Tai (Tai) Mountains do not allow soil, so they can become great;
Rivers and seas do not choose trickles, so they can be as deep as they are.
The king is not only the multitude, so he can understand his virtue.
—— [Qin] Li Si, "The Book of Evictions"
Guanzhong is a well-known regional concept in ancient Chinese history, and its core area is the Guanzhong Plain in today's Shaanxi Province.
By the time of the Western Han Dynasty, the literati had already admired the unique and superior environment of the Guanzhong region, and they were extremely praiseworthy. For example, Zhang Liang, a famous minister of the Western Han Dynasty, tried his best to persuade Liu Bangding to make the capital Chang'an, and the most important reason was Chang'an's unparalleled superior conditions:
Fuguan Zhong left Xianhan, right Longshu, Woye Qianli, south of Bashu Rao, north of Huyuan, blocking three sides to defend, only one side to control the eastern princes. The princes were stable, Hewei Cao, and the west was given to Jingshi; The princes have changed, and they go down the river, enough to lose. This so-called golden city is also the country of heaven.
Guanzhong Plain
It is not difficult to see that the superior environment and conditions in the Guanzhong area actually contain many factors: first, the objective geographical location and the terrain that is easy to defend and difficult to attack; second, good agricultural production conditions (such as soil and irrigation); The third is the convenient transportation conditions with the surrounding areas. Among these factors, there are purely natural, such as location and topography; There are more artificial creations, such as transportation, water conservancy and land development.
As the foreign proverb says, "Rome was not built in a day", and the Guanzhong of the "Land of Heavenly Prefecture" is not innate, it embodies the efforts of generations of Guanzhong people, including the merit of immigration.
In the territory of "Kyushu" in Yugong, Guanzhong belongs to "Yongzhou", outside "China", so before the Qin state was strong, the Qin state was only a "state of Rong Di" in the eyes of the princes of the Central Plains.
Qin was secluded in Yongzhou, and did not ally with the Chinese princes, and met Zhai Zhai.
Therefore, successive monarchs of the Qin state made unremitting efforts to strengthen the country and enrich the people, and one of the wise moves was to reuse immigrants so that they could make full use of their wisdom and talents.
For example, after Qin Mugong heard that Yu Guo's great doctor Bailixi was talented, he cleverly used five sheepskins to redeem him and grant him the title of state government, known as "Wuxian Dafu". Later, under the recommendation of Bailixi, he invited his friend Uncle with a heavy amount of money, and also awarded the position of the above doctor. Later, Duke Mugong of Qin discovered the outstanding talent of Yuyu, the envoy of King Rong, and was deeply worried: "There are saints in neighboring countries, and enemies are also worried."
After that, Duke Mu of Qin used a dissociation scheme to alienate King Rong from Yu, who had no choice but to surrender to Qin. Qin Mugong's eyesight was good, and after adopting Yu Yu's scheme, the Qin State made breakthrough progress, "Yiguo Twelve, open up thousands of miles, and dominate Xirong". A typical example of the success of the Qin State in appointing immigrants is the "Shang Martingale Transformation Law".
Shang
One of the important measures of the martingale reform law is the "Lei Min". In the "Book of Shang Jun", there is the "Li Min" chapter, which analyzes the implementation of this policy at that time.
First of all, the Leimin policy is an important way to effectively change the sparsely populated situation in the Qin state.
In the land of present-day Qin, there are five people who are thousands of miles, the valley and soil cannot be placed in two, the number of fields is less than one million, and the materials and treasures of the valley and the famous mountains and rivers cannot be fully used, and this person is not called the soil.
However, the Sanjin region, which was adjacent to the Qin state, was mired in a large number of people and narrow places. The land is narrow and the people, their houses live side by side, their widows and their widows, the people have no common name, the lower ones have no field houses, and the treacherous affairs are at the end of the work, and more than half of the people are restored to the yin and yang and water, and the land is not enough to give birth to its people.
Therefore, in order to enhance the national strength of the Qin State, it is imperative to Lei Min.
Now in the land of grass, the people of the three Jin Dynasties, and make their deeds, and this damage to the enemy is the same as the victory.
Shang Martingale proposed the "Lei Min" policy directly related to his own experience. "Martingale Shao is good at the study of criminal names, and the matter is the seat of Wei Xianggong." The early capital of the Wei state was in Anyi (安邑, in present-day Xia County, Shanxi), and Shang Martin sought and served as an official in the Wei state, and stayed for a long time, until he heard the news that Qin Xiaogong was seeking merit, and did not leave Wei to join Qin.
What is more noteworthy is that after Shang Martin entered Qin, Shi Feng's guest was also a "Jin person" - Corpse Ling, apparently an immigrant from the Three Jin Dynasties. "Wei Martingale Shangjun plotted things, legislated and managed the people, and did not taste the best rules."
It can be seen that the measures of the Shang Martingale Law embody the painstaking efforts of these two immigrants. After the Shang Martingale changed the law, the national strength of the Qin state became stronger and stronger, laying a solid foundation for the eventual unification of the whole country. The merits of immigrants cannot be erased.
Later, after the accession of the King of Qin, the Korean Zheng Guo came to the State of Qin and proposed the construction of water canals, which the King of Qin approved, which was the Zheng Guo Qu that made an important contribution to the agricultural development of the State of Qin.
Zhengguo Canal starts 25 li southwest of Yunyang County in Yongzhou, from the western part of Zhongshan as a canal, to the north of the mountain, to the east of the Luo, more than 300 li to irrigate the fields.
However, the King of Qin later learned that this was a plot by the King of Han to obstruct the King of Qin's use of troops against Han, so he ordered the expulsion of the guests and the expulsion of the people from the various princely states into Qin.
At that time, Li Si, a Cai Ren of the State of Chu, wrote the "Book of Evictions", which vividly explained the contribution of immigrants to the development of the Qin state, and finally persuaded the King of Qin to take back his life.
Eviction Book
Lees said in this famous article:
Xi Miu Gong asked for a scholar, took Yu Yurong in the west, Xi Yuwan in the east, welcomed his uncle Yu Song, and came to Pi Leopard, Gongsun Zhi Yu Jin. These five sons were not born in Qin, but Miao shared it, and merged the kingdom for twenty, and then dominated Xijong. The law of filial piety and commerce, changing customs and customs, the people are prosperous, the country is rich and strong, the people are happy to use it, the princes are personally obeyed, and the teachers of Chu and Wei have been raised for thousands of miles, and they have ruled strongly. King Hui used Zhang Yi's plan to pull out the land of Sanchuan, merge Ba and Shu in the west, collect Shangjun in the north, take Hanzhong in the south, Bao Jiuyi, control Yan and Ying, and take the danger of Chenggao in the east, cut the soil of the paste, and then scatter the followers of the six kingdoms, so that the west will serve Qin, and the merit has been applied to this day. King Zhao obtained Fan Yu, abolished the Marquis, chased Huayang, Qiang Gong, Du Private Gate, encroached on the princes, and made Qin an emperor. These four kings are all meritorious guests. From this point of view, how can the guest lose to Qin Ya! The four kings of Xiang were not inward, and the people were neglected but not used, which was to make the country rich and Qin without the name of strength.
It can be seen that the strength of the Qin State and the wealth of Guanzhong both contain the merit of the guest secretary, and the success of the Qin State depends to a large extent on the far-sighted employment policy.
As an immigrant, Li Si enthusiastically sang the praises of the "inclusiveness" of governance, which shone dazzling in the history of ancient Chinese political thought.
Tai (Tai) Mountains do not allow soil, so they can become great; Rivers and seas do not choose trickles, so they can be as deep as they are. The king is not only the multitude, so he can understand his virtue. It is because the earth has no four sides, the people have no foreign country, the four times are full of beauty, and the ghosts and gods are blessed, and the reason why these five emperors and three kings are invincible.
Therefore, the prosperity and strength of the Qin state is marked by the development of the Guanzhong region, and when future generations praise the superior position of the Guanzhong region during the Qin and Han dynasties, we must not forget the achievements of the vast number of immigrants.
This article is excerpted from "Immigration and Traditional Chinese Culture"
"Immigration and Traditional Chinese Culture"
By Ge Jianxiong and An Jiesheng
300 thousand words
February 2022
Sanjin Press