Introduction: During the Warring States period, the characteristics of talent ideology and the form of flow? Foreign officials were accepted by the princes, Confucians, Lawyers, and Mos Shangxian thought
During the Warring States period, the war between the princes was not only a military war, an economic contest, a competition in comprehensive national strength, but also a war of talents, and the reason why the Qin State was able to succeed was that in addition to the emergence of many generations of Ming emperors, it was also inseparable from the talents it introduced. During the Warring States period, there was such a phenomenon in terms of the flow of talents, "into Chu Chu heavy, out of Qi Qi light, for Zhao Zhao, Pan Wei Wei wounded", and the Qin state began to seek hegemony after Shang Martin, and Shang Martin was a Wei guo, and Zhang Yi, an important king of Qin Huiwen, rose in the midst of the combination of vertical and horizontal.
Other talents, such as Lou Sui is a Zhao guoren, Wei Ran and Fan Ju are also Wei guoren, Cai Ze is a Yan national, Lü Buwei is a Korean, and Li Si is a Chu national, these are all important to Qin Jun, and there is no doubt about the use of people, so it can be seen that the importance of talents in the process of the unification of the Qin state, so what are the ideological characteristics of talents in the Warring States period?
Characteristics of talent ideology in the Warring States period
The selection and appointment of scholars was carried out in accordance with the principles of "Shangxian Thought" and "Meritocracy in Employing People", but for the "Shangxian" theory, the Confucians, Mojia, and Legalists, who had a great influence on the mainstream of society at that time, all put forward the Shangxian Theory according to the requirements of the times.
Confucian Shangxian thought
Confucian Shangxian thought began with Confucius's proposal to "raise the meritocracy", but Confucius's Shangxian and Zunxian thoughts were based on Zhou Li, the purpose of which was to maintain the monarchy rule of the slave society, which could not be adapted to the reality of social development at that time; by the middle of the Warring States period, Mencius inherited and developed Confucius's theory of honor, he proposed "honoring the sages to enable", and raised the shangxian to the height of the survival of the country, and even emphasized that the monarch did not use the sages, and the country was in danger.
At the end of the Warring States period, Xunzi inherited and perfected the ideas of Mencius and Confucius, and he proposed that the idea that the sage could be used in an exceptional way, although there was still a certain tilt in the treatment of relatives and friends, but this was a substantial progress compared with the ideas of Confucius and Mencius' zunxian and Shangxian, and at this time, the Confucian Shangxian thought was no longer from maintaining the slave system of the monarchy's rule, but was preparing for adapting to the new system of social development.
Mo Jia Shangxian thought
The representative figure of the Mo family, Mozi's criteria for using merit include three aspects, such as virtue, learning, and talent, of which virtue is the most important condition, people must not only have talent, but also have moral character, and having both ability and political integrity is the ideal sage in Mozi's heart. Mozi believes that Shangxian is the foundation of the government, the monarch has the assistance of sages, can better govern the country, Shangxian is beneficial to the people, sages manage the people, can make them recuperate, enough food and clothing; Shangxian is beneficial to the country, the country can only develop and grow under the governance of the virtuous.
Sages are the treasures of the country, the mainstay of the community, sages are crucial to the monarch, the country, the people, so Mozi advocates to recruit talents, to give the sages heavy power, good name, high officials, Houlu, so as to absorb more virtuous people, because the number of virtuous people determines the strength and prosperity of the country. On the principle of using meritocracy, that is, the principle of selecting talents, Mozi denies the traditional shiqing shilu system, meritocracy, whether nobles or poor people, if there is ability, it is possible to lift it, and if it is incompetent, it is subordinate, and the scope of using meritocracy is expanded to the entire poor class, which creates public opinion for the lower strata of society to enter the political stage.
Dharma Shangxian Thought
The Shangxian thought of the Legalists, which is different from that of the Confucians and the Mos, advocated abolishing the old system, promoting the system of appointing officials by quantity and ability, appointing people on the basis of merit, and taking the results of people's actions as the criterion for judging merit. For example, Shang Martin takes people by actual merit, proposing that "the people do their best and the knighthood follows, and the merits follow the rewards.".
Another representative figure of the Fa, Han Feizi, also opposed the use of virtue to take people, he advocated "merit and reward", advocated "Cheng Neng and teaching things", incorporated actual talents into the assessment system, corrected the deviation of Shang Martin blindly emphasizing merit and disregarding functions, and also drew on the wisdom of Confucianism and Mojia Shangxian thought theory. Obviously, during the Warring States period when the princes were vying for hegemony and changing the law to become stronger, the Shangxian of the Legalists was more helpful to the various princely states to achieve the goal of "rich countries and strong troops", and the reason why the Qin state was able to strive to be strong was that the Legalist ideology played a leading role.
A form of talent flow during the Warring States period
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the society was in a stage of great turmoil and great change, the Zhou Dynasty was weakened, the national consciousness gradually faded, and the exchanges between the various princely states were frequent, so that the national boundaries in people's consciousness were not clear, and the talents in this period, the sense of service, did not think that they could only serve the suzerainty, and the social value orientation at that time had become the use of soldiers for confidants; so in order to display their talents, they gradually wandered between the nations, at this time, the flow of talents has formed a scale.
The foreign officials were accepted by the princely states
The "foreign officials" of the Spring and Autumn Period were often due to special reasons, either being persecuted by their own country and fleeing to other countries, or failing to run out in the struggle between the dynastic government, and most of the identities of these officials were royal nobles, or even monarchs; after they left the suzerainty, they defected to the country, referring to their original identity and status, granted corresponding official positions and positions.
By the Warring States period, foreign officials had been generally accepted by the nations, but their status as officials had quietly changed, and in addition to the nobles who had failed and fled, a large number of scholars had joined the ranks. The main reason is that the new centralized power system has just sprouted, and the consciousness of the monarch as a subject has not yet penetrated the hearts of the people; on the other hand, in the struggle for hegemony among the princes, a large number of small countries have been swallowed up, and the situation of the seven warring states has come to the fore, objectively promoting ethnic exchanges and integration, and promoting frequent exchanges between various princely states.
During this period, although many princely states had political confrontations, people's thinking and boundaries between countries had long been blurred, and although Zhou Tianzi was the co-lord of the world, he existed in name only, and the monarchs of various countries would not be excluded because they were foreign talents. For example, Wu Zixu of the State of Wu was a native of the State of Chu, Sun Wu of bing sheng served the State of Wu but a native of the State of Qi, Fan Li and Wen Zhong of the State of Yue were from the State of Chu, Le Yi of the State of Yan was a native of the State of Wei, Wu Qi, who had served both Chu and Wei, was a Defender of the State, and there were countless foreign talents recruited by the State of Qin.
During the Warring States period, the flow of talents gradually became large-scale
In general, there were three main types of people who flowed during the Warring States period, the first was the "wanderers", who traveled around the world, and through publicizing their political ideas and governing strategies, if they were fortunate enough to be appreciated by the monarch, they would be left to assist the monarch in governing the country; the second was the nobles who fled to other countries, who were forced to leave the suzerainty, one was to seek refuge, and the other was to seek development; the third was the scholars of the masters of the schools such as Confucianism, Mojia, Taoism, and Law, and their disciples, who traveled to various countries to spread their own teachings.
There are two main ways of talent flow in the above three ways, one is the flow between countries, which is based on the desire of talents to display their talents, and the demands of various princely states for talents in order to enrich the country and strengthen the army; in order to survive, grow and develop in the war of hegemony among the princes, countries urgently need to recruit talents.
The second is the flow of social classes to which they belong, that is, the flow of talents from one class of social hierarchy to another, that is, to change their identity status, in the Warring States period, due to the breaking of the boundaries of patriarchy, blood, and identity, the low-level talents that the nobles thought could also be among the careers. They can be regardless of their origin, as long as they have a skill, they have the opportunity to be promoted and reused. This principle of talent selection enables talents to flow up and down, provides the greatest opportunity for talents to exert their skills, and truly makes the best use of their talents.
In addition, there were three main directions for the flow of talents in the Warring States period, one was to flow to areas with developed culture and rich economy, such as the economic development of the State of Qi, and a large number of talented people gathered in its Jixia Xuegong. The second is to move to countries that attach importance to talents, treat talents with courtesy, and respect talents, such as Meng Yujun, Fan Ju, Shang Martin, Li Si, etc. who rushed to the Qin State, Zheng Guoren Shen Did not harm and ran to South Korea to carry out reforms, Wei GuoleYi came to the Yan State to carry out reforms, and Wu Qi, a defender of the Country, changed the law in the Chu State...
References: "Mozi", "History", "Warring States Policy", "Han Fei Ziji Solution", etc