The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were heretical, a perversion in ancient history. Some people regarded it as a "feudal" era and compared it to the European Middle Ages. However, due to the political legacy left by the Qin and Han Empires, it was not It is possible to repeat the process and solution of the Western European Middle Ages. The bureaucratic class and authoritarian bureaucracy, as well as the scholar class and its traditions, maintain the continuity of this historical process.

The gentry was the product of the interaction between the officialdom and the gentry, and was characterized by a family monopoly on official positions and culture. The political legacy of the Qin and Han Empires created the political and cultural template of the Chinese Empire. This is the normal state of Chinese history. The opposite abnormality to the template is clan politics.

A bureaucratic political discourse

The maintenance of the imperial system must be based on a political and cultural order, and the gentry culture and metaphysical trends of the Wei, Jin, and Jiangzuo eroded this foundation. Traces of everything.

Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Xuanfeng has become more and more popular. At the beginning, there were many voices resisting and condemning idle talk and unrestrained talk. Emperor Wei Ming attacked Xia Houxuan and others by saying that "all those who are responsible for their ostentation are exempted from official bans and abolished". A large number of meritorious officials also demanded that the court "accord their names and responsibilities, and suppress their ostentation." The ninth-grade Zhongzheng system resulted in the selection of officials based on family background and the authority of Zhongzheng, which was sharply criticized by the people of the time.

Metaphysics values ??nothingness, so there is "Chongyou Lun" which is in tit for tat opposition to it, criticizing metaphysicians for "talking vainly, not following etiquette and laws, being pampered when they are dead, and not doing anything in officialdom", the Five Husbands in China, the Eastern Jin Dynasty The destruction of Shenzhou Luchen was also blamed on metaphysics.

The gentry believed in "looking at nothing and doing empty work, which is called Qingshang. Those who are diligent and lazy will eventually stay in vulgarity" and despised those who were diligent in government affairs. The high-profile Chinese people take it for granted that they are "advancing and progressing" in their official career. However, the imperial edict at that time was still about seeking talents. Although it was just a piece of paper, it represented a long tradition since ancient times. Only talents, not family status, were promoted.

Magic is a theory used by kings to authorize and centralize power. Confucianism respects etiquette, and Legalism governs law. The two are tit for tat. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, with the rise of metaphysics, both were abandoned, so Confucianism and magic joined forces to resist metaphysics. .

Abnormality is just a big wave in the long river of time, and history will eventually return to normalcy.

2. The evolution of the official system and the legal system

Although the bureaucratic politics since the Wei and Jin Dynasties have become wilted and distorted, the bureaucratic system is still in the process of slow evolution. From a political point of view, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties between the Han and Tang Dynasties were two peaks and troughs, but from an institutional point of view, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were the intermediary, or a ladder, between the Han and Tang systems.

The formation of the three-province system was an important progress in the central institutions during this period. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the power of the prime minister was divided into three parts and became the three-province system. The three-province system developed in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, laying the foundation for the three-province system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Base.

The power of the Shangshutai in the Eastern Han Dynasty has greatly increased, but it is still "literary belongs to the Shaofu", that is, it is formally subordinate to the Shaofu, one of the nine ministers. The Cao Wei Shishu Ling was officially independent. The Shangshu Ling of the Jin Dynasty already had the power of the prime minister. The Liang Shishu Ling was ranked in the 16th rank, that is, the second rank, and in the Chen Dynasty it was the first rank. In the Jin Dynasty, there was talk of the Jiuqing being merged into the Shangshu Province. By the Chen Dynasty, the relationship between the six bureaus and the Jiuqing became a succession of superiors and subordinates.

Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province came into being one after another, and together with Shangshu Province, they formed the predecessor of the three-province system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. After the Cao and Wei Dynasties developed into a state agency, the emperor asked Zhongshu Province to succeed Shangshu Province. Appointment of Confidential Secretary. Shizhong was originally an attendant of the emperor. During the Western Jin Dynasty, it developed into a province called Menxiasheng. There were four Shizhongs, as well as Huangmen Shilang, Sanqi Shilang, and Geishi. The responsibilities of the servants are to inquire closely, pick up missing pieces and make up for mistakes. They can also deal with the affairs of the minister, and sometimes they can influence the succession of the throne and the selection of ministers. Both the memorials to the minister and the edicts issued by the emperor need to be reviewed by the minister. The draft of the edict signed by the emperor's "edict" must be submitted to the provincial office first, and then submitted to the emperor's "can" again before it can be handed over to the minister for effective execution. In the Southern Dynasties, feudal power was much more institutionalized than in the Han Dynasty.

After the development of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the division of labor among the three provinces in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Zhongshu drafted the imperial edict, the subordinates reviewed it, and the Shangshu executed it. The division of labor was clear and the checks and balances were precise.

The "laws and orders" of the Qin and Han Dynasties were corroded after the Wei and Jin Dynasties. However, the legal system itself did not stand still.

The legal forms of the Han Dynasty were laws, orders, ke, and bi, but there was no clear differentiation. There were still problems such as the indistinguishability of laws and orders, and the mixture of etiquette and laws. This was greatly changed in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. "Laws are used to correct crimes, and orders are used to regulate affairs." , the properties of both are clearly defined.

The laws of the Tang Dynasty were divided into four categories: laws, orders, patterns, and styles. "Laws are based on punishments and convictions, orders are used to establish norms and systems, patterns are used to prohibit violations and evil, and styles are used to track objects and procedures." From the "code system of laws and regulations" in the Han Dynasty to the "format system of laws and regulations" in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it took the Wei and Jin Dynasties as a step. In addition, the legal scholars Zhang Fei and Du Yu of the Jin Dynasty wrote annotations for the law, which greatly standardized the legal concept, which was an important progress in jurisprudence. Zhang Fei's "Lv Biao" is considered to be the first "Lv Shu" in the Tang Dynasty. Another example is Liu Song, who proposed that if there are no stipulations in the names of laws and regulations, then "nothing should be discussed". This is more than a thousand years earlier than the view of Western scholars that "it is not a crime if there is no explicit law."

The centralization of the three official selection powers

The core content of medieval gentry politics was the privilege of selecting officials for the gentry. However, it cannot be considered that the only praiseworthy aspects of the medieval official selection system are The privilege of electing officials.

In response to the need for centralization, the power to select officials should also be vested in the central government, which is called "centralization of official selection." During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, although the imperial power declined, the selection of officials was centralized but did not stagnate.

As mentioned in the previous articles, only aristocratic families based on the officialdom will have a long-term future. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, gentry families have been based on the officialdom, using the officialdom as the big stage. Therefore, although the ninth-grade Zhongzheng made The natural separation between the gentry and the common people allowed the gentry to monopolize the channels for advancement. However, due to the needs of the aristocratic families themselves, the centralization of official selection inevitably continued. Only those with court titles and power were the monopolists of the top grades.