Qu Yuan's administrative reform has indeed enhanced the country's overall strength to a certain extent. After all, gaining the support of the people and selecting the virtuous itself combines the advantages and strengths of Confucianism and Legalism. The early reforms gave the Chu state the space and administrative support to eliminate the accumulated shortcomings, and the support of the people also promoted the development of productive forces and the innovation and progress of production technology. However, in the end, Qu Yuan's reforms still ended in failure, of course, there were obstruction and obstruction by vested interest groups led by the old aristocracy, and there were also covert sabotage and pressure from external enemies. But the root cause of the failure of this vigorous political reform is not alone.

A truly successful reform of the system does not merely bring great benefits to the country during the reform period, but changes the trajectory of the entire country and guides the state apparatus to develop in a more powerful direction, even if the reformers and leaders have died with the passage of time, and the lack of a good helmsman will not cause the entire warship to run aground and run aground. The perfect reform is to build a new system that is more conducive to national development, more adaptable to the situation, and capable of self-regulation and adaptation as the situation changes. Among them, there will be no fundamental wavering due to the change of a leader's personal will or the interference and sabotage of an external force.

At the beginning of the reform, the Chu State did gather a group of administrative talents with real talent because the space and channels for the rise of talents were opened by the judicial system, and the people-oriented ideological system could stimulate the people's desire to work in the early stage, so that they worked harder to create wealth for the state machine. However, the biggest drawback of this reform has also laid the groundwork.

It is true that the populism in Confucian ideology has the advantage of promoting national harmony and facilitating the management of those in power, but the teacher of benevolence and righteousness proposed by Confucianism has extremely high requirements for the entire national military system. Although Confucianism does not really lack the will to fight, it is difficult to equip the conditions necessary to form combat power in that chaotic situation.

The lack of a ruling system capable of quickly forming a strong army is the biggest problem, that is, in the current environment of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which lacks a stable order, it is impossible to use force to deter the princes of all parties who are ready to move, and then bring a real sense of security to the people of their country in the whole process of construction and production. It is true that the will of the people can make the country have a strong cohesive force, but the process of transforming this cohesive force into actual combat effectiveness is relatively long. Moreover, even if the people of the enemy country yearn for and respect such benevolent government, how many people can give their lives for the so-called benevolence and ideals under the oppressive rule of their own country? Therefore, even if all the people are usually satisfied with the ruler, when faced with the choice of life and death brought about by powerful violence, there is no guarantee that they will unite and integrate an iron-blooded army that is sufficient to maintain security. And in troubled times, "living comfortably" cannot compete with "living".

An open selection mechanism can indeed provide a steady stream of fresh blood to the entire national system. However, if the selection mechanism itself is built on the basis of relying on a small number of excellent, enlightened and fair "examiners", it will certainly be difficult to sustain. It is not just that the life of the "examiner" itself has a certain limit, but that a truly qualified examiner is extremely difficult to appear. It is impossible to rely on manpower to train examiners systematically and on a large scale, and let these examiners have outstanding talents and selfless character, just like the slogan of "preserving heavenly principles and destroying human desires", which seems to be high, but it cannot be replicated and promoted. After all, although Tianli is really good, how many people can truly overcome their desires?

Although Qu Yuan's reforms have given Chu a certain degree of national strength, a ruler who has not deeply explored whether the current situation and his own ideas can be properly integrated is nothing less than a disaster for a country. It is not that Qu Yuan's character and loyalty to the country and the people need to be denied, but that such an act itself, from the perspective of practical value, has indeed failed to completely eradicate the problems of the Chu State and even the entire Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. At the beginning of all reforms, it is hoped to move forward step by step from an angle that satisfies national interests, and Qu Yuan's reform has been selected as the starting point and the end point, but he ignores the road ahead, not only thorns, but also more wolves and abysses that are more terrible than thorns.

It is clear that the problem facing Qu Yuan is not just a violent collision between his governing philosophy and the reality itself. Although his reforms and ideas were supported and recognized by the then ruler King Chu, it was not that the King of Chu recognized all his governing ideas and thinking, but in the plan of the King of Chu for the country, this step of reform basically coincided with the realization of his own desires. Therefore, although the king of Chu was not a qualified emperor as Qu Yuan envisioned, he gave him a certain sense of authority and support in the early days. However, Qu Yuan's other fatal mistake arose.

Qu Yuan mistakenly pinned his entire ideological system on the trust and approval of the king of Chu, but he never instilled his political ideas into a force that could influence the country's political arena. All his authority and concepts seem to be noble and stable, and he has the support of the king, but in fact, just as he proposed that the beauty of politics needs to be built on a platform with a high enough standard and even somewhat difficult to achieve, his greatest support and support comes from an emperor whose ideological realm does not meet the corresponding standards, and Qu Yuan believes that the king of Chu is worthy of entrustment, however, the final result shows that the king of Chu is not the person he wants.

It's not that the king of Chu is really deaf, to the extent that he can depose important ministers because of a few words of slander, nor is it that lobbyists such as Zhang Yi can really turn their hands into clouds and rain with their hands, and let a country be overturned in chaos with just three inches of incorruptible tongue. All lobbyists live by the same law: promise benefits, induce deception. The lobbyists who can make the king of Chu repeatedly fall for tricks, and the ministers who can make the king of Chu get rid of Qu Yuan in a fit of anger, are actually essentially the same, they all gave the king of Chu a choice of interests, and then, Qu Yuan accidentally became the abandoned option in the adjustment and judgment of all forces.

Of course, the obstruction of the old aristocracy also played a vital role in the entire reform process of the Chu State. Qu Yuan's governing philosophy, in the face of the obstruction of the old aristocracy, the biggest mistake was to choose to rely on the king's own cultivation rather than choose to rely on judicial rules. He has the good sentiments of a romantic poet, but he ignores the fact that the judicial system, which he is not willing to touch and control, should have great power in this transformation. Although his political and legal reforms proposed, in a certain sense, a legal order with the rudiments of constitutional decrees, he also hoped to limit the rights and interests of the old pedantic aristocracy through these judicial procedures and systems, and open up space and channels for class change at the state level. However, he ignored one point: the king of Chu himself did not completely break away from the old aristocratic interest groups, and his own decree required the support of a representative of the power who was itself in a class with damaged vested interests.

Qu Yuan's political defeat was not entirely attributable to the gloomy political environment of the Chu state and the incompetence of the monarch, nor could the blame for the defeat be entirely placed on the complex diplomatic situation. It is just that his ideas and concepts have surpassed the current country's comprehensive production capacity and the ideological quality of the people, and he has always pursued a perfect form of great unification in a political environment that does not have the conditions for great unification. The old-fashioned aristocracy and the so-called dumb king, as well as lobbyists such as Zhang Yi, were just kicked mercilessly in the construction of this castle in the sky.

Any change in the system needs a strong force as a backing, or force, or a system, and the completely uncontrollable factors such as the improvement of the king's own quality and the rise of the people's ideological realm as a force to rely on to carry out reform and change the law, failure is a doomed end.