Qiu Xigui and Cao Feng: "Ancient History Discrimination" School, "Double Evidence Law" and Related Issues (3/5)

Basic description of ancient history

Cao: Just now you said that your interest in ancient history has continued from your youth until now. During the decades of research, have you formed a relatively systematic and holistic view of ancient history?

Qiu: After I started working, I also wrote some articles on ancient history. Most of them were related to each other, mainly focusing on social class structure and social formation. There are also some views mentioned in the speech, but not written. Regarding the legends of ancient history, as I said just now, I basically tend to the point of view of the "Ancient History Discrimination" school, admitting that there is the Xia Dynasty, and the Xia Dynasty and above are the legendary era, and the system of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors is not a historical reality. Regarding the nature of society I am concerned with, I think ancient China entered the age of civilization without the collapse of the patriarchal clan, patrilineal clan, and patriarchal clan (the terms "clan" and "extended clan", according to Soviet scholars In Ke Siwen's "Outline of the History of Primitive Culture"[1], the "small clan" in ancient my country can be equivalent to either a clan or a large clan). Engels once said that civilized society arises from the division of labor. In ancient my country, large-scale division of labor was carried out between clans. Senior scholars like Tong Shuye and Mr. Tang Lan talked about the issue of the Baigong clan. For example, Xi Zhong, the ancestor of Xue Guo of the Zhou Dynasty, was good at making cars. , making cars for the central dynasty, and clans specializing in pottery and metallurgy. Without breaking the patriarchal clan organization, division of labor and exchange between clans and tribes began. From a literary point of view, the "shang" of commerce is originally the "reward" of rewards, and the "easy" of trading is the "gift" of rewards. Therefore, in the early days, between tribes, clans, between superiors and subordinates (also It is the relationship between high-status and low-status tribes and clans) that is exchanged through gifts, rewards and tributes. The word "tin" can also be used for subordinates to superiors, such as "tin" in "Shangshu·Yugong" "Jiujiang Naxi Big Tortoise". The development of division of labor and exchange is a necessary condition for entering a civilized society. In our country, this process is carried out without breaking the patriarchal clan system. With the development of society, the relationship between ruling and being ruled or subordination occurred between different clans and tribes. There are also divisions within the clan, and slaves can also be used, but the clan system (including clan, clan, family) has not been broken. In some articles, according to Mr. Hou Wailu's statement, I believed that the ownership system in the early period of ancient my country was the ownership of the nobles. The framework of the patriarchal clan and the big family has not been broken, and there is still a communal relationship between the clansmen. "Zongzi" is the head of the clan, and it can also be the head of a large family. In the historical materials of the Spring and Autumn Period, the so-called "zi" often refers to the head of the clan. The ancestral son has the right to control the family property, but at the same time, he also has the obligation to "protect the clan" and "accept the clan" and take care of the life of the clan. But because it has entered a class society, the nature of public ownership has been distorted, and it is reflected in the possession and possession of the ancestors, which is different from the situation in primitive society. In the ruling class, the Son of Heaven can also be said to be the highest son. Although the conquered were enslaved, they often retained the clan organization, and some even had a relatively high status. pointed out by Mr. With the development of society, some commoners (that is, common people) will continue to be differentiated in the noble clan. These people can no longer be included in the clan system, that is to say, they are already outside the scope of the Zongzi and Bi clan. The "five generations moved" mentioned in the Book of Rites reflects this situation. If the conquered were already divided into nobles and commoners when they were conquered, their fate after being conquered might be different. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were so-called "tiger ministers" and "servants", who were ministers who were mainly responsible for military tasks, and might have been nobles with war skills before being conquered; there were also so-called "yong", who were mainly engaged in labor production, Probably civilians before being conquered. However, "Huchen" and "Yi Servant" may also be served by people from a relatively backward race who are brave and good at fighting and have no obvious internal differentiation. Servants generally have families, and even clan organizations. According to the research of some scholars, the commoners of the ruling clan engaged in agricultural production and the conquered peasants (yong) probably had organizations of the nature of "rural communes" at the beginning. The patriarchal system was a reflection of the patriarchal clan organization that existed within the ruling class. The early state form was relatively primitive, and to a large extent overlapped with the clan organization of the ruling class (the "zong" mentioned here is the "zong" in ancient Chinese, so the "clan" mentioned here is the same as that of the Kesi documents. "Clan" in the translation cannot be equated).

Cao: So how did the clan organizations become divided, and how did the state control the society?

Qiu: In the Spring and Autumn Period, especially in the late Spring and Autumn Period, the society changed a lot. Many scholars have talked about this. The clan organization within the ruling class gradually became unsustainable. In the Book of Rites, it is mentioned that there is a situation in which the clan became a doctor, and the clan leader (zongzi) was still a scholar. Originally, the political power and clan power were unified, but they gradually separated. The clan organization gradually collapsed, and many nobles became commoners. Organizations in the nature of "rural communes" gradually disintegrated due to the development of productive forces, and production tends to be individualized. At the same time, the boundaries between the rulers and the ruled are slowly disappearing. From the late Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, many dependents appeared. Dependents have always existed, but from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, it became a relatively prominent social phenomenon. I have an article called "Tentative Study on the Nature of Society in the Warring States Period"[2] which addresses this issue. These people are often called "disciples", and there were many in the late Spring and Autumn period. They are not the clansmen of the master they are attached to. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, such disciples did not engage in productive labor, but became the master's armed force. They are often differentiated from the nobles, and some are differentiated from the commoners. In fact, they are the buds of the later "scholars" (different from the "scholars" of doctors and scholars before the Spring and Autumn Period). In the Warring States Period, the economic units directly engaged in production by the exploiting classes were mainly patriarchal clans, but they were no longer clans under the clan system. In this kind of family there are slaves, dependents, and children of their own clan, and sometimes the children of their own clan are of similar status to slaves and dependents. Wage labor is also used. In addition to such large families, there are of course many individual farmers and individual handicraftsmen, but we cannot imagine them too modern. The state has strict control over the peasants, especially the artisans, not the free producers in the later sense. But in any case, the production unit is small, even if it is the big family of the exploiting class, it is not the big family like the fourth and fifth generations. However, they may have many slaves and dependents (who were mainly producers by this time). Individual producers emerged both with the disintegration of the rural commune and also differentiated from the aristocracy.

The land ownership system in the Warring States Period was basically state ownership. The state rewards ploughing and wars, and implements the system of rank, which is different from the system of ministers and officials based on the aristocratic clan system in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period. If the production is good, the war is successful, and the rank will rise. The level of nobility is directly related to the number of land, slaves and dependents, which is a system controlled by the state.

Cao: From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was a period of great changes in ancient society from division to unity. In your opinion, what are the manifestations of this change in social and economic aspects?

Qiu: The Qin Dynasty basically inherited the system of the Warring States Period in terms of social economy. In the Han Dynasty, state control seems to have weakened to a certain extent, but the situation in the early Western Han Dynasty that we have seen does not seem to have changed much. There is a process in the development of private land mergers and tenancy relations. The situation of "the poor have no place to stand" actually appeared in the Warring States Period, but it was not caused by the merger of civil land at that time. At that time, the state controlled a lot of land, and if an adult man could start a family and start a business, he could obtain land from the state for production. However, children from poor families do not have enough means of living and production, so they cannot start a family and start a business. It’s not that the state doesn’t have land for you, the problem is that if you acquire a piece of land and become a family, you have to bear the various burdens the state imposes on the land and the family. If you can't afford it, you can only be a poor person with "no place to stand", you can only take refuge in a private person, or you can become an "apprentice" under the control of the state. There are specific historical data for this. If they become a family, and they do not cultivate the land well enough to meet the requirements of the state, they must be "punished as a public servant", whether they should be apprentices, serve the state, or be assigned by the state to private individuals as apprentices. So the state control is very strict. After the great changes during the Qin and Han Dynasties, the control will of course be loosened. However, the development of the relationship between landlords and tenants still requires a process. In the past, it was wrong to think that after Shang Yang's reform, the relationship between land acquisition and tenancy developed quickly. I have already talked about this in the article on the Warring States Society. In the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, big landlords developed, and the phenomenon of big landlords competing with the state for the labor force became prominent. In the early Han Dynasty, the system of the 20th rank was still highly valued. Afterwards, it gradually became less valuable. The tyrannical powers, including the big landlords, gradually rose. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty began to fight against the tyrannical, this shows that the contradiction between them and the country is already very sharp. On the other hand, in the Han Dynasty, similar to the Warring States period, the use of slave labor and wage labor was still relatively common. The society of the Han Dynasty, at least the society of the Western Han Dynasty, had the characteristics of transitioning from the society of the Warring States period to the society of the Middle Ages.

Cao: Can it be said that when you are doing research on ancient characters and ancient documents, you already have a systematic understanding of ancient history behind you. Otherwise, the consideration of some issues will not be so in-depth.

Qiu: As I said before, knowledge of ancient history is very helpful for me to examine and interpret ancient written materials.