Chapter 49 (49) The general trend of the world

The history of the Three Kingdoms has come to an end, but our doubts still exist. What kind of history is the Three Kingdoms?From the beginning of this issue, Professor Yi Zhongtian of Xiamen University will stand on the perspective of the scientific view of history and use a method consistent with logic and history to rationally reflect on this period of history for us. Baijia Forum began to launch Yi Tianzhong's "Three Kingdoms" program in February 2006. Up to the last episode, it has broadcast four parts, namely Wei Wu's Whiplash, Sun Liu Alliance, Three Kingdoms and Reunification.Mr. Yi Zhongtian uses stories to tell characters, characters to tell history, history to tell culture, and culture to talk about human nature in these four parts, a total of forty-eight episodes. reason.Starting today, Mr. Yi Zhongtian will spend four episodes from the perspective of a scientific view of history, and use a method consistent with logic and history to achieve the purpose of rational reflection. Then, from the perspective of historical development, how should we evaluate the Three Kingdoms in China? In the long river of historical development, what kind of history is the Three Kingdoms?Please pay attention to "The General Trend of the World" by Yi Zhongtian Pin Three Kingdoms.

The history of the Three Kingdoms is very strange, or rather weird.From the perspective of dating history, from the perspective of chronology, there is no Three Kingdoms. If Chen Shou hadn't written "Three Kingdoms", then it is still a question whether it is possible for it to become a piece of history independently.Because the last year of the Han or the Eastern Han Dynasty is the 25th year of Emperor Xian'an of the Han Dynasty, which is the first year of the Wei Dynasty, which is the first year of Wei's Huangchu. It's Wei, where did the Three Kingdoms come from?But we cannot deny that the Three Kingdoms do exist.Therefore, the history of the Three Kingdoms is called Han non-Han, Wei non-Wei, and the intervention of a third party is an episode.In fact, not only the Three Kingdoms is an episode, but the entire Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties are also an episode in a sense, a big episode.Let's look at the era of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, a total of 369 years, not short, not short, but very special. In front of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were two unified dynasties, Qin and Han. The front was short, and the back One is long, Qin only has a dozen years, and Han has more than 400 years. Behind the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties are also two unified dynasties, one is Sui and the other is Tang. The front is short and the back is long. It's been a long time, and among these two unified dynasties is the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, three hundred and sixty-nine years, what is the state?It was a half-split and half-unified state. The Qin and Han Dynasties were unified, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties were also unified. The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were half-unified and half-split.Wei has only half of the country, and it is said to be the three kingdoms. Then Jin and Western Jin are unified, but they entered the Eastern Jin in a very short period of time. The Eastern Jin has only half of the country, and then the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the entire land of our present China is divided , so the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were half unified and half divided, and the time of division was longer than the time of unification, so this is a very special era.So how did this era come into being? Why did the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties happened to be two unified dynasties and both were short in the former and long in the latter? You can’t say it’s a coincidence, it can only be explained by historical logic .Therefore, we want to talk about the general trend of the world. This trend is the situation, trend, and trend. So what kind of trend is the five thousand years of our Chinese civilization history?I think there are three epoch-making events in the history of Chinese civilization, the first is called the feudalism of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the second is called Qin's destruction of the Six Kingdoms, and the third is called the Revolution of 1911.Before the feudalism of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were clans, tribes, tribal alliances, tribal countries, and tribal country alliances. Then in the Zhou Dynasty, it entered the era of national alliances, and then in the Qin Dynasty, it entered the era of unified countries. One country, and the country is fully mature, so the epoch-making event of Western Zhou feudalism distinguishes the previous era from the later era, and the later era is formed by Qin's destruction of the six kingdoms and the Revolution of 1911. The two epoch-making events divide it into three sections. I call the period from Western Zhou feudalism to Qin’s destruction of the Six Kingdoms, or Western Zhou feudalism to Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, and I call it the period from Qin’s destruction of Six Kingdoms to the Revolution of 1911. It is the age of empire. After the revolution of 1911, I call it the era of the republic. What we need to compare now is the state and the empire, because we can only truly understand the differences between the two systems of the state and the empire. Draw this history.

Mr. Yi Zhongtian believes that the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties are a major episode in history, and the Three Kingdoms are more like Han and not Han, and Wei is not Wei, which is a small episode in the big episode. Then we can only answer how the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties came about. How did the special era come about, and then we can objectively evaluate the history of the Three Kingdoms. This is to look at the Three Kingdoms beyond the Three Kingdoms. To understand these two episodes, we must understand the difference between states and empires.So what is the difference between a state and an empire?

From the perspective of the national system, the state implements the feudal system, and the empire implements the county system. What does the feudal system mean? To build is to seal the land and demarcate the national boundaries. Its specific method is between countries. Plowing a deep ditch on the border, turning the soil in the ditch on both sides, and then planting trees on the soil on both sides, this action is called "sealing", what is "building"? "Building" is to designate a monarch and establish a country after demarcating the borders of the country, so what does feudalism mean?Feudal soil to build a country.Then we have to ask what is going on with this feudal land and founding a country?This involves the concept of our country in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. What kind of concept do we Chinese have?We think that the sky above our heads is called the sky, and the sky is round.The place under our feet is called the earth, the earth is square, and it is called the place where the sky is round.Because we didn’t have the concept of the earth at that time, we thought the earth was flat, and this square land has five directions, east, west, north, middle, and the most middle place is called China in the world. The most middle country, this What kind of ethnic group lives in the middle of the country?Chinese nation.So why do the Chinese nation live in the middle?Because the sky loves it the most, so our ancients imagined that the sky is the creator of all life, and all life is conceived by the sky, and the sky wants to give the place under it to one person to manage. What is the place called?Tianxia, ​​below the sky, at that time our ancients did not know that the earth was round, and did not know that there were other peoples on the other side of the earth. We thought this was the only place, so the concept of Tianxia in our ancients’ minds was the whole world , is called under the whole world, so who will the sky give to manage this world?Give it to your eldest son, because the marriage system in ancient China is monogamy and multiple concubines. According to this system, the first son born to a regular wife is called the eldest son, also called Yuanzi, the most important son, the oldest one Son, the original son of heaven, the eldest son of heaven is called the son of heaven, and then the sky gave the world to the emperor, but the emperor can't manage it alone. The emperor wants to divide the world and distribute it to his uncle, his Brother, the divided place is called the country, and the head of the country is called the king and the princes. Then the princes received their own land from the emperor and became feudal. The princes’ country and borders were divided and designated Once a monarch is established, it becomes feudalism, but the country or the princes, he cannot own the country alone, he must divide the territory he has allocated, and give it to whom, give it to his uncle, his Brother, these people are called doctors, what is the place allocated to doctors called?call home.The emperor, princes, and doctors are all hereditary, and their titles are inherited by their eldest sons. The emperor is the eldest son of the sky, then the next emperor is the eldest son of the emperor, and the next prince is the eldest son of the princes. The first doctor is the eldest son of the doctor, so what if he is not the eldest son?What about those bastards?The concubine son of the son of heaven became a vassal, the concubine son of a prince became a high official, and the concubine son of a high official became a scholar, and a scholar had no territory, but he had status, and he was a nobleman, so there were four levels at that time, emperor, prince, official, and scholar. , these are nobles.Then when you reach below the level of a scholar, you are no longer an aristocrat, but a commoner.This place, this territory or territory allocated by the emperor to the princes, is called a country.At this time, the country and the family were two concepts. The family belonged to the officials, the country belonged to the feudal lords, and the world belonged to the emperor. Sovereignty, it has independent financial power, it collects its own taxes, it has its own independent military power, it organizes its own army, it has its own independent political power, it manages this country by itself, the emperor doesn't care, it also has diplomatic power, Countries can carry out diplomatic activities, alliances, peace talks, wars, and trade. Therefore, at this time in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the vassal states were independent sovereign states. These independent sovereign states formed an alliance to jointly worship the world king of the world. It is the Son of Heaven, the Son of Heaven, and the Son of Zhou should actually be interpreted as the king of the world.So what are the characteristics of feudalism?One world, many countries, independent and sovereign, all serve the emperor.So what are the characteristics of the county system?The system of prefectures and counties is the merger of the country and the family in the era of the state system, becoming a country, and the country merged with the world. Because after Qin destroyed the six countries, there was only one country left in the world, which is Qin, so Qin Shihuang said, I can no longer be king, because there is only one country, what am I going to be?I am the emperor, I am the first emperor, so I am called the first emperor, and the first emperor will be called the second, third, fourth, fifth, hundred, thousand, and ten thousand generations. That is what he planned at the time, so at this time it is One world, one country, so what has become of the original country and family?It is the country of the princes, the home of the great officials, what has it become?At this time, the entire political system is the central government, counties, and counties. It is called one world, one country, centralized power, and hierarchical management. This is the imperial system, because it is a system in which the emperor is the only head of state. system, so we call it the imperial system.The second point is to distinguish the political form. What is the political form of the state system?What is the political form of aristocracy and imperialism?bureaucracy.why?Because in the Bangguo era, the emperor, princes, officials, and scholars were all aristocrats, and these four levels of aristocracy governed the country. They were hereditary, so it was aristocratic politics. What are the characteristics of aristocratic politics?He manages his own affairs, so why does the Son of Heaven manage the world?The world is his.Why do princes manage the country?The country is his.Why does the doctor manage the house?Home is his.What does the doctor care about?A scholar manages himself, because a scholar has no territory or real estate, so he manages himself well, so what is the job of a scholar?Self-cultivation, take care of yourself, what will he do after he cultivates himself?He went to help the doctor manage his family called Qi family, helped the king to manage his country called governing the country, and helped the emperor to manage his world called Ping Tianxia.Cultivating one's morality, regulating one's family, governing one's country and the world, and cultivating one's family and peace, that's where it comes from, so this is aristocratic politics.Moreover, because aristocratic politics is to take care of one's own family affairs, state affairs, and world affairs, it does not receive a salary, nor is it a profession. Now the concept of family, country, and world has changed, and the chiefs of counties and counties are no longer hereditary. Well, they are officials appointed by the central government. Officials are a profession and they are paid. So this kind of politics is bureaucratic politics. From this, what kind of officialdom is formed, officialdom unspoken rules, officialdom style, bureaucracy, it all It came about because of the changes in the system. They are the professional agents of the imperial power, and the bureaucrats are the professional agents of the imperial power. Because at this time, the world is unified, and there is only one country in the whole world. The emperor is the emperor, or the emperor is the emperor. The emperor cannot To personally manage so many places and so many things, he needs to find an agent. This agent is a bureaucrat, called an official agent. The feature of the imperial system is centralization and official agency. He acts on behalf of the imperial power. This is different. , This is aristocratic politics and bureaucratic politics.The nobles are hereditary and the bureaucrats are appointed. This is the second difference.

Earlier, Mr. Yi Zhongtian talked about the two differences between the state system and the imperial system. The state system of the state is feudalism, the state system of the empire is the county system, the political form of the state is aristocratic politics, and the political form of the empire is bureaucracy.So apart from these differences, what is the difference between the state system and the imperial system? The third difference is that of the ruling class.What was the ruling class in the state era?lordship class.What was the ruling class in the age of empires?landlord class.So what is the difference between a lord and a landowner?Lords are characterized by property rights and governance rights.The country is entrusted to the prince by the emperor, and the family is entrusted to the doctor by the princes. The doctor owns a home, which is a "fief". The home is his, the land is his, and the people on the ground are his people. , He can rule, he can govern, and he has independent sovereignty, so it is called having property rights and governing power, or in other words, having sovereignty and political power.What about the landlord?Landlords have property rights but not governance rights. In the imperial era, the land owned by the landlord was his, and he could still buy and sell it. Of course, this matter has not been clearly stated in our Chinese history. There is a problem in Chinese history, and the serious problem is that property rights are not Qing, who owns this land as the main means of production? On the one hand, it is the land of the king. It belongs to the emperor. On the other hand, every landlord has his own piece of land that can be bought and sold. Legally buying and selling should be called unclear property rights, but let’s say the landlord has property rights, because he can buy and sell, but he has no right to govern. He can’t say that the people on my land are my people, that’s not allowed, so He has property rights but no political power, and property rights but no governance power. This is the difference between a landlord and a lord.Well, we know that the ruling class in the state era and the ruling class is the lord class, and the ruling class in the empire era is the landlord class. Then in the empire era, from the Qin eradication of six countries to the Revolution of 1911, then such a long era of more than two thousand years It is divided into three eras, which three eras?The Qin and Han Dynasties are an era, the Wei and Jin include the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Wei and Jin are an era, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties also include the Sui and Tang Dynasties.The ruling classes of these three eras are also different. What are they?The ruling class in the Qin and Han Dynasties was the aristocratic landlord class, the ruling class in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was the gentry landlord class, and the ruling class in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and after the Sui and Tang Dynasties was the commoner landlord class.Why was the landlord class in the Qin and Han Dynasties aristocratic landlords?Because he was transformed from a feudal lord and aristocratic politics, the ruling class in the state era was the aristocratic lord, so the ruling class in the first stage of the empire era was the aristocratic landlord. Aristocratic, for example, he is a half-lord, half-landlord concept. For example, those princes in the Qin and Han Dynasties, he also has territories. Let’s read "Three Kingdoms" and say how many counties are sealed, how many counties are sealed for you, You build a place, you are a lord, and you are enfeoffed as a county lord. People like Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei are all county lords. If you entrust a county to you, but you have financial power but no political power, what does it mean to confer a county to you?That is, the tax of this county belongs to you. There are 5,000 households in this county, which are called five thousand households. The tax of five thousand households belongs to you. The tax of ten thousand households belongs to you when you seal ten thousand households. Without political power, you have no independent national sovereignty, so it is called half-lord and half-landlord.So what were the landlords of the common clan after the Sui and Tang Dynasties like?That is, there is no aristocracy at all. The landlord among the common people is an ordinary landlord. He only has a piece of land, or even no land. He only has property rights, and he has no political power, governance power, or sovereignty.So after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, why was its ruling class the common landlord class?Because the plebeian landlord class best meets the requirements of the imperial system, what are the requirements of the imperial system?Centralization, hierarchical management, appointment of officials, and proxy imperial power are the imperial system that requires only one position to be hereditary, that is, the emperor. This is an important difference from the state, where the emperor, princes, officials, and scholars are all hereditary. .In the age of the empire, only the emperor can be hereditary, of course, including some princes conferred by the emperor, he can also be hereditary, but it is of little significance, because he has no political power, and other officials, even if you are a minister, prime minister, or general , so small that a seven-rank sesame official cannot be hereditary, and must be strictly appointed. Then this strictest appointment system was established after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, so the Sui and Tang Dynasties were the era of the common landlord class.

Now we know that the Qin and Han Dynasties were the era of the aristocratic landlord class, the Sui and Tang Dynasties were the era of the common landlord class, and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties between the Qin and Han Dynasties and the Sui and Tang Dynasties were the era of the gentry landlord class.So where are the different ruling styles of these three ruling classes concentrated? On the surface, in terms of the personnel system of the empire, because a country needs a manager to manage it, it needs officials to manage it.Well, as I said earlier, it was hereditary in the Bangguo era. Of course, in the late Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, especially in the late Warring States period, non-hereditary officials began to appear, which means that a transition has begun. The transition period, in the strict Bangguo era , its ministers and doctors are hereditary.As for Qin and Han, Qin and Han began to implement the appointment system, so what is the personnel system of Qin and Han?It's called the inspection system.Cha Ju, what does Ju Ju mean?Judging means promotion, promotion of officials, what methods are used to promote officials or select officials?Organize inspections, so it is called inspection. From Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, local officials were responsible for finding talents within their own management area and reporting to the central government. A scholar, filial piety is a filial son, a clean scholar, a noble character, a scholar, good knowledge, good writing, ability, both ability and political integrity, report to the central government, and then the central government will appoint him as an official, called a scout.So what about the procuratorial system? At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, something went wrong. What went wrong?In order to pursue official careers, some people start to do political shows and moral shows. Don’t you want to be filial and incorruptible? Don’t you want my moral character to be good? How do you say that this moral character is good?This word, it has to show something, then they will start to show it, for example, there is a person whose father passed away, according to the traditional Chinese funeral system, he should observe mourning for three years, generally speaking, it is enough to wear hemp and mourning for three years, But in order to show his filial piety, he no longer lives at home and lives in his father's tomb, because the tomb of the ancient Chinese, if the family is rich, his tomb is very large, except for the tomb, the front There is also a tomb passage, and there is a hut next to the emperor, where you can build a thatched shed to guard the tomb. He lives there and does not go home. Xiao Xiao was later exposed and gave birth to two children in that tomb passage in three years. Son, you can’t do this thing, you can’t eat fine grains, you can’t wear silk, and of course you can’t have a son. It’s exposed, it’s fake.There is another person, the three brothers all want to be officials, the boss called everyone over and said, let's split up, let's make a fake split, I get a lot, you two get a little bit, and then hold a press conference It was said that we separated, the eldest got a lot, most of them, and the two younger brothers got a little bit, so everyone asked, why did your two younger brothers get such an uneven distribution when the family was divided, and the younger brother said: Oh, brother Well, the eldest brother is like a father, filial piety, let us give way, so these two younger brothers got a good name, let, humility, courtesy, good, high moral character, recommend them both to be officials, after they become officials, brother The three held a press conference to re-segregate, each one-third, what do you say you are famous for?My brother said that I just wanted my younger brother to be an official, so I first sacrificed my own reputation and took the blame. Now that my younger brother has become an official, we re-divided, so everyone said that this brother is good, this brother is also a good brother, morality Gao Shang, for the sake of his younger brother's future, he would rather take the blame for his younger brother's future. My elder brother is also an official. It's very hypocritical, so the folk song at the time said that he was filial and honest, his father lived away, and he recommended this person to be a dutiful son. He doesn't live with his father. , do not support their parents, promote talents, do not know books, say that he is a learned man, he knows all characters, false, this is why later Cao Cao was promoted, how to find talents is a problem, but the real solution of this problem is in In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, after the Sui Dynasty, what system was used to solve the problem?imperial examination. "Ju" I have just explained that it is to select officials, what is "ke"?Set up subject examinations to discover talents through examinations.

Now we know that the personnel system adopted by the aristocratic landlord class in the Qin and Han Dynasties was the imperial examination, while the personnel system adopted by the common landlord class in the Sui and Tang Dynasties was the imperial examination. what? So what kind of system is the Wei and Jin Dynasties between the imperial examinations of the Qin and Han Dynasties and the imperial examinations of the Sui and Tang Dynasties?recommend.What is referral?It is the nine-rank Zhongzheng official specially set up by the imperial court to recommend officials. What does this nine-rank Zhongzheng official do?Divide all talents into three, six, nine, upper, upper, upper, upper, middle, middle, middle, lower, lower, lower, lower, upper, middle, and lower, called three, six, nine Wait, it's called Jiupin, if you say that this talent is high-ranking, the court will immediately give it to a high-ranking official, and this talent will be low-ranking, and give it to a small official. This is called recommendation.This recommendation system is also called the Jiupin Official Personnel Law, also known as the Jiupin Zhongzheng System. Who invented it?It was invented by the counselor next to Cao Cao named Chen Qun, and then recommended it to Cao Pi, Cao Pi accepted it and began to implement it, so why did Cao Pi implement it?As I said before, it is to make a political deal with the gentry landlord class. If you support me to replace the Eastern Han Dynasty, I will guarantee your gentry landlord class the privilege of being an official.Therefore, we can say that the era when the gentry landlord class was the ruling class in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is a historical necessity, that is, when the aristocrats were transformed into the common people, they had to go through the intermediate link of the gentry, because the gentry was half like the nobles and half like the common people. Why do you say he is like a commoner?Because he is a commoner in the final analysis, he is not an aristocrat, this is like a commoner.Why do you say like an aristocrat?Because he actually hereditary and monopolized the official career, so from this point of view, the emergence of the historical stage of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was inevitable, not to mention that by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the gentry and landlord class had already monopolized the official career. To control public opinion is to control ideology, and to become a tyrant is to control the economic foundation. Sooner or later, this class will step onto the stage of history, but the Three Kingdoms have stepped in. What are the Three Kingdoms?As we said before, the three families of Wei, Shu, and Wu all established non-gentry regimes. We have already explained this before, so the Three Kingdoms are an episode within an episode. So how should we view this period of history?Please see the next episode "Historical Interlude".