Chapter 15 Chapter 15 The "Patriarch" of the Warring States Reform -- Li Kui

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, the way to seize power in the later period was reform.Whether it is those princes who have changed the monarch's clan or those who have retained the title of the monarch, in order to survive in this era of great change, reform has become the only choice. Those who do not change the law can only be eliminated in the end. Speaking of the reforms in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, in the early Warring States period, it was the "fashion" among the vassal states in China at that time, and almost all the powerful vassal states adopted various reform measures.Modern people are familiar with it, including the Wu Qi Reform of Wei and Chu, and the Shang Yang Reform of Qin.However, among the various reform movements, the one that truly had groundbreaking significance and became the "model" of the reforms of the princes of the Warring States Period was the earliest reform of Li Kui in the State of Wei.

Li Kui's reform began in Wei State, a rising country in the Warring States Period.As the state of Wei separated from the state of Jin, the luck of the early days of the state was very bad. The territory of the state of Wei, including today's southern Shanxi, northern Henan, and parts of Shaanxi and Hebei, is basically located in the hinterland of the Central Plains. Territory, in the situation where all the heroes of the Warring States Period coexisted, the geographical disadvantage is obvious.To the east of Wei State is the State of Qi, to the west is the State of Qin, to the south is the State of Chu, to the north is the State of Zhao, and Wei State is sandwiched between them. Under the circumstances, the environment is very difficult to survive.

But fortunately, the first founding king of Wei State was Wei Wenhou, the most outstanding monarch among all the vassal states in China during this period. In 403 BC, the monarchs of the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Wei were recognized by Zhou Tianzi, and completed the last step of the three families dividing up the Jin Kingdom. The most outstanding figure among them was Wei Wenhou, the monarch of the Wei Kingdom.Among the princes and monarchs at that time, he was famous for being good at courteous corporals and having a unique vision.Just like Duke Wen of Jin back then, a group of outstanding talents gathered around him.For example, a Confucian scholar like Zixia, an outstanding military strategist like Wu Qi after Sun Wu, and a talent like Ximen Bao who is good at governing the local area.Compared with Wei's disadvantaged geographical conditions, Wei Wenhou's talent pool is an absolute advantage.

But among them, Li Kui is the most famous.Not only for Wei Guo, but also for the formation of the entire Chinese feudal society, he is a very key figure. Li Kui was a student of Zixia, and there are very few records about him among the various historical materials preserved in modern times.Even the famous "Historical Records" does not have his biography.The reason why he is so unknown is mainly because Wei's hegemony was only a flash in the pan in the end, and the tragic martyrdom of Wu Qi's reform and the sudden rise of Shang Yang's reform greatly overshadowed his edge.However, this cannot conceal his important position. The content of Li Kui's reform laid the embryonic form of the great changes in the entire China during the Warring States Period. In this period of comprehensive transformation of Chinese society, it is the harbinger of history.

Judging from the situation at that time, the most suitable place for the Warring States Reform, which marked the final demise of slavery and the final establishment of the feudal system, could only be the State of Wei.Because compared with the powerful situation of the old aristocrats in other countries, the Three Kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Wei, which emerged from the original Jin Kingdom, are themselves emerging countries.During this period, the Qi State was completing the final transition from the Tian family to the Qi State; the Qin State in the west not only had no aggressiveness to advance eastward, but the power of the country was mainly controlled by the old nobles.Among the three emerging countries, the monarchs of Han and Zhao are far from being able to compare with Wei Wenhou in terms of ability and vision.What's more, the survival situation Wei Guo is facing at this time is much more serious than the other two emerging countries. The pressure of survival also makes Wei Guo have to choose the path of reform and strengthening.

At that time, the situation Wei Guo faced before the reform can also be described as internal and external difficulties.In the external environment, the battles between the princes are fierce, and the external military pressure is increasing day by day; in the internal economy, Wei State itself is a relatively backward area in Jin State. In terms of wealth, Wei State is not as good as South Korea. To a certain extent, Wei State is not as good as Zhao State.Under such pressure, Wei Guo must take measures and take the road of reform and strengthening.And Li Kui is the most suitable person to complete this mission.

In the early days of the founding of the Wei State, Li Kui was not in the power center of the Wei State. He once served as the Prime Minister of Zhongshan and Shangdi Shou, both of which were on the northwest border adjacent to the State of Qin.In his early years, Li Kui led the army to fight against Qin State many times, and he was appreciated by Wei Wenhou, firstly because his teacher Zixia was an important minister of Wei Wenhou, and secondly because his reform thoughts hit the current disadvantages of Wei State . After several years of honing by local officials, Li Kui finally became an important minister of the state of Wei and began to fully implement his reform ideas.His reforms mainly include four items: the first is to abolish the hereditary system of the slavery era, select officials according to their ability, cancel the hereditary salary originally enjoyed by the old nobles, and use it to recruit talents and develop production.The second is to officially abolish the traditional well field system in China, and adopt the policy of "teaching the best of the land" to encourage the common people to cultivate wasteland, abolish the land boundaries under the original well field system, and allow private sales of land.At the same time, evaluate all the land in the country, estimate the country's land output, and formulate a reasonable tax policy.According to the barren standard of the land, the land is allocated to farmers to encourage their enthusiasm for production.The third is to implement the rule of law and establish a complete Wei State law. It has made the most complete regulations on state laws, government functions, promotion and punishment of officials, and rewards for military merit. The name of this law is "Fa Jing". The first law under the feudal system.The fourth is to reform the military system and establish a "martial soldier" system, that is, to evaluate the soldiers of the army, reward the outstanding ones, and reorganize them according to the combat characteristics of different soldiers to give full play to the combat advantages of the army.

These four measures, on the surface, seem ordinary, but the real meaning is far-reaching.The first article of Li Kui's reform was the final subversion of the remaining slave-noble hereditary system.After a series of turmoil in the last years of the Spring and Autumn Period, the power of the traditional slave-owner aristocrats has been shrinking day by day, and the slave hereditary system inherited from the Western Zhou Dynasty is their last fig leaf. With this system, they were in the early Warring States period. It can also maintain the status of superficial respect.With the abolition of the hereditary system, they were finally eliminated by history and completely faded out of the political stage of Chinese history.At the same time, Wei Guo used the original expenses of supporting these social parasites to recruit talented people from all over the world. For a long time since then, almost all the best talents in China at that time have regarded Wei Guo as the first choice for making contributions.During the reign of Wei Wenhou, Wei State had a situation of gathering talents.The second article of Li Kui's reform is the final subversion of the traditional Chinese well field system.After the continuous turbulence of the Spring and Autumn Period, the well field system has long existed in name only, and it has also become an excuse for slave owners and nobles to maintain the feudal system.The implementation of the teaching of making the most of the land made the land area of ​​Wei State grow like a snowball during this period.The traditional slave-owner aristocratic economy was completely broken, and a large number of farmlands that originally belonged to the slave-owner aristocrats were transferred to the hands of the emerging landlord class and farmers through the way of opening fields.The comprehensive transformation of Wei's economy was completed in this process.The third article of Li Kui's reform had a more far-reaching impact.The "Fa Jing" formulated by Li Kui is the rudimentary legal code of Chinese feudal society, which established the system of all aspects of Chinese feudal society. Although its content has been lost today, in the entire Chinese feudal society, it is used by various scholars of later generations. A respected legal model.The role of the fourth article was the most direct for the Wei State at that time.Through the establishment of the military pawn system, Wei State had a powerful army. In the military circles of the Warring States Period at that time, there was a saying that "Qi's martial arts cannot meet Wei's military pawns", that is, the combat effectiveness of Wei State's military pawns was once the territory of the entire Warring States period. most powerful.The implementation of these four articles not only achieved the take-off of the Wei State at that time, but also became the content model for many reformists to travel to various countries in the near future to carry out reforms and seek strength.

As the earliest reform in the Warring States Period, the effect of Li Kui's reform was successful. After the formation of the three divisions into the Jin Dynasty, Zhao and South Korea were the first to embark on the road of expansion among the three countries. Both countries attempted to take advantage of the country's early prosperity to strike while the iron was hot and expand their territory as much as possible.But the reality is cruel. When Wei State was concentrating on development, Han and Zhao countries encountered obstacles everywhere in foreign wars. Zhao State was defeated by Qin State many times, and South Korea was attacked by Qi State and Chu State. The survival situation suddenly became difficult.The foreign war is not good, and the Han and Zhao countries still want to fight internally, and both want to annex the other's land.When Wei Wenhou was immersed in development, South Korea and Zhao Guo both found Wei Wenhou through diplomatic channels and proposed to cooperate with Wei Wenhou to annex the other party's land.For these demands, Wei Wenhou not only refused, but also persuaded him earnestly, pointing out that the current priority of the three Jin countries is not to fight internally, but to concentrate forces and expand externally.As long as the three families can coordinate with each other and advance and retreat together, they will always be invincible in the cruel struggle for hegemony.Looking at the history of Qin's destruction of the Six Kingdoms, we have to admit that Wei Wenhou's vision in this regard is quite accurate.

After uniting the two countries of Han and Zhao, after more than 20 years of recuperation, in 419 BC, the state of Wei began to expand. The focus of their attack was the state of Qin in the west.Although the state of Jin has become the "past tense", the state of Wei, which rose after the state of Jin, still continued the squeeze policy of the state of Qin in the era of the state of Jin.A country like Qin, which is martial arts and has great war potential, must be firmly blocked in the Guanzhong Plain.Once he breaks through the barriers of the Guanzhong Plain, it will be a disaster like a flood for the entire Central Plains vassal states.

In 419 BC, the State of Wei first built a city in Shaoliang, and fought against the frontier army of the State of Qin.At the critical moment, Wei Wenhou used a notorious general-Wu Qi.Because of the "wife-killing" incident in the State of Lu, Wu Qi has always been a villain in the eyes of a gentleman, but Wei Wenhou employs people to use his strengths, and he takes advantage of his ability to fight.The effect of this decision was immediate.In 413 BC, Wu Qi broke through Qin's Xihe defense line in one fell swoop, defeated Qin's Xihe defenders, and incorporated the entire Xihe into Wei's territory.This victory was of great significance at the time. Wei State occupied the strategically important area between the borders of Qin and Wei, and the war initiative against Qin State had already been formed. To attack, Amitabha is already there. The loss of Xihe caused a shock in Qin State. The Qin people who gritted their teeth were determined to seize Xihe at all costs, but determination was not enough. With its economic strength, it can fight a war of attrition in the war, so as to drag down the people of Qin.In 408 BC, the State of Wei not only occupied the Hexi area, but also captured Daijun in Shaanxi to the north and Sanmenxia in Henan to the south.Qin had to temporarily give up its plan to recover Xihe, and instead built fortresses on the border to defend against Wei's attack.The situation where Wei is strong and Qin is weak has become a portrayal of the strength comparison between the two sides in the early Warring States period. While suppressing Qin, Wei Wenhou also attacked Chu, another powerful country in the south, and Qi in the east.In 405 BC, taking advantage of the internal strife within the Tian clan of Qi State, Wei Wenhou joined forces with Zhao and Han to send troops and beheaded 30,000 troops of Qi State.Occupied the southwestern region of Shandong, which is rich in products in Qi State, especially regained Liaocheng, an important town in Jin State that Qi Jinggong occupied in the past.The victory of this battle made the Tian family, which was busy "representing Qi" at this time, once again choose to temporarily submit to Wei.The documents that Qi State later requested from Emperor Zhou to be registered were also submitted by Wei Wenhou on his behalf.And the "superpower" Chu State in the south also suffered from the confrontation with Wei State. Wei Wenhou continued to go south to attack the small countries in the Jianghan Plain. Although Chu State organized several times to go north, they were all defeated by Wei State.During the reign of Marquis Wen of Wei, Wei State, which was originally the "land of the Four Wars", was in a period of showing power on all sides.In the final analysis, it is the sweetness that Wei Guo took the lead in carrying out reforms. Li Kui's reform in Wei State not only affected the history of Wei State, but also affected the history of the entire Warring States. In a sense, Li Kui’s reforms in the Wei state during the Wei Wenhou era were actually the experimental field for the reforms in the entire Warring States period. The princes of all countries saw the significance of the reforms for the rise of the country from the process of Wei’s power.Since then, reforms in various countries have been carried out vigorously.At that time, almost all the countries that carried out the reform took Wei Wenhou and the powerful Wei State under his rule as the model and goal of the reform. The State of Wei is also a "training school" for reform talents in the Warring States Period. Many of the talents who presided over the reform in other countries in the early days played important roles in Li Kui's reform. For example, Wu Qi, who later presided over the reform of Chu State, was Assistant of Li Kui Reform in Wei State.Among the reforms of various countries, Shang Yang's reform, the most thorough, is basically based on Li Kui's reform.Among the various reforms during this period, the only reform action that had nothing to do with Li Kui's reform should be the "retrogression" reform of Yan State. This historically retrogressive approach triggered a civil strife in Yan State itself, and it was almost destroyed by Qi State. hand. As the first person to eat the "crab" of the reform among the princes of the Warring States Period, Wei's national power reached a peak during the reign of Wei Wenhou.The 50 years of his reign were the 50 years when Wei Guoxiong dominated the world and ruled the roost among the princes.The state of Qin in the west was subdued by him, the state of Qi in the east was only followed by him, and the state of Chu in the south was hit hard time and time again by his alliance with the three Jin forces.Although there has been friction with Zhao Guo in the north, among the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Wei, Wei Guo is the well-deserved boss.In the general trend of the Warring States Period at that time, he was also the most powerful national power. However, the foundation of Wei's hegemony during this period was still fragile, because he did not have the geographical advantage to dominate, and the situation of the "land of the Four Wars" has not changed.If the Wei State wants to maintain its hegemony for a long time, or even unify the six countries and end the split situation, it must occupy a strategic commanding height. To the west or to the east, occupy Qin and Qi, and obtain a unique geographical barrier. Otherwise, the territory laid by Wei Wenhou is bound to be unsustainable. After the death of Wei Wenhou, his son Wei Wuhou came to the throne. In the second year after Wei Wuhou ascended the throne, the veteran Li Kui who designed the reform for Wei Wenhou also died of illness, but at this time, the national power of Wei State was still rising.The 26 years of Wei Wuhou's reign was a period when Wei had more foreign wars.In 393 B.C., Wei State fought on two fronts, defeated Zheng State on the southern front and Qin State on the western front, and expanded a large area of ​​land to the south and west.Later, Marquis Wu of Wei formed a military alliance with Han and Zhao, fought everywhere, and defeated Chu, Qi, and Qin successively. However, after that, conflicts occurred between him and his two allies, Zhao and South Korea, and they fell into new wars.During this period, the Wei State had almost never lost a foreign war for 26 years, and it fought successively against the enemies on all sides.Compared with his father, Wei Wuhou has military talents, but his political vision is far behind. He always superstitiously believes that force can solve everything.The result of successive battles and victories was that Wei made enemies on all sides.In the later era of King Hui Hui of Wei, the state of Wei, whose national strength was seriously wasted, had the glory of Pang Juan's repeated defeats of the princes, but in the end, under the attack of the two great powers of Qi and Qin, its strength became increasingly weak. The army was wiped out, and Wei's powerful status finally ceased to exist.