In the Warring States era, the Decline of the Zhou Dynasty, the struggle for hegemony among the princes, in fact, in the early Warring States period, the countries that participated in the struggle for hegemony, or the countries that participated in major conflicts of interest, were all countries with historical background, that is to say, these countries either came from the orthodox division of Zhou Tianzi, or were divided into meritorious deeds in the War of the King of Wu, such as the State of Qi, the founding king Jiang Ziya was the first meritorious hero of the Western Zhou, and for example, the Jin State, the founding king was the son of the King of Wu, the brother of the king, and the establishment of these old princely states has a background.
Another example is the State of Chu, which has been professionally opposing the Zhou Dynasty for hundreds of years, and has established itself as a king under the circumstances that the Zhou King's whip is beyond his reach, and there are some royal branches of the Western Zhou Dynasty, who are crowned princes by virtue of the nobility of their bloodlines, such as the State of Yan, and the warring states that dominate the State of Wei inherit the mantle of the State of Jin; these countries are all princely states with considerable historical background, and they also occupy an important part in the inheritance process of the entire Zhou Dynasty.
The historical background has a far-reaching impact on national development
Entering the Warring States Period, it was also they who survived many tests and were able to participate in the warring states period. However, the profound historical background is not an absolute advantage, or it is not an absolute benefit to the survival and development of a country, and many times the development of a country is very far-reaching by the influence of historical background, which we can see from the Qin state.
In fact, among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, the qualifications of the State of Qin are the most shallow, in other words, its qualifications to participate in the struggle for hegemony among the princes are the smallest, it is actually the founding princes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which is a whole era later than the Jin, Qi, Chu and Yan States, even if the Han, Zhao, and Wei families are a new type of princely states in the Warring States era, they are more qualified to participate in the Central Plains Hegemony than the Qin State.
Because the Han, Zhao, and Wei families, which were themselves vassals of the old princely states of jin, were themselves great nobles in the Jin state, they already existed when the Jin state was established; and they also controlled huge state power in the Jin state, and it can be said that in fact in the late Jin dynasty, they were above the jin monarchs. Fundamentally speaking, the three countries of Han, Zhao and Wei also have a relatively deep historical background.
The rapid rise of the Qin state benefited from a relatively shallow historical background
So why is it that historical background is a double-edged sword for the development of a country? Why do many people think that the reason why the Qin State has grown rapidly is due to the relatively shallow historical background? What is the truth of this statement? This article focuses on analyzing such a problem, to see the growth of the Qin State, and what is the origin of its historical background? And in what ways are these concrete manifestations?
The political system of the Qin state was less influenced by the Zhou royal family
First of all, the first point is that the country's historical background is not deep, then the basic political system is relatively shallow under the influence of the Zhou Dynasty, and the most primitive form of rule is relatively shallow in the country, making it easier for the country to accept the influence of the new system, and thus more easily accept the changes and reforms.
We know that the State of Qin was the founding princes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and was divided because of the merits of helping the King of Zhou Ping move east, for this country, the era of its establishment was an era when the rule of Zhou Tianzi had weakened, when the princes had already disobeyed the king's orders, since Zhou Tianzi's control over the major princely states had gradually weakened, a ruling system reflected by the Zhou Dynasty would naturally not have a greater impact on the princely states, especially for the new type of state of the Qin State.
The State of Qin was far from the core of the Zhou Dynasty's rule, and the Tianzi dynasty was divided into seals during the period of decline
The State of Qin itself is located in a remote area in the west, and the core of the Zhou Dynasty is relatively far away, the so-called Emperor Tiangao is far away, the Zhou Dynasty itself has no strong control over the Qin State, and the system pursued by the Zhou Dynasty is no longer obeyed by the princely states, for the emerging state of the Qin State, the institutional influence of the Zhou Dynasty is even lower.
After the establishment of the Qin state, it was busy dealing with Rong Di, opening up territory and expanding territory, and neglecting system construction
Moreover, the reason why the State of Qin was able to establish a state was actually not because of the edict of Zhou Tianzi' division of the seal, at that time Zhou Tianzi had lost its actual control over the western territory, and most of the western border of the dynasty had been controlled by Rong Di, so it was reasonable to say that Zhou Tianzi actually gave the Qin emperor a blank check, if they could snatch back the territory from Rong Di's hands, then the country could establish a country, and if it could not be taken back, it would be another matter.
Therefore, in the early days of the founding of the Qin State, most of the time was devoted to war, in order to seize territory from the hands of Rong Di, in order to broaden its territorial territory, and in order to enhance its own country's strength to facilitate participation in the struggle for hegemony among the princes, when the country was just established, it did not focus on imitating the ruling system of the Zhou Dynasty and making political improvements.
Countries with shallow historical backgrounds are more likely to become stronger than countries with deep historical backgrounds
Therefore, the time of founding the country is relatively short, the period of founding the country is relatively special, the country's historical background is not deep, and so on, so that the country has not been affected by too much system, and it is easier to accept the later martingale transformation law; this can be proved by two examples.
The Yan kingdom has a deep historical background and is easy to stick to the rules
The first is the contrast between the Yan state and the Qin state; the Yan state is the most historically profound princely state in the Warring States period, it is the founding prince of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the first monarch zhao Gongyi is even more of a royal family with the surname of Ji, and at the same time has a relatively high status in the court of the Western Zhou, so if it is purely from the bloodline and the status relative to the Zhou Dynasty, the State of Yan is higher than other countries, and its historical background is also the deepest.
The State of Yan was heavily influenced by the politics of the Western Zhou Dynasty
However, because of this, the Yan state was particularly far-reachingly influenced by the Western Zhou ruling system, and the Western Zhou Dynasty pursued a royal policy, and the Zhao Gongyi, who was deeply influenced by the rule of the Zhou Dynasty, naturally would naturally implement this royal road policy in the Yan kingdom, which made the development history of the later Yan state suffer from it for hundreds of years.
If we carefully analyze the history of the Yan Kingdom, we will find that the history of the Yan Kingdom before entering the Warring States Era was particularly calm, and even it had a gap of nine generations of monarchs, and the most reasonable guess that produced this situation was that among the nine generations of monarchs, the Yan State did not have an event that affected the pattern of the Central Plains, or affected the country's development path, which can be said to be a country without controversy with the world, which is a concrete embodiment of the Yan Kingdom's deep influence by the royal way.
The royal political tradition hindered reforms
Under the influence of Wang Dao's rule, the State of Yan actually pursued a way similar to the Taoist rule of inaction, advocating the practice of performing their duties under the leadership of the monarch, resolutely pursuing the ritual system of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and opposing wars between the princely states, so there were not many conflicts between it and other countries, and the development could be said to be quite step-by-step, so the rule of the Royal Way was actually a fixed mode of thinking in the minds of the Yan people.
For the Yan people in the Warring States period, it is a political tradition left by their ancestors, such a tradition they have insisted on for hundreds of years, and it is very difficult to let them change overnight, so when The King of Yan Zhao changed the law, even if there were successful precedents of the Wei state and the Qin state, it was not possible to implement the legal system change in the same way, and the change of law was only a change in some forms of development in the country, which can be said to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and the soup is not changed.
The State of Qin was little influenced by the politics of the Royal Dao, the obstruction was small, and the change of law was lightly armed
But the change of the Qin State is more than this, the change of the Qin State can be said to be a complete change of blood, in fact, the Qin State has not implemented the Wang Dao policy, the Qin State once appointed Baili Xi when Qin Mugong, the policy promoted by Bai Li Xi is a policy similar to the Wang Dao, just like Mencius said when he met Liang Huiwang, from the people's health and death to improve, in that era also caused a certain degree of impact on the Qin State.
Because the Qin state did not implement the royal road policy for a long time, by the time of Qin Xiaogong, the Qin state did not encounter great resistance to the implementation of the rule of law policy; it can be said that the biggest obstacle in the Shang martingale transformation law came from the nobles, because the Shang martingale transformation law did harm the interests of the nobles, and naturally it would be opposed by the nobles.
For the common people, however, the rule of law policy brings them benefits and is not contrary to the political rule they can accept. In other words, the people of the Qin state do not have the deep-rooted ideological tradition of the Yan people, because the founding time of the country is small, there is no basic system that must be developed and inherited, so it is relatively easy to change and accept.
The demise of the Qin Dynasty was not an extremely harsh government, but a mistake in the rule of law policy
The second point is the mistake of implementing the policy of rule of law after the establishment of the Qin Dynasty; we can see from the development process of the Qin Dynasty for more than ten years, the extreme harsh government like the Confucian disciples said does not actually exist, the Qin Dynasty did levy a relatively large amount of servitude and taxes, but this kind of servitude and taxation is more from the civilian people, such as the construction of the Great Wall, such as the repair of Dujiangyan, the construction of spiritual canals, spiritual canals, etc., these are basic defense facilities and water conservancy facilities, which have great benefits for the development of the stable country.
And people criticize the Afang Palace in fact, has not been built, as Du Mu said the kind of pressure of more than three hundred miles, Lishan north and west fold, in fact, is just an exaggerated idea, may be the only example, only Qin Shi Huang brilliant Lishan Mausoleum, in other words, which era of the emperor did not build a grand mausoleum for himself? Therefore, the collapse of the Qin Dynasty we cannot find the reasons for this kind of problem.
The rule of law policy promoted by the Qin Dynasty was not accepted by the people of the original Six Kingdoms
In fact, regarding the overthrow of the Qin Dynasty, it is more of a mistake in the implementation of the rule of law policy, the Qin State is a country that has become strong because of the change of the rule of law, so after the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, it naturally wants to implement the rule of law policy within the entire dynasty, but after the collapse of the Six Kingdoms, the people of the Qin Dynasty are no longer the original qin people, its people are all the common people of the seven heroes of the Warring States, and the people who originally belonged to the Qin State can accept the rule of law, but this does not mean that the people who surrendered from the Six Kingdoms can also accept it.
Because before the collapse of their original country, the ruling environment they had always accepted was very different from the rule of law, and it was also their deep-rooted ideological concepts that made them abandon their original way of life and accept the legal system a bit too hastily.
Affected by the environment of the original rule, it is difficult for the people of the six countries to quickly accept the new rule of law
The fundamental mistake of the Qin Dynasty's rule was that it did not go through a transitional period, and it pushed the rule of law policy to the entire dynasty, so that people who had not been influenced by the concept of the rule of law felt oppressed and resisted. If the people of the six countries of Shandong had not accepted the illegal ruling policy for generations, then they would not have been excessively disgusted with the rule of law policy, nor would they have felt excessive oppression and resisted.
Through the above two examples, we can see that the development of the Qin State and its historical background have a great relationship, and the relationship between the two is not simply expressed in its strength, at the same time, it also has a great influence on the form of rule after the establishment of the Great Qin Empire, and can even be regarded as a reason for its demise.
The State of Qin was strong because of its shallow historical background, and it also perished because of the deep historical heritage of other countries
Therefore, for the entire Qin state and the subsequent Qin Dynasty, the lack of deep historical background in the early period is a foundation for its strong prosperity, making it easier to accept the reform of the law change than other countries, and it is easier to accept the more advanced basic system, and the former Qin people can better accept the content of the Shang martingale transformation law, and the foundation accumulated after the Shang martingale transformation law has become the reason for the final decision-making error, after all, the people of the six kingdoms of Shandong have not improved the ideas accumulated because of history.
This is a good explanation for why when the Qin state was a princely state, the implementation of the rule of law policy did not collapse, but after the establishment of a dynasty, and then continue to implement the legal policy, the incident collapsed.
Fundamentally, this is the historical background at work,
It is because of the long history of development, deep-rooted ideas are at work, so many times abandon the long-adhered ideas, ideological emancipation and innovation, or very useful, but also a necessity for development.
In addition to the impact of the historical background on the form of national policies and development, the relatively weak historical background also makes the reform of the Qin state more advanced; we can see from the comparison between the Qin state and the Chu state that the time of the Qin state is relatively short, so it can accept a new era of edification on the road of development, and can choose the rule of law to govern the country among many forms of rule, but for a country like the State of Chu, which has established itself as a king in the Spring and Autumn Period, there is no such choice.
discuss
The Chu state was influenced by traditional thinking, and the success was also divided, and the defeat was also divided
Although in the Spring and Autumn Period, the open and secret struggles between the major princely states were already relatively chaotic, but the princely states had not yet completely separated from the control of Zhou Tianzi, on the surface, the most basic political rule still came from the Zhou Dynasty, so when the Chu State established itself as a king in the Spring and Autumn Period, the only form of rule that could be used for the Chu State to learn from was the Western Zhou sub-feudal system, which is why the Chu State would rely on the strength of a princely state to implement the partition system.
After all, in addition to the Western Zhou Dynasty's sub-feudal system, they have no other forms of reference, and the trend of historical development is not so rapid, and it has not sprouted such an advanced form of rule as the rule of officials and the rule of law; however, for a country, the basic system and form of rule have too far-reaching impact on the development of the country, and once the policy of sub-system is formed, it is more difficult to improve it.
Imagine that the Zhou Dynasty, which implemented the sub-feudal system, would eventually emerge from the Spring and Autumn Warring States, and the Chu State, which had established a sub-feudal system modeled on the sub-feudal system, would be better in the later stages of development? Therefore, at this point, the Qin state actually occupies a relatively large light of historical background.
brief summary
From the above narrative
We can know that in fact, the historical background is really a double-edged sword for a country, and the relatively rich historical background can provide cultural support for a country, have more discourse power in the development of civilization, and are more stable and convenient for the inheritance of a civilization and a culture, but the historical background is easy to cause a kind of ideological imprisonment for the people under the rule of its civilization.
After all, for thousands of years, this civilization has been inherited by relying on a certain form of development, and the descendants of hundreds of thousands of years will naturally firmly abide by this form of development, and thoughts, thinking, culture, etc. have been limited to one framework for thousands of years, and it is easy to form a conventional inertia of thinking. For emerging countries, the ability to make breakthroughs in ideology is relatively weak, affecting people's innovative thinking, innovative ideas and innovative power, emerging countries want to break through the existing system, must have the courage to innovate, only innovation can inject new opportunities for the development of national strength.
In the Warring States period, the reason why the State of Wei became the first hegemon was because of the change of law by Li Wu and Wu Qi, the reason why the State of Qin counterattacked into a king, and the transformation of the Martingale law of Shang was indispensable, therefore, every country must be firm in the process of development, and at the same time firmly innovate, only in this way can we add more fresh blood in the history and culture behind us, so that the development of a civilization will never fade.
References: "Notes on the Spring and Autumn Collection", "Lü's Spring and Autumn", "Warring States Policy", "Zizhi Tongjian", "Historical Records", "Zuo Zhuan", etc