Chapter 26 Chapter 26 What did the Qin Dynasty contribute

As the first unified feudal dynasty in Chinese history, there have always been many disputes about the merits and demerits of the Qin Dynasty.Critics have always insisted that the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty caused China to fall into melee again after a short period of reunification, which brought heavy disasters to China at that time, while those who praised it believed that although the Qin Dynasty had many policies Inappropriate, but many policies during the 15-year rule of the Qin Dynasty laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Chinese feudal system in later generations. One of the most important ones is the unification policy of the Qin Dynasty.

The great unification of the Qin Dynasty, to be precise, started from the Qin State in the Warring States Period. After the Qin Dynasty unified the six countries, its main political system was still the Qin Empire in the Warring States Period, but it expanded its jurisdiction.For a unified centralized state, a country's "state system" takes a long process to form, and the person who first laid the framework for this state system is extremely important in it.In this sense, the Qin Empire made an important contribution to the evolution of the entire Chinese feudal society. The basic political structure of the Chinese feudal society began to take shape from the Qin Empire in the Warring States period, and then expanded with the unification of the country. It eventually became the political system that has influenced China to this day. From the perspective of the development of Chinese society, this is indeed a major contribution of the Qin Empire to China's future.

To understand this, we need to see what kind of system the Qin Empire contributed to China. As we all know, among Shang Yang's reforms, Qin's reform was the most thorough. Qin completed a complete political system reform and established an efficient feudal system.In the whole process of Qin's campaign to destroy the six countries, the biggest advantage of Qin's victory over the six countries was not Qin's economy, nor Qin's army that swept the world, but Qin's efficiency, the efficiency of Qin's government administration, And the operational efficiency of the state machine.Among the various vassal states in China at that time, they were all the strongest ones. Sima Qian once recorded when he wrote the historical records. At that time, the envoys of the Kanto country were envoys to the Qin State, and they were all surprised by the efficient way of the officials of the Qin State. and its honesty.It can be said that the Qin Empire at that time had the most efficient administrative system and the most centralized government operation mode in China.An important reason why the Qin Empire was able to win the previous confrontations with the Allied Forces of the Six Nations was that they had a faster military command system and a faster army assembly system than the armies of the Six Nations. It can be said that , throughout the Warring States Period, the Qin Empire was enjoying the fruits of centralization.When Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms, the centralized system of the Qin Dynasty in the Warring States period was transplanted in all directions on the entire unified Chinese territory.

After the founding of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang took the official positions of the Qin State during the Warring States Period as the basis, adjusted and supplemented them, and formed a brand new political system.The biggest feature of this system is "decentralization of power". For example, in the center, the Qin Empire set up two prime ministers on the left and right, as well as the Taiwei who controlled the army and the imperial doctor who controlled the books and supervised the officials.Among them, most of the Taiwei belonged to temporary institutions and were not permanent. The command of their troops was directly controlled by the emperor in most cases.Under the Prime Minister, Taiwei, and Doctor Yushi, there are various ministers who are in charge of various specific affairs. Among them, the Weiwei who is in charge of the palace gate army, the lieutenant who is in charge of the capital guards, the Tingwei who is in charge of criminal law, and the Zhili who is in charge of grain goods. internal history.This system of the Qin Dynasty was the political embryonic form of the "Three Dukes and Nine Ministers System" in the Western Han Dynasty.

In terms of local institutions, the administrative organization of the Qin Empire is divided into two levels: prefectures, lieutenants, and supervisors. It is equivalent to three officials with different responsibilities in a county. Among them, the prefect controls the main affairs of the county, and the prefect Responsible for assisting the county guard and managing the army, the county supervisor is responsible for supervising local administrative work.Moreover, these three different officials have different direct leaders.For example, the county guard is responsible to the central prime minister, the county captain is responsible to the central Taiwei (if the Taiwei is not present, he is directly responsible to the emperor), and the county supervisor is responsible to the imperial doctor, which is equivalent to three top officials in a local county. In terms of power, they also check each other, so that the situation where local forces can't get out of their tails will be completely avoided.In local counties, counties with more than 10,000 households should have county magistrates, and those with less than 10,000 households should have county magistrates. Below the counties, there are three units: Xiangliting. The basic administrative structure of rural China was established from this of.

In the centralization of the Qin Empire, one of the more innovative items is the household registration system of the Qin Empire. The household registration system of the Qin Empire was established by Qin Xiangong in 375 BC. The original purpose of this system was to "report to the prison", that is, to arrest fugitive wanted criminals.The adoption of this system marked the beginning of a formal household registration system in China, but the household registration system at that time was still relatively rough. The real refinement of the household registration system in the Qin Empire began with Shang Yang's reform. Shang Yang stipulated that people regardless of gender after birth , must be included in the household registration, and canceled after death.The purpose of doing this is, firstly, to facilitate the management of the people in the country, and secondly, to be able to implement the "Law of Consecutive Sitting", that is, it is still related to the severe punishment law, but the more important significance of progress is that the Chinese people have their own identity since then.

Related to the administrative system of the Qin Empire is the central bureaucracy of the Qin Empire. The central bureaucracy of the Qin Empire has always been called the "Three Dukes and Nine Ministers". In fact, the bureaucracy of the Qin Empire is far more complicated than the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers. Smaller and smaller, more and more decentralized, and the central government's ability to control officials is getting stronger and stronger. Among the official positions in the Qin Empire, the prime minister was the most honorable.During the Warring States period, the prime minister of the Qin Empire was often called "Xiangbang". According to the records in "Hanshu", the prime minister's main duty was to help the emperor "assistant Wanji", which can be said to be the head of all officials.But for a country like the Qin Empire, where the monarchy is supreme, being a prime minister is very embarrassing.The leader uses you to work and doesn't want you to take power. As a result, the power of the prime minister is getting smaller and smaller.

In China, the prime minister is actually the patent of feudal countries.In the era of slavery, China did not have a prime minister, because the relationship between official positions in Chinese officialdom at that time was mainly the hierarchical relationship between hereditary nobles, and their official position arrangement was based on the feudal system. Officials are no longer based on the nobleness of their status, but on the level of ability.As the country with the most thorough feudal reform in the Warring States Period, the prime minister of Qin State appeared relatively late. Shang Yang, who presided over Shang Yang’s reform, was very favored by Qin Xiaogong when he was alive, but he himself had never been a prime minister in his life. Shu Chang", "Da Liang Zao" and other official positions.The Qin State began to have a prime minister during the reign of King Wu of Qin. The reason why it appeared so late was that most of the emperors of the Qin State hoped to establish a political system with personal monarchy. The expansion of the monarchy has become more and more difficult for the individual power of the monarch, so it is necessary to increase the power of the prime minister. The period when Lu Buwei was in power was the happiest time for the prime minister of Qin. An emperor who was greedy for pleasure, most of the country's affairs were entrusted to Lu Buwei. The bad influence was that when King Qin Yingzheng ascended the throne, even the power of the country was once controlled by Lu Buwei.Ying Zheng is not as lazy as his father. Since he took power in person, it has become a national policy to deprive the prime minister of power. The military power is also responsible for the appointed lieutenant.But for the prime minister, just restricting is not enough. Another method of Yingzheng is to set up a censor doctor. On the surface, it seems to be subordinate to the prime minister, but in fact it is to suppress illegal activities, rectify corruption, and use a censor with a lower official position than the prime minister to supervise the prime minister. This idea of ​​using the small to control the big was invented during this period, and then during the unification period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, this one was made more thorough.Not only are there censors everywhere, but all parts of the country are divided into 13 censors. The degree of unification is deeper than that of Qin.

Another contribution of the Qin Dynasty to China's unified politics was the establishment of a system for the appointment, removal and selection of officials. Since Shang Yang abolished China's centuries-old Shiqing Shilu system, the Qin Dynasty soon had a systematic system of official appointment and removal, and formed laws.As early as the Warring States Period, officials of the Qin State had to be formally appointed by the state before they could take office. If they dared to exercise their powers without appointment, or were sent by private individuals, they would be punished according to law.Even some laws of the Qin Dynasty were almost harsh. For example, when an official went to a different place as an official, he could not bring his own entourage. This was to prevent the official from forming a personal power. The name of history.

The conditions for the selection of officials in the Qin Dynasty mainly included three conditions at that time.The first is that you must have a certain amount of property, and poor people cannot be officials. This point, Han Xin suffered deeply.The second is to be able to read and understand the law.The third is that the age must be over 17 years old. These are the three "hard standards" for being an official in the Qin Dynasty.Moreover, the Qin Empire also established the earliest official assessment system in Chinese history, which was used to assess officials. This was another pioneering work in Chinese feudal society.And once an official is incompetent or fails the assessment, he will be deposed or dismissed. The nature of these two types of punishment is different. If an official is deposed, it means that he will never be an official in this life. It also means that he still has hope to be an official again.Of course, in terms of the selection system for officials, the Qin Empire was not systematic, and the sources of officials were varied. This was also an important reason why their administration was chaotic and the country fell into civil war.

If we look at the history of the Western Han Dynasty, it may not be difficult to find the importance of the "great unification" of the Qin Empire.The Western Han Dynasty, which arose on behalf of the Qin Dynasty, adopted a method of vigorously absorbing the unification policy of the Qin Empire. Its main official positions and management systems were fine-tuned on the basis of the Qin Dynasty.Although the Qin Dynasty perished after only two generations, they have already laid down the foundation of China's centralized state.