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"Tang Yao Yu Shun Xia Shang Zhou, Spring and Autumn Warring States chaos, Qin and Han Three Kingdoms Jin unification, southern and northern dynasties are opposite, Sui and Tang five dynasties and ten kingdoms, Song Yuan, Ming and Qing emperor Hugh." China's dynasties have changed like flowers, and a dynasty song has been vividly expressed, but these dynasties rarely have a history of more than three hundred years. However, throughout the history of dynastic changes in Europe, it is easy to see that their dynasties have rarely changed, and britain, or even almost a thousand years, have not changed. But what's the reason behind this?
The nature of China's feudal dynasties
First of all, we need to first clarify: the nature of China's ancient feudal dynasties. As we all know, in ancient China, the basic national policy of successive dynasties was to emphasize agriculture and suppress commerce. Under this national policy, it was decided that ancient China was a typical agricultural country. Under such basic national conditions, it was directly determined that there were too many people in ancient China, all of whom were peasants. In ancient times, agriculture relied on the sky to eat, coupled with the underdeveloped agricultural technology, agricultural tools did not have the current science and technology, which inevitably led to the instability of grain output.
But the peasants, who depend on the fields, are a large part of the country's population. Once a famine year occurs and the grain production is insufficient, the government will inevitably release grain for disaster relief to rescue the disaster-stricken people. However, if the political system is effective in the early days of a dynasty, the government still has jurisdiction over the grass-roots government below, and disaster relief will be effective. In addition, the establishment of a unified dynasty is often based on the long-term division of society.
The cause of the demise of ancient Chinese dynasties
Once the dynasty is established, the people will be restored after a long period of restoration, and the country will be cultivated. At this time, most of the country will appear to rule the world or ZTE, which also means that the country has a certain economic foundation and food base to face natural disasters, and in the event of a famine year, it can come up with enough money and grain to save the people. However, once a dynasty enters the late stage, the government's operating mechanism becomes rigid, large social abuses appear, and the government does not have enough money and grain to help a large number of displaced people caused by wars, natural disasters and other disasters. As there are more and more displaced people and more and more people who cannot eat enough, peasant uprisings will arise.
For example, the problem of displaced people in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the problem of displaced people in the Ming Dynasty, and even the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement" of the Qing Dynasty, etc., will break out different degrees of peasant revolts because of displaced people. Although the historical peasant uprisings, because the wishes of the peasant class are very simple, that is, to fill their stomachs, it is easy to relax after the wishes are satisfied; coupled with the limitations of the peasant class itself, there is no strong law to restrain the rebel army, so it often ends in failure.
However, the peasant revolt would not overthrow a feudal dynasty. However, the outbreak of the peasant revolt would give the nobles of the dynasty a reason to rebel. For example, when Li Yuan raised his army, it was the time when the Peasant Revolt broke out in the Sui Dynasty, and the banner he played was the Sui Dynasty that suppressed the riots. The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang joined the rebel army was also because he was hungry. It is precisely because of the problem of displaced people that every dynasty is not immune, so the reason for the rise of each new dynasty is the process of the overthrow of the old dynasty, the people are commonplace, and the sense of loyalty to a dynasty is not so deep.
After all, if you can't fill your stomach, who will be loyal to the ruler? So since the end of qin Chen Sheng's sentence "the prince will have a kind of hu", as long as the dynasty enters the middle and late stages, the interests of the people cannot be guaranteed, there is not enough to eat, and once the problem of displaced people arises, there will be nobles who will use it to raise troops, and a new dynasty must be established by a new master, and the kings and grandsons of the old dynasty overthrow the emperor, called usurpation, not the destruction of the dynasty, Zhu Di is the best example. And the demise of so many dynasties will naturally establish a new dynasty, and the new dynasty is the new national name, which does not require blood, but only looks at strength. The rise and fall of a dynasty is really "rise, the people suffer; the dead, the people suffer." "
The nature of the British feudal dynasty
However, the feudal dynasties in Europe are different, because the culture of aristocratic rule is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even if a new king succeeds to the throne, there will be a blood requirement: there must be aristocratic blood, or the blood of the previous king. In this political consciousness, even if a new king ascends the throne, it is a continuation of the rule of the original aristocratic family, and it cannot be regarded as a change of dynasty. For example, the change of throne in Britain was mostly carried out between nobles, the Hanover dynasty, which was renamed after edward VII, the son of the original King Victoria, ascended the throne; the current Windsor dynasty in Britain was George V who gave up the German surname to change his surname to Windsor, and finally changed his name. It can be seen that the change of dynasties in British history is basically different from the aristocratic family where the king is located, and the king is not something that anyone can do.
However, more importantly, the reasons for the change of dynasties in China, in addition to the problem of displaced people, the division of feudal towns, foreign invasions and other reasons, basically the awareness of "the emperor takes turns to do it, and this year comes to my house" has become well known. Europe, however, was founded on the strict observance of the first aristocratic bloodline. In addition, before Europe entered modern history, if you want to be an emperor, you can't do it yourself, you can't have military power, and you still need the approval of the pope. After all, as powerful as Napoleon, when he became emperor, he also had to accept the coronation of the pope in order to obtain a legal status.
Because, in Europe at that time, in addition to the pope, there were also apologetic countries, and like China, anyone could rebel and become emperors, and the pope was unwilling and the apologetic countries were unwilling. This is related to the system of the European medieval period, when although Europe was a feudal system, it was based on the hereditary inheritance of blood, the aristocratic class was very fixed, and the transfer and replacement of the throne had little to do with the commoners. However, before the unification of the Qin Dynasty, China already had laws to reward farming wars, and later the imperial examination system, civilians could rely on their own military achievements and achievements to carry out counterattacks, and then gain power.
In ancient China, it was the consciousness of everyone who suffered from unfair events, and in its place it was able to be recognized. However, there is a famous European saying that "your vassal is not my vassal". This means that people of the upper class have no direct jurisdiction over the subordinates of the subordinate class, so there is no condition for a great riot. For example, the British dynasty mentioned above lasted almost a thousand years because there was no very thorough and complete revolution. Although after that, the nobles lived an ordinary life, it was also a helpless move because they could not afford to provide for the territory.
This is why the European royal family has remained unchanged for almost a thousand years, while the Chinese dynasty has been changing back and forth like a flower. Different social backgrounds and different historical cultures will produce different historical processes.
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