Civilian uprisings in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period
We know that there were peasant rebellions in almost every dynasty after Qin Shi Huang unified China, but what about the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period before Qin Shi Huang unified China? It seems that our first impression is of the struggle for hegemony between vassal states, and the common people seem to have never participated in politics. In fact, it is not the case: the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were in the transitional stage from a slave society to a feudal society in terms of social form, and in terms of political system, they were changing from feudal separatism to a unified form. However, it was not just the vassal states that promoted this change. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (or even earlier during the Western Zhou Dynasty), the common people began to fight for their own rights. ?
The first commoner rebellion clearly recorded in Chinese history books was the Chinese riots during the Western Zhou Dynasty: The cities built in the Zhou Dynasty usually had two layers of walls, which were divided into two layers from the inside to the outside. Heguo is called "Guoren" inside the city, and "Savages" outside the city. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, social conflicts began to intensify after King Cheng and King Kang of Zhou. During the reigns of King Zhao and King Mu of Zhou, the internal divisions among the aristocracy became more and more serious. Many nobles and poor nobles who lost power continued to decline in social status. They also mixed with ordinary civilians in the city and became an integral part of the "Chinese people". In addition, among the Chinese people there are workers, merchants and other industrial and commercial persons, as well as the upper class people in society. ?
During the period of King Zhou Li, he appointed Duke Rongyi as a minister and implemented the "patent" policy: the mountains, forests and lakes were indirectly controlled by the emperor, and the countrymen were prohibited from entering and making a living. The people of Haojing, the capital of Zhou Dynasty, sang praises because they were dissatisfied with King Zhou Li's policies. The minister summoned Duke Mu to remonstrate and said: "The people are in dire straits!" ? King Zhou Li also ordered the guards to prevent the people from discussing state affairs, and those who violated the rules would be massacred. ?
Under the high-pressure policy of King Zhou Li, Chinese people did not dare to discuss government affairs in public places. When people meet acquaintances on the road, they don't dare to talk or greet each other. They only express their greetings with their eyes and then walk away slowly. This is "road to eye". King Zhou Li was very satisfied when he learned about it. He said to Duke Zhao Mu: "I have the ability to avoid people's criticism, and they will never dare to discuss it again!" Duke Mu of Zhao advised Zhou Li Badao: "This is using force to silence the public!" Blocking people's mouths like this is like blocking a river. Once the river bursts, it will cause catastrophe; if people's mouths are blocked, the risk will be far greater than the river water! To control floods, we must adopt a leadership approach, and to govern the people, we must let everyone express their opinions. ? King Zhou Li turned a deaf ear to this. ?
In 841 BC, dissatisfied with the tyranny of King Zhou Li, the people of Haojing gathered together, armed with sticks and farming tools, and besieged the palace to kill King Zhou Li. This work was later known as Riots for the country. After the incident, King Li of Zhou was exiled, and the capital of Zhou Dynasty, Haojing, ushered in a period of time without a king. The Duke of Zhou and Duke Zhao temporarily handled political affairs based on the election of the nobles, and major political affairs were discussed by the six ministers. This type of political system is called ***he, and in history it is called Zhouzhao ***he. So ancient China actually implemented the Communist system, but things were extremely urgent? The people of Haojing only supported King Zhou Li, not the Zhou royal family. When the exiled King Zhou Li died, his prince was taken over by Duke Zhou. He returned to Haojing and became the new king. ?
Strictly speaking, the Chinese riots in the Western Zhou Dynasty were only a small-scale riot in Haodu City. In terms of scale, they were completely incomparable with the peasant rebellions that swept through most of China in later generations. It is difficult for the official commoner rebellion to occur under the clear-cut hierarchy of servants: because of the strict hierarchy under the servant system, the number of yeoman farmers is limited, and the servants are the private property of their own slaves. We didn't have any interactions, so why would we oppose him? What's more, since slaves have neither social status nor personal property, it is quite difficult to rebel. Therefore, when the Western Zhou Dynasty came to an end and the Spring and Autumn Period began, the main stream of history was the war for hegemony among the various vassal states, and there were very few anti-riot activities from the people. ?
With the increasing advancement of iron tools and cattle farming, the economic system of the Spring and Autumn Period has undergone rapid transformation, and the superstructure built on the economic foundation is also undergoing changes: the aristocrats and lords under the slave system Their private servants began to transform into the landlord class and peasant class of later generations, so the earliest large-scale civilian rebellion broke out in Chinese history during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Some Weiguo ministers wanted to use force to resist, but more ministers were disappointed and said that now "it's hard to offend with public anger." Two craftsmen's riots dealt a heavy blow to Weiguo, but the large-scale official anti-riot activities were even more threatening. ?
Compared to the craftsmen, the ones who were squeezed more heavily by the rulers were the servants who had no position. Although the craftsmen had a difficult life, they were still guaranteed rations. In contrast, the slaves during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period had no social status, dignity, and even no guarantee of life (don't forget the living burial system). In the situation where the servant system is increasingly disintegrating, large-scale servant rebellion is also destined to come. ?
An important phenomenon in the middle period of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was the large-scale exile of servants. Compared with the strange "people's collapse" in the early days, the exile of servants was a very common thing in the early Warring States Period. These exiled servants initially gained freedom through the destruction of Chinese clans in various countries (after the three families were promoted and destroyed the Zhi family, the Zhi family's servants became ownerless). In the early stage, they happily gathered in groups and escaped from their masters. rule. After the escape, the slaves mainly adopted a mobile way of survival, maybe in groups of thirty or fifty people, or in groups of hundreds of people, moving at the borders of the countries, mainly living by looting, and some people fled into the mountains where no one has entered. They live in the forest and make a living by farming. Starting from the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, the punishment of slave exiles in various countries has become more severe, and it has even developed to the point where families live together. However, there are more and more large-scale "gatherings of thieves". During this period, there were more and more wars among the countries. The countries were unable to deal with external peace and had little regard for the troubles of exiled slaves. By the early Spring and Autumn Period, as many as ten thousand slave slave gangs had appeared in the Central Plains. They mainly survived by robbing the poor and even their slave masters. The scenes during this period were clearly recorded in the works of the early Warring States thinker Mozi. ?
The earliest slave rebellion recorded in Chinese history books was the Zheng slave rebellion in 522 BC: thousands of Zheng slaves at that time fought against the Zheng rule in a large lake in Zhongmou, Henan The Zheng State sent an aristocratic uncle to lead an army to resist. Facing the relatively disadvantaged enemy, the servants rose up to resist. Thousands of servants fought to the end, but no one surrendered, and they all died in the end. This confrontation, which lasted for several days, was the forerunner of a large-scale slave rebellion during the Spring and Autumn Period. Sixteen years later, the Chu State’s servants made another big move. This year happened to be the time when Chu’s capital city fell: the Wu State’s army captured Yingdu in one fell swoop, and the King of Chu State, King Chu Zhao, fled to the Yunmengze area in embarrassment. However, they did not want to be attacked by the exiled servants occupying here. Tens of thousands of servants launched a brave charge towards the remnants of the Chu State. For a time, there was revenge and revenge, and the retreating Chu army was killed. Even King Zhao of Chu himself dropped his armor. He was also stabbed by the servants. Later, the State of Qin sent troops to rescue the State of Chu and wiped out this rebel slave army in Yunmengze. Of course, the slave rebellions during this period were still in a small-scale state, and large-scale slave rebellions were something that occurred at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. ?
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, two large-scale servant rebellions occurred one after another in the south and the north of China: one was the "robber and plant rebellion" in the northern state of Lu. "Pirates" is the name historians give to rebels, and "Zhi" is the name of the leader of the rebellion. The rebel named Zhi was originally an exiled servant of the State of Lu. There are various accounts of his identity, but the common record is that he Once he was punished for fleeing and had one of his legs chopped off. Later, he gathered an army of a thousand people and fought in various countries in the Central Plains. He adopted the method of mobile warfare and punished the locals wherever he went. Slave the master, free the local slaves, and distribute the slave master's property to the people. His army was small, with only a few thousand at its peak, but he maintained the war for more than 10 years. During these 10 years, a large number of slave-lords and nobles died under his sword, and a large number of slaves were lost. received his release. His rebellious deeds were widely recorded in the works of various schools of thought at the time: "Zhuangzi", "Mencius", "Shang Junshu" and "Lu Shijie" all have clear records of this, which shows his great influence at the time.
As famous as Bandit Zhi is the Zhuang Jiao rebellion that took place in the northern Chu State. This rebellion occurred around the end of the Spring and Autumn Period of the Chu State. According to Han Feizi: Zhuang Jiao had tens of thousands of soldiers at that time, and the nobles of the Chu State were beaten to "points." For the "March 4th", even the capital of the Chu State was occupied by him for a time, and a large number of slave-owners and nobles were executed by him. Compared with the Taoist Rebellion, the participants of the Zhuang Jiao Rebellion were more common: the main body was slaves, and ordinary soldiers were also included. , upper-class craftsmen and urban handicraftsmen. The traditional slave system is in jeopardy under successive attacks. ?
Westerners always say: China's peasant rebellion eventually became a thing of the changing dynasties of the ruling class, which was nothing more than replacing the old tyranny with a new one. But at least before the unification of Qin Shihuang, there were democratic activities in Chinese history books, and the main participants were "Chinese people." In a slave-based society, "Chinese people" are a very special group. They mainly include the civilian class living in the capital. These people include the industrialists, traders and civilians in the capital. They have a higher status than the slaves, and the slave masters cannot trade and kill them at will. But the oppression they suffered was also heavy, and they had to bear high amounts of money and grain corvee. At the same time, the servant-owner class itself is divided from the people of the country, so they do not have the same respect for the lofty rulers as servants do to their servants. ?
The most famous Chinese riot in history was the Hao capital during the Western Zhou Dynasty, which shocked the entire Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Chinese riots became increasingly common, but the first successful Chinese riot during the Spring and Autumn Period was during the Battle of Chengpu in 633 BC. On the eve of the battle, the Wei State attempted to abandon its alliance with the Jin State and defect to the Chu State. After the news came out, it aroused dissatisfaction among the "Chinese people" in the capital. In the eyes of the Chinese people, the Jin people, like themselves, belonged to a branch of the Central Plains tribe. In their eyes, the Chu State was a Rongdi, and defecting to the Chu State meant betrayal. Ancestors. As a result, with the public sentiment aroused, not only did Weiguo's treacherous conspiracy collapse, but the Weiguo monarch was also driven away by the "Chinese people". Among the great events recorded in Chinese history, this was the first time that the common people had successfully dismissed a ruler. ?
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In the middle and late teens, the number of riots among Chinese people increased and the methods became more violent. For example, in 555 BC, Zi Kong, the ruler of Zheng State, was overthrown by his countrymen in a riot because of his cruelty, and his property was divided by the people of the country. In 480 BC, Situ Yuanpo of Chen State was united and driven away by the people because of excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes. The increasing riots among the people of the country made the slave-lords and aristocrats at that time into a panic. Hua Chen, a doctor in the Song Dynasty, was always doing all kinds of evil. One day when he saw a group of Chinese people running towards his home, he felt that the Chinese were about to riot again, so he was so frightened that he immediately ran abroad. It should be noted that the biggest difference between the Chinese riots and the slave riots is that the Chinese riots are often led by the slave-owning aristocrats in the capital. These so-called slave-owning aristocrats are the emerging feudal landlord class. Typical examples include the Tian family of Qi State, the Ji family of Lu State, etc. In the early Warring States period, it was precisely because of the opposition of the Chinese people that the emerging landlord class in the Central Plains countries was able to successfully seize power, coups or reforms. , to complete the feudal transformation of the great country. If the historical tributary of the Spring and Autumn Period is the struggle for hegemony, then the Warring States Period is the reform.