Chapter 24 4. Swamp

The problem in the north is ethnicity, and the problem in the south is class. Class struggle was the main theme of Southern Dynasties politics.More than a year after Song Wendi Liu Yilong came to the throne, he killed Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang who pushed him to the throne (please refer to Chapter 3 of this book). Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang were from a famous family, but they were from a poor family. This is very unusual. As mentioned earlier, as the gravedigger of clan politics, Emperor Wu of Song Dynasty Liu Yu mainly relied on the royal family and common people.The latter controls the state affairs, while the former controls the military power and political areas.Since then, it has become the basic state policy of the Southern Dynasties that the poor family hold the secrets and the foreign vassal entrusts the clan.This is of course because the founding kings of Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen were all from poor families, but also because the gentry had decayed and declined, and could not bear the heavy responsibility.

So, why did Liu Yilong kill Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang? Maybe it's because of fear. In fact, when Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang welcomed Liu Yilong into Beijing as emperor, many of Yilong's generals expressed worries and doubts, and only some people from famous families advocated the trip.What they say is: Xu Xian is a poor scholar, Fu Liang is a commoner, such a loach can't make a big wave at all, so what is there to be afraid of? But Liu Yilong is very clear that things are not that simple, and a poor family may not be a fuel-efficient lamp.As ministers of Gu Ming, since Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang dared to murder the emperor and prince, how can they guarantee that they will not plot again?These villains who entered the upper class by luck and speculation have no moral bottom line at all.Therefore, after Liu Yilong had established himself, those two guys had to be killed.

The class struggle in the Southern Dynasties also drew a bloody curtain. Behind the bloody case is the profound historical background and entanglement, that is, the struggle for power and line between the two classes of gentry landlords and commoner landlords.This kind of struggle is manifested in the love triangle between the royal family, the gentry, and the common people, and also in their Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so it is turbulent and unreasonable.Because according to the logic of Shang Yang's reform and Qin's annexation of the world, the empire should not have classes at all.

Indeed, as a product of the struggle between the landlord class and the lord class, the will of the empire was originally to eliminate classes.Under this new system, the original feudal nobility disappeared.Everyone other than the royal family, no matter the noble or the humble, the wise and the foolish, all became the registered households of the empire, including Liu Bang, who later became the emperor. Enrolled households Qimin means that all people are equal when they are incorporated into the household registration. Of course, everyone is equal before the imperial power. It was a profound political and social revolution.With this revolution, the world can truly be unified.So there are Liu Bang's extermination of heroes, Chao Cuo's strategy of cutting down feudal vassals, and Emperor Wu's method of extending favor (please refer to the seventh volume of the Chinese History "Qin Merges the World" and the eighth volume "The Empire of Han Wu").The reason is that there is no class or class between the emperor and the common people.

The gentry destroyed this system. First, they have official privileges.Second, they have tax-exempt privileges.What's more serious is that according to the Land Occupation Order and Occupation Order issued by the Jin governments, they legally occupied a certain scale of land and a certain number of tenants.The tenants do not establish their own household registrations, nor do they bear state taxes, and they are completely dependents of wealthy families. In addition to tenants, there are parts, that is, servants and farmers.They farm in peacetime and fight in wartime, and they are actually the private armed forces of aristocratic families.Since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buqu has followed its master to fight north and south as personal soldiers, often playing an important role at critical moments.Moreover, since successive governments have never limited the number of trilogy, recruiting trilogy has become an important means for local tyrants to expand their armies and prepare for war.

There are also diners and protégés.They are scholars from humble backgrounds, relying on climbing dragons and phoenixes to get a share of the wealthy family.Because the gentry monopolized official careers, these people were profitable. For example, the master was the governor, and they were county magistrates.Therefore, although the status of diners and disciples is lower than that of staff, their friendship is closer. Tenants, parts, diners, and students are the dependents. The relationship between the aristocratic family and the dependents is the relationship between monarch and minister.Even some local officials recruited their own staff, although they were not dependents, they still regarded the chief as the king, and they would follow them all their lives. Volume IV "Youth Chronicle").

That is to say, at the end of the Han Dynasty, the Wei and Jin Dynasties seemed to have returned to before the Qin and Han Dynasties. The country did not have the name of feudalism but had the reality of feudalism, and the gentry did not have the name of vassals but had the reality of vassals. In fact, although the gentry did not have hereditary titles and fiefs, so they were not real nobles, they were no less imposing than the senior officials of the Spring and Autumn Period.One of the manifestations is to strictly draw a clear line with the poor and common people.If the gentry intermarried with the poor family, it would become a shocking thing; if the poor family wanted to sit with the gentry, even if there was the emperor's will, they would not be able to do so, because the gentry were simply ashamed to be with the gentry.

It really doesn't make sense. The unreasonableness is obvious.Not to mention that the gentry and the common people are both citizens of the empire. Even if there is a difference between scholars, farmers, businessmen, and families, the aristocratic and poor families are also scholars.However, what is surprising is that not only the gentry are like heaven and earth, but there are also distinctions among the gentry.For example, the northern gentry who spoke Luoyang dialect was higher than the southern gentry who spoke Wu, and the northern gentry who went south had to come first and then come first.

Thus, classes and hierarchies are artificially created.Moreover, just as there are five Hu in the north, the social classes in the south have also become five: aristocratic families, humble families, registered households, dependents, and slaves. It's a weird structure. Weird for sure.The nobles and commoners were originally landlords, but they became two classes; the tenants and tribes were originally registered households, but they became dependents;Such a weird phenomenon can only become a reality in that troubled world. The weirdness of the structure can only cause psychological perversion and social deformity, not to mention such unreasonable strict hierarchy and class barriers, which have seriously threatened the stability of the regime and national security.The ruling group could not be united with sincerity, and the gentry, with their various privileges and numerous attachments, was able to compete with the royal family.If things go on like this, isn't it true that the country will not be the country?If it is tolerable, what is unbearable?

The Eastern Jin regime could only swallow their anger.Because when Sima Rui established the government-in-exile in Jiankang, all the resources were in the hands of the gentry, and he was just a polished commander in name only.Therefore, he and his successors had no choice but to give up real power and benefits, even dignity and decency, and rule the world together with the aristocratic family. Too bad even that is wishful thinking. In fact, the gentry's attitude towards the royal family was only co-government but not coexistence.In their view, the prestige of the family is far more important than the state power. Therefore, they can support the central government in order to protect the family, but they will never sacrifice their family status in order to obey the central government.For this reason, even if they give up the central government or change the family, or even sell themselves to seek refuge, they will not hesitate.You must know that at that time, both the northern and southern Hu Han recognized the patriarchal system and the privileges of the gentry.That being the case, what does it matter who is the emperor?

Such nobles are simply cancer cells of the empire. However, the treatment plan made the ruler embarrassed.Huan Xuan, who usurped the Jin Dynasty, and Liu Yu, who founded the Song Dynasty, both advocated surgery; later Emperor Wen of Song and Emperor Wu of Liang seemed to prefer conservative treatment.In fact, it was precisely because Liu Yilong and Xiao Yan treated the gentry well while employing poor families that they each had decades of peace. However, long before the Southern Dynasties, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was dying of illness.Therefore, whether Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty ruled Yuanjia or Emperor Wudi of Liang's rule of Tianjian, they were all just a flashback, and then they became even more hopelessly depraved.Before Liang's death, the land area was the smallest, the social atmosphere was the worst, and the children of the aristocratic family were the least useful.When Hou Jingshou came in, they had no way to fight back or save themselves. They could only sit at home in their beautiful clothes and wait to die while holding jade wares and starving. Emperor Liang Wu is also the most pathetic.It's not that he doesn't work hard, but no matter what he does, it backfires: he treats the clan well but everyone betrays his relatives, reconciles the common people but is in the same situation, governs the country with virtue but loses morality, and builds faith but loses his soul.It was as if he had fallen into a swamp, the more he struggled, the faster the disaster would come.It's just that this swamp is not his personal, but the entire era, nation and society. So, can we get out of this swamp? If so, where is the way out?

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Notes: . Volume one hundred and twenty. . . The four classes are called clans, civilians, tribes, and slaves, and Zou Jiwan's "General History of China: History of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties" calls the four classes scholars, householders, dependents, and slaves.But such a statement cannot reflect the difference between scholars and common people, so this book adopts the theory of five classes. .