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As the first feudal dynasty to achieve great unification in the vast history of China's 3,000-year civilization, the pre-Qin dynasty was worthy of being the pioneer of the centralized feudal state, setting an example for the establishment of the state by successive dynasties, and had a long-term impact on the system construction of post-China.
The biggest institutional contribution of the pre-Qin dynasty is the centralization of power and the emperor system, the Xia Dynasty, Yin Shang, and the two weeks also have kings, and Qin Shi Huang is only different in name, in fact, the power is equal, but the difference between calling the king and the emperor, why is there such a big difference in all aspects compared with the ancient dynasty and the pre-Qin?
From a historical point of view, what historical impact did the establishment of the pre-Qin centralized system and the emperor system have on the institutional construction of subsequent Chinese dynasties?
This paper takes the centralized system and the emperor-imperial system in the pre-Qin period as the starting point, combines the characteristics of the centralized system of the feudal dynasties of the previous dynasties, and summarizes horizontally and vertically.
Hard-won unification
There are many tyrants in Chinese history, such as the king of the Xia Dynasty in ancient times, which is the first tyrant in history.
Later, the King of Feng in the Yin Shang period, the image of King Feng was made up, in fact, the prototype of King Feng Di Xin was not so cruel, but he did conquer too much, was too fierce, and was barely a tyrant.
Coupled with the King Li of Zhou of the Zhou Dynasty, the cruel and unkind Qin II Hu Hai, and the Sui Emperor Yang Guang who killed his husband and father, there are really many emperors in China who are famous for their "fierceness".
In fact, history's evaluation of Qin Shi Huang's victory is also a "tyrant" commentary.
Although Qin Shi Huang's government sent people to build the Great Wall and dredge spiritual canals, which increased the burden of the people, these can also be regarded as people's livelihood projects, which benefit future generations, and can barely be regarded as moral politics.
However, after the first emperor was in his later years, Li Lingzhi fainted, opened up the people's power, repaired the Afang Palace, harshly abused the people, and strangled the people's wisdom, these are all considered tyranny, so the initiator Qin Shi Huang Shi Huang is also a tyrant.
However, Rao is so, the ten great tyrants in history still do not have the name of Qin Shi Huang's victory, and the reason is actually because history believes that although the first emperor has tyranny, his achievements are greater than his deeds.
Indeed, judging by merit alone, Qin Shi Huang's meritorious achievements are indeed great, after all, he was the first person to unify all of China, and this kind of achievement is unprecedented.
From a historical point of view, the Qin Dynasty was actually doing the aftermath for the Western Zhou, because the nearly 800-year Chinese chaos in China from the Zhou Dynasty, through the Spring and Autumn to the Warring States, was actually rooted in the Western Zhou division and sealing system.
In order to reward the courtiers, the Western Zhou Tianzi divided the land and gave it to these meritorious courtiers, and as a result, China began a period of 790-year separatist war.
In these 790 years, first the decline of the Western Zhou Dynasty, then the juxtaposition of the princes of the Spring and Autumn Period, and then the Warring States Period, big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, since the Spring and Autumn period of hundreds of nearly a thousand princely states, only nearly a hundred remained, slowly, there are more than a dozen.
And among these more than a dozen countries, it includes the seven heroes of the Warring States.
The Seven Warring States are also considered to be the final duel of hundreds of years of territorial seizures, and whoever can swallow the Six Kingdoms, end the era of wars and wars between princes and wars with each other is the final victor of unifying China.
However, even if only these seven Warring States remain, it is difficult to win, because the seven heroes of the Warring States have their own strengths and weaknesses, relatively speaking, the Qin State in the early Warring States period is the weakest, but the Qin State is rich in cavalry, and arrogant and warlike, and the combat effectiveness is quite strong.
South Korea is second, South Korea does not have many troops, and the country is small, the national strength is weak, but South Korea sits on the largest iron mountain, rich in sharp weapons, so although the strength is small, but the combat effectiveness is not low, known as "Jinhan".
The other five warring states of Qichuyan and Zhao Wei successively became kings, and according to local conditions, each had its own strengths, of which Zhao Wei was the strongest, and these two countries were neighbors of the Qin state, restraining the eastern plan of the Qin state.
Moreover, one country is strong, and the other six countries will not sit idly by, and the combination of vertical and horizontal will emerge as the times require, becoming the only weapon to balance the situation.
The situation is so complicated, but the State of Qin, relying on the efforts of several generations of kings, coupled with the good foundation left by the minister Shang Martingale during the filial piety period, overcame the weakness of the army by "operation", destroyed the six countries one by one, and finally achieved a unified imperial dynasty.
According to this, Qin Shi Huang's deeds are indeed great.
First of all, the highly powerful military strength provided many advantages for the military operations of the Qin State.
Secondly, the firm political system made the Qin army order to prohibit it, and the Qin army's combat strength doubled.
The above two points both reflect the importance of the centralized system.
And Qin Shi Huang is also aware of this, will work the centralized system of the Qin Dynasty, strive for centralization, because he knows very well that the Qin Dynasty is different from the Warring States Seven Heroes, the territory that needs to be managed is wider, the things that need to be worried about are greater, and the imperial dynasty was first established, and there must be many hidden dangers.
If there is no unified system guarantee, how can the decrees be smooth and the people hear? How to make the will of the emperor accessible to all directions?
Therefore, Qin Shi Huang decided to establish a new national system that was different from any previous state system.
This is the root of centralization and the emperor system.
The centralization of power and the emperor system in the Qin Dynasty
Before the Qin Dynasty, China was under the control of the division system for a long time, and although the division system had essentially disappeared during the Warring States period, many Warring States still used the division as a system.
For example, Shang Martin, who presided over the Shang Martingale Reform Law, was made a Shang Prince by the Duke of Qin, and his fief was in Shangyu County, the State of Qin.
Qin Shi Huang was still shocked by the remnants of the 790 sealing, so the system of sealing was regarded by him as an anti-scale.
In order to completely disappear the system of division and sealing in Chinese history, Qin Shi Huang, at the suggestion of Li Si, began to strengthen the centralization.
First of all, it is to abolish the system of division and sealing.
After the Shang Martingale change law, the Qin State has actually abolished the fiefdom system, because the essence of the Shang Martingale change law is to cancel the Shigong Shilu, cancel the old nobility, establish a new nobility, and establish a new system, so the remnants of the old system must be cut clean, and the Shang Martingale was given a fief by the Qin Palace, and it is also an honorary division of the real seal and false collar, and the Shang Martingale only has the right to eat taxes, and has no right to govern the fiefdom.
Since the Duke of Qin Xiaogong, the State of Qin has only retained the special fief of the Crown Prince, and by the time of the reign of the Crown Prince, the Crown Prince fief was also abolished.
What replaced the sub-sealing system was the county system.
Under the county system, the State of Qin established a three-level administrative management system with the state-county-county as the main body, top-down, vertical management, the selection of officials of each lower-level administrative subject, is decided by the higher level, and all official appointments must be confirmed by Qin Shi Huang, thus ensuring the absolute authority of Qin Shi Huang.
It ensures the absolute control of the central power over local governments, facilitating all kinds of management.
The emergence of the county system led to the emergence of a hierarchical administrative system for the first time in Chinese history, and the later establishment of the central-prefecture-prefecture-county of the Tang Dynasty, and the prefecture-prefecture-prefecture-road of the Song Dynasty all began here.
In addition to the county system, Qin Shi Huang also formulated many unified systems, the unification of weights and measures, the unification of official roads, and the unification of characters, in short, the Qin state from top to bottom, sharing the same script, using the same scale, abiding by the same laws, eliminating social contradictions caused by different standards, and strengthening the country's management stability.
In addition, the conscription system, military law, military system and other systems were also established by Qin Shi Huang in consultation with the generals, so that the army of the Qin state was also subject to the centralized system and became part of the power system.
This is the centralized system.
The emperor system of the Qin Dynasty
Legend has it that Qin Shi Huang considered himself "three emperors and five emperors", so he called himself "emperor", thus opening China's feudal imperial system, that is, the emperor system.
But in fact, the real historical fact is that Ying Zheng established the Great Qin Empire, but still called himself "King of Qin" and did not call himself an emperor, because Ying Zheng was actually a self-effacing person and did not have great achievements, so even if he achieved such an ancient great cause as the unification of China, he did not think that there was no need to call the emperor emperor.
And the person who installed him the title of emperor was actually the eunuch beside him, that is, Zhao Gao, who later usurped the throne and became emperor.
After the death of Ying Zheng in his later years, several princes were too young to have the ability to hold power independently, so Zhao Gao, a eunuch, jumped out and united with Li Si to usurp the throne, and then Zhao Gao proclaimed himself emperor, which was the beginning of the title of emperor.
The title of the first emperor of Yingzheng was actually posthumously given by the minister of the State of Qin after Zhao Gao finished his death.
The establishment of the title of emperor, do not think that it is just a change of title, in fact, the establishment of the emperor system is of far-reaching and prudent significance.
Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the kings of the Zhou Dynasty have called themselves the Son of Heaven, but due to the collapse of the sealing system, the "Son of Heaven" of Zhou Tianzi deserves no dignity at all, so for the dignity of imperial power to be sacred and inviolable, the title of "Emperor" came into being.
The core connotation of the emperor system is actually the following collective worship of the top, which is actually a myth and illusion of the supreme power of the imperial power, the purpose is to make the people below unable to give birth to the infringement of the imperial power, and stabilize the imperial power and centralized power in disguise, and its essential purpose is actually to maintain the stability of power.
Moreover, the emergence of the emperor system also made the annotations such as the succession of the crown prince more legal, which was conducive to the smooth transfer of power of the emperor and further strengthened the stability of state power.