"Feudal society" is a social form divided by western sociologists, especially in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Marx's historical materialism regards "productive forces" as the decisive factor of social development, and thus regards feudal society as the inevitable result of productive forces development and the inevitable stage of replacing slave society and gestating capitalist society. There is a word "feudalism" in China's ancient books, which means "feudal vassals". In the Tang Dynasty, Liu Zongyuan wrote On Feudalism, which defined the Xia, Shang, Zhou and Han Dynasties as "feudalism". Obviously, the word "feudalism" in "feudal society" is a borrowed word. Mao Zedong said in the chapter "China Revolution and Ancient Feudal Society of China Productivity Party" that China entered the feudal system from slavery. "This feudal system has lasted for about 3,000 years since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties", "The main contradiction in feudal society is the contradiction between the peasant class and the landlord class". The end of China's feudal society: according to Chinese mainland historians, China gradually became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal system after the Opium War in 1840; The victory of the new democratic revolution, that is, the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC), marked the end of the feudal system.
Some historians mistakenly believe that in Marx's view of history, social forms develop linearly and progress more and more, that is, primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, and finally capitalist society. After accepting the universal principles of Marxism, the history of China must be based on prescriptions, so it must be a feudal society after Qin Dynasty. It's like making a mold first, whether you are suitable or not, and forcing it into it. So China had the theory of "feudal society". After the introduction, it was found that the western model was not suitable for China, because the Qin Dynasty did not implement the enfeoffment system at all, so it gave a new definition to feudal society. The so-called "feudal society in China" lasted more than twice as long as that in western Europe. China's enfeoffment system only enfeoffed aristocratic men or meritorious officials, who formed a certain degree of local autocracy and appointed local officials to manage each family and everyone themselves, which was initiated by the Qin Dynasty.
This view is not exact, because the "feudal system" in Marxism is actually defined from the perspective of production relations. If "feudalism" is simply defined as "establishing the country by fiefs", then there is actually no "feudal society" in the strict sense in China, which is also recognized by academic circles. Therefore, the "feudal society" defined by Marx in a broad sense has more universal value. Of course, it has also caused some misunderstandings. Marx and Engels' theory of social forms and stages of social development is not the result of the influence of "classical evolution", and there is no contradiction or inconsistency between single line and multi-line. It is the basic theoretical task of historical science to reveal the essence and laws in the process of historical development scientifically. It is not convincing to take historical materialism as the standard to judge the social and historical stage by the nature of productive forces and relations of production, economic base and superstructure, but Bloch's summary of the personality characteristics of the feudal system in western Europe as the standard, thus denying the existence of China's feudal society. It can be seen from the historical facts that the historical stage of China feudal society is undeniable.
The basic characteristics of feudal society in China are as follows: ① Economically, private ownership of land is dominant; (2) in political culture, a highly centralized autocratic system is implemented; Culturally, Confucianism is the core; (4) In terms of social structure, it is a patriarchal hierarchy combining clan power and political power.