Why did the ancient law changers end up worse than the other?

The fate of the ancient law changers became more and more miserable one by one, and the occurrence of this situation was predictable. In ancient times, the reform of the law would touch the interests of many people, and the first thing that would affect the interests of the ruling class was the interests of the ruling class, although the reform of the law could benefit the people and improve the productivity of the country, but it would also affect the self-interests of the ruling class, so the fate of the reformers would not be very good.

Because they understand the interests of the old school. For example, Shang Ying, although his Shang Yang reform made the Qin State gradually stronger, it also moved the interests of the old nobles of the Qin State at that time, and attracted the hatred of many people.

Because these people have benefited many people in the process of changing society, they will face retaliation from others.

Because the reformers often offend vested interests and are hated by them. Reform is reform, and if there is reform, it will inevitably violate the interests of some people, and once the emperor who supports reform will be retaliated against.

Indeed, in several famous changes in Chinese history, almost none of its specific implementers came to a good end. For example, Shang Ying, Wu Qi, Wang Mang, Wang Anshi (dismissed), Zhang Juzheng (liquidated after death), Wuxu Six Gentlemen, etc., are not like this.

These people don't end well, and the reason is actually very simple. It can be seen that almost all important changes in ancient times, such as the Shang Dynasty reform, Wu Qi reform, Wang Mang reform, Wang Anshi reform, Zhang Juzheng reform, and Wuxu reform, have a common law, that is, the time of the change often occurs in the middle and late stages of the dynasty. A dynasty starts from the founding of the country, and then slowly develops, and by the middle and late stages of this dynasty, an inherent interest group has long been formed, and the power of this interest group is bound to be very strong.

The reason why the law needs to be changed is because the vested interests of these interest groups affect the strength of the country, or they affect the authority of the monarch, and this is probably the case.

In view of this reason, those who implement the reform must prescribe the right medicine, and the measures they take must revolve around how to redistribute interests, and since they want to redistribute interests, they will naturally share the cake from the interests of vested groups, and this will reduce their interests. In order to protect their own interests, they naturally made all kinds of difficulties and attacks on the content of the law change and the law changer, and the king (or successor) saw that the situation was not right, in order to calm the anger of the public, and at the same time to protect his own interests, he had to find a substitute for the dead ghost.

Therefore, Tan Sitong will say: "How can there be a person who changed the law in ancient times without bloodshed and sacrificed". Finally, I use Tan Sitong's desperate poem "Inscription Wall in Prison" that I admire as the end of this text:

Looking at the door, he stopped thinking about Zhang Jian, and endured death and waited for Du Gen. I smiled at the sky with my horizontal knife, and went to leave the liver and gallbladder two Kunlun!

Summary: In the end, it is the weakness of the power of changemakers. Some people may think that this sentence is nonsense, but in fact it is well-founded, although the reformers are highly valued by the thighs of those in power (some of them are the biggest in power), there are only a few people who advocate change in each dynasty, and their power is extremely weak compared to the stubborn forces.

Therefore, even if the changemakers themselves are favored for a while, and the diehards are temporarily below, as soon as the balance of power changes, the reformers will be frantically retaliated.

Changing the law and reforming the old system, one thing that cannot be bypassed is that it will offend the powerful, and the reform will inevitably affect the interests of some people, and the powerful who have passively benefited will naturally hold a grudge against these people who lead the reform.

Because the reformers in history were all against those in power, even if they played a role in promoting history, they were not tolerated by the times at the time, so there was no good ending.

Most of the reformers in Chinese history did not end up with a good ending because they started. The idea of changing the law is good, but it may be distorted in the subsequent implementation, so causing their failure to change the law will also make people resentful of him.

Because as long as the welfare of the people is given, in ancient times it was a kind of perverse behavior. They must have threatened the interests of some of the old landlord class, which is why they ended up miserable.

Because changing the law needs to offend a lot of people, and it also needs to offend a lot of princes and nobles, so they will not have a good ending.

The reform of the law must break the existing political pattern, which will inevitably harm the interests of vested interest groups, and vested interest groups will inevitably retaliate against the law-changers because of the loss of their interests, so it is difficult for law-changers to have a good ending.

1. Li Kui's change.

Li Kui's reform refers to the appointment of Li Kui as the prime minister when Wei Wenhou of Wei was in power during the Warring States Period to carry out reform of the law. Politically, Li Kui advocated the abolition of hereditary aristocratic privileges, the selection of meritocrats, and the strict rewards and punishments. Economically, the main practice is to make the best use of land and the law of equalization.

It greatly promoted the development of agricultural production in Wei and made Wei rich and strong.

In order to further implement the reform of the law and consolidate the results of the reform, the criminal codes of various countries were collected and the book "The Book of Laws" was written, which affirmed and protected the reform of the law in the form of law and fixed the feudal legal power. Li Kui's reform of the law in the Wei State was the beginning of China's reform of the law and had a far-reaching impact on Chinese history.

2. Shang martingale method.

After Qin Xiaogong of the Qin State ascended the throne during the Warring States Period, he was determined to strengthen the reform, so he ordered the recruitment of talents. Shang Ying defended the country into Qin, and put forward a set of development strategies such as abandoning well fields, emphasizing agriculture and mulberry, awarding military merits, implementing unified measurements, and establishing a county system.

In 356 B.C. and 350 B.C., he successively implemented two changes with the main content of "abandoning well fields, opening up Qianmo, implementing the county system, rewarding cultivation and weaving and fighting, and implementing the law of joint sitting".

After the Shang Dynasty reform, Qin's economy developed, the combat effectiveness of the army was continuously strengthened, and it developed into the richest and most powerful centralized state in the late Warring States period.

3. Liu Yu's reform.

Liu Yu's reform refers to the various reforms carried out by Liu Yu from the Yixi period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the early years of Liu Song Yong. It also has the title of Yixi reform. Beginning in 405 AD, Liu Yu carried out a series of reforms in response to various political and social problems since the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Including the implementation of the land law, the restoration of the talent show, filial piety and incorruptibility of the system, the rectification of the enslavement system, the abolition of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the prohibition of the strong and strong to seal the mountains, the suppression of annexation, the relief of the poor, the revitalization of education, the streamlining of Qiaozhou counties and counties, the weakening of the power of the scholars, the strengthening of the centralization of power, and so on. It further struck a blow at the decadent and dark aristocracy and gentry, improved the political and social conditions, and alleviated the suffering of the working people.

4. Reform of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The reform of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, commonly known as the sinicization of filial piety, refers to the political reforms implemented during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Its main content is the Sinicization movement, including the implementation of the uniform field system and household regulation, the reform of the official system and legal decrees, the relocation of the capital to Luoyang, and the change of Han customs.

5. Westernization Movement.

The Westernization Movement, also known as the Self-Help Movement and the Self-Improvement Movement. It was a self-help movement carried out by the Westernists of the late Qing Dynasty from the 60s of the 19th century to the 90s of the 19th century to save the rule of the Qing Dynasty by introducing Western military equipment, machine production and science and technology. The slogan in the early stage of the Westernization Movement was "self-improvement", and the slogan in the later stage was "seeking wealth".

The main guiding ideology of the Westernization Movement is the eight characters of "middle school as the body, Western learning as the application". The first four words "Shiyi and Yi" indicate the relationship between the Westernization Movement and the foreign capitalist invaders, that is, to learn the skills of the West in order to resist the aggressive path of the West.

Although the Westernization Movement did not make China rich and strong for more than 30 years, the Westernization Movement introduced advanced science and technology from the West, which led to the emergence of the first batch of modern enterprises in China, which objectively played a role in promoting the emergence and development of China's national capitalism.

In ancient times, people who changed the law had advanced wisdom and long-term vision, and they had the courage to take the lead in proposing changes for the future development of the country.

One of the main reasons is that the law changes often challenge the old authority, and the unconventional approach is usually not easily accepted by the public, and the second is that the law change often violates the interests of the aristocratic privileged class, so it is easy to be united to deal with it.

Power and interests, because changing the law will inevitably weaken the power of some people, and to a certain extent, it will also damage the interests of some people, so those who change the law will be retaliated against.

Without the support of strong contacts and funds, he can't fight a single emperor, and he can't get the support of the people.

In fact, when it comes to ancient Chinese law changers, the first thing that comes to mind is Shang Ying, and then Wang Anshi, Tan Sitong, etc., I think they should all be regarded as heroes, who do not hesitate to offend the conservatives of the whole country for the benefit of the country, and some even sacrificed their lives for the weaving of hair!

The first is Shang Ying, when Shang Ying arrived in Qin, Qin was still considered a remote barbarian country by the six eastern countries, and he was not allowed to participate in all kinds of things related to the six countries. It is such a backward country, which has become the strongest country among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States under Shang Ying's reform, and even unified the six countries when it came back, so it can be said that Shang Ying's reform was very successful. However, after his death, Shang Ying was killed by the nobles of the Qin State.

Although Wang Anshi gave up halfway through the change compared to Shang Ying, the final outcome was much better than Shang Ying. Tan Sitong is known as the "Six Gentlemen of Wuxu", and in the end, doesn't he also want to exchange his blood for the awakening of the ruler!

Comparing Shang Ying and Wang Anshi, we can find that the change actually violated the interests of the aristocratic group in the final analysis. The more successful the change, the worse the final end, because the changer has already touched the interests of others, even if he has the protection of Qin Xiaogong like Shang Ying, as a result, as soon as Qin Xiaogong died, those nobles took Shang Yang to open the knife!

Wang Anshi's change was abandoned halfway, and it did not involve too much of the interests of the aristocracy, as long as Wang Anshi changed the law without interest, he could spare his life, but in the end Wang Anshi was dismissed.

Therefore, in ancient China, the ending of the law changers was basically not very good, even if Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, as the emperor, presided over the law change himself, the final result was not very miserable?

Historically, changes have not been initiated within the ruling class, which means that changes will infringe on the interests of the ruling class, which the ruling class will not allow.

According to my thoughts, there have been many changes in history, but most of the final results are miserable, and the most fundamental reason is that this change is not approved by the emperor, according to the Shang Yang reform, only by receiving the emperor's nod can the final success be achieved.

This is because the reform of the law requires some reform of the shortcomings existing in the country, and when the reform is carried out, it will inevitably damage some interests, and under the struggle of various forces, those who change the law will generally be retaliated against.

The road to change the law in history is very difficult, after all, the change of a country requires various requirements, and when the law is changed, there will always be people who disagree, are harmed by villains, or the emperor is not happy.

To borrow Tan Sitong's words: All countries change their laws from bloodshed, and today China has not heard of anyone who shed blood because of changing the law, and the reason why this country is not prosperous. Yes, please start from the beginning!

Because people at that time were still very traditional in their thinking, the things left by their ancestors could not be changed at will, so those who presided over the change of the law generally violated their ancestors.

Because these people have touched what the ruler cares about the most, that is, they have touched the power of the ruler, and if someone shakes your power, will you still let him have a good end.

I think they should all be regarded as heroes, who do not hesitate to offend the conservatives of the whole country for the good of the country, and some even gave their lives for the sake of the braid! It is a pity that he harmed the interests of other people's ruling class.