Wen | Flying Fish says history
The law, the constitution is written in the government, the punishment must be in the hearts of the people, the reward is prudent, and the punishment is added to the adulterous order. ——(Warring States) Han Fei,"Han Feizi Dingfa"
In the spring and autumn, a hundred schools of thought contend.
Warring states, strife.
If the Spring and Autumn Period is a period of contention between the sons and hundreds of families, then the Warring States is the process in which the Fa family is gradually accepted and respected by the monarch.
According to the records of the "Book of Han And Yiwen Zhi", there were nearly 200 academic schools that could be named in the pre-Qin period, and the subsequent "General Catalogue of the Four Libraries" recorded that there were actually thousands of them, but the most famous ones were just a few dozen.
However, there were only 12 schools that eventually developed into schools, and Mr. Lu Simian once wrote in "Introduction to Pre-Qin Scholarship": Therefore, pre-Qin scholarship can be divided into yin and yang, Confucianism, ink, name, law, Tao, zongheng, miscellaneous, agriculture, novels, soldiers, and medicine.
So why is the Spring and Autumn Period the golden period for the development of the Hundred Sons and Hundred Families, because this was a period of great ideological emancipation in Chinese history, and the Hundred Sons and Hundred Families were able to compete for glory, to put it bluntly, because the slavery system tended to disintegrate.
The slavery system of maintaining social stability is about to collapse, and the monarchs of the various princely states are more difficult, because they do not know what kind of ideas and what kind of learning can say that a strong country can be better adapted to the development of the productive forces.
Of course, in the 12 schools that eventually formed the faction, it is not said that they were all born to serve the monarch, but they also appeared because of practical needs, if you want to say that the latest to appear is the Dharma.
Because until the Warring States period, when the power of the cloth began to expand, it was impossible for the idea of the legal family to be born, let alone gradually accepted by the monarch and become the idea of governing the country.
The first to change the law in the jurist thought was Wei Wenhou of the State of Wei.
Since Wei Wenhou had strengthened the State of Wei, why did he say that the Decline of the State of Wei also had a reason for Wei Wenhou? Because he admired the Fa and was constrained by Confucianism, it can be said that Wei Guocheng was also Wei Wenhou and defeated Wei Si, because he set a bad example for future generations.
We have to talk about this slowly.
<h1>Wei Wenhou Wei thought about change and opened the law of change. </h1>
Since Wei Wenhou Weisi divided the Jin state and became a prince, he had been thinking about a problem, that is, how to avoid the fate of the Wei state would not be like the Jin state, the division of the Jin state was because the power of Qing Dafu was too large, and if you want to avoid this situation, you must limit the power of Qing Dafu, to be precise, the power of the old nobles.
Wei Wenhou found that the power of the old nobles could not be limited out of thin air, and if he wanted to achieve it, he must use people who were well controlled to restrain the old nobles, what kind of people were good to control, of course, it was the cloth talents, so during the reign of Wei Wenhou, we will see a large number of cloth clothes active in the political arena, such as Zhai Huang, Le Yang, Wu Qi and so on.
In addition, the State of Wei was in the land of four wars, and Wei Wenhou knew that this geographical location was very unfavorable to the long-term development of the country, and under this series of factors, Wei Wenhou decided to use Li Wu, who had the idea of a lawyer, to change the law.
This change of Wei Wenhou made the State of Wei dominate for more than a hundred years in the early warring states, two and a half generations, and the State of Wei fought all over the world, but it was only two and a half generations, and compared with the unswerving change of the sixth and seventh generations of monarchs of the Later Qin State, the State of Wei was still far behind.
<h1>Wei Wenhou was deeply bound by "etiquette". </h1>
Wei Wenhou lived in the era of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, although the ceremony collapsed and was happy, but the ceremony still deeply influenced Wei Wenhou, and advocating the use of "etiquette" to govern the country is precisely Confucian thought, not that Confucianism is not good, but in the Warring States period when the princes rose together, it was not suitable for governing the country.
Where did Wei Wenhou's bondage by Confucianism manifest itself, the most prominent manifestation is that Le Yang attacked Zhongshan Kingdom, you may say that what is the relationship between the two, in fact, there is, because when Le Yang attacked Zhongshan, he ate his son's flesh.
It was precisely because of this crazy move that the Confucians around Wei Wenhou began to frantically slander Le Yang, in which Shi Zan said that "the flesh of his son is still eaten, and who does not eat it", so that the Confucian in Wei Wenhou's heart defeated the Fa, no longer trusted Le Yang, and took back his military power.
In addition, Wu Qi, who had made great achievements in battle, only achieved the rank of general of the unified army during the Wei Wenhou era, and did not rank as a secretary general, and for a long time let Wu Qi stationed in the Xihe area, which may also be because Wu Qi had killed his wife in order to seek generals, which was incompatible with Confucian thought.
<h1>Wei Wenhou set a bad example for his descendants. </h1>
Regarding the decline of the State of Wei, many people put the responsibility on the head of King Hui of Wei, the grandson of Marquis Wenhou of Wei, because the State of Wei, in his hands, changed from being hegemonic for a time to being defeated by Qi in the east, more than 700 miles from the west to Qin, and humiliated by Chu in the south.
In fact, Wei Wenhou was also responsible for the decline of the State of Wei, although Wei Wenhou changed the law to strengthen the State of Wei, but also supported the development of the old nobility, because in the talented State of Wei, there was no shortage of talents in cloth, and the last candidate for the chancellor of Wei Wenhou was Wei Cheng in the Wei State Sect Room, perhaps this Wei Cheng was very capable, but I think there is still a gap compared with Li Wu, Wu Qi and others.
The change of the State of Wei lasted only two and a half generations because the power of the old nobility had swelled to the extreme during the reign of King Hui of Wei, and it subverted the original meritocratic politics of the State of Wei.
You may say that why was the State of Wei so powerful during the Wei Wenhou period, this is because the Three Jin Dynasties had just separated their families, and the strength of the old nobles had not yet become strong, but Wei Wenhou personally planted a small seedling to support the old nobles, and by the time of King Hui of Wei, it had grown into a tree that could not be shaken, and finally dragged down the State of Wei.
<h1>Flying Fish said:</h1>
Why is it said that Wei Guocheng is also Wei Wenhou, and defeated wei si? Because he set a bad example for future generations, if it were not for Wei Wenhou who made Wei the prime minister, then the power of the old nobility would probably collapse, so that the feudal bureaucracy would truly replace the politics of aristocratic privilege.
Under this kind of politics, the great talents who appeared in the Wei state next (such as Shang Martin, Zhang Yi, etc.) may not flee wei into Qin one after another, and their own country can choose the best and the best, and can realize its own value, so why should it go through thousands of efforts to seek development in other countries?
Unfortunately, the aristocratic politics that developed over two and a half generations not only closed the door for these talents, but also ruined the hope that the Wei state would continue to be strong and hegemonic.
Therefore, from the perspective of the political system, the decline of the State of Wei Wenhou also has a reason, he admired the Fa at the same time, but also by Confucianism, which also led to the limitations of the State of Wei in changing the law, and it is precisely because of this limitation that the State of Wei took the lead in becoming strong and had no follow-up strength, while the State of Qin was unswervingly implementing the idea of the Lawist who adapted to the development of the times, which was also the root of the Qin State's ability to unify China.
What do you think about that?
References: Warring States Policy, Historical Records, Han Feizi, Introduction to Pre-Qin Scholarship, Hanshu Yiwenzhi, General Bibliography of the Siku Quanshu, etc.
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