The Main Contents and Functions of Shang Yang's Reform

The main content and function of Shang Yang's political reform in which dynasty: Shang Yang (about 390 ~ 338 BC) was a native of Wei State (now Luoyang, Henan Province), formerly known as Wei Yang or Gongsun Yang, a famous politician in the Warring States Period and a major representative of Legalism. I like learning the name of punishment since I was a child. I went to the State of Qin in 36 1 year BC and gained the trust of Qin Xiaogong. I served as Zuo Shuchang and Liang Zao, and held the military and political power of Qin State for 20 or 20 years. After the fifteen cities of Yu (now the eastern part of Henan Neixiang) and Shang (now the southeast of Shangxian County, Shaanxi Province) were sealed as Shangjun, they were sealed as Shang Yang.

Shang Yang lived in the mid-Warring States period, and wars of vassal separatism and annexation were frequent. In order to enrich Qin and establish a unified feudal empire, he successively carried out two political reform activities centered on "agricultural war" and "rule of law". Shang Yang's political reform was a profound social change in the history of our country, which effectively dealt a blow to the old system and the old relations of production, made the backward State of Qin a first-class power that overwhelmed the six Shandong countries, and laid a solid foundation for Qin Shihuang's later unification of China.

Population thought plays an important role in Shang Yang's thought. "Many soldiers are strong, and this emperor's great wealth is also" ("Shu Weak People"). The following quotations in this article, where quoted from this book, only note the title). He believes that a large population is an important prerequisite for winning the annexation war and unifying the world. If the population is too small, there will be no extra manpower to farm the land, and materials will be obtained by sending troops to attack the enemy; If you farm with manpower, the enemy will have a rest, and you can't have it both ways. Therefore, if you want to be rich and defend against the enemy, you must first fundamentally change the situation of Qin's "people don't weigh land" and vigorously increase the population. According to the domestic and international situation of Qin at that time, he thought it was best to increase the population by economic means and adopt the policy of "recruiting talents and recruiting talents". This will not only attract a large number of immigrants from other vassal countries in a short time, increase the population, but also dry up the enemy's army and force it to submit completely. On the contrary, adopting natural population growth will not only take a long time, but also slow down and take effect, and will not weaken the enemy. During the Warring States period, there were few people, and the production tools and military equipment were backward. Shang Yang advocated increasing the population by attracting people. Although it is beneficial to the development of social production in Qin State and the prosperity of Qiang Bing, it is a policy that harms others and benefits others.

Shang Yang developed Mo Zhai's viewpoint that population and land must be balanced, and he was the first to put forward the law of "controlling land and dividing people" ("recruiting people"). In his view, in order to accommodate a population of 50,000, Fiona Fang must have a hundred miles of land, of which fertile land accounts for 40%, poor land accounts for 20%, urban roads account for 65,438+30%, and lakes and rivers account for 30%. Whether the above ratio was in line with the actual situation at that time or not, he proposed it more than two thousand years ago, which is very valuable. In addition, he also pointed out that in the case of a large population and a small number of people, it is necessary to vigorously reclaim land, otherwise there will be "people are useless, just like no people" ("land plan"); In the case of a small population, we should vigorously increase the population, otherwise there will be a situation that "people who are too big to farm are the same as those who have no land" (ibid.).

In order to carry out the "agricultural war" policy, Shang Yang also attached great importance to increasing the agricultural population. He first put forward the view that the ratio of agricultural population to non-agricultural population should be 100: 1, and the maximum can be 10: 1. "One hundred farmers live in one house (non-agricultural population), Wang; Ten farmers, one resident, strong; Half farming and half living in danger. " He believes that although businessmen and officials have their own special roles in social life, they, especially those who are engaged in skills, lobbying and arguing, and studying poetry books, are vagrants who are not engaged in production. If there are more of these people, the development of agricultural production will be affected, and "people who eat too much will lose their jobs" (Reclamation Order), which will lead to poverty and weakness in the country. In order to increase the agricultural population, he not only advocated adopting the policy of "attracting people" to attract a large number of farmers from other vassal countries, but also advocated expanding the agricultural population by granting official titles, exempting corvees, increasing the collection of industrial and commercial and non-agricultural population, implementing the policy of high food prices, restricting employees, and prohibiting the opening of hotels. It is wrong for Shang Yang to regard all non-agricultural people as vagrants who are not engaged in production. Some of his methods to increase the agricultural population are extreme. However, in the Warring States period, when agriculture played an important role, it was realistic to advocate that the agricultural population must account for more than 90% of the total population. At the same time, it is rare for him to take all measures to increase the agricultural population in our history.

Shang Yang also opposed improving people's knowledge and culture and advocated people's ignorance. He believes that people "learn poetry" ("agricultural warfare"), with knowledge and culture, and with the support of other vassal powers, not only can they "be different from each other, but they will also try their best to engage in agricultural warfare for fame and fortune, and they will also" tell lies "(ibid.), disrupting people's hearts and alienating the people from the king. "As the saying goes, there are thousands of people fighting in agriculture, but there is only one wise man arguing with poetry and books, and thousands of people fighting in agriculture are lazy." Therefore, in order to make Qiang Bing rich and win the annexation war, it is necessary to make the people "not good at learning" (reclamation order). Shang Yang's thought, whether it was beneficial to Qiang Bing, a rich country of Qin at that time, or the policy of agricultural war, fully exposed the nature of its exploiting class and was harmful to the improvement of the people's cultural knowledge.

In order to strengthen household registration management and strictly control population, Shang Yang also attached great importance to population statistics. In addition to advocating the establishment of a household registration system of "five households are five and ten households are ten", he also proposed for the first time to establish a thorough and regular population statistics throughout the country. He believes that a detailed understanding of the birth and death of the population, that is, "supporting (all) the population, the living (registering) and the dead" ("eliminating the strong"), and correctly grasping the total population and the number of men, women, children, businessmen, tourists and other categories is a major event related to Qiang Bing, a rich country and consolidating the political power of the landlord class. If we don't know the number of warehouses, the number of able-bodied men and women, the number of old and weak people, the number of officials, the number of people who take food (referring to lobbyists) and the number of people who benefit the people (referring to businessmen and craftsmen), even if the land is profitable and there are many people, the country will become weaker and thinner.