Since Qin Shi Huang, the centralized system has been practiced on the mainland for more than 2,000 years, and has played an important role in ensuring the great unification of the mainland, but is there no defect in the centralized system? Yes, and there are many more, the dynastic cyclical rate is actually the biggest flaw of centralization.
1. Foolish people, thinking that the more stupid the people are, the more obedient they are
Shang Ying believed that the more stupid the people were, the more obedient they were, and the more ignorant they were, the more they dared not resist. Knowledge can only be mastered by the social elite, and the common people do not need to study, they only need to obediently farm and pay for food.
Therefore, for 2,000 years, most of the common people on the mainland were illiterate, and knowledge was only in the hands of the ruling class, which has always instilled superstitious ideas in the common people, so that the common people worship them incomparably. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, centralization reached its peak, but the common people were also ignorant to the peak.
The reason why China has not developed over the past 2,000 years is that the people's wisdom is not open and their thinking is not active, so it has not been able to develop science and technology. We have always called the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period a period of contention between a hundred schools of thought, when ideology, culture, and science and technology developed rapidly, and many achievements of mainland culture were formed during that period. But since the Qin Dynasty, there has never been such a time, and it has become a stagnant water.
2. Suppressing public opinion
In order to centralize power, a centralized system needs to suppress public opinion, otherwise it will not be able to centralize power. In the feudal dynasty, the high-ranking rulers suppressed the public opinion of the common people, did not allow the common people to speak, and were afraid to hear the voices of the common people. They always think that they are right, they don't need to listen to the voice of the people at all, and they think that the people want to follow them, and they can live a good life if they follow them.
Therefore, in ancient times on the mainland, the voices of the common people were rarely heard, and it was always the rulers who were talking about what was going on. Occasionally, the emperor would send a few officials to walk around the people, pretending to be clean officials, but the demands of the common people were basically in vain. High-ranking rulers always like to say "focus on the big picture", but when will they be able to take care of the small situation?
3. Officials are only at the top, not at the bottom, and officials are only loyal to the top, not to the bottom
Since the official hat is issued from above, the officials only need to serve the top well, and they don't have to think about the people below at all, because the people below can't give him officials. Therefore, the officials listen to the words of their superiors very much, run fast for their superiors, and please all their lives, but they ignore the common people below and squeeze them infinitely.
Those who are officials are not ignorant of the suffering of the people below, especially the grassroots officials, but they do ten good things for the people and do not stand up to a word from their superiors, and a word from their superiors will determine your life and death.
3. Power is infinitely magnified in front of the people, and a single sentence can decide the life and death of the people
In ancient times, a small official could kill the common people at will, which shows how much power the small official has. In fact, the little official is a little ant in the eyes of the emperor, and he only has a bit of power in his hands, but when it comes to the common people, it is infinitely magnified. For example, the officials patrolling the streets are just maintaining law and order and catching a few small thieves. But it can characterize any ordinary person as a thief and arrest you, make you bankrupt, or even lose your life.
The reason why this is the case is that the common people do not have the right to supervise, and if they dare to resist, they will characterize you as a rebel. Although there is a supervision mechanism above, it is always to serve the above, occasionally make a show, and redress grievances for the people.
Fourth, officials work for the emperor, not for the people, so in their hearts they think that being an official is to make money
After the outbreak of the peasant uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty, many local county guards did not want to organize troops to suppress it, but abandoned the official seal and ran away, which was simply unimaginable during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Because after the implementation of the county system, these officials thought that I was working for the emperor, and the land in this county and this county belonged to the emperor, so I didn't need to put my life on the line for the emperor's land.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it was really a feudal system, and this land was mine, and the county guards and county orders were all officials in their own fiefdoms, and they guarded their own land, so he would desperately suppress the peasant rebels when they came to seize his land.
The reason why the corruption of officials in a centralized state is repeatedly prohibited, and it is getting bigger and bigger, is that the officials think that I am working for the emperor, and I have the right not to expire and be invalid, and the more power I have, I still dare to make a profit, and the life or death of the common people has nothing to do with me.
And those nobles in the feudal system can't squeeze out the people of their fiefdoms, and if they are drained, there will be no one to farm and work for them, and if no one works, he will not get wealth. Therefore, if they want to live well for themselves, they must let the people of their fiefdom live well, so that he will have the strength to work.
Therefore, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were basically no peasant uprisings, and there were basically no foreign wars and no internal wars, just like between European countries now. After Qin Shi Huang established a centralized unified dynasty, the peasant uprising was like a freak, always accompanied by every dynasty, and at a certain time it emerged to overthrow this dynasty, which is the cyclical rate.
The above are the shortcomings of centralization, do you recognize it? Welcome to discuss