Chapter 10 Chapter Seven: The Establishment of the Unified Government: The Rise and Fall of the Qin Dynasty and the Beginning of the Han Dynasty

After 240 to 50 years of struggle in the Warring States Period, until the 26th year of Qin Shihuang's destruction of the six kingdoms, a large-scale unified government began to appear in Chinese history.Henkel proclaimed himself emperor and began to have a unified government representing the common people.After Emperor Wudi, there began to be a unified government representing the civilian society and the ideology of cultural rule.The history of the Chinese nation is on a journey of continuous progress. From the unification of Qin to the death of the emperor, all three monarchs took fifteen years.

Table of Emperor Qin: Han Dynasty from Gaodi to Pingdi Fan eleven monarchs, one hundred and eleven years.It took eighteen years from Wang Mang's regent to the establishment of a new dynasty until his death. Western Han dynasty: During the unification of the Qin people, there were four extremely important events during this period: 1. To establish the territory of China. Second, it is the formation of the Chinese nation. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the general situation of China and Yiqu, roughly speaking, Xu has Huaiyi, Qing has Laiyi, Yong has Quancheng and Yiqu, Yu has Luhun's Rong, Ji has Xianyu, Chidi, Baidi, Shanrong, Jing Yang is savage.From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, some countries in the Northwest were gradually turned into cities, and some were gradually expelled and fled to the north.Qin, Zhao, and Yan competed to expand borders: Yan opened Yuyang, Youbeiping, Shanggu, Liaoxi, and Liaodong counties; Zhao eliminated Zhongshan, opened Yanmen, Dai, and Yunzhong counties, and Qin opened Jiuyuan, Longxi, and North Among the prefectures of the land, Wei Kaishang County was also born in Qin.The Rongs in the central government destroyed Yi and Luo Zhurongs with Han and Wei, and Chu defeated Nanyang Jiuyi and gradually disappeared.The barbarians in Huaihai in the east were assimilated with Zhu Xia.In the south, there are the territories of Chu and Yue.Most of today's Zhejiang and Fujian provinces were established by Yue people; Hunan, Yun, and Gui were established by Chu.Ba and Shu were founded in Qin.Guangdong, Guangxi and Annan became counties and counties in China after Qin merged with the Six Kingdoms.Live and live in groups in the same territory, bathe and sleep in the same culture, and the Chinese people govern China's territory and develop culture, and the foundation has been laid since then.

3. For the establishment of China's political system. The feudal system was gradually destroyed, and the system of prefectures and counties was gradually implemented, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period.Although the remains of feudalism have not been completely eliminated, they cannot be revived in the end.And its momentum is like a dangerous rock turning steep, not falling to the ground.At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, there were kings with different surnames, and then the kings were conferred only with the same surname, and then the kings only got clothing, rent, food and taxes, which was the same as the rich. All are unified in the central government, and the kings are only food towns.

In Wei Zejing, the entry is also thin.The Sui and Wei were isolated, granted the same surname, and allowed self-selected officials, but Liu Song said that "the law is the same as the county, and there is no system for forming a country."Gai also only enjoyed the land, and did not rule the officials and the people. He was the law after Jing and Wu in the Western Han Dynasty.After the establishment of Emperor Hui of the Jin Dynasty, the kings either suppressed the vassals or dictated the government, and there was a chaos of the Eight Kings; Down to the Southern Dynasties, Song, Qi, and Liang dynasties, the clan kings all came out as governors and governors. position, its weight lies in keeping orders, not in being princes.

In the Tang Dynasty, the kings of the Tang Dynasty did not leave the court, they had a name, no country, no bureaucrats, no business, and lived in the capital, only food, clothing, tax and rent.However, in the early Ming Dynasty, when the kings were conferred, they wanted to combine feudalism, prefectures and counties, but once they were passed on, they would be abolished.In the end of the Ming Dynasty, there will still be enfeoffments but not tin land, nobility but not the people, food and salary but not management. In terms of enfeoffment, the feudal lords in the early Han Dynasty still had the intention of being a monarch and the people, and the posthumous power of Emperor Jing belonged to the prime minister, and the marquis state was no different from the counties;In the Eastern Han Dynasty, most of them did not join the country, but only wore seals and received granaries, and the princes were almost the same as the princes of Guannei.In the early Han Dynasty, the prime ministers selected Liehou, and there was a system of worshiping ministers and enfeoffing them in Emperor Wu.The three princes in the Eastern Han Dynasty no longer had Maotu seals, but the Han people still often called them "Wan Huhou", saying that they were entrusted with food.As far as Wei, although the prince's food did not reach ten thousand, the number of generals sealed less than one thousand households.

Below the Jin and Song Dynasties, since the family status was prosperous, it was not important for the imperial court to confer titles.In the Tang Dynasty, the hereditary system of nobility was not abolished, and the nobility only reached the body; and the so-called nobility was just a false name.Those who are sealed are given cloth in the inner government, but the same salary is given, which is by no means enough to imitate the ancient soil.In the eleventh year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, fourteen people, including the eldest grandson Wuji, ordered all the heroes to inherit the history, and said: "It is against the time to change affairs, to seek personal favors, to conspire with the generals, and the righteousness is not allowed. It will be called by the annals of history." , There is a chaotic outline of the holy generation. First, ministers and others are not talented, and they will be rewarded more and more. Second, children will succeed to their posts, rather than hurting the brocade? One hangs the punishment net and kills themselves. Third, seek the virtuous and divide the government. , Send it to Gongli. Feng Zhier Cao, lost in seeking relief, the people are unfortunate, how will he use it? Four." So it stopped.Looking at this, we know that the feudal system can no longer be repeated in later generations.

With the heroic martial arts of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and the outstanding achievements of the literary and military officials in the early Tang Dynasty, they sincerely made the monarchs and ministers cede land, each ruled over one side, and made peace with each other, and rented and trained martial arts.Therefore, those who can't do it, due to the understanding of the meaning of politics by the Chinese people, the existence of the aristocratic hereditary feudal system has long been forbidden.This is an extremely important outline in the process of Chinese history, and we must pay special attention to it.

Fourth, laying the foundation for Chinese academic thought. In a nutshell, the attitude and tendency of academic thought in the Middle Zhou Dynasty had largely been established in the pre-Qin period. One is called "Great Harmony View".Dominion and hegemony are the difference between "cultural cosmopolitanism" and "utilitarian nationalism".The pre-Qin thought tends to the former, with the welfare of all human beings as the object, the world peace as the yearning state, transcending the country, and anti-war.In the minds of the Chinese people at that time, the unified government of the Qin and Han Dynasties was already a world that transcended national boundaries.

The second is the "view of equality".Class and equality, that is, the distinction between "aristocracy" and "populism".Pre-Qin thoughts tended to the latter, and the humanism centered on benevolence and love was the main one.For example, Confucius's theory of filial piety, loyalty and forgiveness, Mozi's theory of universal love, Huishi's theory of the unity of all things, Zhuang Zhou's theory of equalization of things, Xu Xing and Chen Zhongzhi's theory of combining farming and not relying on others to eat, Mencius's theory of good nature On Xunzi's theory of etiquette, all human beings are focused on, and the deep meaning of his concept of equality is also brought into play.

Three days of "reality view".The Way of Heaven and the Way of Humanity are the distinction between "religion" and "society".Pre-Qin thought tended towards the latter.In Zhuang Lao's natural philosophy, his anti-religious speculation is the most thorough.The lessons of life cultivation and the rules of social life are the brilliance shared by pre-Qin theories.Education is based on inspiration and freedom, politics is based on morality and equality, and foreign nations are based on assimilation and peace, and they express their embrace of "great unity" everywhere.This is the common attitude of pre-Qin academics, which formed the culture of China, formed the nation of China, established the political system of China, internally and externally, created this great and noble Chinese country, and led the culture of East Asia for thousands of years. As for the process, several concepts are the core of Xu, and Xu also developed it in the pre-Qin period.

These four are the great achievements of the Chinese nation during this period, and the contribution of the civilian society is the greatest.That is, the unification of the Qin people was also facilitated by this trend. The ancestors of Qin were originally in the east and were princes of Yin.And Zhongguo began to move westward.During the reign of King Xiao of the Zhou Dynasty, Daluo Shizi lived in Quanqiu, while Feizi, the concubine, was granted the title of Qin.Afterwards, the Quanqiu clan was destroyed by the Xirong, and the Feizi clan, who lived in Qin, also occupied the former land of Quanqiu in the east.Zhu Ying's surnames such as Jiang, Huang, Xu, Yan, Liang, Ge, Tan, Ju, Yun, Zhongli, Zhongli, Huaiyi, and Zhao of the Warring States Period are all in the east.Qin and Jin were married in the Spring and Autumn period, and there was no one who regarded Qin as a barbarian.Qin in the Warring States Period is like Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period, so it cannot be called Qin Guoyi Di. Qin merged with the six countries, and for the first time in Chinese history, it embarked on the road of national unification.This is not only due to the dangerous terrain of Qin State and the strength of its military force, but the most important thing is far from the general intention at that time. The prosperity and strength of the Qin Dynasty had most of the power of officials from the East, such as Shang Yang, Zhang Yi, Gongsun Yan, Gan Mao, Fan Ju, Cai Ze, and Lu Buwei.If the oriental aristocrats are not overthrown, and the rulers of the country are like Pingyuan, Xinling, Quyuan, and Han Fei, the common people and scholars do not make a fortune, the officials do not make a fortune, and the common people are dominated by the aristocratic regime in the narrow sense, then the strength of the Qin people It is not enough to annex the East.That is to say, in the words of the ministers of the first emperor's dynasty.Xiangguo Lu Buwei, Lord Changping, Lord Changwen, Prime Minister Wang Wan, Li Si, and Quji all seem to be not nobles of Qin Dynasty at all.For example, Lu Buwei, Changping Jun, and Li Sizeming belonged to the East, while Lu and Li Ming belonged to the common class.The Qin government was a mixed government of East and West, and also a government of nobles and commoners.Qin took over the world with the help of Eastern manpower, so it cannot rule exclusively with Qin nobles.Therefore, although the first emperor was the son of heaven, his children and his subordinates, Qimin, were ordinary people, let alone feudalism.Although it was the insight of the first emperor, it was also due to the situation at that time. The Qin government also made great efforts to unify the cause, such as the abolition of feudal counties and counties. Although this trend has existed since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the clear and affirmative abolition of feudalism began after the unification of Qin Shihuang.At that time, the prime minister, Wang Wan, asked for the establishment of the princes, and named the kings of Jing, Qi, and Yan. Li Si didn't think so.The first emperor said: "The whole world is suffering and fighting endlessly, so there is a king. The world has been settled for the first time, and the country is restored. This is to build soldiers."Later, Chunyu Yue, a doctor of Qi, also advocated feudalism, saying: "It is unheard of that things can last for a long time without learning from the past."The debate between feudalism and prefectures and counties was the most important issue at that time.Li Si inherited Xunqing academically, and the first emperor was also based on the view of stopping the war and eliminating the soldiers, and he was no longer feudal.Qin Junchen's achievements this time have made great contributions to the leap forward of the political system in Chinese history.Later generations ridiculed Qin with autocracy, which is not fair. Also press: In the twenty-sixth year of Qin Shihuang, Li Siyi, the court lieutenant, divided the world into thirty-six counties.Let’s take a look at it now: Jiuyuan, Nanhai, Guilin, Xiangjun, and Donghai were added, making a total of 41 counties.There are eighteen border counties, two near border counties, and twenty-one inner counties. The territory is roughly the same as today.However, the north is more prosperous than the south, which is different from later generations. Collect weapons, fall into the city walls, break through the defenses of rivers, barricades and obstacles, in order to disarm the feudal era. At that time, all the borders of the country built the Great Wall for defense.To sever the land and split the borders, it takes five or six hundred years to go far, and one or two hundred years to go close.There are dikes to defend against water, and the neighbors are beggars.China's branches are broken and broken, as if they have been in ancient times.The Qin court's efforts to shovel and cut through Jutong have made great contributions to the formation of China's great unification.To collect the weapons, there were twelve gold-casting men, each weighing 240,000 catties.These covers are all the implementation of an ideal of eliminating soldiers.Later generations said it exclusively as autocracy, but it is not true. The capital was also built, and 120,000 households of the Oriental family were moved to Xianyang to build buildings. Every time the Qin Dynasty broke down the princes, wrote and released their palaces, and made them in Xianyang, the new buildings in Xianyang really converged with the great achievements of the art of construction at that time.Its operation of mausoleums also inherits Confucianism, so as to enrich the central government.In terms of material, creating a new capital that the whole country admires is also very important in unifying the spirit. Tour the counties and towns and build roads. The first emperor made five rounds of hunting.Ruts and horses are all over China. Jia Shan said: "Qin is the road, Yan and Qi are poor in the east, Wu and Chu in the south, the road is fifty steps wide, and the tree is three feet wide. Qingsong," the magnificence of its system can be imagined. Integrate the systems, cultures and customs of various places. This can be seen from the inscriptions carved on stones in various places in Qin Dynasty.In the twenty-sixth year of the first emperor, it was said: "One law measures stones and feet, the cart asks the track, and the book is the same as the text." This also unifies extremely important matters in work. Open up the frontier and defend against foreign invaders.These are all efforts to complete the new situation of great unification.Generally speaking, behind the politics of the Qin Dynasty, there is actually a lofty ideal. Qin politics can be regarded as a progressive politics in line with the requirements and trends of the times. As for the fact that the emperor of Qin was superior to the officials, ministers, guards, and orders, he was indeed a royal family, which was different from the previous track.The Qin court had a system of gatherings, which was inherited by the Han Dynasty.Every major event in the imperial court, the monarch and his ministers gather to discuss, which is somewhat similar to the aristocratic Shiqing of the Spring and Autumn Period.As far as this political style is concerned, it is not an image of an autocratic monarchy. The political failure of the Qin Dynasty was mainly due to the excessive power of the people in its service. The people of Qin established their country by farming and fighting, and all the people in the whole country were enlisted in the military, so they were called "the head of Guizhou".However, in the era of warring states and military struggles, the nobles were replaced by military merits, and the Qin people fought hard outside, and the returnees coveted meritorious rewards.With the unification of the world, Qin's politics gradually followed the rule of law, but on the one hand, they still enslaved the people arbitrarily, such as 500,000 garrisoned at Wuling, 300,000 garrisoned at the Great Wall, and 700,000 at Afang; Knighthood is different.In ancient small feudal countries, the distance between farmers in the four regions was no more than three or four days. Every winter, during the agricultural gap, they served the nobles for three days, and the round trip took only ten days. It was easy to win.Qin won the world, and still followed the old system, such as guarding Yuyang with Kuaiji, and the people became a great hardship.There are also "relegation from seven subjects" and "Lu Zuo garrison", from which Chen Sheng and Wu Guang can be compared. The Qin Dynasty was originally the last aristocratic government left over from ancient times, and it still failed under the aura of the aristocratic class, and still failed in the hands of the common people. The unification of Qin and its failure were just a transition between the aristocratic feudalism and the unification of the common people. Qin destroyed the six kingdoms and died of the second generation. This is the gradual collapse of the feudal power of the ancient aristocrats, and the death of Qin is the last scene.Until Hanxing, it was the beginning of a civilian regime in Chinese history. Great-great-grandfather called Taigong, but no name.The mother was named Liu Yu, and her nature died.Gao Yi practiced three, so he was called Liu Ji. Since he has the world, he is famous for the state.At that time, the officials, such as Xiao He was the chief official of Pei, Cao Shen was the prison official, Ren Ao prison official, Zhou Ke was the official of Surabaya, Shentu Jiacai official, Chen Ping, Wang Ling, Lu Mai, Li Shang, etc. were all white disciples, Zhou Bozhi Boqu and playing flute for funerals, Fan Kuai butchered dogs, baby dealers, Lou Jing pulled chariots, but Zhang Liang was the nobleman of Han Xiang.The queens of the early Han Dynasty were also humble.The disciples of Xiang Yu and Tian Heng are all responsible for the clan, but they can't get things done. This can be a sign of the world change. The inevitable establishment of a civilian government was almost an irresistible process of the historical trend at that time.However, in the process of establishing the civilian government, the "feudal" ideology was repeatedly revived. In the twenty-sixth year of Qin Shihuang, Prime Minister Wang Wan and others discussed the restoration of feudalism, and in the thirty-fourth year Dr. Chun Yuyue and others also discussed the restoration of feudalism.In the first year of Emperor II, the Eastern Revolutionary Army rose up, and each of the six countries established a queen.King Gaoping Xiang of the Han Dynasty made Han Xin, Peng Yue, and Ying Bu kings; the kings with different surnames were gradually wiped out, and the kings with the same clan surname were granted. It was not until Emperor Jing quelled the rebellion of the seven states of Wu and Chu that the unification of the civilian government was completed.The second reactionary idea of ​​the civilian government at that time was "govern by doing nothing". The pure haggardness of the government in the early Han Dynasty represented a kind of peasants' simple spirit, and the inactionism was the reflection of peasants' social and political thoughts.Therefore, being respectful, thrifty and doing nothing, and resting with the people were the two beliefs of the early Han government.Due to the bankruptcy of the social economy after the chaos and the confusion of the people, Huang Lao's negative thinking in the later years of the Warring States period was the first to gain power in the peasant government. The essence of "inaction" is "following".Therefore, the system and laws of the early Han Dynasty all followed the Qin Dynasty.In the later years of the Warring States period, the legalist thought of Shen Han School followed Huang Lao as the guidance of Han Ye. This trend gradually developed during the period of literature and scenery.On the one hand, the Han court quelled the chaos of the seven kingdoms of Wu and Chu, and on the other hand, the so-called "cruel officials" gradually appeared, using court decrees to suppress "rangers" and "businessmen" in society.Heroes, lieutenants, prime ministers, and ministers were also constantly sanctioned by court decrees.The power and dignity of the central unified government gradually consolidated, and then the reform of the Han Dynasty was conceived. The civilian government has two major tasks that it must complete, first to complete unification, and second to complete civil rule.The actual unification of the Han government began with Emperor Jing.The steaming of the cultural governance of the Han government began with Emperor Wu.