The Shang martingale Fangsheng, now in the Shanghai Museum, is inscribed with inscriptions from more than 2,000 years ago. The inscription on the side of the fangsheng, which seems to be the birth certificate of the shang martingale Fangsheng, contains the time when the shang martingale fangsheng appeared, the size of the body, and the name of the designer - Daliang Zhaomartin, which is what we know as the shang martingale. The text at the bottom is the Edict of the Four Crosses of the First Emperor, and after 123 years, the Qin state finally recognized the profound meaning represented by the Shang Martingale Fangsheng.
Shang Martin was an outstanding politician, reformer, and thinker during the Warring States period, and a very important figure in Chinese history. He was deeply influenced by Han Feizi and was one of the representative figures of Legalist thought. Although he had some great ambitions and hills in his chest, he was only a protégé of the Wei State Minister's uncle for many years, and he had not yet shown his face in front of the monarch. However, Gong Shuzuo recommended Shang Martin on his deathbed, and he said to the Wei state monarch that Shang Martingale was "young and has wizards, and wishes the king to listen to the whole country", but after all, such a recommendation was recommended when Gong Shuzuo was dying, and wei Guojun naturally could not really reuse Shang Martingale, nor did he kill it, but did not pay attention to the figure of Shang Martin at all.
However, gold will always shine, Shang Martin was not reused in the State of Wei, after hearing about Qin Xiaogong's order to seek merit, he resolutely entered Qin and helped Qin Xiaogong, which eventually enabled the Qin State to successfully transition from a backward and underdeveloped border small country to the Great Qin Empire, and the Qin State was able to laugh in the Warring States period and finally be inseparable from Shang Martingale.
After Shang Martin came to the Qin State, he advocated changing the law and trying to be strong, making the Qin State stand out among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Qin State was very backward in many aspects such as politics, economy, and culture because of its partiality to the West, and because its geographical location did not occupy a dominant position, the development of the Qin State was very limited. Several generations of Qin monarchs have noticed this, have been trying to develop themselves, and eastward, over the years of efforts have little effect, Shang Martin naturally also noticed the passive situation of the Qin state.
First of all, because of the closed geographical environment of the Qin state at that time, the Qin people could not quickly perceive the development and changes of society and the progress of the productive forces, and they were insensitive to this time and again, could not recognize the importance of the idea of change, and slowly lagged behind other countries. Secondly, the economy of the Qin state is very underdeveloped, and they do not recognize the important role of advanced productive forces and the fundamental reason for the lag in economic development. Moreover, the political system of the Qin state at that time was also very backward, which could not be used as a strong support for economic development, and may even reduce the level of economic development at that time. Finally, although the ideological culture of the Qin State was previously able to inherit the advanced culture of the Zhou Dynasty for many years, it was later affected by its closed terrain and the culture of the Qin State became increasingly backward.
After talking with Qin Xiaogong, Shang Martin expressed his views and advocated reform of the law. The martingale transformation method can be said to involve political, economic, cultural and other aspects. First of all, in terms of the economic system, Shangmartin "abandoned wells and fields and opened up strangers" and attached great importance to the needs of the people. In order to arouse the enthusiasm of the broad masses of peasants, he turned the land into private property, destroyed the original backward slave production relations, and promoted the development of feudal relations. Second, in the central government, the Shang martingale advocated the centralization of power by the monarch, and the localities set up counties throughout the country for the administration of the state. This, to a large extent, increased the authority of the monarch. Finally, rewarding the military industry and implementing the system of military merit awards is also the most important reform, the purpose of which is to enrich the country and strengthen the army.
I have to say that Shang Martin is a very strategic and wise person, after the content of the change of law has been finalized, in order to make the change of law can be smoothly implemented, in order to win the trust of people, Shang Martin also made some arrangements.
He ordered a man to place a three-zhang-tall piece of wood in front of the southern gate of the capital market, and then he told the people that among the people he would recruit those who had the ability to move the three-zhang-tall piece of wood and erect it at the north gate, and if anyone had the ability to do this, Shang Martin would give him ten gold. When the order was first given, the people were surprised to see it, and no one dared to move the wood so casually. Seeing this, Shang Martin said, "Whoever has the ability to move wood to the north gate and erect it will be rewarded with fifty gold." At this time, a man appeared willing to move the wood to the north gate, and in order to show his integrity, Shang Martin immediately gave him fifty gold.
In the end, Shang Martin used this incident to show his trustworthiness to the people, and the people believed in Shang Martingale, and finally issued a decree, and the implementation of the decree in the Qin State was very smooth. The uniform weights and measures mentioned by Shang Martin in his variant proposition are impressive. This reminds me of Fang Sheng, the martingale that remained in the Shanghai Museum.
The Warring States Martingale Fangsheng is both a unit of capacity and an instrument for measuring grain. The Shang martingale fangsheng is only one liter, which was made by the Qin shang martingale in the Warring States period in order to unify weights and measures. It is 18.7 cm long, 7 cm long, 12.5 cm wide, 2.3 cm deep, 202.15 cm3 in volume, weighing 0.69 kg, and is a box-like vessel with inscriptions on three sides and the bottom of the wall of the lifter. Although the value of the martingale Fangsheng is not too high and the physique is small, it is a standard measuring instrument, which symbolizes a unified standard and norm at that time.
Compared with the houmu pengding, the shang martingale fangsheng is very small in physique, far less than the houmu pengding, through the inscription engraved on it, we can also intuitively and clearly see the small number of inscriptions, of course, it is better than the inscription inscribed on Mao Gongding, but this does not mean that the importance of the martingale fangsheng is not as important as the above two. In addition, the Shang martingale Fangsheng has not yet been as beautiful as the many bronzes in ancient times, but it is still a national treasure.
From the unified weights and measures of the Shang martingale transformation method during the Qin Xiaogong period to the unification of the Six Kingdoms by the First Emperor, the Shang Martingale Fangsheng experienced more than 120 years of actual use time. It is not difficult to find that the measure of unifying weights and measures in the Shang martingale transformation method played a strong role in promoting the Qin State at that time. With the national unified law on weights and measures, everything has certain standards and must comply with a series of normative requirements. Shang martingale Fangsheng is not one of the symbols of the unity of weights and measures in the Qin Kingdom, so Shang martingale Fangsheng naturally began the journey of measuring the world. From this, the result of the martingale square rise and the one liter of the world is derived.
The inscription engraved on the Shang martingale Fangsheng should be the most noticeable is the edict of the First Emperor after 123 years. The edict reads: "In the twenty-sixth year, the emperor merged with the princes of the world, and the qianshou Da'an was established as the emperor, and the edict was the emperor, and the law was measured without one apology, and all were clear." Is this not a recognition of the Shang Martingale's unified weights and measures? After the unification of the Six Kingdoms, the Qin State still did not abolish the decree of the Shang martingale to unify weights and measures and continue to use it, so that we understood the importance of unification. Because it is recognized and valued by a country, its status will naturally rise.