Chapter 80

The Shang Dynasty Reform laid the institutional foundation for the later Qin State and even the Qin Empire. "Mobile Access M."

The root cause can be said to be that after the battle of Yin and Jin, the living environment of Qin became very bad, and after Qin Xiaogong succeeded to the throne, he had to find a rich country and a strong army in this idea of change, and reverse the path of Qin's disadvantage.

This is also one of the main keys to why Qin Xiaogong prefers to see "domineering" rather than "the way of the emperor".

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Shang Ying used the emperor to lobby Qin Xiaogong for the first time, and Xiaogong dozed off after hearing this, and accused Shang Ying of being an arrogant person and could not be appointed.

Five days later, Shang Ying met with Qin Xiaogong again and lobbied with the art of the royal road, but Xiaogong could not accept it and blamed Shang Ying again through Jingjian.

When Shang Ying met with Qin Xiaogong for the third time, he used domineering techniques to lobby, which was affirmed by Xiao Gong but was not adopted, but Shang Ying had already understood the intention in Xiao Gong's heart at this time. In the end, when Shang Ying saw Xiao Gong, he talked freely about the strategy of enriching the country and strengthening the army, Xiao Gong was very fascinated when he listened, and his knees moved to Shang Ying unconsciously, and the two talked freely for several days without tire.

Jing Jian couldn't understand it and asked Shang Ying for the reason. Shang Ying said that Qin Xiaogong intended to dominate the world, so he was not interested in the doctrine of the emperor and the royal road, which took too long to achieve results.

And this is not so much that Qin Xiaogong is fighting for hegemony in the world, but that he knows very well that Qin was weak and Wei was strong at that time, and if the time dragged on any longer, Wei once again won a crucial decisive victory, then for Qin, it would be a catastrophe.

The Battle of Yin and Jin was fought in the thirteenth year of King An of Zhou, when the Qin State again mobilized an army of about 500,000 troops to attack the Yin Jin, an important city on the eastward march of the Qin State. The Qin army set up a camp outside the city of Yin and Jin, and the Wei state stationed an elite army in Hexi.

Xihe County guarded Wu Qi and encouraged the army to maintain high morale. He asked the monarch Wei Wuhou to hold a banquet to celebrate his merits, so that those who had made meritorious contributions would sit in the front row and use gold, silver, copper, and other valuable tableware, and that pigs, cattle, and sheep would be all stocked; those who had made meritorious contributions should sit in the middle row, and the number of valuable tableware should be appropriately reduced; and those who had no merit should sit in the back row and should not use valuable tableware.

After the banquet, they will also reward the parents, wives and families of the meritorious person outside the gate. For the families of the deceased soldiers, every year they send envoys to express condolences and reward their parents to show that they will not forget.

The law was in force for three years. As soon as the Qin army attacked Hexi, the Wei army immediately had tens of thousands of soldiers who did not wait for orders to put on their own armor and asked for battle. In the face of this large-scale attack by the Qin army, Wu Qi asked Wei Wuhou to send 50,000 people who had not made meritorious contributions as infantry, and he personally led the counterattack against the Qin army. Marquis Wu agreed, and sent 500 chariots and 3,000 cavalry.

The day before the war, Wu Qi issued an order to the three armies, saying: All the officials and soldiers should go with me to fight the enemy, whether it is chariots, cavalry, and infantry, "if the chariot cannot be carried, the cavalry cannot be ridden, and the vain cannot be vain, even if the army is broken, it will be useless." Wu Qi then led the Wei army to launch a counterattack against the Qin army at Yin Jin.

On this day, although the Wei soldiers were few, they all fought bravely to kill the enemy, and one was ten. After repeated charges, the Wei army defeated the 500,000 Qin army and achieved brilliant results.

In this battle, although facing the powerful Qin army, Wu Qi greatly improved the morale of the Wei army through the incentive method and significantly enhanced the combat effectiveness. With a small number of elite soldiers, he defeated the Qin army, which was ten times his size, defended the strategic point in Hexi, and effectively curbed the momentum of the Qin army's eastward advance. This battle is also a famous battle in the history of ancient Chinese warfare.

In fact, although the Qin State could mobilize an army of 500,000 troops, for the Wei State, which could already be said to be the strongest Warring States at that time, even if it lost in the Battle of Yin and Jin, the Wei State was not broken.

But the Qin State was different, after the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Yin and Jin, the Qin State even had to build the Great Wall to defend against the threat of the Wei army from the Hexi region, and it is conceivable that the Qin State at that time had no ability to launch another large-scale offensive against the Wei State.

Not only that, but because Li Kui's reform during the reign of Wei Wenhou made Wei quickly become the strongest in the Warring States, it was difficult for Qin to have enough national strength to fight Wei alone after this fiasco.

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The reason why Li Kui's reform can make Wei quickly strong is that it is fundamentally the comprehensiveness of Li Kui's reform.

In the early years of the Wei state, Li Kui was not in the center of Wei's power, but he served as the minister of Zhongshan and the guardian of Shangdi, both of which were on the northwestern frontier adjacent to the Qin state.

In his early years, Li Kui led his army to fight against Qin many times, and he was appreciated by Wei Wenhou, firstly because his teacher Zi Xia was an important minister of Wei Wenhou, and secondly, because of his idea of changing the law, which cut into the disadvantages of Wei. After several years of grinding as a magistrate, Li Kui eventually became an important minister of Wei and began to fully implement his ideas for reform.

The first is to abolish the hereditary system of the slavery era, select officials according to their ability, and abolish the hereditary benefits originally enjoyed by the old aristocracy, which are used to recruit talents and develop production.

The second is to formally abolish the traditional well-field system in China, adopt the policy of "teaching the best of the land", encourage the common people to reclaim land, abolish the land boundaries under the original well-field system, and allow private land sales. At the same time, all the land within the territory of the country is evaluated, the land yield of the country is estimated, and a reasonable tax policy is formulated. According to the barren criterion of land, land is allocated to the peasants to encourage their enthusiasm for production.

The third is to implement the rule of law, establish a complete Wei law "Book of Laws", and make the most complete provisions on state decrees, government functions, rewards and punishments for the promotion of officials, and rewards for military merits.

Fourth, it is necessary to reform the military system and establish a "military pawn" system, that is, to evaluate the soldiers of the army, reward the outstanding among them, and rearrange the ranks of different soldiers according to their operational characteristics, so as to give play to the army's operational superiority.

In order to further implement the reform of the law and consolidate the results of the reform, Li Kui collected the criminal codes of various countries and wrote the book "The Book of Laws", which was promulgated through Wei Wenhou to make it a law, affirm and protect the reform of the law in the form of law, and fix the feudal legal power. There are 6 chapters of the "Book of Law", which are "Theft Law", "Thief Law", "Prison Law", "Arrest Law", "Miscellaneous Law" and "Gu Law".

"Theft" refers to the theft of goods, and "thief" refers to the assault on the person, including committing misdeeds. There are goods that are afraid of being stolen, of course, the landlord class is the majority. Assaulting one's person, or even committing disorder, is a disturbance of social order. This is what the ruling class is guarding against. From these two laws, it can be seen that Li Kui's "Book of Laws" is for the benefit of the landlord class and takes the consolidation of the feudal ruling order as the starting point. The "Net Law" is the Prison Law, which is designed to imprison thieves, that is, "thieves need to be arrested, so the two articles of "Net" and "Arrest" are written. According to the "Tang Law Shu Yi", the "Prison Law" refers to "breaking prison", that is, the law of judging crimes, and the "Arrest Law" is about "arresting and dying", that is, the law of pursuing criminals.

According to the Chronicles of the Criminal Law of the Jin Dynasty, the "Miscellaneous Law" includes punishments for seven kinds of illegal acts, such as "frivolity, transgression, gambling, pretense, incorruptibility, extravagance, and overstepping." "Cunning" refers to the punishment of frivolous and cunning behavior, and "crossing the city" refers to climbing over the city wall to enter and exit the city without entering through the city gate. According to "Han Feizi?The Foreign Reserve Says Lower Left", Liang Che was Ye Ling, and his sister went to see him, until the city gate was closed in the evening, "because he entered Guo over, the car was different." Sister Liang Che "crossed Guo" and climbed over the city wall of Guo, and her younger brother was sentenced for violating the ban. "Gambling play" is to gather crowds to gamble. False means boar. "Excuse of leave" refers to a man staying with a woman's house, or "wife and husband". "Incorruptible" refers to greed for money and bribery. "Extravagance" refers to the act of lasciviousness and extravagance. "Overstepping" refers to the use of instruments that exceed the prescribed feudal hierarchy. These regulations were established to maintain the feudal order.

The "Gu Law" is "the addition or subtraction of its legal instruments", that is, the provisions on the increase or reduction of the sentence of conviction and conviction according to the circumstances of the crime and the age of the crime.

The basic characteristics of the "Book of Law" are: maintaining the feudal regime, protecting the private property of the landlords and the remnants of slavery, and implementing the legal theory of "minor crimes and heavy punishments" of the Legalists. The content and characteristics of the "Book of Law" fully reflect the will and interests of the emerging landlord class.

On the basis of summarizing the experience of its predecessors, the "Book of Law" is a precedent for the Chinese legal system in terms of legislative spirit, code style, and legislative technology, which can be described as a remarkable achievement. However, since the formulation of the code is still in the enlightenment period of the Chinese legal system, it inevitably has some common characteristics of early human legal culture.

There is a view that the Book of Law has its own simplicity, which means that there is no scientific classification and hierarchy in the system of legal norms that constitute the ancient legal order, which is reflected in the style of the code, which is the combination of laws, and there is no distinction between civil and criminal law, substantive law, and procedural law. We can clearly see this in the "Dharma Sutra" and the "Twelve Bronze Table Laws".

Judging from the existing historical materials about the "Book of Law", the main content of the "Book of Law" is the criminal law provisions based on crimes, such as Dong Shuo's quotation of the content of his "Correct Law" in the "Seven National Examinations": "Those who kill people shall be punished by their families and their wives, and two people and their mothers shall be killed." The big thief is a guard, and he will be punished. Those who peep into the palace are scavenged, and those who pick up the relics are cut. Said: For the thief's heart. "But it's not just criminal law. In the "Tang Law Discussion", it is said: "The "Prison Law" is now the "Prison Breaking Law", and the "Arrest Law" is also the "Arrest Law". It can be seen that the "Book of Law" also has content equivalent to the Criminal Procedure Law.

Moreover, the "Book of Law" sets up the "Law of Theft" to safeguard the right to private property as the first article, and it is impossible not to involve the legal adjustment of certain civil relations, but just like the characteristics of ancient Chinese law, it is only adjusted by criminal means.

In terms of content, it can be concluded that the entire "Book of Laws" is a code of civil, criminal, and criminal appeals, with criminal law as the mainstay. From a structural point of view, Li Kui's legislative thinking only started from the most urgent point of his reform of the law in the Wei state, first stipulating the "Theft Law" and the "Thief Law"; then stipulating the "Prisoner Law" and "Arrest Law" in order to impeach and arrest thieves; then including some other crimes in the "Miscellaneous Law", and finally listing the "Applicable Law," which is equivalent to the chapter of the name and precedents of later generations or the general provisions of the criminal law, as the end of the article. It can be seen that Li Kui's legal structure is far from reaching the level at the peak of China's feudal legal system, and is still in a relatively messy stage.

Later generations believed that from the perspective of the entire history of human civilization, the "Book of Law" and the "Twelve Bronze Tables" were the products of early human civilization. The Book of Law was born in the early Warring States period, a period of transition from a slave society to a feudal society in China.

The Law of the Twelve Tables was born in the early stages of Roman slavery society. Therefore, the two codes inevitably have the primitive and barbaric colors of early human civilization, and they are clearly revealed in their provisions.

Although the "Book of Laws" got rid of the criminal law system of "Zhou Li" and "Shangshu Lu Xing" and changed it to the criminal system of using criminal punishment to unify punishment, there was no change in the attitude towards punishment. The "Book of Laws" fully embodies the idea of Legalist heavy punishment. First of all, it inherited all kinds of corporal punishments in the "Zhou Li" and the "Shangshu Lu Xing", such as flogging, punishment, punishment, slashing, and palace, and also provided for a large number of joint punishments, such as Yi nationality and Yi township; second, "heavy punishment and light crime".

In the "Book of Law", it is said that "those who steal talismans will be punished by their families." Seal thieves are punished. The decree of the state is punished, and his family and his wife" also stipulate that "those who peep into the palace will be killed, and those who will be gleaned will be killed", and the reason for this provision is "to steal the heart". The above two manifestations undoubtedly smeared the "Book of Law" with a strong color of violent killing, exuding the bloody atmosphere of primitive clan conquest and rule.

Although Li Kui put forward in the reform of the law, "the way to serve the country, food is hard work and merit, so that there is ability and reward must be done." Punishment must be due", and in the "Book of Law" evolved into the "rule of law" principle of "no relatives, no special nobles, and one judgment from the law", and was later enshrined as a creed for Shang Ying, Han Fei and other representative figures of Legalism.

However, this rule of law is completely different from the Western concept of "rule of law" presented in the "Twelve Bronze Tables Law". Just as Mr. Liang Zhiping pointed out, "It is not a big joke to compare the 'rule of law' of the [Legalists] with the concept of the rule of law in Aristotle's "Politics" and even in modern Western times. "In China, the law has always been an instrument of repression in the hands of the emperor, and it is almost synonymous with punishment. In ancient Greece and Rome, however, law was above society and could be used to determine and protect the interests of different social groups. ”

In the "Book of Law", there are provisions that "the prince will be flogged if he plays a play, not only will he be flogged, but more than he will be more established", as well as the article that "if the rhino head is punished by gold", it cannot be said that it is not severe, and it has also had a great impact on the etiquette principles of the slave society. But these "rule of law" measures brought about a hierarchical order of slavery, but also a feudal hierarchical order. Feudal society was still a hierarchical privileged society. However, the Legalist concept of "rule of law" is still in the service of "rule of man" in the end, and there is no democracy or equality at all.

The Law of the Twelve Tables, on the other hand, is a compilation of customary law, which is extensive in civil law, criminal law and procedure.

The letter of the law reflects the early days of the Roman slave-owning society. It clearly stipulates the protection of the private property system and the rights and interests of the slave owners and nobles, the protection of private property, and the severe punishment of those who destroy private rights. The law of obligations provides that creditors may detain debtors who fail to repay their debts on time, or even sell them into slavery or put them to death.

Family law gives parents absolute power over their family members to sell their children into slavery. The code forbade intermarriage between nobles and commoners. The law of inheritance provides for testamentary freedom and the succession of property within the clan, and the punishment method is both fines and preservation of homomorphic revenge. This suggests that there were still remnants of the clan system in society at that time. The Twelve Tables made some restrictions on the abuse of power by the nobles, and the nobles could no longer interpret the law arbitrarily according to the law, which was the source of Roman law in later generations, and also had an important influence on medieval and modern European jurisprudence.

The Law of the Twelve Tables was the first written law in Rome, which limited the privileges of the nobility, broke its monopoly on the law, and protected the interests of the commoners to a certain extent, which was a victory for the commoners.

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