Thinking carefully about this poetic idiom "beyond the reach of the dust", one can't help but sigh at what twists and turns of historical origins are hidden behind it. On the surface, it is just a simple story: when Zhao Shi passed by Xingyang in the late Han Dynasty, Cao Wei greeted him sincerely but sighed. However, this seemingly ordinary little story is like a mirror, reflecting the changing times and the reserved demeanor of celebrities and gentlemen. Going back further, we will find that behind this is the long process of the transformation of Chinese civilization from "co-feudal rule" to "absolute monarchy", spanning more than 2,000 years of changes in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Three Kingdoms, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and many other dynasties. I suspect that even Sima Guang's masterpiece "Zizhi Tongjian" is difficult to fully summarize the historical process, is it a bit arbitrary? Let's find out.
The origin story of "out of reach".
The water of the Yellow River is poured into the east, nourishing this fertile field for thousands of miles. At the end of the Han Dynasty, the heroes rose together, and the war was endless, but in this rich land, you can still breathe a breath of peace and tranquility for the time being.
Zhao Zhi, whose name is Zeng, was originally a person from Yingchuan. He was studious and well-known since he was a child. As a young man, he devoted himself to his studies, delving into the scriptures and the truth of all things in the world. Gradually, his fame spread, and he was admired by the people of insight at the time.
Cao Wei, whose name is Zimeng, has a prominent family background, and is originally a child of a family in Nanyang. In his bones is everyone's demeanor, and he is also tireless in learning and pursuing the Qingming Festival. Zhao Shi praised this young man who had read poetry and books, so he recommended him to serve as the local official of Xingyang Ling.
Time flies, and a few years have passed in the blink of an eye. Zhao was ordered to serve in the East China Sea. When he left Xingyang, he decided to drop by to see his old friend Cao Wei in person. Cao Wei, who was full of joy, learned that Zhao Shi was coming, so he hurriedly dressed up for the visit, prepared water, wine and delicacies, and waited at the long pavilion outside Guo.
However, Zhao Shi looked at no one on the left and no one on the right, only the dust of the cars and horses flying outside the long pavilion. He sighed and couldn't bear to disturb the work of this junior student, so he had to slow down Ma Xi and hurry forward, missing the good opportunity to reunite with Cao Wei.
Cao Wei suddenly realized: "Zhao Jun is famous, and if he doesn't see him today, he will laugh for the world." But when he chased him out of the city, he could only look at the dust of the convoy that was drifting away and sighed with emotion. If there is no danger in this scene, the two of them are related and unforgettable. It is this anecdote that has endured for a long time and has been passed down to this day, which led to the birth of the four-character idiom "beyond the reach of the dust".
The transition from "co-feudalism" to "absolute monarchy".
After Qin unified the six kingdoms, it implemented Legalism with an iron fist, and the centralization of power reached an unprecedented level, and the system of absolute monarchy began to take shape. However, the extreme brutality of the Qin Dynasty's dictatorship, coupled with the rebellion of the people from the people, led to the fall of the Qin Dynasty and the rise of the Han Dynasty.
Liu Bang established the Western Han Dynasty, which was relatively decentralized in the early days, adopted a feudal system, and canonized the heroes of the clan as princes and kings. However, due to too many feudals, power tended to be scattered, which was not conducive to the centralization of power, so the sub-feudal system was gradually abolished, and the county system began to be implemented to strengthen the centralization of power. In the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the county and the state were parallel, and the status of the county guard and the monarch was roughly the same, and a relatively complete centralized system was realized.
However, although Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty achieved great achievements, he was violent and abnormal in his later years, and Wang Mang regarded him as an enemy, which led to Wang Mang later being able to usurp the throne. After Wang Mang came to power, he comprehensively shook the legal system of the Han Dynasty, changed the county into a state, and restored to the era of co-ownership of the state and the vassal states, ending the high degree of centralization in the early Han Dynasty and returning to the feudal system.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, although Emperor Guangwu regained the legal system of the Han Dynasty after his accession to the throne, its unified power was not very consolidated, and a series of peasant wars such as the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, which led to the chaos of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the opposition, thereby accelerating the disintegration of the centralized system. At the end of the Han Dynasty, powerful warlords seized one side after another, and the Central Plains region was a three-legged situation.
This state of extreme decentralization of power continued until Cao Cao chased the Central Plains and established the Wei state. However, the centralization of power in the Wei Dynasty was still hindered by the division of princes such as Yuan Shao and Sun Quan, and it was not until Cao Pi changed the name of the country to "Wei", abolished the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty, and reformed Wei into a county system that strengthened centralized power, which completely ended the state of "co-lord feudalism".
The ensuing period of the Three Kingdoms presented a "dual monarchy" situation, in which local princes such as Cao Cao and Sun Quan were nominally loyal to the central government, but the actual military power and economic lifeline were completely in their own hands, and even later openly proclaimed themselves emperors and usurped the Han Dynasty. This new situation led to the fact that the real power of the central monarch was very limited, and it was only possible to maintain its legitimacy to a limited extent.
It was not until the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty that the absolute monarchy was finally firmly established. The Jin Dynasty was the first dynasty to establish the Chan Dynasty system and the "autocratic power of the prime minister", and the centralization of power reached a new height beyond the reach of the Qin and Han dynasties. Later, although it was divided into the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the power system of the Chan Dynasty and the prime minister was maintained, and the state of "dual monarchy" was finally basically confusing.
A tortuous period of transition
Although the Eastern Han Dynasty re-established centralized power in the hands of Emperor Guangwu, its foundation was still weak. The turbulence of the times, coupled with Wang Mang's overthrow of the Han dynasty and the restoration of the feudal system, made the situation of local division and centralization in the late Han Dynasty last for decades.
During this period, many clans relied on their own resources and the strength of warlords to dominate one side and were not constrained by the central government. The situation of the little godfathers and the collection of power and money in various places is extremely serious. Relying on their own private arming, they monopolized the local military, political and financial powers, turned a deaf ear to the central court, and were like a small court, constituting a situation of "double monarchy".
The Nanyang area is a microcosm of this situation. Cao Cao, as a descendant of the local wealthy Cao family, was entrusted with the important task of garrisoning Nanyang. During the turbulent period at the end of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao held the military power of Nanyang and had a very high status. Later, he took the opportunity to conquer the north and the south, chase the Central Plains, and became a key figure in the period of the Three Kingdoms.
At the same time, the imperial family was also facing serious problems with the dictatorship of relatives and eunuchs. Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty gave his relatives the title of Huyong and entrusted them with important tasks, which led to the problem of the dictatorship of his relatives. During the reign of Emperor Ming and Emperor An, the power of his relatives became more and more inflated, and he constantly interfered in court politics and had a disagreement with the emperor. In terms of eunuchs, they have risen since the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs such as Cao Jie joined forces with their relatives to control the center.
The rivalry between relatives and eunuchs, and the confrontation between local families and the central court, these contradictions were intertwined, which caused the centralized power to continue to suffer and accelerated the decline of the dynasty. At the same time, due to years of war and the intensification of exploitation by the ruling class, the peasants' lives were in dire straits, and frequent outbreaks broke out. For example, the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao and Zhang Xiu spread to the eight counties, and once put the Han Dynasty in a desperate situation.
This period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty can be said to be a key turning point in Chinese history from divided feudalism to a highly centralized unification. Many contradictions disappear one after another, and the operation of society is chaotic, which is the turbulent era reflected in the "unreachable" at the end of the Han Dynasty. But the wheels of history are rolling forward, and in this turmoil there are also many conditions for future unification.
The imperial examination system promoted autocratic unity
Although the Western Jin Dynasty created the system of Chan concession and the autocratic power of the prime minister, it was difficult for the emerging unified dynasty to fully implement a high degree of centralization because the gate lord clan still occupied an important position at that time. With the changes of the times, the emergence of the imperial examination system paved the way for the complete realization of absolute monarchy.
The imperial examination system can be traced back to the Sui Dynasty and was initiated by Prime Minister Wang Gang. However, the imperial examination system initiated by the Sui Dynasty was not perfect enough, and it was the Tang Dynasty that really made it mature. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination system was further improved and developed, providing a new channel for the selection of talents. Due to the relatively complete imperial examination system in the Tang Dynasty, many jinshi who entered from the imperial examination began to appear, which alleviated the dominance of the gate lord clan.
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, with the intensification of the division of feudal towns, the clan of the gate lords re-emerged, so that the so-called "five surnames and seven families" dictatorship appeared. However, the imperial examination system has never been abolished and continues to develop. In the Northern Song Dynasty, under the influence of Wang Anshi's reforms, the imperial examination system became more and more perfect, the selection mechanism was further optimized, the competition in society was fierce, and the power of centralization and unification was also enhanced.
By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial examination system had reached a whole new level. Due to the weak foundation of the Southern Song Dynasty, in order to recruit talents to maintain its rule, the imperial examination system implemented by it was very perfect, and the candidates were well treated, while the status of the gate lord clan was greatly suppressed. It can be said that the imperial examination system has initially established a dominant position in the Southern Song Dynasty for the next few hundred years.
By the late Ming Dynasty, the development of the imperial examination system had matured. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he continued to strengthen the rigor of the imperial examination, the examination content was more comprehensive and systematic, and the level of candidates continued to expand. In the late Ming Dynasty, the three major classes of "scholars, peasants, and workers" were basically established, and it can be said that the social structure of "dualistic opposition" has been formed. This created favorable conditions for the absolutist monarch to concentrate his power and monopolize the central power.
In the Qing Dynasty, the development of the imperial examination system reached an unprecedented peak. The Qing dynasty reached a very high degree of centralization, and the local gentry gradually became the main pillar of society, and although their power was limited, they no longer posed a threat to the central autocracy. At the same time, they have become an important force for the central power to penetrate downward and suppress the localities. It can be said that after hundreds of years of precipitation and development from the Sui and Tang dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial examination system finally completely swept away the situation of "five surnames and seven families" and "double monarchs", and won a solid foundation for the absolute monarchy system in the central government.
From "out of reach" to "infinitely better at sunset"
At the end of the Han Dynasty, the heroes rose together, and the war raged, and Zhao Zhi inadvertently missed the opportunity to meet Cao Wei during his tenure, and couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion, and left Xingyang with the regret of "out of reach". This small episode reflects a certain characteristic of that turbulent era.
However, the wheel of history rolled forward, and since then, China has gradually embarked on the road of centralization and unification. After the throes of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, local secession and feudal systems were gradually replaced by centralized power that dominated the world. The emergence of the imperial examination system in the Sui and Tang dynasties provided a new channel for elite governance and broke the monopoly of the clan gatekeepers. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial examination system was maturing, the group of intellectuals was growing, and the social class differentiation intensified, finding a new social foundation for autocratic centralization.
In the course of this change, which has lasted for hundreds of years, we can see all kinds of difficulties and twists and turns in the transition of Chinese civilization from "co-feudal rule" to "absolute monarchy". Aren't the flying dust that Zhao Shi saw back then a portrayal of all the confusion and turmoil faced by this era? However, whether it is the division of the country, the peasant uprising, the dictatorship of foreign relatives and eunuchs, the division of local territories, and so on, they are still gradually submerged by the tide of history.
Just like a magnificent river, it will eventually flow into the vast sea. After a great deal of hardship, the great unification of reunification has finally arrived. The emergence of the Great Unification Dynasty put an end to the possibility of the Central Plains being divided and divided again, and cleared the way for the process of modern modernization.
The words "out of reach" were originally just an anecdote, a small embellishment. However, in the long historical process of China's transformation from "communist feudalism" to "absolute monarchy", it contains richer connotations. This is just as Sima Guang said in "Zizhi Tongjian": "The sunset is infinitely good, but it is just near dusk." "All the passing clouds will pass away, and only the foundation of great unity is the right way in the world, which will never fade.