Chapter 5 3. States and city-states

The state system was invented by the Chinese, just as the city-state system was created by the Greeks. The so-called city-state is an independent sovereign state centered on a city, which is called "Polis" in Greek.A city or castle plus a small rural area around it is considered a country, and such a country is of course small enough.Except for Sparta (Sparta is not strictly a city-state), the largest city-state Athens is only a thousand square miles, which is equivalent to a large county in China, and the others are only one-third of the Athens city-state Some are as big as one or even one-tenth, and some are only equivalent to a township in China.In history, the so-called ancient Greece is usually composed of these small states.

This is quite similar to the situation in the age of states we mentioned earlier.At that time, China was not a unified sovereign country with centralized power.It is not called "China", but "Tianxia". The word "China" refers to the capital in the Zhou Dynasty, and later refers to the capital or the Central Plains.It is very late to refer to the sovereign state of the Chinese nation. The "China" in the Bangguo era was not "the world", and the "country" in the Bangguo era was not a "country", but a "country" and a "family".Home, country, and world are concepts at three different levels. Home is home, country is country, and world is world.The world belongs to the son of heaven, the country belongs to the king (vassals), and the family belongs to the doctor.The world is composed of several countries, and the countries are divided into countless families (managements).A family is not a family, because it has territory, borders, people, and its own financial income.The doctor has independent governance over his own family (management).A country is not a country.In other words, it is not a country in the full sense.Because although it has everything that a country should have (such as territory, territory, people, taxes, army, prisons), and has actual independent sovereignty, it has no property rights.In other words, there is governance, sovereignty, and no property rights.Under Putian, is it the land of the king; on the shore of the land, is it the king's ministers.In theory, property rights belong to the Son of Heaven, or even to "God" (this issue has never been clarified in fact, see Chapter 5 of this book for details).Sovereignty and governing power derived from property rights also belong to the Son of Heaven theoretically.The property rights, sovereignty and governing power of the son of heaven belong to "heaven" in theory.If the Son of Heaven is not authorized by "Heaven" (Mandate of Heaven), his power, rights and interests are theoretically illegal, and others can overthrow him (revolution).Similarly, if a vassal does not have the authorization of the Son of Heaven, then his governance and sovereignty are not legal in theory, and other vassals can use this as an excuse to attack him.This is the case of the country and the family.

So, is the world a country? No.Because although the Son of Heaven has property rights, he has neither sovereignty nor governance power.In other words, there is no sovereignty and governance of the princes and states.Before feudalism, the emperor theoretically owned these rights and interests.After feudalism, there were no more.At this time, the emperor can rule, in fact, only his own country (such as Zhou).In theory, the emperor cannot interfere with how other princes govern the country and how all the great officials organize their families.Of course, if a vassal is "too outrageous", the emperor can also issue a speech to express condemnation, or convene a meeting to criticize, or even issue an order to teach other vassals a lesson, but that's all.He can't treat princes like superiors treat subordinates and emperors treat subjects.Why? Because Zhou Tianxia is not a "unified country", but a "national alliance", and Zhou Tianzi is only the head of state of the "leader country of the alliance".His role is a bit like the Secretary-General of the United Nations.Under the banner of the Son of Heaven, it is also a bit like a peacekeeping force authorized by the United Nations to attack the princes or coalition forces of other countries.The problem is that the United Nations does not have the power to establish a country, nor does it have the right to appoint governments, but Zhou Tianzi does.He can delineate the territory of each country, appoint a monarch, and authorize governance. This is "feudalism".So Zhou Tianzi is not the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Zhou Tianxia is not the United Nations or the international community.

However, the "tianxia" in the Bangguo era somewhat meant the United Nations or the international community.Like the city-states of Greece, the princes and states have their "international relations".There are also negotiations and alliances, treaties and envoys, declarations of war and peace talks among them, and even international mediation (such as convening a "military elimination conference") and the prevailing "international relations practices" (such as "two countries should fight each other, do not beheaded." Make").In the early days of the state system, the scale of these feudal states was not large, and some of them were just a city or a castle plus a small rural area around them, which was the so-called "small country with few people".There is a vast no-man's land between countries, so instead of "hearing the voices of chickens and dogs", it may be "the wind and the horse are irrelevant".

But it is a big mistake to say that the state system is equivalent to the city-state system. Regarding the difference between a city-state and a state, Mr. Gu Zhun's "Greek City-State System" has a very clear description.First of all, as far as international relations are concerned, the city-states of Greece are completely independent and equal to each other.Even if a "colony" split from a city-state, its relationship with the mother state is completely equal.Not only does the mother state have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of the child state, but the child state may also wage war against its mother state.Nations are not equal.The rank of titles of princes and uncles is the legal basis for inequality, and it is the actual manifestation of inequality that a big country interferes with a small country or even establishes a monarch for it.What's more, above all the countries, there is actually or nominally the "co-lord of the world"-the Son of Heaven.The power of the Son of Heaven comes directly from "Heaven", while the power of the princes is at least nominally granted by the Son of Heaven.The emperor is the "suzerain" of the princes, and the princes are the "guardians" of the emperor.There are many differences in the relationship between them, such as superiority, highness, concubine, etc., and they are not equal.In the middle and late period of the Bangguo Period (Spring and Autumn Period), although the Son of Heaven was no longer the most powerful (the most powerful being the "overlord"), he was still the most honorable.If the princes want to fight for hegemony, they still have to play the banner of "respecting the royal family".It is precisely because of this that the annexation between vassal states has always been regarded as a great royal career.This is also very different from the Greek city-states that tolerated the independence of their neighbors and were unwilling to merge and expand.

Secondly, as far as the domestic system is concerned, the city-state implements a democracy, and the state implements a monarchy.A democratic city-state elects a chief executive to manage state affairs according to law.These chief executives are "take turns" by citizens, and they only perform their duties and do not receive a salary.Once stepped down, they are no different from ordinary citizens.For example, after the general Pamenondas of Boeotian was defeated, he joined the battle as an ordinary soldier.In a monarchy state, the monarch and the doctor are established according to the book of rites. Both the monarch and the doctor are hereditary, and according to the rite, the eldest son should inherit the title.Once the title is inherited, the princes will have a country (state), the doctor will have a family (city), and they will enjoy it for life.City-state officials are "elected by the people", and citizens of course have the right to recall them.Since the monarch of a state is "given by heaven", the subjects naturally have no right to abolish it.Even if the establishment is abolished, the general public will not be allowed to comment.

Yes, there have been despots (Despot) in Greek history.But this kind of tyranny is illegal, so they are also called "tyrants", which means that their dictatorship comes from usurpation.But in China, no matter in the state era or the empire era, as long as the monarch is established according to the ritual book, he has the power of autocracy.Only when the minister exercises the monarchy (including the use of the monarch's etiquette) is it called "transgression".There are such things.For example, it is a gift for the Son of Heaven to perform music and dance (Bayi) with sixty-four musicians arranged in eight rows.The princes can only have six lines, and the doctor can only have four lines.Ji Shi (probably Ji Sun Yiru), a doctor of the State of Lu, actually "danced in the court", that is, "overstepping".But this can only happen when the state system is about to disintegrate, and it is something that makes "decent people" who follow ancient rituals feel very sad.For example, after Confucius learned about it, he said, "It is tolerable, which is not tolerable".

Third, in terms of national status, people in a city-state are "citizens" and people in a state are "subjects".Citizens are the masters of the city-state.As masters, they have the obligation to take up arms to defend the city-state (by the way, their weapons, armor and horses are all at their own expense), and they also have the right to participate in the state's deliberations and trials (also by the way, to participate in these tasks at first There is no salary, and there is no overtime pay, labor fee, appearance fee).In the era of Pericles, all citizens of Athens were required to attend the "Citizens' Assembly" and held the highest decision-making power, supervision power and final adjudication power over major city-state events such as declaring war and peace. civil".Every citizen has the right to vote in the citizens' assembly, and also has the right to be elected, and may be elected as a member of the "council". They also have to take turns to participate in the jury court. The combination of "sovereignty in the people" and "governance by turns" is called "democracy".Or to be more precise, it is called "city-state democracy".

There are not only citizens in the city-state, but also slaves.Slaves have no rights.The subjects in the state are neither slaves nor citizens.He is not a slave, because he can be awarded a title for meritorious service.He is also not a citizen because he has no right to participate in and discuss state affairs.Even if he participates in and discusses state affairs, he is ordered to do so, not his right or obligation.Because the subjects are not the masters of the country, but the servants of the monarch.The "monarch" mentioned here does not necessarily mean the monarch.Although the monarch is the monarch of the country, he is also the servant of the emperor.In the same way, a doctor is to his retainers, and a father is to his children, he is also a monarch, a "lord of the family".Therefore, in the Bangguo era, there were at least three types of "jun": the monarch of the world, the monarch of the country, and the monarch of the family.These "lords" theoretically hold absolute dominion over their "subjects", including the power of life and death (the monarch wants the minister to die, but the minister dare not die).This kind of relationship between monarch and minister cannot be changed, and there is no "taking turns to rule"; this kind of relationship between monarch and minister cannot be reversed, and there is no "sovereignty rests with the people".

How can states and city-states be confused? In fact, states are closer to empires than to city-states.It is impossible for a city-state to develop into an empire.The so-called "Athens Empire" and "Sparta Empire" are actually nothing more than alliances led by Athens and Sparta, not empires in the strict sense.None of the Greek city-states developed into an empire.The reason is that, apart from the incompatibility of the city-state's autonomy, self-sufficiency, and sovereignty with the people, etc., with the imperial system, it is also because the city-state is not the result of war.The establishment of the city-state system originated from overseas trade and overseas immigration.Although the Greeks were originally barbarians, and their trade and immigration were inevitably accompanied by bandits and pirate careers at the beginning, the establishment of the city-state system cannot be attributed to war.

The imperial system and the state system are the products of war, the product of the military conquest of the world by the descendants of two barbarians (Qin and Zhou).The empire was created by the Qin army led by Qin Wang Yingzheng, and the state was created by the coalition forces led by Wu Wang Jifa.Therefore, before the birth of the empire, the history of wars between princes was endless; after the birth of the empire, the change of dynasty was mainly achieved by war. Of course, there were wars between the city-states of Greece.The horrific Peloponnesian War took place in Greece in the city-state era.Greece will eventually move towards unification and become an empire, but this is not the wish of the city-state, so it has to rely on the barbarian Macedonians and the "westernized native" Romans (this is what Mr. Gu Zhun said).The result was not the Greek Empire, but the Macedonian Empire and the Roman Empire.This is different from the state.The state system was born because of the war and died because of the war.Its military nature, loose structure, and the indispensable "co-lord of the world" are the source of war; it is its historical mission to unify and become an empire.The state, therefore, can and must develop into an empire, since it is really only the preparatory stage of an empire.It's just that this preparatory stage took a little longer, and it lasted for more than 800 years. In fact, from the beginning of civilization, it is "almost a rule" to achieve a unified empire through decentralized development, and city-states that cannot become empires are exceptions (please refer to Mr. Gu Zhun's related discussion).But this "exception" has left a precious legacy to the world, which is democracy and republic.This heritage is still benefiting mankind today, so even those of us in the East, when we mention ancient Greece, can't help but feel reverence, even though those city-states are only "small countries". History is fair.When the world entered the threshold of the age of civilization, it gave the two great nations of the East and the West an equal opportunity to create a national system and become a model for future generations.States and city-states, one is the source of the monarchy and the other is the source of the republic, but both have had a profound impact on history.The imperial system developed from the state system once enabled our nation to leap as a dragon and tiger, making us unique in the world; while the political legacy left by the city-state system will shine brightly after thousands of years and become an irresistible trend in the world today.What is the secret of this "combination" between Eastern and Western cultures and Eastern and Western systems? Let's start with the feudalism of the Western Zhou Dynasty.