An immortal monument in the history of world culture ------ the same text
Shutongwen not only made a crucial step in the process of unifying, standardizing, and formalizing Chinese characters, and made a significant contribution to the development of ancient culture and education, but also played a role that cannot be underestimated in maintaining political and ideological unity and forming the cultural psychology of the unity of the Chinese nation.
Although the incident of "burning books and pit Confucianism" has been criticized by future generations, it has unified writing and language, is conducive to the spread of ideology and culture, and has made indelible contributions to the development of Chinese civilization. At the same time, Shu Tongwen has a record and inheritance role in historical events and national spirit, Shu Tongwen has laid the cultural foundation of the mainland, and has also played a positive role in promoting national development.
The meaning of the same text in the book of Qin Shi Huang
In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang destroyed the last Qi state, unified the six kingdoms, and then implemented the "book and the same text" in various places. Historically, the evaluation of "book with the same text" is different, and there are also "burning books and pit Confucianism" in the process of book and text, etc., perhaps the original intention of Qin Shi Huang's book and text is to consolidate his rule and erase ... Other ideological texts, but the same text of the book plays an important role in promoting the process of national unification, so what is the significance of the same text of the book of Qin Shi Huang?
First of all, the direct meaning of Shu Tongwen is that it unified writing and language, and promoted the implementation of the Qin Decree among the nations, especially the implementation of the county system, and many administrative structures have even been used to this day.
Secondly, the book and the same text have greatly promoted economic and cultural exchanges, accelerated the process of ethnic integration between various localities, and laid the foundation for the formation of a unified multi-ethnic state.
The significance of Qin Shi Huang's book and text is not only the contribution of the system at that time, but also the formation of a prosperous unified multi-ethnic state in the next 5,000 years of mainland history, and the unification of the six countries by Qin Shi Huang is undoubtedly a key link in the entire historical process, laying the initial appearance of the mainland territory, and the book and text laying the foundation of mainland culture.
The development and growth of the nation is not only dependent on ... The formation of a unified multi-ethnic state benefited from a common culture and common customs, and the implementation of the Tongwen of Qin Shi Huang contributed to this historical process.
In the following 2,000 years, although the country's political map was divided and merged, it was finally unified. The greater significance of the same text of Qin Shi Huang's book is to promote the unification of the nation.
The background of the same text as the book of Qin Shi Huang
There are many backgrounds in the book of Qin Shi Huang, involving political, economic, cultural, ethnic and other factors. Before the unification of Qin, the scripts of the nations were very different, and even if they were the same script, there were several ways of writing, which were very different.
As for the background of the same text of Qin Shi Huang's book, the more popular theory now mainly includes political background and economic and cultural background. Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms and created an emperor system, called "Shi Huang", in order to continue the imperial system and implement the decrees of the Qin state, there was an urgent need to unify the written language, which was for political reasons. In addition, the difference in writing has also seriously affected the economic and cultural development and exchanges between various places, and "books with the same text" has become imminent.
In fact, "book with text" also has a larger background is ethnic integration activities, a careful reading of the history of the Warring States we can find that the marriage activities between the vassal states are very frequent, Qin, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Wei, Qi, Korea have been married to each other for hundreds of years, the relationship can be described as complicated, the marriage is ostensibly a political marriage, alleviating the war situation at that time, etc., but in the process of marriage, the national integration activities between the two countries are very frequent, and the princess of one country marries into another country often brings some technology or items that are not available locally, This will promote economic and cultural development, and in the process of economic and cultural development, the differences in customs between the common people of other countries will gradually narrow, and the feelings between ethnic groups will deepen.
Although there was a brief split at the end of the Qin Dynasty, "Qin, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Wei, Qi, and Han" no longer appeared as the name of the country, but was replaced by such titles as Qindi, Chudi, Yandi, Zhaodi, Weidi, Qidi, and Handi, so it can be seen that ethnic integration activities were the main trend when Qin unified the six countries, the deepening of ethnic feelings, the difference in writing became an obstacle to national integration activities, and "Shutongwen" became an urgent national activity, which is also one of the larger backgrounds of Qin Shihuang's Shutongwen.
The historical process of the book and the text
After Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, he forcibly implemented the "book with text" in other countries, and during this period, there were tragic events such as burning books and pit Confucianism, and was often denounced in the following millennium, but the historical process of book and text is still not to be underestimated. Historically, more evaluations of "Shu Tongwen" have promoted the implementation of the Qin Decree and promoted the formation and development of unified multi-ethnic groups, and Shu Tongwen has a broader influence and promoted the development of the historical process of the mainland and even the world.
With the unification of the six kingdoms of Qin, another important historical milestone was the formal establishment of the feudal system. For a more progressive and liberal system, it is a liberation for human development.
During the Warring States Period, the vassal states mostly used slavery to rule the country, although all countries had reforms, but still could not break the old system, only a partial adjustment of the old system.
After Qin unified the Six Kingdoms, the county system was implemented throughout the country, and the rails were unified, weights and measures were unified, and of course, the unified script was unified, and the "Shu Tongwen" played an important role in the process of establishing the feudal system in the Qin State, and Qin became a powerful country in the world at that time.
"Shu Tongwen" made the Qin State a more advanced country with a social system at that time, not only the progress of the social system of the mainland at that time, but also the footsteps of the world's feudal system, and this system has been rapidly developed and recognized, and the main reason why it has been imitated by other countries in the world is that the credit of "Shu Tongwen", the book is the same text, so that the text is unified, and then the language is unified, and the culture and customs are gradually similar, and the more advanced feudal system at that time can be operated, and the book and the same text are an important process in the history of human development.
What are the benefits of books and words?
In 221 B.C., after Qin unified the Six Kingdoms, it began a large-scale "book with text", so what are the benefits of book and text?
According to historical records, Qin implemented the "small seal" throughout the country, and later the official book appeared, and it was once implemented among the countries together with the small seal, and the writing went through many changes and developments, and finally tended to be unified.
Some people believe that the book is the same as the text, which is convenient for Qin to push the administrative decree, convenient for economic and cultural exchanges, and laid the foundation for the formation of the Chinese nation, while others think that in the process of writing the same text, the forced abolition of the languages of other countries is not conducive to the development of cultural pluralism, and the prosperity of "a hundred schools of thought contending" has also disappeared.
Joe of United Kingdom. Wells said: The reason why China has been an industrious but unenterprising vast region for many centuries, rather than the world's leading power, is probably because of the complexity of its language and writing, and not because of any other conceivable reason.
Before the founding of New China, the mainland's writing was characterized by "the northern Qi and the southern miscellaneous", but after liberation, the reform of the written language was carried out, and in line with the policy of reform and opening up, the country's economy and culture developed rapidly.
The impact is immeasurable. To this day, the most direct and visible impact is that Chinese is the language with the largest native population in the world today. Although Chinese people in the southeast and northwest cannot understand each other, northeasterners and Cantonese people each speak their own dialects, and no one understands each other, because the difference between their respective dialects is much greater than the difference between the Chinese languages in Europe, but when written in writing, they are all Chinese that everyone can understand. Without Qin Shi Huang's policies, the Chinese language would have been divided into many different languages, and it would have been difficult for the country to maintain a unified state for a long time, and it would have been divided into many small states, like the Spring and Autumn Warring States and the modern European countries.
Since ancient times, the traditional idea of Chinese emperors has been great unification, and every founding emperor has struggled for this goal all his life. After 5,000 years of development, Chinese civilization has now emerged a total of several unified feudal dynasties of the Qin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, forming a big family with 56 ethnic groups now.
Before the Qin Dynasty, the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were a slave society ruled by several feudal vassal states, and when the Qin Dynasty did not unify the world, the Zhou Dynasty divided hundreds of vassal states. Just like Europe today, small countries such as the Vatican State are as large as France and Germany, small countries, a city is a country, and large countries also rule a province. Just imagine, without Qin Shi Huang, China would be as divided as Europe would be. Before the Qin Dynasty, in order to rule the world, the emperor divided the world to meritorious officials and his descendants. Each vassal state had its own independent army and government apparatus, and even the script used by each vassal state was different. The vassal states only need to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven every year, and when the Son of Heaven needs to use troops abroad, the vassal states must respond to the call of the Son of Heaven and gather troops to help the Son of Heaven fight abroad.
Such unification is only nominal, when the strength of the Son of Heaven is greater than that of the vassal states, the vassal states must regard the Son of Heaven as the co-lord of the world, and no one dares to oppose the disobedient vassal states, and the Son of Heaven can also call on other princes to crusade against them. And all this can only be done if the Son of Heaven has the strength to suppress the vassal states. Just like in the early days of Shang, Xia, and Zhou, the strength of the Son of Heaven was far greater than that of the vassal states, and the territory directly ruled by the Son of Heaven had more population and army than the vassal states, and there were so many lands in the world, and one day it would all be completely sealed. Just like in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, there were the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons, and then there were the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, and the strength of the Son of Heaven was no longer able to rule the vassal states, and the annexation war began between the vassal states. Due to the fact that the Son of Heaven continued to divide land to vassal states, the territory under the direct jurisdiction of the Son of Heaven was already much smaller than that of vassal states. And in those periods, the amount of land was a symbol of the number of people and the number of armies you could have. When the number of people and the number of troops possessed by the Son of Heaven could no longer suppress the vassal states, the princes no longer regarded the Son of Heaven in their eyes. At that time, the Son of Heaven became the nominal Son of Heaven, although he was still regarded as the co-lord of the world by various vassal states, but there was no vassal state to listen to the orders of the Son of Heaven. By the end of the Warring States Period, only Qin, Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han, Yan, and Qi were left in the world. And the existence of the Son of Heaven at that time was only symbolic. By the time Qin Yingzheng became the king of Qin, six of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States were not Qin's opponents, even if they were united. The state of Qin has been soaring since the Shang Dynasty changed the law, and it has reached its peak during the Qin Shi Huang period, and the war of unification has also begun. In 221 B.C., King Yingzheng of Qin unified the six kingdoms, and since then there have been no vassal states in the world, only the Qin state, and the Qin Dynasty became the first feudal state in the history of the mainland. King Yingzheng of Qin is no longer the king of Qin, but the first emperor in history: Qin Shi Huang!
In order to rule the world and avoid the recurrence of the chaos of the princes of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qin Shi Huang abolished the feudal system and changed the world to the county system in order to bring all the power back to the central government and let the emperor personally control it. The supreme magistrates of counties are personally appointed by the central government and replaced at regular intervals within a set period of time, so as to avoid the long-term presence of county magistrates and the threat of their own forces to the rule of the central government, and the command of the armed forces is also under the jurisdiction of the central government. The commanders of the local garrisons are personally appointed by the central government and are subject to the central government's transfers, and the local governors do not have the right to transfer the reform of the county system. In addition, the army was under the unified command of the central government, which thus avoided the dominance of the local princes, thus threatening the rule of the central government. In terms of culture and economy, Qin Shi Huang also made unified reforms. In the absence of unification, the scripts of the various vassal states were different. For example, the people of the Qin State went to the other six countries to read the handwriting, but they saw it like the Book of Heaven. Just like when we go abroad now, we can't understand anything other than Chinese characters. The same is true for the unity of weights and measures. The merchants of the Qin State went to the other six countries to do business, and the weight calculated according to the scales of the Qin State was one catty, but when they arrived in the other six countries, it became eight taels or one catty and two taels. It seriously affected market transactions, and the unification of currencies was also important. The vassal states all had their own currencies and their exchange ratios also differed. For example, if you are buying something in China with US dollars now, you must first calculate the appropriate proportion according to the exchange rate of the day before you can trade. It is also important to have the same track as the car. Just like in China today, the rail width is 1435 mm, while the rail width in Russia is 1520 mm. If Chinese trains want to carry goods, Russia must change trains at the border. It was the same at that time in the Qin State, if various countries wanted to transport goods, as long as they went to other countries, they had to change cars, which was very inconvenient. Books with the same text, cars with the same track, unified weights and measures, there was no before the Qin State, Qin Shi Huang made a unified standard not only for the convenience of reading, trading, convenience, transportation, but also for the central management of the locality. Just imagine, if Qin Shi Huang had not done these extinct Six Kingdoms, he might have rebelled again because of the disunity of ideology and culture. And the people of various places may not be able to integrate with other countries because of these unifications, and thus go to division again. Before Qin Shi Huang, each vassal state had its own model in terms of politics, culture, and military, and if it could not be unified, it may be that today's China is like Europe, divided into different countries, each with its own script and language. The command of the army was handed over to the various localities, and the powerful ones would inevitably begin to annex the weak places again, and the implementation of the county system put an end to the division of the world, and the land was owned by the state, not the localities. If there had not been the unification made by Qin Shi Huang, perhaps each of our provinces would have been a country traveling across provinces, even if it was going abroad.
Xiaobian believes that all this made by Qin Shi Huang has made great contributions to various dynasties in the future. Books with the same text, cars with the same track, unified weights and measures, from the cultural and economic aspects have been unified in various places. With all this, the dynasties that came after the world was under the rule of the central government can continue to develop on the basis of unification, and only then can the 56 ethnic groups in China always be integrated. If there had not been the unification made by Qin Shi Huang, perhaps each of our provinces would have been a country traveling across provinces, even if it was going abroad.