When it comes to the feudal monarchical system in ancient China, many people think that the emperor is dictatorial and replaces the rule of law with the rule of man. Not really. According to the research of many scholars, China's feudal system is not a system of emperor despotism, and it relies on things that are much more complex than we think.
First, "feudal" is not really feudal
The use of the word "feudal" to describe ancient China is not appropriate. Feudalism is the meaning of feudal statehood, which generally refers to the sub-feudal system established by the Western Zhou. After king Wu destroyed the Shang, he maintained his rule by dividing up the princes, and Zhou Tianzi was the nominal "co-lord of the world", agreeing that the princes were responsible to the royal family and had the obligation to pay tribute and send troops in wartime. Although the Zhou Dynasty greatly enfeoffed the princes, most of its core forces, especially the "Anointed Land" in the Central Plains, were divided among the royal sons. After settling the tribes by dividing the seals, they were followed by cultural assimilation. Famous sages such as Zhou Gong, Zhao Gong, and Tai Gong widely disseminated the advanced culture of the Central Plains, and the characteristics of their cultures of being inclusive and inclusive assimilated many ethnic minorities. On the one hand, through the division of blood relations as a link, on the other hand, cultural and psychological identification, the Zhou Dynasty gradually formed a political form of "home-country isomorphism". The royal family is the state, and the state is the royal family.
Schematic diagram of feudalism
The Zhou Dynasty was a feudal system, not an absolute monarchy, and the real absolute monarchy was established in the Qin Dynasty, but the "unity of the family and the country" laid by the Zhou Dynasty with patriarchal blood as the link had a profound impact on the monarchical system in later generations.
Absolute monarchy, as the name suggests, means that the major affairs of the state are determined by the emperor alone. But in fact, the absolute monarchy established from the Qin Dynasty was not as simple and crude as imagined, and it was impossible to simply summarize all the political forms in ancient China with the word "autocracy".
Second, the origin of the prime minister
In ancient times, it was not despoticism in the pure sense, in large part because of the existence of "prime ministers". According to the study of the Guoxue master Qian Mu, Zai means slaughter; Phase means vice and second. The great affairs of the kingdom are only those of worship and war. Sacrifice was the most important activity in ancient times, and the ancients believed that sacrifice could communicate with the gods and pray for less disaster and more well-being. The most important thing in sacrifice is the slaughter of livestock, which is dedicated to the ancestors and gods. Later, the "Zai" of the sacrifice became the most important assistant of the master's family, equivalent to the housekeeper, and many things in the master's family were arranged by the "Zai".
And in the Zhou Dynasty, the concept of home-state isomorphism was established, and when the Qin Dynasty established the absolute monarchical system, the king's (imperial) room was the world, and the family was expanded countless times, and the "zai" in the family changed from running housework to operating state affairs. Later, people also added "phase" after "zai", which also means auxiliary, which makes it more clear that the prime minister is the emperor's deputy.
Qin Shi Huang
But this deputy is different from the average deputy. The Qin Dynasty established absolute monarchy, but the Qin Dynasty existed for too short a time, and many systems were not particularly perfect. The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the Han Dynasty largely continued the system of the Qin Dynasty and made many improvements. As we all know, the basic political system of the Han Dynasty was the three dukes and nine secretaries and the county system. The official system of the Han Dynasty was flat, and the local government only had the second level of counties and counties, and the county sheriff was a feudal official, because its annual salary was two thousand stones of grain, so the officials of this level were also called "two thousand stones". The central government set up three dukes and nine secretaries, and the nine secretaries of the nine secretaries were also two thousand stones, in order to distinguish them from the county guards, also known as the nine secretaries as "middle two thousand stones", "middle" represented the inner court, the inner court is the royal family, it can be seen that the nine secretaries at the beginning were all for the royal family, there are Guanglu Xun, Tai Chang, Tai servant, court lieutenant and other positions, divided into different tasks.
The opposite of the inner court is the outer court, which is the real government agency, and the head of the outer court is the prime minister. The prime minister is one of the "three dukes" and is the highest administrative officer in the country. The remaining two dukes were tai wei and imperial master. The lieutenant is only in charge of the military and is not responsible for administrative affairs. The Imperial Counsellor, on the other hand, was in charge of the supervision and was the deputy minister, the deputy of the prime minister. Under the Imperial History Doctor, there is a Yushi Zhongcheng ,"丞" also means deputy, "Zhong" represents the inner court, then as the name suggests, Yushi Zhongcheng is the deputy of the Imperial Historian, who is in charge of the inner court. The Jiuqing was responsible for the Prime Minister, the Imperial Historian was responsible for the Imperial Counselor, and the Imperial Counselor was responsible for the Prime Minister, so whether it was the outer court or the inner court, it was initially managed by the Prime Minister.
Three Dukes and Nine Secretaries
3. Phase power restricts imperial power
As far as the original intention of the ancient Chinese political system is concerned, the power of the prime minister should be the norm. But once a powerful monarch is encountered, the inner court will often find ways to usurp the power of the outer court, which should be perverted. For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was a famous lord in Chinese history, and he tried to set up a series of official positions in the inner court to clamp down on the prime minister of the outer court, and even many things were directly conveyed by jiuqing and other internal court officials without going through the outer court. In terms of institutional spirit, this is not in compliance, but the monarch's talent made the inner court at that time above the outer court, and many things were feasible by default. When Emperor Wu of Han died, he left the grand general Huo Guangfu to assist him. Huo Guang was originally a foreign relative, and the great general Sima was also an official of the inner court, and Huo Guangquan fell to the opposition, and even dared to depose the emperor. Wang Mang, who was also a foreign relative at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, also became a great general of the Great Sima Dynasty, but he was bold and dared to usurp han himself. The situation in which the inner court was above the outer court was not improved until the Eastern Han Dynasty. But by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the situation had returned to the same.
Stills of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty
In the Han Dynasty, there was only one prime minister, which was the leadership system; in the Tang Dynasty, there were three people, which was a committee system. In the Tang Dynasty, the three provinces were three provinces and six ministries, and the three provinces were Zhongshu Province, Menxia Province, and Shangshu Province, and the governors of the three provinces were all prime ministers. However, its emphasis is different, Zhongshu and Menxia are decision-making bodies, and Shangshu generally does not participate in decision-making, but is the executive body. An order for a major state event shall be decided by the Zhongshu and his subordinates at a meeting in the government affairs hall, and after the meeting is adjourned, the Zhongshu Provincial Government Office will draw up the will, and after drawing it up, it will be submitted to the emperor for inspection, and the emperor only needs to mark the word "edict" on the edict, that is, the emperor has no objection and can enter the next step. The reason why we say to go to the next step is that after the emperor agrees, the policy cannot be officially announced. After the emperor has drawn the "edict", the next step should be agreed by the deputy signature of menxia province, and the policy can be truly adopted. If the province of Menxia does not agree with the edict, it will not be sub-signed, and the edict will be rejected as it is, and the province of Zhongshu will re-draft it. Therefore, the Zhongshu Province issued the order, and the Menxia Province had the right of rebuttal, and this right of rebuttal could be exercised regardless of whether the emperor agreed or disagreed.
Three provinces and six ministries
If the Tang Dynasty's orders were not stamped with the Zhongshu and the seal of the door, even the edicts issued by the emperor were also inconsistent. However, because ancient times were after all an autocratic system and the emperor was on top, there were also incidents in the Tang Dynasty when the emperor crossed the Zhongshu and the door and forcibly issued orders, the most representative of which was the era of Wu Zetian and Tang Zhongzong. But the non-compliant edict has been issued, and it has immediately been strongly opposed by the relevant departments. Some people even said that "without going through the Fengge Luantai, what is the name of the edict". During the Wu Zetian era, Zhongshu Province was changed to Fengge Province, and Menxia Province was changed to Luantai. This phrase is equivalent to Zhiling Wu Zetian not obeying the rules and arbitrarily changing the system. Critics have also been killed. The Tang Zhongzong era was even more outrageous. Emperor Zhongzong of Tang himself sealed a number of officials, and did not have the consent of Zhongshu and His subordinates in advance, let alone appointed by the officials, but he folded the sealed bag containing the edict obliquely, indicating that this order was not approved by The Zhongshu and the Subordinates, and required the reluctant approval of departments at all levels. Officials privately appointed by Emperor Zhongzong were called "oblique officials" and were looked down upon by other officials because they did not have proper formalities.
Wu Zetian stills
Therefore, although the monarchy in ancient China was absolute, because of the existence of the prime minister system, the monarch could not decide everything, and the so-called autocracy was much more complicated than imagined.
According to my personal summary, there are three reasons why the emperor cannot be completely despotic, the above is one of the most important reasons, and the remaining two major reasons, due to the length of the problem, will continue to write in the next issue. Friends who are interested in history and politics can like and pay attention to it, so that they can receive pushes in time for the next issue.