Chapter 10 2. Play hard and soft

Han was a successful practitioner of the imperial system.This dynasty has been in power for more than 400 years, and each experienced 200 years before and after BC. At its peak, the domestic population was about 60 million, and its sphere of influence was comparable to the territory of China today. The only contemporary Roman Empire in the world It can be compared, but in history, only the Tang Empire in the later period can keep abreast of each other.This is a dynasty that has always been highly praised by Chinese historians and writers, and it is even regarded as the representative and symbol of our nation (Han people, Chinese language, Chinese characters, Sinology).The rules and regulations it created have been used by many dynasties, and the cultural heritage it left behind is still amazing.Even the Huns in the north at that time were deeply influenced by Han culture. Their surnames were Han, they spoke Chinese, and they read the books of various schools of thought. Later, when they rebelled against the Jin Dynasty, they called for "recovering the Han Dynasty".The glory of the Han Dynasty can be seen from this.

Indeed, this is the first time in history that a dynasty has truly achieved a high degree of centralization, and it is also the second time in history that a commoner has created a feat.The rule of the common people rather than the hereditary aristocracy is what distinguishes the empire from the states.For this reason, we would rather regard the Qin as the preparatory and probationary stage of the imperial system, and the Han as the real "First Empire." strangeness!Why did Qin fail and why did Han succeed? The rulers of the early Western Han Dynasty must have thought about this problem.They must be thinking hard: Why was the Qin Dynasty so short-lived?The conclusion is "benevolence and justice do not apply".Almost everyone believes that the Qin Dynasty practiced "tyranny".It was even called "Baoqin" because of this.The so-called "violence" includes its excessive expropriation, its burning of books and censorship of scholars, its indiscriminate killing of innocent people, and its harsh laws and torture.In the Qin Dynasty, the law enforcement was strict, and the execution was cruel, and there were many names.For example, those who are exterminated in the law should first be annihilated (also called ink punishment, that is, tattooing ink on the prisoner's face), cut off the nose, cut off the toes, and then beat him to death, and then cut off his head. In the end, it was brutal and inhumane to chop it into meat in public on the execution ground.There is an idiom in China that goes, "Yin Jian is not far away".Yin Jian is the lesson of the demise of Yin and Shang.Yin Jian is not far away, let alone Qin?Naturally, lessons can be learned from the past.

It now appears that Qin's so-called "tyranny" was partly out of necessity and partly out of lack of wisdom.The so-called "last resort" means that in that era when there is still a barbaric legacy, if the opposition is not suppressed by high-pressure and bloody means, the new regime and new system established by war will not be able to gain a foothold.The so-called "unsophisticated" means that, as we pointed out in the previous chapter, although the rulers of the Great Qin Dynasty brought China from a society of force to a society of power, they have not yet learned to use power correctly and skillfully.Power is an "atypical violence".It does not need to use violence to achieve its goals, and even achieves goals that cannot be achieved by relying on violence.Only in this way, the way of social control of resources and distribution of wealth will eventually change from the use of force (typical violence) to the use of power with lower operating costs.Moreover, just because power is a kind of "atypical violence", so, in the so-called "peaceful period" of the imperial era, there will be a kind of gentle atmosphere and a stable and peaceful atmosphere.Similarly, those who are good at using power don't need to use force easily to show their murderous intentions.The brilliance of the rulers of the Han Dynasty lies in that they turned "hard suppression" into "soft control" and successfully realized the transition from a society of force to a society of power.This of course takes learning.The upper-level rulers need to learn to use power, and the lower-level people need to learn to adapt to power, and the best way to learn is to "govern by doing nothing".Fortunately, God-given opportunity, the death of Qin II made the rulers of the early Western Han Dynasty dare not and could not use violence.Including themselves, all the people in the whole country feel the pain of Qin's "tyranny", and they still have lingering fears and fresh memories.At this time, there is no other way but to implement "enlightened autocracy".What's more, as a group that exercises absolute power on behalf of others, if it does not give the people some tangible benefits, I am afraid that even they themselves will not be able to justify it.As Mr. Huang Renyu said in the book "Talking about Chinese History by the Huxon River", the imperial power they hold can't find a better support for their existence and actions other than "following the sky" and "serving the people". logic.Therefore, "If you practice autocracy in a vast field, you must pretend to be enlightened"; and no matter whether a dynasty eventually becomes autocratic or not, at the beginning of its founding, there will always be a period of relative frugality and relaxation.

Therefore, Liu Bang, the wise Han Gaozu, made two smart decisions.One is to simplify the numerous criminal laws of the Qin Dynasty to only the sentence "killer dies, wounding and stealing is punishable", that is, "three chapters of the law"; That is, "rest with the people".It was really hard to say at that time, even the emperor could not afford a special car driven by four pure-colored horses, and all civil and military officials could only ride in an ox cart, so they all worked hard and plainly, set an example, and practiced self-denial.Several descendants of Gaozu also showed great restraint.At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that the land tax should not exceed one-fifteenth, and it was reduced to one-thirtieth during the reign of Emperor Jing. Poor households with less than a thousand dollars could still receive state relief.Wendi Liu Heng and Jingdi Liu Qi lightened the criminal law, reduced taxes, were close to Confucian officials, and sought the virtuous, while they themselves were respectful and frugal, and did nothing more.After years of hard work in this way, a relatively stable and prosperous situation was formed, which was admired by historians for the first time since the founding of the empire, known as the "Government of Wenjing".

Now we can no longer know with certainty how much of the restraint and concessions of the emperors in the early Han Dynasty were voluntary and how much was out of helplessness.But it is certain that empires are agglomerative in nature, and although such agglomeration usually manifests itself as non-violent or atypical violence, it does not make it less agglomerative.As a blood-sucking animal parasitic on the body of the empire, the ruling group cannot survive without amassing.The reason why it is called "parasitic" is that after they collect taxes, they do not provide corresponding services to taxpayers like the governments of modern countries, but use them to satisfy their own extravagant desires, including their great success.We cannot therefore expect them not to be amassing, any more than we can expect them not to be despotic.Similarly, just as the best "best" tyranny is nothing but "enlightened dictatorship", the best "best" agglomeration is nothing but "limited agglomeration".Its lower limit is not to kill the chicken to get the eggs, and to catch the fish.If the common people can still maintain food and clothing while accumulating money, that is peace.If you can "clothe fifty clothes and eat meat at seventy", then it will be a prosperous age.The so-called "rule of Wenjing" is roughly like this.This provided a platform for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to show his talents.

There are a series of historical events here, such as the cutting of feudal clans, such as casting money, such as private ownership of land, such as the monopoly of salt and iron, such as the exclusive respect for Confucianism.All of these revolve around centralization.In fact, unification and centralization have never stopped their pace (for example, quietly eliminating some vassal states with or without faults).It's just that by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was already a full-scale attack, from political economy to ideology and culture, and has penetrated into all fields of social life.

The first is to limit private financial resources.This is the salt and iron monopoly and official coins.We know that smelting, salt making and coin casting were the three most profitable industries at that time.After Qin Shihuang unified the world, he took all of them into national ownership as a matter of course.In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, made concessions to the tyrants and allowed the private sector, which caused great harm to the empire.In 154 B.C., Liu Hao, the King of Wu, dared to lead the rebellion because Wu was located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where he obtained copper by frying ore and salt by boiling water, and his strong financial resources backed his rebellion.How can the same mistakes be repeated?Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty acted both hard and soft, while enacting laws to strictly prohibit the private sale of salt and iron, and at the same time recruiting out-of-business salt merchants and iron merchants as salt officials and iron officials. Can struggle to survive in the cracks.

In fact, this is exactly what the title of the imperial system should mean.In fact, any centralized society, a society that may develop from centralization to autocracy, will not allow private capital to form a scale, because it will create a financial society that can compete with itself.European empires and kingdoms were brought down by such financial societies formed by private capital.Of course, the defenders of the Chinese Empire would not have such "foresight" to foresee the subversion of the rules of the game in the capitalist society to the authoritarian society Wang Gang's morality.Of course, they are not aware that the free nature of the market economy is the sworn enemy of autocracy and centralization, but they have an almost instinctive hatred and hostility towards industry and commerce.For example, Shen Wansan, a businessman from the south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, sponsored Zhu Yuanzhang to build the city wall with huge sums of money, and expressed his willingness to reward the army, but he was killed (later changed to exile), which is proof.

It is precisely because of this hatred and hostility that the voice of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce" has been heard endlessly in the history of the empire, and it has always been the mainstream consciousness.As early as the beginning of the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang "migrated 120,000 wealthy households in Xianyang" in the name of enriching the capital of the country (internal real capital), but actually monitored it (exported treachery), and later dispatched businessmen to build the Great Wall, garrison Wuling ("Historical Records The Book of Qin Shihuang").As soon as the Han Dynasty was established, it implemented a policy of suppressing business, ordering that "Jiaren are not allowed to ride in a car with silk, and heavy rents and taxes to embarrass them", and stipulated that "children of the market must not be officials".By the sixth year of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty (81 BC), the basic state policy was to emphasize agriculture and suppress business.Since then, although the specific policies of successive dynasties have been slightly changed and loosened, the hatred and hostility towards private capital and financial society has never been slightly reduced.

This jealousy and hostility is not without reason.Back then, Qin’s rise, strength, and domination of the world benefited from those giant businessmen (such as Wu Zhiluo (luo three tones), Widow Qing, and Lu Buwei); "Founding a country and establishing a monarch" controls the court.This cannot but be guarded against.Because what can lift you up can also pull you down.For those founding fathers who were born and died in bloody battles, it is still necessary to "cook the rabbit to the death and the dog to hide", let alone the businessman?Even if the armed forces responsible for defending the empire and the royal family must be strictly controlled, let alone business?Facts have proved that the containment and suppression of private industry and commerce has indeed maintained the survival of the empire, but it has caused our nation to pay a heavy price when it entered modern society, and it has also caused the empire to fall into the cycle of dynasty replacement.We will have more to say about this later.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and his predecessors did not forget to disarm the people while attacking private capital.Shandong hero? ? ?Emperor Jing and Zhou Yong were exterminated by Emperor Jing, and Guo Xie, a hero of the Central Plains, was exterminated by Emperor Wu.This is also not surprising.An empire is a typical power society, and a power society is a transition from a force society.Therefore, force must be restricted in a power society, and the restriction is more severe than financial power.Because establishing and consolidating political power depends on three things—the barrel of a gun, the barrel of a pen, and a pocketbook.These three things must be firmly in the hands of the ruler.What's more, "Confucianism uses literature to disrupt the law, and chivalry uses martial arts to violate the law" ("Han Feizi Five Stupids"), private armed forces and folk ideas have always been taboos for autocracy and centralization.If it's just a street fight, it's not a big problem.If it turns out to be an armed force, it will be wiped out, such as Song Jiang and Fang La.Even those knights who go alone are the thorn in the official side.Either do everything possible to eliminate them, or do everything possible to incorporate them, just like what is written in "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness". There is only one exception, that is, when the world is in great turmoil, or when the foreign enemy's defense line collapses, all villages and households are allowed to fight on their own.However, that is often also the time when old social structures disintegrate and new power groups are born.At this time, society will temporarily return to the disordered state of barbaric society or quasi-barbaric society, and various political, economic forces and groups will compete for supreme power by force.The result of the competition in the Central Plains was that the highest absolute power fell into the hands of a certain group.At this time, this group will come out again to restrict private capital and armed forces, and reintroduce financial resources and force into the system of power society.The era of Emperor Wu was just when the empire was flourishing, so how can we allow civil force to become a climate?Naturally, it will be eliminated together with the separatist princes.It's just that the princes are all relatives of the emperor, so it's best to "tweet" (that is, order the kingdoms and princes to redistribute the land to their descendants. In the end, each person only has a small piece of land, and his power will be weakened, so it is called Shi De is actually a division of the country); rangers are nothing but shrews and troublesome people, so you might as well kill them. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty cracked down on folk capital and disarmed the folk, and now he is going to deal with folk ideology.