China's dynasties have prospered for hundreds of years, even the powerful Han Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty can't escape this fate. From prosperity to decline, this may be the fate of a dynasty. Generally speaking, the change of dynasties is not entirely due to the monarch. Under feudal rule, there was an insoluble contradiction between the dynasty and the peasants and landlords, which was also the most serious contradiction of the social class at that time, and whether the king was wise or not could only determine the time that the dynasty could last. The fundamental cause of the collapse of the dynasty is the struggle of class contradictions, and the direct cause is the rebellion or civil uprising directly caused by the tyranny of the ruling class, natural disasters and man-made disasters. However, the real leaders of the peasant uprising have almost no peasants, but have become the touchstone for officials, businessmen and pawns to try to redistribute power. And all this has nothing to do with the peasant class.
Background of peasant uprising
Although the management systems of different dynasties in the history of China are different, there are four stages, namely, the early days of the founding of the People's Republic, the heyday, the end of the dynasty and the birth of a new dynasty. These four stages * * * together constitute the feudal period of China for more than two thousand years.
In the early days of the People's Republic of China, there is no doubt that the rulers who just came to power will be benevolent. During this period, the country has just undergone a dynasty change, and years of war have also caused serious population loss. At this stage, the king of the country will reduce people's taxes, encourage people to produce, and restore the country's population and vitality. After several generations, after a long period of peace and rest, this country has reached its peak. At this stage, both the peasant class and the landlord class achieved a temporary balance, but then the population gradually increased and the land gradually flowed to the landlord class. At the end of the second stage, class struggle intensified and social stratification gradually became obvious.
By the end of the dynasty, the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class broke out completely, and the land of the whole country was gradually in the hands of a few people. At this time, farmers have to pay land rent after paying heavy taxes. At this time, farmers have been living in difficulties and gradually make ends meet. At this time, there is only one chance before the outbreak of the peasant class. This opportunity may be that a catastrophe from heaven completely cut off the way of life of farmers, or that some people's leaders have risen up against tyranny. The last stage is the establishment of a new dynasty. Obviously, these four stages are connected in series by the land on which farmers depend for their livelihood.
During the feudal rule, the China Dynasty practiced private ownership of land, and agriculture, as the fundamental nature of a dynasty, was highly valued. Coupled with the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business, the ultimate goal of many officials and businessmen is to point to land. With the development of the times, the interests of the two cannot be balanced, but the rulers will try their best to maintain the balance of the two in order to safeguard national unity. However, because the ruling class itself is based on the landlord class, the balance maintained by the rulers is inherently unhealthy. While safeguarding the rights and interests of the landlord class, it will only make farmers poorer and poorer. The landlord class and the peasant class were able to maintain a delicate balance in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China only because the population was small and there were many people in the early days, so it was naturally impossible for the two sides to intensify contradictions.
At this time, landlords and officials will try their best to safeguard their rights, while continuing to annex land and even hiding their recklessness and peasant population. In this period of intense contradictions, the supreme ruler has two choices. One is to deprive landlords of their land and give it to farmers, which will directly solve the existing contradictions, and the other is to help the landlord class suppress farmers together. Obviously, even if the rulers of past dynasties understand the stakes, they will still choose the latter, so that the people will completely lose their disappointment in the future and eventually move towards the road of uncovering uprisings. After the peasant uprising, the dynasty will eventually be destroyed and start over.
The leader of the peasant uprising
There have been many peasant uprisings in the history of China, many of which we are familiar with. These uprisings have gained great fame in history and are a bright spot in history and culture. If you want to study a peasant uprising, you must first know its organizers. However, after careful understanding, you will find that there are only a few real civilians among the leaders of peasant uprisings in various periods. Most of them are businessmen, township officials and even aristocratic descendants. Most of these uprisings ended in failure. Compared with the imperial court at that time, the overall quality of farmers who farmed in the fields for a long time was not as good as that of soldiers who fought all the year round. Coupled with the limited vision of peasant generals, it is difficult to fully take care of all aspects of the battlefield in wartime, especially the logistics reserve is a big problem. In order to go to war, many farmers even refused to be cooks and escorts.
12 famous uprisings in history,
Daze Township Uprising led by Chen Sheng and Guangwu at the end of Qin Dynasty: After Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, there was a Great Uprising in Greenwood and Red Eyebrows. The Yellow Scarf Uprising in the Late Eastern Han Dynasty; The famous Wagang peasant uprising at the end of Sui Dynasty, the peasant uprising led by Dou Jiande in Hebei Province, and the peasant uprising led by Jianghuai Du and Fu Gongyou; Huang Chao Uprising in Late Tang Dynasty; At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the peasant uprising led by Song Jiang and Fang La; Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao Uprising in the Early Southern Song Dynasty: Peasant Uprising in the Late Yuan Dynasty; Peasant Uprising in Li Zicheng and Zhang in the Late Ming Dynasty: An Baili Uprising; Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in the Late Qing Dynasty. By studying all kinds of peasant uprisings in past dynasties, it seems that peasants, as the main body of uprisings, have never achieved a dominant position, and officials, businessmen and pawns account for the vast majority.
Among them, most leaders are village officials. In ancient China, there was an official for a long time, and the official was the chief executive. Generally speaking, officials are a group of civil servants at the bottom of society, doing thankless work such as checking household registration and taking over corvee. However, these people turned the country upside down in different periods and achieved world-famous reputation. The names and official positions of these nine people were the leaders of the peasant uprising in the late Qin Dynasty: Liu Bang was the director of the pavilion; The leaders of the Red Eyebrow Uprising in Qinglin: Wang Kuang and Wang Feng are both small officials in the government; The leaders of the peasant uprising at the end of Sui Dynasty: Zhai Rang was the grass-growing, and Dou Jiande was the village head; The leaders of the peasant uprising at the end of Yuan Dynasty: Liu Futong was the governor and Chen Youliang was the county magistrate; The leader of the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty: Li Zicheng was the post-standard-bearer; And the leader of An Baili society: Xu Tiande is a servant.
At the end of the dynasty, most peasants lived in poverty, and wealth could dominate everything at this time, so the second occupation of peasant uprising leaders was businessmen with a lot of wealth accumulation. Peasant Uprising at the end of Tang Dynasty: Huang Chao was a salt merchant, Wang Xiaobo was an uprising, Wang Xiaobo and he were tea sellers, Fang La Uprising: Fang La was the owner of lacquer garden, Yao Uprising: Zhongxiang was a wandering businessman, and the peasant uprising at the end of Yuan Dynasty: Xu Shouhui was a cloth merchant, and Zhang Shicheng was. Peasant Uprising in the Late Ming Dynasty: Gao Yingxiang was a horse dealer. These people have accumulated a lot of wealth and achieved a certain social status during their business. Compared with those small officials, they are more attractive in society and more people come to recruit.
There is another big category, that is, soldiers. Among them, Chen Sheng, Zhang, Zhang, the peasant uprising in the late Qing Dynasty and the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty were all military personnel. Soldiers who have lived in military camps for a long time can also come into contact with a large number of soldiers. On the one hand, the uprising is bound to be responded by many officers and men, and a group of soldiers who have been trained in a standardized way will be gathered in a short time to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army. On the other hand, an uprising in the army will soon be discovered by the court, and the change as a barracks soldier will attract the attention of the court and often suffer a bolt from the blue.
In fact, few real farmers say it is a peasant uprising. According to legend, only Yang Yao was a fisherman in Zhong Xiang's Yang Yao Uprising, and Yang and Xiao Chaogui were farmers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. If we only look at it this way, in fact, the ancient peasant uprising refers to the uprising activities with farmers as the main body.
The Universal Result and Influence of Peasant Uprising
No matter who is the leader of the peasant uprising, it is generally a group of people in the middle and lower classes. In ancient times, their different backgrounds had the greatest influence on their horizons. They did not represent the highest production of society at that time, and it was difficult for them to manage and govern after the founding of the People's Republic of China. At the same time, most of these peasant uprisings were suppressed by the imperial army during the uprising, or they enjoyed their own desires for the first time after they ascended the throne, and the regime collapsed in a short time.
On the positive side, the peasant uprising did promote the development of society to a certain extent, dealt a heavy blow to the cruel feudal rulers at that time and reorganized the social class, but generally only a large-scale peasant uprising can produce such an effect, otherwise it will only aggravate the hatred of the ruling class to the peasants at that time. On the negative side, the basic way of peasant uprising is war. As long as it is a war, it will inevitably cause casualties and property losses, and the whole social economy will decline sharply, and it will also cause different degrees of damage to all sectors of society. The ultimate victims are ordinary farmers.
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As an inevitable trend of the development of the ancient feudal dynasty in China, the peasant uprising could not produce a leader who could create a better regime to replace the feudal rule, so the peasant uprising only accelerated the destruction and replacement. In the end, feudal rule is still feudal rule, and the ultimate beneficiaries are still a few people, and the peasant class is still the peasant class, which will not change because of the peasant uprising. Farmers are still oppressed at the bottom of society. From this perspective, the peasant uprising is only a tool to reorganize the feudal regime.