Many costume film and television dramas, especially historical dramas with the theme of the Qing Dynasty, audience friends often hear the titles of prince, county king, baylor, brother and so on. These people are all close confidants of the emperor, or relatives of the emperor.
Due to the existence of a more complex royal system in ancient China, taking the prince and the county king as an example to analyze, the same are the princes, in the end who has more power and higher status in their hands? Why is there such a huge disparity in status between the two with only one word difference?
The ancient Chinese system of conferring kings and knights should have originated as early as the last years of the Warring States. In 207 BC, the Qin Dynasty officially collapsed, and Xiang Yu, a descendant of the Chu State, led a coalition army into Guanzhong, honoring King Huai of Chu as the Righteous Emperor, declaring himself the King of Western Chu, and making Liu Bang, the first to enter Guanzhong, the King of Han.
In order to resist Xiang Yu, Liu Bang also wantonly divided the princes with different surnames, and Han Xin, Peng Yue, Yingbu and others should be the earliest princes with different surnames in the history of our country.
After Liu Bang established the Western Han Dynasty, he also wantonly divided the clan rooms. It was not until Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty issued the "Tui En Order" that these princes who could not be eliminated were solved.
The Han Dynasty collapsed, followed by the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Sui and Tang Dynasties. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the emperor's brothers or sons were given the title of Yizi Wang, and other close relatives were given the title of Erzi Wang. It was from this period that rulers deliberately used titles to distinguish between kinship and alienation.
For example, in the TV series "Xue Rengui", Li Daozong, the cousin of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, was named Prince Cheng. However, Li Daozhong's official title in history was the King of Jiangxia, which was far from the standard of a prince.
In general, before the Qing Dynasty, the emperors of successive dynasties were enthroned, or meritorious ministers, mostly depended on the blood relationship between them. Most of these princes' titles are also very exquisite, and the fewer the basic word count, the higher the power and status.
During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang formulated a one-character prince, and in addition to his concubines inheriting the throne, other concubines were crowned as county kings.
During the Qing Dynasty, the Ai Xin Jue Luo family added "kin" to the king's name. For example, Prince Yong, Prince Li, Prince Zheng and so on. A brief introduction to the historical royal system is conducive to clarifying the relationship between the prince and the county king.
In the 267 years of the Qing Dynasty, a total of 12 Iron Hat Kings appeared. The Iron Hat King has hereditary qualifications, and the other princes do not have this special treatment. The only hard criterion for becoming the King of the Iron Hat is to see if this person is a prince or not.
During the Qing Dynasty, the hierarchical system of clan titles was ranked first in terms of princes, followed by the king of the county, Baylor, as well as the Duke of Zhenguo, the Duke of Fuguo, the general of Zhenguo and so on.
Judging from the actual treatment, the princes of the Qing Dynasty could receive 10,000 taels of silver and about 2 million catties of grain from the state treasury every year. The king of the county received 5,000 taels of silver and about 1 million catties of grain every year. The treatment of the rest of baylor, the town duke, and the auxiliary state duke must be reduced in turn. Then, from the actual money received by the prince and the king of the county, the prince absolutely dominates.
There is a saying that goes, "Man dies for money, and birds die for food." Even in ordinary companies, those employees with high salaries are all outstanding performance, or related to the boss.
What's more, during the feudal period, the hierarchy of kings and lords was very strict. It is an indisputable fact that the prince receives higher treatment than the county king every year, and it also means that the prince is of a higher rank and higher status than the county king.
By what standard did the emperor crown princes and counties or other meritorious courtiers? Emperors generally rely on their origins and military merit as the basic criteria for sealing kings and knights. To put it more bluntly, all the people who can be crowned as princes are clansmen who are related to the emperor.
After the entry of the Later Jin, the knighthood must be awarded according to the most basic criteria of clan lineage. The king of the county is also generally a relative of the emperor, and may be only a distant cousin of the emperor, or a nephew and uncle, which is far less similar to the relationship between the prince and the emperor.
Taking Xue Rengui as an example, the historical Xue Rengui, the highest title he obtained in his lifetime was only a county duke, not even a duke.
Stills of Xue Rengui
It can be seen from this that in ancient times, those generals with different surnames wanted to obtain the titles of princes and county kings by virtue of military merit, and it was also difficult to ascend to the heavens. Except for the early Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang had no choice but to divide the kings with different surnames, with the premise of trying to resist Xiang Yu. In most dynasties, princes are only those who are related to the royal family and can enjoy such a special title.
In any dynasty, the canonization of princes and counties depended on nothing more than blood relations, and the other relied on military merit and contribution. It is worth noting that no matter how much a person has made great military merits and contributions to the country, he can basically only be named the king of the county, and it is unlikely that he will be made a prince (one-word king).
Moreover, the title obtained by this kind of foreign surname prince can be hereditary. Can be inherited to each generation, must take the initiative to demote the first level.
In addition, of the 12 iron hat kings canonized by the Qing Dynasty, only two were county kings, and the remaining ten were princes. It is not difficult to see the emperor's trust in the prince (his own brother).
The Iron Hat King is also the highest ranking candidate in the ancient history of our country, in addition to the emperor. (During the Wei and Jin dynasties, there were princes similar to the Iron Hat King, generally higher-ranking clans, who would be crowned as princes, or kings, that is, one-character kings, with historical state names, such as Qi Wang, Zhao Wang)
Finally, the difference between the one-character king and the two-character king only appeared after the Wei and Jin dynasties. At that time, the rank of kings began to be assigned, such as princes, county kings, and county kings. In fact, in the early days of the Western Han Dynasty, the king was the king, and there was no hierarchy. For example, the King of Huainan and the King of Changshan, these are on an equal footing with the King of Qi and the King of Chu.
Of course, with the different social environment of each dynasty, the various titles and title systems will also differ in detail, which is roughly the same.
During the Ming Dynasty, all of Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants were hereditary and passed down from generation to generation, resulting in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, where the Zhu family was everywhere. These vassals held so much power in their hands that resentment grew.
Including the Tang Dynasty and the last years of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it was because the kings of various local domains supported the army and respected themselves, which became the fuse for the collapse of the regime. During the Qing Dynasty, the Ai Xin Jue Luo family learned the lessons of the previous dynasty and did not divide the princes to various places, but left them all in the capital to live, which was equivalent to captivity.
Between the prince and the county king, they are two kinds of princes of higher rank. The prince may be the emperor's younger brother, brother or immediate family member, and the county king is also a relative of the emperor.
The reason why there is only one word difference between the prince and the county king, but the gap is very large, is nothing more than the scum system of feudal society at work.
The so-called Iron Hat King, Prince or County King is only because they have made a significant contribution to the country and thus gained privileges that can benefit their children and grandchildren. And these princes who are high above will not pay any attention to the suffering of the common people.
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