During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period before the Qin Dynasty, the Qin State had many famous historical figures, such as bai qi , the god of war .
Wu Anjun
and the shang god Lü Buwei (
Wen Xin Hou
) and so on. When we future generations study or understand this history, we may have such a discovery, that is, the same
All are of great merit to the country
But why are some people a prince and some people are a prince? Could it be that there is some other hierarchy of status between this Hou and jun?
Before the beginning of the main text, the author will briefly introduce the twentieth class military merit system in the Qin and Han Dynasties (
Martingale is established
）。 After the Shang Martingale Reform Law, in order to encourage farming and combating private struggles, the qin state changed the original hereditary title system to a military merit system that was promoted or demoted by military merit.
This system of military merit is divided into twenty grades, of which the first fourteen are the highest ranks that ordinary soldiers can promote (
There are exceptions, but a few
The fourth rank is the highest rank that ordinary nobles or magnates can promote, and the second rank is the highest title of the Qin state, that is, the marquis (
Among the twentieth rank of military merit, there is no such thing as a jun
）。
Next is the main text link, which is the author's personal views on the jun and hou, if there is any error, please correct.
First, you can't be a prince, you can only be a prince
We all know that although the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period belonged to the chaotic world of strife and chaos, it is said that there are still zhou royal families between countries. Although the Zhou royal family at that time had declined to the point where no one was willing to pay attention, he was still orthodox on the surface. Moreover, as long as the Zhou royal family exists for one day, the rules of the Zhou royal family, the princes must abide by it for one day on the surface. According to the provisions of the Zhou Dynasty ritual music system, there were five grades of knighthood system from the royal family below, namely
public
，
marquis
uncle
child
man
。
In fact, the State of Qin was just a small marquis state at that time (
Before King Huiwen of Qin
）。 As mentioned earlier, there is also an optional Zhou royal family in front of the Qin state, and as long as the Zhou royal family exists, the Qin state must obey the rules of the Zhou royal family. Then here things are actually clear, since the Qin state is a marquis, then he can naturally only divide the titles below the marquis, for the marquis himself and the dukes above the marquis, he naturally has no power to divide the title, even if he sets up a marquis promotion mechanism in his own country (
Deceive the civilian population
Here I also need to mention, in fact, there is
King Zhaoxiang of Qin
Previously, the State of Qin did not have a marquis except for the royal family. Even nobles such as Shang Martin of Qin Xiaogong and Zhang Yi of King Huiwen of Qin are only titles of kings and below.
In addition, although the title of junjue did not appear in the fifth-class title system of the Zhou royal family and the twentieth-class military merit system of the Qin state, it was still the highest title below the marquis, which was beyond doubt (
Specific reference is made to the last four monarchs of the Wei Dynasty
Second, the marquis is honored by the monarch
As mentioned earlier, the prince is the second rank of the marquis, which shows that the marquis is greater than the monarch. So here's the problem again.
Although hou is greater than jun, then is hou honorable to jun?
In fact, there are two answers to this question, and the author mentioned in the subheading is only one of them, but it is also a popular view at present.
Before the King of Qin Zhaoxiang, in that era, because there was no marquis but only a king, the power of the king was second only to the lord of a country. There may be friends here who are curious,
Why did he always mention King Zhaoxiang of Qin, and why was he qualified to be a marquis?
In fact, during the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, he directly moved the Zhou royal family Jiuding, which symbolized the status of the lord of the world, back to Xianyang, and the entry of Jiuding into Xianyang meant that the Qin state already had it, and single-handedly countered the strength of the entire Six Kingdoms of Shandong and the Zhou royal family.
And with such strength, doesn't it mean that the Qin State no longer needs to look at any of the faces and rules of the Zhou royal family? Therefore, it is precisely because of this that King Zhaoxiang of Qin has the qualifications to be a marquis. Here I will go back to answer the two answers mentioned above, the first is that the marquis is indeed honored to the monarch, because there were two marquises during the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin (
Fan Ju and Wei Ran
) Four fiefs (
Three relatives of Bai Qi and the King of Qin
And in terms of power, the owner of the marquis is far superior to the owner of the monarch (
Speaking of the degree of honor alone, Marquis Lü Buwei of Wenxin far surpassed Wu Anjun Baiqi
Second, the marquis is equal to the monarch in the degree of honor. This point was mainly before King Zhaoxiang of Qin, and it was also only aimed at the Shang martingale during the Qin Xiaogong period. When we look through the history of the Qin state, it is not difficult to find that the Duke of Qin Xiaogong to the King of Qin Wu (
Brother of King Zhaoxiang of Qin
Among the three monarchs of the period, only one person was crowned as a prince, namely the Shangjun Shangmartin. During the period of Qin Xiaogong, Shang Martin not only had the fiefdom of fifteen cities, but also the same house as Qin Xiaogong. From this point of view, the honor of shang martingale was far greater than that of all the marquises in later generations.
The article is about to end here, about the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, what is the difference between Jun and Hou, such as Wenxin Marquis Lü Buwei and Wu'an Jun baiqi question, the author's personal answer is:
In fact, there is not much difference between the two, if you have to divide the high and low, it can only be said that the king (title) is slightly lower than the marquis (title).
The reason is that in the history of the Qin State, all those who were eligible for the title of prince were eligible for the title of marquis, and the reason why there was no title was nothing more than to ensure the stability of the state power, after all, the marquis could have his own independent fiefdom.
Resources
: "History", "Spring and Autumn", "Book of Han", etc.
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