Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen How the Tian Family Obtained the State of Qi

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, an important scene was the collapse of the old slave-owning class and the emerging feudal landlord class controlling the power of the vassal states. The methods used by the landlord class to hold power mainly included reforms and coups.In the early days of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, coup d'etat was the main method, but after the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, reform became the main method. From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, the power changes of the vassal states in the Central Plains mainly occurred in the two traditional powers-Jin State and Qi State.The original rulers of the two traditional powers lost their political power during this period.

The way of Jin is to divide Jin into three families, that is, in the situation where the king of Jin is in name only, through civil war, the three families of Han, Zhao and Wei jointly wiped out the strongest intellectual family and divided up the land of Jin.The state of Jin, a great country that had always existed as the "two poles" of the North-South struggle for hegemony during the Spring and Autumn Period, therefore ceased to exist.As a result of this, the three countries of Han, Zhao and Wei rose up on the original land of Jin. In the history of the Warring States struggle for hegemony, these three countries were all one of the "Seven Heroes of the Warring States".It's just that the scattered Three Kingdoms, although they also had Wei's hegemony, they couldn't stop Qin's eastward advance in the end.

Compared with Jin State, Qi State's regime change, although the old monarch was deposed as a result, did not appear in the situation of national division like Jin State. After overthrowing the forces of other vassals in Qi State, they succeeded in seizing power, and the territory of Qi State was not divided because of this. The unified Qi State was, on the contrary, stronger than the Spring and Autumn Period, and once became one of the two powerhouses competing with Qin State.Compared with the split of the Jin Kingdom, what is the reason for this more special way of grabbing power? To understand the ins and outs of Tian's Daiqi, we need to start with the protagonists of the event——Tian's family.

For the state of Qi, the Tian family is actually an outsider. The Tian family was originally surnamed Chen, and they were descendants of the king of the state of Chen in the Spring and Autumn Period. Because of the turmoil in the state of Chen, they took refuge in the state of Qi. After several developments, they became important in the state of Qi. One of the clan. The Tian family fled to Qi State during the reign of Duke Huan of Qi in 672 BC.The ancestor of the Tian family at that time was Chen Wan, the son of Chen Guo. As early as when Chen Wan was born, a fortune teller made a fortune teller for him. Outside of Chen State, according to the instructions of the hexagram, the birthplace of this country is Qi State.Later, there was a civil turmoil in Chen, and Chen Wan fled to Qi.After Duke Huan of Qi knew about it, he attached great importance to Chen Wan and appointed him as the justice in charge of Baigong.In this position, Chen Wan tucked his tail to be a man, worked conscientiously, treated people with humility and courtesy, and soon gained a foothold in Qi State.The event that truly established his status as an aristocrat in the Qi State was his marriage with Yizhong, a clan of the Qi State.As a member of the Qi family, Yizhong had a calculation before deciding to marry his daughter to Chen Wan. The result was that Chen Wan's descendants would be prosperous after five generations, and after eight generations, they would be in Qi Dynasty. The status of the country is unmatched.The result of this fortune-telling made Yizhong make up his mind and betrothed his daughter to Chen Wan. In this way, the Chen Wan family, whose surname was changed to Tian, ​​established an in-law relationship with the Qi royal family.

As the hexagram said, the Chen Wan family began to prosper, starting from the fifth generation after Chen Wan.Chen Wan's fifth grandson, Chen Xuwu, was conferred the title of Zhengqing by Duke Zhuang of Qi, and this family also gained the same noble status as the Gao, Bao and other aristocratic families in Qi State.After Chen Xuwu's death, his son Tian Huanzi inherited the title. This person was a key figure in the process of the Tian family's succession to Qi. The era when Tian Huanzi inherited the title was the most chaotic period in the history of Jiang's Qi State.During this period, the Qi State suffered from civil strife, and several monarchs were killed. Tian Huanzi joined forces with Yan Ying in the early days to overthrow Cui Zhu, Qingfeng and other scholar-bureaucrat forces, and supported Qi Jinggong to ascend the throne. Therefore, the Tian family became one of the nobles in the Qi State.During the reign of Qi Jinggong, it was another period of recovery for Qi.Qi Jinggong appointed Yan Ying, a virtuous minister, and worked hard for decades to restore Qi's hegemony. Qi's economy and production developed rapidly.And Qi Jinggong himself is a person with a strong desire for power. He is very dissatisfied with the decline of the Qi family and the royal family for many years. Therefore, when he came to power, he focused on cleaning up Qi. The very shallow Tian Huanzi became his most important thug during this period.In 532 BC, Duke Jing of Qi used the hand of Tian Huanzi to expel the Luan and Gao families who were in control of the state power in Qi at that time, and quickly pacified their power. the first stumbling block.Its political status in Qi State began to flourish.

Corresponding to the prosperous political status, there is also the prosperous economic strength of the Tian family.The Spring and Autumn Period during the reign of Duke Jing of Qi was a temporary period of peace after the end of the Military Elimination Conference. The wars in the Central Plains countries were greatly reduced, and all countries focused on rectifying internal affairs and developing production, especially Qi.However, under the booming situation of the emerging feudal economy, Tian Huanzi complied with the situation and quickly adopted a new development model.He used the method of reducing rents and taxes to recruit farmers to join him. Especially when collecting rents, he specially designed a new set of tools, adopting the method of small buckets in and big buckets out, to give benefits to the common people, which is different from that at that time. The cruel exploitation of the old aristocracy of Qi State is in stark contrast.Therefore, the common people of Qi State defected to his sect one after another, and "returned like running water" for a while. His actions, on the one hand, enabled Tian Huanzi to quickly strengthen the family's strength, and accumulated the capital to overthrow the Qi State regime; On the one hand, a large number of ordinary people would rather flee than attach themselves to Tian Huanzi's sect. These ordinary people were called "hermits" at the time. Their escape greatly reduced the number of ordinary people in Qi who could pay taxes. The Qi government's control over finances has since been greatly weakened.

However, Qi Jinggong, who was in power during this period, focused his energy on re-establishing hegemony externally. The method he adopted was still based on peace. The economic and political strength of the country overwhelms the opponent.Beginning in 530 BC, Qi Jinggong first contacted the monarchs of Jin and Chu through diplomatic means, and participated in the Pingqiu League held between Jin and Chu in 529 BC.After that, he began to use troops abroad, successively wiped out the surrounding countries such as Ju and Xu, and began to take advantage of the weakening of Chu to compete with Jin for hegemony in the north.In 502 BC, after decades of preparations, Duke Jing of Qi finally went to war with the State of Jin. The State of Qi, with the force of a tiger descending from the mountain, wiped out Liaocheng, an important town of the State of Jin, and then forced the State of Lu, an ally of the State of Jin, to form an alliance with the State of Qi. The situation in the north has formed a situation in which Qi is the only one.In the next 12 years, Qi Jinggong launched several wars against Jin by supporting the puppets of Jin's power ministers and taking the initiative to attack. state of jin.In 490 BC, Qi Jinggong died.

During the 57 years of Qi Jinggong's reign, he spent the first half of his life recuperating and developing production. In the last 10 years, he broke out of the cocoon and fought against Jin. This was also the last scene of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period.And just under this scenery, the influence of Tian Huanzi's lineage is also quietly growing.Qi's monarchs and ministers were not completely unaware of Tian Huanzi's threat.For example, Yan Ying, the good minister who assisted Qi Jinggong, had persuaded Qi Jinggong to take action many times, but Qi Jinggong was always perfunctory. His main energy was still to realize Qi Huangong's hegemony in his lifetime. As for the things behind him, no matter what he did.Tian Huanzi died earlier than Qi Jinggong, but he had another outstanding son——Tian Qi.As a result, before Qi Jinggong's bones were cold, Tian Qi joined forces with the scholar-bureaucrats to launch a coup, expelling the two major clans established in Qi State from Qi Huangong—the Guo family and the Gao family. With the support of Linzi "nationals" at that time, Tian's actions of buying people's hearts for several generations began to pay off at this time. Not only did many scholars and bureaucrats fall to their side, but the people in the city also spontaneously helped them.After the success of the coup, Tian Qi supported Duke Mourning of Qi to ascend the throne, proclaimed himself Prime Minister of the State, and controlled the power of Qi State ever since.

Tian Qi's success in seizing power and supporting Duke Mourning of Qi was the beginning of the Tian family replacing Qi, but at this time, the Tian family still had a long way to go before seizing power. In the state of Qi at this time, Duke Mourning of Qi completely relied on Tian Qi.However, the old clan forces in the country are still there. Although the Tian family controls military, economic, and political power, they cannot act arbitrarily.During this period, Tian's authority expanded day by day, and the monarchs of Qi who had become puppets, of course, were not reconciled to losing power. After Qi passed away, the next helm of the Tian family is the real gravedigger of the Jiang family Qi State——Tian Chang.

After the death of Duke Mourning of Qi, Duke Jian of Qi who came to the throne was jointly elected by the clan of Qi State at that time. Compared with the previous Duke Mourning of Qi, Duke Jian of Qi had much more power. At this time, Tian Chang, who inherited the title, Appointed as the right minister by Duke Jian of Qi, he is still a person who holds great power.However, he was restrained by another official who served as the prime minister of the left. During this period, Duke Jian of Qi was ambitious and intended to solve the problem of Tian's tail, and Tian's monopoly of power for many years also caused dissatisfaction among many old nobles.An undercurrent against Tian's is forming.

Naturally, Tian Chang couldn't ignore such a situation.Compared with his grandfather Tian Huanzi and his father Tian Qilai, he is better than blue because he is better than blue. Not only can he buy people's hearts like his grandfather, but he also has the courage of his father.During the four years after Duke Jian of Qi ascended the throne, Tian Chang continued his grandfather's policy of buying people's hearts, and continued to reduce taxes and implement benevolent government practices in the fief, attracting a large number of people to come to seek refuge, which was much better than his grandfather and father for two generations. Even better, he strengthened the unity within the Tian clan and integrated the strength of the Tian clan.He also widely recruited outstanding figures in the Tian clan and entrusted them with heavy responsibilities, and quickly formed a stronger political team. If the power is expanded step by step, the Tian family in this period can already rely on their own strength. In 481 B.C., the time to see Tuqiongdagger finally arrived. Tian Chang launched a coup in the summer of that year and launched an attack on Qi Jiangong. In fact, Tian Chang was completely "gambling" at this time.At that time, there were still many ministers and troops loyal to Duke Jian of Qi. As long as Duke Jian of Qi could make a decisive decision and gather all the forces opposing Tian to launch a counterattack, the Tian family would still be powerless to resist at this time.Qi Jiangong's reaction was decisive at first, and he was ready to personally preside over the suppression of the rebellion and announce Tian's crimes, but he hesitated when he was about to act.Tian Chang's performance at the beginning was far less courageous than that of his father and brother.When the government army led by Jianzhi attacked him, Tian Chang was unable to resist, and even thought of running for his life. At the critical moment, his clan member Tian Xing grabbed him and told him not to be indecisive.Encouraged by Tian Xing, Tian Chang decided to fight to the death, took the lead in leading his troops to charge, and defeated the supervisor in one fell swoop.Hearing that the Jianzhi army was defeated, Qi Jiangong, who had the strength to resist at this time, was frightened immediately, and left his followers on the spot to flee to Teng County, but he did not escape and was arrested.And those ministers who were loyal to Duke Jian of Qi were also arrested by Tian Chang one after another. Tian Chang adopted a strict policy of suppressing the old nobles and killed all the old nobles in Qi, including his ally Bao who seized power with him back then. The clan and other nobles were all exterminated.The Tianwangshan battle of the Tian family on behalf of Qi was completed in such a coincidence and necessity. Tian Chang, who killed Duke Jian of Qi, later appointed Duke Jian's younger brother as Duke Ping of Qi, and he himself continued to hold power as the prime minister.His policy during this period, in addition to promoting feudal reform and developing production, the most important thing was to find allies abroad.He established friendly relations with the emerging powers of the Jin state at this time, the Zhao family, the Wei family, and the Han family. They recognized each other's status and formed a community of interests.In order to win their support, the land that originally occupied them was returned to them.He also adopted a policy of forbearance for the aggressive Wu State in the south, and took the initiative to send envoys to make good friends.But in China at this time, the social structure of the patriarchal clan system had not completely disappeared, and abolishing the monarch was still a treasonous act.Although Tian Chang monopolized the power, he never dared to take this last step throughout his life. After Tian Chang's death, the Tian family took power and lasted another 69 years.His son Tian Pan supported Duke Xuan of Qi, and his grandson Tian He supported Duke Kang of Qi.During this period, the authority of the Tian family expanded day by day. Various figures of the Tian family clan had successively taken over the status of the old aristocrats of the Qi state, and took control of the state affairs as the new aristocrats. It was already a matter of time before the Tian family took over. The time for this succession finally came in 392 BC. In this year, Tian He moved the puppet monarch Qi Kanggong to live by the sea, and then through Wei Wenhou, who had always been close to him, played to the Emperor Zhou, demanding that the three families carve up the state of Jin. Canonize him as the monarch of Qi.In 386 BC, Tian He officially became the monarch of Qi, and the process of Tian's replacing Qi was completely completed. During the transition period from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, there were many actions of the landlord class to seize power, but Tian's Daiqi was undoubtedly an extremely important part.Although the action of the three families to carve up the state of Jin was groundbreaking, it was after all the product of the balance of power among the three families.In a situation where a family of powerful ministers dominates, and finally completes the dynastic change of a country from the inside to the outside, Tian's Daiqi set a precedent. Its success also marks the complete collapse of the patriarchal order established in the Western Zhou Dynasty.The Zhou royal family, who recognized the established fact that the Tian family replaced Qi, did not know whether they had a premonition of the next fact: the one who was finally replaced was the Emperor Zhou himself.