Chapter 7 5. Centralization is an Inevitability

The history of the entire political system of human society in the past is the history of people dominating resources and distributing wealth by means of and relying on certain powers, and it is also the history of human beings transforming relying on power and adjusting domination and distribution plans.In fact, human beings have made various attempts and explored many solutions on how to control resources and distribute wealth.For example, the mutual relationship and respective quotas are determined according to the strength of force, the amount of funds, or the magnitude of power.This has formed three types of society, namely, armed society, financial society and power society.A tribe is a relatively typical armed society, a city-state is an immature financial society, and a state is a power society that has yet to be completed.The characteristics of a state are half force and half power, and the transition and transformation of force into power, or the acquisition of power by means of force.Therefore, states must develop into empires.Empire is the mature and typical form of power society.Its characteristic is centralization.

This is an inevitability. As we all know, institutions are historically formed, and "the decisive factor in history", according to Engels, "is ultimately the production and reproduction of direct life" ("The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State").When resources are scarce, wealth is not much, and the ethnic group is small, the only means of subsistence are mainly distributed by natural laws.For example, in the age of savagery mentioned by Morgan and Engels, which also includes the early period of barbarism, prey and grains were basically shared by members of the ethnic group.But if it is difficult to make ends meet, the elderly and infirm will be eliminated.They will be given less food, killed or made to commit suicide, or even eaten.Therefore, even in this natural law, we can still feel the presence of certain forces, such as the force of custom, force of habit, force of nature.

There is no doubt that these three forces can only play a leading role in the savage age and the early stage of the barbaric age.By the late period of barbarism, human beings had mastered the technologies of pottery making, breeding and metal processing, and social wealth and social demand had also increased unprecedentedly.At this time, the forces of custom, habit, and nature are no longer enough to control society, and must give way to another force, that is, "armed force."In fact, the war between tribes in the barbaric era was endless, and it was extremely honorable to be a warrior.At that time, if a person made outstanding military exploits, he would get rewards from the tribe and the favor of women; and if a tribe was strong enough, it would annex other tribes.This kind of annexation begins locally in a small area, that is, near annexation.This is what Liu Zongyuan said, "Those who are near gather and form a group" ("Feudalism").As a result of the annexation, small tribes became large tribes.The big tribes also want to annex each other.If they cannot be swallowed up, or if they want to deal with larger tribes together, they will form a tribal alliance with the most powerful tribe as the leader. leader of a powerful tribe).

Here, the word "obedience" is crucial.What does it show? It shows that the leaders of the tribal alliance have managed the society mainly by exercising power, although this power is obtained and supported by force.But in any case, force has begun to transform into power, which has laid the foundation for the transition to a power society.That is to say, as a result of war, on the one hand, resources and wealth are gradually concentrated in the hands of a certain particularly powerful individual or group; The bloc transforms into a power bloc.Therefore, when the force of a certain group (such as Qin) becomes invincible, the society of force will inevitably transition to a society of power, from a primary state (state) to a mature state (empire).Because of this, the ruling groups in the power society all regard the establishment and control of the army as their top priority.Because they know better than anyone else that what they take by force can easily be taken by others by force.

Only Greece is an exception.The Greeks, like other nations in the world, have also experienced the evolution process from clan to country, from barbarism to civilization, and from armed society to non-armed society.The difference is that the Greeks did not turn their society into a society of power, but into a society of money.These tall, white Aryans from the north were originally barbarians.When they immigrated to the Greek peninsula, like the fallen flowers mentioned by Fan Zhen, some fell on the pillow mat, and some fell in the toilet.Those who landed in fertile land continued to farm and established a "semi-power society".This is Sparta.If the soil is poor, they will turn to sailing, colonization and business, and establish a "semi-financial society".This is Athens.The financial society is based on the market economy, follows the laws of the market, and pays attention to "everyone is equal before the contract", and thus produces the "universal convention" or "social contract"-law that both protects and restricts all citizens.All are equal before the law, as before the contract.Because everyone is equal, no one has power over everyone without supervision and restriction.Therefore, a financial society is incompatible with despotism or centralization.Also because of this, democracy and the republic can only be produced in a financial society, that is, only in a country based on a market economy.It is impossible for other countries (society of force or society of power) to spontaneously produce democratic and republican systems, and they can only import or learn from commercial countries.

To be sure, democracy is not necessarily the best system.The Athens city-state citizens voted to execute Socrates, which is a disgrace and stain in the history of democracy.But these shortcomings can be corrected, and democracy is at least the "least bad" system so far.Similarly, a financial society is not necessarily better than a society of force and power.The heroism of the armed society and the gentleness of the power society are likely to be replaced by what Engels called "vulgar greed, brutal lust, and base material desire" in the financial society, and replaced by shameless selfishness and treachery.A society controlled by capital may even become autocratic.If capital is concentrated in the hands of a few people or a certain group, it will create a monopoly, just as the concentration of power in the hands of a few people or a certain group will result in a dictatorship.Monopoly and dictatorship are things that are very easy to happen in a financial society and a power society.

This requires vigilance, and the attitude of a financial society (that is, a market economy society) is to be unequivocally anti-monopoly and anti-dictatorship.Because whether it is a monopoly or a dictatorship, they are incompatible with the nature of free competition in the market economy.Nothing is more important to a commercial society than economic freedom.Economic freedom is the source of vitality for its life.However, once the market is monopolized, competition will no longer be free; and if competition is no longer free, society will become a stagnant pool.Therefore, capitalist countries must formulate laws such as the "Anti-Monopoly Law" to ensure that their vitality will not be suffocated.

The situation in a non-market economy society is different. There are also two types of society in a non-market economy, namely a power society and a force society.Nomads are more fond of force.Relying on force, they are often invincible, invincible, and invincible.But winning the world immediately does not rule the world immediately.If Genghis Khan "only knows how to bend a bow and shoot a big eagle" and establish a political power, it will not be possible to maintain long-term stability.This is to learn from those who are proficient in this way.If you learn well, you will stay (such as Qing); if you learn poorly, you will not stay long (such as Yuan).

Those who are good at establishing a stable regime can only be agricultural peoples.Agricultural production requires intensive cultivation, patience, timing, favorable location, and harmonious people. Excessive use of force is obviously not conducive to farming.In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was even a rule that troops could only be dispatched in autumn (the Imperial Age evolved into the practice of executing prisoners in autumn).This is precisely to protect agricultural production and limit the use of force (one of the reasons is that food and wages are more adequate after autumn).Therefore, agricultural peoples are more keen on power than force.Although the abuse of power can also cause damage to agricultural production and small farmers' economy, its destructive power is obviously less than that of rampant force.The lesser of two evils.Under the premise of having no other choice, the agricultural nation would rather have a tyrant than a mob; they would rather submit to the emperor than to attach themselves to bandits.Only when they are cornered will they rise up.But at this time, they regarded the leaders of the uprising as the "true man", and hoped that once these leaders conquered the country, they would immediately put down the butcher's knife and pick up the scepter.In other words, the choice of the agricultural nation is to establish a power society.

Unfortunately, the society of power originally came from the society of force, and the power group must also be born of the force group.Even those who rely on "peaceful means" to win the country, such as Cao's father and son (Wei), Sima family (Jin), Zhao Kuangyin brothers (Song), which one does not have a strong armed force as a strong backing, and which one is not a warlord? This creates the problem that a power society can easily become a totalitarian one.Because centralization is necessary for victory in war.If a tribe or nation uses force for a long time, it will inevitably centralize power, and even produce autocracy and dictatorship.Of course, centralization does not necessarily mean dictatorship, and autocracy does not necessarily mean dictatorship.For example, the system of the Tang Dynasty stipulated that the emperor's will must be approved by the prime minister's deliberative body, the Zhengshitang meeting, before it can take effect, and it is not dictatorial.But in any case, centralization is necessary.

Fortunately, this is not a problem, because agricultural peoples have a desire for centralization.As Marx said in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, they are "a sack of potatoes" made up of many individual potatoes. "They cannot represent themselves, they must be represented by others. Their representatives must at the same time be their master, an authority over them, an unlimited government power which protects them from other Class encroachment, and give them rain and sunshine from above." Therefore, the centralized state system can only be invented by agricultural peoples like us.In other words, when agricultural nations enter the age of civilization, they will definitely establish a power society, even a centralized society. The transition from a society of force to a society of power is an improvement, because the cost of social operation has been significantly reduced.In the past, in order to control resources and distribute wealth, one had to pay the price in blood. As the saying goes, "When fighting for land, kill people to fill the wild; fight for city to fight, kill people to fill the city" ("Mencius Li Loushang").This is undoubtedly a huge disaster for the entire human race.Now, "hard work" has become a "soft landing".Just one order and one document can be ordered and prohibited. Isn’t it saving? The saved manpower and material resources can be used to develop production and improve life, and the people can live and work in peace and contentment. Isn’t it progress? Therefore, at the beginning of the establishment of the imperial system, not only the ruling class was high-spirited, thinking that it was doing justice for the heavens, but even the ruled class applauded and rejoiced.According to Jia Yi's "On the Passing of the Qin Dynasty", Qin Shihuang "merged the whole country, concurrently served as princes, and proclaimed himself emperor in the south to support the whole world." When he established his own centralized dynasty, it did not arouse widespread resistance.On the contrary, those intellectuals and social celebrities all sincerely supported the new regime (the people in the world are soaring) and had great hopes for it (all of them were humbly looking up).This should be said to be a fact, because the people will not be chopped off at any time. Since the "people of Yuan Yuan" can "safe their lives", they are naturally grateful and grateful, and shout long live.In fact, one of the reasons for the premature demise of the Great Qin Empire is here - they have not learned to use power correctly and skillfully.Power is a kind of "atypical violence", but the first emperor and the second emperor used it as typical violence (force). Although Qin died in the second generation, Han inherited Qin's career and achieved success.This shows that centralization and unification were the requirements of history at that time, and Qin and Han were only the executors of historical requirements.In fact, floods and famine alone would force a centralization of power.At that time, apart from Qin, almost all the vassals who ruled under the separatist regime were beggar-thy-neighbor, such as building dams that were not conducive to other countries, and prohibiting the circulation of grain and rice in disaster years.In 332 B.C., when Zhao Guo was fighting with Qi Wei, they broke the embankment of the Yellow River and flooded each other. The only people who suffered were the poor and the poor.Natural disasters plus man-made disasters, if there is no more powerful figure to gather power in the world, it will be really difficult for the people! In fact, Qin Shihuang claimed that his credit was "destruction of the city" and "barbarians to avoid obstacles", that is, the country is no longer Fortification, all food circulation.It can be seen that the centralization of power was really a blessing at the time. What's more, there was no other way to go at that time.The feudal system (state system) has shown its drawbacks, and the democratic system (city-state system) is unheard of. What can we do except move towards centralization? What is needed now is to find a form for it and institutionalize it. Thus, empire was invented.