In his original historical time and space, the ancient Greek thinker Plato divided the people into three classes in the "Ideal Republic": the first class was the philosopher, the second class was the warrior, and the third class was the merchants, craftsmen and peasants. In China, the Confucian Mencius disparaged merchants as "cheap husbands." In "Mencius, Gongsun Chouxia", it is said: "The ancient world is also the city, and those who have everything they have are easy to have, and those who have the ears of the division are governed." There is a cheap husband...... Since then, the merchant has been a cheap husband. ”

However, at that time, the name of "nine princes, one Kuang world" was a very small number of mercantilists. The first to point out that "Shinong Industry and Commerce" is the "pillar of the country" is Guan Zhong!

Guan Zhong Xingqi used the method of a businessman, Sima Qian commented on his way of being a country, and said: "It is also a government, good is a blessing because of misfortune, and it is a merit for failure, and it is important and important, and it is carefully weighed." ”

But it is precisely the words of "the four people's division of industries, Shinong industry and commerce" in the Guan Zhong Reform Law, which is quite familiar to later generations, and has also caused the greatest misunderstanding.

Guan Zhong divided the people into four classes: soldiers, peasants, craftsmen, and merchants, and lived in fixed areas according to their respective specialties. According to the Chinese and Qi Language, there are 15 townships and 6 industrial and commercial townships, with 2,000 households in each township. Guan Zhong believes that there are four advantages of the division of the four people's industries: first, "talking to each other and showing each other to be skillful", people in the same industry live together, it is easy to exchange experience and improve skills; The second is to "talk to each other for profit, show each other for time", and "show each other to know the price", which has a great effect on promoting the production and circulation of commodities; the third is to create a professional atmosphere, so that the people are content with their own business, so as not to "see foreign objects and move", thus causing the instability of the profession; Fourth, it is necessary to create a good social and educational environment invisibly, so that children can be exposed to it from an early age and naturally master professional skills under the influence of their parents and brothers. "Guanzi Xiao Kuang" said: "Less and more learned, his heart is at ease, and he does not see foreign objects and moves, so his father and brother's teaching is not pure, and his children can learn without hard work." ”

Guan Zhong was the first person in history to divide and manage all social strata according to occupations, and this specialized commodity economic model was later respected as the basic form and guiding principle. The meticulous professional division of labor and the institutional arrangement passed down from generation to generation are one of the important reasons why China's early civilization was ahead of the world. However, since the Qin Dynasty, the "division of the four people" in the strict sense has been abandoned, but it has become the prototype of the household registration system, and the craftsman registration system has been used to this day.

What has caused a major misunderstanding is the ordering of "Shinong Industry and Commerce".

Later generations talked about this, first replacing the sergeants with intellectuals or learned officials, and then they thought that this was a hierarchy of respect and inferiority, with the soldiers as the first, the peasants second, and the industry and commerce as the last, which formed the so-called "end merchantism". In fact, Guan Zhong's proposal of "Shinong Industry and Commerce" means to be concurrent, and there is no distinction between respect and inferiority.

The ancient Chinese were not light on business. As early as the Yin Shang period, people were very willing and good at doing business and engaged in handicraft manufacturing. After the Shang Dynasty fell to Zhou Xing, the founders of the Zhou Dynasty believed that the death of Yin Shang was because the people were keen on industry and commerce and abandoned agriculture, causing the people to be impetuous and the national foundation to be unstable. As a result, they turned to a policy of pro-agriculture that despised industry and commerce. In the Zhou system, the status of industrialists and merchants was very low, and the "hundred workers" in the Jin text were often placed alongside the ministers and concubines who were in the status of slaves. In "Yi Dun Hexagram", it is said: "A gentleman is far from a villain, not evil and strict." "Yi Zhou Shu Cheng Dian" said: "Scholars and doctors are not mixed with industry and commerce. "The Book of Rites and the Imperial System" says: Industry and commerce "go out of the countryside and do not have a tooth with the soldiers". In other words, the scholar must stay away from the merchants, and must not mix with the industrialists and merchants, and the industrialists and merchants are not allowed to talk to the scholars when they leave the place of residence. It is also stipulated in the "Zhou Li, Diguan, and Si Shi" that nobles cannot enter the market to trade, otherwise they will be punished!

Guan Zhong's position is completely different, he juxtaposes "industry and commerce" with "Shinong", and believes that these people are the "pillars of the country".

Guan Zhong's juxtaposition of the four people is not only his personal consciousness and consciousness, but also the embodiment of his concept of governance. This politician, who has many years of experience in business, has long discovered that the profitability of industry and commerce is greater than that of agriculture, and the revitalization of the commodity economy is the best way to enhance national strength.

This concept of elevating industrialists and businessmen to the same status as "Shi Nong" was not a consensus among the scholar class at that time, and there was a sentence in the dialogue between Yao Jia and the King of Qin recorded in the "Warring States Policy": "Guan Zhong, his contempt Jia people are also." "I despise Guan Zhong's business experience.

Guan Zhong's thoughts were deliberately submerged in later generations for two reasons.

First, the Qi State declined in one lifetime, and the idea of governing the country by business was completely bankrupt.

At that time, the state of Qi had the most powerful power, but it adopted a strategy of "peaceful hegemony" of not expanding its army and not annexing, and the actions of Guan Zhong to maintain the international order did not play a big role. In the late reign of Duke Huan of Qi, the Jin state in the central plains and the Chu state in the south annexed small states one after another, and their territories continued to expand, and their military adventures undoubtedly benefited greater. In 645 BC, Guan Zhong died, and two years later, Duke Huan of Qi died in a palace coup, and the state of Qi quickly relinquished its hegemonic authority. Since then, the princes who have successively claimed hegemony have intimidated the world by expanding their territories, and the "respect for the king" has become "coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes", and the way of managing the middle has been replaced by violence.

Second, Guan Zhong's thought is incompatible with Confucianism.

Confucianism is known as a "cheap businessman", and in their opinion, Guan Zhong has many faults in terms of background, style of conduct, and policy outline. In the Analects of Confucius, Zigong decided that "Guan Zhong is not a benevolent person." In the Analects of Confucius, it is said: "Zigong said: 'What is the case with those who are not benevolent? Huan Gong killed Gongzi and couldn't die, and he was the same. In the eyes of Confucianism, many of Guan Zhong's economic policies, whether it was stimulating commerce and trade, encouraging consumption, or "ending war with commerce", were all heresies, and the monopoly policy of salt and iron was also resisted by Confucianism. Confucianism has only "three axes" in economic governance: one is "agriculture-oriented", the second is "light and thin", and the third is "self-denial, benevolence and righteousness". Unfortunately, none of these three can be found in Guan Zhong.

In a sense, Guan Zhong is a reformer who has been "murdered" by ideology.

But despite this, in the Confucian classics, when it comes to Guan Zhong, it is still necessary to respect him and call him "Guanzi", because Confucius, the "most holy teacher", once commented on Guan Zhong and said: "Guan Zhong is the prime minister of Huan, tyrannical princes, a Kuang world, and the people have received it today." Microtubule Zhong, I was sent to the left! It means that if there is no Guan Zhong, all the people of China will become the captives of Yidi, and they will be "sent to the left" like Yidi!

Lin Yizhe's re-mention of the "juxtaposition of the four people" is precisely to borrow the words of Sage Confucius to block the mouth of Shilin Youyou!

――――Dividing Line――――

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