This is a saying made by Shang Yang in a debate with the nobles during the reform period
"Tang and Wu became kings without following the ancients, and Xia and Yin died because they did not follow the etiquette"
King Tang of Wu of Shang Dynasty did not follow the ancient ruling strategies dogmatically and became king. Xia Jie adhered to the ancient laws and perished.
It is intended to show that one cannot stick to the rules and must adapt to the changes of the times.
Shang Yang's reforms The historical significance
If we look at it from a current perspective, not only is Shang Yang the sinner of modern China's backwardness, but the entire feudal system is the main reason why China lags behind today's capitalist countries. Shang Yang's reform was a fatal fetter on the conservative thinking of rulers in the past dynasties, and it was backward and destructive. However, if we look at Shang Yang's reforms in the era in which Shang Yang himself lived, we can see how significant and far-reaching the positive significance of Shang Yang's reforms was. By the late Spring and Autumn Period, the slavery system, which had lasted for nearly two thousand years, had completely exposed its severely backward and decadent nature that hindered social development. It was imperative to complete the transformation from slavery to feudalism through reforms. It was just that Shang Yang followed the trend of the times and completed the reforms in his hands.
As for Shang Yang's use of more severe means to complete the reform, later generations have quite different opinions on this, and generally they praise less and criticize more. Of course, because Shang Yang's policies were basically in opposition to Confucianism, it was understandable that he would be severely criticized by Confucian scholars in the later feudal society where Confucianism would dominate. There is no denying that Shang Yang had extremely stubborn thoughts in his character, which was very similar to Wang Anshi. Shang Yang used Legalist academic viewpoints to carry out political and economic reforms, and he would inevitably use some relatively tough measures. He advocated: "If you don't govern the world according to the rules, the country will not follow the ancient laws." That is to say, we must use some practices that are not in line with the ethics and education of the time to carry out reforms. We must not stick to the old ways, but we must dare to break through the old ideas and boldly take tough measures against all the bad factors that hindered the development of society at that time. changes. These views of his would be considered extreme and radical by most people now, let alone in an era when Zhou Rites was the basis of ideological rule for more than two thousand years. It can be seen from the fact that Qin State carried out reforms and became a powerful country. Shang Yang's reforms not only made an indelible contribution to the strength of Qin State, but also greatly promoted the social development of other vassal states at that time. After Shang Yang, there were Li Kui's reforms in Wei and Wu Qi's reforms, and later Wu Qi's reforms in Chu. After a series of vigorous political and economic reforms, Chinese society at that time had basically completed the establishment and development of the feudal system.
As for the destructive effect of Shang Yang’s reforms on academics, this makes sense. But the need for social development at that time was to end the war as soon as possible and unify China. This was a big goal. Shang Yang's reforms played a huge role in the subsequent unification of China by Qin Shihuang. This cannot be denied at any time. As my brother said, the open academic atmosphere of a hundred schools of thought in the Spring and Autumn Period had been suppressed to a suffocating level when the Qin Dynasty was established. But this was Qin Shihuang's need to rule, and there was nothing to blame. Moreover, this could not be regarded as Shang Yang's crime.
The emphasis on agriculture and neglect of commerce was also an important reason why Shang Yang was criticized by later generations. However, the reality at that time was that due to years of war, agricultural development had suffered extremely serious damage, leaving the country weak and the people impoverished. The most important task before the ruler is how to develop the country's economy, and the most important thing is how to defeat other countries and unify them as soon as possible. Moreover, judging from the situation at the time, economic development was for political needs. If a policy of lightening agriculture and valuing commerce or equal emphasis on agriculture and commerce was implemented, the result would undoubtedly be devastating for the weak Qin State. Economically, the most powerful state is Qi, and even countries such as Zhao, Wei, and Chu are much stronger than Qin. If commercial circulation is opened up, Qin's wealth will continue to flow into these countries. This made the poor Qin state even poorer and unable to gain a foothold among the princes, let alone the great cause of unification. In today's economic exchanges, economically developed countries rely on their strong financial resources to trade unequally with economically underdeveloped countries. As a result, only economically underdeveloped countries suffer.
Therefore, we cannot completely push the responsibility of the small-scale peasant economy in China for China's economic backwardness to Shang Yang. This is the inevitable development of history. I think Shang Yang's reforms are generally progressive and have great impact on China's economic backwardness. It has also made great contributions to the development of Chinese history.