After the three families were divided into Jin, the Jin state became the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao, and Wei, the most powerful of which was the Zhao state, but in fact, the first to become a superpower in the Warring States was the original humble Wei state. All this is because Wei Wenhou, the ruler of the State of Wei, loves art, has a different view of the overall situation than ordinary people, and during his reign, he has jumped the vision of the State of Wei out of the homeland of the Jin Dynasty and looked at the world.
To achieve this, it was necessary to have a group of capable ministers who could decide thousands of miles away and give advice, and Wei Wenhou first launched the talent strategy of the State of Wei, inviting Confucius's disciples, Zi Xia, who was nearly ninety years old at the time, to the land of the West River of the State of Wei, to be hired as an imperial teacher, and gradually cultivated a large number of outstanding talents who had been used in the world, forming the famous "West River School", of which Li Wu was the best of them.
Soon, Wei Wenhou appointed Li Wu as his chancellor and began a vigorous movement to change the law.
At that time, the State of Wei, where Li Wu was located, was located in a relatively backward area of the Jin State after the split, and its territory was basically located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, with the State of Qi in the east, the State of Qin in the west, the State of Chu in the south, the State of Zhao in the north, the State of Wei sandwiched in the middle, which was inferior in geographical advantages, while the State of Wei was not as economically inferior as Korea in terms of internal economy and inferior to the State of Zhao in external military strength.
In view of these circumstances, Li Wu removed the Confucian "royal way" and established the "hegemonic" technique of the Wei state, that is, the development strategy from the inside out, the rich country to the strong army, and finally realized the "hegemony of the world".
The accumulation of national wealth is inseparable from efficient production and construction, increasing the country's social wealth, grain production is undoubtedly the root of all this, the so-called "grain in hand, the heart is not panicked", and the increase in grain output, can not be separated from the rational use of land, Li Wu's first move is "the teaching of the best of the land", specifically, to break the state-owned system of land "the coast of the land can not be the royal land", encourage the people to open up the land, and assign a part of the land to the peasants to use, similar to modern contracting, so as to mobilize the enthusiasm of the peasants. In addition, the state has also made scientific guidance on the types of crops planted on the land according to the land situation, and strives to make the best use of them.
A few years after Li Wu's policy was implemented, the state of Wei was able to have a good harvest regardless of drought and flood, and the storehouses in various parts of the Wei state appeared to accumulate and accumulate treasures. With the abundance of materials, the economic situation of the State of Wei is improving, but with the accumulation of too many materials, there will inevitably be an economic situation of "valleys and poor peasants", which will undoubtedly affect the benign development of the economy.
Li Wu took precautions and used the second trick "Pingyu" at the same time, the method he adopted was very simple, that is, through the government forces, in the good year, the products were purchased at a low price, stored, and in the famine year, they were introduced to the market at a par or low price, that is, "taking more than enough to make up for the deficiencies", so that the state could completely regulate the prices of the market by economic means, and the prices would not fluctuate greatly, so that the people of wei could have a stable life, which in turn greatly guaranteed the stability of the whole country.
When the country was stable and the people were happy, the population of the Wei state also greatly increased, all of which was only a necessary condition for the struggle for hegemony, and the cohesion of the people's hearts and minds, in addition to "teaching the people", also needed to have a set of effective national legal system to regulate the people's progress and retreat.
In that year, when Li Wu was serving as a punctualist in Shangdi County, he began to have a "legal experiment", Shangdi was close to the Qin State, the people's customs were fierce, and there were many lawsuits fighting with each other, according to the local folk customs, Li Wu introduced the method of "archery litigation", that is, through the win or loss of arrows, to determine the win or loss of the lawsuit, although this is a stopgap measure, but for this reason, it has established a consistent atmosphere of state laws and regulations, which is similar to the "pole and gold" of the shangmartins of later generations.
When the people formed a certain concept of the legal system, Li Wu began to collect the criminal codes of various countries and wrote a book called "The Book of Laws", which can be regarded as the first written law in ancient China. The "Law Classic" is composed of six chapters: the Law of Theft, the Law of Thieves, the Law of Imprisonment, the Law of Arrest, the Law of Miscellaneous Law, and the Law of Possession, and has clear provisions on various crimes and punishments.
After the implementation of this series of policies by Li Wu, the change of the Wei state was sound and colorful, the Wei state began to have a strong national strength, the Warring States of Xiong was ready to come out, and the Wei state began to rise in the early Warring States period.
<h1>postscript</h1>
The key to the rise of the State of Wei was the Sage of Marquis Wen of Wei, under the management of a good leader, who had reserved a strong talent pool, and then appointed such as Li Wu, Ximen Leopard, Zi Xia, Zhai Huang, Wei Cheng, Wu Qi, and other able generals, and the monarchs and subjects were single-minded, making the State of Wei rich and strong, and had a strong national strength, so the State of Wei became the hegemon of the Central Plains.
And Li Wu's success was also because of this suitable political environment, which made him the first person to change the law in the Warring States, and his results of the change of law influenced many later countries, such as the Shang Martingale Transformation Law of the Qin Dynasty and the reform of the Chu State of Wu Qi.
Wen Dao Mu Gong history everyone said
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Source: Chronicle of History
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