During the Spring and Autumn Period, Zheng Guo was once also a powerful country on one side, but since the decline of Zhuang Gong's hegemony, Zheng Guo fell into a long period of political chaos, which greatly damaged its national strength and gradually became a vassal of the great power.
Later rising Powers such as Qin, Jin, and Chu all actively competed for suzerainty over zhengguo, making Zheng guo tired of coping. Under the long-term internal and external difficulties, Zheng Guo's society is full of ills, and if it is not treated in a timely manner, it will inevitably have more serious consequences.
At this moment, Zheng Guo produced a wizard. In 543 BC, the ruling Zipi ceded his position to a descendant he had always favored, the son. It is through its efforts for more than 20 years that the appearance of Zheng Guo has been greatly improved, and a revival has emerged.
Great people are often born of sorrow
Zheng Guo is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, and this geographical environment is both favorable and dangerous for Zheng Guo. The advantage is that the terrain in this region is flat, the soil is fertile, the transportation is convenient, and it is extremely beneficial to the development of the country.
It was precisely this topographical feature that made Zheng Guo invincible in national security, and was coveted by the nations, and since the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, Zheng Guo was exhausted under the siege and competition of the Qin, Jin, and Chu powers, and once fell into the dilemma of the Jin Dynasty and the Twilight Chu.
As a result, Zheng Guo had to serve these big powers wholeheartedly, pay tribute, visit, and accompany the army to fight, and Zheng Guo could only increase the exploitation of the country, which further deepened the domestic social crisis. External troubles are enough to make people anxious, but Zheng Guo's internal worries have never stopped.
Especially after Zheng Mugong, many of his sons competed for the throne, which made zheng's political situation turbulent. Among the many sons of Zheng Mugong, only seven came to power, which is known in history as the "Rebellion of the Seven Mus".
In the past few decades, there have been five palace coups d'état in the 23 years before the son took power. The offspring had already experienced and handled these matters before coming to power, so they were very touched by this.
The "Zuo Biography" records that the sub-property evaluated the situation at that time: "The country is small and compelling, and the clan is large and favored." He knew that if he did not change this situation through a thorough reform, Zheng Guo would be hopeless.
The predecessor of the child is Zipi, who is from a prominent background, and is the leader of the three major families, with high prestige.
But the old and weak Zipi is powerless against the country's plight and can only pin his hopes on young talents. Relative to the sub-skin, the son is only a small nobleman, who is light-spoken, but he has outstanding talent.
Zi Chan's father once crusaded against cai guo and won, thinking that he had military merit and was proud of himself. However, Zi Chan said: Cai Guo is a vassal state of the Chu State, and the crusade against cai Guo will definitely cause retaliation from the Chu State.
And if the State of Chu were to cut down Zheng, the State of Jin would certainly not sit idly by, but would instead unite to cut down Zheng. As expected, soon after, the three-kingdom alliance of Jin, Chu and Cai announced that Zheng was destroyed, and Zheng Guo was defeated.
Because of the accurate judgment of the child, it gradually became less famous in the political circles of Zheng Guo, and soon entered the vision of the child skin.
Zi Pi was very appreciative of the child and passed on the position of ruler to him. The son of the original ruler soon ushered in his first test, and the Jin state sent emissaries to zheng guo, accusing zheng guo of "being "in chu", that is, disloyal to the jin state.
The sons were not humble, and the emissaries argued with reason: Zheng Guo was a small country, unable to protect itself, and inevitably dependent on a strong country, and the Jin State, as the suzerain, failed to fulfill its responsibility to protect the vassal state when Zheng Guo was coerced by Chu, how could it be blamed in turn for disloyalty?
The emissaries of the Jin Dynasty were dumbfounded by Zi Chan, and they knew that they were wrong, and they soon returned to China.
With its tough and harmonious diplomatic strategy, Zichan enabled Zheng Guo to smoothly get rid of the diplomatic crisis and stabilize the external situation.
In addition, in response to the situation in which the nations fought for many years and the small countries were caught in the middle, the sub-production actively responded to the "Meeting of the Soldiers", which won a precious peace period for zheng guo, so that it could concentrate on domestic reforms.
Twenty years of deep ploughing finally brought national peace
In 543 BC, the first year of his reign, he began reforming the field system. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the well field system has been practiced among all the countries.
Under the well field system, nine hundred acres of land were planted by eight peasant households, each one hundred acres, and the extra hundred acres were noble.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were a large number of nobles in various countries encroaching on land, and the descendants carried out the reform of the field system and redistributed the land in response to this situation.
Through the system of "Wu", the sub-property distributed a large amount of land originally occupied by the nobles to the serfs, which greatly weakened the control of the nobles over the land and serfs, and made the nobles hate the children's property to itch their teeth.
At that time, there was a folk song: "Take my clothes and crown and take it, take my field and go with it, kill the children, and I will be with it."
The people here were different from the people as we understand them today, and the society at that time, apart from the slave-owning nobles and slaves, had only a small number of freedmen, which did not constitute a political force.
Therefore, the people or people at that time were nobles. Out of resentment, the nobleman wrote a song to scold him, saying things like "Whoever wants to kill the child, I will help him."
However, the reform of the offspring was very beneficial to the society at that time, so that the serfs who had been seriously exploited by the aristocracy gained certain practical benefits, thus greatly improving their production enthusiasm and improving production efficiency.
In addition, because of the low productivity at that time, agricultural production was basically "widely planted and thin harvested", that is, the lack of unit production capacity was compensated by expanding the production area.
In order to improve the production capacity of unit land, the sub-production will overhaul water conservancy projects, develop irrigated agriculture, and increase agricultural output.
At the same time, ditches also have the effect of dredging floods and preventing floods and draining floods. This practice is not the first of its kind, it has been implemented for more than two decades.
The then ruling son, who was jealous of the nobles for building water conservancy, was killed in a coup d'état, and his father died in that coup.
The reason why the nobles opposed the construction of water conservancy by zisi was only because these ditches would occupy the land of the nobles and cause dissatisfaction among the nobles.
The death of his predecessors and father did not hinder the pace of the reform of the offspring, and even though these nobles attacked the offspring, scolded him for growing a scorpion tail, issued death threats against the offspring, and insulted his father, and did not change his original intentions, he still insisted on reforming.
In addition to "making a seal", the sub-property also carried out the reform of "making a mound". Qiu is a kind of land unit, in the pre-Qin era, 900 acres were one well, four wells were one yi, and four yi were one hill.
That is to say, each hill has sixteen "wells", and they have to pay taxes for the country and bear the force of labor.
The cultivation of the sub-property stipulates that each hill and sixteen wells have a total of 144 households to jointly pay for the purchase of one military horse and three cattle, and then pay taxes according to mu.
The purpose of the reform of the sub-industry was to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and the situation in the Spring and Autumn Period was turbulent and the war was endless, and if you want to deal with this situation, you must have a strong army, and to support the army, you must have enough money and food.
The army in the Spring and Autumn Period was mainly composed of nobles, and ordinary people could not become warriors, which limited the development of the army.
Coupled with the poverty of the serfs at that time, in addition to being able to serve as a force of service, they could only provide resources such as cattle and horses for the state.
After the sub-production reform, the scope of conscription was extended to these "wild people" (referring to peasant households in rural areas), and military gifts were levied from them. This policy allowed the state to be financially abundant and the army to grow.
This reform of the sub-property was a direct tax and servitude from the serfs, but because the reform of the sub-property in the land system took into account the interests of the serfs, the serfs not only did not suffer, but their situation was improved, so the serfs mostly supported the reform of the sub-property.
The attitude of the aristocrats who had previously scolded the children also changed after the reform was carried out for many years, because the measures of the children stimulated the development of agricultural production, although the initial direct damage to the interests of the nobles, but in the long run, the income of the nobles increased.
Therefore, the nobles made up a new song for the children: "I have children, and the children will give birth to them." I have fields, and the children produce them. Who is the heir to whom the child dies? ”
It can be seen that the reform of offspring has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and outstanding achievements have been made.
Other reform measures for the offspring include the "Letter of Punishment". In the pre-Qin era, Zheng Guo was one of the few countries that attached importance to commerce, and its country's commercial economy was very developed.
However, because there was no written law in China in the pre-Qin era, the interests of merchants were often infringed upon by the nobility, which was very unfavorable to the development of the commercial economy.
During the period of sub-production, the sub-property played an important role in the development of Zhengguo society and the progress of Chinese society by formulating legal provisions and publishing them in the form of copper dings.
History is not determined by great men, but it is deeply influenced by great men. Zi Chan was in the chaos of the Spring and Autumn Period, because Zheng Guo's own internal and external troubles formed a strong sense of distress.
It was precisely under the impetus of this consciousness that he resolutely implemented reform measures without fear of hardships and dangers, and in the twenty-two years of his reign, Zheng Guo was rejuvenated in the crisis, so that his country was gradually restored and developed.
At the same time, under the influence of its appropriate foreign policy, the severe international situation facing Zheng Guo has also eased, creating a good environment for Zheng Guo's development.
Although the reform of the sub-property did not change the status quo of Zheng Guo as a weak country, and at the same time it was still very incomplete compared with the Shang martingale transformation method of later generations, it was already a remarkable achievement in the context of the times at that time, and it can be said that it was the precursor of the wave of reform in the Warring States, and had a far-reaching impact on other law-changing activities in later generations.
Because of the outstanding achievements of the son and its noble moral character, it has been recognized by many historical celebrities, and Confucius once called it "the way of a gentleman, the way of a gentleman, the respect of his own deeds, the respect of his deeds, the benefit of his people, and the righteousness of his people."
At the same time, during the period of zi chan's rule, his enlightened way of governing was also recognized by people, and his sub-production valued talents, was good at listening to suggestions, and accepted people's criticism and even insults, which made Zheng Guo's style of deliberation very popular, and his politics gained great development.