It is not as good as Standing Sage
-- Looking back at the changes in the Chinese reserve system
According to the current mainstream Chinese history, before the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, it was for the primitive society, and the leaders of the tribal alliance in the Central Plains at the time of the primitive society were basically determined according to the tribal selection system, that is, according to the principle of "lifting the sages" to determine the heirs of the tribal alliance leaders. And "Yao Shunyu" became the "three generations" in the Confucian mouth that was almost equivalent to "the rule of the saints". Confucian scholars must call it "three generations" and highly respect these three generations, which can also be understood as a posthumous recognition and praise of this "raising the sage" model by later generations.
However, Dayu's son Qi established the Xia Dynasty to break this system of promotion and establish the ruling model of the family world, after which the succession of the highest power was either according to the "father dies and the son succeeds" or "brother and brother", and occasionally some grandfathers passed on to the grandson, uncle or uncle to nephew or nephew, or even nephew to uncle and the like, but the power is always passed on between the close relatives of this family. This transformation from "raising the virtuous and Zen" to "making the world at home" can be said to be in line with the needs of the changes in the mode of production at that time, but to some extent, it is also a kind of regression.
From the Xia Dynasty to the Shang Dynasty, the principle of succession to the throne within this family was not fixed or strict, sometimes the father died and the son succeeded, and sometimes the brother died and the brother died. Because the strict succession system for the throne had not yet been fully formed, in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, there was a continuous tragedy of "disciples or competing for the throne", resulting in serious infighting within the supreme ruling group, in the face of this situation, in the late Shang Dynasty, the first son system began to be established, and by the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the first son inheritance system was established, which refers to the eldest son born to the wife, who has a special status among the sons to make them the natural heir to the throne, which is also the core content of the ancient patriarchal system. Based on the fact of unchangeable origin, the primogeniture system eased the dispute over the throne within the ancient dynasty to a considerable extent, thus becoming the imperial (king) succession system of the Central Plains Dynasty that lasted for more than 2,000 years from the Zhou Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty.
Compared with the traditional primogeniture system of the Central Plains Dynasty, most families of the Mongols and Jurchens (later renamed Manchus) before entering the Central Plains had the tradition of "young son shouzao" (that is, the youngest son inherited the remaining property and social status of his father), in addition, more than a dozen ethnic minorities on the mainland, such as the Yi, Miao, Wa, Buyi, and Kazakhs, also maintained such an inheritance system to varying degrees before 1949, so which is more advantageous? First of all, if the youngest son is still underage or even very young when the father dies, then it may be the firstborn son inheritance system as well. However, if when the father dies, all the children are already adults, and even the youngest son is in his prime, then the young son Shouzao also has its advantages, that is, the growth period of the young son who has reached adulthood is the maturity period of his father, and the father's ear and face life are relatively mature teachings, which is conducive to the education and cultivation of this young son. However, on the issue of imperial succession, there are many drawbacks of "young son shouzao", because the brothers are basically out of town, holding heavy troops, and even if the younger son inherits the throne, he does not necessarily be able to make the imperial brothers obedient, so we see that the Jurchens have given up the old tradition of their young son Shouzao to varying degrees after the Jin and Qing dynasties entered the Central Plains (Mengyuan also basically gave up but did not do a good job of dragging mud and water, so it left behind troubles), and instead accepted the "(concubine) primogeniture system" of the Central Plains Dynasty or made greater improvements.
Strictly speaking, the Jin Dynasty began in the northeast region to the first two emperors of the Jin Dynasty, and the system of lichu followed by the "BoJilie system" was around 990 AD, and around 990 AD, the Guanyanbu who lived near the Sumei River, under the leadership of the leader Wanyan Shilu, migrated to live in The Tiger Water, and Guanyan Shilu was the great-grandfather of the brothers of Wanyan Min (Akuta) and Wanyan Sheng (Wu Begmai). During the reign of Guanyan Shilu and his son Wanyan Wugunai (posthumously honored as Jin Jingzu after Jin Liguo), the Jurchen clan began to constantly conquer other Jurchen tribes around them. In the brutal expansion of the operation, the leader of the Completed Yan Department must have super leadership and combat ability in order to lead the Completed Yan Department to develop and grow under a severe situation. Therefore, since Jin Jingzu completed Yan Wugu Nai, the succession of the leaders of the Completed Yan Department changed the previous "father dies and the son succeeds" system, changed to the principle of "brothers and brothers, and the able are on top", and combined with the system of "state ministers and councils", which is also the prototype of the "Bo Ji Lie system", so as to elect the best leaders under the consultation system and lead everyone to achieve the goal of military expansion. Under the guidance of this principle, when kim gyeong-zu completed Yan Ugunai, when selecting an heir, he bypassed the slightly weakest eldest son, Completed Yan Impeacher, and established the second son of the strong force and strong character, Completed Yan Li Bowl, as the successor leader.
Under the leadership of the Completed Yan Ministry, the Completed Yan Ministry continued to grow, basically unifying the various Ministries of the Jurchen Dynasty, forming a relatively large military tribal alliance of the Jurchen Clan headed by the Completed Yan Department, and the rudiments of the country began to emerge. After the establishment of the Jin Dynasty, The Completed Yan Impeachment Bowl was posthumously honored as Jin Shizu by his son Completed Yan Akuta (Jin Taizu). After Jin Shizu completed yan's impeachment of Li Bao, in accordance with the system of "Selection of the Council of The Imperial Household", his younger brothers Guanyan Po lashu (posthumously honored Jin Suzong) and Wanyan Yingge (posthumously honored Jin Muzong) successively succeeded him as the leader of the Wanyan tribal alliance, and received the official title of jiedu envoy given by the Liao state, so as to unify the Jurchens, order all the ministries, and continue to advance towards the ultimate goal of establishing political power. Before the death of Jin Muzong, he completely followed the inheritance principle of "the able to be the superior" that began with Jin Jingzu, and did not designate his son Wanyan Chang to succeed to the throne, but passed the chief position to his nephew, the eldest son of Jin Shizu's Completed Yan Yi Li Bao, Guanyan Wuyashu (posthumously honored Jin Kangzong). During the reign of Jin Kangzong, in accordance with the principle of ability and character, he also set his second brother Guanyan Akuta (that is, Jin Taizu Completed Yan Min) as the heir early.
Therefore, even if Jin Taizu formally established the state in 1115 AD, established the Jin regime, and became the founding emperor of the Jin dynasty, his power and status were not completely obtained by himself through hard work, and a considerable part of it came from the principles of "selection" and "establishment of sages" by his grandfather, father, uncle, and brothers after many times.
In view of this, Jin Taizu also followed the ancestral system, and at the beginning of the founding of the country, he upgraded the original "Bo Ji Lie" system to the "Bo Ji Lie System", with the second brother Guan Yan Sheng (Wu Begmai) as the Ban Bo Ji Lie (that is, the Crown Prince). During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Jin, the Jin dynasty destroyed the Liao and Northern Song dynasties in 1125 and 1127 AD, expanding its territory, gradually beginning to sinicize the state system, and developing and perfecting various political systems.
After Jin Taizong finished Yan Sheng, he wanted to change the somewhat outdated "Bo JiLie system" according to the precedent of the Central Plains Dynasty, and truly centralize imperial power and pass it on to his descendants. At this time, The Completed Yan Gao, who had been promoted to the rank of Ban Bo Extremely Fierce, suddenly died of illness in 1130 AD, and the storage position was empty, so Jin Taizong pushed the boat along the water and established his eldest son, Completed Yan Zongpan, as the state theory of Kulu Bo Extremely Fierce (equivalent to the Shangshu Ling of the Central Plains), and the subtext was to establish him as the de facto crown prince. This decision of Jin Taizong was strongly opposed by the first clan of Jin Taizu, headed by Jin Taizushu's eldest son Guanyan Zonggan, the third son Guanyan Zongfu, and the fourth son, Wanyan Zongbi (Wushu), as well as the son of the former Guoguo Theory Bo Jilie (Guo xiang) Who had made outstanding achievements. Under the opposition of the courtiers of the clan, Jin Taizong, who had not yet fully grasped the imperial power, had to give in and no longer mentioned that his son should take over. However, Jin Taizong also opposed the principle of "the able are superior", believing that this would cause powerful, ambitious and distant blood people to secretly plot to seize the throne by force (referring to The Complete Yan Zonghan). Under the fierce confrontation between the emperor and the ministers, no one's opinion could be adopted, and it was disputed for a long time. Finally, in order to break the deadlock, Jin Taizong and Zhu Bojilie each took a step back, neither adopting the "primogeniture succession system" (meaning the succession of Yan Zongpan) or the "able one on top" (meaning the completion of Yan Zonghan or the succession of Yan Zonggan), but instead of compromise, with Jin Taizu's eldest grandson Guan yan as the master of Ban Bo Ji Lie (that is, the crown prince). This is similar to more than 500 years later, in the early Qing Dynasty, dorgon and Hauge, in order to compete for the throne, almost merged, and finally chose Fulin (that is, the Shunzhi Emperor) in a compromise.
In 1135, Jin Taizong died, and Yan Qi took the throne, becoming the third emperor of the Jin Dynasty, that is, Jin Xizong. It was not until the Jin Xizong Dynasty that the Jin Dynasty established the primogeniture system according to the Han law, but the crown prince of Jin Xizong did not succeed him, because Jin Xizong was killed by the right chancellor Hailing King Guanyan Liang and usurped the throne.
After Jin Xizong, the Jin Dynasty experienced 9 emperors, and these 9 emperors, in addition to Jin Shizong's completion of Yan Yong, were either tyrants or emperors or the last emperors who did not have time to show their talents, compared with the 7 generations of leaders between Jin Jingzu and Jin Taizong, they really regressed a lot - can this be understood as the "Bo Ji Lie system" is better than the "firstborn succession system"? It cannot be so arbitrary, after all, the period and conditions of the implementation of the two systems are different. The "Bo Ji Lie system" was in the embryonic period of a national regime, strong enemies were around, the environment was harsh, and the principle of selecting the talents followed by the "Bo Ji Lie system" of "brothers and brothers and the capable ones are superior" was more suitable for the harsh development environment at that time, but in the Chengping era after entering the Central Plains, the "brother and brother and" system posed a considerable threat to the stable inheritance of the highest power, which would cause a huge disturbance in the legitimacy of all brothers and nephews to succeed to the throne, and the struggle for imperial power among many potential heirs caused by it would be very tragic. Therefore, the establishment of the "primogeniture inheritance system" after the Chengping era still has its advanced nature, but because it reduces the selection of materials, it actually dilutes or weakens the principle and effect of "the capable one is superior". Judging only from the perspective of effect, the ability of the Jin Dynasty to determine the succession of the various generations after the "primogeniture system" is considered to be much inferior to the successors elected by the previous "Bo Ji Lie system" based on the principle of "brothers and brothers and the able to prevail".
The Yuan Dynasty, on the other hand, lingered for a long time in the "Great Khan Selection System" (i.e., the "Kuriletai (Council) System", which somewhat implied the tradition of the young son Shouzao), the "Eldest Son Succession System" and the "Brother-in-Law and Brother system", which led to frequent palace coups in the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, which accelerated the decline of the Yuan Dynasty (not to be detailed here), which just proved that the inheritance system that dragged mud and water was not as good as any kind of established storage system (whether it was the "first son inheritance system", "the young son shou stove system", "the young son shou stove system"). Brother and brother and the system of "the system of the able" or the "able to rule the upper system"), successive dynasties have regarded the matter of establishing the reserve as "the foundation of the country" to discuss, is one of the cornerstones of a dynasty's stability, and the Yuan Dynasty is still uncertain about the rules for establishing this cornerstone, no wonder its country is not long.
The Qing Dynasty was good at summing up the historical lessons of its predecessors. Its main founding ethnic group, the Manchus, although also Jurchen, learned the lessons of the past. The qing dynasty's succession system has changed several times, although it takes into account the tradition of the Central Plains Dynasty of "li concubine and li chang", but it is by no means a simple "succession system of the eldest son", but fully follows the principle of "lixian" - they adopted a certain democratic "flag lord selection" system (electing the emperor Taiji and Shunzhi) before entering the customs, and after the capital was set in Beijing, Shunzhi passed the throne to Kangxi or to the eldest son, because Xuan Ye was the only one among many princes who had already had smallpox and survived, and the essence of this health principle was also to follow the "Lixian" "Principled. In the later years of Kangxi, there was a farce of nine sons seizing concubines, which led to the legitimacy of Yongzheng's ascension to the throne being questioned more, so from the beginning of Yongzheng to adopt the "secret reserve" system, after which Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng were all secretly built by their respective emperors Laozi Qiangang, but it also followed the principle of "LiXian" and did not superstitiously believe in "Li Yan" or "Li Chang", for example, Yong Yan was not the oldest of The living princes of Qianlong at that time, nor was he a concubine. And by the time Xianfeng died, he could not engage in secret construction, because he only had one only adopted son, Zaichun (who was the Tongzhi Emperor after the throne). After the Tongzhi Dynasty, Guangxu and Xuantong were all personally approved by Empress Dowager Cixi, and it did not matter whether the principle of "lixian" or "lichang", to say that the principle may be the principle of "Lafayette is happy". Leaving aside the Guangxu and Xuantong dynasties, which Cixi had decreed, the successive emperors of the Qing Dynasty were basically the product of the principle of "establishing the sages", which was also an important reason why the proportion of emperors and tyrants in the Qing Dynasty was lower than that of other great unified dynasties.
Summarizing the lessons of various feudal dynasties in ancient China in the process of establishing reserves, it is not difficult for us to draw the following small conclusions:
1. A stable reserve system is conducive to the long-term peace and stability of the country;
2. At different stages of the development of the dynasty, the principle of Li Chu can be different, but it cannot change frequently;
3. No matter what kind of feudal establishment and storage system, once the participation of the principle of "raising the sage" is missing, the quality of its heirs is difficult to guarantee, and it is often worse than a generation. Therefore, it is better to stand up for a long time than to stand up for a long time.
Today we look back at the changes in the ancient system of li reserves, whether it is the "primogeniture inheritance system", or whether it is the "eldest son inheritance system" of the concubine, or the "young son shou stove system", "brother and brother and the system" or "the throne selection system", all of which are the choice of heirs within a small range and the transfer of power, and what they want to take into account is the vested interests of the royal family and the magnates but not the well-being of the world, and they are all systems that should be thrown into the garbage heap of history, but when we look back at history, they are turned out of the Le se pile and compared. Find some historical reference significance, a bit similar to the meaning of waste utilization, as to whether it can turn waste into treasure, throw bricks and jade, then the benevolent see the benevolent, the wise see the wise...
Author: Miyoshi
June 25, 2022
Author's Note: Originality is not easy, infringement must be investigated!