Ming Dynasty: Teaching The Prince Dragon-Slaying Skills At The Beginning

Chapter 796: The Difference Between China And The Unification Of Europe, Europe Without Qin Shihuang

Looking at Qin King Zhu Ping with a confused look on his face, Yan Changqing let out a long sigh:

"Not everyone belongs to Qin Shihuang!"

To be honest, China's unified and centralized system was really an accidental choice made by Qin Shihuang Yingzheng himself under the historical circumstances, rather than a historically inevitable choice.

This can be understood from a comparison with the Roman Empire of the same period in Europe.

First, in terms of political structure.

Qin Shihuang Yingzheng, who completed the great unification, firmly chose the county system between the feudal system and the prefecture and county system.

In this way, local uniformity can be achieved, and the central government's decrees can reach all parts of the country like an arm.

The Roman Empire was different. The Roman Empire did not choose the county system. Most places in the Roman Empire were autonomous.

After the Roman Empire conquered various places, it basically adapted to local conditions and allowed cities in various places to continue to be managed in the original way. There was generally no hierarchical jurisdictional relationship between cities.

The Roman Empire of the second century AD was a curious mixture of a confederation of autonomous cities and an almost despotic monarchical government above the confederation.

Take the province of Egypt as an example. Although the province of Egypt is also part of the Roman Empire, it has always maintained considerable autonomy.

For example, the system of the Ptolemaic period remained almost intact, and there were no changes later.

Therefore, the Qin and Han government under the county system was an all-powerful government and a big government. Government agencies were very strict in managing the country from top to bottom.

For example, in the unearthed Qin bamboo slips in Liye, we can see that the Qin Dynasty established a complete "seven-five-seven" structure of one county and three villages in a county with a population of no more than three or four thousand.

There were as many as 100 officials on staff, and many of them died of exhaustion or illness while on duty.

The Roman Empire's management of various regions was quite loose. It was mainly concerned with whether it could collect taxes. As for how to manage various regions, the central government did not pay attention.

Therefore, the Roman Empire was a small government for a long time, and the central government was mainly a coordinating agency.

Rome's idea of ​​​​governing the country was to only care about the top and ignore the grassroots. The Roman Empire was just a large alliance of upper-class elites around the Mediterranean. The grassroots people were never included, let alone integrated.

Just like three hundred years after Gaul and Spain were annexed to Rome, farmers still spoke their own Celtic language.

The Qin and Han dynasties opened up the upper and lower levels and established a grassroots civil service system at the county and township levels.

Second, in terms of ideology.

The Qin and Han empires all required a high degree of ideological and cultural unity!

For example, the Great Qin Empire burned books and enslaved Confucian scholars, used books with the same text, used chariots on the same track, unified weights and measures, etc. Another example is the Han Empire, which deposed hundreds of schools of thought and only respected Confucianism, etc. In short, they wanted political unification and ideological unification.

However, the Roman Empire did not form a unified ideology.

In the east of the Roman Empire, Greek culture and Eastern culture had always been the mainstream, while in the west it was Roman culture.

Moreover, the books were written in different languages. The eastern part of the empire, the so-called Hellenistic world, was in Greek, while the western part of the empire was in Latin.

Even the Roman Empire did not have a perfect law that prevailed throughout the country. Each province and even some cities had their own laws.

For example, Rome signed a treaty with the city of Thelmissus, guaranteeing that the citizens of the city and their descendants would "use their own laws."

The third is the attitude towards different ethnic groups in different regions.

After the Qin Dynasty unified the world, all the people in the world were the common people of the Qin Dynasty. There was no such thing as the people of the Six Kingdoms, and there were no distinctions between various ethnic groups. There was only one big nation like Huaxia!

This is the unity of the nation!

But the Roman Empire was different. As the Roman Empire dominated the Mediterranean region, in order to facilitate their rule, they used Roman citizenship as bait to divide the people in various regions, which became a method often used by the Romans.

To put it bluntly, it means dividing the people of the nation into three, six or nine levels, such as Roman citizens, free people, barbarians, and even slaves, etc.

Among them, the welfare and treatment of Roman citizens were the best, while the welfare and treatment of free people were second, and the welfare and treatment of barbarians were third.

As for slaves, there is no need to talk about benefits and treatment after they become slaves.

Even in terms of law, the Roman Empire had two sets of laws, one was civil law specifically for Roman citizens, and the other was civil law for Roman citizens and other free and barbarian people.

But the problem is that once the people of the nation are artificially divided into three, six or nine levels, it means that the people of the nation who were originally unified under the Roman Empire will be artificially divided into multiple hierarchical groups.

And this kind of hierarchical grouping runs counter to the unity of the nation!

Because after artificially dividing such different hierarchical groups, a chain of group contempt, or even a chain of group hostility, would inevitably form between Roman citizens, freedmen, barbarians, and slaves.

For example, Roman citizens despised free people and would not regard other free people, barbarians, and slaves as the same people of the Roman Empire as themselves.

Similarly, free people would despise barbarians and slaves, and would not regard other barbarians and slaves as the same people of the Roman Empire as themselves.

The barbarians will also despise slaves and will not regard other slaves as the same people of the Roman Empire as themselves.

And when free people, barbarians, and slaves were unable to obtain a higher level of status, they would change from admiring barbarians, admiring free people, and admiring Roman citizens to being hostile to barbarians, free people, and Roman citizens.

Can this kind of state of mutual contempt and hostility among the people under the rule be called national unity?!!

Of course not!!!

Therefore, the political structure did not adopt a centralized county system, but adopted a Roman Empire similar to the feudal autonomous political system.

Ideologically, the Roman Empire did not adopt the ideological and cultural unification of "the same book" or "depose hundreds of schools of thought and respect only Confucianism", but allowed it to grow freely.

Treating different ethnic groups in different regions not only does not promote national unity and unity, but instead artificially divides ethnic groups into three, six or nine levels of the Roman Empire.

In essence, it is just a feudal unified state like the Zhou Dynasty in the past, not a unified centralized state like the Qin Dynasty!

Therefore, when the Roman Empire weakened and collapsed, the various administrative regions that were originally under its rule naturally split and became independent, and then entered a state of numerous vassal states like the Chinese Spring and Autumn and Warring States in the past.

And in the next thousands of years, few people will have the idea of ​​​​unification.

Because for European countries, unification is not their only and supreme pursuit.

Even if someone once briefly achieved reunification, at most it was only the second unified Roman Empire similar to the old feudal system, and did not achieve a unified centralized country like China.

But for China, which has achieved political unification and ideological unification, as long as the country is divided.

Then completing the unification again, and also completing the unification with centralized power, became the only supreme pursuit of all the princes in troubled times.

Well, Da Song must be kicked out here, because Da must have no such idea.

The root of the fundamental difference between Europe and China is that the Qin Emperor Yingzheng chose the county system between the feudal system and the county system. At the same time, he "burned books and harassed Confucian scholars". Unify weights and measures.

If Emperor Yingzheng of Qin had not chosen the system of prefectures and counties, had not "burned books to entrap Confucians", had books written in the same language, carriages on the same track, and unified weights and measures, then China would most likely have been divided like Europe for thousands of years. state.

Of course, in Yan Changqing's previous life, some people attributed the reason why Europe has never formed a centralized unified country like China's Qin and Han Dynasties to the geographical barrier factors.

It is said that the terrain of Europe is fragmented, with many small islands, peninsulas, hills, mountains, etc., which are scattered and connected with each other, which is not conducive to the establishment of a unified centralized state.

But if we really want to talk about geographical barriers, the geographical barriers in Europe are simply not worth mentioning compared with those in China.

Speaking of geographical barriers, can the small islands, peninsulas, hills and mountains in Europe be more troublesome than the Sichuan Basin in China?!!

Since ancient times, the road to Shu has been difficult, and it is difficult to reach the sky...

Speaking of geographical barriers, isn’t it more difficult to attack and rule Sichuan and Shu than to attack and rule the small islands, peninsulas, hills, and mountains in Europe?!!

Similarly, there are the Guanzhong Plain in China, which can be said to be easy to defend but difficult to attack, a land with four fortresses; the Shanxi Plateau, with mountains and rivers inside and outside; the Huaihe River network in the south, and the natural dangers of the Yangtze River...

These places have been the backbone of local separatist regimes since ancient times.

Which of these places is not more difficult to conquer and govern than those small islands, peninsulas, hills and mountains in Europe?!!

But even so, no prince in the troubled times said that he would give up these places and become a peaceful prince with peace of mind...

Instead, they chose to attack these places and bring them back under the unified rule, even if they cost the lives of soldiers.

Well, I still have to kick Da Zang out here, because Da Zang gave up these places with peace of mind and chose to be a peaceful prince.

After listening to Yan Changqing's talk about the differences between the unification of Europe and the unification of China, King Qin Zhu Xi was silent for a moment and said quietly:

"Europe lacks a Qin Emperor to win political power!!!"

Prince Zhu Biao, King Zhu Fan of Jin, King Zhu Di of Yan and other princes also nodded in agreement.

For the descendants of China who have carved the great unification, and the great centralized unification, into the marrow of their blood and soul.

It is simply intolerable to see the Holy Roman Empire and even Europe being divided internally.

"Yes, Europe lacks a Qin Emperor to win political power!"

Yan Changqing also looked at Qin Wang Zhu Ping and said meaningfully.

"In addition to the Holy Roman Empire, another kingdom with a similar territory is the Grand Duchy of Lithuania."

"However, compared to the Holy Roman Empire, which was divided into hundreds of pieces internally, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is relatively unified internally."

“But even in the relatively unified Grand Duchy of Lithuania, its internal political system is still similar to the feudal system like that of the Zhou Dynasty.

"It's just that the king of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is relatively similar to the Emperor of Zhou during the heyday of the Zhou Dynasty."

"The king of the Holy Roman Empire is similar to the Emperor of Zhou when the Zhou Dynasty was in decline."

"In addition to the Holy Roman Empire and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, there are also kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Scotland, the Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Norway, and the Kingdom of Sweden."

"These kingdoms are considered to be some of the kingdoms with relatively large territory on the European continent. Their territory is approximately between 500,000 square kilometers and one million square kilometers."

"Then below, there are small kingdoms like the Principality of Moscow, the Principality of Chernigov, the Kingdom of Wallachia, the Kingdom of Bosnia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Denmark." 1

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The territory of these small kingdoms is mostly less than 500,000 square kilometers.

"According to incomplete statistics, there are currently dozens of vassal states on the entire European continent, and as many as hundreds of vassal states."

"If we consider that the whole of Europe basically implements a system similar to the feudal system, there are also dozens or hundreds of relatively independent small princes within a vassal state.

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"Then the total number of vassal states, large and small, internal and external, in the entire European continent might be in the thousands.

"

Yan Changqing briefly introduced the European section of the world map while filling in the familiar 0.7 country names from his previous life.

Looking at the densely packed country names that Yan Changqing filled in on the European plate, the princes Zhu Biao, Zhu Di, Zhu Fan, Zhu Di and other princes only had two feelings in their hearts: "Then

It’s chaos and too much!

The whole of Europe is too chaotic, and there are too many vassal states in the whole of Europe!

Prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Xi, Zhu Fan, Zhu Di and other princes really couldn't understand why the European continent could still have such things after thousands of years of fighting and annexation.

How many vassal states exist?!!

Logically speaking, even if the European countries do not have the consciousness of pursuing a unified state, it is still a big fish eating small fish, and the small fish eating shrimps pattern.

After hundreds or thousands of years of fighting and annexation, there should be only a few powerful countries left confronting each other on the European continent.

Just like the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods in China in the past, there were dozens or hundreds of vassal states on the land of China during the Spring and Autumn Period.

However, after hundreds of years of fighting and annexation, by the late Warring States Period, only the seven most powerful vassal states, Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, Zhao, Wei, and Korea, remained.

.

There may be a few other scattered small countries, but it is definitely not said that the total number of vassal states, large and small, amounts to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of such places.

step.

Unable to understand, the princes Zhu Biao, Zhu Xi, Zhu Fan, Zhu Di and other princes were completely unable to understand the thoughts of various European vassal states.

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