China's political gains and losses in the past dynasties

The author, Qian Mu, is Qian Weichang's uncle.

sequence

I wanted to write a history of China's political system for a long time. One is that I think politics is an important part of the cultural system. In particular, China's cultural spirit is focused on the humanities. It is also the ambition of Confucianism, which has always focused on cultivating Qi Zhiping. In order to study traditional Chinese culture, we should never ignore traditional Chinese politics. Before and after Xinhai, due to revolutionary propaganda, the political tradition after the Qin Dynasty was wiped out with the four words **** darkness. The neglect of traditional politics has deepened the misunderstanding of traditional culture. If we want to examine Chinese culture in a fair and objective manner, we should review traditional politics, which is the first reason why I want to write a history of China's political system. Furthermore, I believe that the political system must be self-reliant. Even if some of them can be moved from abroad, they must first be integrated with their own traditions before they can really have a comparable effect. Otherwise, lifeless politics and a system without cooperation will definitely not be able to grow. In other words, the system must be matched with the personnel. Before and after Xinhai, everyone said that the law was changed, everyone said that the revolution was made, and too much attention was paid to the system, as if as long as the system was established, all personnel would change with the system. Therefore, I only want to imitate and copy the ready-made system of foreign countries. He even did not hesitate to destroy personnel to accommodate the system. During the period of the New Culture Movement, while singing about democracy, he denounced the old traditions and the old culture. We wonder if democracy can be installed without any connection with the cultural traditions of a people, and with the promotion of only a few people? Moreover, the system is dead, and personnel is alive, and the dead system must not fully cooperate with the living personnel. As far as historical empiricism is concerned, no system can be beneficial without disadvantages. No system can be kept unchanged for a long time. All the previous systems in history are the same, and the current current system is not as good as it. If we do not pay attention to our own personnel and try to imitate other people's systems, as a result, other people's systems will inevitably change after theirs, and we will have to follow and change, how foolish it is. In fact, as long as all the previous institutional traditions in Chinese history have been inherited for 1,200 years, they will not be in line with the personnel of that time. How can it be out of the selfishness of one or two people, and it can be erased with the **** dark four words? This is the second reason why I wanted to write a history of China's political system. However, due to the turmoil of the overall situation of the country and the instability of his private life, he felt that there was something more important than this book that he wanted to write, so he finally did not write this book. In March and April 1952, Mr. He Jingzhi asked me to give a lecture on the political gains and losses of China's past dynasties, but the lecture lasted only five times, each time limited to two hours, and because of the hurried journey, and other conditions, it was not possible to make a detailed statement of the traditional system in history, and to give full play to it, so I only chose a brief outline of the five dynasties of the Han, Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Originally, I wanted to add to the transcript of the speech that was not mentioned in the speech. Unfortunately, after the completion of the speech, I was injured and recuperated, and during this period, I did not have the energy to improve the speech. I had to make slight corrections to the original transcript where there were any deviations from the original lecture notes, and the others were no longer polished. In the future, it would be a great pleasure to be able to write a more detailed history of China's political system, and I would like to be gratified that this book was presented to readers before it was published, and I would like to thank Mr. Ho for his kindness. If it weren't for Mr. He's supervision, even this little book would not have been completed in a hurry. This manuscript was first written in August 1952 when I was recuperating in Taichung. Later, there was an invitation to write a textbook on "Studying the Political System of China in the Past Dynasties", and the deadline was very tight, so I made slight revisions to this draft, such as the two taxation system of the Tang Dynasty and the taxation system of the Ming Dynasty.

Qian Mu in Hong Kong in August 1955

Lecture 1: Han Dynasty

1. Government organization of the Han Dynasty

A. The royal family and the government

Strictly speaking, it was not until the Qin and Han dynasties that there was a formal unified government in Chinese history. Before the Qin Dynasty, China could only be said to be a kind of feudal unity. As long as it was in the Qin and Han dynasties, the central government had a more decent unified government, and the various places under its jurisdiction were no longer feudal princes and states, but the administrative divisions of the county system closely subordinate to the central government. Therefore, when talking about traditional Chinese politics, we can start with the Qin and Han dynasties, and ignore it for the time being. The Qin Dynasty was only the beginning of the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty was generally a continuation of the Qin Dynasty. Therefore, the Qin Dynasty will not talk about it for the time being, but only the Han Dynasty. Now let's talk about how the government of the Han Dynasty was organized? We should look at the organization of the government and, most importantly, at the distribution of the government's functions and powers. In this regard, I would like to make just two points. The first is the division of powers between the royal family and the government, and the second is the division of powers between the central and local governments. We know that after the Qin Dynasty, China began to have a unified government, and in a unified government, there could be no leader. This political leader in Chinese history was the emperor. How did this emperor come about? In traditional Chinese politics, the throne is hereditary – passed from father to son. If you measure it from a modern political perspective, you will wonder why the emperor is hereditary. However, we must know that China's state-building system is different from that of Greece and Rome in Western history. They have a small country and a small population. Greece, for example, has a small peninsula with more than 100 countries. Their so-called kingdom is only a city. The population of each city is only a few tens of thousands. Their leaders can be elected by the people. As long as the inhabitants of the city are gathered in an open field, the so-called public will of the people can be expressed there. Rome began, and it was only a city. Later, it conquered outward and formed an empire. But its central core is still of the Greek city-state type. From the Qin and Han dynasties in China, the country's territory was about the same as it is now. The account is also at least tens of millions. Moreover, the scale of China's founding is not to conquer outward, but to condense centripetally. The state system of the Han Dynasty was obviously different from that of the Roman Empire. Moreover, China is also an agricultural country, tens of millions of rural areas, scattered throughout the country, we must blame the Chinese at that time to implement the so-called popular election system in modern times, is this possible? If we do not swallow up historical judgment based solely on our own judgment of the times, we should recognize that the hereditary throne is a last resort or a natural method based on China's past political conditions. Moreover, there are not a few emperors in all countries in the world. We cannot say that the fact that China did not have a democratic electoral system in the past, and that there was a hereditary emperor is enough to prove the darkness and irrationality of traditional Chinese politics. In feudal times, there were many families with their hereditary privileges, and these were called nobles. But since the Qin and Han dynasties, the feudal system has long been overthrown. The royal family alone is hereditary, except that the emperor can pass the throne to his son, there is no second position in the government, and the second family can inherit the same thing. The county magistrate cannot pass on the position of the county magistrate to his son, and the county magistrate cannot pass on the position of the magistrate to his son. This is a huge step forward in the political system. In the past, in feudal times, the government and the family were inseparable, but now it is different. It is one person who organizes the government, no longer one family. At that time, however, there was a big problem: the relationship between the royal family and the government. Is the royal family a government? If the royal family and the government are separated, how will the powers of the two sides be divided? This was the first major problem encountered in the Qin and Han dynasties, and it is also a major problem that has always been encountered in China's political history. Looking at the general trend of history, it can be said that the Chinese have always believed that the royal family and the government should be separated, and they are indeed evolving according to this principle. The emperor is the sole leader of the state, and the actual power is not in the royal family but in the government. The prime minister represents the government. The emperor is the head of state and symbolizes the unity of the country; The Prime Minister is the head of the government and has all practical political responsibilities. The division between imperial power and relative power is often a major topic in Chinese political history. In the past few decades, most people have believed that China has been feudal since the Qin and Han dynasties, or that it is the emperor, which is inconsistent with historical facts.

To talk about the division of imperial power and prime minister power in the Han Dynasty, let me give an example: at that time, the emperor and prime minister each had a "secretariat", and the organizations on both sides were different in size. The emperor of the Han Dynasty had six Shang, who were still in charge. The six Shang are Shang Yi, Shang Shi, Shang Guan, Shang Xi, Shang Yu and Shang Shu. The five Shangdu were only in charge of the emperor's private clothes, food, and daily life. Only Shangshu is in charge of clerical work, which is really the "secretary" in the palace. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Shangshu had a low status of authority, but it became bigger and bigger. The first Shangshu was only one of the six monks, which was the emperor's secretariat. What about the Prime Minister's Secretariat? There are a total of thirteen departments, that is, the so-called thirteen Caos at that time, and one Cao is equal to one division now. If we list the names of these thirteen Cao, we can see the huge organization of the Prime Minister's Secretariat at that time, and the wide range of its powers. A Xicao, used by the History Department of the Lord's Government. Erdong Cao, the main 2,000 stone chief officials were removed, and the military officials were included. 2,000 stone was the largest official at that time, named after the valley with 2,000 stone per year. It can be seen that all the appointments and dismissals of officials in the imperial court must go through the prime minister's secretariat. Three households Cao, the main sacrifice to the mulberry. Si Cao manages all the chapters of the government, slightly like the Privy Council of the Tang Dynasty and the General Administration Department of the Ming Dynasty. The five-word Cao, the main word lawsuit, is the civil part of the law. Liufa Cao, the post of the post of the department, this is like the current Ministry of Communications, the department refers to all aspects of the time limit and quantity of transportation. The seventh lieutenant Cao, the main pawn Cao transshipment, is in charge of transportation, slightly like the Qing Dynasty has a Cao Yun governor. Eight thieves Cao, in charge of thieves. Nine Decisions, the Law of the Principal Sin. These two Cao are governed by the criminal aspect of the law. Ten soldiers Cao, in charge of military service. Eleven Jin Cao, the currency salt and iron. Twelve cangcao, canggu. The Thirteenth Yellow Pavilion, the main bookkeeper records the affairs of the people, this is the director of general affairs of the Secretariat of the Prime Minister's Office. These thirteen organs are combined into one office directly under the Prime Minister's Office. Based only on the names of these thirteen Cao, we can imagine that at that time, all government affairs were gathered to the prime minister, and not to the emperor. Because the emperor only had a general book office and only one study. The first Shangshu had only four people, and there were thirteen organs under the prime minister's office. The scope of the thirteen Caos of this prime minister's mansion is much larger than that of the royal books, and the power of these thirteen Caos is also very heavy, and it is like a special minister of future generations. It can be seen that all the actual powers in the Han Dynasty, according to legal principles, should be in the prime minister's mansion, not in the royal family, and the prime minister is the real leader of the government. The above documents are an example of the difference between the royal family and the government. Judging from the general trend of traditional Chinese politics, the general opinion has always valued this distinction.

B. Organization of the Central Government

Now speaking of the organization of the central government of the Han Dynasty. At that time, there were the so-called Three Princes and Jiuqing, which were the highest officials in the government. The prime minister, the imperial lieutenant, and the imperial historian are called the three dukes, and the prime minister is in charge of administration and is the head of civil officials; The lieutenant is in charge of the military and is the head of the military attaché; The Imperial Historian is in charge of supervision, and assists the Prime Minister in supervising all political facilities. It is the deputy prime minister. According to the custom of the Han Dynasty, in modern language, there is an unwritten rule that one must become an imperial historian before he can be promoted to prime minister. Although the Taiwei is equal to the prime minister, he actually does not know about other political affairs except for the military. Therefore, the chief executive at that time was really the prime minister. According to the original meaning of philology, Cheng is the meaning of vice two. The so-called phase is also a vice. Just like the current commonly known as the concubine, this is the deputy of the bride and groom, and what the bride and groom cannot do, the concubine agent will do. Therefore, Cheng is a deputy, and the prime minister is also a deputy, and the name is defined, and the prime minister is an adjutant. Who's the lieutenant? He should be the emperor's aide-de-camp. The emperor can't actually manage everything, so the prime minister is acting on his behalf, and the emperor can be irresponsible. Why is it called the prime minister? In feudal times, the most important thing for aristocratic families was sacrifice. The most important thing is the sacrifice of the cattle. Symbolizing this meaning, at that time, the princes of the Son of Heaven and all the nobles, ministers, and housekeepers were called slaughter. When the Qin and Han dynasties were unified, they changed from feudalism to counties, and the ancients called "turning the family into a country", and all the aristocratic families fell, but only one family became a country. So the head of his family became the political leader of the country. Originally, in the feudal era, the housekeeper was called the slaughter inside, and the adjutant was called the prime minister outside, so according to historical tradition, the prime minister was originally just a relic of the aristocratic private officials in the feudal era. But because of this, the prime minister of the Qin and Han dynasties, he not only had to manage the country's government affairs, but also the emperor's household affairs. This is the case with the functions and powers of the Tianguan Tsukasa in the Zhou official book. But now the prime minister, he has to be in charge of all the affairs of the national government, and he no longer has the time to take care of the emperor's family affairs, so under the imperial historian, that is, the deputy prime minister, there is a royal historian, he is the deputy of the imperial historian, and this person lives in the palace. At that time, all officials with Chinese characters meant that they lived in the palace. All the affairs of the royal family are under the control of the imperial history as usual. In the imperial history, the imperial historian belongs to the imperial historian, and the imperial historian is subordinate to the prime minister, and if it is true, everything in the royal family still has to be managed by the prime minister. On the other hand, the origin of the prime minister was only the emperor's personal minister, the emperor's housekeeper, and he should be in charge of the affairs of the palace. It was the remnants of the old feudal system. But on the other hand, it has to be said that the emperor is only a part of the city government. Therefore, court affairs are also ruled by the prime minister. At that time, if the emperor had any matter, he would tell the imperial historian, and the imperial historian would report to the imperial historian, and the imperial historian would then report to the prime minister. If the prime minister has anything to do, he will also follow this procedure, from the imperial historian to Zhongcheng, and then to the inner court, which is the general relationship between the emperor and the government at that time.

Let's talk about the Jiuqing of the Han Dynasty, that is: Taichang, Guangluxun, Weiwei, Taifu, Tingwei, Dahonglu, Zongzheng, Dasinong, and Shaofu. Their official positions are all 2,000 stones, also known as the middle 2,000 stones. Because they are all 2,000 koku in the central government, they are also 2,000 koku to show that they are different from the head of the county Taishou local administration. If you talk about the origin of these Jiuqing titles, it is very interesting: Taichang was called Taichang in the Qin Dynasty, and this word was supposed to be tasted. He was in charge of sacrificing to his ancestors, ghosts, and gods. According to the four o'clock dedication of the time, so that the ancestors and ghosts and gods always taste new, so it is called Thai taste. In ancient times, religious connotations prevailed over political connotations. In ancient times, the east side was the ancestral hall, that is, the temple, and the west side was the family house, that is, the bed. The house of life and the house of death are connected together. Although the system was abolished by the people of later generations, the palace still followed the old track. Until the Qing Dynasty, wasn't the Taimiao close to the east of the imperial palace? The most important thing in the ancient family is not the living but the dead, and ancestor worship is a major event. The slaughterer is in charge of killing cattle and worshipping ancestors. Therefore, the first secretary of the Jiuqing of the Han Dynasty is also in charge of sacrifices. This official, defined by the correct name, should belong to the royal family, a domestic official in charge of the royal temple and the royal ancestor worship, which is not a public office of the imperial court. The second is Guangluxun. This official name still existed until the Qing Dynasty, but the original meaning of these three words has long been forgotten. According to the text, Xun should be 阍, the ancient sound is the same, this is the royal gatehouse. Just righteousness, Guanglu should be Dalu, and Lulu is the same as the sound. Why is the porter called Dalu? This is because most of the emperors in ancient times lived in the mountains, like Song Jiang in Liangshanbo, and Zhu Gui opened a hotel at the foot of the mountain to inform the news. Therefore, the emperor lived in the mountain, and the door was located at the foot of the mountain. The book says that Shun is in charge of Yao's big foot, that is, Shun is Yao's prime minister. In other words, he became Yao's porter. Therefore, Guanglu and Xun are ancient and modern languages, both referring to the concierge dialect. The guard is a military position, the head of the guard, which is the commander of the guards of the palace. At that time, all military officers were called lieutenants. The servant is the emperor's chauffeur, "Analects": "Zi Shiwei, Ran has a servant", the servant is a charioteer. When the emperor went out, Taipu drove the car for him. It was the emperor's car driver. Tingwei is in charge of the law, and if he violates the emperor's law, he is in charge. From this point of view, Taichang is in charge of the royal temple, and the Guanglu guard is the head of the gatehouse and the head of the guards. It's all on the inside. When the emperor goes out, he takes a servant with him, and if someone breaks the law outside, it is the matter of the court captain. Dahonglu, which has been along until the Qing Dynasty, is equal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Like the current protocol department, it is communicative. It is a paging righteousness. The handover of the ancient rites and guests of honor is passed from the host to the lord, and then from the side of the host to the phase of the guest, and then to the guest himself. Hung is righteousness. The big guy is the conveyor. Zong is in charge of the emperor's family, his own family with the same surname and relatives with different surnames. The above seven secretaries, according to the name, are the royal private affairs of the capital officials, not the official affairs of the government. From these seven qing, we can see that the politics of the Han Dynasty still have many traces left over from the ancient feudal system, but at that time, it was already a country, and the original person who was in charge of the emperor's housework is now also in charge of national affairs. For example, Taichang is also in charge of education, because in ancient times, academics were all in the temple. The same is true of the West, in which education and religion are inseparable until now. Guangluxun was originally the emperor's chief gatehouse, and now he has to take care of all the guards in the palace. At that time, the attendants in the palace were not exactly eunuchs, and there were very few eunuchs, most of them were ordinary people. At that time, people who generally wanted to run into the government as officials had to enter the palace as a first step, serve as a guard, serve the emperor, let the emperor know, and then have the opportunity to be sent out to be an official. Most of these people who served in the palace were young people, who were called Langguan at that time, and they were all under the control of Guanglu Xun. Confucius's twelfth grandson, Kong Anguo, also served as a Lang official. What about the servant? Because he is in charge of cars and horses, he is also in charge of all the country's armaments, such as "tanks, cars, airplanes" and the like. Tingwei will become justice, and Dahonglu will become diplomacy. This is historical evolution. We deduce this evolution, but it does not mean that the central government of the Han Dynasty was still a feudal government, and Jiuqing at that time was still a personal minister of the emperor. Therefore, the secretaries are subordinate to the prime minister, and their management is all state affairs. In addition, there are two secretaries, namely Dasi Nong and Shaofu, both of whom are in charge of finance and economy. Dasi Nong is in charge of the government economy, and Shaofu is in charge of the royal economy. The income of the big Si Nong was used for the public expenses of the state, and the income of the small government was used for the private use of the royal family. The royal family could not use the money of the Great Si Nong. That's why we say that at that time there was a clear division between the royal family and the government. At that time, the national land income was a large amount, and it was managed by Dasi Nong. Taxes from industry and commerce, such as salt by the sea and mines in the mountains, were originally very small and were managed by the Shaofu. These nine Qings are all subordinate to the prime minister. We talked about Jiuqing above, according to the nominal origin, they are all the emperor's housekeepers, they are palace positions, and the system belongs to the prime minister, isn't it that the prime minister is the emperor's chief housekeeper? But in other words, it was the head of the government at that time, the prime minister, who could control everything in the palace. For example, the Shaofu is in charge of the royal family's funds, and the Shaofu belongs to the prime minister, and the prime minister can control the Shaofu, even if the royal economy is also controlled by the prime minister. In this way, isn't it the royal family that is under the government? Originally, the prime minister in the feudal era was the emperor's housekeeper, but in the era of counties and counties, the family was turned into a country, and the prime minister was already in charge of the state, not a private family, so he became the official head of the government. In the past, the departments of the private family have become the departments of the public government. In the feudal era, the family was the country, Zhou Tianzi was a family, Qi was also a family, and Lu was a family, there were many such aristocratic families, and the world was divided by many families. At that time, by and large, there was only housework, not government affairs. Now there is only one left in China, and that is the royal family at that time. This family is worn by the whole world, so housework has become government affairs. This extended family has also been transformed into a government. The prime minister was the steward of the family, and now he is the head of the government.

The above has already told a rough idea of the three princes and nine kings of the Han Dynasty. This was the organization of the central government at that time.

C. Local government in the Han Dynasty

The local government of the Han Dynasty was divided into two levels: counties and counties. Historically, local government in China has been based on counties, and it has not changed until now. At the top of the Han Dynasty county were counties, and the number of counties was of course subject to change. Broadly speaking, there were more than 100 counties in the Han Dynasty, and one county governed 10 to 20 counties. Probably the number of counties in the Han Dynasty was always between 1,100 and 1,400. When it comes to local administration in Chinese history, the Han Dynasty has always been admired, and the so-called rule of the two Han Dynasty officials will always be praised by future generations, which deserves our attention. In modern times, today's local administrative regions are the highest provinces. The size of a province is equal to a country, or it is greater than a country. There are 60 or 70 to 1,200 counties under the jurisdiction of a province, which is too many. However, as far as the division of administrative regions is concerned, the Han system is commendable. The county magistrate of the Han Dynasty was called Taishou, and his status was equal to Jiuqing, and he was also 2,000 stones. However, Jiuqing is called the middle 2,000 stones, and the county Taishou is the local 2,000 stones. The county taishou can be transferred to the central government to be Jiuqing, and if he is further promoted to the third level, he can be the third duke, and Jiuqing will also be the county taishou when he is released. In the Han Dynasty, the official ranks were small, and the promotion and transfer were extremely flexible, which was a great difference between the Han system and the later period. Jiuqing was released as a Taishou, not a demotion. The local 2,000 stone to make the middle 2,000 stone is not an upgrade, nominally it is still about the same. At that time, there were more than 100 counties in the country, and the name of Taishou was about the same as Jiuqing, so although it was a situation of great unification of the central government, and although the local administrative areas were relatively small, they did not feel that this central government was superior.

D. Relationship between the central and local governments

Speaking of the relationship between the central and local governments. Each county should submit a book to the central government every year, and the book is the statistical table, that is, the local administrative achievements. All financial, economic, educational, criminal, civil, and thief (16) only a book is kept every year, which is classified and submitted to the central government in September and October. The history of assassination is called the history of assassination when the central commissioner comes to the local area to investigate. The country is divided into thirteen survey districts, each of which assigns a thorn history, and the average survey area for each thorn history will not exceed nine counties. There are also restrictions on his investigation projects, and the government stipulates that he will be inspected according to the six articles, and he will not be concerned with anything outside of the six. The actual administrative responsibility of the local government is the responsibility of the Taishou. The government sent the assassin to investigate, but it was just an eyes. Therefore, the official was given 2,000 stones, and the original assassin was only a petty official who was given 600 stones. According to the government's regulations, even petty officials can be competent. And only his official is small. So dare to speak and speak, and there is no way to avoid taboos. These thorn histories belong to Yu Shicheng. There are also fifteen servants in the palace, who are responsible for impeaching the central government and everything in the palace. The opinions of the Ministry of Assassins and the Imperial History were reported to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Deputy Prime Minister was then reported to the Prime Minister. The Deputy Prime Minister's assistant to the Prime Minister is the responsibility of this supervision.

2. The electoral system of the Han Dynasty

The above mentioned many officials at the central and local levels in the Han Dynasty, but where did these many officials come from? Who can be the prime minister, the imperial doctor, and even the head of this department? This is one of the most important topics in China's political system. In ancient feudal hereditary, the son of the Son of Heaven was the Son of Heaven, the son of the Duke was the Gong, the son of the Qing was the Qing, and the son of the doctor was the Dafu. But in the Qin and Han dynasties, it was different. The feudal hereditary system has been overthrown, who should be in politics and who should not be in politics? In addition to the hereditary aristocracy, the first thing that makes people think of military politics, who holds the military power, who holds the power of the nine, and dominates the official career, but this is not the case in the Han Dynasty. Secondly, it reminds people of the politics of the rich, who has wealth, who is easy to enter the government and easy to hold power, but this is not the case in the Han Dynasty. We talk about the system of the Han Dynasty on this aspect, and it was not until after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that it gradually became finalized. At that time, I already had Taixue, so I could enter the current national university. At that time, there was only one national university, and the students in it were divided into two classes after graduating from the examination, which was called a department at that time. He was born in the first family; Those who were born in the second branch are officials. Lang Guan is a guard in the palace under Guangluxun, and it is still the case, who is a 2,000-stone official, (there are many such officials in the Han Dynasty, although there are only more than 10 of the three dukes and nine kings in the central government, and there are more than 100 local Taishou.) Their sons, nephews, and descendants had to be sent to the palace as guards, as usual. After he served in front of the emperor for a few years, when the government needed people, he selected and distributed them among them. Although this is not the hereditary system of the aristocracy, the aristocratic group, which is also the bureaucracy, is still monopolized by the aristocratic group. This system was seen in the West until modern times. China, on the other hand, has changed since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. At that time, it was customized, and those who were in the first class of the Taixue graduation examination had to be Lang, and if so, many intellectuals were recruited into the Lang officials, but intellectuals were not the children of the nobility. Those who have passed the second class shall return to their hometown and local government to serve as officials. Officials are subordinates of local governors. In the Han Dynasty, there was a restriction on the appointment of officials, and the local governors were to be sent by the central government, and the same was true for the Taishou and the county orders. But the county and county must be served by the locals. For example, people in Taipei City cannot be the mayor of Taipei City; However, all the officials of the Taipei City Government from the mayor down were called Peng's subordinates in the Han Dynasty, so they must definitely use the locals of Taipei City. However, the right to use the subordinate is in the hands of the chief, which is called subordination. The Three Dukes, the Nine Qings, the County Taishou, and the County Order, these were appointed by the emperor by the central government. The thirteen Cao under the prime minister are used by the prime minister himself. In addition, all the heads of each emon and below are officials, and all the heads of each yamen are appointed by themselves. Now this student has passed the second class, for example, he is from Huiji County, so he returns to Huiji and appoints him to be tried by the county government, which is the so-called supplementary official. Complementing the Lang and the Supplementing Officials is the treatment that students should have after graduation.

Speaking of the electoral system of the Han Dynasty, it was historically called the township election. At that time, all localities could elect talents to the central government at any time. Their elections can be roughly divided into two kinds, or they can be said to be three: one is indefinite, for example, when the old emperor dies and the new emperor ascends the throne, he often sends an edict to hope that the election of people from all over the country will come to the imperial court; Or in a year of great famine, a great flood, or a great plague, this means that the government is derelict in its administrative duties, and it is often sent by heaven, and it often sends edicts to the local government to nominate sages to speak to the government or do things for the country. These elections are indefinite. Most of the people who are elected in this way are called virtuous. After the virtuous people were elected to the government, the government routinely asked them several politically important questions and consulted them. This is called inquiry. Ce is a kind of bamboo. The question is written on the bamboo slips, so it is called a policy question. One by one, we ask the virtuous people to express their opinions, which is called countermeasures. This is one way for the government to look at their opinions and then select and appoint them individually. This kind of election is neither scheduled nor has a definite electoral body. Local public opinion can also be raised, as can the three public and nine secretaries, and government officials. Those who are cited are called virtuous, and virtuous refers to people who have extraordinary talents. The second is a special election, for example, the government will send people to the Xiongnu and the Western Regions this year, and they need to be able to Chinese foreign countries, be able to endure hardships, and be able to adapt to changes. For example, if you want to use military talents in the army, or if you need to know how to control the water at the mouth of the Yellow River, everyone knows that there are such talents, and you can raise them, and you can feel sure that you can directly apply for the election. This is a special kind of election. Later, there was a kind of regular election, that is, the election of filial piety. In the Han Dynasty, there has always been an edict to inspect the local filial piety and honest officials. However, the local government sometimes did not pay attention to this matter, and the people who should be selected were not exhausted: Emperor He once issued an edict to the effect that if you say that you have a huge county, there is not a single filial son or an honest official who can be inspected and promoted to the imperial court, it is too unreasonable to say. Moreover, the role of the local governor is not only to manage the administration, but also to find talents for the country; If within a year, even a filial son and an honest official cannot be elected, it can be seen that the responsibility of the chief has not been fulfilled. At that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered everyone to discuss how the local governors who did not raise filial piety and honest officials should be punished. As a result, a kind of regular election has been virtually formed. In any case, each county has to name one or two dutiful officials every year to hold them accountable. There were more than 100 counties in the Han Dynasty, and at least more than 100 filial piety and honesty were raised to the imperial court every year. When these people arrived in the imperial court, they could not have a better and faster background like Xianliang, and most of them were still placed in the palace as a lang official. If so, he was a student, and when he was assigned to the local government as a servant, he still had the hope of being promoted to the palace as a lang. After a few years of service in the Lang Office, he will be distributed. Since Emperor Wu, the Han Dynasty has gradually formed a kind of county filial piety every year, at least every year each county to enter more than 200 filial piety into the Lang Office, more than ten years to have 2,000. In the past, there were only about 2,000 Langguan guards in the palace. Since the formation of this system, twenty or thirty years later, all the Lang officials in the palace have become county filial piety, and most of those county filial piety are from Taixue graduates. If so, the emperor's guard group has also deteriorated invisibly. All of them have become young intellectuals who have graduated from university. So after Emperor Wu, the officials of the Han Dynasty gradually became all from reading. Later, the Lang Office was flooded, and there were as many talents as possible to be distributed and appointed, so the unscheduled elections and special elections were invisibly put aside, and there was only one way for the official career to be filial piety and honesty, which was a matter of the Eastern Han Dynasty. This system has evolved from sub-district inspection to distribution according to the proportion of the number of households, and the system is a fixed amount. At that time, it was a county with 200,000 households to be inspected and honored, and since filial piety only became a name for the qualification to participate in politics, the original meaning of filial piety and honesty was lost. In the end, after being inspected by the county, the central government added an examination. This system was thus completed by combining the four procedures of education, administrative training, elections, and examinations.

We can see from this that this system was very important politically at that time. A young man ran into Taixue to study, and after graduation, he was sent to serve in the local area. After the results of the local administration are served, they will be selected by the chief to the central government, and they must pass the examination prescribed by the central government before they can officially enter the office. That was the only way to enter politics at that time. Almost all government officials were born in this way. Such a government, we can no longer call it an aristocratic government. Although there are also noble children among the Lang officials, they are in the minority. Nor can we call it a military government, because the Lang officials are not from a military background. Nor can we call it a capitalist government, because none of these officials are the children of merchant capitalists. Such a government can only be called a government of scholars, or a government of scholars. The successive prime ministers of the Han Dynasty from Zhaoxuan to the onwards were almost all scholars, and their origins were also elected by the local government. It was not because he had anything to do with the emperor and his predecessors by blood, or because he was a big soldier and a wealthy man, that he climbed into the political arena. It was entirely because he was a scholarly intellectual. This situation has been going on since the Han Dynasty. We can say that the government at this time in Chinese history was neither an aristocratic government, nor a military government, nor a merchant government, but a "government that advocated civil rule", that is, a government of scholars. Only these people are allowed to run into the political arena, and the government is organized by them, and all political power is distributed to them.

3. The economic system of the Han Dynasty

The above is the formation of the government and the distribution of its functions and powers. Now let's talk about the main economic issue that supports the government, namely the tax system. The Han Dynasty achieved the ideal of light endowment. During the Warring States period, Mencius said: "Tithe and tax, the government of the king", it can be seen that the amount of tax in the Warring States is more than tithe, and Mencius thought that tithe was very good. However, in the Han Dynasty, the tax amount was only "fifteen taxes and one". Moreover, in fact, only half is paid, and thirty taxes are one. One hundred stone of millet only needs to pay a little more than thirty taxes. Even at that time, people said that there was a tax of one hundred and one (see Xunyue's "Former Han Dynasty"), and during the time of Emperor Wen, all land rents were exempted, and it lasted for 11 years. This is the only time in Chinese history. This is because China has a vast territory and light taxes, and it is still impossible to support a government. However, there was a big problem with the tax system of the Han Dynasty, which was that the land policy at that time was relatively liberal. The feudal system of well fields has long been abandoned, and the cultivator has his own land, and the ownership of the land belongs to the private ownership of the peasant, who can use it freely or sell it freely. In the face of economic hardship, the land can be bought and sold, and the annexation is formed. If we ask further, why do farmers still sell their fields when the government tax is light? There are, of course, other reasons for this. This must be said of the population tax and military service tax at that time, which was the overall picture of the social economy. Flawless at the moment involved. But when the farmer sold his land, he became a tenant farmer, and the landlord paid the tenant farmer a very high rent. Some are as high as 50 percent (i.e., 5 out of 10). As a result, the lighter the government's tax, the cheaper the landlord became, and the peasants had to pay five-tenths of the rent to the landlord when they sold their land, and the landlord only had to pay one-thirtieth of the tax to the government. The government reduced the land rent, which only cheapened the landlords, and the peasants did not benefit in the slightest. This is talking about field rent.

But the issue of land ownership is already at stake here. In the feudal era, within the four seals, it was not the king's land, the hair of the soil, and the land was exclusive to the feudal aristocracy. The cultivator of the field is still in charge, which is one of the main conditions of the well field system. Now feudalism is destroyed, and the land is privately owned by the people. Since it is privately owned, it can be bought and sold freely. The government only collects taxes according to the land, regardless of who owns the land. The seller of the land and the buyer of the land jointly form a contract. This is purely a non-governmental economic and trade relationship. Therefore, the big landlords under free buying and selling are not feudal aristocrats. Feudalism is political, and the landlords at the moment are formed by selecting the best economic conditions. He is free to buy and sell. It is precisely because the land is privately owned and the cultivators have their land that they are free to buy and sell, and that annexation begins, so that the poor have no place to stand. In the later history of China's land policy, on the one hand, it often admired the average land ownership of the ancient well-field system, but on the other hand, it advocated that the cultivators should have their own land, and recognized that the cultivated land should belong to the private property of the people. Under the conflict between these two concepts, the problem of land tax cannot be properly resolved.

In addition, the land of the whole country is not all arable land. Then ask the sovereignty of non-arable land, whose sovereignty is it? A mountain, a forest, a large lake, in the feudal era, is naturally within four seals, it is not the king's land, and the cultivated land is not arable land, which should also belong to the aristocracy. Cultivated land was opened, distributed to the peasants, and distributed evenly to become well fields, while non-cultivated land became forbidden land that was not open to the public. In the mountains, forests, and ponds, the nobles sent administrators such as Yu Ren to guard them. Later, the situation changed, and the ownership of arable land gradually shifted to the farmer, rather than the forbidden area of arable land. It was also gradually invaded by the people privately, burning charcoal and logging wood, fishing and hunting animals, which is an illegal profit. These intruders were regarded as thieves at the time, and their production outside the cultivated land was called profiteering. The government has the right to levy and levy officials to prevent it. When the defense is invincible, it is impossible to please, so the forbidden land, that is, the mountains, forests and ponds, is gradually opened. Only at the entry and exit gates, there is a collector, and in case of fishing and logging in the forbidden area, only a few fractions of the income in kind will be levied on the goods, which is a kind of tax in addition to the field rent. This is the origin of the tariff and commercial tax. Therefore, the so-called levy was originally forbidden by conquest, and later only shared the acquisition as a compromise condition, and still used the word levy. This kind of transformation, in the late spring and autumn years, has begun to be great. Countries with narrow land or dense populations, such as Zheng, Jin, and Qi, all have this phenomenon and have this measure. However, until the emergence of the unified government of the Qin and Han dynasties, the concept of land ownership still inherited the old nobles. They regarded cultivated land as privately owned by peasants, not cultivated land, that is, forbidden land in feudal times, which was still owned by the public. In other words, it becomes the property of the royal family. Because the feudal aristocracy has disappeared, only the emperor's family remains, inheriting the old feudal tradition, and all the mountains, forests and ponds of the country, according to the concept of the people at that time, will all belong to the royal family. This concept of ownership then affected the tax system, so at that time, all farmland rents went to the big farmers and served as government funds. The tax of the mountains and seas and ponds belonged to the Shaofu and was exclusively for the emperor's private use. This distinction would not be easy to understand if it were not for the transformation of the well field system in feudal times and the distinction between other land ownership.

Now again, this system of public-private taxation was quite reasonable at the beginning. Due to the abundance of arable land, the land endowment is a large quantity, and the commercial tax of the mountains, forests and ponds accounts for only a small minority. Giving the bulk to the state and the small number to the royal family is not the emperor's selfish self-enrichment. However, after the Warring States period, the profits of salt and iron gradually increased, and the social and economic situation changed, and the tax on the mountains and seas and ponds gradually exceeded the national land rent. This change was not expected when we started customizing. Just like in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, he did not know that the foreign trade tariffs of the commercial ports were increasing year by year, but he left the matter to foreigners, and later suffered a big loss. This was true in the Qing Dynasty, and it was also true in the Han Dynasty. The commercial tax gradually exceeded the land rent, so the income of the small government exceeded that of the big Sinong. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was an eloquent emperor, courting the Xiongnu, passing through the Western Regions, the military expenditure was huge, and the money of Dasi Nong ran out, and even the wealth accumulated by his father (Emperor Jing) and grandfather (Emperor Wen) in several lifetimes was spent. What if the government is in a state of embarrassment with huge spending? The peasants' land rent, which is fixed at one-thirtieth of the system, is fixed, and it is inconvenient to easily change or increase it. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only had his own generosity and took out the economy of Shaofu, which was equivalent to donating the royal family's private funds to the government. Therefore, Emperor Wu also ordered the local wealthy people, the most important ones such as salt and iron merchants, to donate freely like him. As a result, the social response is not good, and those with large assets ignore the government's call. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty couldn't help but wonder: Where did your money come from? Isn't it all up to me to let you run the mountains, seas, and ponds, so that you can smelt iron and make a fortune and make money. Now I donate all the income of the Shaofu to the state, and you don't respond, then I can only return all the non-arable land in the mountains, seas and ponds of the country, and let me let the government run it! This is the famous so-called salt and iron policy in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The salt and iron merchants were the two largest and most profitable businesses at that time. There is no salt that no one does not eat, and no one does not use iron, but boiling the sea into salt, opening the mountains and producing iron, the sovereignty of the mountains and the sea is in the hands of the emperor. Now Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty no longer allowed the merchants to operate without authorization, took back their ownership, and let the government send managers to burn salt and smelt iron by themselves, and all the interest income was given to the government, so the salt and iron became state-owned and officially sold. This system is very similar to the so-called National Socialist policy that was first initiated by the Germans in the modern West. However, we had already invented such a system in the Han Dynasty, and even in the Qing Dynasty, although there were changes in the sub-sections, and in general the sect still followed this policy, and it always did not deviate from the line of so-called national socialism in modern times. This system is not limited to salt and iron. Another example is wine, which is a kind of luxury and pleasure made from the rice and wheat necessary for people's daily life, so it is also classified as a government sale, and the people are not allowed to brew freely. Behind these systems, there must naturally be a theoretical basis. If we want to talk about the history of China's economic thought, we must pay attention to the measures of various actual systems in history. When talking about China's economic system, we should pay attention to the historical truth of the evolution of this system. Therefore, when I talk about the salt and iron policy in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, I am far from the legal distinction between the ancient well field system and the forbidden land in Shanze, and the origin of the distribution of taxes between the Shaofu and the Dasi Nong to the government and the imperial family, and from this, the salt and iron officials are sold. This is not a matter of ideology and theory, but is in fact determined by the realities of the most important historical traditions. This issue was debated for a long time at the time, and there was a lively discussion in the time of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, in which representatives of the people from all over the country and the ministers in charge of the treasury of the government debated and challenged each other at specially convened meetings. There was a record left by a representative of the people at that time, which is the famous salt and iron theory. Of course, the people advocate openness, and the government advocates state-run enterprises. At that time, the actual pros and cons were not to be speculated on unless we were familiar with the opinions of the people at that time. When we want to discuss the historical system at this moment, we should pay attention to the historical traditions of the time and the historical opinions of the people of the time as the main reference. We should not use the opinions of our times to erase the historical opinions of the time, this is the right thing to do.

We have summarized the economic policy of the Han Dynasty as described above, and the economic policy of the Han Dynasty was close to advocating the so-called control of capital in relation to industry and commerce, and in terms of land rent to the peasants, it was also done lightly. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu advocated the policy of limiting the number of acres, even if the whole country could not distribute the acres of land equally, there must be a maximum limit, so that each landlord could not exceed the limit of a certain number of acres, but unfortunately even this policy could not be implemented. So Wang Mang got up, and he provoked a major reform, which put all the acres under the state, called Huangtian, and redistributed them. At that time, the idea was to restore the feudal well field system, but the result was a great upheaval. Wang Mang failed, and there was no radical reform of the land system in Chinese history.

Fourth, the military service system of the Han Dynasty

The military system of the Han Dynasty was all soldiers in the whole country. In the West, it was not until the modern Prussian kingdom that the Kingdom of Prussia experienced unavoidable oppression during the Bismarck Dynasty, and we have already practiced it in the Han Dynasty. A strong man does not begin military service until he is twenty-three years old, and this provision also has its own intrinsic significance. Because it takes twenty to become a man, it is reasonable to be able to cultivate independently. As far as the agricultural economy is concerned, it is impossible to produce more products, only to save money, and the so-called "three years of ploughing, one year of savings", according to the general situation, a bumper harvest every year will absolutely not. On average, there will always be a famine year in three years, and when a famine year comes, the savings will be over. If there is no shortage for three years, six years should have two years, and nine years should have three years. And in an agrarian society, it will never be more than nine years of maturity, nor will it be more than three years of famine. A strong man, twenty years of land, can earn a living independently, but if he is to serve in the country, he should take care of the burden of his family. So it was stipulated that from the age of twenty-three, he should have one year of savings to serve in the public service. This system is not only an economic consideration, but also a moral decision. We should pay attention to the concepts and theories of the people of the time behind each system. Politics is an important institution in culture, and it will never give rise to a system casually and unprovoked. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, most of the people in the government were originally from rural areas, and they knew about the people's suffering, so they were able to formulate this regulation. Modern Chinese often despise their past political traditions and say that China does not have a complete set of political theories and no great political thinkers. Of course, in China's previous writings, there are very few books devoted to political theory, and there are few people who have become famous by transferring political ideas. This is not that the Chinese have no theory and no ideas about politics. It is only because most of the Chinese scholars have become officials that their political theories and ideas can already be expressed in actual politics. There is no need to write a book out of thin air, detached from reality, to complete a set of empty theories in his books. As a result, China's political theory has long been integrated with realpolitik. Otherwise, why did the emperor and the prime minister have to divide power? Why do career trips have to be examined and examined? Why should we try to reduce land rent? Why should business capital be restrained? Why does national service not begin until the age of twenty-three? Therefore, if we want to study China's past political thought, we should pay attention to the past political system. China is by no means a country without a system, and behind every system, there must also be theories and ideas that have their own reasons.

There were several types of national service in the Han Dynasty. One is to go to the central government as a "guard" soldier, and the other is to go to the border counties as a "soldier" pawn. One is to serve in the military in the original place. Every citizen should have their turn in these three, except for the third, which begins at the age of twenty.

There were two central armies in the Han Dynasty: one was called the Southern Army and the other was the Northern Army. The Southern Army was the guard of the Imperial Palace, and the Northern Army was the garrison of the capital. At that time, the total number of troops in the North and South was less than 70,000. The strong men in various places take turns to be guards in the center for a year, and it is extremely preferential to be a guard, and the round-trip travel expenses are provided by the central government.

Being a soldier is different. All expenses must be borne by themselves. As for the time limit for the garrison, it was only three days. This is again the old habit of feudal times. In the feudal era, the country was small, and Fang Baili was considered a big country. If so, from the center to the frontier, the farthest is only fifty miles. To defend the frontier, it only takes half a day. If you are on the side for three days, you will be back in only five days. In the feudal era, it was not a hard job to defend the border, and it was enough to carry five days of dry food with you. After Qin Shi Huang unified the world, he didn't seem to notice this problem, and asked the common people to stay on the border for three days. From Huiji (Jiangsu) to Yuyang (Rehe), in the government, as long as you serve for three days, this is an old tradition. But the journey back and forth, it will take more than half a year, and you have to bring your own clothes and food, how troublesome is it? The world was unified, the state system changed, but Qin Shi Huang's border system did not change, perhaps the government was busy, and the army unified the six countries, and got carried away, did not pay attention to these small sections, but because of this, it caused a big social commotion. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's revolution began from this. Modern Chinese are good at saying that China's politics have not changed for 2,000 years. How can this be? As far as the border system is concerned, it changed as soon as it arrived in the Han Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, it was only three days, but you can not go, as long as you pay 100 yuan a day, 300 yuan in three days, and hand it over to the government, you can be exempted. If a hundred people do not go, they should be exempted from military service for 300 days, and if the government hires another person who is willing to go, he will be asked to serve 300 days of military service as soon as he goes. He also got this money, which was not only enough to spend on the sidelines, but also to keep a little home, which was a workaround. According to the theory, everyone should be on the border for three days, even the prime minister's son is not exempt. There was a prime minister in the Han Dynasty who really asked his son to go to the frontier in person, and he really served as a soldier for three days, which became a good story in history.

The magistrate of Han County has a taishou and a captain, just like the central government has a prime minister and a captain. Taishou is the magistrate and the local military leader of the Tsuwei clan. The local troops were under the command of the Governor. All the strong men have to gather for a drill every autumn, which is a big review, called the capital test, which lasts for one month. Return to your hometown at the end of the period. When the state has something to do, it is called on an ad hoc basis, which is a kind of national militia. Each locality also trains each branch of the army according to the geographical situation, such as chariots and cavalry (cavalry and chariot soldiers), building ships (sailors and navies), and timber officers (infantry).

In addition to military service, the country also has to serve as a force, which is a big problem that has always existed in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period up to the Qin and Han dynasties, and now we have turned it into a historical event to tell. Forced labor is the voluntary labor of each strong man for the state. It's as if we want to build airports and roads, so we need to call in migrant workers. Only in ancient times it was purely obligatory. The national strong men are compiled according to the register, each person works for one month a year, and works for the state on a voluntary basis, which is called to be a pawn in the Han Dynasty, and it is the meaning of changing turns. If this is the case, a peasant will have to serve as a guard at the central government and a soldier at the frontier, and he will also have to perform national military service at the local level. However, if you don't go to the practice (above), according to the regulations at that time, you can give 200 yuan to the government, and you can also replace it.

In addition to the three types of military service mentioned above and one type of forced service, every citizen is subject to a population tax, even for children. Speaking of which, there is a serious problem. At that time, the government did not provide a basis for the people to live, the land was not evenly distributed throughout the country, and it did not try to make all the people employed, but asked everyone to do their duty to the state. Anyone who fails to fulfill the duties set by the government is guilty of breaking the law. Those who broke the law had to be arrested, and some of them became official slaves and forced to do hard labor in the government yamen. So some people would rather sell themselves and become slaves to their own homes. At that time, slaves were also required to pay a population tax, which was doubled. But this is borne by the slave owner's family, and the slave does not do his own business. Therefore, there were many slaves in the Han Dynasty. If you are in the future generations, you can still be a beggar or a hooligan, and the government will not take care of it. But it was not allowed in the Han Dynasty. You have to be a conscript, you have to build airports and roads, you have to pay a population tax, your name and address are all on the government register, and if you don't go, you have to pay for it, and if you can't afford it, you are breaking the law. You are a beggar, your name is still on the household register, and you should still be responsible to the state. So he had no choice but to sell himself into slavery. At that time, being a slave was not a betrayal of his freedom, but a betrayal of his duty to the laws and regulations of the state. The government wanted to prohibit this trend, so it stipulated that the population tax on slaves and maids should be doubled. But the rich keep a large number of slaves, but they can make a lot of money. For example, burning charcoal in the mountains and mining mines all require a large amount of labor. Selling into slavery is like participating in this fortune group. Therefore, the life of slaves is better than that of ordinary households. This is explained in detail in the "Historical Records: The Biography of the Goods". This was the slavery system of the Han Dynasty. It was completely different from the serfs of the Roman Empire in the West. Most of the serfs in Rome were prisoners of war, and the slaves in the Han Dynasty were peasants who left the land to participate in large-scale industrial and commercial new production. How can it be compared?

In addition to the compulsory military service stipulated in the Han Dynasty, there were also volunteers in the people, who volunteered to serve in the army. If there is something going on in the country, you can sign up freely. This is called joining the army with a good family. Those are relatively wealthy families, especially those who live near the border, usually practice horseback riding and archery at home, hoping that the country will have something to do, sign up for the army, fight and make meritorious contributions, and can be an official and marquis, which is particularly popular in the border counties. For example, Li Guang's family in Longxi is an example.

5. Review of the Han Dynasty system

Let us briefly point out some of the shortcomings of the Han system. First of all, in the economic aspect, the land problem has not been resolved, and annexation has taken place, leaving the rich with land and the poor without a place to stand, with the result that the government's policy of reducing taxes and taxes has completely lost its effectiveness. When Wang Mang nationalized the land, this matter aroused the opposition of the majority of the society, and the result failed. However, Wang Mang's abolition of slavery continued to be inherited by the Eastern Han government. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were also repeated edicts to abolish slavery, but as long as the socio-economic situation remained unchanged, this edict would not be effective. Second, when it comes to the military system, although there are many people in China, although they train different branches of the army in different regions, one month of training every year is not enough. The Central North and South Guards, like a standing army, actually lasted only one year, and the amount was only seventy or eighty thousand. As a result, the whole country is full of soldiers, and it is not enough. In the event of a war, it is also inconvenient to dispatch from all over the country, such as Huiji Wu Chu, to go to Yuyang Shanggu. Therefore, in China, the number of troops is too large, and the training is too brief, and it is inconvenient to mobilize, and as a result, the whole country is full of soldiers, and it is in name only, and once a problem arises, it still cannot be solved. Speaking of government organization again, as mentioned above, the imperial power is separated, and the royal family and the government are also separated, which is not bad. But the unwritten law, which China seems to value, often runs into the biggest joints, but there are no strict and clear rules. This can also be said to be a strength, because it can adapt to the situation and has room for flexibility. But there are also disadvantages, when encountering a capable and ambitious emperor, he is so talented and happy, and he often has to encroach on the prime minister's power. Unlike modern Western countries, the emperor is private, no matter how good, constitutionally stipulates that it cannot intervene in the affairs of the prime minister. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was eloquent and strategic, and the prime minister had no power to retreat. The outer court Jiuqing directly listened to the instructions of the inner court. In this way, the power of the emperor's private secretary, Shangshu, was greater. When Emperor Wu of Han was dying, his crown prince had already died first, and he wanted to pass the throne to his youngest son Emperor Zhao, but he first executed Emperor Zhao's mother. He knew that the little emperor was young, and the queen mother was not good at managing things internally, but the royal family always needed someone to manage it. In the past, the royal family had to be managed by the prime minister, but Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty even took care of the affairs of the prime minister, where could the prime minister predict the affairs of the palace. So Emperor Wu was dying and sent a Huo Guang to be the assistant general of the Great Sima. This is the representative of the palace, Huo Guang is a royal relative and is qualified to represent the royal family. But according to reason, the prime minister has long been the representative of the palace, he should be the vice emperor, and now the emperor does not make the prime minister the representative of the imperial family, but sets up another general Sima in the palace to help the emperor, if so, it will become a prime minister outside, and there is a great general Sima inside, and the palace and the court are prone to conflict. At that time, one was called the outer court, and the other was called the inner court. Huo Guang, the great general of justice, was the leader of the inner court, and the outer court was still ruled by the prime minister. Later, Emperor Zhao died, and King Lichangyi became the emperor, and within a few days, he was deposed again and Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty was established. When it was abolished, Huo Guang, on behalf of the royal family, convened a meeting of Jiuqing. Some people say: The prime minister should be invited. Huo Guang said, this is the emperor's family matter, and there is no need for the leaders of the prime minister's government to participate, we only agree to ask the empress dowager to finish. Huo Guang's words, at first glance, seem to have his reasons. He regarded the succession to the throne as a private matter of the royal family, and the affairs of the royal family did not need to be foreheard by government leaders. He didn't know that the royal family existed, because there was an emperor, and the emperor existed because there was a government. Therefore, the succession to the throne is a matter for the government, not the royal family. This is not to force history with modern concepts, which was already the case at the time. Therefore, in the fourth year of Gao, there was an edict saying that the emperor had been ill for a long time and could not belong to the world, and ordered the ministers to discuss the replacement of the new emperor. Empress Lu was authoritarian and unscrupulous, and did not reason with the emperor not to ask the imperial court. After Huo Guang, in the first year of Yuanping, Emperor Zhao collapsed, and he also ordered the ministers to establish it. It can be seen that the emperor is hereditary, which is stipulated by the government's jurisprudence. In the event that the emperor has no heirs, and other changes, they should still be decided by public opinion in accordance with the government's opinion. But this is also an unwritten law, so Huo Guang was able to get his hands on it. Moreover, Huo Guangzong said that the government leaders did not need to hear about the emperor's affairs, and he still had to convene other government officials to discuss the proposal, which shows that Huo Guang was also cowardly and did not dare to go against the habits of the time. On another point, the original Shangshu was only the emperor's secretary of the inner court, and the inner court positions were subordinate to the imperial history Zhongcheng, and now the imperial family has another representative, Huo Guang is in charge of the emperor's secretariat in the name of the general Sima Da and the auxiliary government, he does not let the outside prime minister know about the imperial affairs, but he represents the royal family to inquire about government affairs, if so, the royal family is above the government, then it is not a big problem? Therefore, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty wanted to reduce the authority of the Huo family, so he restored the old system, and there was still the imperial history of the Cheng to manage the book, if so, the imperial history of the Cheng through the imperial history of the doctor, and to reach the prime minister, the inner court and the outer court and the voice of the voice, the great Sima General will have no weight. The Huo family also collapsed. In this section, it can be seen that the Han Dynasty system did have some deliberation between the emperor and the prime minister, the royal family and the government. Although there is no hard and fast rule that the emperor is absolutely not allowed to hear a word about politics, this is not a big mistake. And if the emperor never hears about the government, then the appointment of the prime minister will be in question. It is a historical fact that there can be no democratically elected emperor, and there can be no parliament representing the will of the people to supervise the government for a while. This is limited by historical conditions, and it is not the intention of one or two emperors to do so. As a result, there were many delicate relationships between the royal family and the government, between the emperor and the prime minister. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty himself is eloquent, he takes power by himself, it doesn't matter much, he died, he had to think about his descendants of the little emperor, so a great general Sima came to assist the government, and there was a problem. Under Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, although the Huo family was defeated, the result was still the foreign relatives of the great Sima General and the auxiliary government, or the power of the inner court, and the power of the outer dynasty was light, so Wang Mang prospered on behalf of the Han Dynasty. Wang Mang was held by the great general Sima. To Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he was punished for losing his previous life, because he was afraid that the power would fall, and he was close to his own affairs, so the status of Shangshu was getting worse and worse. The prime ministers of the foreign dynasties were divided into three departments. Originally, the three princes were the prime minister, the imperial lieutenant, and the imperial doctor, but the actual prime minister was the head of the country. Later, because of the intervention of the great general Sima, the three princes were turned into three positions: the great Situ, the great Sima, and the great Sikong, and one public manager led three secretaries. In the Western Han Dynasty, he wanted to use this reform to reconcile the conflict between the Great Sima and the Prime Minister, but in this way, the Great Sikong completely became a foreign court official, and the Great Sima still represented the royal family. In the past, the imperial historian was in charge of the court, but now the great priest is not in charge of the court. Not only is it a dereliction of duty for the prime minister to change the big Situ, but it is also a dereliction of duty for the imperial historian to change the big Situ, and the weight is still in the hands of the big Sima. This is also due to the lack of clarity between the royal and government powers. The so-called Imperial Historical Observatory in the current government of China followed this trend and gradually retreated from the imperial palace to the government. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu's selfish intentions simply put the power in his own hands, and the three dukes were just noble in name, and the real power was in Shangshu. In other words, it is up to the emperor to do it. Therefore, the Chinese of later generations criticized Emperor Guangwu for having nothing to do, which is a historical opinion in the past. Han Guangwu himself is a good emperor, Emperor Ming, and Emperor Zhang are all good, but they are only good in personnel and have not established a good system. Therefore, the emperor is good, and things are done well. The emperor was broken, and there was no system to control the emperor politically, which was a big problem in the political system of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It will also be a major issue in the history of China's political system in the future.

Elections in the Han Dynasty also had problems. According to the original system of the Han Dynasty, during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, only the local governors were required to elect some filial sons and honest officials every year, which has already been said. But then filial piety filled the official career, and other ways to enter the official career were blocked, so everyone competed to be filial piety. Originally, the so-called filial piety and honesty, one is filial piety, the other is honest officials, and later it was stipulated that each county with 200,000 households can only cite one, if so, filial piety and honesty are not distinguished, and one is only qualified to participate in politics and enter the city. Later, because of fraud, the imperial court was forced to take another exam after inspecting filial piety, and if so, the original intention of inspecting filial piety was lost. But the Chinese regime has opened up to all parts of the country. From then on, both elections and examinations were divided into quotas. Economically and culturally backward areas and economically and culturally progressive areas are equally selected according to the proportion of their population. Therefore, in the central government, there will always be the participation of the people of all regions of the country, so that there will be no preference for glory and disadvantage. Therefore, the Chinese government has always represented the whole country, and the people of the whole country have the hope of running into the government. And in fact, there are always people from all over the country who run into the central government. In addition, the Han system of county magistrates, for example, must avoid the use of their own county people, if so, the central government is the absolute representative of the whole country, and the local government tries to prevent it from becoming local. In this way, the situation of great unification began, and it was maintained forever. However, all parts of the country have the same voice and religion and the atmosphere shifts from each other, but the cultural and economic standards of all localities can always move towards harmony and averageness, and will not be isolated or separated. This system has been used since the Han Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. This is one of the most important points in China's traditional political system. However, what I want to discuss now is whether the electoral system of the Han Dynasty is in line with the so-called modern idea of civil rights. First, in the Han Dynasty, the power of the inspection was vested in the local governor, not in the local people. The chief and virtuous must interview public opinion and select real talents. However, if the chief engages in personal fraud, he can disregard the local public opinion and elect a private person. Second, the election was sent to the central government, and how to distribute it was subject to the orders of the central government. Later, the selected people were examined. In this way, isn't it true that the suffrage of the Han Dynasty was completely controlled by the top and not the bottom? Moreover, in the Han Dynasty election, in general, the first thing to do was to go to school to study, and then to be replaced. After the replacement, he was probationed. This is the stage of education and administrative practice, election by administrative practice, election by election, and appointment by examination. However, there are still problems. Because of the ancient society, the opportunity to read was not easy to get. The first is that books are not easy to obtain, and ancient books are written on bamboo silk, with little paper and no printing. The great contribution of printing technology to the spread and evolution of human culture should be far greater than that of the atomic bomb, which was newly invented in modern times. This is the greatest invention of mankind in the world, although this invention began in China, but it was not until the Tang and Song dynasties that printing began. Ancient books must be copied, and a piece of bamboo can only write about 20 characters. Copying a book costs a lot. Silk is a silk fabric, and its value is more knowable. And if you want to copy a book, you have to travel thousands of miles to find a teacher. Therefore, there are huge restrictions on studying and studying. But if you were born into a family of students, all the difficulties will be easily solved. Therefore, although it was not a feudal society at that time, the title was not hereditary, but the book could be hereditary. Although it is not a generational hairpin, it is a generational scripture. After generations of learning, you can run into the political circle from generation to generation, and it is tantamount to a feudal aristocracy. At that time, the political system did not allow society to become rich and poor, and allowed industry and commerce to become capitalist. But knowledge and books have become a kind of capital in disguise. Therefore, it is better to say that gold is full of wins, and it is better to leave a child. This is the capital value of a book, better than the capital value of a basket of gold. Therefore, at that time, a family of scholars could easily become a family of officials, and at the same time, it was a rich and powerful family. At that time, there was a so-called family background of 2,000 stones. As long as there is an official in the family who has achieved 2,000 stones, he can be the governor of a county, and he has the right to be punished. If he has been the chief keeper of several counties, he will have traveled all over the world, and those who have been inspected by him in various places will be his protégés and former officials, and in the future, he will be politically proud, at least he will repay some personal favors to his original lord, and if anyone comes to his county to be a taishou, he will certainly also be inspected by his descendants. Therefore, if the children and grandchildren of those who have been examined are examined, it is possible that they will be easily examined. As mentioned above, the election in the Han Dynasty was limited by county, and each county only had a few quotas, so it always fell on a few families. If so, there must be several decent families in each county, which will lead to the so-called family family in the future, that is, the family family will inevitably have the origin of the county. At that time, the gate was still evenly distributed throughout the country, probably a few prestigious in each county, and I have no name, and the name is called the door society. It's not a feudal society, it's not a capitalist society, but there are inequalities. Although it is not a feudal aristocracy, there are scholarly aristocrats. Although it is not industrial and commercial capital, there is book capital. Although the political system of the country does not grant hereditary privileges to those families, they are tantamount to hereditary privileges because they have a family to rely on. The main cause of the Chinese Wei and Jin dynasties can be traced back to the Han Dynasty's inspection system. However, in terms of the original intent of the Han Dynasty's inspection system, it is really not a bad system. But as time went on, the system deteriorated. This is not only the case with the electoral system of the Han Dynasty, but we can say that it must be true of all systems in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad. Otherwise, if a good system can continue to be good forever, it will suffocate politics, and there will be no need for future generations to work politics. Only if all its systems will not be permanently better, will we continue to work hard and improve our politics permanently. The system is only one of the historical matters, and there is no one that has remained unchanged for a hundred years in the entire history of mankind, so how can a system be considered a good system after one or two hundred years?

Let's look at the system of the Han Dynasty, where they divided the government into the royal family, and put the prime minister and the emperor side by side, which is not easy to say that it is all due to the selfishness of the emperor, and it cannot be blamed for their inadequate arrangement. When we know that any system will never be perfect, let alone flawless. At least they understand that there is power outside the imperial power, at least they understand that there is a government outside the royal family. When it comes to the electoral system, at least they have understood that the government should have an objective standard for appointing people, and it cannot be based solely on the selfish likes and dislikes of those above. At least they have understood this criterion, and it should not be a blood relationship, and it should not be a matter of power. The adoption of a criterion based on the results of education, knowledge and administrative practice, and knowing how to distribute them evenly to all regions of the country cannot but be considered rationalized at that time, enlightened and progressive. As for economic policy, it is not dark or unreasonable to advocate "permissive and false common people" on the one hand, and to curb wealth and bring about equality on the other. As for the evolution since then, there have been problems in the organization of government, in the electoral system, and in economic policy. The relationship between the royal family and the government eventually clashed; The electoral system, in the end, created a new aristocracy; The economic system and the military service system have not been done well, and there is something wrong with them. But we can't erase it because of this, saying that there was no system in the Han Dynasty, or that all systems are just **** and darkness, which is what we must say again and again. At this time, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties never had a decent government, so there was no decent system, until the Tang Dynasty. But the Tang Dynasty is no longer the old Han Dynasty, the old system, and he has changed to a new set. I knew that the new system of the Tang Dynasty had something wrong again, and the Song Dynasty changed it again. This is the case in the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. It's just that we don't value history at the moment and don't study history, so China's politics since the Qin Dynasty and the next 2,000 years are the same, and they are just ****, but in fact, it is not.

Lecture 2: Tang Dynasty

1. Tang Dynasty government organizations

A. Comparison of the power of the Han and Tang dynasties

The Han and Tang dynasties are the two dynasties that best represent China in history, and the last time we talked about the Han Dynasty system, we will continue to talk about the Tang Dynasty. Let's talk about the government of the Tang Dynasty first: the division between the government and the royal family has been the same since the Han Dynasty. However, as far as the royal family is concerned, the hereditary law of the throne will never change much, but the change of dynasties, the Liu family has replaced the Li family, and this is not important. But as far as the government is concerned, much has changed. The most important thing in government is "relative power", and because of the change of relative power, all systems will also change with it. The difference between the government of the Tang Dynasty and the Han Dynasty is that in today's terms, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty adopted a leader system, while the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty adopted a committee system. In other words, in the Han Dynasty, the prime minister held the administrative power of the whole country by a single person, while in the Tang Dynasty, the power of the prime minister was divided into several departments, and many people were jointly responsible, and everything was decided by the meeting of each department. The Han Dynasty had only one prime minister, but when the government had major political affairs, there were often large councils, which were meetings of the emperor, prime ministers, and other courtiers. In the Tang Dynasty, the power was divided into several organs, which were to be decided by the Changchuan Council to decide all the supreme decrees of the government. Under the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, there was a deputy prime minister, the imperial historian, we can also say that the prime minister held the administrative power, and the imperial historian held the supervisory power. The prime minister of the Tang Dynasty had a total of three yamen, which were called three provinces at that time: one Zhongshu Province, two lower provinces, and three Shangshu provinces. The convergence of the functions and powers of these three provinces is equivalent to the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, and the supervisory power is not included.

The head of Zhongshu Province is Zhongshu Ling, the governor of Menxia Province is Shizhong, and the governor of Shangshu Province is Shangshu Ling. The Tang Dynasty is divided into nine ranks, the first and second rank officials, all of whom are veterans and do not bear actual administrative responsibility. If the third grade is below, it is the actual responsible official. Zhongshu Ling's subordinates and Shangshu Ling's servants are all three-grade officials. If we talk about the origin of these three provinces, Shang Shuben was the secretary of the imperial court, and he had already talked about the system of the Han Dynasty. Zhongshu is based on the official name, which means to manage documents in the inner court. Shizhong is to serve the emperor in the palace. Therefore, in the name of official positions, these three officials were originally all internal court officials. In the Tang Dynasty, it was all changed from an inner court official to a ruling chief of the outer court, which was completely different from before. In fact, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the prime minister was only a retainer of the feudal aristocracy, but in the Qin and Han dynasties, he turned private into public and became the consul of the formal government. After that, the prime minister was derelict in his duties, but there was another group of private ministers of the emperor's inner court who became official consuls, such as the three provinces of the Tang Dynasty. What is dereliction of duty? Because of the power of the prime minister, he should have led the government and ruled the whole country, but later this power was taken away by the emperor, and the emperor put their private subordinates like the Shangshu of Zhongshu to act as the prime minister of the government, which was a matter of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties era after the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was only now in the Tang Dynasty that the powers of the former prime minister were officially assigned to the three provinces. In other words, the power abused by the royal family in the past is returned to the government.

B. The distribution of functions and powers among the three provinces of the central government in the Tang Dynasty

Now let's talk about the distribution of the functions and powers of the three provinces under the Zhongshu Gate: the Zhongshu Lord issued an order. All the supreme orders of the government are issued by the Ministry of Central Books. This supreme order, nominally an edict of the emperor, was called "edict" in the Tang Dynasty. All supreme orders for important political affairs must be issued by the emperor. But in fact, the emperor himself did not intend to "edict", but was formulated by the Zhongshu Province, which is the so-called "decree and order". In Zhongshu Province, in addition to Zhongshu Ling as the chief official, there is a deputy governor "Zhongshu Shilang". Under the Zhongshu Shilang, there are also "Zhongshu Sheren", with as many as seven or eight people. The official position of the Zhongshu Sheren is not high, but they have the right to write edicts. In the event of a letter issuing an order, most of them drafted it. The traditional concept of Chinese politics is that the choice of one opinion does not depend on the majority, such as the so-called democratic spirit in the West. The Chinese tradition, on the other hand, often depends on the sages. In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a saying that "the virtuous are all in the crowd" (see "Zuo Chuan"). Whoever is virtuous will adopt the opinion of the other, and if both sides are virtuous, then it will depend on the majority. Virtuous is quality, all are quantity, and traditional Chinese emphasis is on quality rather than quantity. The Chinese believe that as long as they are sages, they can represent the majority. It is insignificant not to be virtuous but to rely only on quantity. This concept is reflected in the electoral system of the Han Dynasty, which is extremely obvious. Therefore, the right to vote in the state is not entrusted to the general public, but is exercised by the local governors. It stands to reason that local governors should be selected on their own merits. He is not only a virtuous officer, but he can also absorb public opinion and select real talents for the country. This is the theory. Whether the facts are not entirely theoretical, is another matter. That is, as in the Tang system, the draft of the Chinese scholar was also drafted by the people of each house, which is called "five flower judgments". Then, the Zhongshu Ling or Zhongshu Shilang selected one of the many first drafts, or added and repaired them, and became an official edict, and then submitted to the emperor to draw an edict. After the edict was drawn, it became an order of the emperor, and then it reached the lower province of the gate. Therefore, the power of the Tang Dynasty government to make orders is exercised in Zhongshu Province. The emperor only agreed to draw the edict. After receiving this edict, the governor and the deputy governor of the province will be reviewed, which is a re-examination of this order. Under the provincial servants, there are a number of third-level officials, which are called "giving things". The official position in the matter is not high, but the emperor's edict must also participate in the opinion. If the province of Menxia objected to the edict, it would return the original edict with annotations, which was called "Tugui". The intention is to send the original edict back to the Chinese book province for redrafting. Tugui is also known as "refutation", "refuting", "refuting", etc., and its meaning is slightly the same. The right to confuse and refute belongs to the provinces. In today's idiomatic parlance, the province is in charge of a kind of countersign. Every order must be countersigned by the subordinate province in order to have formal effect. If the province does not agree to countersign, the order cannot be issued. After the completion of the review procedures under the decree of the edict of the Chinese book, it will be sent to the province of Shangshu for execution. Shangshu Province only has the power to carry out orders, but does not have the right to intervene in decision-making orders.

C. The Government Affairs Hall, the highest organ of the Central Committee

This kind of system is also quite troublesome. If the Zhongshu Province prepares an order and sends it to the Menxia Province, if the Menxia Province opposes it, it will be returned and sealed, and if so, the order will be in vain, that is, the emperor's "painting edict" will also be invalid. Therefore, when the Tang system met the edict, it first held a joint meeting by Menxia Province and Zhongshu Province, and the meeting place was called "Political Affairs Hall". Originally, it was often held in Menxia Province, but later it was changed to Zhongshu Province. At the meeting, the governors of the two provinces and the chamberlain of Zhongshu were present. If the governor of Shangshu does not attend the meeting of the government hall, he will be ordered to make a decision without being heard in advance. Therefore, in the eyes of the Tang people, the real prime minister was called the real prime minister under the door of the book. Before Tang Taizong ascended to the pole, he had made a Shangshu order, that is, Taizong ascended the throne, and the courtiers did not dare to take the post of Shangshu Ling, so the Shangshu Provincial Governor Shangshu Ling was often vacant. There were only two lieutenants, namely Shangshu's left servant and the right servant. If the left and right servants of Shangshu have both titles, such as "Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi", and "Consult the Machine", etc., they can attend the meeting of the political hall and obtain the status of the real prime minister. First of all, Shang Shu and servants were attached to this title, so the three provinces were all real prime ministers. But after the Kaiyuan Dynasty, that is, Shangshu Servant Shot no longer has the title of attending the political hall. If so, they only have the power to execute the order, but not to issue the order and participate in the decision-making of the order. They are not in charge of the highest authority of the government, and therefore they are not considered to be prime ministers. However, in addition to the governors of the three provinces, there were also other lower-level officials in the Tang system who were entitled to attaching the titles of Governor of the Machinery or the same as the Sanpin Ping Zhangshi, if so, this person also had to participate in the meeting of the political affairs hall. For example, in the present cabinet, ministers who do not care about ministries and members of the Executive Yuan who do not belong to ministries can attend government councils and foresee major decisions of the state, even though they are not the chief officials in charge of a certain ministry. Such a person must be a person who, though in a low official position, has long been disappointed in the hope of the times, shall be added to this office. At that time, Shangshu Province was slightly equal to the current Executive Yuan. Because he is only in charge of administration, and does not care about orders. The highest body of government is in the government hall. All orders of the emperor, under the edict, must be stamped with the "seal under the door of the Chinese book", that is, it must be formally approved by the meeting of the political hall, and then sent to the province of Shangshu for implementation. If the order issued directly by the emperor was not stamped with the "seal of the Chinese book", it was considered illegal at the time and could not be recognized by the authorities at all levels. Therefore, it is said that "without going through Fengge Luantai, how can it be an edict" (Wu Zetian of Zhongshu Province was renamed Fengge, and Wu Zetian of Menxia Province was renamed Luantai), which is still to say that all the emperor's edicts must go through the two provinces of Zhongshu Menxia. In fact, the emperor's edict was originally drafted by the Chinese book.

However, there is still a big loophole in China's traditional politics. In the Tang Dynasty, there was no rule that the emperor should never issue an edict without going through the Zhongshu Sect. This is a kind of accommodation under China's traditional political system. Often, every system has room for flexibility in its activities, and it is unwilling to kill the regulations and cut off the system. Thus, the Chinese emperor was not forced to guillotine, as the British emperor did, or restricted from all kinds of activities. In fact, in the Tang Dynasty, there were indeed orders given by the emperor without going through the Zhongshu Sect. What is the edict without going through Fengge Luantai, this is the words of Liuyizhi's criticism of Wu Zetian, and Liu Yizhi was killed because of this. Tang Zhongzong, who was below Wu Zetian, also proclaimed himself an official position without going through the two provinces. But Zhongzong was cowardly and felt embarrassed, so he installed the seal bag of the edict, and did not dare to seal the hair as usual, but used the oblique seal instead. The word "edict" in the book did not dare to use a red pen, but used an ink pen instead. At that time, it was called "oblique sealing ink". This means that this order has not been approved by the two provinces under the Zhongshu Gate, but has to be recognized by the downward authorities. At that time, it was considered a thing worthy of special mention, so it was handed down in history. At that time, the officials privately sealed by Tang Zhongzong were called "oblique officials" at the time, and they were looked down upon by ordinary people because they did not have formal sealing procedures. According to this example, we know that traditional Chinese politics is not entirely by the emperor, and it cannot be said that the Chinese can never control the concept. However, it is also true that all the legal systems stipulated in China's political history are sometimes not strictly observed. But strictly speaking, such things are nonsense and should not be used as a discipline. Just because the trouble is not big, the emperor only seals a few small official positions in private, and it will not have a big impact. Until the Song Dynasty, when Taizu Zhao Kuangyin founded the country as the emperor, the second year of Jiande, coincided with the three prime ministers went to office one after another, Taizu wanted to send Zhao Pu as the prime minister, but the emperor's edict must be countersigned by the prime minister. Song Taizu convened a meeting of ministers to discuss the method, at that time someone said: "The emperor of the Tang Dynasty once issued an edict without the prime minister's countersignature, this in the Ganlu Incident, when the former prime minister was dead, the emperor temporarily sent the prime minister, that is, by the Shang Shufu to shoot the governor of the political affairs stamp, now can be handled in this way", at the same time, some people objected, saying that "the Tang Dynasty Ganlu Incident, although this method was used, but it is an expedient way to change in times of chaos." Today's Song Shengping should not adopt this method. "If it was discussed again, it was decided that it would be signed and sealed by the Kaifeng Prefecture at that time. At that time, the Song capital Kaifeng, Kaifeng Mansion Yin was equal to the mayor of Nanjing when the National Government established the capital of Nanjing, and it happened that Kaifeng Mansion Yin was Zhao Kuangyi, the brother of Song Taizu, and later Song Taizong; This is the completion of the legal formalities for this edict. According to this point of view, China's past politics cannot be said to be absolutely separate from the imperial power, and everything is left to the emperor. Even if we want to say that it is ****, we can't help but think that it is still a more reasonable and enlightened ****. It also has its own system and laws, and it is not entirely up to the will of the emperor to decide everything. We should now pay attention to all its more detailed systems, but we don't have to argue exclusively on the words **** and democracy.

Besides, in the Tang Dynasty, there were more than a dozen people who participated in the meetings of the political hall in the lower provinces of Zhongshumen, and at least there were only two people, namely Zhongshu Ling and Menxia Shizhong. Meetings are held with a chairperson called a "pen". The results of the discussions, which he recorded in a comprehensive manner, are equal to the current secretary. The chairmanship rotates. Sometimes one person takes a turn of ten days, sometimes one person takes a turn of one day. Everyone's opinions are not only recorded by him, but also the final text is decided by him. This is the position of prime minister in the Tang Dynasty, in the use of the chief in the committee system to replace the leader system of a kind of application and arrangement.

Ding, Shangshu Province and the Six Ministries

All the supreme decrees of the state, as soon as they are decided by the Council of Ministers, are sent to the province of Shangshu, which is the highest and largest administrative body in the government. Shangshu Province is divided into six departments, namely the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Industry. This six-part system lasted for more than 1,000 years from the Tang Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, although the order of the six ministries was sometimes slightly changed. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, it was the criminal work of the soldiers and the people (household department), and the Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was changed to the criminal work of the soldiers (households), and the order of the early years of the Song Dynasty was the criminal work of the soldiers and the people (households), and the Song Dynasty Shenzong Wang Anshi changed the law, followed by the order of the soldiers and the criminal workers, and this order was followed later. Officials must first pass an examination to appoint officials in charge of personnel and appointments. Officials above the fifth rank shall be decided by the prime minister, but the officials may nominate them. For officials below the fifth grade, the prime minister does not ask, and all are appointed by the officials in accordance with the law. The household department is in charge of civil affairs and household registration, the officials department is in charge of religious and educational matters, the military department is in charge of the military, the criminal department is in charge of justice, and the Ministry of Industry is in charge of construction. If it is compared to the Jiuqing of the Han Dynasty, this cannot but be said to be a great progress. Jiuqing in the Han Dynasty was like Guangluxun, and in terms of the original meaning of the official name, it was equivalent to the emperor's porter, and he did not get rid of the smell of private office in the court. In the Tang Dynasty, it was called the Ministry of Officials, in charge of personnel, and the name was appropriate. Another example is that the Han Dynasty was in charge of the military as "Wei Wei", Wei still said to the court, and the Tang Dynasty was called the military department, and the name of the post was correct. Tai Changqing said in name, but also in the royal private sacrifice, the Tang Dynasty changed to the Ministry of Rites, and it was determined to be a political official. If we only talk about the reform of official names in the Han and Tang dynasties, we can see the great progress in political consciousness in China's political history. The Jiuqing of the Han Dynasty, in terms of name, was only a domestic official who handled the affairs of the imperial court, and the Tang Dynasty officially had six Shangshu, which obviously became the institution that managed the state affairs, unlike the Han Dynasty, which was only like the emperor's attendants. This is a great progress in China's political history, both in terms of system and concept.

Shangshu Province was the largest institution of the central government in the Tang Dynasty, and its architecture was also quite large. The name of the general office is "Dutang", and the two sides are left and right, with three departments of household rites on the left and three departments of military and criminal work on the right. Led by the left and right servants. There are four divisions in each part, and there are twenty-four divisions in six departments. The first division of each department is the division, such as the first division of the ministry is the division of the department. The remaining divisions have their own names. The heads of all departments in Shangshu Province work collectively in the capital in the morning, which is easy to negotiate in case of trouble, and in the afternoon, they are assigned to the headquarters to work separately. If you have the title of "Participating in the Aircraft Maintenance" or "Tongping Zhangshi", you can go to the government hall to attend the highest political meeting. Those who do not have such a title will work exclusively in the province. The famous masterpiece of the Tang Dynasty, "Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty", is named after the organization, employment, and job distribution of the six departments in the province of Shangshu. The book set out in detail the political power and personnel distribution of government departments and organizations at that time. This book became a great book of administrative regulations in Chinese history, and since then, all generations of the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties have attached importance to this valuable code of law and regarded it as a guideline. For more than 1,000 years, the state has carried out administrative affairs, and generally this book has been used as a model, with little change. Since then, the central government has changed only in the part of the orders issued by Zhongshumen, and there has never been a major change in the six-part system of Shangshu Province that implements the orders. This book "Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty", which was compiled in accordance with the current laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty during the reign of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, can be said to be the specific facts and current system at that time, which are different from the ideals and hopes. There are two famous works on the political system in Chinese history, also known as "Zhou Li", one is "Tang Liudian". The preceding book was a utopia of people in the pre-Qin period of China, and it was purely a description of the organization of an ideal government. It can also be described as an ideal constitution. What is most important is the complete institutionalization of political ideals, without the slightest trace of theory, and can only be seen as a concrete and rigorous objective record. When we read this book, we can imagine that the political genius of the ancient Chinese people was especially able to arrange everything into concrete facts without falling into empty rhetoric and fantasy. Therefore, although "Zhou Li" is not a history book, it cannot be regarded as an institutional history of the pre-Qin era in general, but it is actually a book of theoretical thoughts, and should be an important material for telling the political thought of the pre-Qin period. As for the Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty, it was indeed the actual administrative regulation of the Tang Dynasty and was truly followed by the Tang Dynasty government. Although it is idealistic, it has become a fact. The evolution from the "Zhou Li" to the "Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty" can also be regarded as a great progress in China's political history. However, when we talk about the Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty, we should not only regard it as a historical book, a book that records the actual system of the Tang Dynasty, but also as a book of theory and thought. Because the Tang Dynasty's various theories and ideas on politics have been concretized and institutionalized in most of this book. Behind the system, there should be theories and ideas. All systems will never arise out of thin air. If we ignore China's past actual political system, it is absolutely useless to talk about the political thinking of the Chinese in the past.

E. Local government of the Tang Dynasty

The central government of the Tang Dynasty mentioned above, and now we continue to talk about local governments. The organization of the central government in the Tang Dynasty seems to be more advanced than that of the Han Dynasty, but in terms of local government, the Tang Dynasty seems to be inferior to the Han Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty has gradually advanced to the point of centralization, and gradually the internal emphasis is light on the outside. The central ministers were more presentable than the Han Dynasty, but the local governors were worse than the Han Dynasty. In the history of China, the most decent local administration should be the Han Dynasty. The lowest level of local administration in the Tang Dynasty was the county, as in the Han Dynasty. At the time of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, there were 1,573 counties in the country, more than 200 more than in the Han Dynasty. The county level and above are "states", and the "states" of the Tang Dynasty and the "counties" of the Han Dynasty are equal. The state set up a history of assassination, and in the Han Dynasty, he was the first to be a supervisor, and the Tang Dynasty was a senior local administrative head. The Tang Dynasty had 358 prefectures, more than twice as many as the Han Dynasty. Tang "counties" are divided into upper, middle and lower grades, with more than 6,000 households being upper counties, more than 3,000 households below 6,000 being middle counties, and less than 3,000 households being lower counties. Han County is only divided into two levels, and more than 10,000 households are large counties, and their governors call them orders. Below 10,000 households are second-class counties, and their prefects are called chiefs. It can be seen that the county of the Tang Dynasty was smaller than that of Han County. The states of the Tang Dynasty were also divided into upper, middle and lower levels, with more than 100,000 households being Shangzhou, more than 20,000 households being Zhongzhou, and less than 20,000 households being Xiazhou. This is a farther difference than Zhuhan County. There are not many people with more than one million household registrations in Han County, which shows that the proportion of power of the local governors in the Tang Dynasty is far inferior to that of the Han Dynasty.

The second is the subordinate of the local governor. In the Han Dynasty, the county magistrate appointed the county magistrate himself, and in the Tang Dynasty, the power of appointment was concentrated in the central ministry. Governors of prefectures and counties do not have the right to appoint subordinates, and all of them are distributed by the central government. Those who served as magistrates, because of their low status, had to hope for promotion, and each had the heart of the five-day Jingzhao. The government was only able to reward magistrates with promotions, so the prefectures and counties were graded at multiple levels, from the bottom to the middle, from the middle to the top, and several levels were promoted, but if they were not promoted. Unlike the Han Dynasty, the official ranks were not far apart, and the promotion was also flexible. From the county order to the county guard, it is 2,000 stones, and the central government is invited to the same status. The Han system is evaluated once every three years, and the three examinations are determined to be deposed, because of the small number of classes and superior promotion opportunities, so they can be in their positions, and the personnel changes are not large, and the administrative efficiency is also improved. In the Tang Dynasty, although the transfer was fast, the subordinates would always sink to the subordinates, and they would not be promoted to the superiors easily. As a result, the official products are gradually cleared up, which greatly affects the actual effectiveness of the administration.

F, the observer and the knot

When it comes to local administration, it is necessary to mention the monitoring system. The prime minister of the Han Dynasty was the supreme head of the government, and the deputy prime minister was the imperial historian, who was in charge of supervision. The Imperial Historian's powers were not only to supervise the central and local governments, but also to supervise the imperial palace, as mentioned in the Han system. In the Tang Dynasty, the Imperial Historical Observatory was set up, the so-called three provinces, six ministries and one department, and the Imperial Historical Observatory became an independent institution and did not belong to the three provinces. In other words, the supervisory power is independent from the relative power. This is the difference between the supervision system of the Tang Dynasty and the Han Dynasty. After Emperor Zhongzong of the Tang Dynasty, the Imperial History Observatory was divided into left and right imperial histories, the left imperial history supervised the central government of the imperial court, and the right imperial history supervised the local governments of prefectures and counties, which is the so-called "sub-inspection" and "sub-inspection". Those who supervise the central government are called "sub-inspections", and those who supervise the localities are called "sub-inspections". The most important thing for the central government is to supervise the six provinces of Shangshu, and the two provinces under the Zhongshu sect are not included in the supervision. During the time of Tang Dezong, there were six departments of Shangshu, and one person was set up for each of the two departments of the military and industrial households, which was called a separate inspection. The sub-patrol is divided into ten provinces in the country, and the imperial history sent to supervise is called the supervision envoy, and then the patrol is called the inspection according to the inspection, and finally called the observation envoy, which means to observe the local administration. In the Han system, this matter stipulates six inspections, and the general scope is not allowed to go beyond the six articles. In the Tang Dynasty, nominally he was still an inspector and an observer, obviously a central official, sent to various regions to inspect and observe, but in fact, Changchuan stopped at the local level and became a higher local governor. The local administration is in the hands of the magistrate, and its status is higher than that of the original magistrate. For example, in the current system, the Ministry of Education has sent inspectors to inspect certain universities, and the status of these inspectors is no better than that of university presidents. His duties consisted only in inspecting designated projects within the University. But this was not the case in the Tang Dynasty. It is as if the Ministry of Education has sent inspectors to stop and stop, while the presidents of all the universities in the region are under his command, and he can directly direct the internal administration of the universities, and the presidents of the universities bow down to their orders. This system is tantamount to reducing the status of the presidents of universities. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty Supervision Envoy, on its origin, was a royal historian, and belonged to the post of supervision. But it gradually evolved into the highest level of local governors. Suppress the prefectural magistrates below. If so, the local administration, which was originally only two-level, has since become three-level. However, the highest level of power is not properly named, and it is not in accordance with its words, so it forms a kind of centralized power, which is extremely harmful to local administration. If this supervision makes him inspect the frontier and stop at the important border defense areas, the central government wants him to deal with local affairs as appropriate, and temporarily have full authority over them. The festival is a kind of full-authority seal at that time, and those who receive this full-authority seal can be dispatched with full authority, so it is called the festival degree. In its territory, the Jiedu envoy could command the military, manage the finances, and even the power of the region's employment was also controlled by the Jiedu, so it became a "feudal town". Moreover, the Tang Dynasty's frontier festival envoys gradually promoted martial artists, so a kind of military division was formed. It was originally intended to centralize power, but the evolution was extreme, but it became a big tail. The state pastor in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was already like this, and the Tang Dynasty made the same mistake. The Anshi Rebellion arose from this. After the Anshi Rebellion, this kind of separatist situation became even stronger and firmer. First of all, he wanted to centralize power, and the central government sent officials outside to deprive the local officials of their powers. As a result, the plenipotentiary officials sent by the central government, after depriving them of local powers, turned back to rebel against the central government, and finally eliminated the Tang Dynasty. This is similar to the situation in the later Qing Dynasty. The highest local governor in the Qing Dynasty was originally a political envoy, just like the current provincial chairman. The governor of the Qing Dynasty was supposed to be in charge of the military temporarily, just like the ministers. However, as a result, they were stationed in the localities for a long time, and their power was pressed on the political envoys, resulting in centralized power and no power in the localities. However, the governor of the later generation was not subject to the control of the central government, and the central government was dissolved. This is a major regulation in China's political history on the separation and integration of internal and external political powers. In short, China is a large country with a vast land and many people, and it must be unified, and it is not appropriate to overly centralize power. This is a major issue in China's politics that deserves to be tackled with caution. Now speaking specifically about the Tang Dynasty, it seems that its central administration was more advanced than that of the Han Dynasty, while the local administration was not as good as that of the Han Dynasty. The transformation of the central ombudsman into a magistrate is a major drawback. It is even more problematic for the head of the army to be the head of the local administration. The collapse of the Tang dynasty can also be said to be the collapse of this system.

2. The examination system of the Tang Dynasty

A. The nine-product Zhongzheng system of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties eras

We talked about the electoral system in the Han Dynasty, and by the Tang Dynasty, this system had actually been completely replaced by the examination system. When it comes to the original meaning of the word exam, the test refers to the performance appraisal, and the test refers to the trial. As far back as the late Warring States period, there were already a large number of ancient Chinese utopians, advocating the selection of merit and ability, and advocating the examination and examination of courses, with the intention of stipulating an objective standard for the government to employ personnel. The Han Dynasty electoral system was advocated from this. The election of the Tang Dynasty actually evolved from the election system of the Han Dynasty, and we call it the examination system at the moment.

In the Han Dynasty, after the township was selected, and then the central government conducted an examination. The first is the countermeasure, and the countermeasure is just to solicit opinions. It was not until the late Eastern Han Dynasty that Zuo Xiong was a scholar, and there was no formal examination. At that time, the examination was only one part of the electoral system. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was in turmoil, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty fled, the central government lost contact, all systems were disordered, and the system of township selection could not be implemented. As a result, there was no standard for the use of personnel in the imperial court, especially the abuse of personnel by martial artists in the ranks and the failure to follow the system. Cao Cao took Chen Qun as the secretary, and took charge of the personnel of the department, and Chen Qun founded the nine-product Zhongzheng system. In general, those who served in the central government at that time and had high moral and famous names were elected by each state and county. From the big middle to the bottom of the small middle positive. Then the central government distributes a kind of talent survey form, in this form, the talent is divided into nine grades, upper, upper, middle and lower, middle and lower, and lower and lower. Let all localities be upright, big and small, and each of them will know what he knows, and the people who are in exile in the central government in various places will be recorded separately. Regardless of whether they have been an official or have never joined the government, they can be included in the registration form. The table details the various items of their titles, and they are ranked separately and commented. Therefore, the person who presides over this work is called Jiupin Zhongzheng. These forms were approved by the Junior Assal and submitted to the Ministry of Officials, who then made the appointment according to the rank and comments of such forms, and dismissed them separately. In this way, there is an objective standard for the appointment and promotion of officials. This criterion is still based on the public opinion and public opinion of various localities, and still retains the legacy of the Han Dynasty's township election. The reason is different from the modern Western democratic electoral system, which is still a crowd of people, and one follows the virtuous. The traditional Chinese concept is that sages can represent public opinion and public opinion. This is a theory. As for the virtuous but not the virtuous, and the middle but not the righteous, it is another fact. At least when Cao Wei first implemented this system, it was much better than the previous non-standard use of private individuals. The system was established for a while, the rule of officials was clarified, and the Cao family won the world, and this system was also related.

However, this system is only a temporary remedy. Just like a certain medicine to cure a certain disease, it is not advisable to take it again after the disease is cured. Otherwise, medicine is used to cure the disease, and it is also used to start the disease. The Jin Dynasty unified the world, and until the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Chen Qun's system continued to be used and could not be updated, so that the problem came out. First of all, everyone wants to be promoted by Dazhong's genuine products, so they have gathered in the center of Dazhongzheng's location. It is not a good thing that the whole country has concentrated talents in the central government. First of all, there is a lack of talent in the localities, not only the efficiency of local administration must be reduced, but also the local customs and culture are not easy to improve. When the localities have collapsed, how can the central government exist alone. So centralization is not a good thing, and centralization is not a good thing. That's the first point. In addition, the Zhongzheng comment, even if the official is not an official, the whole body should be evaluated, and the official department is promoted by this, if so, the official will be promoted and promoted, and his power will be correct, not the boss of the official. This is confusing the examination with the election. As a result, officials also competed in their own affairs, attacking social reputation, but they did not care about their own official positions and actual work, and their superiors could not help him. When Chen Qun was in the office, why did Dazhong Zhengding have a part-time job as a senior official of the central government? At that time, the local government had lost contact with the central government, so only the central officials were appointed as the central officials, so that he could elect the exiles of his native people in the central government for appointment by the central government. But why does the Zhongzheng Book have to register the appraisal with the officials? In doing so, it was possible to clarify and remove a group of people who had already abused their incompetence at that time. These are the painstaking efforts of Chen Qun when he created this system. Therefore, for the sake of being a temporary remedy, the Jiupin Zhongzheng system is not a bad system. But later, because the time and space relationships of the implementation were different, they were still used, and finally there was a big problem.

From this, it can be seen that the political system is realistic, and every system must be adapted to the reality and constantly seek to change and adapt. No system will remain unchanged for twenty or thirty years, let alone two or three hundred years. However, no matter how much it changes, the original spirit behind a system, that is, the main purpose of the system, can remain the same. As a result, each system can follow its normal trajectory. This is the natural growth of this system. The system must continue to grow, and it must grow under the requirements of the real environment, and the system is by no means produced from a certain theory out of thin air, but from reality. However, the system that arises from this reality must also have its own set of theories and spirits. Theory is the spiritual life of this system, and reality is the blood nourishment of this system, and both are indispensable. Even like all the systems of the Tang Dynasty, most of them evolved from the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which has its historical origins and its traditional spirit. Today, however, we cut off history and want to imitate foreign systems, knowing that this system does not match reality, but we want to overthrow reality and accommodate the system, and call it revolution. In fact, the essence of a revolution should be to overthrow the system to accommodate reality, not to overthrow reality to accommodate the system. At the moment, on the one hand, we have denied all the theoretical bases behind the traditional system, and on the other hand, we have ignored all the real requirements in the real environment. So our theory at the moment is a theory that defies reality. And the system we want is also an unrealistic system. If we are willing to accept the lessons of the past, we should be vigilant against this trend. At the time of Cao Cao, the adoption of the nine-product system was effective for a while, but since then, this system has remained unchanged, and there are many problems.

B. The imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty

Now when it comes to the change of every system, there should also be a limit to change, and it should not be changed as it pleases. What is precious is to find its unchanging origin in the midst of change, which is the so-called historical tradition. The longer the tradition, the greater the reliability of this source. In other words, its vitality is stronger. As far as China's past political theory is concerned, the power of prime minister must be bad if it is given to the emperor, and there is no objective standard for employing people, so it must be bad. The Jiupin Zhongzheng system originally wanted to set an objective standard for the employment of people at that time, but it still did not lose the traditional spirit that this system should have. But then it became a pro-family, and the criteria for finding talents were invisibly limited to a small range of the family, which was a big mistake. In response to this drawback, the Tang Dynasty changed it to free election, the so-called "self-list", that is, there was no need for the local governor to inspect and approve, and there was no need for the central nine products to be evaluated, and the door to enter the official was expanded and opened, and the individual went to the local government to register and participate in the central examination. The system, by and large, is more progressive than before. The Han system stipulates that businessmen cannot be officials, and officials cannot do business, and the township election system is submitted by the local government. The only restriction on the current free application is that the applicant must not be a businessman or a worker. Because businessmen and women are exclusively for private profit. Those who have taken the examination now have to concentrate on serving the public service. This restriction on the registration was called innocence at the time, and naturally did not include the fact that the laws of the country had not been violated. In addition, the magistrates were no longer restricted, that is, the application was sent to the central government, and the examination was held by the Ministry of Shangshu and Rites. If you pass the examination, you will be awarded the Jinshi and the first. Jinshi and the first are qualified to be officials. As for the actual distribution of appointments, they must go through a re-examination by the Ministry of Officials, and the examination is more important than the person's appearance and oral examination, as well as administrative documents, etc. The Ministry of Rites is to test talents, and the Ministry of Officials is to be capable. And because the officials have Jinshi and Mingjing subjects, this system is also called the imperial examination system. From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, this system was implemented. Even in the five-power constitution of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, there is also a special right to take examinations. This system, in theory, is by no means criticized, but it is still full of problems later. However, we cannot dismiss this system because it is faulty. It is said that the government employs people, why not vote democratically. In fact, there is nothing wrong with voting in elections in the West in modern times. Moreover, it is most unconscionable for us to use the current prevailing system as a basis for criticizing the old system of more than 1,000 years ago. In the so-called democratic politics in the West, only the executive leaders, such as the president or the prime minister, are elected by the people, and there is no standard for all other appointments. Isn't there anything wrong with that? So in addition to electing political leaders, the West has to consider adopting China's examination system to establish its so-called civil service appointment method. In our case, exams are substitutes for elections. Therefore, Tang Duyou wrote the "General Dictionary", the first discussion on food and goods (that is, finance and economy), which is an election. In fact, in Han it is an election, and in Tang it is an exam. It can be seen that in China's political tradition, examinations and elections have the same purpose and the same function. The current democratic politics in the West is a kind of party politics, in which administrative officials are generally selected from among the same party, and administrative officers are subject to separate examinations regardless of party affiliation. Such an official may not lose the guarantee of his service by the replacement of the administrative officer. In China, all employment is based on examinations and qualifications, and there are certain objective standards. As high as the prime minister, there are also certain qualifications and restrictions, and the emperor cannot arbitrarily appoint people as prime ministers. If so, it will become a matter of emphasizing the law rather than the person, and the emperor can only be selected according to the unwritten law of the time. It is not necessary to consult the public opinion outside of such customary law. Nor is that it completely useless. It is even more unreasonable to say that China's imperial examination system is a policy of fooling the people, caused by the selfish intentions of the first and second emperors. When we know that the establishment of any kind of system can be realized only by the selfish will of one or two people, there is no system to talk about. If it is said that this is the emperor deceiving the people, and relying on this deception, it can be **** for hundreds of years, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, there is no such reason. If the people are so easy to deceive, there is no reason for us to advocate democracy again. Based on the facts, it is obvious that the imperial examination system is opening up the political power, and this is the intrinsic meaning and spiritual life of the imperial examination system. The election of the Han Dynasty was a way to open up the political power among the feudal aristocracy. The open election in the Tang Dynasty was a way to open up power from among the special classes of the Mendi. The scope of openness in the Tang Dynasty was wider and more liberal than that of the Han Dynasty. So from this point of view, we can say that the politics of the Tang Dynasty were progressive again. At that time, people who were generally not in the middle of the family, poor children, in order to take the exam, often borrowed Buddhist temples and Taoist monasteries to study. For example, Wang Bo is borrowed from the monk temple and later became one of the prime ministers, and the story of the bell after the meal has been passed down as a good story so far. However, the imperial examination system in the Tang Dynasty was also flawed. Therefore, on the one hand, although there were quotas for admission to the imperial examination at that time, there was no restriction on registration and application. As a result, due to the infinite increase in applicants, the admission quota has to be gradually relaxed. In the end, there were many intellectuals in the country who sought official positions and few who won them, and the government could not install them, so they could only expand the scope of government organization. Three hundred years before and after the Tang Dynasty, due to the opening of the political regime, more and more people took the examination, so the government then set up foreign officials, there are alternate officials, the so-called scholars ten in the official, those who seek officials ten in the scholar, the scholar has no official, the official is lacking, and the officials disturb people, which is the big disadvantage in the opening of the regime. This malpractice still persists to this day. We should know that the so-called democratic revolution in the West in modern times was caused by the failure of the political regime to open up. China, on the other hand, has been guilty of the poison of opening up its political power since the Tang Dynasty. Saving water with water and fighting fire with fire is not only the wrong medicine, but also the symptoms will be worse. If we want to solve the ills of Chinese society, we should encourage industry and commerce to stop concentrating intellectuals on the political side, so that ingenuity can be turned to this way. However, it is easy to turn into capitalism. In the West, there was a middle-class society first, and then there was a new industrial and commercial capital, and then it came to open up the career and foresee politics. This is not the case in China, which has since the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, which has opened up its political power to all parts of the country, constantly rewarding intellectuals to join the public service, while at the same time suppressing industrial and commercial capital. It only inspires people to be university scholars and become big officials, but does not reward people to be big businessmen and make a lot of money. Controlling capital and equalizing land rights are largely traditional policies in Chinese history. Political measures are intended to guide the wisdom of the people, and do not allow them to plan for the unlimited development of private financial resources. As a result, intellectuals competed to become officials on the political stage, and their careers were overflowing, resulting in political bloat. Scholars become political fat. If they are rewarded for coming to the revolution and fighting for power, then how can it be? It can be seen that there are advantages and disadvantages of any system, and it is not that our traditional political knowledge is dark, irrational, and uncontrollable, but that all systems with rationality and law should be continuously improved and grown.

3. The economic system of the Tang Dynasty

A. Rent modulation in the Tang Dynasty

Now let's talk about the economic system of the Tang Dynasty, the main thing is to talk about Tian Fu first. The Tang Dynasty's Tianfu system became "rent", "yong" and "tune". Rent is the land that is allotted to the people to cultivate, and it is still paid back to the government in old age. During the grant of land, he was burdened with a considerable amount of rent. This is a kind of Juntian system, inherited from the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Junda system is different from the ancient Ida system, in that the wells belonged to the feudal aristocracy, while the Junda belonged to the central government, that is, the state. Juntian is a well field under the county system, and a well field is a flat field under the feudal system. When it comes to the rent, it is only one of forty taxes, which is more preferential than one of thirty in the Han Dynasty. "Yong" means servitude, which is the people's compulsory service to the state. In the Tang Dynasty, each person served for 20 days per year, which was reduced compared to the Han Dynasty, where each person served for 30 days per year. "Adjustment" is a kind of local tribute, and the people of various places must contribute to the central government with their local products, and basically only collect silk fabrics and linen fabrics. In Mencius's book, there are three items: the levy of corn, the levy of cloth, and the levy of forced labor, rent is the levy of corn, Yong is the levy of forced labor, and the tune is the levy of cloth. Since China is an agricultural country, the people's economy is naturally dependent on the land. In the Tang Dynasty, the most important intention was to produce for the people, so that everyone could have land and complete grain to the country. Cultivating the fields is naturally a strong man, so he can spare time to serve the country on a voluntary basis. There is a family, there is a family, the most important thing in the family industry in the agricultural society is to weave silk and hemp, and the state will levy a part of his surplus, and it is not a disease. The Tang Dynasty's rent regulation was generally lighter than that of the Han Dynasty, and it can be said to be a system of light taxation and thin endowment. Moreover, the project of rent adjustment is clear, there is a land and a rent, there is a body, and there is a family. The supreme intention of this system is that those who have a body must have a land and a family at the same time, so that the imposition of such a small tax on the government will be easy to afford and not painful. This is where the Tang system is better than the Han system.

B. The account system of the Tang Dynasty

However, this system, that is, from the Northern Wei Dynasty's Juntian system, was not maintained for a long time, and its implementation was not thorough. Because the Northern Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty, all parts of the country were distributed by the Damendi wealthy clans, and they still owned a large amount of land. Even if the system is not complete, it will not last long. After a period of implementation, it was completely destroyed. Historically, the reason why the regulation of rents and tenants can be implemented depends entirely on the rectification of accounts. The population book of the early Tang Dynasty is extremely dense. From the birth of the child, to his maturity, to his death of old age, it is all published. At that time, the household registration book was called registration, and the national household registration was divided into nine classes according to economic conditions. This household registration book must also be made in three copies, one for the county, one for the state, and one for the household department. The government's rent adjustment is all based on household registration. The account is a booklet of strong men, and the number of classes scheduled for next year is scheduled this year, which is the basis for mediocrity. The Tang system made an account every year, and a three-year-old made a book. The Zhuang Ding booklet is reproduced once a year, and the household registration booklet is remade once every three years. Weigh one at a time, and the cause can be used to compare with the books of the previous period. In the Tang system, the prefecture and county often had to keep five ratios, and the household department often kept three ratios, if so, the local government could check the changes in the household registration for 15 years, and the household department could check for 9 years. It's a cumbersome job. There are changes in the household registration, and the acres of land are returned to the grant (Ding year 18 granted the field, and 60 is the old man), such a large country, generally and regularly investigates the registration changes and proofreading, and there can be no negligence and ambiguity. This must be maintained by a kind of mental strength, otherwise it is not easy to endure for a long time. Moreover, the Tang Dynasty soon embarked on a bright era of peace, security, prosperity and strength, and people couldn't help but feel that small loopholes were irrelevant. The old man of a certain family is over 60, and his name has not been removed, and the child has grown up, and there is no new name added to it. The new one who gave the field still made up for the name of the old one. These laziness and sloppiness are inevitable. However, these are the biggest reasons for the failure of the lease modulation since then. I'm afraid that there are not too many hukou, there are too few acres, the fields are not enough to be distributed, and the rent regulation has collapsed long ago. This is a kind of lax personnel. Not to mention the fact that the local tycoons are corrupting and obstructing the progress of this system. That is, as far as the account system is concerned, it can be seen that the implementation and continuation of every system must also require a corresponding moral will and service loyalty. Otherwise, the Dharma cannot be used on its own, and even if the Dharma conscience is beautiful, it will be in vain. Moreover, any system must also interact with other systems. Therefore, the establishment of a system is by no means a system that can be established alone. In addition, the intention of this system is quite similar to the modern so-called planned economy. This must be taken care of and planned by the people of the whole country, every family, and every strong man. In modern times, the large-scale use of scientific statistics has made it easy to make use of scientific statistics, and it is difficult to make use of transportation, sound and information, and printing. In ancient times, transportation was inconvenient, government organization was simple, paper was expensive, and writing was inconvenient, these were all big problems. In such a situation, the household registration gradually becomes distorted, and the system cannot be implemented. As a last resort, it was changed to a two-tax system. The regulation of rents in the Tang Dynasty can be said to have ended the economic tradition of the ancient Jingtian Juntian, and the two-tax system opened the precedent of the free economy thereafter.

C. The two taxation system of the Tang Dynasty

The two-tax system of the Tang Dynasty began in the first year of the Tang Dynasty's Dezong Jianzhong, which was planned by Yang Yan, the minister in charge of finance at that time. Since then, to this day, China's Tianfu has largely followed this system. Therefore, the tax is collected twice a year in summer and autumn, so it is called two taxes. The most significant thing about this system is that, according to the Tang Dynasty, the two-tax system is that "the household has no owner or guest, and the residence is the book". This means that if you move from Jiangsu to Hubei, you will be like a Hubei person, regardless of whether you are a host or a guest, as long as you live in this place today, you will be added to the household registration book of this place. If so, the population will move more freely. He also said, "There is no one among them, and the rich and the poor are the poor." This means that if you have as much land as you have, the government will collect as much rent as you want. If so, the burden of compulsory labor will also be liberated. This cannot but be said to be the advantage of this system. However, the government no longer granted land, and the people freely annexed land, so the two tax systems and one line broke the ancient Chinese tradition of adjusting well fields, Wang fields, equal fields, and rents, which were always equal land rights and acres of land. Such liberation, until the Qing Dynasty, allowed acres to be bought and sold freely and annexed freely. Compared with the ancient system, this system also has its faults. According to the general opinion at that time, the three projects of rent-yong modulation were clearly divided, and now they are merged together, although the procedures are simple, but over time, the original origin of simplification has been forgotten, and when the government needs to use money and labor, it is inevitable to add new projects. And these new items, which have already existed, have only been levied in the two taxes, and now adding this item to this item is not equivalent to doubling the levy. This is the disadvantage of the lack of distinction between tax items, and more importantly, the side of the system that stipulates the amount of rent. In China's history, the system of land endowment has been from the well-field system to the rent modulation, and the rent amount has always been uniform and average throughout the country, as stipulated by the government. For example, the Han system stipulates that thirty taxes are one, and the Tang system is equivalent to forty taxes and one tax, which is equal in all parts of the country. However, the two-tax system has put an end to this tradition, that is, the spirit of collecting land rents at the same prescribed amount throughout the country. In the old system, a fixed amount of land rent was set first, and then the government collected it according to the amount, and then the land rent collected by the sub-item was used as the financial source of the government's annual expenditure, which can be said to be a system of living within the limits of income. However, the amount of land rent stipulated in the two tax systems seems to be within the limits of income. Because Yang Yan was customized at that time, the amount of land rent in various places after his customization was stipulated according to the field rent income of the previous year, that is, the 14th year of the Great Calendar of the Tang Dynasty. In this case, the government's expropriation procedures are much simpler and more trouble-free, and all kinds of troubles such as annual surveys and statistics on the number of cultivated fields and household registers can be avoided, but the corresponding disadvantages are greater. Because in this way, it has become a hard and fast rule, apportioned everywhere, and there is no longer a uniform rent and tax rate across the country.

Let me give you a concrete example. According to Lu Zhen's recital at that time, the minister sent an envoy to go through the process, sought benefits and diseases, and learned that Changyuan Township, Weinan County, originally had 400 households, but now there are only more than 100 households. There were originally 3,000 households in Yanxiang County, but now there are only 1,000 households. Other states and counties, about the same. The search for the accumulation of disadvantages began with the equalization of the escapees. Where most of the ten families have fled, five families must also be taxed. It seems to be thrown into a stone well, but it is not more than the end. This is because of the establishment of the two-tax system, because the previous account system was confused and there was no way to sort it out, so the actual land rent income of the government was rigidly stipulated on the basis of a certain year, and the local governments were handed over to collect the rent according to this fixed amount on an annual basis. If the household registration of a certain land is reduced under certain circumstances, and the land is deserted, the government still approves the mandatory levy amount evenly to the existing land and family houses to collect. As a result, the poor places instead bear heavier rents, and as Lu Yi said, five families share the burden of ten families, doesn't this increase their rent by double out of thin air? So the poor of the land became poorer and poorer, and they had to flee as they continued, rather than one or two families to share the burden of the original ten, and the two families would eventually perish because of bankruptcy.

On the other hand, it is inferred that those who fled to the rich township moved to the rich township, and the household registration of the rich township increased, and the land reclamation was also opened. However, the amount of tax in that township has also been rigidly regulated, so the apportionment is relatively lighter. According to this situation, it is inevitable that the amount of land rent in all parts of the country will vary greatly, and with the economic situation in various localities, the poor will become poorer and the richer will become richer. This is where the two taxation systems of the Tang Dynasty seriously affected the economic ups and downs of various parts of China and reached a great disparity thereafter. Although there have been edicts such as a certain amount of rent for three years in the two-tax system since then, generally speaking, since the establishment of the two-tax system in the Tang Dynasty, there is no longer a phenomenon of equal land rents in all parts of China, which is a very significant fact!

The Tang Dynasty's two-tax system stipulated that instead of collecting rice grains, the peasants had to sell rice and grain in exchange for money to pay taxes. If so, the merchants could get their hands on it, and the peasants suffered greatly. Let me give you another example. According to Lu Zhen at that time, the number of fixed taxes is counted as money. When paying taxes, it is more equipped with silk silk. In the past, a horse of silk was used as a money, and now a horse of silk is worth 1,500 yuan. Losing one in the past is now more than two. According to Li Ao 40 years later, in the first year of Jianzhong, the two taxes were initially set, and it has been 40 years since then. At that time, a horse of silk was worth 4,000 horses, a bucket of rice was worth 200 dollars, and those who lost 10,000 were enough for two and a half horses of silk. Today, the price of a horse of silk is no more than 800, and a bucket of rice is only 50. The one who loses ten thousand shall be twelve horses of silk. And he will control his money, and make it cheap? If the current official miscellaneous miscellaneously estimated to accept it, it is still eight horses of silk, which is three times more than at the beginning of the construction. This procedure of changing land rent to currency has also continued from the two tax systems to the present. Above all, it is the government that has sacrificed a historical economic ideal, that is, the ideal of equal distribution of land, for the sake of the convenience of fiscal revenue and expenditure and expropriation procedures. Since the implementation of the two-tax system, the government has been free to transfer farmland from the private sector, and the spirit of private property has been lost. The result naturally leads to land annexation, inequality between rich and poor, and the inability of the cultivator to have his own land, which rewards the exploitation of the landlords.

In short, this change in the system is the biggest change in China's land endowment system, and it is a major project in the change of the economic system and land system in China's history. The two-tax system ended the first half of the historical land tax system, and in the future, it could only be slightly modified along this system and continue to be used. Although this cannot be said to be an inevitable trend in history, there are indeed various conditions that are tempting and persecuting to form this great change. Historically, China's economic and cultural foundations have always been placed in the countryside, not in the cities. The feudal aristocracy of the pre-Qin era, the family of the Tang Dynasty before the Tang Dynasty, gradually changed after the Middle Tang Dynasty. It has changed to the point that there is neither feudalism nor a family, and the urban industrial and commercial capital, in China's historical tradition, has never made it the main cultural lifeline. A generation of scholars and intellectuals can also retire to the countryside to become a small landlord, and the rural culture is also nourished by the small economic concentration of this small number. If the society after the Middle and Tang Dynasty still strictly implements the system of granting land according to Ding, it will force intellectuals to leave the countryside, and the Chinese culture will also be rapidly deformed. This point is enough to explain why the two tax systems below the Tang Dynasty can be implemented until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Ding, Han and Tang economic and financial comparisons

Now, if we compare the economic and fiscal policies of the Han and Tang dynasties, we can see that there is a trend of the opposite. In the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu created the salt and iron policy, which was to control capital and prevent the people from getting too rich, and to impose a restriction on the upper echelons of the economy. The lower strata are poor, but the government does not notice. It is always said that the land rent in the Han Dynasty was very light, but the peasants did not get the benefits, and there were still many poor people, and they were even forced to sell them into slavery. The government's light punishment only took advantage of the middle landlord class. The main purpose of the economic policy of the Tang Dynasty was to prevent the poor from being left among the people. The most important spirit of rent modulation is not only to lightly punish the small endowment, but especially to focus on the production of property for the people. As for the rich at the top, the government doesn't care. In the beginning, business is as free as possible and no taxes are levied. And for every poor person, the government has managed to grant land so that he can enjoy a standard of living above the standard. To put it simply: it seems that the Han Dynasty controlled capital at the top of society, while the lower class had no power to control; The Tang Dynasty paid attention to the lower strata of society, and the state planned and distributed, while the wealthy people at the upper strata could develop freely. In this situation, it seems that the Tang Dynasty people were more sophisticated. He can allow you to be rich, but he will not let you be poor. This is more akin to the modern Anglo-American liberal economy. The Han Dynasty people did not seem to be very clever, and they only took care not to let you get too rich, but there was no way to prevent the ordinary toiling lower class people from falling into too much poverty. However, this only means that the ideals of economic policy in the Han and Tang dynasties were different, and it was limited to the early Tang Dynasty. After the collapse of the rent regulation, it was changed to a two-tax system, and all items of tea and salt were taxed one by one, which was similar to that of the Han Dynasty. As for the salt and iron policy of the Han Dynasty, it began with Emperor Wu's conquest of the Xiongnu and the use of troops abroad, and the destruction of the rent and Yong modulation in the Tang Dynasty, as well as the rise of tea and salt taxes, also due to Xuanzong below, first opened up the territory to expand the territory, until the era of Dezong, because of the use of troops to the outside and caused military rebellion, civil wars were frequent, in short, it was caused by military disasters and changes in the economic system, then the Han and Tang dynasties were no different.