Political and military systems and laws
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the political system of the Qin Dynasty was basically followed. Under the emperor, there are prime minister Qiu and imperial envoys, who are in charge of government affairs, military affairs and supervision respectively, which are called "three fairs". Under the "three publics", there is a "Jiuqing" who is in charge of the country's military and political affairs and state affairs. In addition to following the county system in the Qin Dynasty, local administrative agencies also enfeoffed princes and kings in the early Han Dynasty, forming a criss-crossing situation of counties and countries. The county system is inherited from the Qin dynasty, and the national official position is modeled after the central government. Grassroots organizations below the county level are still towns and villages. In this way, a set of ruling institutions from the central government to the local government was restored.
In order to consolidate feudal rule, the Western Han Dynasty established a more complete armed force than the Qin Dynasty. In the central government, the Southern Army and the Northern Army were established, led by Wei Wei and Captain respectively, as standing armies to guard the palace and the capital. In the local area, there are well-trained reserve forces, including material officers (infantry) and knights (cavalry) according to the specific conditions of the area. These reserve forces are all in charge of the county magistrate and county commandant. The soldiers of the standing army and the reserve army are all "regular troops" recruited by the county.
In the early Han Dynasty, in addition to establishing an army, laws were also made. At the beginning of Liu bang's entry into the customs, the three chapters of the contract were only a stopgap measure. After the establishment of the Western Han regime, Liu Bang ordered Xiao He to formulate Chinese laws with reference to Qin laws. In addition to the three tribes of Yi people in the Qin Dynasty and the sitting method, three chapters were added on the basis of the Qin Dynasty to form nine chapters, so it was called the nine-chapter method. In addition to one of the laws, the emperor's orders also play a legal role and must be unconditionally implemented. This is the characteristic of feudal autocratic political system.
Suppress separatist forces
As early as the Chu-Han War, in order to defeat Xiang Yu, Liu Bang made Han Xin, Ying Bu, Peng Yue and other important generals as kings. There were seven kings with different surnames in the early Han Dynasty. In addition, more than 40 people such as Xiao He/kloc-0 were named as liehou. The existence of these kings with different surnames is a serious threat to centralization.
From 202 BC to 0/95 BC, Emperor Gaozu killed Han Xin, Peng Yue, Ying Bu and Zangcha. On the charge of rebellion, Zhang Qian, his son, was abolished as a liehou and fled to Xiongnu, leaving only the least powerful person. With the elimination of different surnames, Emperor Gaozu "punished the loss of Qin's isolation", successively enfeoffed Liu's nine sons as kings instead of different surnames, and killed Baima as an ally, vowing: "If Liu is not king, the world will attack him." In fact, the existence of feudal countries will inevitably produce centrifugal force on centralization. With the recovery and development of social economy, the king's influence is expanding day by day, and the king holds political and economic powers such as collecting taxes, appointing and dismissing officials, and minting coins. It has formed a trend of "the tail is too big to fall".
In BC 177, Liu Xingju, king of northern Hebei, took advantage of Emperor Wen's attack on Xiongnu and launched an armed rebellion. Three years later, Liu Chang, king of Huainan, followed in Liu Xingju's footsteps. Although these two rebellions were eliminated, Liu Bi, the king of Wu who owns 53 cities, showed signs of disloyalty. Faced with the increasingly powerful local separatist forces, many officials feel that the situation is grim. Jia Yi, a doctor in Liang Wang at that time, gave Wendi a famous "public security policy" and put forward the idea of "building princes with less strength". According to this suggestion, Wendi divided some kingdoms into smaller kingdoms and sealed his son in Liang as a barrier. In the Jingdi period, the rebellion of Wu Wang Liu Bi became more obvious. Therefore, Chao Cuo, an ancient suggestion, suggested cutting off the fiefs of the vassals. Emperor Jingdi adopted Chao Cuo's suggestion of "cutting the vassal" and began to cut off part of the land of the kingdom and put it under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. In BC 154 (three years before Emperor Jingdi), Wu Chu and other seven countries sent troops to rebel. Wu is the mastermind and leader of this rebellion. Relying on Wu's superior conditions such as smelting copper, casting money and cooking salt, he had already planned to seize the throne. He joined forces with King Jiao Xi, King Chu, Zhao Haoqi, King Ji 'nan, King Yanchuan and King Jiaodong, and * * * set out with him on the pretext of "please punish Chao Cuo and take the side of Qing Jun". With the outbreak of the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, Jingdi sent Qiu Zhou Yafu and others to send troops to meet him and killed Chao Cuo at the same time. But Liu Bi continued to attack, so Jingdi was determined to quell the rebellion. Zhou Yafu led a great army to meet the rebels of the seven countries in Wu Chu. Xia Yi (Dangshan East, Anhui Province) in World War I, "Wu was defeated, and many soldiers were hungry and rebellious." Zhou Yafu led the elite soldiers in pursuit, while Liu Bi, the king of Wu, led only a thousand people to flee south, and was later killed by Dong Ou. Other countries have also been defeated. The rebellion of the seven countries was put down in three months. The suppression of the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms dealt a fatal blow to the feudal lords.
In BC 145 (the fifth year of Yuan Dynasty), Emperor Jingdi "suppressed the loss of princes and reduced their officials", changed the prime minister of the kingdom to prime minister, abolished his royal advisers, Ting Wei and other officials, and also cut other officials below the doctor's degree. Bringing all the administrative powers of the kingdom and the appointment and removal of officials to the central government will "make it impossible for the captaincy to restore its rule over the country" and to master the political army. Since then, the kingdom has actually become the same local organization as the counties directly under the central government.
Issue a "pardon order"
In 140 BC, after Liang Wudi ascended the throne, he further took a series of measures to strengthen centralization and continue to crack down on local forces.
In 127 BC (the second year of yuanshuo), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted the advice of Zhu, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and promulgated the Order of Grace. It is stipulated that all princes except the eldest son inherit the throne are assigned to fiefs within the kingdom as vassal States. Since then, "a big country is only more than ten cities, and Hou Yaozong is only dozens of miles". The smaller the country, the weaker its strength. Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty formulated the Law of Left Officials and established the Law of Attached Interests. According to the Law on Left Officials, any official who belongs to the country and whose status is lower than that appointed by the Central Committee shall not hold a post in the Central Committee. In order to limit the recruitment of talents by governors. The Law of Incidental Interests prohibits the officials of the vassal state from colluding with the vassal state for personal gain, so as to isolate the vassal state. In 1 12 BC (five years), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the warlord Wang Xian as an excuse to 106 people, accounting for half of the governors at that time. At this point, although the second-class title system of Wang and Hou still exists, Wang and Hou can only "pay for food, clothing and rent", and can't ask about state affairs and fief land for the people. Through these measures, the separation of princes and kings since the early Han Dynasty was basically ended. Since then, the central government has strengthened its control over local governments.
The Political System of the Han Dynasty (2)
Strengthen the centralization of monarchy
In order to strengthen centralization and improve imperial power, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took measures to limit the power of the prime minister. He personally intervened in all government affairs, making Jiuqing speak directly to him without going through the prime minister. At the same time, he also promoted a group of middle and lower level officials as his senior attendants and assistants to advise him. In this way, there is a distinction between "China" and "foreign" among North Korean officials. The "China-DPRK", which consists of ministers, ministers and attendants, has become the actual decision-making organ, while the diplomatic officials headed by the Prime Minister have gradually become the organs that carry out general government affairs. The formation of Chinese and foreign dynasties showed the high concentration of imperial power.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also promulgated a new system of selecting officials to expand the ruling base. There are two main sources of officials in the early Han dynasty: one is to select officials at all levels according to their ranks, and the other is to select officials from among lang officials, that is, Langzhong, Langzhong, Langzhong and Ichiro under the orders of Langzhong. Lang Guan's duty is to guard the palace and be the emperor's attendant. After a period of time, if there are vacancies in the central or local officials, they can be selected from among the lang officials. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the military landlords had declined. Langguan mostly comes from "Ren Zi" or "Yong Xuan", so it is difficult to select real talents. Therefore, after Emperor Wu ascended the throne, in addition to the above system, a new selection system was established: First, the inspection system. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty had the choice of "being virtuous" and "being filial", but it did not form a formal system. At the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was clearly stipulated that all candidates for prime minister, liehou, secretariat, garrison and equality had to pass the examination before they could be appointed to official positions. Soon after, it was stipulated that elections should be held in proportion to the number of people, and the restrictions on assets were lifted. In this way, the procuratorial system is gradually improved.
The second is the "conscription system". Recruiting people who have certain abilities but refuse to be officials was summoned by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. They are really talented and have been awarded official positions. There is also a system of "writing on the bus". Officials and people all over the world are writing and speaking. If they are desirable, they will be awarded official positions according to their merits.
Third, those with excellent doctoral examination results can also join the ranks. In 124 BC (the fifth year of Yuanshuo), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty adopted the suggestion of the Palace and set up a doctoral student in the Five Classics to take the exam every year. Those who pass the above examinations can make up for the vacancy of literary anecdotes, and those who get the first-class results will be named Lang Guan. Through these measures, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty selected a group of talents, thus further strengthening the feudal ruling institutions.
Regain the right to coin
In the early Han Dynasty, counties were allowed to make money freely. On the one hand, it has caused confusion in the monetary system and hindered the normal exchange of goods. On the other hand, some aristocratic bureaucrats and wealthy businessmen dajia manipulated the right to coin money, making them richer than the emperor and threatening the central government. Coinage provided important economic support for Wu Chu in the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion.
In 65438 BC+065438 BC+03 BC (four years), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered all counties and countries to ban the minting of coins, transported privately minted coins from all over the country to the capital for destruction, and returned the minting right to the central government. A special coinage institution was set up, that is, subordinate officials such as Shuiheng, Guanzhong, Biantong and Guan Shu were responsible for minting five baht. The newly minted five baht money (also known as Shanglin money or Sanguan money) was as heavy as a book, high in quality and easy to circulate, and became the only legal tender at that time.
Harnessing the Yellow River
Compared with the Warring States period, the water conservancy in the Western Han Dynasty made new progress. The outstanding achievement is to harness the Yellow River and build some large-scale water conservancy projects in Guanzhong and other places.
Harnessing the Yellow River was a large-scale water conservancy project in the Western Han Dynasty. In the early Han Dynasty, the Yellow River burst its banks many times, causing serious floods. In 132 BC (the third year of Yuanguang), the Yellow River burst again in Zanzi (southwest of Puyang, Henan Province), and floods spread all over 16 county. In BC 109 (the second year of Yuanfeng), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty recruited tens of thousands of migrant workers to go to Xiuzhi. After this regulation, there has been no major disaster in the Yellow River for 80 years.
"well and canal method"
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, several large irrigation canals were dug in Guanzhong. In BC 129, under the leadership of Xu Bo, a famous water conservancy engineer, tens of thousands of migrant workers were recruited and a canal parallel to the Weihe River was dug. Caoqu is on the south bank of Weihe River and flows eastward into the Yellow River, with a total length of 100 km. After the completion of the canal, it not only shortened the water transportation time in this section by half, but also benefited more than 10,000 hectares of land on both sides of the canal.
At the same time, migrant workers were recruited to repair the leading canal. This canal is used to divert water from Zhuangtou Village, Chengcheng County, Shaanxi Province to irrigate fields in Pucheng and Dali, Shaanxi Province. The strait runs through Mount Shang Yan. The soil here is loose and the canal embankment is easy to collapse, so the general construction method cannot be adopted. Using their wisdom, the working people invented the "well canal method" to make the Longshou canal pass through Shang Yan, which is seven miles wide, from underground. This is the first underground canal in the history of China. In BC11year (the sixth year of Ding Yuan), six auxiliary canals were built in the upper reaches of Zheng Guoqu. In 95 BC (the second year of Taishi), Jinghe River was led from Zhongshankou (northwest of Jingyang, Shaanxi) to Liyang (Liyang Town, Lintong, Shaanxi), that is, the White Canal. The entire canal is nearly 200 miles long and has irrigated more than 4,500 hectares of farmland. The soil in the water can fertilize the farmland. In addition, the farmland irrigated by Wenshui under Mount Tai in Shandong, the farmland irrigated by Yellow River in Gansu, and the farmland irrigated by Huaishui in Anhui, etc.
County system
The so-called county refers to the county and the country refers to the country, and the county system is a political system implemented in the early Western Han Dynasty. Counties and feudal countries were high-level local administrative divisions in the early Han Dynasty. Counties were directly subordinate to the central government, while feudal countries were ruled by enfeoffment kings. Liu Bang believes that feudalism has the advantage of shielding vassals and counties have the right to control, so the two are parallel, which makes the country form a county system in which feudal counties coexist. However, due to the long time, the feudal forces have gradually become more and more powerful, forming a trend of being too big to fail, which is difficult for the central government to control. Therefore, when Emperor Wen, Jia Yi suggested weakening the governors; When he arrived at Jingdi, Chao Cuo further proposed to cut the king's fiefs. Therefore, in order to protect their own interests, kings fought against the Han Dynasty under the slogan of "Kill Chao Cuo, clear the monarch's side", which is known as the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" in history. The backstage emperor sent Zhou Yafu to put down the rebellion, and the kings were killed. Since then, Emperor Jingdi has returned all the military and political power of the kingdom and the appointment and dismissal of officials to the central government, and the kingdom has been enfeoffed in name only.
Regional field method
Or regional planting, is a method of farmland cultivation, which was first recorded in Fan Sheng Zhi's book when he proclaimed himself emperor. The specific method is to ditch or dig a pit in the middle of the field, which is called the area and sow seeds in the area. Sowing should be done before sowing (treated with fertilizer or insect-resistant substances) and heavy fertilizer should be applied in this area. Pay attention to intertillage weeding, maintenance and irrigation after planting. The advantage of this farming method is that intensive cultivation on a small area of land can increase the yield per unit area; It can also be applied to sloping land, which is conducive to expanding the scope of land use. Area field method has high technical requirements and labor-consuming, and has not been popularized.
Wear the sky method
A method of farmland cultivation summarized by Zhao Guo, a captain of Sousu in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, was implemented in the arid areas in the north. The method is to customize an acre of land to six feet, divided into three holes and three ridges, and the hole is one foot wide, one foot deep and one foot wide. In the first year of planting, the seeds are sown at the bottom of the deep bed, and the soil and grass on the ridge are hoed into the deep bed one by one during intertillage to cultivate the root system of the seedlings. In summer, the ridges in Shenzhen flatten out. In the second year of planting, it was changed. In the last year, Shenzhen was changed to a ridge, and the ridge was changed to Shenzhen. This kind of rotation farming is called substitution farmland method. The advantage of this farming method is that seeds can be protected at the bottom of the pit, and seedlings can get more water in the pit. During intertillage, the soil and grass on the ridge can be hoed in into the pit, so that crops can take root deeply, which is beneficial to growth and increase yield. The method of replacing land with land began in Sanfu, and was later extended to Hedong, Hongnong and even border counties.
Western Han wasteland
The government of Han Dynasty (crab government) used foot soldiers to defend criminals and recruited farmers to reclaim wasteland to produce food for military supplies. There is a difference between people's villages and military villages. The former, as in the second year of Yuan Shuo (BC 127), recovered the land in Henan and raised 100,000 people to live in it. The latter, such as the second year of Emperor Zhao (the first 85 years), sent troops to wasteland Zhangye County.