Chapter 12 The county system: the political prototype of the local administrative system

The power of terror and tyranny is powerful.In the tenth year since the reform was launched, Qin has seen a situation where "the road does not pick up relics, and there are no thieves on the mountain", and the people "have the courage to fight public battles, but are timid to fight privately". have become tools of the state.All the people in the country are farmers, and everyone is a warrior. They go to battle to fight the enemy bravely, and win titles and enjoy the fields.The country obtained land and population through war, transformed the people there into Qin people, and continued farming and killing enemies to obtain more land and population.This is a positive cycle with extremely high efficiency and amazing benefits.Since the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, there has never been such a national model, and Qin was exclaimed as "the country of tigers and wolves" by other countries.

After mobilizing all the war mechanisms in the country, Shang Yang began to implement the third round of reforms, the purpose of which was to comprehensively strengthen the centralization of power. His important policies were the unification of weights and measures and the implementation of the county system. At that time, the countries were separated, and everything from weighing instruments to currency was extremely chaotic. Even within a country, the standards were different.When Qi ruled hegemony, Guan Zhong met with the princes many times to unify the tax rates and weighing standards of all countries.Of course Shang Yang did not discuss with other countries, he directly stipulated it.He proposed "flat bucket, balance, and ruler".A bucket refers to a weighing instrument that calculates volume, a balance refers to a weighing instrument that calculates weight, and a zhang chi refers to a weighing instrument that calculates length.In other words, he unified the measurement standards of volume, weight, and length across the country.

The establishment and promotion of the system of prefectures and counties had a particularly far-reaching impact. When the Western Zhou Dynasty was established, the feudal lords were enfeoffed. There were thousands of countries in total, and almost a city was a country.In the early Spring and Autumn Period, the feudal lords merged fiercely, leaving more than 160 countries. In the Warring States Period, the world was full of power, and only a dozen countries remained.Out of the needs of ruling and conquest, the monarchs have strengthened the centralization of power one after another, and the merged land will no longer be entrusted, but a new local governance system will be established.In the late Spring and Autumn period, the county system began to be implemented. The county magistrate was the head of a county, who was directly appointed and dismissed by the monarch. They were no longer hereditary nobles, but a group of professional bureaucrats without blood ties.

Shang Yang perfected and promoted the local management system of prefectures and counties.He combined small townships and townships into counties, and set up county magistrates, county magistrates, and county lieutenants to form county offices. Later, every time a piece of land was conquered, a county was added.The biggest difference from the enfeoffment system is that county guards and county magistrates are directly appointed and dismissed by the king, and are not hereditary. The local governors report to the imperial court for a year's governance status every autumn and winter, and the imperial court evaluates them accordingly, rewarding meritorious deeds and punishing them.

The system of prefectures and counties became the foundation of the state of Qin.This system is completely different from the previous feudal system and effectively strengthens the centralization of power, which is the foundation of the Chinese bureaucracy.Wang Fuzhi, a thinker in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, said in "Du Tong Jian Lun": "The system of prefectures and counties has lasted for two thousand years and cannot be changed. It is unreasonable and natural to combine ancient and modern times. What?" The contemporary historian Tang Degang analyzed from the perspective of the state management model that China's three thousand years can be divided into three stages: tribal system, feudal system, and county system. After Shang Yang, there were few major changes.Even today, China's provincial, city and county governance model still has not escaped its barriers.

22 years after the implementation of the reform, in 338 BC, Qin Xiaogong died, and Shang Yang was subsequently sentenced to death by Qin Huigong and his whole family.Sima Qian said that "King Hui's chariot cracked, but the people of Qin did not show mercy", but he also admitted that "later generations will follow his law".Qin Hui busted Shang Yang and wiped out his family, but did not implicate other ministers, and the main laws and regulations formulated by Shang Yang were all inherited.Some people calculated that from the beginning of Shang Yang's reform to Qin Shihuang's completion of the great cause of unification, in the 141 years before and after, the Qin people launched a total of 108 wars, and the world really came out.