Japanese scholars' selected translations of Chinese historical treatises (Volume 2. Special Topics)

Author: Liu Junwen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features:
Fragment: As previously mentioned, in order 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 dissolution 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 began rapidly to break through the clan system 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 nature of what is called a small-scale "Qin-Han emperor." This strengthening of sovereign power, specifically, began with the feudal lords gathering capable individuals around them as private advisors, reinforcing their own 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 sovereign power. At that time, Zhou Chuo, who had fled from Jin to Qi, served under King Zhuang and hoped to join the ranks of the brave, indicating that the warriors gathered as private advisors for King Zhuang did not necessarily all come from Qi; they included foreigners as well. On one hand, conflicts between clans, such as disputes over leadership or other reasons, led to the dissolution of clan alliances. On the other hand, private power centered around feudal lords or 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" (shikè). Those who boasted of raising hundreds or thousands of food guests included the so-called "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 fiefdoms, 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 on it again later. Breaking the framework of the clan system, the emergence of strong sovereign power, and the formation of bureaucracy were not achievements that could be accomplished solely through the power of an individual monarch. 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 mother clans. Therefore, the feudal lords could not afford to cultivate their own private advisors. The insightful observer who pointed out this issue was Dr. Tatsuyama Ryūfu in his recent research. Dr. Tatsuyama accepted the argument proposed by Dr. Kato Fumiko in the 1910s, which states that Han Dynasty finance was divided into state finance and imperial finance, but imperial finance surpassed the former in terms of revenue. Based on this argument, he further proposed the following view: The emergence of imperial finance 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 arable land directly under the feudal lords into public fields, while the revenue from the minerals and iron produced in the mountains and marshes was exclusively controlled by the feudal lords. These so-called "sources of revenue" became the private property of the feudal lords, thereby establishing the financial foundation for sovereign power.