Chapter 4 Chapter 2 Outline of China's National Transformation Theory

He has taught literature and history overseas for decades.There are more than ten kinds of history courses taught in undergraduate courses such as "General History of the World", "History of World Cultures", "History of Asia", "General History of China", "Modern and Contemporary Chinese History".During the teaching period, I always feel that the various textbooks used in the United States and Japan in different periods are not to my liking.Sometimes I actually follow the teaching and comment on it-even if it is the most authoritative work "Cambridge History of China" used in recent years, there is no exception.This way of teaching and criticizing academics may constitute the fallacy of "swearing questions" in the imperial examination.If you have your own opinions for learning and don't want to follow what others say, there is nothing wrong with being self-conscious.Add students and close friends, no matter how good they are, this is often encouragement.As a result, those who have enjoyed it for decades.Therefore, in the teaching process, even though the school's compulsory subjects such as "General History of the World" and "History of World Cultures" were strongly interfered by those in power in the school, they aimed to unify the teaching.Although every time he commits public anger, he will not follow blindly.As for self-taught courses, most of the lecture notes are self-edited: "textbooks" are appendages.After so many decades, I didn't realize that the lecture notes and the reference historical materials compiled in the cardboard box were as tall as the body.

After voluntarily applying for retirement from overseas teaching positions the year before, old friends in the Chinese academic circles and news media at home and abroad are often invited to participate in academic conferences, or ask for manuscripts for current discussions. , compile it to answer the call.At the beginning, I did it occasionally, but it didn't mean that it lasted for a long time, and there was quite a lot of harmony between the audience and readers.There are many oral inquiries and letters from all parties, especially encouragement.Therefore, I was so stupid that I thought about the utilization of waste, sorted and translated the accumulated manuscripts for decades, and listed the system, so as to teach my colleagues in the academic circles, as well as general serious listeners and readers.

The author is not sensitive, has no expertise in learning, and has been living in a foreign land for decades, working and eating food, wandering and wandering, it is difficult to describe in one word.Of course.A fool who thinks a lot will surely gain something, because he dare not underestimate himself too much for decades of learning and thoughtful thinking.Therefore, after retiring, Shangsi made a little rationale for the old manuscripts-the ancients had and left rules for famous works such as "Notes on Twenty-two Histories"; In recent years, when sorting out old manuscripts, the "transformation theory" of China's national system is also one of the themes that have not been forgotten for decades.Reminiscing that when I was a teenager, I tried to study the history of Shang and Zhou under Gu Jiegang's teacher, and there was a special article on "The Transformation of Chinese Feudalism", expressing my own opinions and promoting it; it was expanded to more than 100,000 words.In addition to some of them being the bachelor's thesis of Central University, the remaining papers are intended to be the basis of the master's thesis of the Institute of History of Central University.

Unfortunately, this research project was destroyed by the war.Except for the article "A Study on the Origin of Chinese Counties and Counties? Also on the Transformation of Feudal Society", most of the remaining manuscripts have been lost; the research institute has not yet completed the reading. ——The article "County and County Test" was published in the first issue (1944) of the journal "World Monthly" of "Anhui College" (the predecessor of Hefei Anda University).In 1971, Professor Song Xi's introduction was republished in the "Historical Review" issued by the "Chinese Cultural Institute" in Taipei.

After the war, the author went to study in the United States and turned to European and American history.The discussion of Chinese feudal history stopped.However, my interest in what I learned during my adolescence has not diminished.Therefore, when studying the history of American Indians in the future, we always compare it with the history of the three generations of my country (Xia, Shang and Zhou).Later, I firmly believed that without reading the history of Indians in America, it is impossible to truly understand the ancient history of my country's Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties.What's more, comparative history cannot be discarded.

The history of the American Indian nation once had a decisive influence on the formation of the theory of the Marxist (including Engels) historical school, but its influence occurred relatively late. "Teaching boxing is easy, but changing boxing is difficult." Theory also has its fatal impact. ——If we carefully read the history of the red men in America, especially the history of social development of various tribes in North America that have obvious signs in the 18th and 9th centuries, we can see at a glance that the so-called "feudal society" is really straightforward. From the transformation of "tribal society", it does not have much direct relationship with "slave society".

Because "human beings" were originally a type of "social animals", the "social behavior" of the early people living in groups has similarities with social animals such as monkeys, wolves, horses, fur seals, and even swan geese, wasps, and ants.The "herd" of social animals is also the "tribe" of the early people.In a group of animals there must be a leader—bees have their queens, and ants have their queens.Monkeys, wolves, geese, wild horses, and domestic horses (such as horses in Mongolia and Xinjiang) all have their own masters.The leader is a group of friends, and he will not give up at the beginning.Indian tribes must have their chiefs.My Chinese ancestors had Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Three Emperors, and Five Emperors.

Social behavior of social animals did not improve.Thousands of years (note: not hundreds of millions of years) have not changed.However, "man is the spirit of all things", and his social behavior has evolution, evolution, type, and even "transformation". ——Therefore, the so-called "feudalism" in the history of human social development actually evolved directly from "tribal life" and has no continuation relationship with "slavery". Animals living in groups have never enslaved each other, and although slavery in human history has no race or race, the scale and duration of slavery are vastly different from race to race.Gai slaves originated from tribal wars.The use of captives as slaves is ultimately a temporary phenomenon.The institutionalization of slavery, the formation of the international "slave trade" (slave trade), and the creation of a "slave society" with slave labor as the focus of production are anomalous phenomena and cannot be regarded as a common practice in social evolution.Ancient Chinese history and modern North American Indian society can all prove this.There is another great monograph on the detailed discussion, and I will "outline" the clumsy chapter, because the space is limited and I can't analyze it in detail.

The feudal system in the history of our country actually began in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC to 771 BC) and flourished in the Western Zhou Dynasty.In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, it began to deteriorate, and a passage from "Hanshu? Geography" was quoted to get a glimpse of it. "Geography" said: Zhou Jue is fifth-class, while Tu is third-class: Gong and Marquis are a hundred miles away, uncles are seventy miles away, and sons and men are fifty miles away.Dissatisfaction is a vassal, covering thousands and eight hundred countries.However, after Taihao and Huangdi, Tang and Yu Houbo still exist, and the records of emperors follow one after another.The Zhou family declined, and the rites and music conquests came from the princes, and they were swallowed up in turn. In hundreds of years, the countries were exhausted.By the time of the Spring and Autumn Period, there were still dozens of countries, and the Five Boss were thriving one after another, and they were in charge of their alliance.As far as Yiling is concerned in the Warring States period, the world was divided into seven, united vertically and evenly for decades.Qin Sui merged the four seas.He thought that the Zhou system was weak and would eventually be lost by the princes, so he did not set up a feud of land, divided the world into prefectures and counties, and wiped out the descendants of the former saints, leaving no survivors.

Ban Gu (died in AD 92), the main author of the "Book of the Former Han Dynasty", was a historian at the same time as Jesus. Although this statement is broad and general, it is very simple and to the point.He said that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were roughly more than 1,800 small and five-level feudal states divided into three classes.After the big fish eat the small fish, there were dozens of them left in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC to 476 BC); by the end of the Warring States Period (475 BC to 221 BC) only seven remained.When the first emperor unified the world (221 B.C.), he simply "does not establish feudal feudalism", completely abolished the "feudal system", and changed the Chinese government to the "system of prefectures and counties" until today.

This is the famous historical fact in Chinese history that Qin Shihuang "abolished feudalism, established prefectures and counties; abandoned well fields, and opened fields". What is the basic difference between "feudal system" and "county system"? The most straightforward answer is: Under the feudal system, the rulers (as many as 1,800) who ruled various regions of China were hereditary feudal lords (the five levels were divided into male and female).Most of the land they belong to is state-owned.However, under the system of prefectures and counties, these feudal princes were abolished, and they were replaced by officials at the provincial and county levels with a certain term of office (it is called "civil service" in political science).At the same time, the land in the whole country has also been turned from public to private, and people can buy and sell freely, that is to say, to engage in a rural market economy and not to engage in "communes". When Qin Shihuang did this, it was the first major "transformation" of China's political and social system more than 2,000 years ago-the "transition" from the feudal system to the county system. Don't look at the "transformation" that only involves twelve words: "Abolish feudalism, establish counties and counties; abandon well fields, and open rice fields." The transformation of political society is a series of twists and turns. ——The transformation of various related things and systems, such as daily family life, wedding and funeral systems, and property systems... are all intense and painful.The transformation process took hundreds of years to restore stability. ——In fact, because of the transformation of these twelve characters, Qin Guoshi started from the "Shang Yang Reform" in the middle of the fourth century BC, and it was not until the period between Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Zhao (around 86 BC) that it was generally settled down.It has been "turned" for two or three hundred years! Since then, China's political, economic, and cultural systems of the Qin and Han dynasties have continued unchanged until Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong came to power, basically as usual.That's why Mao Zedong said: "For thousands of years, Qin's law and government will still be practiced." This sentence is roughly correct. However, this Qin-Han model lasted until the "Opium War" period (1839-1842) at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and it gradually became unsustainable—under the challenge of Western civilization, our traditional system was forced to be the same as ever. "The Second Great Transformation of Political and Social Institutions". This second major transformation was forced, and it was extremely painful.This turbulent great transformation, the author tried to name it "Historical Three Gorges".It will take roughly two hundred years for us to pass through this terrible Three Gorges.Since 1840, we are lucky to pass through the Three Gorges in 2040 and enjoy some peace and tranquility.If history goes awry and the political and military go crazy, the "Three Gorges of History" will continue indefinitely.Then the suffering of our nation will be endless. ——However, regardless of the length of time, the "Three Gorges of History" will eventually pass one day.This is a historical inevitability.At that time, "the clear river will be full of Hanyang trees, and the fragrant grass will be luxuriant on Yingwu Island." Amidst the cheers, we can sail straight down, follow the great river east, and enter the Pacific Ocean with vast sea and sky. The above is the author's personal experience of decades of academic research and teaching, and his superficial understanding and "bold assumptions" about the history of the motherland and the prospects of the nation.If you have to "carefully seek proof", the project will be huge.But the author has been studying this issue since he was a teenager, and once he thinks about it, even if he has some self-confidence, he will inevitably have his own Ah Q mood.Because of this assumption, I put forward it in the form of "outline" first, so that it can be corrected by Fang's family, and I can go forward hand in hand with my colleagues: I firmly believe that my way is not alone. Furthermore, in recent years, due to retirement, I have been invited by my friends to visit Washington, Boston, San Francisco and other parts of the motherland, starting from New York, to give public lectures on the same topic.The audience and the media will not give up, and there will be reports from time to time.Senior journalists from the American Chinese-language "World Journal" and Hong Kong's "Dongxiang" monthly magazine have made rough and comprehensive introductions to the author.After enjoying the reading, I am glad to know that what the author wrote is far more concise and concise than the author's self-report.The content can be seen at a glance, unlike the author's self-written and inappropriate.I would like to cut first and play later, and boldly attach this article to the back as a supplement to make it easier for readers to understand my humble opinion.It's also the subtle meaning of asking for a friend to express since I can't explain clearly.Experts at the Shangken Assembly are willing to enlighten me.