The influence of Chinese and Western feudalism on contemporary Chinese and Western societies

The West is deeply influenced by Latin culture, and the politics mostly adopts the method of joint consultation to rule, and basically does not see the ** centralization, once the king begins to make too many demands on the noble lords, it will cause war, after the baptism of war, slowly the king began to respect the rights of the lords, and gave up the idea of ** centralization, so the checks and balances between the lord and the king were established. In the history of the West, there were even aristocratic councils to elect kings, which were the prototypes of democracy, so the West entered a democratic society earlier than the East.

Unlike the West, the kings of ancient China have all strengthened the centralization of power without exception, and they do not hesitate to make a big move to fight the corpses all over the field, which is what we often hear about "cutting the feudal domain". The absence of the clan king naturally did not have the existence of the imperial power, so until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese people did not know what democracy was, and the Chinese had spent thousands of years in the concept of "family and world", until the late Qing Dynasty, people who studied abroad returned to China to spread the concept of democracy, but the influence was very small, so the Chinese democratic revolution at that time was like a premature baby, reduced to the plaything of various princes.

"Semi-colonial" is politically defined as the loss of some, but not all, of its independent sovereignty; Economically, it refers to China's gradual involvement in the world capitalist market and its degeneration into a source of raw materials and a commodity market for capitalist countries; Culturally, it is manifested as "learning from the West to the East". "Semi-feudal" means that formally it is still feudal rule, the natural economy is still dominant, and in fact the society has gradually modernized. The process of the formation of the two halves of society is:

As a result of the aggression of the capitalist powers, China opened its doors to the open and semi-colonization and semi-feudalism at the same time. The important nodes are as follows: 1842

In the Opium War, China was defeated and the Treaty of Nanjing was signed, and China began to degenerate into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. In the Second Opium War, China was defeated and signed a series of unequal treaties such as the Treaty of Tianjin and the Treaty of Beijing, deepening China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal status. 1895.

After China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, and the degree of semi-colonial and semi-feudal Chinese society was greatly deepened. 1901.In the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China, China was defeated and the "Xinchou Treaty" was signed, which marked China's complete fall into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

(1) The First Opium War caused China to lose its independent status and began to degenerate into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and the nature of Chinese society underwent great changes.

2) The Second Opium War deepened the degree of semi-colonization of China as a result of the foreign invading forces from the coast to the interior, from the southeast coast to the northeast coast.

3) The defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki greatly accelerated the process of semi-colonization of China.

4) The Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China in 1900 and the Treaty of Xinchou signed in 1901 finally made China a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

2. Formation factors.

1) Internal factors.

Unlike developed countries in Europe and other places, China at that time was in the form of a feudal society for a long time, forming a more powerful natural economy than European countries. The long-term feudal society has made the people lack sufficient understanding of the world situation, and the whole society has a general Chinese-centric mentality and rejects foreign cultures. Under the condition that the commodity economy was not very developed and the natural economy was absolutely dominant, the phenomenon of wage labor was difficult to develop due to the ideological constraints of the time.

As a result, the social productive forces have stagnated, and there is a huge gap between the national strength and the capitalist countries. politically controlled by a foreign country, controlling customs duties for the purpose of dumping goods; Factories were established through the establishment of concessions. As a result, the state is under the control of capitalism on all fronts, but there is still formal sovereignty.

2) External factors.

With the unprecedented development of the productive forces of the capitalist countries after the industrial revolution, the interests of the Chinese market at that time were no longer sufficient to meet the needs of the bourgeoisie; At the same time, the production of large quantities of goods requires sufficient raw materials and labor to sustain it. In this way, the possession of a feudal state with abundant raw materials, a vast market, and cheap labor became the primary goal of the bourgeoisie. The attitude of the capitalist countries** towards economic development is liberal and mercantilist, using the state apparatus to defend the bourgeoisie of the country, and seeking colonies for the capitalist development of the country through diplomacy, economics and even force.

For countries that use barriers to close their markets, they will all be resolved by force, and then the legal basis for opening the market will be determined by unequal treaties. With the continuous strengthening of external factors, eventually the colonial tendency of the former semi-colonial and semi-feudal society will become more and more obvious.

(1) The beginning - the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in the Opium War;

2) Deepening – the Second Opium War;

3) greatly deepened - the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki;

4) Completely reduced to a semi-colony - the signing of the Treaty of Xincho.

Brief introduction: 1. After the Opium War, Britain and other Western powers forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the first batch of unequal treaties such as the Treaty of Nanjing, and the nature of China's society changed, and China began to degenerate into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

2. In the Second Opium War, the Great Powers forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the second batch of unequal treaties such as the Treaty of Tianjin, the Treaty of Beijing, and the Treaty of Aihui, which caused China to lose more territory and sovereignty, and the degree of semi-colonization was further deepened.

In the sixties and seventies of the century, Chinese capitalism emerged, China's economic structure changed, the feudal economy gradually disintegrated, and at the same time, China's economy increasingly fell into the capitalist world market. In this way, China's economy took on the characteristics of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal economy.

In the sixties and seventies of the century, there was a crisis in China's border areas. 1883 1885 Sino-French War, the national crisis gradually deepened.

5. During the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and the economic aggression of the great powers against China developed from the export of commodities to the stage of capital export. Imperialism set off a frenzy to carve up China, and moved towards unity, with the same interests.

6. After the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China, the foreign powers forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the "Xinchou Treaty", and Chinese society completely fell into the abyss of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

1. Direct cause:

In the later part of the Qing Dynasty, the policy of closing the country to the outside world gradually made China fall behind the rest of the world, and if it was backward, it would be beaten, and the capitalist powers began to invade China, signing unequal treaties, ceding land and paying reparations, and gradually reducing China to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

2. Root cause:

Modern China was an independent feudal power before the Opium War, and after the Opium War, due to the aggression of the imperialist powers, China's social nature began to undergo major changes, and gradually evolved into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

Although the foundation of China's feudal natural economy was destroyed by the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the feudal exploitation system still existed, and the exploitation of the peasants by the landlord class combined with the exploitation of comprador capital, bureaucratic capital, and usury capital still occupied a dominant position in China's social and economic life.

Imperialism has increasingly become the decisive factor that dominates China and hinders its social development and progress. By constantly waging wars of aggression against China, imperialism forced the Qing Dynasty to sign a series of unequal treaties that humiliated the country. They have manipulated China's finances, economy, military, and culture, making its already backward economy and culture even more backward, becoming the main force hindering China's independent development and the general source of all disasters and disasters in modern China.

In August 1842, the Sino-British Treaty of Nanking was signed, and China began to degenerate into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

In April 1895, the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, which greatly deepened China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

In September 1901, China signed the Treaty of Xinchou with Russia, Britain, the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Austria and other countries, and China was completely reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

The Treaty of Xinchou was a seriously unequal treaty imposed on China by the imperialist countries, and from then on, the Qing Dynasty completely became a tool of imperialist domination over China. The signing of the "Xinchou Treaty" marked the complete establishment of China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal social order, and the formation of China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

The long-term export of commodities and capital has led to almost no development of the country's industry, blindly taking the export of raw materials as the main form, and forming a strong dependence.

In the long run, this will lead to the formation of a deformed colonial economy.

Summary. Part I: Agriculture.

Chapter 1, The Agricultural Farming System in Chinese and Western Feudal Societies.

The author of this chapter argues that extensive agriculture in Western European feudal societies had a tendency to develop into intensive agriculture, and therefore argues that extensive agriculture led Western Europeans to devote themselves to expanding their living space. In the end, capitalism came to the fore is inappropriate.

Chapter 2 looks at the operation of feudal real estate from the perspective of the accounting system. Chapter 3 is a comparative study of the evolution of feudal estates in China and Britain.

These two chapters make a comparative study of the system and evolution of feudal estates in China and the West. The author argues that it is either the Chinese tenant system or the Western European manor system. Among them, the landlords all have their own economies, and at the same time, there is a tendency to disperse feudal land rights in China and the West.

That is, its development is not more and more large real estate, but more and more scattered land, and the author also puts forward the problem of the diseconomy of large real estate scale and its argument.

Chapter 4, Feudal Civilization and Its Relationship to the Commodity Economy. Chapter 5, The Differentiation of the Peasant Economy in England.

The author argues that labor productivity was higher at the end of feudal societies in Western Europe than in the early period, and vice versa in China. Commodification does not necessarily lead to capitalism, and commodification is not the only motivator of capitalism.

The gap between Chinese and Western feudal societies in the late period.

We'll be happy to answer your questions.

Part I: Agriculture Chapter I, Agricultural Farming Systems in Chinese and Western Feudal Societies. The author of this chapter argues that extensive agriculture in Western European feudal societies had a tendency to develop into intensive agriculture, and therefore argues that extensive agriculture led Western Europeans to devote themselves to expanding their living space.

In the end, capitalism came to the fore is inappropriate. Chapter 2 looks at the operation of feudal real estate from the perspective of the accounting system. Chapter 3 is a comparative study of the evolution of feudal estates in China and Britain.

These two chapters compare and study the macro and evolution of the feudal real estate in the west of the country. The author argues that it is either the Chinese tenant system or the Western European manor system. Among them, the landlords all have their own economies, and at the same time, there is a tendency to disperse feudal land rights in China and the West.

That is, its development is not more and more large real estate, but more and more scattered land, and the author also puts forward the problem of the diseconomy of large real estate scale and its argument. Chapter 4, Demolition and Vertical Volume: Feudal Civilization and Its Relationship with the Commodity Economy. Chapter 5, The Differentiation of the Peasant Economy in England.

The author argues that labor productivity was higher at the end of feudal societies in Western Europe than in the early period, and vice versa in China. Commodification does not necessarily lead to capitalism, and commodification is not the only motivator of capitalism.

Hope it helps.