Four solutions to review the Spring and Autumn Warring States Rebellion

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China's greatest political demand was how to end the situation of the chaos between the princes, so that society could be stabilized and the people could live a peaceful life.

The thinkers at that time proposed four main solutions to this problem.

The first is the small country widow proposed by Lao Tzu. Because the national strength of the princely states is no longer sufficient to launch a war, the war will naturally disappear.

The second is confucius's proposal to honor the king, the great unification, through the respect of the king of the Zhou Dynasty, to restrain the behavior of the princes with etiquette, so as to achieve the purpose of eliminating war.

The third is the model of benevolent government proposed by Mencius. During the Warring States period, the Seven Kingdoms were kings, and the status of Zhou Tianzi was inferior to that of a county. The conditions for the unification of the king have completely disappeared. Mencius pinned his hopes for great unification on the princes of the Six Kingdoms, who could promote benevolent government, and the benevolent were invincible, and unified the world with benevolent government. Thus eliminating war altogether.

The fourth is the unified model of annexing the six kingdoms by deception after the Shang Emperor changed the law.

In the end, China still used the model of the qin state to achieve its first reunification.

The disadvantage of the Lao Tzu model is that it is difficult to carry out without a strong centralized power, a policy of small countries and widows. Even if it is implemented, without the protection of a strong central government, it is difficult for a widowed country to avoid the fate of being annexed by foreign countries and foreign races. The many subjugations of ancient India are the best examples. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was able to defuse the risk of war between the kings of the same surname by means of the Tuien Order, the weak princes, mainly because of a strong centralized power as a backing.

Confucius's model, the ideal is very full, but it is really difficult to let the already powerful princes give up their vested interests to respect the Great Zhou Room and rebuild the great unity of the Zhou. Therefore, Confucius can only hope that the New Zhou ———— allow qualified descendants to practice this grand political structure.

Although the Mencius model has a certain degree of theoretical feasibility, it is really difficult for the kings of the Six Kingdoms, who were born within the palace walls and grew up in the hands of women, to practice the political program of benevolence and strengthening the country, just as it is difficult for the kings to assume the responsibility of Qi Ji. Moreover, RenZheng is like Chinese medicine to use pharmacology to recuperate, which is not as effective as Western medicine with surgery. If there was no Way of Qin's deception, perhaps the Six Kingdoms would have tried the possibility of benevolent government. Violent as a wolf, fierce as fire, he could not give time to let the Six Kingdoms try benevolent government. Therefore, Mencius's benevolent government can only be recorded in a book in the end, waiting for qualified posterity to implement practice.

Qin's deceitful model can be said to have an immediate effect. However, the sequelae of its entrainment was the death of Qin II. Fixing the world with deceit, if you can go against the grain, it is not a good choice. But once deception has become a tradition, the power of habit is very strong, and it is indeed difficult to change course. Li Sizhao Gao's choice of Hu Hai as the heir of Qin Shi Huang was actually the power of habit at work.

The Western Han Dynasty actually used Taoist deceit to quell the Rebellion of Qin Xiang. However, The Taoists emphasized change, could change policies in time, and rested with the people, so the outcome was ten times better than that of the Qin state.