The topics to be addressed in this article are:
The personal qualities of the ruler determine the fate of the country.
Is corruption really an incurable disease?
Where were the first world cities?
Almost all Chinese know that the most powerful period of China was the Tang Dynasty.
As a member of the Chinese, I also agree with the above view, but to further refine this view. The most powerful period in China was the "Zhenguan Dynasty" of the Tang Empire, that is, the period when Emperor Li Shimin was in power, which was the golden age of the Chinese.
Few Chinese will object to saying that the Zhenguan Dynasty is the most powerful dynasty in China, but if you ask why the Zhenguan Dynasty is strong and to what extent, I am afraid that more than 99 percent of the Chinese will not be able to say why.
Here's the answer to that question.
Why did the Zhenguan Dynasty become China's golden age?
The Zhenguan Dynasty was established by Emperor Li Shimin. Li Shimin was the de facto founding emperor of the Tang Empire (his father, Li Yuan, was only nominal). Of all the founding emperors of China, Li Shimin was the only one with a good and systematic education and the most noble birth. He was open-minded, all-round in civil and military affairs, knew people well, and followed advice, and created a world-class civil and martial arts during his reign.
In China, a country with a high degree of centralization and a lack of popular × and human rights, the quality of the top leader determines the fate of the country.
In addition to the advantages shared by the wise emperors in history, the following advantages are unique to Li Shimin.
1. A strong sense of responsibility for the country and the nation and a strong sense of crisis.
A sense of responsibility is the first element that a leader must have, and a leader without or lack a sense of responsibility will bring disaster to the country and the people, either dereliction of duty or abuse of power. Because of their lack of sense of responsibility, many emperors in China have collapsed or lost the country that their ancestors have worked so hard to build, and as a result, the Chinese nation has fallen into a cycle of catastrophes, and Chinese civilization has also gone downhill step by step, and China has also irretrievably declined, from a great power in the Celestial Empire to a second-rate country to a least developed country. Li Shimin's sense of national responsibility can be said to be unprecedented and unprecedented. After he sat on the throne of the emperor, he did not think that he had achieved great success like most powerful figures in China's feudal society, but could sit down and relax, and use the power in his hands to enjoy the taste of glory and wealth. On the contrary, he was more diligent in political affairs than before he ascended the throne, buried himself in official duties, slept only a little time every day, and spent all day at the Golden Palace discussing state affairs, adjudicating cases, and handling official affairs, and sometimes refused to stop for several hours to rest, so that he often forgot to eat and sleep.
Unlike those who were complacent about power, Emperor Li Shimin had a strong sense of crisis, and his eyes did not see a vast empire with strong troops (as was the case in the Tang Empire at that time), but a new regime that was in danger and could be overthrown by another popular uprising at any time. His eyes were firmly fixed on the once powerful Sui Empire, which had just collapsed, constantly pondering the lessons of the fall of the Sui Dynasty, reminding himself from time to time not to repeat the mistakes of the Sui Dynasty, and carefully but diligently guiding his empire out of the thorns, onto prosperity, and towards glory. By the middle of Li Shimin's reign, the Tang Empire had become a superpower unrivaled in the known world at the time, prosperous and rich to the point that even God would be jealous. At this time, Li Shimin should be satisfied, but he showed no signs of satisfaction at all, what he saw was not the prosperity and glory in front of him, but the long and arduous road to the future of the empire, and continued to work tirelessly to consolidate the foundation of the future.
Li Shimin's strong sense of responsibility is a concentrated embodiment of his high wisdom.
Second, the style of being honest and honest in governance.
China's rulers had an infinite amount of cleverness and took pride in being clever in front of others, and few thought of ruling honestly and being honest with others. As a result, the rulers used trickery to control their subordinates, and the subordinates did the same and deceived their leaders by trickery. Li Shimin is the only person in Chinese history who has truly ruled with sincerity; when he was in office, he was open-minded to his ministers and did not practice fraud; his ministers also fulfilled their duties faithfully and did not engage in traditional official prostitutes who deceived and coaxed. At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, Li Shimin made great efforts to rectify the rule of officials and was determined to cure the incurable disease of corruption and bribery in the officialdom. In order to investigate those corrupt officials who secretly accepted bribes and who might accept bribes in the future, Li Shimin ordered his cronies to secretly offer bribes to officials of various ministries, and as a result, several corrupt officials were really investigated and punished. Li Shimin told a relict of the Sui Dynasty about his strategy while being proud, but he didn't expect the minister to pour a scoop of cold water on him on the spot: Your Majesty usually warns your subjects to treat people with integrity, but Your Majesty himself has taken the lead in fraud. Li Shimin believed that the minister's words had deep wisdom, and gladly accepted this rebellious advice that made ordinary people in power angry and angry. On another occasion, Li Shimin ordered men who were under the age of 18 but were physically fit to be conscripted into the army. Wei Zheng refused to countersign the edict (note that this is Li Shimin's most intelligent masterpiece, his orders have no legal effect without the signature of the minister in charge, and no emperor will take the initiative to limit his unlimited power, except Li Shimin), Li Shimin explained: "This is a traitor evading military service and deliberately underreporting his age." Wei Zheng replied: "Your Majesty often says that I treat the world with integrity and ask the people not to deceive, but you lose your integrity first. His Majesty does not treat people with integrity, so he first suspects the people of fraud. Li Shimin's reaction was to take it seriously and immediately retract his life.
3. Broad-minded, love is like life, and there is the amount of tolerance for all rivers.
Whether a country and a nation can prosper and become strong and strong, in addition to the superhuman qualities of the person at the helm, there must also be enough talents to carry out the will of the helmsman. The importance of talent has become the consensus of the world today, because talent determines the destiny of the country. However, not all the people in power attach importance to talents, and the reality is that more than half of the people in power ignore or even hate talents. Only those outstanding politicians who are broad-minded and courageous, who can recognize the importance of talents, who can tolerate the weaknesses of talents without harming the overall situation, and who are not afraid of talents surpassing him, can appoint people on the basis of merit.
Li Shimin's love is well described in the history books, and the most typical example is the trust and reuse of Wei Zheng. Wei Zheng is a former minister of Li Shimin's elder brother Li Jiancheng, and the two brothers were once political opponents who could not share the same life. Wei Zheng had persuaded Li Jiancheng to kill Li Shimin more than once, and it stands to reason that Li Shimin should hate him to the bone marrow. After Li Shimin won this power struggle, almost everyone believed that Li Shimin would kill Wei Zheng to vent his anger or kill him as a scapegoat; no one could have imagined that Li Shimin's greatest punishment for Wei Zheng would be to appoint him as the prime minister of the empire and form a family with him. The fruit of this dramatic ending is that Wei Zheng made an unparalleled contribution to the strength of the Tang Empire!
The Zhenguan Dynasty led by Li Shimin can be described as full of talents, including Wei Zheng, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and Changsun Wuji, and Li Jing, Qin Shuding, Cheng Yanjin, and Wei Chi Jingde. A large number of elite figures formed a strong and efficient leadership core around Li Shimin. But Li Shimin still felt that there was not enough talent, and repeatedly ordered Prime Minister Feng Yide to recommend talents, and repeatedly urged him after a long time without news. Feng Yide said in a twisted manner: "It's not that I don't work hard, it's really that there are no talents in this world." Li Shimin immediately corrected him: "A gentleman uses people like tools, and each has his own strengths." Since the ancients, can they borrow talents from different generations? Suffering from the fact that they can't ask for it, why should they be light in the world?" Hearing such insight, Feng Yide was not only ashamed, but also ashamed.
Fourth, a high degree of self-control, a deep understanding of the weaknesses of human nature, and a high degree of vigilance against "good words".
Human beings evolved from animals, and there are more or less traces of animals left on their bodies; as long as human beings, whether they are great men or ordinary people, they have a human side and an animal side. The true connotation of human civilization is to maximize human nature and overcome animal nature as much as possible. The amount of human nature has a great deal to do with the level of a person's status, and the animalistic elements of people with extremely high and low status are easy to spread and grow, the former will not be reluctant to survive by means, and the latter will indulge in wanton and abuse of power. Because of the high position and power of the emperor of China, the long-suppressed beastly nature has the conditions to be released, and it will spread around like a wildfire in late autumn, and it is not a person with strong self-control who cannot prevent it from harming the pond fish.
The bestiality of human beings is also called the weakness of human nature, and the most harmful manifestations are indulgence, abuse of power, and love to listen to good words. The weakness of ordinary people generally does not lead to great social harm because of the constraints of conditions; the emperor has the power of life and death in his hands, and if his human weakness is not strictly controlled, it can cause huge social harm and irreparable serious consequences. None of the great emperors in history have set many commendable examples of controlling their own weaknesses, but it was Li Shimin the Great who did the best and was consistent.
The love of listening to good words is almost a common human disease, and the preference for good words by powerful people has reached an unbelievable level. Throughout history, only a very small number of those kings who have fallen have been defeated by powerful enemies, and the vast majority have been beaten by the sweet words around them. Only those few wise people can not be misled by good words, and Emperor Li Shimin is one of them, he is fully aware that most of the good words are ulterior motives, so he is especially wary of sycophants. He often admonished the officials around him: "If the monarch is stubborn and thinks that he is smarter than others, his subordinates will definitely flatter him." As a result, the monarch loses the state, and his subordinates cannot be preserved alone. Yu Shiji, the prime minister of the Sui Dynasty, blindly sycophants Yang Guang in order to preserve his wealth, but he could not escape death. You should take this as a warning, and if you have opinions on major national affairs, you must tell them bluntly, and you must not report good news and bad news. ”
The minister Wang Shizhong (Shizhong is the head of the province under the door, with a similar rank to the prime minister) saw Li Shimin and saw the beautiful concubine of the king of Lujiang, who had broken the country and the family destroyed, standing beside the emperor, and looked at the woman meaningfully. Li Shimin saw that there was something in his eyes, so he said: "This is the concubine of the king of Lujiang, and when the king of Lujiang heard that she was quite arrogant, he killed her husband and forcibly took possession of her, so tyrannical and unkind, how could he not die!" Li Shimin was greatly moved by this impatient "crazy talk": "It wasn't for you to remind me bluntly, I almost didn't know it because of evil", and immediately sent the woman out of the palace and rewarded the king's servants.
In 623 A.D., Wei Zheng accused Li Shimin of his mistakes in front of the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs in the main hall, and did not give Li Shimin face at all, so that Li Shimin's patience finally reached the limit. He immediately returned to the palace in a rage, and was cruel to Empress Changsun, who came to greet him: "One day I will kill this farmer!" Empress Changsun asked who the farmer was, and Li Shimin said: "Of course it's Wei Zheng, he always insults me in public." Empress Changsun is also a rare outstanding woman in ancient times, and after hearing this, she immediately put on the queen's official uniform and solemnly paid homage to the emperor: "I heard that Jun Ming is upright, and Wei Zheng is so upright, because of my husband's wisdom, how can I not congratulate you." Facing such a virtuous wife, Li Shimin's anger disappeared immediately.
The strength of the Zhenguan Dynasty is unmatched by any dynasty in China. Throughout the history of China, several powerful dynasties, the symbol of strength is nothing more than the wealth of the country, the strength of the army and the abundance of the people, only the Zhenguan Dynasty has made outstanding achievements in the deep civilization (mainly referring to the system and cultural heritage). The wealth of the Tang Empire is evidenced by a poem by the great poet Du Fu, "Recalling the heyday of the Kaiyuan Dynasty in the past, Xiaoyi still hides thousands of families, the rice flows fat and the corn is white, and the public and private warehouses are rich and ......". In line with the high development of the productive forces, the international prestige of the Tang Dynasty also reached its peak, and it won successive victories in foreign wars, maintained a continuous offensive posture for more than 100 years, and expanded its territory extremely, and the vast territories of Korea, Mobei, and the Western Regions were successively incorporated into China's territory, and the western territory reached the Shiguo (Tashkent City in Central Asia) on the eastern shore of the Aral Sea. In addition to the fruitful achievements known to these people, the degree of civilization of the Zhenguan Dynasty was also second to none in the world at that time, and the following civilization achievements made the Han nation the best nation in the known world at that time.
First, the social order is unprecedentedly stable.
The social order of the Zhenguan Dynasty is unbelievably good, and it is really a night that does not close the door and does not leave anything behind. In 630, only 29 prisoners were sentenced to death in the country. In 632, the number of condemned prisoners increased to 290. At the end of the year, Li Shimin allowed them to go home to handle the funeral, and they would die when they came back next autumn (in ancient times, they were executed in autumn). In September of the following year, all 290 prisoners were returned, and none escaped. At that time, China's politics were clear, officials performed their duties, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, there were very few unfairness, and there was not much resentment in the hearts of the people. People who have enough food and clothing do not take risks to survive, and people who are calm are not easy to go to extremes, so the probability of committing crimes is very rare.
2. Open borders.
The Tang Empire was the most civilized and powerful country in the world at that time, and its capital, Chang'an, was a cosmopolitan city, just like New York in the United States today. At that time, the Tang Empire was the "Sunshine Zone" in the minds of people with lofty ideals in all countries of the world, and outstanding talents from all countries risked their lives to run to the Tang Empire. Diplomatic envoys from all over the world, after seeing the high prosperity and civilization of the Tang Empire, their own country was similar to the uncivilized "primeval forest" in their hearts, so they did not want to return to China and did everything possible to stay. China's highly developed culture has made most people who come to China proud to be Chinese (which is reminiscent of the green card in the United States today). Not only the capital Chang'an, but also all over the country there are "expatriates" from abroad who have settled in the local area, especially in the emerging commercial city, and there are more than 200,000 Western expatriates in Guangzhou alone. The Zhenguan Dynasty is a rare open dynasty in Chinese history, and there are no too strict restrictions on the entry of foreigners and the exit of Chinese, that is, there is no worry that Chinese will forget their ancestors after going out; and there is no worry about foreigners coming in and taking the lead. This alone shows that the Zhenguan Dynasty was highly confident, convinced that its country was the most civilized and powerful land in the world, and did not worry about foreign cultures drowning them. The quality of the people of the Zhenguan Dynasty was so high, it neither discriminated against nor flattered foreign nationals, neither blindly xenophobic nor "take-it-or-leave-it", and it was a picture of a great national bearing and a kingly demeanor that was neither humble nor arrogant. Foreigners in China, like Chinese in their own homes, enjoy the same civil rights as Chinese, and can not only make a fortune, but also become political officials. Many expatriates from the Arab Empire and Japan held official positions in China, and some also served as senior ministerial-level officials.
In addition to accepting a large number of foreign immigrants, the Tang Empire also accepted batches of foreign students to come to China to study advanced culture. The number of privately financed international students is far higher. After returning to China after completing their studies, these Japanese students carried out the first modernization movement in Japan - "Dahua Reform", that is, the Sinicization Movement, from the code system to the clothing and customs, all of which imitated the Zhenguan Dynasty at that time, so that the Japanese nation in the primitive tribal state leaped forward for a thousand years.
1,200 years later, the Japanese Empire carried out the second modernization movement, embraced Western culture in all aspects, made itself leap forward for hundreds of years, and trampled the former teacher under his feet, causing two horrific massacres in the teacher's "courtyard".
The Japanese nation is not very smart, it is just good at learning. This nation, which is half a beat slower than others, has one of the greatest advantages - backward but not stubborn. When foreign civilizations invade, it always humbly takes the initiative to accept a culture that is more advanced than its own, accepts the advanced achievements of human civilization in the fastest and most convenient way, and makes itself quickly leap into the ranks of advanced nations.
It is not terrible for a nation to be backward, but stubbornness is the most terrible!
3. The only dynasty without corruption.
The germ of corruption in Chinese officialdom is pervasive, so much so that the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people believe that corruption is an incurable disease of human society, and as long as there are "officials," corruption cannot be avoided. When students returning from countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States state to their friends and relatives that these countries have basically eliminated corruption, few people do not think he is talking nonsense. In fact, corruption is not a common phenomenon in human society, and there are many countries with a high degree of civilization on the earth that have basically eliminated corruption. Not only modern powers such as the United States and England, but even Singapore, which is predominantly Chinese, has largely eliminated corruption.
The basic elimination of corruption here does not mean that corruption has been completely eradicated, but that corruption is a very rare phenomenon in the entire officialdom, and the amount of corruption is not large (the amount of corruption in a year generally does not exceed the person's salary for one year), and the duration will not be very long (it is rare to commit crimes for more than three consecutive years), and they will be quickly exposed and punished mercilessly. The Clinton incident is the biggest scandal in US politics, but one Chinese said: A village chief on the mainland is many times more romantic than Clinton, and the US president really deserves too much money......
The Zhenguan Dynasty is the only dynasty in Chinese history that has not been corrupt, and this is perhaps Li Shimin's most commendable political achievement. In China under Li Shimin's rule, the emperor took the lead in setting an example, and the officials were dedicated to the public service, and the officials were responsible for their duties, and the phenomenon of abuse of power and corruption and dereliction of duty fell to the lowest point in history. What is commendable is that Li Shimin did not use cruel punishments to denounce corruption, but mainly set an example and formulated a set of political systems as scientific as possible to prevent corruption. In the face of a shrewd and self-disciplined ruler, officials have little incentive to embezzle, and it is not easy for corrupt officials to find a place to hide. Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty had the most severe punishment for corruption, and corrupt officials were all punished with the cruel punishment of skinning, but the number of corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty was still rare in history. It can be seen that the prevention of corruption mainly depends on a set of scientific and well-established political systems, and relying only on after-the-fact crackdowns can only achieve temporary results, and cannot eradicate the social soil on which corruption depends at the root.
Fourth, the initial attempt of the decentralization system.
The main characteristics of China's feudal system were a high degree of centralization of power, with local subordination to the central government, and the central government was only the emperor. This highly centralized political system greatly limits the creativity, initiative, and flexibility of the people, and can easily lead to violent ×.
The × central government of China's feudal society implemented the "three provinces and six ministries system", but the division of functions and powers of the three provinces in the Zhenguan Dynasty initially reflected the principle of separation of powers, which is a characteristic of modern politics. The Zhongshu Province issued an order, the Menxia Province censored the order, and the Shangshu Province executed the order. A decree is formed by the prime ministers at the government hall in Zhongshu Province, and the resolution is submitted to the emperor for approval, and then the Zhongshu Province issues an edict in the name of the emperor. Before the edict is issued, it must be sent to the ministry for review, and the ministry may refuse to "countersign" if it deems it inappropriate. If the edict lacks a countersignature, it cannot be promulgated in accordance with the law. Only the edict after the "countersignature" of the province became an official decree of the state and was handed over to the province of Shangshu for execution. This mode of political operation is somewhat similar to the "separation of powers" system of the modern × state, and the doctrine of separation of powers that emerged in the West in the seventeenth century, which Li Shimin had applied to China's political system more than 1,000 years ago, further illustrates how highly civilized the Zhenguan Dynasty was. The most commendable thing is that Li Shimin stipulated that his edict could only take effect after it had been "countersigned" by the subordinate province, thus effectively preventing him from making imprudent decisions that damaged his reputation on a whim and in a bad mood. There have been 853 emperors in Chinese history, and only Li Shimin has such outstanding wisdom and mind (the founding emperor of the United States, Washington, is a bit like his student).
5. Highly developed business.
The economic characteristics of China's feudal dynasties were "heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce", the proportion of commerce in the national economy was quite low, and the status of merchants was several orders lower than that of farmers. This is also the main reason why China's feudal economy has not been able to develop substantially.
The Zhenguan Dynasty was the only feudal dynasty that did not discriminate against commerce, not only did not discriminate, but also provided many convenient conditions for commercial development, which further reflected Li Shimin's foresight. Under the advocacy of Li Shimin's government, the commercial economy of the Zhenguan Dynasty made rapid and rapid progress, and new commercial cities sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. At that time, more than half of the world's famous commercial cities were concentrated in China. In addition to Jiaozhou, Guangzhou, Mingzhou and Fuzhou on the coast, there are Hongzhou (Nanchang, Jiangxi), Yangzhou, Yizhou (Chengdu) in the interior and Shazhou (Dunhuang, Gansu) and Liangzhou (Wuwei, Gansu) in the northwest. The capital Chang'an and the capital Luoyang are cosmopolitan cities.
The world-famous "Silk Road" was the link between the material civilizations of the East and the West, but this commercial passage reached its highest use value during the Tang Empire. The territory of the Tang Empire was unprecedentedly vast, and four important military towns (Anxi four towns) were set up in the Western Regions, and the western border went directly to Shiguo (now Kazakhstan) in Central Asia, which provided a stable social order and effective security guarantee for the business travel between the East and the West.
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Looking back at the splendid history of civilization of the Zhenguan Dynasty, we can easily come to the conclusion that the Chinese nation was once the best nation in the world, and the Chinese were once the best people! When today's Chinese people look back to the glorious past of their ancestors, what attitude should we adopt? Are we clinging to the long-vanished halos of the "four great inventions" and the "ancient civilizations" to deceive ourselves; or are we heart-wrenching and reforming ourselves? To regain the rationality and self-confidence of the Chinese nation, it is up to each Chinese to make his own decision!
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