Video Clip: Top 10 Women in Power

If there is any lesson learned by the Han Dynasty after the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the best lesson is the reform of the system.

Speaking of this, you will ask, is the system of the Han Dynasty different from that of the Qin Dynasty?

Of course not.

But it can only be said that the system of the Han Dynasty is still a little more advanced than that of the Qin Dynasty.

However, in the ancient Chinese political system, there was no theory of progress or regress in the political system, only the theory of whether it was suitable or not, and it was not suitable for the humane society. Even if it was theoretically hype, it was rubbish.

The system comes from the culture of a country, and culture is the upper layer of the system.

Culture is greater than system, and the choice that closely matches the culture is a good system—this is the law.

It can also be said that the culture of a country determines the system construction of the country. If the system is not based on culture, then it is not the most suitable system.

If I give an example, it can be seen from some criminal cases in the county.

For example, the case of disobedience is second only to treason and rebellion. Once a major case of disobedience occurs in the county, the county magistrate will first be removed from his post to wait for participation, and he will even be confiscated into the army.

If we dig deep into the root of the thought, it is that the county "Jiaolun" (equivalent to the director of the education bureau) will be sentenced to beheaded if he commits a serious case of infidelity due to ineffective education.

At the same time, the drum tower of the county government office will be truncated, because there is a rebellious son in the county, which is a shame to the people of the county.

Only when a filial son is born in the county in the future, and the report is reported to the court, can the intercepted Gulou corner be restored.

The reason why the ancients paid so much attention to it was because it touched the foundation of human relations.

The law is based on human relations and relationships, and the greatest legal principle is natural law.

The system of prefectures and counties is the main line, but there are differences in each dynasty, and continuous exploration has been carried out according to the different conditions at that time.

For example, the Qin Dynasty: the central government has three gongs and nine ministers, and the local county system;
Han Dynasty: Chinese and foreign dynasties, localities - prefectures and states in parallel in the early stage, prefectures and counties in the middle stage, and prefectures and counties in the later stage.

Sui and Tang Dynasties: Central-three provinces and six ministries, local-states and counties, Daozhou counties, and feudal towns-states and counties mixed.

Song Dynasty: Central—Second Mansion and Three Divisions, Local—Luzhou County.

Yuan Dynasty: Central - Zhongshu Province, local - Xing Zhongshu Province, Lufu Prefecture and County.

Ming Dynasty: Abolished the prime minister tree cabinet, place: the system of three divisions.

Manchu Qing: Central—Military Aircraft Office; Local—Province.

This is the main line from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty. The overall trend is that the emperor is becoming more and more centralized, and the status of the official class is getting lower and lower.

From the treatment of the prime minister, we can see what happened: in the Qin and Han Dynasties, when the prime minister visited the emperor, the emperor had to get up to greet him and give the prime minister a place. When the prime minister was sick, the emperor still needed to visit.

In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the prime minister still had a place in the court, and he could sit and hold meetings.

In the Song Dynasty, the position was withdrawn, and we could only stand and talk.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that kneeling was required for large ceremonies.

When I arrived in the Qing Dynasty, I had to kneel most of the time, comparing myself to a slave.

From the point of view of the central administrative setup, the emperor is becoming more and more centralized, and the powers of ministers are becoming more and more decentralized.

From the system of Sangong and Jiuqing in Qin and Han Dynasties who could talk back to the emperor, to the system of Zhongchao after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, to the Shangshutai in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the three provinces in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the three provinces and six departments in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the second government and three divisions in the Song Dynasty, and the Zhongshu in the Yuan Dynasty A provincial system, the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty, and the military aircraft department of the Qing Dynasty.

The power of top officials is constantly being dispersed.

The official hats of the Song Dynasty are more interesting. The hats have two small sticks, which are said to prevent officials from whispering.

Let’s look at the selection system again. From the Western Zhou Dynasty’s Shiqing and Shilu, blood relationship is the main one;
In the Qin and Han Dynasties' military title system, credit is the main priority;
Then to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's awareness and expropriation system, which focused on virtue and ability;

In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the nine-rank Zhongzheng system was mainly based on family status;
Then to the imperial examination system in the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, talent and learning were the mainstay; then to the eight-legged selection of scholars in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the eight-legged literary talent was the main one.

This is a selection system that pays less and less attention to the blood relationship and succession of officials.

The Qin Dynasty was a centralized system. Qin Shihuang felt that his contribution could be compared with that of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, so he called himself the emperor, that is, the first emperor.

In the center, the supreme ruler is called the emperor, and there are prime ministers, captains, and censors in charge of administration, military affairs, and supervision; there are no fiefs in the local area, only salaries, and the princes have changed from independent kings to professional managers.

The origin of this is that Wang Wan, the prime minister of the Qin State, asked the princes to be named kings of Yan, Qi, and Chu, but Li Si firmly opposed it, resisting all opinions, and proposed to Qin Shihuang to abolish the system of assigning princes.

Fully implementing the suggestion of the system of prefectures and counties, Qin Shihuang accepted Li Si's suggestion and divided the country into 36 counties, which were successively increased to more than [-] counties.

The county mainly has a county guard, a county lieutenant, and a county supervisor.

Counties are set up in the inland areas, and roads are set up in border minority areas.

Counties with more than [-] households set up county magistrates, and counties with less than [-] households set up county magistrates.

The assistant to the county magistrate is the county lieutenant, who is in charge of the county's military and public security; and the county magistrate, who is in charge of the county's justice.

Counties and counties are directly appointed and dismissed by the central government, which is highly centralized.

There are townships, lis and pavilions below the county.Township and Li are administrative agencies, and pavilions are security organizations.

There are three elders, a miser and a wanderer in the township.

The three elders are in charge of education, the miser is in charge of litigation and taxation, and you are in charge of law and order.

Below the township is the Li, and the Li Zheng or Li Dian is set up in the Li.

There is also the lowest-level organization responsible for public security, similar to the militia and security groups, called Ting, Ting has a leader, and Liu Bang is in this position.

So we also know the high and low levels of the ancient feudal lords. For example, the Hanshou Tinghou is a fief of a pavilion; the higher one is the township lord, and the higher one is the county, that is, the king.

Qin’s system is still very solid. It is connected from the bottom to the top, and its mobilization ability is also very strong. That’s why it was able to launch several super-big projects at the same time: building the Great Wall, repairing water conservancy, expanding frontiers, building roads and granaries, etc. .

This requires strong mobilization, organization and accountability capabilities.

Once you encounter dynasties that cannot get through the power of the same way, such as the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Yuan Dynasty, it is difficult to make a difference.

Relying on the super power and hard work of the emperor, the Qin Dynasty can make the empire run very efficiently. The disadvantage is that the requirements for the emperor are too high, and the safety of the world depends on the emperor alone. If the emperor is not capable enough, he will soon be unable to support it.

The Qin State basically did not rely on blood ties. Officials appointed and dismissed by the king used seals as proof of power to perform government affairs, and salaries as remuneration for officials. This is the performance appraisal of the professional manager system.

Qin Shihuang paid great attention to the increase in population and took population growth as a KPI. The population increase in each place in the Qin Dynasty was written on the wooden coupons, which were divided into two.

As a result of the assessment, the good ones will be promoted, and the bad ones will be exempted, and some will be arrested on the spot and even imprisoned.

Therefore, in the Qin Dynasty, population growth, people's happiness index and taxation were the three major assessment indicators.

Therefore, during the time of Qin Shihuang, the world was unified, and there were no peasant uprisings and turmoil.

Therefore, the feudal system is similar to a tree type, with loose and blood-related roots.The county system is similar to a pyramid, dense and compact, but the requirements for the emperor are too high.If you want to be the king of Tota Li, if you don't do well, you will fall down.The crux of legalism lies in the requirements and constraints on the ability of the highest authority.