In the slave society in ancient China, slaves and land belonged to the same clan, so they were called slave countries owned by the nation.

In this country, slaves are mostly foreign prisoners of war, from freemen to nobles belong to the same clan.

So in terms of employing people, no matter whether that person is good or bad, he is always using relatives in his own clan. Even with the decline of the slavery regime, this employment policy has not changed much.

As far as Song Kingdom is concerned:

After the death of Duke * * * of Song Dynasty, Song Guo used Huayuan and Hegong. The first two are descendants of Dai Gong (Yi), and the last one is descendants of Zhuang Gong, both of whom are nobles. ①

Occasionally, there are people who don't need their relatives, such as:

Shan used foreigners to participate in politics, but was killed by the descendants of Xianggong. ②

It can be seen that it was impossible to use your relatives at that time.

However, despite using their own families and relatives to rule, there are still many slave owners and nobles who used to be in power, but they can't compete with the torrent of the times and eventually decline.

For example, the state of Jin:

Once in power, nobles-Luan, Que, etc. -became a slave; (3) Confucius himself is also a descendant of the declining nobles in the Song Dynasty.

Some nobles became slaves, and some slaves were liberated from the times and became powerful. bay

For example, Bao Wenzi of Qi State, Qi Ying of Lu State and the energy user of Jin State were all slaves, but they were all proud later!

Confucius saw this situation and thought it would not work. Is it a world where nobles are declining and slaves are proud? This is not right, we must find a way to quickly restore the old order!

What can we do? He thought it best to do this:

From aristocrats to freemen, this kindred clan should unite well.

So he put forward a slogan of "benevolence".

"Benevolence" is the ideology of the slave owner class. The word "benevolence", according to the ancient meaning, means that two people are soul mates. More than two people are the majority, so "benevolence" means that most people are connected and most people love each other.

So "benevolence" is "human"! Everyone treats each other humanely. In this way, the slogan "benevolence" looks beautiful and everyone can treat each other humanely. Not good? But in fact, it's not like this.

As far as Confucius is concerned, he talked a lot about benevolence, but he excluded slaves and other enslaved working people from it.

For example, he said: among slave owners, there can be heartless people (here refers to Ji Sun who changed the mode of production); And among slaves and enslaved working people, no one can be "kind". ①

He added: slaves sometimes seem to need "kindness" more than fire and water; But as far as I can see with my own eyes, only slaves gave their lives for fire and water, but none of them gave their lives for benevolence. It can be seen that slaves are naturally ruthless people.

But that heartless man is easy to do evil!

Won't this threaten the rule of slave owners and nobles? So the nobles should be prepared.

As can be seen from the above, Confucius has always been very strict about the boundaries between "gentlemen" (slave owners) and "villains" (slaves). The "benevolence" he said does not include all people, but only the princes and princes at that time. Confucius said that "the benevolent loves others" is completely deceptive.

So why did Confucius preach "benevolence" desperately? He wanted to unite the slave owners and freemen belonging to the ruler clan with "benevolence", and thought that if the whole clan was United, the slave rebellion could be dealt with.

So, when his students-Zhong Gong and Zi Gong asked how to be "benevolent", he replied:

Whether you are an official in the princess's house or in the doctor's house, the principle is: don't do to others what you don't want, don't do to others what you don't want. Whether such a country can resent you can unite this country or this family well.

He then replied:

To live in a country, we must first unite with the benevolent "gentlemen" in that country. ②

This is the reason why Confucius put forward the slogan of "benevolence" to unite "gentlemen" of the same ancestry.

He thinks like this:

The unity within the clan was completed, and even the relatives living outside were United, so that slaves did not dare to rebel; Not only do they dare not do bad things, but as long as the "gentlemen" are closely United and show special kindness, they will be affected and behave themselves. ①

From the slave owners and nobles to the freemen, the so-called "gentlemen" of the same descent United, and the slaves kept their positions. Can't we maintain the old order of slave society and make the world peaceful?

This is the reactionary purpose of Confucius to preach "benevolence".