Under the canopy, Emperor Yingzheng of Qin also nodded slightly when he heard that the crown prince Fusu had views on agriculture and commerce.

Agriculture-oriented, of course, there is nothing to say about this.

The Qin State before the Great Unification, or the Qin State after the Shang Emperor's reform, was the whole country that put cultivation and warfare in the first place.

Ploughing wars, ploughing wars, among which farming was even before the war, so we can know the importance that Qin attaches to farming~.

But for commerce, whether it was the Zhou Dynasty or the various vassal states during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, they were actually not very suppressed.

Like the "Book of Zhou" has a cloud: "If you don't come out of farming, you will lack food, and if you don't do business, you will have three treasures." "

Although agriculture is fundamental, it is only a part of people's lives, and the common development of agriculture and commerce is an important part of food and clothing.

Therefore, the Zhou people will provide convenient transportation for merchants, such as traveling merchants, not only do not add taxes, but even allow them to pass through in advance when they encounter checkpoints.

It can be said that it has given great convenience to the traveling merchants and greatly improved their trading efficiency.

It can even be said that before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were no remarks or measures that ignored commerce.

After the Spring and Autumn Period, the emergence of Guan Zhong officially put forward the theory of "scholars, farmers, industry, and commerce".

However, Guan Zhong's "scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants" does not mean that the status of scholars is the highest, and then the status of farmers is secondary, the status of handicraftsmen is secondary, and the status of merchants is secondary.

Guan Zhong's theory of "scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants" is only a division of social and occupational division of labor, rather than a system stipulation of the status of social occupations.

As in "Guanzi Xiaokuang", it was said: "The four people of Shinong, industry and commerce, the stone (pillar stone) of the country are also the people." "

Here, Guan Zhong clearly and unequivocally stated that the four professions of scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants are the pillars of a country, or the foundation of a country.

During this period, there was no so-called distinction between high and low, and there was no so-called distinction between high and low, and they were all equal to each other.

Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the earliest "scholars" in scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants referred to soldiers, not scholars and civil officials such as scholars, scholars, doctors, and scholars.

In addition, there is also a cold knowledge that Guan Zhong himself was born poor and worked as a businessman in his early years.

In other words, in the early years of Guan Zhong, he was a businessman and made a living from business trading.

Therefore, Guan Zhong will not make a similar "pick up the bowl to eat, put down the bowl and scold the mother", after he once got out of power and broke away from the identity of a businessman, he turned his head to suppress the businessman's brain-dead behavior.

The idea of valuing agriculture and suppressing business began to emerge gradually from the time of Xunzi.

Then it passed through the farmer's family, the Legalist family and other hundreds of schools for different reasons, but in the end the same needs.

Then in the Warring States Period, there was gradually the end of agriculture-based business, or the emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business.

However, even at the end of the agricultural and commercial enterprises at this time, or the emphasis on agriculture and the suppression of business, their essence is not to discriminate against business or businessmen.

Just like the "agriculture and commerce" advocated by the farmers mentioned by Prince Fusu earlier, it does not deny the value of the existence of industrial and commercial activities.

Rather, it is required to narrow and control the scope of industrial and commercial activities from the height of the will of the state, so that it will not become an obstacle to the agricultural production activities of the common people in Guizhou.

To put it simply:

Agriculture: "Boss (monarch), you are in charge of business, be careful not to let business affect me because I don't have enough manpower to farm." "

Then, as long as commerce does not affect the cultivation of agriculture, then agriculture will not care about the development of commerce, let alone belittle commerce.

Similarly, even the Legalists advocate "agriculture and commerce" or "emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business", which in essence is only a restriction of business, rather than a real suppression of commerce.

Like Shang Ying, he once said in "Shang Junshu to Strength": "Agriculture, business, and officials are the three permanent officials of the country." "

"Those who have three officials, and those who give birth to lice are six: said year, said food, said beauty, said good, said zhi, said line. "

"The six are simple, and they must be cut. There are three people of the three officials and one person of the six evils. "

In Shang Ying's eyes, farmers, merchants, and officials were all people with fixed occupations.

And each of these three professions has its own affairs, each performs its own duties, and even has its own harms.

Even if the peasants were the most important occupation in the strategy of the Shang Dynasty, the officials were also the basic class that the Shang Dynasty relied on to govern the country.

However, Shang Yang also believed that agriculture and officials would have bad habits that had a bad impact on society, so Shang Yang collectively called them "six lice".

Because the three professions of agriculture, commerce, and government are both good and bad, Shang Ying believed that the king should play an active role in restricting and preventing the bad habits and preventing these six kinds of lice from taking root, otherwise the country will be weakened.

Therefore, to a certain extent, the status of commerce and agriculture and officials in the eyes of Shang Yang was equal to a certain extent.

Or in other words, Shang Ying: "I discriminate not only against business, but also against agriculture and officials!"

If you discriminate against just one industry, it may be called discrimination.

But if you discriminate against all industries, it's not called discrimination, it's called "equality"!

How can equal discrimination not be another kind of equality?

Therefore, in the Shang Dynasty reform of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce", the Qin State only limited commerce but did not suppress commerce at most.

Among them, the restriction on merchants only restricts the activities and scope of businessmen's trading.

As long as it is within the scope of activities and transactions stipulated by the Qin State, then the Qin State will not only not suppress or restrict you, but will even support you.

Therefore, in the environment of "valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce", you will see a strange scene of Qin's very prosperous and developed commerce.

For example, Sima Qian described in "Historical Records: The Biography of the Goods and Colonies":

"The goods of Longshu and Duojia...... Rong Zhai in the north, Sanjin in the east, and many big Jia...... Bashu Yiwoye ......"

It means that there were many merchants in the Qin State, and there were also many big merchants.

Among them, there were large merchants who bought and sold Rongdi's livestock in the north of Qin, and there were large merchants who bought and sold horses and yaks from Qiong, Di and other places in the west.

Although Bashu is closed all around, it is rich in products, including zigzag, ginger, cinnabar, stone, copper, iron and bamboo and wood, etc., and there are thousands of miles of plank road, which is everywhere with Guanzhong.

Therefore, Sima Qian said in the "Historical Records: The Biography of the Goods and Colonies": "Therefore, the land in Guanzhong is one-third of the world, and the people are only three;

It means that the land of Guanzhong only accounts for one-third of the world, and the population only accounts for three-tenths of the world's population, but the wealth it occupies can reach the extent of six-tenths.

In addition, Sima Qian recorded more than 20 wealthy merchants in the "Historical Records: The Biography of the Goods and Colonies" and other chapters, of which seven or eight had a relatively large influence, and the Qin State accounted for four.

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The first of them, Lü Buwei, naturally does not need to say much.

Yang Zhai's big businessman, who sold cheap and expensive back and forth, and his family accumulated a lot of money, and became a famous wealthy businessman in the last years of the Warring States Period.

Later, he entered the Qin State as the prime minister, assisted King Xiang of Qin Zhuang to ascend the throne with the strategic idea of strange goods, and organized the doormen to compile the famous "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period", which had 3,000 guests.

Putting aside other aspects for the time being, it is just that Lü Buwei can be a businessman, and eventually become the Qin minister under one person and above ten thousand people in the Qin State.

It can be seen that Qin's attitude towards commerce and merchants is definitely not the attitude of contempt and suppression in later generations.

Otherwise, Lü Buwei would not have been able to sit on the position of prime minister of Qin State in a grand manner, and convince all the ministers at that time.

The second is the Wu Shi Liu, a giant merchant who developed during the time of Qin Shi Huang.

The Wu clan of Qin Guo, a livestock owner and a big businessman who grew up in the background of Xirong.

Emperor Yingzheng of Qin gave him the same treatment as a "feudal monarch", and he could make a pilgrimage to the emperor with his courtiers.

You know, it is a great honor to meet the monarch in this era.

The third place is also a giant merchant Ba Qing who developed during the Qin Shi Huang period.

In order to attach importance to her, Emperor Yingzheng of Qin also gave her a high honor, regarded her as a female role model, and rewarded her by building a platform for her.

And Emperor Yingzheng's emphasis on Wushi and Baqing is also known as "Feng Yu Qing".

Wu Shi Lu and Ba Qing are also known as "Rites and Ten Thousand Vehicles".

The so-called "etiquette against ten thousand times" does not mean that Wu Shi Lu and Ba Qing can compete with Qin Huang Yingzheng, but that Qin Shi Huang, who has the respect of ten thousand times, treats the two of them with courtesy.

Therefore, from the above, in the Qin period and the period before, the status of merchants and commerce was not low, and there was no level to which everyone could step on two feet like in later generations.

Later, after the scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants gradually evolved into a status system, commerce became a kind of cheap industry that everyone despised.

For example, in the eyes of craftsmen: "Merchant, stinky for food!"

In the eyes of the peasant people: "Merchants, stinky beggars, craftsmen, obscene things!"

In the eyes of the scholars: "Merchants, stinky beggars, handicraftsmen, obscene tricks, agriculture, stinky farming!"

Therefore, for the ideological proposition of "business is controlled, but there is no need to be overly suppressed" put forward by Prince Fusu.

In the current era, there are not many people who oppose it, and even many people still think that the prince Fusu is reasonable!

Because the commerce of this period was actually developed in accordance with what Prince Fusu said.

As for some other schools of thought that they should adhere to the principle of "agriculture and commerce" and "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business", Confucianism will not mention it for the time being.

But like the farmer, Chen Xiang, Chen Xin and other peasant disciples are ready to praise the prince Fusu as a new farmer sage in the farmer's family.

As for the original idea of the peasant family's "agriculture and business", as the children of the farmer's disciples, they naturally have to reinterpret the new "agriculture and business" ideology put forward by the prince Fusu.

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