Mr. Yi Zhongtian once said in a program that the changes of the ruling class in ancient China were roughly divided into three stages: the aristocratic era, the gentry era and the common people era. Although it is relatively general, it is generally correct.
Maybe you don’t understand that in ancient times, didn’t the emperors have the final say? Theoretically, yes, but no matter how wise the emperor is, it is the people below who actually do the work, and these people can easily form an interest group, which we can collectively call the powerful. However, the status of powerful people changes with the times.
From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty - the rise and fall of the aristocratic class
We automatically skip the Xia and Shang Dynasties, because these two countries are at best a tribal alliance, not a complete sense. nation. The true feudal country in Chinese history was the Zhou Dynasty! The so-called "feudalism" means feuding and establishing a country.
In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, more than 130 countries were enfeoffed, and most of these kings had the surname Ji. The Western Zhou Dynasty became a standard country ruled by aristocrats. The famous Duke of Zhou was granted a fiefdom in the State of Lu, the hometown of Confucius. The nobles of the Shang Dynasty were granted a fiefdom in the State of Song, and the descendants of Jiang Shang, the founding minister, were granted the title of Qi State, and so on.
Managing a country requires people. The Western Zhou Dynasty mainly adopted the secular official system, which was actually hereditary. The emperor is hereditary, the princes are also hereditary, so the ministers and scholar-bureaucrats are also hereditary. If ordinary people want to be officials, they can only become disciples of these people in order to get opportunities. Although this system began to loosen in the Spring and Autumn Period, it still occupied a mainstream position.
In the Warring States Period, countries strived to become stronger and reforms emerged, and the cheese of the nobles began to be coveted, such as Li Kui's reform in Wei, Wu Qi's reform in Chu, Zou Ji's reform in Qi, and Shen Bu's reform in Korea. The harmful reforms and other reforms have strengthened the national power to a certain extent, but due to the backlash of the aristocratic forces, these reforms were not complete or even failed. You see, among the famous four princes of the Warring States Period, three of them were still from aristocrats. Only Qin's Shang Yang's reform was truly implemented to the end, which benefited from the efforts of Qin Xiaogong and subsequent Qin monarchs. From then on, the common people of the Qin State had the opportunity to achieve a class jump through military merit, and the Qin State's talent policy also recruited a large number of unsuccessful talents from the six eastern countries, and finally achieved the unification of Liuhe.
Qin Shihuang looked down upon these old nobles, and "abolition of feudalism and the establishment of prefectures and counties" completely broke the feudal system. Unfortunately, the Qin Dynasty enjoyed the country for too short a time. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the parallel method of "enfeoffment" and "prefectures and counties" was implemented, which paved the way for the later "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms". Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty brought order to the chaos and implemented the "Tianfa Order" to completely defeat the nobles.
When the nobles are no longer needed, a new era must begin.
From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties - the rise and fall of the gentry class
The country no longer needs nobles, so how to select talents to manage the country? The Han Dynasty instinctively chose another alternative, which was the recommendation system. It includes two types, one is called zhengpi and the other is called chaju. Zhengpi means that senior officials can recruit subordinates by themselves. Chaju means that officials can recommend talents to the court after conducting inspections. These people formed the prototype of the gentry class. In fact, the ruling class in the Han Dynasty was an extension of the aristocratic class - relatives. If my family can’t believe it, then I can go to my mother’s family. Wang Mang, who cut off the two Han Dynasties with one sword, was born in a maternal relationship.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the emperors were getting younger and their relatives were more powerful. In order to check and balance them, the emperor could only rely on his playmates-eunuchs. While the relatives and the eunuchs were fighting fiercely, the nobles had grown stronger.
Whether it is the evaluation system for conquest or inspection, it is greatly affected by human factors. In some places, wealthy families rely on family power to continuously recommend talents to the court, and these evaluation officials in order to form their own power , also began to lean towards these wealthy families. These people had formed a huge force in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty. Even relatives and eunuchs wanted to win over these people.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the heroes were divided, but the three leaders had complicated feelings towards the nobles. The main reason is that they are not from noble families. Although Cao Cao was from a family of officials, he was labeled as "the eunuch queen". Liu Bei was from a declining royal family, and the Sun Group was from a poor family in Jiangdong. While they were wooing the nobles, they were wary of them. Until Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor and the "Nine-grade Zhongzheng System" was officially launched, the gentry had the advantage of legally developing their own power, and China officially ushered in the gentry era.
After the brief unification of the Western Jin Dynasty, the land of China fell into a long-term separatist war. Logically speaking, this should be the era of warriors. But the warriors also needed the political and economic support of the gentry. Even for the minority regimes in the north, they also needed the support of the gentry in the north. Not to mention the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Wang family, the Yu family, the Huan family, and the Xie family, it can be said that you finish singing and I will appear.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the gentry group began to decline, but it still had a strong influence. The kings of Qi in the Southern Dynasty and Liang in the Southern Dynasty were all from the Hailing Xiao family.
The real decline of the gentry actually began in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The imperial examination, known as the fifth greatest invention in ancient my country, appeared. In fact, the Yang family of the Sui Dynasty and the Li family of the Tang Dynasty were both aristocratic families, but they introduced the imperial examination system in order to get rid of the control of the gentry class.
However, the imperial examination system during the Sui and Tang Dynasties was not perfect, and there were many restrictions on status. Although some common people had the opportunity to enter the court, most positions were still controlled by the wealthy families. At that time, there were examinations to obscure names, but they were not Generally speaking, nobles can also cheat through handwriting, so although nobles have been attacked, they still have great power.
So how did the gentry withdraw from the stage of history? It's simple - kill.
From the Huangchao Uprising at the end of the Tang Dynasty to the chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the gentry was completely defeated. Most of the military generals in these separatist regimes were of low origin, and they had long been disgusted with these nobles who were just like the common people. Especially Huang Chao, basically every place he passes by is killed! kill! kill! kill! As Wei Zhuang's poem goes:
"The streets of heaven have trampled all the bones of public ministers, and not even half of the first-class noble families"
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhao Kuangyin, who was also born in the military, in order to better restrain military generals , must reuse civil servants, but he also looked down upon those nobles (there were not many left), so the imperial examination began to be reformed. The time has come for the common people!
From the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty - the rise and fall of the common class class
The Song and Ming dynasties were the most prosperous period for the common people. In order to allow more people to benefit from the imperial examinations, the Song Dynasty comprehensively promoted name-blinding and invented transcription, that is, special personnel copied the examination papers of the scholars to achieve the greatest fairness. You see, many famous officials in the Song and Ming dynasties were imperial examination scholars of low origin.
Of course, don’t think that these people with low background are noble and upright. In the Song Dynasty, as the cost of knowledge dissemination dropped significantly, the number of scholars expanded. After all, there were only a limited number of people who could become officials. These people formed a powerful civil servant group, and the rest became the basic core of the self-organization of civilian society - the gentry. Compared with the nobles and nobles, the common people have achieved all-round control over society. This may be something the rulers did not expect.
Everyone knows how powerful the civil service group was during the Song Dynasty. Because they had a tradition of not killing scholar-bureaucrats, civilian officials from the common people fought against the imperial power one after another, and being demoted became an honor. Of course, the relatively tolerant environment not only allowed its economy to take off, but its culture was also extremely splendid, complementing the prosperous Tang Dynasty!
What about the harsh Ming Dynasty? Zhu Yuanzhang could not stand these civil servants. In order to achieve autocracy, he even abolished the prime minister system and took all kinds of power into his arms. It is a pity that Lao Zhu's descendants did not have his energy, so the cabinet came into being and became the core of the world's civil servants. But the shortcomings of the common people are also very obvious, that is, cliques are very serious, and the party struggles in the Song and Ming Dynasties were very fierce. Because no matter how much the nobles fight, they are still one family. The nobles form alliances through intermarriage to avoid internal fighting, but the common people are different. There are too many people who have risen to power through the imperial examination, and the positions are limited. It is impossible not to fight. ! "The Ming Dynasty was destroyed by party strife" is not just a historical lament!
Why didn’t I mention the Qing Dynasty? To me, it's an anomaly.
The Qing Dynasty ruled China with the entry of ethnic minorities, which lasted for nearly 300 years compared with the short life of the Yuan Dynasty. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty definitely did not need the so-called gentry. They first used nobles to unify China by force, and then promoted low-level bannermen or Han commoners to balance each other, and finally realized absolute monarchy. In my opinion, the Qing Dynasty was actually a "semi-democracy". Slavery” dynasty. For most of the time, it avoided the main causes of dynasty changes in history such as nobles, relatives, eunuchs, and vassal towns. Both Manchu and Han officials were the emperor's clerks. In fact, this can be regarded as a setback.
In fact, the main reason behind the changes in the identity of the ancient ruling class was the re-concentration of imperial power. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the "Tweening Order" and Emperor Wen of the Wei Dynasty used the "Nine Ranks Zhongzheng System" in order to break the aristocratic politics. The emergence of the imperial examination completely ended the gentry politics, and the common people eventually became the stepping stone for the imperial autocracy.
Generally speaking, if you want to break the rule of the powerful, you must use extraordinary means. Carrots and sticks are both indispensable.