Chapter 5 4. Is it the land of the king in the whole world

In the Zhou Dynasty, there were two popular sayings: "Under the whole world, is it the land of the king; on the shore of the land, are there the ministers of the king".The degree of popularity is similar to some of our real estate slogans today. These two catchphrases, which are easy to learn and easy to remember, undoubtedly spread among the people from top to bottom, because they emphasize the issue of land ownership in the country. For the emperor, individuals have no right to own it, and they don’t have the money to buy it (this is true).Unless it is granted to you by the emperor, after you get the entrustment, you can enjoy it for generations (this can be), but you cannot transfer it.

In addition, the land obtained from the enfeoffment is still a small property right, with only the right to use and no ownership.And you can’t take it for nothing, you have to have a group of people to plant the land for you and pay the tribute. This system is called the well field system. Compatible with the well field system is the enfeoffment system.The king of Zhou granted land and people to the royal family, heroes and nobles of previous generations.According to Xunzi, King Wu of Zhou enfeoffed 71 vassal states, of which 53 were vassals with the surname Ji, and some people have verified that 40 states. , this order cannot be messed up.

The one who contributed the most to the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty should push Jiang Ziya, so Jiang Ziya's descendants were named Qi.Then there are the nobles of the previous generations, such as the uncle of King Shang Zhou, Wei Zi.This buddy is very knowledgeable about current affairs, and he submitted to the Zhou Dynasty, so Wei Zi was named the king of Song State.And Wei Zi's status is very high, Wei Zi is a Duke, Jiang Ziya is just a Marquis.The nobles of the previous generations, including the descendants of Yao, Shun and Yu, were all conferred the title of monarch, and they were conferred the title of so many countries.

Of course, after the land is distributed to you, you have to obey orders, contribute property, and fight with you.In the final analysis, the enfeoffment of the Zhou Dynasty was to adapt to its level of productivity.At that time, if we traveled from Haojing (Xi'an) to our place, it would probably take a year to walk, because its productivity level is low, the transportation is underdeveloped, the distance is long and there are no roads.Driving a carriage from Haojing for a hundred miles, you will come across a swamp, you have to drain the swamp before you go there, if you come across a primeval forest, you have to cut down all the trees before moving on, and you have to cut down the trees when there is no road. As a result, the trees were cut down and the cars scattered.So Europe was all small city-states at that time, also in order to adapt to the fact that the level of productivity was low.The vast area of ​​1,500,000 square kilometers under the Zhou Dynasty was all royal land, but the king couldn’t control these royal lands. If they didn’t rely on the enfeoffment system to manage them, they would die from exhaustion if they worked alone for two months.As a result, the king decided to only take care of "China", that is, those places around the capital, and the other lands will be allocated to the princes.

But you have to remember that the land ownership belongs to the king, not you, so you have to obey orders and contribute property. When the emperor fights, he sends troops to fight. This is an obligation.The most critical obligation is of course to obey orders, and you need to come to Haojing frequently to pay homage to the emperor and make pilgrimages.It's your turn to come, if you don't come, this matter will be serious: if you don't go to court, you will lose your title, and the fifth-class titles of male princes and uncles will be lowered.If you don’t go to court and seize the land, you should come again. If you don’t come, most people don’t do this. If you are brave, you will cut 300 miles from the fief of 600 li. If you don't come, don't mess around, the emperor will send troops to beat you.

The system of the Zhou Dynasty is: the emperor's army has 14 divisions, Zong Zhou has eight divisions, and Cheng has six divisions.Zong Zhou is Hao Jing, a division of 2,500 people, a total of 20,000 people.There are 6 divisions in Luoyi, each division has 2,500 people, and the total number is 15,000.The Son of Heaven had a total of 35,000 soldiers.Then there are three divisions in the big country, two divisions in China, and one division in the next country.That is, in a big country, you can raise three divisions of troops, 7,500 people, and only a few soldiers.At that time, there were too few countries that could afford so many soldiers.It is estimated that these 7,500 people cannot be separated from production at ordinary times, and the main task is still farming.Then when the battle came, it was almost like a militia, and they went up with a wooden stick.Among the five kinds of weapons in ancient China, the first one is called "殳", which is a nice name, but it is actually a wooden stick, which is worse than a baseball bat.There are other beautiful words to describe it: stile, what is stile?wooden stick.There is also the pestle, King Wu defeated Zhou, the blood flowed into the pestle, or the wooden stick drifted in the blood river, and the metal could not float.Until the Spring and Autumn Period, the main equipment of the army was still wooden sticks. When the war started, a group of ordinary people rushed up with big wooden sticks.At that time, when we talked about the armed forces and boasted about ourselves, we always used the military chariots as an example. The military chariots were 3 people in a car, and each car was followed by 72 people with wooden sticks, plus 25 logisticians. Personnel, these 100 people count as one multiplication.Qiancheng is 3,000 soldiers, plus 97,000 buddies with sticks and logistics, which was calculated at that time.

In fact, there were not so many people during the war. The 100,000 is counted as the population of the whole country. Those who can fight can not be counted. Those who have no money take ordinary sticks, those who have money put a nail on the stick, and those who have more money plate it Gold, no matter how high or low, you have to make up the number to get to one hundred thousand.It cannot be calculated according to today's population, so Zhou Tianzi's army of more than 30,000 troops was already very impressive at that time, and it is estimated that they were all gold-plated sticks.

The existence of the enfeoffment system and the well field system made the number of people, armed forces and wooden sticks owned by each vassal state adapt to its productivity level, which consolidated the rule of the Zhou Dynasty to a considerable extent. During the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, Chinese people knew water conservancy technology when farming land. The agricultural tools used in farming were mainly wood, stone, bone, and mussels. Bronze wares cannot be used as agricultural tools because they are too precious, and they are mainly used as gifts. Bronze is an alloy made of copper, tin, and lead in proportion. The casting of this alloy requires a very high level of craftsmanship, because the melting points of these three things are different.Tin melts easily, and lead and copper have different melting points.This point is very difficult to grasp, and no two bronzes unearthed are exactly the same.Because it is made with one mold, it is completely handmade and cannot be produced by machine.Unlike the fakes sold outside today, they are all mass-produced replicas.The color of the bronze ware is very beautiful when it is actually made. It should be that kind of gold-like khaki, and it will turn green after being buried in the soil and rusted.So in the rigorous TV series, the bronze ware and copper tiles are all golden yellow.The crudely made TV series are all green or rusted. If the rusted things are used by the king, the king is very angry and the consequences are very serious.

In addition to bronze, the Chinese also like ceramics very much, and the reason why they like ceramics is because they worship jade.China is the country that worships jade the most in the world.When Duke Macartney of England visited China, Emperor Qianlong rewarded him with many jade wishes.But Macartney didn't know the goods and thought it was a few broken stones.He wrote in his diary that the emperor of China was really stingy. We gave the emperor a gift worth 16,000 pounds, but the emperor gave me a pile of broken stones and sent me away.It can be seen that foreigners do not understand jade and do not know the value of jade.We Chinese pay attention to the fact that a gentleman does not have a lower body, and a villain is not even qualified to wear it.

But jade is not something anyone can afford. Turning earth into jade is porcelain.So the earliest porcelain was celadon and white porcelain.Good porcelain must have the following qualities: light as a mirror, thin as paper, warm as jade, and loud as loud.Light as a mirror means that the smoothness is like a mirror and can be used for makeup.As thin as paper means as thin as paper, just like today's mobile phones, the thinner the more expensive.Wen Ruyu, the temperature of jade has to be a constant temperature, no matter what the circumstances, no matter if it is shoveled out of the snow or taken out of the refrigerator, it will always be warm.Even after you put the jade in the fire, you can take it out and hold it in your hand, and it won't be hot if you put it in the microwave and turn it around before taking it out.If your hands are scalded and the skin peels off, it must be glass.The sound is as loud as it is, that is to say, porcelain that is really like jade. When you tap it with your hands, you can hear a metal-like sound. The porcelain that clangs, not the plastic that pops.

Because of the worship of jade, it leads to a preference for porcelain, which also makes China the country with the longest history of using lacquer in the world. Bowls made of lacquer have been unearthed in prehistoric times.Shang and Zhou lacquerware have reached a higher level.The lacquer craft of the Zhou Dynasty was widely used in the manufacture of cars, and the body and hood were all decorated with lacquer, which is still very powerful.