In the history of the world, both China and the British feudal period experienced the "Seven Kingdoms Period" for hundreds of years, and finally the unification of the Qin State and the Kingdom of Wessex was achieved. However, the outcomes of the two after reunification are very different, and two completely different historical trends have emerged.
This article attempts to provide a new way of thinking, to re-sort the history from another perspective to explore the development laws and internal reasons behind it for reference.
I. The "Seven Kingdoms Era" of China and the history after the unification of the Qin Dynasty
In 476 BC, the Spring and Autumn Period ended, the Warring States Period began, and China entered a feudal society.
In 453 BC, the State of Jin was established by the "Three Families divided into Jin" as the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei and Han, and the pattern of "Seven Heroes of the Warring States".
Above_Sengoku Seven Heroes
In 403 BC, King Weilie of Zhou officially enfeoffed the three families of Zhao, Wei, and Han as princes. In 386 BC, King An of Zhou enfeoffed Tian He as the Marquis of Qi, and in 379 BC duke Qi Kang died, and the Surname of Qi was "Tian Dai Qi".
In 356 BC, the Qin state implemented the "Shang martingale transformation method" to rapidly increase its national strength, and the six kingdoms of Shandong adopted the "hezhong" against the Qin state, but as Su Qin was stabbed and disintegrated, it was eventually broken by the Qin state's "continuous horizontal" and "long-distance and close-range attack".
In 260 BC, the State of Qin defeated the State of Zhao in the "Battle of Changping", laying the foundation for unification.
Qin Shi Huang (259 BC – 210 BC), courtesy name
In 230 BC, The Qin Emperor Yingzheng began a war to unify the whole country, successively destroying the six kingdoms of Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan, and Qi, and unifying China and establishing the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC. In 210 BC, Qin Shi Huang died of illness in the sand dunes during a parade, and his son Hu Hai succeeded to the throne as Qin II.
In 209 BC, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolted in Dazexiang, sounding the clarion call of the peasant revolt at the end of Qin. In 207 BC, Zhao Gao forced Qin II to commit suicide and made him the King of Qin. Forty-six days later, The infant surrendered to Liu Bang, and the Qin Dynasty collapsed. He has been in the country for 14 years.
Ii. The "Seven Kingdoms Era" of Britain and the history of the unification of Wessex
In 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire collapsed and Western Europe entered feudal society. The anglo-Saxon entry into England ("England" evolved from the Old English "Engla-land", meaning Anglo land) replaced the power vacuum left behind by the retreat of the Western Roman Empire.
Above_Seven Kingdoms Era
At the beginning of the 6th century AD, england formed seven kingdoms: the Kingdom of Kent, the Kingdom of Sussex, the Kingdom of Wessex, the Kingdom of Essex, Northumbria, the Kingdom of East Anglia and the Kingdom of Mercia.
At the end of the 6th century AD, the Kent Kingdom dominated England during the reign of King Eterbert, and was replaced by King Riddwald of the Kingdom of East Anglia, followed by the rise of the Kingdom of Mercia, which dominated Southern England during the reign of King Etelwald in the 8th century, and reached its peak during the reign of King Ofa, controlling East Anglia, Kent, and Sussex and forcing Wessex and Northumbria to submit, and later the hegemony was replaced by the Kingdom of Wessex.
In 829 AD, King Albert of the Kingdom of Wessex unified the other six kingdoms and established the Wessex Dynasty of England. Soon after the Danes invaded England.
During the reign of Alfred the Great in 878 AD, he defeated the Danes at the Battle of Eddington, saving southern England from invasion.
King Essestan drove out the Danes during his reign and ruled England in 927 AD, in 1016 King Edmund II was assassinated, and the Wessex dynasty ended for more than a hundred years.
Albert (c. 770– 839) was king of Wessex on the British is the 8th century
Why is there such a big difference between China and the UK after the end of the "Seven Kingdoms Era"?
Also ending the "Seven Kingdoms Era", why the difference between the unified Qin Dynasty and the Wessex Dynasty is so large, it can be summarized as follows:
1. Political reasons
Politically, the feudal imperial autocracy of the Qin Dynasty was prone to tyranny, for example, the construction of the Great Wall increased the burden of servitude on the people, coupled with excessively harsh punishments, which could easily cause class contradictions to intensify rapidly, thus shaking the rule of the Qin Dynasty. In contrast, the Wessex dynasty was ruled by a joint king and a meeting of the sages, so the process of feudalization was slower and more restrictive than that of the Qin Dynasty. All in all, the Qin Dynasty died of tyranny, not of the system, so guozuo was much shorter than the Wessex dynasty.
Above_Qin two halves (Qin unified currency)
2. Economic reasons
Economically, the Qin Dynasty had heavy taxes, and the peasants had to hand over two-thirds of the harvest to the government for taxation ("Tai Half of the Endowment"), which was 20 times that of the previous period, mainly the field tax and the poll tax, and the heavy tax plus land annexation could easily make the peasants bankrupt and lose their land, coupled with heavy servitude that caused a large number of people to leave production, and the fields were deserted, resulting in the destruction of the order of economic activities, which led to social unrest, which became the direct cause of the collapse of the dynasty and the social and economic withering. Therefore, it also made the Qin Dynasty much shorter than the Wessex Dynasty.
3. Cultural reasons
Culturally, the Qin Dynasty's "book burning pit Confucianism" dealt a heavy blow to the cultural prosperity situation and accelerated the demise of the Qin Dynasty. At the same time, the construction of the Great Wall is not conducive to the integration of the north and the south, and promotes the conservative and closed concept of national character. In contrast, England successively accepted Christianity as early as the "Seven Kingdoms Era" in the seventh century AD, so that all countries had a common sense of religious belief and psychological identity, and used religion as a link to consolidate the foundation of unity, so that it grew greater than the Qin state.
Above_Christian oil painting
4. Geographical reasons
In addition, geographical reasons are also an important reason why the Qin Dynasty is very different from the Wessex Dynasty, and the invasion of the Danish Vikings objectively made the Wessex Dynasty turn its attention abroad, thus diverting some domestic contradictions. After the Qin Dynasty defeated the Xiongnu, domestic contradictions became increasingly prominent.
In addition, Britain's geographical location made it difficult for external forces to successfully invade (as exemplified by the defeats of the Spanish Armada, the First French Reich, and Nazi Germany) in order to maintain the country's smooth development and independence. As Marx put it: "Nature at first stood up to man as a completely alien, infinitely powerful and irrepressible force, and man's relationship with him was like an animal obeying its power." ”
Above_Map of the Qin Dynasty
4. Summary
Henri-Irene Maru said in History as Knowledge: "History is the knowledge of mankind's past. ”
In summary, due to political, economic, cultural, geographical and other reasons, the Qin Dynasty, which also ended the "Seven Kingdoms Era", was shorter than the Wessex Dynasty in terms of state. This does not mean that the Qin Dynasty lagged behind the Wessex Dynasty, as Zhao Xinshan wrote in Philosophy and the Contemporary World: "History is a mirror that illuminates the reality and the future." ”
The Qin Dynasty established the first unified multi-ethnic state in China's history, the implementation of the "three princes and nine secretaries" and the county system, the promulgation of the Qin law, the unification of laws, currency, weights and measures, "the same track", "the same book", the construction of chi road and spiritual canal and many other measures have a pivotal position in the history of the world.
As Raymond Aron put it in the Philosophy of History: "History always serves life, it provides examples, evaluates the past, or places the present moment in the process of generation-evolution." "Later generations have continued to learn and innovate on the basis of the Qin Dynasty, thus composing a splendid Chinese culture that continues to this day."
Text: MengqiRen
References: German Ideology? Feuerbach, History as Knowledge, Philosophy of History, History, Warring States Policy, Zizhi Tongjian, Global General History, General History of China, Philosophy and the Contemporary World
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author