text/Lao Yu
After the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 , when Qing regarded himself as China, the little Japanese quit and said:
You are already so backward, why do you still have the face to call yourself China? Our side is the real China!
Why does Japan have such a strange ideological ?
Because in ancient times, the meaning of the word "China" was not divided by region, but by "the highest level of civilization", that is,
Where is the most advanced civilization, where is China - the central country, the central government of civilization.
Where is the root of this ideology?
At the beginning of in Zhou Dynasty (more than 1,000 BC), a bronze ware for " He Zun " was unearthed in Baoji, Shaanxi in the 1960s. It said that King Cheng of Zhou (the second emperor of the Zhou Dynasty) wanted to " stay in China ", that is, to live in the center of world civilization. This is the first time that the word "China" appeared in black and white.
or above is one of the main contents of the previous article.
Episode 0 In the eyes of the Shang people (Shang Shang), the Zhou people were not only barbarians, but also weak national strength. So how did the Zhou Dynasty be established?
Because merchants think that destiny is descended from merchants, other species are "whose will be different if they are not of my race", so all other races are enemies.
The Zhou people felt that destiny was surrendered to the Zhou king, not the Zhou people. The Zhou king was not only the king of the Zhou people, but also the king of the world. Therefore, he not only had to uphold fairness and justice for the Zhou people, but also fairness and justice for the world, which led to universalism .
So, the races bullied by Shang Dynasty united around the Zhou people, overthrew the "tyrannical" Shang Zhou King , and thus established the Zhou Dynasty. How to manage such a large territory?
The best way is to divide the feudal - the King of Zhou established many small countries as barriers to the central royal family, and then sent his heroes and relatives to these small countries as small kings. Just keep in mind these small kings yourself. As for all the affairs in the small country, you little kings can do your own thing.
The rule of the Zhou family emperor was that the 39 monarchs lasted for nearly 800 years. Although the Zhou Dynasty was already a "super long-lived", what was the logic of its demise and disintegration?
This article explains this issue clearly.
(I) The original logic of war between the vassal states
When the Zhou Dynasty was defeated, the Zhou Dynasty established the Zhou Dynasty, and the Zhou Dynasty established a feudal society and divided the direct relatives and some meritorious ministers into the vassal states (more than 70, more than 50 surnames of Ji). These princes brought their families to the territory to carry out military colonial rule. The family became local nobles, and the indigenous people on this land were colonized civilians.
There are also times when teeth and tongues fight, and there will be friction between these vassal states, but the intensity of mutual harm is probably no different from "teeth bites the tongue". Why
? Because of two points:
- First, both countries were related to each other;
- Second, when fighting at this time, it is not about who is powerful in killing people, but about who is the most standard in fighting etiquette.
Zhou Emperor The princes who were enfeoffed by the princes, who had the same surname were usually uncle and nephew, and those with different surnames were usually uncle and nephew, and princes were constantly marrying each other. How could there be a big life-and-death war between such a relationship? Just imagine:
You set up a formation on the battlefield and were about to shout, "Brothers, rush for me, the other party is our generational enemy, cut them to death!"
suddenly shouted: "Nephew, don't be impulsive, according to seniority, I'm your uncle, I'll calculate for you, my ancestors married someone on your side a hundred years ago... 50 years ago, your group married someone on our side again... ...... After counting this way, I'm your uncle, how can you make the reason why your nephew wants to cut off his uncle?"
Are you embarrassed to cut him?
This is a complex relationship between countries. Let’s look at why the war is compared to etiquette rather than cutting down technology?
As a nobleman, how can we highlight our "nobleness" and how can we distinguish ourselves from the common people?
of course, it is about "hierarchy/order", which is what we often call "Zhou Li".
At that time, war was within the scope of "ritual", so there were strict standards, where did the leaders stand? Where are your subordinates standing? If you make a mistake, you will be laughed at. "Zuo Zhuan" does not say: "The country's major affairs are only sacrifices and wars." There are only two major affairs in the country, one is sacrifices and the other is war.
Since war is a major event for the country and such a noble thing, how can you civilians be qualified to participate? You cannot fight, this is the business of our nobles.
Since war is a noble thing, the purpose of war is not to cut the other party to death, but to see whose actions are more in line with the standards of "ritual", that is, the standards of etiquette, various traditional Chinese details, how to arrange troops and formations, and whoever stands in any position. In short, it is to arrange everyone in the appropriate position according to the superiority and inferiority of the upper and lower levels.
The reason for the war at that time was also likely because the other party destroyed the "ritual". "The collapse of etiquette and music" was the source of chaos in the world recognized by everyone, so the purpose of the war was to restore "ritual" and restore the peaceful era of the past.
Since you started a war to maintain etiquette, if you don’t strictly follow etiquette, then your justice in the war will be gone, and you will lose if you win.
In other words, when fighting between nobles, it depends on who is handsome in "steady" of playing. The more "polite", the more respected and supported you from top to bottom, the more peaceful life will be.
Here, let’s summarize:
The Emperor of Zhou enfeoffed relatives of the same surname and different surnames to the vassal states. As long as the Emperor of Zhou manages these relatives well, he can ensure peace in the world. Due to the kinship between the vassal states, "etiquette" is also worn as a tight curse of thought on everyone's head. Therefore, at the beginning, the war between the nobles was not large, and the etiquette was far greater than practicality.
But soon, the nature of war tilted towards practicality, why did it be tilted?
Because of the rise of a "other type", let's continue to look.
(II) Alien emerges: the logic of war begins to evolve
There is a prerequisite for the etiquette of war than practicality, that is, both parties are relatives, and both parties follow the constraints of "ritual".
At the beginning, everyone is indeed hello, everyone is hello, the nobles belong to the nobles, the common people belong to the common people, and the etiquette belongs to the etiquette.
But as long as there is a "anomal" who does not abide by these rules, this set will be pierced by a needle like a dream bubble. If everyone wants to understand each other again, it will be almost impossible to return to Zhou Li. The heterogeneity of
is Chu State .
The Chu State rose to Hubei and the border with Henan. It was a "native" regime that was not bound by etiquette. This regime was not enfeoffed by the Zhou emperor, so it had no close kinship relationship with the nobles in the Central Plains.
That "one needle" is the Duke Xiang of Song of the country of etiquette. The biggest reason why other princes under the Zhou Li culture gave him face was that his etiquette was very good, so he became one of the five hegemons in the Spring and Autumn Period.
But because of the "backlash of paths", the reasons for people's success often become stumbling blocks in the next stage. After seeing the "steady" of Chu, the "king of stances" next door, Duke Xiang of Song was very unhappy, so he wanted to stand on the commanding heights of culture to give Chu some color, improve the "etiquette" level of Chu, and let them know what the "etiquette state" looks like.
But the logic of Chu State was completely different. When the battle started, it did not kick in the "steady" at all. When it came up, it "don't talk about martial ethics" and stabbed people with a knife. Before Duke Xiang of Song had time to show his etiquette, he was beaten to the point of being blue and swollen by the pragmatism of Chu State.
things like this, just like our chicken kid now. As long as one person "chicken", you will suffer a great loss if you don't "chicken". Chu State has brought a bad start, and everyone's bottom line of war will get lower and lower. Finally, it surpassed the bottom line of etiquette and slid straight towards the abyss of pragmatism!
So, the aristocratic style of this world began to be abandoned, and the war began to cut off people's heads as its main purpose. No wonder Mencius sighed - it was really a "no righteous battle in the Spring and Autumn Period".
But at this time, the civilians had not participated in the war, and the scale of the war was not too large. However, due to the development of the two " science and technology ", civilians were quickly involved in the war. The bloody wars in history, which could kill hundreds of thousands of people would begin from now on.
What are the two science and technology?
Let's continue to chat.
ox plowing and iron tools is a great "technical revolution"
(III) Technological progress: leading to the exponential expansion of the scale of war
Since the logic of war has evolved from performativeness to practicality - directly aiming to cut people to death, then "the major affairs of the country, only sacrifices and Rong" is bankrupt, and "Rong" is no longer a game that only nobles can participate in.
According to the principle, nobles should make more people and let the local civilians participate is the best strategy. So why did the civilians still not participate in the war for a long time?
is not that you don’t want it, but that you can’t, the ability to do it!
When Ji Fa established the Zhou Dynasty, the monarchs of the previous generations were able to suppress the princes due to their prestige and blood ties. However, with the development of the various vassal states, over time, some princes became even stronger than the Zhou emperor in the central government.
"The right to speak is proportional to strength" is one of the underlying logics of human society. The powerful princes gradually stopped taking the Emperor Zhou seriously.
And as the population of the vassal states continued to increase, a city could no longer be occupied. The princes also learned from the Zhou emperor's franchise and enfeoffed their relatives or close ministers to newly built cities.
——The Zhou Dynasty gradually became a feudal society with multi-level feudal division!
And as time goes by, many small princes have become even bigger and stronger than the princes, so naturally they will no longer take the princes seriously.
To sum up:
The princes really want to mobilize more people to participate in their team, but they have the will but lack the ability. They can only mobilize civilians in their own city. Civilians in other cities no longer listen to him as a "separate boss".
As a first-level prince, it will definitely not be willing to be willing. After all, these ungrateful little princes were once the dogs of their ancestors. The princes with this mentality will find ways to strengthen their rights, and these little princes who want to be "harmonious" will obviously not surrender:
- Once the taste of power is tasted, some of them will not even recognize their own fathers and brothers (see Li Yuan was turned into the Supreme Emperor by their son, and then look at the harmless Zhu Qiyu Once the taste of power is tasted, they will become crazy and imprison their own brothers Zhu Qizhen ).
As the emperor, his mind must be the same as the princes. He will do everything possible to strengthen his rights. The successors of the throne also have various reforms and want to restore his past glory.
But for a long time, the power game between the emperor, princes, small princes and civilians has reached the "Nash equilibrium" point - no matter how hard either side works, it cannot improve its own profits.
The wheel of history rolled forward, the Western Zhou Dynasty ended (more than 300 years), and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty also moved forward 300 years later, the late Spring and Autumn The early days of the Warring States Period, the emergence and popularization of two major technologies broke the long-standing "Nash equilibrium". These two technologies not only led to the tilt of history towards civilian society, but also directly led to the demise of the Zhou Dynasty, the completion of feudal society and the arrival of the Qin Empire.
These two major technologies are:
- Agricultural technology - cattle plow + iron tools;
- Knowledge dissemination - popularization of bamboo slips.
Before the emergence and popularity of iron tools and ox plowing, the labor efficiency of the vast majority of civilians was very underground. After they cultivated the well fields of the nobles, they no longer had the energy to reclaim endless wasteland.
But now, iron tools and oxen have greatly improved their labor efficiency, and the civilians finally have the energy to reclaim their own private land - wasteland.
Some shrewd civilians found out after tasting the sweetness: the well fields also have to pay taxes, and the harvest of their own land is their own, and they can support themselves if they don’t plant the well fields. So a large number of civilians broke free from the control of the nobles and went directly to plant their own land.
At this moment, the Zhou Dynasty was already in its twilight years, and the Zhou emperor had basically no ability to play at this time. At this moment, there are three forces on the court: princes (nobles), secondary princes, and vast civilians.
For the secondary princes, a large number of poor people escape from control will weaken their own strength, so they try every means to control the civilians; and for the princes, the enemy's enemy is their friends. If they want to weaken and stimulate the princes, they must unite the civilians. Therefore, the game relationship between the three parties is very obvious:
"Princes + the vast majority of civilians" PK "Second princes", and the balance of strength tilts towards the alliance between the princes and the civilians. The well-field system collapsed, the power of the secondary princes was weakened, and the princes once again controlled the situation.
But to completely eliminate the secondary princes, we must also rely on the popularization of knowledge brought by bamboo slips. What is the logic here?
This is one of the main contents of the next article, see you next article.
(end)
Reference in this article: "Hub", exhibition, Guangxi Normal University Press
Related reading:
