Sima Qian recorded in the historical record: "Wei used Li Wu to exert all his strength to be a strong king", which was an epoch-making event, and China's long history of changing laws and trying to strengthen began here.
Li Wu's change of law had a far-reaching impact on later generations, shang martingale and Han Fei were all influenced by him, and the "Law Classic" he compiled for the first time put forward the theory of heavy agriculture and heavy law, which became the most important governing policy of the feudal dynasty.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a troubled hero</h1>
Li Wu's fame was not too great compared to the other representative figures of the Fa, but without Li Wu's pioneering deeds, there would be no prosperity of the later Fa school.
In the early warring states period, the struggle for hegemony among the princes entered a more brutal stage, the former generation of overlords of the Jin state split into the three countries of Han, Zhao and Wei, the situation under the world became more chaotic than before, and the unification and merger between the princes became an unstoppable trend.
Li Wu's Bole was the ruler of the State of Wei, Wei Wenhou, due to the limited historical records, today we have no way of knowing what kind of person Li Wu was before he was promoted by Wei Wenhou, it is said that his master was Zeng Zi's son Zengsan, and how Confucian disciples became adherents of the Fa, this is a mystery, but Li Wu's legal thinking is very advanced.
The State of Wei, as well as many of the princely states at that time, faced a problem, the dictatorship of the nobility was chaotic, so that the monarchy was severely suppressed, and the system handed down from the Western Zhou Dynasty was no longer applicable to the Warring States. Wei Guo knew better than anyone what the consequences of the excessive power of the nobility would bring, and the lesson of the three families dividing the Jin was profound enough.
Abolishing the nobility and starting the bureaucracy was a strategy for changing the law proposed by Li Wu, which was very rare in the era at that time, and today we only take the feudal bureaucracy as ordinary, but Li Wu's proposal at that time was a process of "starting from scratch", and the radical change of a country in a big way is not something that everyone can think of.
This strategy of changing the law was supported by Wei Wenhou, and the State of Wei at that time was indeed a gathering of talents and had sufficient conditions for changing the law, Li Wu, Ximen Leopard, Le Yang, these outstanding figures were fortunately born in the State of Wei in the same era, and Li Wu's change of law soon swept the State of Wei like a spark.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the study of the Dharma</h1>
During this period, Li Wu completed the famous Fa scholar's work "The Book of Laws", which became the founding work of the Fa, and when the later Shang Martin went to the Qin Kingdom, he took a copy of the "Book of Laws", and when Han Feizi wrote the book, he also referred to the Book of Law, and it can be said that all the schools of change after Li Wu were all influenced by the "Book of Law".
Therefore, some people say that Shang Martin can be regarded as a disciple of Li Wu, although they may not know it, but Shang Martin made a lot of reference to the content of Li Wu's change of law when changing the law in the Qin State, such as heavy agriculture and suppressing Shang, and the "Qin Law" promulgated by Shang Martin was also modeled on the "Book of Law", combined with Shang Martin's own understanding, Shang Martin was the best successor to Li Wu's thought, And Li Wu's thought changed the Wei state and also changed the Qin state.
However, it is a great pity that the precious classic of the "Book of Laws" has been lost, and posterity has been unable to see this precious legal enlightenment from the Warring States, and can only speculate on the content of the "Book of Law" through various historical records, the most powerful reference of which is the works of Shang Martin and Han Feizi, and a large amount of the content in "Han Feizi" was born out of the "Book of Law", of course, it was passed down to the era of Han Feizi, and the ideas of the legalists were more mature than in Li Wu's time, so many of Han Feizi's ideas were already Li Wu's "strengthened and improved" version.
Some of the systems handed down in the Fa Jing already have the rudiments of modern law, such as protecting personal private property, protecting the rights and interests of peasants, abolishing the aristocratic hereditary system, and so on.
One of the most significant is the abolition of the aristocratic hereditary system, which is the first time in ancient Chinese history, but also for the slave system to sound the death knell, slavery to feudal system, is one of the most important turning points in Chinese history, Li Wu was the first to study this change, this move not only allowed the Wei state at that time to get a large number of talents, but also broke the aura of nobility.
The big difference between China and the West is that although our country has a long history, there are very few great aristocrats, compared with the nobility of blood, "self-made" is more admired by people, the so-called "princes and generals, rather have a kind of hu", our ancestors have long ceased to believe in the power of the nobility thousands of years ago, this change of thinking began with Li Wu's transformation of the law.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > passed down to future generations</h1>
Since Li Wu issued a new decree, the rights of the nobility have been greatly weakened, the landlord class has entered the political stage, and even some civilian slave classes can be promoted by their own military achievements or other talents, and the political power of the whole country has grown by leaps and bounds.
In addition, the Li Wu Transformation Law established the important position of the peasants, and in the laws promulgated by Li Wu, a great deal of space was spent to protect the interests of the peasants, which was also completely inherited in the Shang Martingale Transformation Law. For a country, especially a country that is always facing war, land and grain are the top priority, and if land annexation and grain are allowed to hurt the peasants, it will hurt the foundation of a country, so Li Wu will do whatever it takes to "heavy agriculture".
The emergence of the "Book of Laws" is of great significance, this is one of the world's early written codes, since then, the law has been unified, the prince committed the same crime as the common people has become a matter of law to rely on, although the "Book of Law" has not yet achieved the full sense of "equality before the law", but for breaking the privileges of the nobility, protecting the laws and regulations has played an important role in promoting.
Since Li Wu changed the law, the wei state's national strength has greatly increased, and it has rapidly begun to expand, of which the most hit is the qin state, because the wei state is strong, the qin state has been repeatedly defeated, and it has been suppressed by the wei state for decades from the early stage of the Warring States, and then it began to overtake, which is far from the invincible qin state in people's hearts, until the emergence of Shang Martin, another important figure of the Legal family, the Qin state began to rise, and the Shang martingale used the same ideas passed down by Li Wu.
Changing the law and trying to survive, rich countries and strong troops, such a practice is almost repeated in the seven heroes of the Warring States, only change, can survive, only more thorough changes, in order to always stand in the flames of war. Some people commented that Wei Guo's luck was to have Li Wu, but Wei Guo's misfortune was that there was only one Li Wu.
Talents are not available, people like Li Wu, perhaps there is no one in the world, with the strength of one person, to change the fate of a country, such legends are rare, but Li Wu has been gradually forgotten with a long history, becoming a vague shadow of the Fa.
But at the same time, he is also an immortal legend, perhaps today's people no longer remember that there was a politician named Li Wu in history, but the law we see today has his shadow everywhere, the flesh dies, but the mind is immortal, a great spiritual heritage, can make a person's mark forever.