After Iraq's death, his son Li Jicheng became king. Li ascended the throne for 30 years, greedy for money and profit, and close to Rong Yigong. Doctor Rui advised Li: "I'm afraid the royal family is going to decline!" That Rong Gong only likes to monopolize money and interests, but he doesn't understand great disasters. Wealth comes from all kinds of things, and it is naturally owned by heaven and earth. Anyone who wants to monopolize it is harmful. Everyone should get a piece of everything between heaven and earth. How can it be monopolized by one person? Monopoly will anger many people, but they don't know how to prevent catastrophe. Rong lures you with money and profits. Can you last long, king? To be a gentleman, we must develop all kinds of property and distribute it to the upper and lower officials and people. So that god, man and everything can get their due share, even so, we should be careful every day to avoid resentment. Therefore, the Book of Songs says:' My ancestor Hou Jide's merits are higher than heaven and earth. There's no one who doesn't respect you for growing grain and raising people. "'Daya' said:' Give charity and start business in the week.' Isn't this Buschliello, alert to disaster? It is precisely because of this that the late king was able to establish the career of the Zhou Dynasty until now. But now, king, you must learn to monopolize money and profits. How to do this? Ordinary people monopolize money and profits, but they are still called robbers; If you do the same, fewer people will submit to you. If Yung Wing is reused, the Zhou Dynasty will surely perish. "Li Wang did not listen to the admonition, but still appointed Rong Gong as a gentleman and was in charge of state affairs.
Li Guowang is overbearing and arrogant, and all China people openly talk about his shortcomings. Zhao Gong protested: "The people can't stand your orders!" Li Guowang was very angry, so he found a wizard who defended the country and asked him to keep an eye on those who talked. When he found out, he reported it and killed it immediately. As a result, fewer people said it, but the governors didn't come to worship. Thirty-four years later, Li Guowang became more powerful, and no one dared to speak again. They only exchanged glances when they met on the road. Li was very happy to see this scene and told: "I can eliminate people's comments on me." They dare not speak. " Zhao Gong said: "This just blocked their words. Blocking a person's mouth is more powerful than blocking the current. There is more water, and once it is broken, it will definitely hurt more people; It's the same with not letting people talk. Therefore, people who control water should talk to let the water flow smoothly, and people who control people should also let them talk. Therefore, the son of heaven governs state affairs, so that there are poems satirizing the gains and losses of state affairs from public officials to officials. Blind musicians should provide music that reflects people's feelings. Historians should provide history books as reference. Musicians' leaders should give advice. Some blind musicians read poems provided by public officials and officials, while others read exhortations. Officials can directly remonstrate, and civilians can transfer their meaning to the Emperor. The nearest official should give a warning. People have mouths, just like there are mountains and rivers on the earth, where goods and tools are produced; The people have a mouth, as if there is fertile land on the earth, where clothes and food are also produced. The people have spoken their minds, and what is good and what is bad in politics can be seen from here. Good things will be implemented and bad things will be prevented, just like the earth's property is used to make clothes and food. Say what you think in your heart, and do it when you think about it. If you block their mouths, how long can it last! " Li didn't listen to Wang's advice. Since then, people in China have been afraid to speak. Three years later, everyone rebelled together and attacked Li Wang. Wang Li fled to Bi.
King Li Jing was hidden in Zhao Gong's house. When the Chinese found out, they surrounded Zhao Gong's house. Zhao Gong said, "I tried to persuade the king many times before, but he wouldn't listen, which led to such a disaster. If I kill the prince now, will the king think that I hold a grudge against them and the king? Waiting for the monarch, even if in danger, should not resent; Even if you are disgusted, you shouldn't be angry, let alone treat the Phoenix Emperor? " So he replaced the prince with his own son, and the prince was finally saved from being killed.
And Duke Zhou and * * *, two assistant ministers, are in charge of state affairs respectively, and are called "* * * and" (84 1). * * * and fourteen years (828 BC), Wang Li died in Quidditch. King Jing grew up in Zhao Gong's family, and the second assistant made him king together. This is Wang Xuan. Wang Xuan acceded to the throne, supplemented by the second phase, and absorbed the legacy of the French king, Cheng Wang, and Kang Wang, and the governors kept the Zhou royal family at a respectful distance. In the twelfth year (8 16), Duke Wu of Lu came to worship the son of heaven.
way
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Politically, Zhou and Zhao Rugong's convention of "serving the country as an official" was changed, and people with expertise in economy and military affairs, such as Gong Gong and Father-in-law, were employed. This practice naturally met with strong opposition from the nobles. The poem "Dang" is considered as a call to Mu Gong to mourn the great evil in Zhoushi and protest against replacing the "old chapter and old minister" with "greedy and violent people". "I don't know virtue, I can't be alone." . It means: You don't know moral character, so you don't know who will be an assistant or an official. Then, changing the subject, he talked about history in an admonitory tone: "If you rob God from time to time, you don't have to use the old saying. Although there are no old adults, they are still typical. " The general idea is: Yin's demise cannot be blamed on God, but the reason why he didn't use his old minister. What you are doing now is typical yin. This opinion can also be found in Poems, Elegance and Slab: "A big country is a big country, and many people make it strong", which means that the children of the royal family and clans are the pillars of the country. The poem repeatedly emphasizes "big country" and "bulk" in order not to break the old political order. The Preface to Poetry says, "Ban" is where Bo stabbed, and says, "In Bo, with the same surname as Zhou, he is Yin Ye, and he became an outstanding scholar". Wei Yuan also thinks that this KATTO is the sum of * * *. Whether it is * * * Bohe or not, it is certain that Hehe Zhou is a big family with the same surname, and he was once a senior official of the Qing Dynasty, which clearly shows that he is among the "big countries" and "big families". However, when he wrote a poem, he was probably replaced by Li Wang, and his resentment was sent into the poem. Poetry, elegance, Sang Rou: "Tell me about my sorrow and teach you the preface". This is another distinguished minister, Rui Fu Liang, who warned Wang Li to be careful, let him treat heroes well and give them a title.
Economically, Li seized the two main links of "patent" and agriculture, trying to revitalize the broken royal economy.
"Mandarin Zhou Yu": "Fu Ronggong is good at patents and doesn't know great difficulties. ..... Is Wang Xue's patent ok today? People's patents are still called thieves. If you do it, it will be rare. " This is Ray Fu Liang's advice to Zhou Liwang. It has always been thought that Rui Fu Liang "opposed the monopoly of feudal monarchs and nobles on the production of mountains and rivers". In fact, the mountains and rivers of the Western Zhou Dynasty have long been owned by nobles at all levels. Li Wang's "patent" is by no means "monopoly", let alone "competing with the people for profits". Instead, it stipulated a number of "special" material wealth from the mountains and rivers occupied by nobles to the royal family. At this time, several people have been discussing it. This article does not intend to discuss it in depth. Rui Fuliang clearly pointed out that "Wang Xue's patent is today" and "learning" means that Wang Li wants to stipulate special tribute taxes in famous mountains and rivers. Mr. Hu Jichuang said that Rui Fu Liang "represents the interests of free small businessmen", which is a correct evaluation. Yi Zhou Shurui Fu Liang has a similar record. (Rui) The courtier said, "Tao (guidance) is not king (obedience), but patents are arrogant. If you are in trouble, the people will be in trouble! " He also said, "Today's ruling boy is only greedy for money to serve the king, does not make efforts to prepare for difficulties, and complains to the people. If my financial resources are exhausted, I will be at a loss, and I can still live, but I won't be chaotic? " "Today's ruling boy is not big-you drag out an ignoble existence, and you are bribed. The sage knows his mouth and the villain is tongue-tied. It's a pity to escape harm and gain a trick! Rui called his colleagues "ruling boys", indicating that rulers are all people under middle age, and "being inferior to being in power" was probably glory in the Li era. Judging from the tone, it is obvious that he was admonished in the tone of respecting and loving the elderly, while the contents of the accusation were "dominating by patents" and "serving the king with greed". This is mainly aimed at the reform measures taken by Rong to help crack down on the aristocratic economy and expand the royal economy. Among them, "the title was obtained by bribery" shows that the title has begun to be utilitarian-selling the title with money to solve the economic difficulties of the royal family.
2
Attaching importance to agriculture is another important measure of Li Wang's reform. Poem Elegance to Sang Rou: "Good crops help people to replace grain, crops are precious, and grain is good", which means only grasping agriculture and treating "crops" as a national treasure. This is a strong evidence of agricultural development in Li Wang.
Militarily, Li tried to change the situation of repeated invasions by neighboring ethnic minorities and solve the disadvantages of weak accumulation. He sent Guo Gong's father to the south: "After three years, he invaded Luo, and the king ordered Guo Gong's father to cut it down" ("Ancient Bamboo Records"). This is the situation that Li Wang ascended the throne for three years: he had advanced into Luoyi, which was a great disaster for the Zhou Dynasty, but because of the weak national strength, Guo Gong and his son could not win. After several years of cheering up, we have probably won some military victories, but without history books, it is difficult to assert. However, some news can be revealed from Historical Records of Chu Family: "When Zhou Yiwang was still a royal family, ... Xiongqu was very popular in Jianghan area, ... but his eldest son Kang was declared king, and Zhong Zichi was named king of Hubei, ... and when Zhou Liwang was tyrannical, Xiong went sick and dared not attack Chu and defected to his king." This tells us that Jianghan strongman Xiong was king when he died of illness. However, after the reform in Zhou Liwang, the Zhou Dynasty became powerful and shocking everywhere. This is by no means a situation that can't even be subdued at the beginning of the throne. Otherwise, just because of his "tyranny", in the face of the actually poor and weak Zhou royal family, how could Xiong Qubing "fear his attack on Chu" and automatically cancel the title of king? Xiong Qu is not afraid of paper tigers. Moreover, the word "easy" of "going to the king" shows that before Chu went to the king, there must have been many governors defeated by the powerful central military forces, and bears were naturally afraid of going sick.
Legally, Li took measures to strengthen the legal system. This is the "tyranny" in the Confucian concept since the pre-Qin period. When the patriarchal clan system was very strong, Zhou Liwang did not hesitate to use high-handed means to ensure economic and political reform: "If the king is angry, he will protect witches, and if he accuses slanderers, he will kill them" (Historical Records Zhou Benji). It should be noted that: what is the standard of "telling and killing"? Is it indiscriminate killing for no reason? Obviously not. As early as Mu Wang's time, it was said that there were as many as 3,000 kinds of "five punishments". There is no need to make laws for the king: the penalty is 3 thousand, and the crime of "libel" must be justified. Li used the legal system to maintain the progress of Ge Dian, not only, but also, probably, a specialized agency headed by Li. Because it is obvious: how many "rumors" can Wu Wei listen to when he enters the house? It can be inferred that Wei Wu's men are scattered in Beijing to monitor the "China people" who express their opinions in public, while Wei Wu himself and his cronies may stay around the court to monitor those officials who dare to put forward different opinions on the New Deal. It can be seen that in order to ensure the progress of the "revolutionary code", King Li adopted simple, naive and rude means, which was used by the opposition (conservatives) to accuse him of "tyranny" and revile him for thousands of years. However, Li Wang's "violence" is only an abstract "prosecution and murder".
three
Zhou Liwang's merits and demerits
In order to maintain political power, any ruler will kill people, but to varying degrees. Why does King Li enjoy this name alone? Compared with other famous bad kings in history, we will find the following problems:
People's conclusions about Jie and Zhou have specific contents: Jie "harms the people by force, not by virtue, and the people are miserable" (Historical Records Xia Benji); "Good wine and lust are better than women", "Take wine as a pool and county meat as a forest" (Historical Records Yin Benji). The pursuit of personal dissolute life is the common point of all confused and violent emperors. But for Li Wang, "Mandarin" only contains his "abuse", and there is no record of extravagance, corruption, bribery and abuse of power in his personal life. In the Qing Dynasty, Wei Yuan's statement more intensively summarized the situation of the two kings. The poem "Guwei" says: "The evil of the secluded is no greater than that of the relatives, and the secluded wife and the temple confuse the soft and evil people; Li is an arrogant and upright person. " The ancients said that the Western Zhou Dynasty was a bad king and called it a gift. However, before seclusion, it was slightly different from being degraded, because Wang You's sin was much more specific than Wang Li's. Wei Yuan's "Jiang Yu" refers to Li Wang, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, the father of Guo Gong, who was in charge of military conquest. By so-called, I mean that another official is in charge of finance. Calling them "righteous villains" shows the firm attitude of Li Wang's two confidants in carrying out reforms.
From the above, we know that Zhou Liwang is a reformer who is faced with the situation of "hard to return". He carried out political, economic, military and legal reforms. However, opposite him is a powerful aristocrat who has no experience (because he is the first person, he can't learn anything from it). The reform involved too many people's interests, so that the nobles were dissatisfied and even "China people" opposed it. He carried out a failed reform, but his experience and lessons will be of great benefit to future reformers.
Method 2
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Why did Zhou Liwang's reform die?
The earliest "reformer" recorded in China's historical documents should be Zhou Liwang, but he went down in history as a "villain". Zhou Liwang was the tenth king of the Western Zhou Dynasty, who reigned for 37 years. Historians only praised Zhou Liwang as "the earliest reformer in China", but his "reform" led to his ruin and became a famous "tyrant" in history.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, Wang Dao was "slightly short" (Zhou Benji's Historical Records), and in Zhou Yiwang, "the royal family was slightly short, and the princes refused to obey the court and fought with each other" (Chu family history). There are only two ways before Li Guowang-maintaining the status quo without reform or waiting for death! Or reform, desperately get out of trouble.
In order to revitalize the royal economy, Li began to be "good at managing money" shortly after his abdication, and he was honored as a "noble man" who was "good at profit and didn't know great difficulties" Rong's economic reform policy has three aspects: first, he ordered the forests and rivers to be nationalized, and civilians were not allowed to collect firewood and fish for hunting; The second is to sell titles and take money from the rich; The third is the "private land" that civilians are forbidden to cultivate, and taxes are increased from the original land of civilians. Forcibly depriving nobles of economic resources shook the political foundation of the royal family and lost the support of the upper class. Selling officials and titles betrayed the legitimacy of power and the authority of the dynasty, destroyed the normal channels of attracting talents, lowered the quality of officials, corrupted the management of officials, and made the middle layer a decadent fault. Corrupt officials' administration will inevitably break the rules, distort policies, abuse power for personal gain, and make the reform lose justice, morality and popular support. Forcibly depriving the poor of their assets, imposing exorbitant taxes and levies, and making people miserable, the bottom has become a volcano boiling with public grievances. Rong's short-sighted economic policy benefited the royal family unilaterally, while ordinary nobles and civilians became victims of reform and were attacked. Such a reform is tantamount to self-harm.
Militarily, King Li tried to solve the problem of the dominance of the vassal state headed by Chu by force, to revive the ruling position of the royal family, to change the situation of repeated invasions by neighboring ethnic minorities, and to solve the disadvantages of weakness. Therefore, he sent Guo Gong's eldest father to southern operations. Reform requires long-term stability and a relatively stable internal and external environment. Zhou Liwang launched a war against vassal tribes under the circumstances of insufficient economic strength, unstable internal affairs and heavy resistance, which not only aggravated financial difficulties, but also further worsened the internal and external environment. The correct way is to give priority to the peaceful rise of the Central Plains, comprehensively use political consultation, economic cooperation and cultural exchange to solve the problem of vassal status, use diplomatic means to solve the surrounding disputes, and eliminate the most important military threat through local wars. Making enemies inside and outside Li Wang is like playing with fire.
In order to ensure the progress of the "Revolutionary Code", Li Guowang used rough means to deal with the opposition (conservatives). "If Wang is angry, he will protect the witch and make the accuser kill him" (Historical Records Zhou Benji). People in Wei Wu are scattered in the capital to monitor "China people" who express their opinions in public, while Wei Wu himself and his cronies are monitoring officials who dare to put forward different opinions on the New Deal around the court. High-handed measures are effective in the short term, and Chinese people dare to be angry and dare not speak. Zhou Liwang is very proud. He thinks "I can slander". Seeing the public grievances and potential political crisis, he advised Li to say, "It is better to defend the people's mouths than to defend Sichuan. The river will collapse, many people will get hurt, and so will the people. It is Sichuan's reason, and the decision is guidance; For the people, announce it. " ("Mandarin Zhou Yu") Zhou Liwang didn't listen and did the opposite, which finally caused the "Chinese riots". King Li's simple, childish and rude behavior is tantamount to suicide.
Social reform involves all levels of society, and it is difficult to succeed without popularizing knowledge. The adjustment of the pattern of interests will inevitably lead to imbalance and dissatisfaction. "Dishonoring the king" is the normal reaction of nobles, officials and the public to "reform the code". The rational approach should be to emancipate the mind, fine-tune and gradually, make it easy first and then difficult, and guide the situation according to the situation. Different opinions are not necessarily wrong. We should listen to "slander the king" with an open mind, classify and channel, and resolve resentment. High-handed treatment is bound to cause public outrage. As a public enemy of the ruling and opposition parties, Li Guowang is simply seeking death.
2
The "dead hole" of Zhou Liwang's reform lies in his failure to realize the deep-seated contradiction between "the unification of imperial power" and "vassal autonomy". After negotiations between the King of Wu and merchants, he implemented the policy of "sealing the clan for a week" and established vassal states. A unified country must concentrate its military strength, and the local army of the vassal first becomes a tool for the vassal to compete for hegemony, and finally becomes a tool to threaten the central government. Under the system of enfeoffment, there is a logical contradiction in the political identity of governors. In the view of the central dynasty, the power of governors came from the dynasty, and the state was appointed by the court. The vassal should be an agency of the imperial court, and the vassal must obey the king's orders and pay tribute and taxes. In the eyes of vassals, I am an autonomous region, and I am the master of my territory. There are ethical contradictions among family privileges, personal power and dynasty authority of princes. The autonomy of the vassal family was named monarch by the king, which was hereditary. The descendants of vassals inherited the power of their fathers, not appointed by the court. The hereditary system of princes' thrones overhead the "sending" of imperial power enfeoffment Power is only responsible for its source. Hereditary princes' political feelings, loyalty and sense of responsibility to the king of Zhou declined from generation to generation, and the princes gradually alienated Germany, took advantage of the situation and resisted Germany until the rebellion.
Government affairs at all levels should correspond to financial power. In fact, the relationship between the affairs and financial power of the Zhou royal family and the princes is unclear, and the financial power of the princes is unlimited, and their obligations are unclear. The governors collected taxes from the local people, and the tax tasks assigned to the governors in the Zhou Dynasty were shared by the governors. As a result, the people did not pay less, and the central government did not take more. The vassal economy expanded viciously, and some ambitious vassal kings secretly expanded their troops, but their tails were too big. The military and economic expansion of powerful vassal States forced other vassal States to expand their military strength for self-improvement and self-protection. The central dynasty could not stop the hegemony of the princes by force. The weak princes were not protected by the royal family and were forced to form an alliance to protect each other. The royal family lost its authority and was doomed to decline.
The primary task of Li Wang's reform is to reform the political system, to "divide the vassals" in time, and to implement centralized system, or "one country, two systems" between the Central Plains and vassal states, or "alliance system" in which military diplomacy is centralized and personnel, finance and legal system are vertically separated. Li Wang's superficial reform is piecemeal, without considering the interests of dynasties, rulers and civilians. Unilateral reform policies aimed at the interests and needs of the central dynasty are difficult to work.
Zhou Liwang doesn't want to die. He wants to fight his way out of trouble. As a result, he made an inappropriate decision and died in despair. A "China uprising" ended his dream of reform.