"Emphasize the common people and despise the nobility?" Li Si repeated and then looked at Zhao Si.
"Is this the reason why Minister Zhao tried hard to lower the price of salt that day?"
Zhao Si nodded calmly and said, "Yes!"
"May I ask Prime Minister Li, what is the foundation?" Zhao Si asked.
"You are the foundation!" Li Si said without thinking.
The monarchy is the core of Legalist thought. This is beyond doubt, cannot be changed, and cannot be shaken.
Zhao Si nodded and did not deny Li Si's statement.
Although Zhao Si, as a modern person, takes it for granted that the people are the foundation of the world. As Mencius said, the people are the most important, the country is the second, and the king is the least, but this is just a beautiful vision.
However, in fact, no king in the past dynasties could do this. Kings always put themselves first.
Li Si's answer was what Zhao Si had expected. Likewise, this was the answer Zhao Si wanted from Li Si.
"Who is more important than nobles and common people?" Zhao Si asked.
"Nobles and common people?" This comparison made Li Si fall into deep thought.
If you look at the Spring and Autumn Period, the nobility is naturally more important. The emperor conferred the title of prince, the prince conferred the title of nobility, and the nobles pastored the common people.
The social structure of the Spring and Autumn Period was somewhat similar to Western feudal society, that is, my slaves' slaves are not my slaves, and my ministers' ministers are not my ministers.
Most nobles had their own fiefdoms. They had to pay taxes and serve the king, but they enjoyed autonomy within their territories.
With the collapse of rituals and music, there is no common law in the world, and various countries have implemented reforms one after another, which essentially breaks the ecological structure of the king ruling the nobles and the nobles ruling the people.
Taking the Qin State's reform as an example, the hereditary salary system was abolished, the well-field system was abolished, and the county system was implemented. In essence, it was competing with the nobles for local governance rights.
By this time, the social structure had undergone serious changes.
In fact, Li Si's subconscious answer was that nobles were more important.
No matter how many reforms were made in the past, no matter how much the rights of the nobility were weakened, the reformers still believed that the nobility was more important than the common people.
Because the common people do not know how to resist, and the monarch also needs nobles to govern the world.
But at this moment, Li Si hesitated...
In fact, when Li Si reformed Qin law and implemented the Qin system, he still followed the old path of exploiting the common people, restricting the nobility, and strengthening the imperial power.
"Qianshou, as long as we can keep them alive and have enough to eat, that's enough." Zhao Si smiled.
"Believe it or not, Li, if it can be guaranteed that the head of Guizhou will not starve to death due to hard work, the head of Guizhou will be willing to obey the corvee. Not to mention building the Great Wall in Shangjun, they are even willing to encircle the entire Qin Dynasty."
"What does the head of Guizhou need? What does the nobles need?" Zhao Si once again issued a soul torture.
Li Si is not a fool, but he is involved in a major change that has never happened in China in thousands of years.
It was also an era when the commonwealth between the emperor and the aristocracy was about to come to an end.
The system of co-governance by monarchs and nobles is called the feudal era in history books.
Westerners jumped directly into modern society from the feudal era, and generally divided human society into feudal society and modern civilization.
In fact, as early as two thousand years ago, the Qin Dynasty unified the world and opened up prefectures and counties. The Han Dynasty continued to strengthen centralization of power, and the aristocratic era died out nearly two thousand years ago.
The Xia after the Qin and Han Dynasties can no longer be simply described as the feudal era. This is an era that is independent of feudal society and civilized society. It is an era that the Western world has never set foot in.
Although it is relatively backward compared to modern civilization, it is undoubtedly extremely advanced compared to the feudal era.
Slavery was abolished in Zhuxia very early. The key features of the feudal era could no longer be found in Zhuxia long ago. In the West, until it was about to enter modern society, slavery was still widespread. existence, and were it not for the boom of industrialization, I'm afraid Western civilization would never have abolished slavery.
Now is a critical period of social transformation. The Qin and Han Dynasties were the era of connecting the past and the future. Li Si looked forward and could only see the old regulations. No one cares about the kings and nobles in Guizhou.
Looking back, I was also confused.
"I heard that Legalists emphasize that things do not need to be imitated by the ancients, and laws do not need to be ancestral." Zhao Si had a smile on his face.
"The common people are the most important, the nobles are the second most important..." Li Si frowned and spoke slowly, but his expression was uncertain.
Li Si's mind was a little confused. What Zhao Si said was reasonable, but some problems also existed. For example, the common people did not know the law, did not understand the law, stuck to the old rules, and did not know how to adapt. The implementation of Qin law and the popularization of Qin law were all inseparable from the nobles. s help.
They really want to be pastors on behalf of Heaven, including the widespread grassroots Qin officials now, and all those who can read and write, who is not a noble?
Not to mention that most of the officials in Da Qin had military merit and nobility, it can be said that they were not noble nobles with good roots.
But now that Da Qin has unified the world, its vast territory and people cannot be maintained by Da Qin's current scale of officials. Doesn't it need nobles to govern the place?
"No..." Li Si shook his head and looked at Zhao Si. He was keenly aware that Zhao Si was secretly changing his concept.
"Nobles..." Li Si began to seriously elaborate on the theory of blood and the history of the nobility's division of livestock between the emperor and the emperor.
"Times have changed...Li Xiang!"
"Today's nobles are just His Majesty's official tools to protect the world." Zhao Si said with a smile.
"Does it mean that to work for His Majesty, one must be from a noble family?"
"Guizhou is not educated..." Li Si shook his head.
"Then think of a way. Isn't the Qin official selection system established by Lord Shang just to compete with the nobles?"
"It's too difficult..." Li Si shook his head.
Da Qin's official selection system was based on the military merit and title system. A civilian Guizhou leader with certain military merit and title, as long as he has a certain cultural quality and a certain understanding of Qin's laws, will be selected as a grassroots official. After becoming a grassroots official, there are two ways to be promoted, one is through management performance, and the other is through fighting on the battlefield and being promoted to a noble title based on meritorious service.
Due to the fact that bamboo slips were still used in this era, the official training system of Da Qin was actually extremely imperfect.
First of all, most common people are illiterate themselves and are not qualified to be selected and trained as officials. Secondly, it is not easy to burn bamboo slips. Every time an official is trained, several bamboo slips need to be burned. The officials of Da Qin all have a Qin code. It was standard, but the Qin government could only give them one Qin code.
Therefore, Da Qin's official selection system and Da Qin's military merit system faced the same problem.
That is to say, the real beneficiaries are not the heads of Guizhou, but the nobles.
The laws enacted by Lord Shang were evil to the people, providing channels for small nobles to advance and restricting large nobles.
What Zhao Si wants is good people and a real channel for Guizhou leaders to rise to smash the old aristocratic system.
"What if Da Qin has enough books to train officials?" Zhao Si understood what Li Si meant and smiled.
"How much can be enough?" Li Si smiled.
"There must be more and more, more and more, enough, even enough that every household has a copy of the Qin Law." Zhao Si said with a smile.
"Hiss! If that's the case, then Da Qin's training and selection of officials and the training of officials really don't need to rely on the nobles." Li Si thought for a moment and nodded seriously.
"This is what I mean. It's not that the nobles are born with the right to replace His Majesty's herdsmen, but that they are literate, able to understand His Majesty's decrees, and can understand Qin's laws, so they can manage Li Shu on behalf of His Majesty. This has nothing to do with their noble blood. . If a person is born in Guizhou, but he is a qualified Qin official, is he not qualified to govern the place just because he is born in Guizhou?"
"Every official in the world is your Majesty's instrument!"
"Whether it is Prime Minister Li, me, or the civil and military officials, they are just public instruments for governing the people. You and I are public servants. If the public instruments are broken, they should be replaced and abolished in time, instead of continuing to use them knowing that they are broken." Zhao Si spoke seriously.
"Public weapon?" Li Si seemed to have caught something.
"Yes, Gongqi, Li Xiang was born in Cai, and calls himself a commoner. Logically speaking, Li Xiang is also from a noble family, but how much of this noble blood has been passed down to this day in Li Xiang? Does Li Xiang really care about these trivial matters? Bloodline? Does this tiny bit of bloodline really have any effect on Li Xiang?" Zhao Si asked.
Li Si fell into deep thought.
Zhao Si's theory of public implements and theory of people's foundation did give Li Si some inspiration.
It was a genuine inspiration. For a moment, Li Si thought that he might really be able to abandon Shang Yang's old path and take a brand new path.
It is no longer the rule set by Lord Shang that the king is the leader, the nobility is the foundation, and the people are the bottom.
Nor is it what Confucianism calls the people the most important and the king the least.
Rather, the king is the foundation, the people are the foundation, and the nobility is the supplement.
Crack down on the big nobles and train the beneficiaries of grassroots military merit as officials to replace the ruling structure in which the nobles are the core to govern the local area.
However, there is a key problem with this idea.
"After all is said and done, Minister Zhao just assumed that although I have a meager bloodline, my family has a good education, which can prevent me from being illiterate. Although my family is poor, it can support me to study without any distractions.
If it weren't for my humble aristocratic bloodline, I wouldn't have been able to study at home, and I wouldn't have had the opportunity to read or write. If my family didn't have fertile farmland, I wouldn't have the ability to travel around the world and study under Xunzi.
After all, my commoners are for the world, not for the head of Guizhou.
The head of Guizhou was born illiterate, had no family education, and no money. The Qin Dynasty could not support so many people to study and write..."
"How can there be so many books for people to read?" Li Si shook his head.
If Da Qin wanted to truly govern the place, it had to leave some room for the nobles. The relocation order only affected the big nobles. In fact, the nobles were nobler than the heads of Guizhou. This was due to the noble blood and family education.
When the nobles still had family education and the Qin Dynasty was unable to train officials from scratch, it had to compromise with the nobles.
"What if there are so many books?"
Zhao Si looked straight at Li Si and asked.
For today's Great Qin, mentioning universal education is tantamount to wishful thinking.
However, with the advent of printing and papermaking, Da Qin was able to cultivate grassroots Guizhou leaders with military merits at its own expense.
How many Guizhou heads are there in the Qin Dynasty with grassroots titles? Zhao Si estimated that there must be at least hundreds of thousands or even millions.
With the advent of papermaking and printing, aren't these the reserve civil servants of the Qin Dynasty?
"Is this true?"
Li Si looked at Zhao Si in surprise.
If what Zhao Si said is true, then the idea that he just had a flash of inspiration may really come true.
That's it! Uncovering the influence of Shang Yang and creating a new path can be called the temptation of Zi!
From the ternary system of the monarch, the aristocracy and the head of Guizhou, to the dual system of the monarch and the head of Guizhou!
(End of chapter)
