Chapter 4 2. Institutional disputes

According to the records of "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang", in 221 BC, the year when the new dynasty was established, the top leadership of the Qin regime mainly studied two issues, one was naming names, and the other was system establishment.These two issues, one is about "name" and the other is about "reality", but both are related to the state and political system.In fact, the reason why Yingzheng wanted to ask for opinions was because the Qin ruling group, which had just annexed the world, was facing a major choice: whether to continue the old system established by the Zhou people, or stick to its own new system, or even create a new one. system? This is truly a "life-or-death choice" for the nascent empire.The first problem was solved smoothly.Qin Wang Yingzheng regarded his success as "unprecedented since ancient times, beyond the reach of the five emperors", so he took a word from each of the "three emperors and five emperors" and named him emperor.At the same time, the posthumous title was abolished, and he called himself "the first emperor".Posthumous title (shi) is a title given to a person of status after his death, and it has the meaning of overall evaluation and historical conclusion.This is an ancient ritual, but Yingzheng announced its abolition on the grounds that "the son should discuss the father, and the minister should discuss the emperor".However, this change was later changed back, and the posthumous title has been restored since the Han Dynasty.Shihuang means "the first emperor" and "the first emperor".This title is retained, because Yingzheng is indeed the "first emperor" in Chinese history, so he is also called "Qin Shihuang".Qin Shihuang also stipulated that the emperor's promulgation of appointments is called "Zhi" (Ming means Zhi), issuing orders is called "Zhao" (Ling means Zhao), and calling himself "Zhen".Zhen, originally meant "self", and anyone could call themselves that in the past.Not anymore.If the emperor wants to "respect only me", people in the world have no choice but to "involuntarily".

These are the unconventional ideas of Qin Wang Yingzheng.For example, orders, the three generations (Xia, Shang and Zhou) were "same as orders", and the seven countries (Qin, Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Wei and Han) were "same as orders", but Qin Shihuang insisted on separating orders from orders.Later, the Han Empire made it more complicated, and it was divided into four types: policy, system, imperial edict, and imperial edict, that is, "the imperial edict prescribes prefectures, edicts all officials, system grants pardons, and policy seals princes" (Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long· Zhao Policy").This is no surprise.When a new dynasty was founded, there was always something like "new peaches for old talismans".Otherwise, "the name is not changed", how can it be called "successful and passed on to future generations"? What's more, this change also has its own meaning (see Chapter 2 of this book for details).So there is no dispute.

It is not difficult to change the name and change the system.The focus of the debate is on one question: counties, or feudalism? What is "county"? What is "feudalism"? The so-called "feudalism" means "feuding the land and establishing princes", also known as "feuding the land and building the country", "feudalism" for short, and also called "feudalism".This was a political compromise and arrangement made in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty.We know that when King Wu defeated Zhou, he united the so-called "vassal princes" (in fact, various tribes and tribal countries) at that time.After the successful defeat of Zhou, in order to reward the coalition forces, reward heroes and consolidate the regime, they "cracked the soil and divided it up" and distributed it to the princes according to their size and rank.This is called "Western Zhou feudalism".To seal means to carve up the land and delineate the territory (sealing the country).The specific method is to dig a ditch on the border and plant trees on the ditch, which is called "sealing".To build is to appoint a monarch and determine the rank (build princes).Specifically, there are Gong, Hou, Bo, Zi, Nan and so on.The benefits (land) are granted, and the names (titles) are established, so everyone gets their own place, and the world is peaceful.That's what the Zhou people did after they seized the world.After Yin Shang seized the world, it is said that they did the same.Now, the people of Qin have also seized the world. Prime Minister Wang Wan and others think that of course they should do the same.

Wang Wan and others said that when all countries were first destroyed, Qi, Chu, Yan, and Zhao were far away, beyond reach.If you don't seal the soil and build a country, I'm afraid you won't be able to suppress it (the princes are first broken, Yan, Qi, and Jing are far away, don't set them up as kings, don't fill them in, please set up your sons).Qin Shihuang handed it over to the officials for discussion, and they all agreed (the officials all thought it was convenient).This is also normal.The power of habit is always greater than innovation.After all, the feudal system (that is, the system of enfeoffment) has a history of hundreds of thousands of years, but the empire has just been established.Besides, how many people can realize that they are shouldering the heavy responsibility of history and want to create an unprecedented career? In short, at the beginning of the establishment of the Great Qin Dynasty, the opinions of the highest decision-making level were almost one-sided. of feudalism.

Those who disagreed were Li Si, a far-sighted statesman, and Yingzheng, the first emperor of Qin Dynasty.Li Si served as "Tingwei" (judicial officer) at that time and belonged to "Jiuqing" (ministerial level).He is a native of Shangcai in the state of Chu, who once learned "the art of the emperor" from Xunzi.After completing his studies, he keenly realized that the six countries were not enough to rely on, so he abandoned Chu and turned to Qin. Because he took refuge in Lu Buwei, he became the guest of the King of Qin, and he was regarded as a guest.Moreover, just because he was a guest, he was almost expelled.With such an identity, Li Si would never have insisted on dissenting political views, and would have played against his colleagues in the Qin State if he had not been far-sighted.Li Si said that back then, the king of Zhou granted many children with the same surname, and he thought they could help the Zhou family with one heart and one mind.But what? They fought themselves first, and they fought fiercely, forming a deep hatred (attacking each other like enemies), and Zhou Tianzi couldn't stop it.Now that the world is unified and all the country is counties and counties, how can we repeat the same mistakes? It is better to reward the meritorious officials with heavy rewards instead of enfeoffments.

In this regard, Qin Shihuang agreed.Qin Shihuang said that the reason why the world suffers from wars is because there are princes (the world is suffering and fighting endlessly, so there are princes and kings).If the vassal system is restored now, wouldn’t it be re-creating wars (it’s also building soldiers)! So Li Si’s suggestion was adopted, and the world was divided into thirty-six counties, and later increased to forty-two counties.Counties are set up under the county, and the administration of justice and collection of taxes are carried out in accordance with the unified system and standards of the whole country.This is the "county system".

Qin Shihuang's decision has far-reaching significance.From then on, the "feudal system" withdrew from history, and the "county system" came onto the stage.Its characteristics are "unification of the world, one family of four seas, centralization of power, and hierarchical management." There is a central government at the top and political power at all levels below.This state system has continued to this day.This is the historical contribution of Qin Shihuang, so it is said that "a hundred generations will practice Qin politics".However, although Qin Shihuang cut off the controversy, the problem was not really resolved, and the emerging imperial system still faced severe tests.After all, the establishment of a new system is not something that can be accomplished overnight, and the restoration of the old system is often inevitable.What's more, the feudal system established in the Western Zhou Dynasty is not really useless.It also has its reasons.In fact, even some thoughtful people believe that one of the reasons for the demise of the Qin Dynasty II was that it failed to "divide the land and divide the people to make meritorious officials, and then establish a country and establish a monarch to honor the world."This was said by Jia Yi, but Sima Qian took it for granted. When "Historical Records The Benji of Qin Shihuang" quoted "On the Passing of Qin", it said, "It's as good as Jia Sheng said."We know that both Jia Yi and Sima Qian are Han Chinese.When these two people were alive, the system of prefectures and counties was almost finalized, and they still said so.It is not difficult to imagine how loud the calls for the restoration of feudalism were during the late Qin and early Han dynasties.In fact, as soon as the Great Qin Dynasty fell, the feudal system was restored in the hands of Xiang Yu.After Xiang Yu established Pengcheng as his capital, he sealed up eighteen princes and kings in one breath (including Liu Bang, the Han king who later destroyed himself), and the world has been fighting endlessly since then. Unfortunately, Li Si, who was worried about resuming the war, was right.In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, under the pressure of habit, Liu Bang had to reconcile and compromise. He set up counties and counties in "Jifu" directly under the jurisdiction of the emperor, and conferred princes and princes outside Jifu.Obviously, this is the result of bargaining and political compromise between the old and new systems.

This nondescript system brought a lot of trouble to the ruling group of the Western Han Dynasty. Either the kings with different surnames rebelled, or the kings with the same surname rebelled.Liu Zongyuan listed these facts in his "On Feudalism": In 201 BC, the king of Han believed in rebellion, and Han Gaozu went to suppress the rebellion and was trapped for seven days.This is "Sleepy Pingcheng".In 196 BC, King Yingbu of Huainan rebelled, and Gao Zu went to suppress the rebellion again, but was shot by Liu Ya and died.This is "disease flow vector".Since then, Emperor Hui Liu Ying, Emperor Wen Liu Heng, and Emperor Jing Liu Qi have "three generations of unrescued mausoleums".The imperial court had to make every effort to do both soft and hard, and it was "cutting the vassals" (reducing the branches and counties of the vassal states) and "tweeting" (dividing the princes and brothers of the vassals). The henchmen of the empire were relieved.Liu Zongyuan believes that this is the malady of the feudal system.

On the contrary, the centralized prefecture and county system quickly demonstrated its superiority.Liu Zongyuan said that at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the world was in chaos, with rebellious people but no rebellious officials (there were rebels but no rebellious officials).In the early Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, there were rebellious feudal states, but there were no rebellious counties (there were rebellious states but no rebellious counties).In the mid-Tang Dynasty, the world was in chaos, there were rebellious generals, but no rebellious state capitals (there were rebellious generals but no rebellious states).Liu Zongyuan believes that this is the benefit of the county system.Therefore, the feudal system cannot be restored, and the system of prefectures and counties cannot be abolished—"The establishment of prefectures and counties cannot be changed" ("On Feudalism").

The arguments of Shihuang and Li Si mainly focused on the political needs at that time (truce); Liu Zongyuan's arguments mainly focused on the consolidation of the political power and social stability.However, the significance of the county system is far more than that.After Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, all feudal states survived in name only, and the "county-state system" in which prefectures and counties coexisted with feudal states withdrew from the stage of history, and the "three-level local system" in which prefectures ruled counties and counties led counties began to surface (in the early Han Dynasty, only counties At the county level, the prefecture also had a process from the supervision area set up by Emperor Wu to the administrative area, which will not be discussed in detail here).The prefectures had governors (later state shepherds), counties had sheriffs, counties had magistrates, and local officials directly appointed by the central government completely replaced the feudal princes.The vassal princes conferred by the emperor no longer have independent sovereignty.Since then, this system has been adopted by successive dynasties.Roughly speaking, in the Tang Dynasty, there were three levels of road, government, and county; in the Song Dynasty, it was three levels of road, government, and county; The state is downgraded, and the level may not be the third level, and I will not discuss it in detail here).The system of prefectures and counties runs through the entire empire.In this sense, it can be said that there is no county system, that is, no imperial system.

So, what kind of system is the empire? The imperial system is a transition from the state system.The so-called "bangguo" refers to a special state system implemented from the feudal period of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which is the primary stage of our nation-state.At that time, there were many large and small vassal states (feudal states) all over the land of China.They are independent, communicate with each other (marriage, business, alliance, war), and support one of them (specifically, Zhou), as the nominal "co-lord of the world" (son of heaven), forming a loose organization called "Tianxia". Federation or Confederation.This is the "state system".Its establishment, as mentioned earlier, is "feudalism" (feudalism to build a country); its characteristic is "one world, many countries".There is only one emperor (co-lord) in the world, but each country has its own monarch (monarch), so it is "one emperor, many monarchs".Because these countries and monarchs are actually independent and sovereign, "states" are similar to federations or confederations.The difference between a state and a federation or confederation is that there is a nominal co-lord of the world, and the feudal states are also "feudalized" by this so-called emperor. Therefore, the feudal states are generally called "feudal states" in history books.But we have to make it clear that whether it is feudalism or co-ownership, it is only in name and etiquette.In fact, many of the territories of various countries were conquered by themselves.Moreover, if you want to expand the territory, you have to fight again, but after you win the fight, you have to go to Zhou Tianzi to go through the formalities.But this procedure is still important.Without this procedure, it would not be a state system. Most of these countries were naive at the beginning of feudalism, and whether they took shape is still open to question.The so-called "Xia Yu Wan Guo, Shang Tang San Qian", how can they all be countries? I am afraid that many of them are tribes.During the time of Zhou Wu, there were eight hundred princes, and most of them were countries, and some were tribal countries.Such a state is called a "state" rather than a "country".A state can be understood as a political organization between a state and a non-state, that is, a "quasi-state".For example, those States (formerly translated as states) that are united to form the "United States of America" ​​are states.It is precisely because it is a state that it first forms a confederation and then a federation.Those vassal states at the beginning of feudalism had such a little meaning.It's just that for Americans, thirteen states form the "United States".After the constitution, "state" became "state".In the Zhou Dynasty, it was the emperor who "divided the world".After feudalism, "state" became "country". Therefore, I think that when referring to these vassal states alone, they can be called "feudal states"; because they are vassal states, they can also be called "feudal states".But if it refers to the system, it is better to call it "bangguo".In fact, these vassal states were originally called "bang", and the original meaning of "bang" originally referred to the feudal states.For example, "Although Zhou is an old state, its destiny is to restore the new"; for example, "If a state has the way, it will know (wisdom), and if the state has no way, it will be foolish"; and the exchanges between princes and states were called "state relations" at that time.Bang means both a country ("Shuowen": "Bang, the country"), and it also means enfeoffment ("Shi Ming": "Bang, the seal"). Jia Gongyan said, "Whoever talks about a state , are all the kingdoms of princes" ("Zhou Li Tian Guan Da Zai Shu").Therefore, the feudalism of the Western Zhou Dynasty can be called "country" or "state".Or to be more specific, the city is called a country, and the four borders are called a state ("Six Books"), which together are "banguo". States and counties are completely different.A state has the nature of an independent country, while counties and counties are nothing more than constituent parts of the empire and dispatched units of the central government (more on this later).In short, feudalism corresponds to prefectures and counties, and state corresponds to empire; feudalism refers to the cause (cause of formation), bangguo refers to formation (form of existence); Country refers to the system.Qin Shihuang replaced feudalism with prefectures and counties, in fact, he replaced states with empires.Therefore, to discuss the county system and the imperial system, it is necessary to discuss the state system.