks of the imperial system chosen by Chinese history, which can only be compensated for by the change of dynasties, so that before the conditions for dynastic change are met, the agricultural nation can only keep its duty, and can only accept the rain and dew and sunshine brought to them by the monarch from above.
This is a question of class, related to the historical background of the time, and is not the most fundamental loophole or error of people in this class, because living under such historical conditions, they may not have their own choices.
Social problems affect the idea of agricultural national resistance, and it is better to have a tyrant than a mob when it is a last resort
There is also a social problem, which is the third reason and is a more important one. As we have already said above, when there is only one emperor in China's historical society, people will follow in the footsteps of this person to carry out orderly development, and when this emperor is a tyrant, in fact, the people he affects are not the vast majority, or in other words, the influence of most of the people he affects is not extremely serious, although many people cannot live a rich life under such historical conditions, but their lives can also be carried out.
But let's think about it in another way, when there were no emperors in Chinese history? In fact, if there is no emperor, then everyone is an emperor. We can see this through the development of the late Western Zhou Dynasty, which saw the emergence of great historical chaos in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, which is what we later called the Spring and Autumn Warring States.
At that time, there were multiple kings with one Son of Heaven, and everyone can imagine that there were multiple kings under a Son of Heaven who would have a situation of chaos among the princes, what if a country did not have a Son of Heaven? Isn't everyone able to be called king? If it really reaches such a historical period, then basically a person can be counted as a force body, and the combination of multiple forces can be regarded as countless factions, and the struggle among these factions must be very cruel.
We know that the disputes between the major princely states in the late Warring States period were extremely cruel, but it was only the struggle of seven countries in the Central Plains, and the struggle of only seven princely states was already so chaotic and complicated, so what if it was countless power groups? It can be said that if the agricultural nation really does not meet the historical conditions to resist, then it will create many mobs, and the influence of the mob is far greater than that of the tyrants, which is the real scene of bloody and floating corpses.
Therefore, the agricultural people actually have their own grievances, and under the premise of still having opportunities, under the condition of unavoidable necessity, the agricultural peoples would rather want a tyrant than a mob.
A tyrant who slightly affects his own life must be better than a mob surrounded by people fighting for power, so this is actually a social problem. Again, if there is no emperor, then everyone will be a king, and there will be no way for people to unify, and there will be no way to truly enter a stable historical period for development, then the historical society of the country will actually reach an irreconcilable situation. Therefore, it is not that it is good for the development of the times to resist when you feel the pressure, but that a certain degree of pressure will enhance the development of society, which is the conclusion obtained from the practice of the entire Chinese history.
Review
The author thinks
In fact, the agricultural peoples of ancient China were very difficult, they were faced with choices, but they did not dare to choose easily, or they could not choose easily, because once a choice was made, it would be a matter of the whole class, and the matter of class would be extended to become a matter of society, and even a matter of historical development. Therefore, it is difficult for China's history to have an uprising until the last resort.
The influence of our ancient Chinese historical society on the choice of system is not a system that relies on commerce to develop the economy, nor is it a system that unifies by democracy, it is an imperial system derived from the feudal monarchy. The birth and rule of the empire must have been accompanied by a struggle for power, and it must have been accompanied by a change of power. Therefore, in such a process, the agrarian nation plays a very important role, and this role cannot be easily changed, that is to say, agricultural democracy cannot make completely arbitrary choices.
References: Zizhi Tongjian, Shiji, Hanshu, Qingshi, New Book of Tang, etc