As the three most powerful dynasties in ancient China, how did the Han and Tang Dynasties differ in their vassal systems?
The three strongest dynasties in ancient China were none other than the Qiang Han, the Sheng Tang Dynasty, and the Gang Ming. Each dynasty has its own characteristics, and the problem of the clan and the king of the clan that has caused many dynasties headaches has also been handled differently.
What is the King of the Domain? The king of the clan was a ruler between the Son of Heaven and the magistrate, and had his own vassal state. These clan kings may have been members of the clan, such as those princes of the Ming Dynasty; they may have been military heroes, such as the eight kings with different surnames who were divided into han in the early Han Dynasty, namely Han Xin the King of Chu, Zang Di the King of Yan, Zhang Er the King of Zhao, Peng Yue the King of Liang, Yingbu the King of Huainan, Wang Xin of Han, Wu Rui the King of Changsha, and Lu Xie the King of Yan; or they may be the leaders of local forces that have actually become separatist forces but have not publicly declared independence, such as the Three Domains before the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty announced the withdrawal of the domain, namely Wu Sangui the King of Pingxi, Shang Kexi the King of Pingnan, and Geng Jingzhong the King of Jingnan. However, in history, examples of rebellion by the kings of the clan abound, before there was the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of the Western Han Dynasty, the rebellion of the eight kings of the Western Jin Dynasty, and then there was the Battle of Jingnan of the Ming Dynasty, the rebellion of the Three Domains of the Qing Dynasty, which shows that the power of the king of the clan sits at the assembly to seriously threaten the imperial power, so in the Sui, Tang and Song and Yuan dynasties, the princes of the feudal lords did not have much power, but in the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang also wantonly divided the clan kings, so that this system was revived. So what is the difference between the ming dynasty and the han and Tang dynasties?
First of all, let's talk about the kings of the Western Han Dynasty. The Western Han Dynasty implemented a parallel system of counties and states, and successively established dozens of feudal states such as Chu, Jing, Wu, Yan, Qi, Zhao, Jibei, Jiaoxi, and Jiaodong. Of the eight kings with different surnames in the early Han Dynasty, only Wu Rui, the king of Changsha, was able to die well, and the rest were solved by Liu Bang, who gave their domain to Liu's relatives. The Wu-style State of Changsha was also abolished during the reign of Emperor Wen, and the State of Changsha of the Liu clan was reset during the Reign of Emperor Jing, and there were no princes with different surnames in the Western Han Dynasty. So what power did the kings of the Western Han Dynasty have? First, the princes of the Western Han Dynasty had titles corresponding to those of the central imperial court, with the princes being kings and his wife being the queen, and having hundreds of officials under them; second, the princes needed to report to the imperial court on a regular basis and pay tribute; the third princely princes could select and appoint officials of all levels below the imperial master, and the imperial court generally did not ask questions; the four princes had the right to tax and coinage in their jurisdictions, and could conscript the people to perform labor service to engage in various project construction. It can be seen that the princes, except for not being able to be called "emperors", the rest of the powers are not much different from those of the emperor.
Secondly, let's talk about the princes of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty did not have a vassal king, only a prince. The "king" of the Tang Dynasty was a kind of title, and the prince was divided into three types: prince, heir king, and county king. All the brothers and sons of the emperor are made princes; the sons of the crown princes are made the princes of the counties; the sons of the princes are the princes of the heirs, that is, the princes of the heirs, and the rest of the sons are the princes of the counties. The Old Book of Tang records that the "princely state" has state decrees, state lieutenants, state servants, etc., which shows that the prince has his own set of official subordinates and institutions, which can be called "state". However, these princes of the Tang Dynasty did not seal the land. In the early Tang Dynasty, the princes could still go to the states to serve as assassins and have the right to stab histories, but slowly the princes were all remote assassins, and they did not really go to places, but lived in the royal residences of the capital. Therefore, in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, when the feudal towns were divided, these princes who did not have a fiefdom but only an empty name were powerless, and could only allow the local moderation to make the supporting soldiers respect themselves.
Finally, let's talk about the king of the dynasty. In the third year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, crowned the princes as kings and announced them to the world. The second son Zhu Zhu was made the King of Qin, the third son Zhu Zhuo the King of Jin, the fourth son Zhu Di the King of Yan, the fifth son Zhu Yu the King of Wu, the sixth son Zhu Zhen the King of Chu, the seventh son Zhu Yu the King of Qi, the eighth son Zhu Zi the King of Tan, the ninth son Zhu Qi the King of Zhao, the tenth son Zhu Tan the King of Lu, and the grandson Zhu Shouqian the King of Jingjiang. In the eleventh year of Hongwu,he also made his eleventh son Zhu Chun the King of Shu, his twelfth son Zhu Bai the King of Xiang, the thirteenth son Zhu Gui the Prince of Yu (renamed DaiWang in the twenty-fifth year), the fourteenth son Zhu Yu the King of Han (changed to the King of Su in the twenty-fifth year), and the fifteenth son Zhu Zhi the Prince of Wei (changed to the King of Liao in the twenty-fifth year). He renamed Zhu Yu, the King of Wu, as the King of Zhou. In the 24th year, Hongwu made his sixteenth son Zhu Li the King of Qing, his seventeenth son Zhu Quan the King of Ning, his eighteenth son Zhu Yu the King of Min, his nineteenth son Zhu Shu the King of Gu, his twentieth son Zhu Song the King of Han, his twenty-first son Zhu Mo the King of Shen, his twenty-second son Zhu Yu the King of An, the twenty-third son Zhu Yu the King of Tang, the twenty-fourth son Zhu Dong the King of Ying, and the twenty-fifth son Zhu Dong the King of Ying, and the twenty-fifth son Zhu Mo the King of Shen. For the King of Yi. Although Zhu Yuanzhang gave birth to the twenty-sixth son Zhu Nan in the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, he died soon after, so all of Zhu Yuanzhang's twenty-five surviving sons were crowned kings. These princes were not as nominal as the Tang Dynasty, and although they were not as good as the princes of the Han Dynasty, they still had some power.
The Ming Dynasty feudal system has its own characteristics, which are different from both the Han and Jin dynasties and the Tang and Song dynasties. The Han and Jin dynasties divided the land and the people, and their power was too large; the Tang and Song dynasties did not have the soil, and the power was too small. The Ming Dynasty took the previous history as a mirror and adopted a compromise approach to learn from the strong points of the policies of previous dynasties. The specific manifestation is that the Ming Dynasty feudal kings are divided into feudals without tin soil, knights are not approaching the people, food is lu but not governing affairs, and cannot participate in the four industries of agriculture, industry and commerce. That is to say, the king of the dynasty only had a title, not a fief; only a title, not the right to govern the people; only Feng Lu did not have the right to govern the locality, and could not participate in the affairs of the peasants, peasants, industrialists, and merchants like the people. The only advantage was that the Ming Dynasty's title of king could be hereditary. Some frontier kings would give them some military power in order to kill the emperor, but the king of the domain himself did not have the right to recruit troops, only a certain number of guards. No king could leave the domain without the emperor's consent. Simply put, the king of the Ming Dynasty did not have the right to govern in his own domain, only money, which can ensure that you have no worries about food and clothing. In fact, the emperor drew a circle for the king of the clan, like a pig, and raised the king of the clan like a pig, as long as you don't rebel, you will eat and drink well.
In this comparison, the Ming Dynasty clan kings did not have the same ruling power as the Han Dynasty clan kings, nor could they stay in Beijing like the Tang Dynasty princes, and the clan system of these three dynasties can be said to have their own advantages and disadvantages.