The "county system" and the "sub-feudal system" are the two major political systems in history, and the Zhou Dynasty initially adopted the sub-feudal system, but after that, the Qin Dynasty chose the "county system". Because the Qin Dynasty was relatively short-lived, the county system was not fully rooted in the hearts of the people, and because of the short life, the politicians of the Han Dynasty were thinking about whether the "county system" was reasonable or unreasonable. When the Han Dynasty was established, it also faced this problem, should it adopt the county system or the sub-feudal system? The final answer is the "county-state parallel system", that is, the "county system" and "sub-feudal system" are adopted at the same time. Why did the Western Han Dynasty adopt the "county-state parallel system"? Are there any benefits to this? Today, Jiang Lang will take you to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of this.
The choice between the county system and the sub-feudal system
Liu Bang: Dear Aiqing, now that Jiangshan has just been defeated, what political system should we use?
Ai Qing a: Your Majesty, we should adopt the sub-sealing system, after all, the Zhou Dynasty insisted on a life span of more than eight hundred years with the sub-sealing system.
Liu Bang: Ai Qing, are you cursing the Han Dynasty that its life span can only live more than eight hundred years? Dragged out and chopped.
Ai Qing B: Your Majesty, we should adopt the county system.
Liu Bang: Ai Qing, I watched the Qin Dynasty perish, don't you want to pit me? Dragged out and chopped.
Ai Qing scolded and grinned away...
Liu Bang: Hey, it's better to ask for others than to ask for yourself, or think of your own way.
Liu Bang was born in 256 BC, and a major event occurred in this year, that is, the fall of Eastern Zhou. The political system adopted by the Zhou Dynasty was the sub-feudal system, which did have a certain effect at first, but the ties established by "blood relations" gradually weakened over time, and the Zhou Dynasty quickly declined. The lesson of the demise of the previous dynasty was the primary problem of the new dynasty, so after the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, the "sub-feudal system" was abolished. However, the Qin Dynasty also perished not long ago, and its life expectancy was not as good as that of the Zhou Dynasty. After that, Xiang Yu also divided the kings, but it did not take long to die, and he died at the hands of Liu Bang. In this case, Liu Bang is very sensitive, will he repeat Xiang Yu's mistakes?
Children ask right and wrong, adults only consider the pros and cons. The question considered by the emperor was whether the country was stable, not whether the system was perfect, and the study of ancient policies must be based on a law, that is, maintaining stability is greater than the sky! In theory, the "county system" is indeed more perfect than the "sub-feudal system", but there is no perfect policy, and when the dream shines into reality, the theoretical results will be biased. The "county parallel system" itself is actually a compromise on reality, which is a choice after weighing the pros and cons, although it is not very perfect, but it is already the best choice at that time. Next, we will expand the advantages and disadvantages of the "sub-feudal system" and "county system" to see if the compromise strategy of the Western Han Dynasty is useful.
Comparison of pros and cons in terms of stability maintenance
Liu Bang: Dear Qingqing, you will talk about the pros and cons, and I will see what to choose.
Ai Qing a (representative of the sub-feudal system): Your Majesty, now that the world has just been established, it is not yet peaceful. If the heroes are divided into different places and let the heroes guard the land, then there will be a lot of peace?
Ai Qing b (county representative): Your Majesty, he is the pit of you. Don't forget, when Xiang Yu first sealed you to ShuDi, you ended up forcing Xiang Yu to die. We should adopt the county system to strengthen the control of the central government over the localities and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.
Ai Qing a: It is easy for you to touch the skin of your mouth, Han Xin holds heavy troops, Peng Yue has made outstanding achievements in battle, and which of those heroes is not famous. Can they give up without splitting the earth and sealing the marquis? In case of a mutiny, you will send it to your death!
When Liu Bang was proclaimed emperor, he promised that "those who have meritorious service will split the soil and be crowned king", at this time, Han Xin, Peng Yue, and Han Wangxin are all soldiers, and untrustworthiness is tantamount to the emperor forcing the general to rebel. Therefore, Zhai Bozan (professor of history at Peking University) believes that Liu Bang's sealing of the king with a different surname is just an recognition of the allied forces, these people are all entitled to no name, and the name of the king is only different. But the tragedy of Xiang Yu is vividly remembered, when Xiang Yu was sealed out of a Liu Bang, will Liu Bang be divided into another "Liu Bang" now? Will today's Liu Bang become yesterday's Xiang Yu? Based on this lesson, Liu Bang successively cut off the kings with different surnames after the division, but the world was not peaceful, and the border troubles were forbidden.
In order to avoid the scourge of the Xiongnu spreading to the interior, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Qin Dynasty, and in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Xiang Yu, Liu Bang decided to seal the Liu clan relatives in a big way, and the history book said: "The sea was initially determined, there were few disciples, and the Qin isolated and died, so the same surname was sealed to zhen tianxia." "Probably the meaning is that the Qin Dynasty was isolated and destroyed because of the small number of people, and I want to learn this lesson and strengthen the strength of the Liu clan." This effect is still valid, and the specific pros and cons are as follows:
1: Dividing the kings with the same surname to avoid repeating the mistakes of Xiang Yu is indeed conducive to national stability in the short term (the princes of the interior replace the kings of different surnames, and the princes of the frontier resist the frontier). But blood relations will be indifferent, when we have the New Year, there will always be some relatives in the family who can't be named, and these are only a few generations that can't even call out the name, is it still a relative if it is passed on for more than a dozen generations?
2: To avoid repeating the mistakes of the Qin state, the Qin state directly adopted the "county system", which was bound to touch the interests of the local indigenous people (the nobles of the six countries), so it was stubbornly resisted. Although the sub-feudal system will also touch the interests of the local indigenous people, the princes of the sub-feudal system will do their best to maintain stability and strengthen the influence of the Han Dynasty. The disadvantage is that over time, the fiefdom people will only know that there is a king but not an emperor, and the local government will become a big threat to the central government.
History has also verified our view that after Liu Bang's death, the emperor could not suppress the field (the Zhulu Rebellion also had an impact, but the main reason was that the new emperor could not control the imperial power), so the princes flew around. The emperor gradually began to weaken the influence of the king of the domain, but provoked the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms". After the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion was put down, the Han Dynasty realized the drawbacks of the sub-feudal system and began to forcibly promote the county system in the princely fiefdoms to further strengthen the centralization of power. In the long run, the "county system" is better than the "sub-feudal system", but in the early days of the dynasty, the "sub-feudal system" is better than the "county system". The Western Jin Dynasty and Zhu Ming both used the sub-feudal system in the early days of the dynasty, and when Qin Shi Huang was thirty-four years old, Chun Yuyue still requested to write a letter to divide the seal, which proved that the regime was not stable at that time, and the sub-feudal system was more suitable for use in the early days of the dynasty. However, it is easy to get rid of the whole system of sub-feudalism, and the main reason why the Central Han Central Committee can suppress the localities in the Chaos of the Seven Kingdoms is that the central government has strong strength, and if there is no central direct jurisdiction, then it is easy to be subverted by the localities, which is the reason why the Han Dynasty could not cut the domain at the end of the Han Dynasty.
Economic pros and cons
There are two problems in the economy, the first is the problem of poverty alleviation and the second is the problem of taxation. Both of these things will put the country in turmoil, so it is very tricky.
Liu Bang: Dear Aiqing, now that the country is weak and the people are poor, how can we better solve this problem?
Ai Qing a (county system representative): Your Majesty, we can use the county system. The state collects taxes directly, and no middlemen (lords of the clan) earn the difference.
Ai Qing b (representative of the sub-feudal system): Your Majesty, don't listen to his foolishness, if the county system is a county system, officials are paid, who will give you a desperate job. We should use the system of sub-feudalism to directly contract production to households, contract land to the king of the clan, and collect taxes on the king of the clan. The king of the clan has the enthusiasm to develop the economy, and we also save a lot of heart.
Ai Qing a: Your Majesty, one more layer of middlemen will be one more layer of price difference.
This theory of economic problems is difficult to prove the merits and differences, and we look directly at the data. Before the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, the population growth rate of the Western Han Dynasty was 12%, and the growth rate of other princely states exceeded this figure, and the population growth rate of Wu and Chu was once as high as 20% (the data comes from the "Preliminary Study of the Natural Population Growth Rate in the Western Han Dynasty"). During the Wenjing period, small countries were richer than the central Han Dynasty, and the treatment of displaced people was also very good, and the economy and population were all qualitatively leapt (from the "Hanshu Gao Huigao Hou Meritorious Service Table": In the five worlds of Wen and Jing, the displaced people both returned, and the hukou was also interested, and the number of marquises was up to 30,000 or 40,000 households, and the small countries were multiplied and rich as they were. ）。 The population growth rate is the benchmark of economic good or bad, the fertility rate of the princely states is higher than that of the central Han Dynasty, and there are countless records describing the prosperity of the princely states, which are the most powerful evidence that the economy of the princely states is good.
The feudal system was to give the land to the king of the clan, who would try his best to improve the economy, and the central Han government was only responsible for extracting taxes. Officials in the county system are paid dead wages, so how can people work hard. In the short term, the sub-feudal system is better, but in the long run, the county system is still good, after all, it is full of lust, and the princes will want power after they have money. In fact, from the perspective of production, the sub-sealing system is not necessarily much worse than the county system, but the instability of the sub-sealing system is too large, and it is not as good as the county system.
The imbalance in economic development is not difficult to understand, let's take the simplest tax.
Liu Bang: Dear Aiqing, we don't have any money now, so let's collect some taxes.
After some operation, the tax collection standard is implemented, and after the transmission...
Guanzhong people: only 300 ah, OK, acceptable.
Gansu people: What? 300？ Damn, no, no, no.
Lingnan people: Don't say more, rebel.
Liu Bang: Dear Qingqing, why is there such a big gap between the people's treatment of taxes?
Guanzhong official: This is a fuss, don't worry about them.
Gansu official: We are so poor, the people can't afford to pay.
Lingnan official: +1
Liu Bang: Then I let the people of Gansu and Lingnan pay less money?
Other local officials: Unfair, unfair.
Due to the imbalance in economic development, the per capita income is different in various places, and the yield per mu is different because of the different lands, and in this case, there is still a gap between the rich and the poor of the people in various places. If the county system implements a standard, it can easily lead to rebellion among the poor people. But if taxes are selectively collected, then many people will have opinions. Why do the people pay less tax? The people do not suffer from widowhood but from inequality. In this case, the unified standard of the county system is obviously not conducive to maintaining stability, so the dynasty generally uses the sub-feudal system in the early stage, and then uses the county system when the economy is almost the same, of course, there will be certain economic subsidies at that time.
The reason why Liu Bang chose the "county parallel system"
During the reign of Qin Shi Huang, land was opened up everywhere, but because the Qin Dynasty was relatively short-lived, it perished before it was fully developed, and the Han Dynasty took over a mess, the economic development of various places was uneven, and many places were still poor. In addition, the regime has changed many times in a short period of time, and people are also very sensitive to the policy system. After weighing the pros and cons, Liu Bang chose the "county parallel system", on the one hand, allowing the king of the clan to stimulate the economy to defend the country, on the other hand, the dynasty was also recuperating, and constantly weakened the strength of the king of the clan after that. The Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms and the Tuien Order, which were aimed at the king of the domain, were fortunate to have successfully transitioned from the "county parallel system" to the "county system" to the Han Dynasty. If not, then it is the end of Emperor Jianwen. Let the king of the clan subvert the Ming central government, and then continue to transform into a county system.