After the unification of the Six Kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang migrated 120,000 households to Xianyang in an attempt to weaken the power of the old aristocracy. Unfortunately, the regime soon came to an end. The Western Han Dynasty, which followed, had to adopt a laissez-faire economic policy in order to restore social production at the beginning of the founding of the country. As a result, wealthy businessmen rose rapidly and amassed huge wealth. The rich and powerful rivaled the country, hoarded and disrupted the market order, and seriously endangered the rule of the dynasty. In order to curb their arrogance, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was wise and decisive, on the one hand, he relocated the wealthy and powerful, and on the other hand, imposed a harsh policy on the economic field to suppress them. However, just when the powerful class was on the verge of bankruptcy, a new force began to quietly rise...... Has Haoqiang lost the foundation of dominating the world? And how did they end up becoming behemoths?
The rise of the powerful class
In 770 B.C., King Cheng of the Western Zhou Dynasty moved his capital to Luoyi, and Zhou Tianzi divided his territory into vassal states and implemented the patriarchal feudal system. From then on, the first-class nobles inherited the titles and land from generation to generation, and became the main body of the social class of the Zhou Dynasty. The "Book of Rites" clearly stipulates: "The Son of Heaven has land to dispose of his descendants, the princes have a country to dispose of his descendants, and the doctor has a collection to dispose of his descendants, which is a system."
For hundreds of years, the patriarchal aristocracy, by virtue of its hereditary privileges, occupied the position of the upper ruling class for a long time. In addition to enjoying a lucrative income, it also dominated the development of agricultural production and handicrafts. This situation did not gradually change until the Warring States period.
As the Warring States vassal states grew stronger, the nobles fought among themselves for land and population. In the midst of frequent wars, the patriarchal aristocracy, which had been privileged by the Shiqing, inevitably declined and was replaced by a new class of landlords. By virtue of the alliance with the monarchy, they obtained land and money, and started their own family business with military rewards.
At the same time, the county reform implemented by the Qin State broke the patriarchal system and further promoted the rise of the new landlord class. By the end of the Warring States period, the class division of the aristocracy was already very obvious: some gradually transformed into the landlord class, and some fell into the poor class.
It can be said that the decline of the patriarchal landlord class and the rise of the new landlord class laid the foundation for the abolition of the feudal system and the implementation of the county system after the unification of the Six Kingdoms by Qin. The highly centralized system pioneered by the Qin Dynasty completely deprived the patriarchal landlord class of its class foundation.
The short-lived glory of the military merit group
Liu Bang, the founder of the republican regime, faced a shattered society and urgently needed to restore production and revive the economy. So at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty adopted a policy of relaxation and laissez-faire. The people are free to occupy and reclaim the land, and they do not have to pay land contributions. The demobilized members of the army were also given considerable land rewards.
Most of these landlords and landlords were meritorious heroes under Liu Bang, and during the early Han Dynasty, they constituted the main force of the landlord class in the Han Dynasty by virtue of their military merits and land. In order to consolidate this ruling foundation, Liu Bang personally issued an edict to give knighthood to generals above the seventh doctor, and land to people below the minister's doctor.
However, the period of supremacy of the military landlord class did not last long. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the country was ravaged by war, the national strength withered, and the people were displaced. The restoration of production and the development of the economy have become the top priority of the Han regime. Against this backdrop, the merchant class showed its unique strengths and dynamism, quickly becoming an emerging economic force.
The rapid rise of the merchant class
The establishment of centralized power in the Han Dynasty was conducive to the formation of a unified national market. In addition, the government of the early Han Dynasty vigorously reclaimed wasteland and abolished heavy taxes, so that the trade routes were unimpeded. "Historical Records· Biography of Goods and Colonies" recorded: "Hanxing, the sea is one, the switch beam, the ban of the mountain and Ze, is to the rich businessmen who circulate the world, and the things traded are indispensable."
In an environment of highly relaxed economic policies, the merchant class sprung up, monopolizing industries such as coinage, salt boiling, and mining, and hoarding a large amount of wealth in their hands. In order to seek political status, they also participated in the policy of "losing Su and worshipping the lord" implemented by the imperial court, and obtained official titles by virtue of Nasu.
Gradually, the big merchants, with their huge wealth, not only formed their own economic monopoly in the local area, but even the central power was influenced by them. At that time, the prevailing saying that "it is better to lose 2,000 stones, and not to lose the glory of everyone" reflects this phenomenon.
In the Wenjing and Jing dynasties, in order to maintain the order of land management, the Han Dynasty government issued a series of decrees against powerful merchants, but they all ended in failure. By the time of Emperor Wu, the powerful merchants had completely become behemoths that threatened the rule of the dynasty and had to be strongly suppressed.
The threat of the powerful class to the Han Dynasty
Since the implementation of the open economic policy in the early Han Dynasty, the merchant class, with its growing wealth accumulation, posed an unprecedented challenge to the rule of the Han Dynasty.
In order to make huge profits, powerful businessmen often hoard goods, raise prices, and manipulate the market. They have taken advantage of their capital superiority to display a monopoly in various parts of the country, controlling the production and circulation of such important industries as iron, salt, wine, and money, and hoarding private goods has become the norm. As a result, the relationship between supply and demand is seriously unbalanced, and the road is difficult.
Most of the powerful were large landowners, who hired tenants to farm the land, and the methods of exploitation were cruel. It is said: "The poor are burdened with work." The years are famine, and the rent is a hundred times longer. The children were sold to slavery. "The people were plundered, and the destitute people had to make promises to each other, and became tenants and slaves.
In addition, with their huge wealth, the big landlords also participated in the imperial court's policy of "losing corn and worshipping the lords", and obtained the official titles of Conglang and Dafu with Nasu. This not only allowed them to grow in political status, but also set up their own private armies in many places. As a result, the local population suffered not only economic oppression, but also the threat of armed plunder.
In the early Han Dynasty, in order to resume production, it was once exempted from the levy of forced labor. However, as national strength recovers and fiscal spending increases, it is imperative that the government reintroduce taxes and forced labor. Against the backdrop of the weakening authority of the central government and the strong work style of the local government, the resistance of the people to forced labor and taxation has always been great. The history books record: "The princes and kings lost two tithes to the Han family in the year, and kept three for themselves."
Coupled with the fact that the rich and the rich were unwilling to pay the taxes due, the imperial court could only hire the wealthy and wealthy as administrative officials in the local area. As a result, taxation and forced labor became more and more tools for the selfish interests of these officials, and the contradictions worsened.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the brutal exploitation of the peasants by the landlords and the excessive demand of the people by the officials led to a series of rebellions and banditry. Such as the two major uprisings of Mao Dun and Wang Zun, as well as the activities of the heroes of the green forest, are all related to this.
Among them, the rebellion of Wang Zun has affected more than ten counties, and the scale is huge. Wang Zun established a long-term peasant rebellion base, which posed a great threat to the Han Dynasty. Such a large-scale peasant war not only reflected the white-hot contradiction between the landlord class and the peasants, but also directly threatened the foundation of the Han Dynasty's rule.
Faced with the threat posed to the regime by the powerful class, whether it was the chaos of the socio-economic order or the local armed confrontation with the majesty of the imperial court, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty realized that he had to take action to stop this growing potential scourge. As a result, a series of policies to suppress the powerful finally kicked off.
Measures to curb Haoqiang during the period of Emperor Wu
Faced with the increasingly serious problem of the powerful and powerful, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty first adopted the policy of relocating the wealthy and powerful. At the same time, he also issued a series of decrees in the economic sphere aimed at weakening the wealth base of the merchant group.
In the second year of Yuan Shuo (127 B.C.), Emperor Wu suggested that the local heroes should be relocated to the Maoling area, that is, the location where Emperor Wu built a mausoleum for himself. This policy, known as the Relocation Order, was intended to centralize control and weaken their base in the provinces.
Emperor Wu listened to this suggestion and ordered "the heroes of the county and their property of more than three million in Maoling". As soon as this decree to deprive the powerful of their power and wealth was issued, it was unexpectedly resisted by the whole country. In order to escape the migration, Guo Jie, a famous scholar in Hebei, once entrusted the relationship with Emperor Wu to "falsely claim that his family was poor", but he was still forcibly relocated.
During the migration, Guo Xie received tens of millions of gifts from relatives and friends alone, which shows the strength of his family. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of Haoqiang families were relocated to Maoling. Emperor Wu's migration policy directly hit the economic foundation of the wealthy and powerful.
After the migration of Haoqiang, Emperor Wu ordered to send cool officials and assassins to various places to severely punish those wealthy merchants who dared to hoard smuggled goods and raise prices. At that time, the social atmosphere was open, and many powerful people hoarded goods and did not go to market, which led to skyrocketing prices.
In some places, the level of cool officials is very high, and some are even in the middle of the service and the officials to sacrifice wine. They either confiscated the property of the wealthy merchants by force, or forced the wealthy merchants to sell their goods at low prices to the market, plummeting the price level.
In addition to sending cool officials to severely punish them, Emperor Wu also imposed a series of strict control measures in the economic field. Among them, the most far-reaching are the Counting Order (i.e., calculating the length of silk fabrics according to the knots) and the Pingzhun Negative Order (Unified System of Weights and Measures).
The promulgation of these two decrees has directly regulated market transactions and restricted the means and space for businessmen to raise prices. At the same time, Emperor Wu also ordered a unified currency and forbade private individuals to mint money on their own, cutting off another channel for merchants to obtain huge profits.
In addition, the imperial court also sent people to check the property of merchants across the country on many occasions, and forcibly expropriated more than a certain amount. The large-scale confiscation of wealth greatly damaged the morale of the merchant class. It is said that "the billions of homes in the world, and the billions of scholars and doctors, are not scattered."
Under Emperor Wu's repeated blows, the powerful merchant class gradually declined, and part of their wealth and status were transferred to the hands of the bureaucracy and aristocracy. For example, the famous wealthy Wang Mang family was once deprived of most of their family property.
At the same time, some bureaucrats and aristocrats from eunuch backgrounds also began to form cliques for personal gain, monopolizing land and wealth. They quickly exploited Emperor Wu's repressive policies and built up a new bureaucratic landlord class. This force was more threatening and intensified over time, eventually reaching its peak during the Eastern Han Dynasty.
It is worth mentioning that at the same time that Emperor Wu intensively introduced a series of policies to weaken the powerful and powerful, he also promulgated an important personnel policy - the probation system. This system opened up new channels for the powerful to enter the bureaucracy, and laid the foundation for future troubles.
The counterattack of the powerful class and the peasant war of the Eastern Han Dynasty
Although Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty introduced a series of measures to suppress the powerful and powerful, the powerful class did not completely disappear. They still exist and continue to accumulate power, continuing to create a series of social upheavals.
After the collapse of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the power of Changyi Wangzhen, Emperor Ling, and eunuchs gradually increased. This group of people is quite opportunistic and insists on extravagance, which leads to the country's increasingly scarce finances.
Seeing that the government was in trouble, Haoqiang asked for orders from Emperor Ling many times through the central figure Zhou Yafu, trying to adjust the power of eunuchs and eunuchs, but they were all obstructed.
Later, Guo Jigang, Du Qin and others in Hanoi went to Zhongjing to personally write to Emperor Ling, but they were also held hostage by the eunuchs An Yang and He Xun with ulterior motives, so that there was no way to return.
As a result, Haoqiang started a full-scale counterattack by the local armed forces. Since Zhang Qian, the world's wealthy people have responded. The last Tian Wei and Zhong Pingling were killed by the rebellious army, but the families of the merchants, counties, and prime ministers formed an alliance with the powerful party to compete with the Han family, and the world was in chaos.
In a turbulent environment, Wang Mang, who was a Ming cultivator, soon gained the support of peasants and poor people all over the country, and finally seized power and ended the Western Han Dynasty.
However, after Wang Mang came to power, he did not achieve peace and prosperity, but instead deepened the contradictions. He relied on eunuchs and military attachés, took women as his wife, and had no relatives with Emperor Wenjing's Mang family, which aroused the disgust of the powerful class. Therefore, the powerful people from all walks of life quickly fought with the peasant uprising, forming a number of anti-Wang Mang armed forces.
Under the leadership of Chen Zhi, the wealthy magnates Lu Ben and Chen Qun gathered tens of thousands of cousins and henchmen, with Chen Zhi as the big Sima, and occupied Sanfu. Chen Zhi also sent troops to force Wang Mang to kill him, and if he wanted to lure Wang Mang, he quelled the chaos. The poor peasants in various places all attached themselves to Chen Zhi, and they all asked Chen Zhi to go to Guanzhong to restore the Han Dynasty.
Chen Zhinai led the army to garrison Hebei, and the bandits rose everywhere, and the ruins of the Bingge Mound were in chaos. At the same time, Liu Xiu and other remnants of the old clan also rebelled, and various armies fought endlessly. The situation was a stalemate.
In 25 AD, Liu Xiu finally established the Eastern Han Dynasty regime in Pei County, with the capital Luoyang. He adopted a policy of leniency, forgave many powerful people from all walks of life, and gathered his men under his command in order to revive the dragon race and strengthen the foundation.
However, Liu Xiu failed to fundamentally resolve the class contradictions between Haoqiang and the peasants. Soon after taking control of Luoyang, Liu Xiu was defeated by a peasant rebel army. The old accounts of Wang Mang's time are still being settled, and the new dynasty has not been completely settled.
The aftermath of the melee lasted until the time of Emperor Guangwu. Emperor Guangwu further weakened the powerful forces and took back centralized power in an orderly manner. However, the powerful class has not really disappeared, but has only disappeared for the time being. In the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, with the development of the economy, they regained their strength and evolved into the landlord class, gradually dominating the development of Eastern Han society.
The continuation of the contradiction between the powerful and the peasants in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty
After the containment of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the turmoil in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the power of the powerful class was once hit hard. However, as time went on, Haoqiang re-emerged and gradually evolved into a new landlord class.
After Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to stabilize his rule, he was eager to cut off the powerful power. He once sent his old subordinates Dou Rong and others to various places to quell the war and eliminate the threat of Haoqiang. In addition, Liu Xiu also strengthened the centralization of power and increased the control of the localities.
After a series of efforts, the power of the powerful class was indeed suppressed for a time in the early Eastern Han Dynasty. During the period of Emperor Guangwu, it was recorded that "as for Xihe in the Quartet, the world does not gather in the mountains and forests, and there are no thieves and no swarms."
However, the good times were short-lived. With the weakening of the centralized power of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the powerful forces slowly reappeared. In addition, the implementation of the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce in the Han Dynasty gradually transformed the wealthy class into the landlord class.
By the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the new and powerful landlord class represented by the comprador aristocracy had completely emerged. They bought a large number of tenants of fertile land, hired serfs to farm, and their wealth grew through exploitation and accumulation.
At the same time, they are also tainted with some old habits, such as greed for money, extravagance, extravagance, extravagance, etc. There is a record of clouds: "The family property is hundreds of millions, and the guests and hosts are repeated, and they travel to Zhongzhou Metropolis."
In order to maintain their privileged position, these new landowning classes increasingly tightened their grip on the peasantry. They drove a long way and invaded the land, and forcibly occupied hundreds of hectares of fertile land.
In particular, when Cai Yong and others changed the law to implement the policy of yeoman farming, the landlord class took the opportunity to monopolize a large amount of land. This practice of seizing land and capturing land has plunged the vast number of peasants into abject poverty and forced them to sell themselves as tenants or slaves.
At the same time, the landlord class also set up private treasuries one after another, and hired cronies and heroes to serve as chief officials and monopolize the service. They constantly increased the burden on the peasants, and even sent family warriors to bully the people in the township. All this provoked discontent and revolt among the peasant class.
In the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, the exploitation of peasants became more and more serious, leading to constant social turmoil. Not only were bandits rampant in the green forests, but large-scale peasant uprisings also broke out one after another. According to official records, millions of people are harassed by peasant uprisings and thieves every year.
The most famous of these peasant uprisings was undoubtedly the brothers Zhang Jiao and Zhang Bin, who led the uprising. They called on the poor households in the world, recruited more than 210,000 peasants that year, seized the territory of 24 prefectures and counties, and set up Zhang Jiao as the "Heavenly Prince" to wantonly slaughter the rich households.
The Zhangjiao Uprising was attacked by the brilliant Zhang Lu, and this large-scale and tragic war lasted for more than 20 years, resulting in a hundred ruins in the world and the people in need. The Eastern Han court was finally reluctantly suppressed with heavy troops.
The deep contradictions between the landlords and the peasants reflected in this turmoil also drew an end to the class struggle in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The powerful landlord class has dominated the development of Han society since then, and the peasant class can no longer turn over.