Historically, there have been many major problems in the practice of the sub-feudal system. For example, the Han Dynasty practiced the feudal system, and it did not take long for the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms" to appear; the Jin Dynasty's feudal system was only passed down to the second generation, and the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" appeared. The vassal system of the Ming Dynasty, although strictly speaking, is not a feudal system, but in the second generation, there was also a disaster such as the "Battle of Jingyan".
Why did Zhou divide the world and protect the foundation for 800 years, while the Han divided the seal and there were seven kingdoms in turmoil, and the Jin division had eight kings in rebellion?
But later, the Western Han Dynasty, which imitated the feudal division, had a rebellion of the seven kings, and the Western Jin Dynasty also had a rebellion of the eight kings. There are two main reasons for this phenomenon, one is that there are more people with different surnames in the Zhou Dynasty, and the other is that the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty is stronger.
(1) Half of the recipients with different surnames in the Zhou Dynasty were feuded, and the princes with different surnames were not ambitious
According to statistics, when the Zhou Dynasty was founded, a total of 71 vassal states were divided, of which 40 were members of the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty, and 31 were meritorious people with different surnames. In this way, the princes have very little royal blood, and if they rebel against the king, they will not have much ambition to compete with the king for the throne.
The situation was different in the Western Han Dynasty and the Western Jin Dynasty. The seven princes and kings who rebelled in the Western Han Dynasty and the eight princes and kings who rebelled in the Western Jin Dynasty were all of the same bloodline of the emperor, and their identities were also very noble. They have been pampered since childhood, their status is superior, and in their fiefdom, they are emperors in the true sense of the word. This situation also fuels their ambitions, and if they rebel, they will gain more support and succeed relatively easily.
(2) The military strength of the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty was strong, and the princes did not dare to act rashly
There is another reason why the vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty did not dare to rebel, that is, the military strength of the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty greatly crushed the other vassal states. When the Zhou Dynasty was divided, the total population of the whole country was about 5 million, and the average population of each vassal state was tens of thousands, and it was difficult to reach 10,000 standing soldiers.
The population reserve controlled by the Zhou royal family is roughly around 800,000, and the number of soldiers can reach close to 100,000. Therefore, the military strength of the Zhou royal family is much stronger than that of other vassal states, and if the vassal states have different intentions, the Zhou royal family can easily exterminate them.
The situation was different in the Western Han Dynasty and the Western Jin Dynasty. Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, once swore to kill the white horse, and agreed that those who were not surnamed Liu would be punished by the world, which also made the princes and kings surnamed Liu widely recognized by all walks of life, and broadened the way for their strength development. By the time of Emperor Jing, most of the world was under the control of the princes and kings, and the strength of the princes and kings such as the king of Wu and the king of Chu was on a par with the Han royal family, which also gave them the conditions to rebel.
The Western Jin Dynasty learned the lesson of Cao Wei's loss of the country, not only divided the royal family members into princes and kings, but also gave them military power. Therefore, the military strength of the princes and kings of the Western Jin Dynasty is relatively strong. Later, the emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty was mediocre and incompetent, and the ambitions of the princes and kings were instantly revealed, and the world was in chaos.
It can be seen that the vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty were weak and had little ambition, so they did not pose a threat to the rule of the Zhou Dynasty. The princes and kings of the Western Han Dynasty and the Western Jin Dynasty were not only stronger, but also had great ambitions, and had the conditions for rebellion.
Therefore, under the temptation of the supreme imperial power, they also put their ambitions into action, rebelled, and the world entered the troubled times again.
The Western Zhou Dynasty was able to practice feudalism and maintain the national honor for a long time because of the support of the people's sentiment. But history moves forward. Once this foundation of popular sentiment was dismantled, the feudal system of the Western Zhou Dynasty could only go bankrupt.
Now that this foundation of popular sentiment has collapsed, the Western Han Dynasty and the Western Jin Dynasty can no longer engage in feudalism. Whether it is a king with a different surname or a king with the same surname, or whether it is a king surnamed Liu or King Sima, the final outcome will not be too good.
After thousands of years of evolution of the feudal system, there have been repeated game conflicts between the central and local governments, including the "proton system" in the Qin and Han dynasties, the "jiedu envoy system" in the Tang Dynasty, and then the "weak cadres and strong branches" in the Song Dynasty, to the "vassal kings guarding the border" in the Ming Dynasty, and until the "liuguan system" in the Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the feudal system became a swan song, and the local governors separated their powers and responsibilities to avoid centralization. As a result, the country has few royal civil strife, and the country has a long history.
As a social management system, there are advantages and disadvantages, and the system design is particularly important. In the modern information age, the level of economic development has far exceeded that of the past, the primitive stage of opening up the territory has passed, the democratic republic has become the mainstream, the feudal system has no longer the soil for its existence, and in some constitutional monarchies it is only an honorary title, as a kind of historical inertia, there is no longer the original intention of the original designer.