Chapter 14 Mao Zedong: "A hundred generations will follow Qin's political law"

During the Warring States period, "a hundred schools of thought contended", the two academic schools that had the greatest influence on later generations were Confucianism and Legalism. Mencius, revered by Confucianism as the "sub-sage", was a contemporary of Shang Yang.When Shang Yang carried out reforms in Qin State, Mencius was lobbying in various countries in the East. After Shang Yang was executed, Mencius was still running between Qi State and Liang State. He probably heard about Shang Yang's entire reform process.Comparing the governance and economic thinking of the two, we can see a sharp difference.

In "Mencius King Hui of Liang", King Xuan of Qi asked Mencius for advice on "the way of kingship". Noble hereditary system.Mencius especially longed for the kind of communal life where everyone kept their duties and supported each other in illness.In another conversation with Teng Wengong, he also specially designed a mixed land system: to give each peasant household five mu of house and one hundred mu of land, so that the people "look up enough to serve their parents, bow down enough to raise their wives, and live happily ever after". ".In terms of taxation policy, Mencius advocated the implementation of the policy of enriching the people and reducing taxes, "changing their fields and reducing their tax collection, so that the people can make the people rich."His "thin tax collection" includes: no tax on commercial buildings, no goods tax, real estate tax, and poll tax for the unemployed, and only a single, one-ninth agricultural tax.Obviously, Shang Yang's policy of "abolishing well fields and opening rice fields" and abolishing hereditary and implementing military ranks runs counter to Mencius's proposition.

Mencius wandered around the eastern countries all the year round, where the political civilization showed a state of liberalization in which a hundred flowers bloomed, in stark contrast to the iron-blooded Qin State in the northwest.Compared with Shang Yang's strict control and emphasis on centralization, Mencius emphasized benevolence and righteousness to govern the country, "the king is benevolent, and the world is invincible."He even put forward the people-oriented thought that the people are more important than the king, "the people are the most important, the society is second, and the king is the lightest."In Shang Yang's ears, these must be ridiculous nonsense, evil rumors that harm the country.

Shang Yang's and Mencius's thoughts are very different, which is a phenomenon worth studying in the history of thought. The actual influence of these two men on history is also intriguing. Throughout his life, Mencius was depressed and frustrated, and had little effect on the evolution of the current situation. However, the Confucian orthodoxy he advocated was revered as the national doctrine after the Western Han Dynasty. In contrast, Shang Yang's reputation in later generations is very poor, which can be described as "messy".For a long time, the intellectuals were ashamed to talk about Shang Yang, and even saying his name would have "bad breath for three days".After the demise of the Qin Dynasty, the world had a lot of reflections on it, the most famous of which was Jia Yi's "On Passing Qin". He attributed the cause of Qin's demise to "the difference in offensive and defensive power due to the lack of benevolence and justice."Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty carried out reforms, and the opposition, contemporary literary giant Su Shi wrote to Song Shenzong, using Shang Yang as a lesson, saying that "Shang Yang's reforms disregarded people's words and suddenly became rich and powerful.This is a typical Confucian perspective.

However, Shang Yang is like a mysterious "black ghost", floating on every temple and in the hearts of the rulers.Although his administrative methods were violent, he truly achieved the goal of strengthening the country and unifying the world, and proved to be effective and successful.While criticizing Shang Yang, Su Shi also had to admit a fact: "Since the Han Dynasty, scholars have shamed Shang Yang and Sang Hongyang, but the ruler of the world is only willing to do so. They all hide their names and use their truth." Objectively speaking, Shang Yang It completely changed the political and economic ecology of the Warring States period and later China. Even, in terms of the historical span of two thousand years, his basic concept of governing the country has tenaciously continued, and the core concept has been followed by many dictators.In China's governing techniques, the seemingly incompatible Confucianism and Legalism have not been eliminated. In many dynasties, the scene of "half legal and half Confucianism" and "Confucianism superficial and legal" was actually presented.American scholar Joseph Levenson argued in his book "Confucianism in China and Its Modern Destiny" that China's imperial system has a "self-contradictory" operating law: the foundation of the Confucian monarchy is precisely the anti-Confucian Legalism in principle.Yu Yingshi also argued in the article "Anti-intellectual Theory and Chinese Political Tradition" that Confucianism had already had a "legalist tendency" by the time of Dong Zhongshu in the Western Han Dynasty, and since then "it has run through almost the entire political history of China."Legalism's "no thought is allowed" and Confucianism's "only one kind of thought" are essentially "unity of thought".

It was after the Opium War in the middle of the 19th century that Shang Yang's theory returned to the bright mainstream stage from the dark place. At that time, the Chinese Empire suffered unprecedented foreign humiliation. Strengthening the country and defending against the enemy became the only theme of the times. Therefore, the whole country contends for legal scholars, and state interventionism has become the mainstream of ideology. As Liang Qichao said, the survival and development of the country is the first priority, and the personal happiness of the people is second.If the happiness of the individual is incompatible with the survival and prosperity of the nation, it is better to sacrifice the individual to benefit the nation.The big politicians and intellectuals at that time, whether reformers or revolutionaries, from Sun Yat-sen and Chen Duxiu to Kang Liang and Hu Shi, all admired nationalism and planned economy.

Among all political figures, it is Mao Zedong who respects Shang Yang the most.As early as 1912, Mao Zedong, a 19-year-old boy studying in Hunan Provincial No. 1 Middle School, wrote the article "Shang Yang's Migration of Woods and Establishing Faith". This is his earliest manuscript that has survived to this day. In this composition of more than 500 words, Mao Zedong wrote: "Shang Yang's laws are also good laws. Let's try to compare the records of our country for more than 4,000 years, and seek to benefit the country and the people. Isn't Shang Yang the number one great statesman?" Liu Qian, his Chinese teacher, praised him after reading it, "talent Extraordinary, the future is limitless."In his later years, Mao Zedong, who was obsessed with "carrying out the revolution to the end", scoffed at Confucianism and only respected Legalism. The two political reformers he admired most were Shang Yang and Wang Anshi. In August 1973, Mao Zedong created the poem "Seven Laws: Reading "Feudal Theory" and Presenting Guo Lao", which derogated Confucianism of Confucius, Mencius and Confucianism as "chaff" and publicly reversed the verdict of Qin Shihuang's "burning books and burying Confucianism". Jun Shao scolded Qin Shihuang, and the cause of burning pits needs to be discussed; the soul of the ancestor dragon is dead and Qin still exists, and the name of Confucianism is high and real; the political law of Qin has been practiced for a hundred generations, and ten batches are not good articles; .”

"A hundred generations will practice Qin's political law" is actually a distant tribute from Mao Zedong to Shang Yang's predecessors more than 2,000 years ago.