The Shang Dynasty reform is not only beneficial, its disadvantages are very fatal, but they have been resolved by the monarchs of the Qin State in successive dynasties!

The Autumn and Warring States Period was an important period for the transition of the land of China from great disputes to great unification.

Whether it is the Five Tyrants of the Autumn Period or the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, all of them are powerful for a while, and all of them are aimed at unifying China as the ultimate goal.

But the ideal is very plump, the reality is very skinny, and the hundreds of vassal states that were active in the Central Plains during the autumn period were finally slowly annexed and destroyed, and by the Warring States period, the pattern of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States dominating the land of China had been formed.

There is also a difference in strength and weakness between the seven heroes of the Warring States Period, from the dominance of the Wei State in the early Warring States period, to the three-legged triage of Qin, Qi and Chu in the middle of the Warring States Period, and then to the hegemony of Qin and Zhao at the end of the Warring States Period, the history of more than 200 years in the middle of the Warring States period reveals different wonders everywhere.

The Warring States period is not so much the era of the princes competing for hegemony, but the history of the gradual strengthening of the Qin State and the eventual annexation of the Six Kingdoms to unify China, so why is the Qin State so strong that the Six Kingdoms look up to it?

There are two reasons, one is that Shang Ying changed the law, which changed the backwardness of the Qin State from the bones, and the other is talents, talents who can govern the country and strengthen the Qin State.

In fact, the Shang Dynasty reform is not only beneficial, but its disadvantages are also very fatal, but they have been resolved by successive Qin monarchs, and this disadvantage is related to the talents of Qin.

Looking at the fact that almost all of Qin's governing talents were imported from the Six Kingdoms, why did Qin's governing talents be imported from the Six Kingdoms? Because the Qin State itself cannot be cultivated at all, we have to start with the talents of the Qin State.

The Qin State introduced talents from the princes of Shandong from the beginning of filial piety.

Since the beginning of Qin Xiaogong, the Qin State began to introduce talents from the Shandong vassal states, Qin Xiaogong looked at the Qin State that was getting poorer and poorer, and was determined to restore the hegemony of the Qin Mugong period, so he issued the famous "Seeking Merit Order" to the Shandong princes in history.

"Those who are able to govern the country are few people and divide the country with them", this is the words of Qin Xiaogong's order to seek talents, and the Shandong scholars who are mixed with fish and snakes began to flock to the Qin State, of course, there is a real dragon in the middle, he is Shang Ying, Jin Lin's talent, and he will turn into a dragon when he encounters a storm, and Qin is the wind and cloud of Shang Ying.

After Shang Ying arrived in the Qin State, he was appreciated by Qin Xiaogong and carried out the most famous reform and most thorough reform in the history of the Qin State, and of course he also influenced the historical pattern of the next few thousand years.

The state of Qin gradually became stronger, and Qin Xiaogong also fulfilled his promise, giving everything that could be given to Shang Ying, and he almost gave him the state of Qin, but Shang Ying's reform aimed at abolishing the feudal system, but he himself was named the king of Shang and enjoyed the fief, although it was ridiculous, but this move made the scholars of the six countries of Shandong rush to it.

What kind of governing talents appeared on the road to Qin's unification of China?

Zhang Yi and Gongsun Yan during the period of King Qin Huiwen, the Zongheng family was a unique group in the Warring States Period, its rise was fast, and its death was fast, Zhang Yi and Gongsun Yan were the most outstanding representatives of the Zongheng family, especially Zhang Yi, who resolved the plot of the six countries to attack Qin again and again.

Fan Ju during the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, the planner of distant and close attacks, pointed out the direction for the unification of the six countries of Qin in one fell swoop, and also accelerated the demise of the six countries.

During the reign of King Xiang of Qin Zhuang, Lü Buwei, who was a strange commodity and a strange person, transformed into the ruler of the Qin State as a merchant, contributing to the strength of the powerful Qin State, and further accelerating the speed of the demise of the Six Kingdoms, especially the Qin Wangzheng who was cultivated, directly created the first feudal empire in history, the Qin Dynasty.

Of course, these are not the only talents introduced by the Qin State to govern the country, these are just the most famous representatives of each period, they all have one thing in common, that is, Shandong scholars, Qin State has no talent for governing the country itself, in fact, there is really none.

The Shang Dynasty reform hindered the birth of local statecraft in the Qin state.

There are two kinds of talents needed during the Warring States Period, one is a general who can lead troops to fight, this Qin State is not lacking, and there are many local products, and the second is the talent for governing the country, these talents are lacking in every dynasty of Qin State, and the general environment of Qin State also determines that Qin State cannot cultivate this kind of talent in the world.

Why? This is because Shang Ying's change blocked the birth of this kind of talent, and the talents who can govern the country are all masters of superior knowledge and well-read, but Shang Ying's change only gave the young people of Qin two ways to go, either to be a soldier or to farm, and it is impossible to study.

No matter how talented a person is, if he doesn't study or study the day after tomorrow, then he will face only one outcome, that is, he will become more and more inadequate, and it is impossible to have the ability to govern the country, just like we once read "Hurt Zhongyong".

This is actually why there are many famous generals in the Qin State, but the prime minister who governs the country can only be introduced from the Shandong vassal states, I have to say that Shang Ying was a scholar, but the road of the Qin State to become a talent through study was completely blocked, which is not ruthless, which is also the most fatal disadvantage of Shang Ying's reform.

The successive kings of the Qin State tirelessly sought talents from the princes of Shandong, making up for the shortcomings of the Shang Dynasty's reforms.

Through the fact that in every era of the Qin State, there will be great talents of Shandong scholars, and we can speculate that starting from Qin Xiaogong, searching for talents who can govern the country in the six countries of Shandong has become a basic national policy of the Qin State.

The successive monarchs of the Qin State were able to find the talents they needed to govern the country from the vast sea of people, which determined that even if the Qin State could not cultivate talents who could govern the country, it would not decline, because it could not cultivate itself, and what could be dug up for its own use was its own.

We can't arbitrarily think that Qin Xiaogong is not clear about this serious drawback of the Shang Dynasty reform, through the history of Qin's unification of China, Qin Xiaogong should also realize this fatal disadvantage, but if you want to be strong, you have to pay the price, there are disadvantages, of course, there are ways to make up for it, fortunately the monarch of Qin found it.

When the Shang Dynasty changed the law to strengthen the Qin State, he continued to dig up the talents of the world from the Shandong princes, and the country continued to cultivate famous generals who could fight, these three points fundamentally ensured that the Qin State unified China, and it was only a matter of time, after all, the chariot of the Qin State, the conditions for conquering the world have been met, and the poor one is moving forward.

Why did the great rulers of the Qin State import them from the Six Kingdoms? Because the Qin State itself could not be cultivated at all, the Shang Dynasty changed the law so that the Qin State no longer had the profession of "scholar", and if you want to succeed, you must either go into battle to kill the enemy, or farm well, there is no other way to go, which also determines that if you want to change your fate through studying, it will not work in the Qin State.

The advantage of the Shang Dynasty reform is that it has fundamentally strengthened the Qin state, and the bureaucracy has begun to transition from the hereditary system to the selection and appointment system, and nepotism has also begun to change to meritocracy, which is a strong foundation.

However, the fatal disadvantage of Shang Ying's reform was that the Qin State was incapable of cultivating its own talent for governing the country, but this point was resolved by the successive Qin monarchs, who introduced them from outside and let these migrant workers work hard for themselves, and the Qin kings of the past dynasties have done a very good job in this regard.

Why did these Shandong scholars who entered Qin almost never end well? In fact, the most fundamental reason is that these Shandong scholars are outsiders after all, and they serve the Qin State in order to realize their own ideals, and when they have the risk of not being able to fall, the only way waiting for them is to be expelled or die.

Historians acknowledge that the legal system played a crucial role in the enhancement of Qin's national strength. As a result of the realization of the rule of law, the balance of strength between the Qin State and the Six Kingdoms underwent a fundamental change, and finally annexed the Six Kingdoms and unified the world. The reform of the Qin State was basically smooth, and it was not as difficult as the six eastern states, which was related to the unique geographical and historical conditions of the Qin State. It was only in the Qin State that the ideals of the Legalists were almost 100% realized. Under the political system of "everything is decided by law", the Qin State has changed from the "Yidi" despised by the developed Central Plains countries to the "country of tigers and wolves" that they are afraid of to death. During this period, the Legalist school represented by Shang Ying and Han Feizi obviously played an important role, and they strengthened the monarchy, curbed the aristocracy, governed the country according to law, believed in rewards and punishments, severely punished and punished the law, attached importance to farming and warfare, unified thinking, and clamped down on the people, all of which became the national policy of the Qin State, and in the annexation and unification wars of the Warring States Period, the Qin State of the legal system undoubtedly overwhelmed the six eastern countries that were still trapped in the quagmire of etiquette and religion. caused the rapid demise of the Qin Dynasty. The legal system is a double-edged sword, which makes the Qin state strong and also makes the Qin state perish.

Before the Shang Dynasty reformed the law, the Qin state was a backward member of the Huaxia nations. Although it had gained an advantage in the war against the nomads of the northwest, it was basically a mutual victory and defeat in the wars with other Chinese states, and people did not think that there was anything terrible about Qin, and in the eyes of the culturally developed Central Plains people, Qin was still a barbaric state that had not escaped the spirit of Rongyi - although Qin had always regarded itself as an authentic Chinese state. However, the backward Qin State had its advantages: in the long war, the monarchs of the Qin State were mostly brave warriors, and a strong monarchy was formed with a strong monarch as the center, which contained the power of the elites; Similarly, due to the long period of being in the environment of war, the Qin people cultivated a pragmatic people—it is not surprising that in war, the enemy's sword will always remind you to pay attention to reality; Finally, the backward culture precisely means that the religion is underdeveloped, and the weak atmosphere of the religion is conducive to the implementation of the nascent system. With these three favorable conditions, the Qin State was able to take the opportunity of the Shang Dynasty to change the law and realize the legal system in one fell swoop.

Shang Ying is the greatest gift from God to the Qin State. Although before he arrived in the Qin State, the ** expansion of the Qin State to the east was already very strong, and it can also be seen from Qin Xiaogong's move to seek talents that even if there is no Shang Ying, there will also be other talents, including those of the Legalists, who will go to the Qin State to promote their ideas. However, the arrival of Shang Ying, who had outstanding talents, undoubtedly enabled Qin Guo's reform to smoothly overcome the difficulties during the establishment of his career under the auspices of an outstanding designer. In the sixth year of Qin Xiaogong, that is, in 356 BC, Xiaogong appointed Shang Ying as the head of Zuo, and many new decrees were issued that year, and a great change began. In the twelfth year of filial piety, that is, in 350 BC, he took the opportunity of moving the capital to Xianyang, and issued some new decrees to push the vigorous changes to a deeper level.

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