Japanese scholars' selected translations of Chinese historical treatises: Volume 2, Special Topics

Author: Translated by: Kao Ming-shih and others
Editor-in-Chief: Liu Chun-wen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1993-10-01
Features:
Fragment: As previously mentioned, to establish the prefecture-county system like that of the Qin and Han dynasties, the people had to be liberated from the clan system. However, the disintegration of the clan system was not just a demand from the subjugated side; the rulers—kings, feudal lords, or ministers and high officials—also had this demand. This trend rapidly broke through the clan system starting from the mid-Spring and Autumn period. The feudal lords who had already established sovereign power, or the feudal lords who emerged among the ministers and high officials under them during the Warring States period, were no longer the same as those before the Spring and Autumn period. Instead, they possessed the properties of what could be called small-scale "Qin-Han emperors." This strengthening of sovereign power, specifically, began with the feudal lords gathering capable individuals around them as private advisors, thereby enhancing their military power. Private advisors and the sovereign were not necessarily of the same clan, and their relationship was not based on bloodline clan ties but entirely on personal bonds. The Zuo Zhuan records a story of King Zhuang of Qi raising many warriors and bestowing upon them the title of "brave" (yongjue), which is an example of feudal lords strengthening their sovereign power. At that time, Zhou Chuo, who had fled from Jin to Qi, served King Zhuang and hoped to join the ranks of the brave, indicating that the warriors gathered as private advisors of King Zhuang did not necessarily all come from Qi but included foreigners as well. On one hand, conflicts among clans or other reasons led to the disintegration of clan alliances; on the other hand, private power centered around feudal lords or high ministers increased. Private advisors gathered under the sovereign, accepted their commands, and were assigned specific tasks. This can be said to be the emergence of bureaucracy. Since the Warring States period, many such private dependents have been seen, known as "food guests" (shike). Those who boasted of raising hundreds or thousands of food guests were known as the "Four Gentlemen of the Warring States": Meng Changjun of Qi, Chunshenjun of Chu, Pingyuanjun of Zhao, and Xinglingjun of Wei, as well as the Qin minister Lü Buwei. Among them, Meng Changjun once ordered his food guests to collect taxes from his fief, which can be seen as a specific example of the emergence of bureaucracy. The bureaucracy of the Qin and Han dynasties was different from the ministers and high officials of the Spring and Autumn period; it was not hereditary but merely acted as representatives of sovereign power. However, the prerequisite for the emergence of such bureaucracy was that a place had already been provided for them to carry out their duties. In other words, the people ruled by the bureaucracy should have already been under the control of the sovereign, which was a necessary condition. Regarding this point, we will touch upon it again later. Breaking the framework of the clan system, the emergence of strong sovereign power, and the formation of bureaucracy—none of these could be achieved solely through the efforts of an individual ruler. To cultivate private advisors and maintain bureaucracy, it was necessary to provide the sovereign with an economic foundation. Traditional feudal lords collected tribute from the territories they dominated, but this tribute did not necessarily become the income of the feudal lords themselves. Each feudal lord had representatives, so this tribute could be considered the common income of their clans. Therefore, the feudal lords could not afford to cultivate their own private advisors. The insightful observer who pointed this out was the late Dr. Tsuruya Ryūfu's recent research. Dr. Tsuruya accepted the argument proposed by Dr. Kato Fumiko in the 1910s, which stated that Han Dynasty finances were divided into state finances and imperial finances, but the imperial finances surpassed the former in terms of revenue. Based on this argument, he further proposed the following view: The emergence of imperial finances became the material foundation for strengthening sovereign power. Therefore, since the Spring and Autumn period, feudal lords forced the people to enclose mountains, forests, and marshes into their own private gardens, prohibiting other uses, and monopolizing the income from timber, animal hides, feathers, and other resources. Soon after, they further developed these mountains and marshes, making the cultivated land directly under the control of the feudal lords into public fields, while the income from the minerals and iron produced in the mountains and marshes was exclusively monopolized by the feudal lords. These so-called "sources of income" became the private property of the feudal lords, thereby establishing the financial foundation of sovereign power.