Introduction: Liu Zongyuan's "Feudal Theory", what are the influences of the "system"? Why did the Qin State, the Great Qing Dynasty, and the Republic of China succeed? These historical events can corroborate, a brief discussion, the influence of Liu Zongyuan's "system"!
In ancient Chinese history, many literati or historians have their own views and opinions on society and system, they live in an era, and the analysis of the characteristics of an era is also very unique, especially some people in an imperfect era, such as Du Fu and Du Mu in the late Tang Dynasty; Su Shi, Su Xun, su Rui father and son in the Song Dynasty; or like Xin Zhiyi, these people are in a relatively imperfect historical era. And these people themselves are people with big ambitions.
They will have their own comments on the merits and deeds of their predecessors, and their own views and opinions on the historical phenomena and states of the previous generations. In addition, people like Jia Yi of the Han Dynasty and Liu Zongyuan of the Tang Dynasty, who were in a relatively peaceful historical period, expounded their views on certain historical phenomena because they were more or less unhappy about the future.
When we peel back the cocoon and look deeply at these views, we will find that perhaps what these people are writing about is only a certain historical phenomenon in a certain historical period, or a certain historical state, but in this historical phenomenon or a historical state, what is contained is actually an inevitable direction or result of the development of the entire historical society, especially Liu Zongyuan's "Feudal Theory" that we are going to talk about today.
Liu Zongyuan was a great writer of the Tang Dynasty and one of the eight great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and he left many famous articles for posterity to admire, such as "Jiang Xue" that he once wrote. In just twenty words, a wonderful snowy sky fishing map is sketched, and the artistic conception here is of great significance, and there is often an ethereal feeling when people read and appreciate it later. In addition to his achievements in literature, Liu Zongyuan also has his own unique features in history, just like the exposition in "Feudal Theory".
As a Tang Dynasty person, Liu Zongyuan cannot predict the historical development of later generations, but in his articles, we can find historical views that are highly consistent with the development of future generations, and these expositions of his are not only expounding the reasons and backgrounds for the rise and fall of the predecessors, but also can support the rise and fall of future generations through these views and arguments. Today, we will focus on the analysis of What is the reason for Liu Zongyuan's "Feudal Theory": Qin is better than the system?
Liu Zongyuan believes that the "system" of the political system determines the nature of society
Liu Zongyuan's focus in "Feudal Theory" is two aspects, one is politics, the other is the system, and this article focuses on the "system". "System" refers to the system, the discussion of the system is more inclined to society or civilization, we all know that the nature of China's historical society has changed many times, the most concise we can say that it is from the primitive society to the slave society and then became a feudal society, which is the three major parts of the development of ancient Chinese history, and determines the nature of this social political system.
In a slave society, the fundamental system of the whole country is the sub-feudal system, under which the state hierarchy is strict, each class has a clear division, and the inherent tasks of each class indicate the status of this class, and under such circumstances the slave society gradually takes shape.
Centralization was the support of power in feudal society
After the Qin state unified the Central Plains, the princely states ceased to exist, replaced by counties and counties, and the Son of Heaven ceased to exist, replaced by the emperor. Under the rule of the Qin Dynasty, there was no longer a political situation in which there was one Tianzi and multiple kings, and the power of tianzi would no longer be dispersed to the hands of various princes, and the political state of centralized power gradually formed. Under this, feudal society gradually completed its own transformation.
Therefore, in Liu Zongyuan's view, the "system" also has a completely different impact on the development of a dynasty, and the lack of a good system of support will inevitably lead to the subversion of a dynasty, and the entire dynasty will become very empty. In the long run, there will be problems in the change of dynasties, and there will be problems in the development of society, which will lead to the collapse of an era.
So, is there any truth to such a view? In the development of China's historical society for thousands of years, what strength can prove Liu Zongyuan's view? Or why can Liu Zongyuan's views not only summarize the historical development of the previous generation, but also support the historical development of later generations? Today, we will analyze and demonstrate whether Liu Zongyuan's view is really correct through specific examples.
The author believes that Liu Zongyuan's historical concept is more objective and detailed than the historical viewpoint in "Afang Gongfu" or "TheOry of the Six Kingdoms". In fact, it is not difficult to argue Liu Zongyuan's point of view, and we can see one or two through the historical development of the Qin Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.
First of all, why was Qin able to destroy the Six Kingdoms? In the "Theory of the Six Kingdoms", Su Xun said that it was because the people of the Six Kingdoms focused their energy on bribing the Qin state and ignored the development of their own comprehensive national strength, which led to the final demise. However, it should be known that under the historical pressure at that time, the six kingdoms of Shandong did not have any confidence to confront the Qin state head-on, each country's historical development had its own considerations, each country must also make guarantees for the interests of its own country, and the monarch of a country must be able to take into account the development of other countries under the condition of ensuring its own security.
Su Xun's view that "the State of Qi died because other countries bribed the State of Qin" was untenable
Therefore, many times, it is not that they do not dare to resist, but they cannot resist at all. What's more, Su Xun also said that the State of Qi did not bribe the State of Qin, and that the State of Qi perished because of the bribes of other countries to the State of Qin, but in fact, this view is untenable.
First of all, the State of Qi is an important ally in the policy of continuous horizontal relations and the policy of long-distance and close-range attack of the State of Qin, and the State of Qi has chosen to cooperate with the State of Qin under such a historical background, and has chosen to abandon the way of joint indulgence, perhaps the State of Qi has indeed not given the State of Qin any practical benefits in land and wealth, but this kind of spiritual convergence, this kind of indifference to other countries, is actually more serious than that kind of land bribery. Therefore, the State of Qi is not without bribes to the State of Qin, so the views in the "Theory of the Six Kingdoms" are actually rather one-sided.
At the same time, the "Afang Gongfu" also says that the Six Kingdoms could not love their subjects, so they perished; however, it is later said that the Qin Dynasty also led to the final demise because it did not love its subjects, which became a more contradictory statement. Could it be that the State of Qin loved its subjects before becoming a dynasty, and did not love after becoming a dynasty? This is certainly not possible.
However, a Qin state that did not love its own subjects destroyed the six kingdoms that also did not love its own subjects. Therefore, in fact, the fundamental factor why the Qin state was able to destroy the Six Kingdoms of Shandong did not lie in the attitude of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong to the Qin State, nor in the attitude of the Qin State to its own domestic subjects, but in the system. That is, the "system" that Liu Zongyuan said in the "Feudal Theory".
The reason why the Qin state was able to succeed was to choose the right system- the rule of law
Why was the Qin state able to succeed? That's because the historical system chosen by the State of Qin at that time was more advanced than that of other countries; at that time, the State of Chu chose the rule of division, the State of Yan chose the Royal Road, the State of Qi chose the rule of officials, the Republic of Korea chose the rule of art, the State of Zhao did not have a definite political system, the choice of the State of Wei was more similar to that of the rule of officials, and the choice of the State of Qin was the rule of law. Except for the Qin state, other countries chose to use people to govern the country, that is, their fundamental political system was actually the system left over from the Western Zhou Dynasty.
However, the reason why the late Western Zhou Dynasty will fall apart, the reason why there will be such a historical situation as the Spring and Autumn Warring States, is because it has no problems in the system, which is enough to show that the political system implemented by the Western Zhou Dynasty is no longer applicable in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, it is no longer in line with the trend of China's historical development, it is no longer enough to support the development of the entire Central Plains culture, so it will be gradually eliminated in the chaotic history, but the Six Kingdoms of Shandong still choose to undertake the political mode of the Western Zhou.
Can such a situation be supported by the historical context? The answer must be no. Perhaps the rule of law it applied at that time was different from the rule of law we are talking about today, but there is no doubt that in that historical period, the rule of law of the Qin State must have been the most suitable path for the historical development of China at that time, so the Qin State would succeed. Maybe we say this is not very clear to everyone, but if we combine the choice of the Qing Dynasty, you may understand.
The Qing Dynasty's choice of "system" was extremely convincing
The Qing Dynasty is the last dynasty of China's ancient feudal historical society, after the demise of the Qing Dynasty, China's more than two thousand years of feudal imperialism officially ended, feudal society has officially become the past tense of history, and it is precisely because of the final outcome of the Qing Dynasty that this dynasty has borne many crimes, many people have to sneer at it at this time, and even say that his dynasty is a dynasty that has long been lost in the hearts of the people.
However, let's think about it, the Qing Dynasty was a dynasty that ruled the Central Plains for hundreds of years, if it really lost the hearts of the people at the beginning, on what basis did it rule the Central Plains? Tang Taizong once said: Water can carry boats and can overturn boats, although most of the power in China's historical society is in the hands of the monarch, but there is no doubt that the number of agricultural nations is extremely large, if the agricultural nation really cut wood into soldiers, unveiled the pole as a banner, if a dynasty really loses the hearts of the people, then I believe that the world will definitely win the grain and shadow, and will rise up to resist to eliminate this historical dynasty.
However, the Qing Dynasty did not face such a situation, more importantly, in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Great Qing Dynasty lost almost half of the rivers and mountains, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was almost victorious in the historical period of total victory, even if the Xiang army that encountered Zeng Guofan in the later period was repeatedly victorious. However, it was such a movement that in the end it still failed to destroy the Qing Dynasty, still failed to conquer all the rivers and mountains of China, and still failed to overthrow the ruling regime of the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty was more popular than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
This is a problem, doesn't it mean that the Qing Dynasty has lost the hearts of the people? Then it should collapse in such a historical trend, just like the Qin Dynasty was gradually destroyed in the chen sheng wuguang uprising, it should slowly disintegrate, but it did not, so what does it mean?
It shows that the Qing Dynasty did not lose the hearts of the people on such a historical situation, or that people at that time did not find a better choice than the Qing Dynasty, so the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not eliminate the Qing Dynasty.
So, what was the most fundamental reason for the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? It is a problem of the system, in fact, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is essentially the same as the Qing Dynasty, it does not bring a new choice to the Chinese people, if the bottom masses of Chinese society follow the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from birth to death, then they spend a lot of time, at the cost of crushing their bones in exchange for only a ruling class like the Qing Dynasty, so why should they take this risk?
Then came to the Republic of China is different, the Republic of China and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom originally aimed the same, both rushed to destroy the Qing Dynasty. But the Republic of China eventually succeeded, because the Republic of China gave the Chinese a new choice, it brought a new system to the Chinese people, when the Chinese people at the bottom of the people took great risks to fight hard, they are likely to usher in a new historical period, they are likely to usher in a new ruling class, their lives may be completely different from the situation they are facing now.
The author believes that in the face of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty, people chose not to take risks and continue to stay under the rule of the Qing Dynasty. However, when the choice is made between the Republic of China and the Qing Dynasty, people are likely to choose the former, because the former is likely to bring them a different era, which is the advanced nature of the superiority of the system.
In fact, the later Republic of China was the same as the Qin State at that time, they all brought a new system choice to the people at that time, so that they understood that they had another way of life, so under the influence of this new system, they were likely to make different choices, at least some people would make a choice.
In fact, this is beyond reproach, under the same risk, people will definitely choose the road that can get more benefits for themselves, and the Qin Dynasty and the Republic of China are obviously the road that can get more benefits for themselves. Therefore, in fact, Liu Zongyuan's view that "Qin is better than the system" mentioned in the "Feudal Theory" is very correct. Therefore, the reason why the Qin state was able to eliminate the six kingdoms of Shandong was fundamentally based on the superiority of the system.
References: New Book of Tang, Zizhi Tongjian, Feudal Theory, etc