Many historical records of Ji Hu, the King of Zhou Li, are tyrants, such as the "Chronicle of History": "Yu Li was in a daze, and he lost his pickaxe." "He reigned for 37 years, because he listed mountains and rivers and forests as a state monopoly, hunting and collecting taxes, fishing also collected taxes, contrary to the Zhou Dynasty's mountain forest and river Ze to benefit the people's livelihood of the canon system." In addition, the people were not allowed to talk about him privately, and after reporting him, he would be executed, so he complained and could only rise up and attack him, and finally drove him away, and later gave him the nickname "King Li of Zhou", which means tyrannical and cruel.
However, from the excavation of some bronzes, such as "Yu Zhongyu" and "Badhou Yi Fangding", etc., from these inscriptions, King Li of Zhou was a king who combined the merits of the military, and he conquered Huaiyi in the south, Yanyi in the northern expedition, and Suyi in the east, laying the foundation for maintaining the rule of Western Zhou. When we evaluate King Li of Zhou now, we should not comment on it in the context of the moment, but should return to the environment of the Zhou Dynasty to study.
Why did King Li of Zhou want to reform
The Zhou Dynasty was a country born from primitive society, and the "Poetry daya" records that the Zhou Dynasty "Tao Fu Tao Cave" also lived a cave life. After the formation of the Western Zhou state, the land system gradually destroyed the public ownership of the original tribes. Later, the public arable land and grassland were divided, and at first these fiefs were only temporary, and then they formed permanent fiefs. But forests, pastures and swamps remain public.
When the public ownership of land was destroyed, the social political and economic systems of the Western Zhou Dynasty still retained traces of primitive society. For example, in the "Mencius Liang Hui WangXia", it is recorded: "In the past, King Wen zhiyi Qiye, the cultivator Jiuyi, the Ren Shilu, the Guanshi ridicule but not the levy, the Zeliang is forbidden, and the sinner is not Qing." That is to say, slave owners and nobles have enjoyed abundant officials and houlu for generations, and land must be taxed to the Zhou Dynasty, such as checkpoints, wells, swamps, and mountains and rivers, which is the old rule of the Zhou Dynasty.
In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Tianzi divided the land among his relatives to prevent the encroachment of other surrounding tribes, and also in the Zhou King's fiefdom, it was also divided into plots of various sizes and rewarded to his princes and ministers. In the "Great Keding", it is recorded that in addition to rewarding his subordinates with land, Zhou Tianzi also had mountains and forests, such as King Zhou Cheng's division of the "Mountains and Rivers of Tin, Vassals of Tutian". In the last year of the Zhou Dynasty, during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, there were also a large number of lands, mountains and rivers.
The lands acquired by the nobles from Zhou Tianzi were hereditary and enjoyed actual possession rights, and the lands of the nobles could be transferred and exchanged with each other. The nobles re-enfeoffed a large amount of the land they occupied to their subordinates, and these people were only responsible for the nobles who had been given their own land and no longer paid tribute to Zhou Tianzi. In the "Zhao Bo Hu Yin" recorded that in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, slave owners and nobles had a large amount of fertile land, and constantly occupied the mountain and river territories as private property, and the land actually controlled by the Zhou royal family was getting smaller and smaller.
After the Zhou Dynasty arrived at Cheng and Kang, it had slowly shown signs of ruin. In particular, after the Chu state in the south rose up, it openly disobeyed the command of the Zhou royal family. Moreover, the State of Chu joined forces with some surrounding countries to openly rebel, and King Zhou Zhao was forced to march south, and many bronzes now record this historical fact.
When King Zhou Zhao arrived in the State of Chu, the State of Chu was forced to show obedience, because it was necessary to cross the Han River, and the State of Chu sent King Zhou Zhao's gorgeous ships, but these boats were glued together, and when the boats reached the middle of the Han River, they dissolved, so the whole ship was scattered, and King Zhou Zhao and his six divisions all fell into the Han Water and drowned. Therefore, the history books record that "King Zhao's southern expedition did not return", and he never returned after the southern expedition.
Later, when King Zhou Mu was facing the same problem, in the west, Inu Rong began to openly rebel, and King Zhou Mu was also forced to conquest Inu Rong, ostensibly successful in conquest of Inu Rong, but the border was still troubled. In the "Biography of Mu Tianzi", it is recorded that King Mu of Zhou paraded around, in fact, to solve the problem of hidden dangers on the border.
Therefore, the Zhou Dynasty experienced the King of Zhou Gong, the King of Zhou Yi, the King of Zhou Xiao, and the King of Zhou Yi, and did not get a major improvement, so it became more and more serious during the zhou li king period. Although this historical material is not recorded in the "Records of History", it is recorded in detail in historical materials such as the Book of later Han.
Among them, the Wei state history book "Bamboo Book Chronicle" unearthed in the Western Jin Dynasty records in detail the period of King Li of Zhou, Rong Di and Huaiyi in the south, and there were many wars in Western Zhou at that time, and each war was very tragic, so King Li of Zhou had to face the dilemma of fighting on the northern and southern fronts.
This can understand why King Li of Zhou "levied tyrannically" and let Rong Yigong help him loot the wealth of the people. Because King Li of Zhou's military expenditure was very large, and at the same time, in order to meet the needs of various wars, he was forced to requisition various materials from the people, which undoubtedly aggravated the contradictions between the Zhou Dynasty and the people.
King Li of Zhou's reforms
In the bronze "Yi Ruin", it is recorded that King Li of Zhou strengthened the management of concubines, houses, and criminal law on the one hand; on the other hand, he abolished the land system in terms of the land system and deprived the nobles of the right to inherit land. Although the republican administration period was abolished, by the time of King Xuan of Zhou, the system of King Li of Zhou was restored, and the fields of some of the great nobles were confiscated.
In order to strengthen patent policy, King Li of Zhou appointed Rong Yigong, Wei Wu and others, and abandoned the old vassals of the Zhou royal family. Moreover, in order to ensure that his new system could be implemented, King Li of Zhou asked Wei Wu to "kill those who are accused of slander, and although there are fewer people to discuss, the princes will not come to pay tribute.
King Li of Zhou's reform was to strengthen the financial revenue of the Zhou royal family by confiscating the private property of the great nobles and the public property left behind. However, King Li's reforms touched the economic interests of the great nobles and aroused their fierce opposition. Threatening King Li of Zhou to "be unfavorable to the people, such as not being able to overcome them, the people's differences, and the competition for office", the contradiction between King Li of Zhou and the nobles was about to erupt.
King Li's reforms provoked opposition from the lower nobility and commoners, who did not enjoy the Zhou royal family's favors and were exploited by the great nobles. After years of conquest, the countryside is desolate, and they have to rely on the mountains and forests for a living, and the tax burden of these mountains and forests is undoubtedly to cut off the back road for these people. Under these circumstances, the great nobles of the Zhou royal family and the Zhengren and Shi people joined forces to launch a rebellion, and king Li of Zhou could only flee to Shanxi and finally died there.
In order to meet the needs of the war, King Li of Zhou attacked the great nobles and deprived the lower nobles and commoners of the mountains and rivers and woodlands on which they depended, thus leading to a rebellion in which the great nobles united with the commoners. However, King Li of Zhou abandoned the patriarchy of the Zhou royal family and boldly reformed, which destroyed the deep-rooted patriarchal system of Western Zhou. In the "Song of Tang Di", it is recorded that King Li of Zhou abandoned his relatives and boldly appointed a virtuous person. King Li's reforms were a prelude to the transformation from slavery to feudalism and had a major impact on the political system after the Spring and Autumn Period.
It is recorded in the "BadHou Ding" that King Li of Zhou achieved great success in countering YiDi's invasion of the Zhou Dynasty. Both the Chu state in the south and xiongqu in the east were once again subjected during the reign of King Li of Zhou. This also reflects from the side that the Zhou Li King period once achieved the strength of the Western Zhou. King Li of Zhou successfully launched a counterattack against Yidi, enabling the Chinese nation to have a relatively stable living and production environment, which was conducive to the social and economic development of Western Zhou.
References: "General Knowledge of China" Zhou Gucheng, "Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions Generation history evidence" Tang Lan, "History", "Book of Later Han"