Li Zhen

Li Zhen

Li Zhen (455-395 BC), also known as Li Ke, was a representative of Legalists in the Warring States period. He was born in Anyi (now Xixia County) in the early Warring States period. He once served as Marquis of Wei Wen and presided over the reform. Economically, the government carried out the policy of "making the best use of local resources" and "being good at flat and flat purchasing" to encourage farmers to cultivate intensively and increase their output. The state purchased surplus grain at a fair price in good years and sold it at a fair price in poor years. It advocated planting a variety of grain crops at the same time to prevent famine. In politics, the rule of law, the abolition of the system of Shi Qing and Shi Lu, which maintained the privileges of the nobility, and the award of meritorious people made Wei one of the powerful countries in the early Warring States period. He collected the laws of various countries at that time and compiled the law classic, which is the first relatively complete code in ancient China and has been lost. His thought of "attaching importance to agriculture" and "rule of law" has a great influence on Shang Yang and Han Fei.

Life of the characters

Yan surname, Li's, the name of Yao, yizuoke. In the early Warring States period, Wei was a famous statesman and jurist. An important representative of Legalists, Wei capital Anyi (today's Xixia County) people. He once served as Marquis of Wei Wen and presided over the reform. In some ancient books, Li Ke is also written as "Rick", or mistakenly as "Lidui" and "jichong". Li Zhen was born when Marquis Wenhou of Wei Dynasty arrived at Marquis Wu. He was once under Zeng Shen, a disciple of Zixia, and served as a minister of harmony in Zhongshan. The land was in the west of the river, so Li Zhen often fought with the Qin people.

Li Zhen's political reform made great contributions to the process of Wei's becoming rich and powerful. It was the beginning of China's political reform. Later, Wu Qi's political reform in Chu and Shang Yang's political reform in Qin developed Li's political reform practice, which had a profound impact in Chinese history.

After Li Zhen's political reform, he suggested that Wei Wenhou should take the road of expansion, and the first target was Qin in the West. In the 27th year of Wei Wenhou (419 BC), the state of Wei crossed the Yellow River westward and built a city in Shaoliang (now southwest of Hancheng in Shaanxi Province) to attack the state of Qin. In the process of westward movement, it encountered the strong resistance of Qin army. At this time, Li Zhen and his doctor Zhai Huang recommended Wu Qi to Wei Wenhou, who was appointed as the general of Wei army to attack Qin state. In the 33rd year of Wei Wenhou (413 BC), Wu Qi led the Wei army to defeat the Qin army in the Hexi battlefield and break through the Xihe defense line of the Qin army. Later, Wu Qi went straight to the state of Qin and entered Zheng (Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province), the throat of the Weihe plain. Later, the Wei army under the command of Wuqi conquered Wangcheng (today's Dali, Shaanxi), Heyang (today's southeast of Heyang, Shaanxi), Yinjin (today's east of Huaxian, Shaanxi) and other cities. Wuqi also seized a large area of land of Rongdi ethnic minorities to the north, and Marquis Wenhou of Wei set up Shangjun (to the east of Luohe River, to the north of Yellow River and to the south of Zichang in Shaanxi Province). The state of Wei also occupied Shaanxi (now the west of Sanmenxia in Henan Province) and controlled the golden channel between the West and the Central Plains. Since then, the state of Wei suppressed the state of Qin to the west of Luoshui for 80 years.

personal works

Li Zhen's works are recorded in Hanshu Yiwenzhi, including 32 Legalists' Li Zi, 7 Confucianists' Li Ke, and 10 military strategists' Li Zi. Most of Li's works belong to the category of Legalists because his thoughts and techniques belong to the category of Legalists. Because of his certain relationship with Zixia school, some of his works are somewhat Confucian, and it is not without reason that Yiwenzhi included them in Confucianism. The above three works have been lost for a long time, but in the Wei and Jin dynasties or Sui and Tang Dynasties, there are no fragmentary articles handed down. For example, the annotations to Shuijing and Wenxuan · Weidu Fu all quoted Li Keshu. As Li Yao and Li Ke are regarded as two people in Hanshu, many scholars in later generations think that Li Yao is a legalist and Li Ke is a Confucian.

Fajing no longer exists, only Huan Tan's Xinlun has a brief description of the content of Fajing, and Jinshu criminal law annals has similar records. Xinlun has been lost. One of Huan Tan's articles about Fajing is kept in the Seven Kingdoms research by Dong Shuo of Ming Dynasty, which is an important basis for us to understand Fajing. In the lost book of yuhanshanfang compiled by Ma guohan in Qing Dynasty, there is a collection of Fajing, which is mixed with Tianzun, Buddha statue and other words. It should be caused by Misquoting other books, so it is hard to believe.

Main achievements

Politics

We should select the best and appoint the best. Li Zhen advocated abolishing the hereditary aristocratic privileges, and put forward the famous saying that "if you have food and work, you can make contributions to your salary; if you have ability, you must reward and punish.". Li Zhen called those who did not work and ate salary as prostitutes. He wanted to "seize the salary of prostitutes and become a scholar of all directions". This is the first time in Chinese history to challenge the decadent and backward hereditary system. As a result of the abolition of hereditary system, a group of useless and harmful figures from the privileged class were expelled from the political arena. Some people from the general landlord class could join the political arena because of their merits or talents. This actually initiated the landlord class's struggle against the slave owners and nobles, and opened up a way for the feudal system to replace slavery in the future. As a result of this reform, the system of "Shi Qing Shi Lu" in Wei state was greatly weakened. Later, the feudal monarchs had no right to govern the people in the feudal state and food towns, only food and clothing taxes; the official system was improved, and the political situation was better.

Economics

Economically, it mainly implements the "do your best" and "flat purchase method" (it is recorded in the Hanshu shihuozhi in detail). To put it simply, doing our best is to distribute farmers' cultivated land uniformly, urge farmers to work hard and increase production. The flat purchase method is that the state buys grain at a low price when the harvest is good, and sells it to the farmers at a low price when the famine occurs, so as to make up for the shortage, so as to prevent the expensive grain from disturbing the people, or the cheap grain from hurting the farmers. The implementation of this law greatly promoted the development of Wei's agricultural production and made Wei rich and strong.

Li Zhen thought that "for the sake of the country, if you have food and work, you can make contributions to your salary, if you have ability, you can reward and punish them properly." he also thought that "if you want to take away the salary of the prostitutes, you can be a scholar from all over the world.". There are rewards and punishments, but only use. This is a very popular legalist idea in the Warring States period. At that time, many countries became rich and strong because of implementing these ideas.

In the aspect of economic strategy, the main idea of Li Zhen is to teach as much as possible. He believes that the harvest of the field is directly proportional to the labor paid for it. "If you are diligent in managing the field, you will gain three gains per mu, and if you are not diligent, you will lose as well.". He also thinks that the high price of grain is harmful to the industry and Commerce of the scholars, while the low price of grain is harmful to the agriculture. He pointed out that in addition to the expenses of food and clothing, taxes and sacrifices, the small farmers in a family of five also lose 450 yuan a year, which is the reason why the farmers live in poverty and are not at ease with their farmland. According to this situation, he made the flat buying method, that is, in good years, he divided the grain into three grades: big ripe, medium ripe and small ripe, and bought grain from farmers in proportion; in bad years, he also divided the grain into big hungry, medium hungry and small hungry, and distributed the grain purchased in big ripe year to farmers in big hungry year, and so on. In this way, the price of grain will not soar and the peasants will not flee or disperse. Because of the ability to "take the surplus to make up for the deficiency", the state of Wei is rich and strong.

"Doing our best" is a kind of "agriculture policy". Li Zhen wrote "the teaching of doing one's best to the earth" for Marquis Wen of Wei Dynasty. He calculated that there are 90000 hectares of land within 100 square miles. In addition to one third of Shanze's population, there are 60000 hectares of land that can be opened up. "If you are diligent in managing the land, you will benefit (increase production) three times per mu. If you are not diligent, you will lose (reduce production) as well." That is to say, the annual output of a hundred Li land will increase by 1.8 million stone or decrease by 1.8 million stone due to diligence or not. This number is of great significance, so farmers must be encouraged to produce.

law

In order to further carry out the reform and consolidate the achievements of the reform, Li Zhen collected the penal codes of various countries and wrote the book of law, which was published by Wei Wenhou to make it become law, affirm and protect the reform in the form of law, and fix the feudal legal power.

There are six chapters in Fajing, which are the law of stealing, the law of stealing, the law of net (prison), the law of catching, the law of miscellaneous and the law of possessing. According to the criminal law annals of the book of Jin, Li Zhen wrote the book of laws: "he thought that the king should not rush to steal or steal, so his law began with the book of thieves and thieves; thieves and thieves should be impeached and arrested, so he wrote two chapters of the book of laws, namely, the book of nets and the book of arrest

The compilation of the book of laws is a great contribution made by Li Zhen to the legal system. At the end of the spring and Autumn period, Jin and Zheng States made tripods or books of punishment to publish new legal provisions. In the Warring States period, with the change of historical conditions, more and more new written codes appeared. Li Zhen "wrote the laws of various countries" and revised six chapters of the book of laws, including theft, theft, imprisonment, arrest, miscellaneous and possession. Theft refers to the crime of infringing on property, while the great theft is a guard, and the serious one should be executed. Those who visit the palace and those who pick up the relics are subject to the punishment of arrest and cutting off, which shows that even if they only have the motive of occupying other people's property, they still constitute a crime. The thief's law is a clause dealing with the crime of murder and wounding. It stipulates that if one person is killed, his home and his wife's home will be lost; if two people are killed, his mother's home will be lost. Prison and arrest are two articles about impeachment and arrest of thieves. The contents of miscellaneous laws include the following: 1. It is forbidden for a husband to have two wives or a wife to have another husband. ③ Cunning is forbidden. The crime of stealing seals and discussing State decrees. ③ City ban. Regulations forbidding people to cross the city. ④ Play is forbidden. A ban on gambling. ⑤ It's forbidden. A ban on people gathering. ⑥ The gold ban. The ban on official corruption. If it is stipulated that the prime minister should take bribes, he or she should be put to death. Having laws is the general principle and the preface of the book of laws. After the appearance of Fajing, it was used by the state of Wei, and then it was brought to the state of Qin by Shang Yang. The law of Qin was born out of Fajing, and the law of Han inherited the law of Qin. Therefore, Fajing has a very important position in the history of ancient Chinese law.

In order to ensure the implementation of policies and laws and the unity of ideas, Li Zhen formulated the law classic, which runs through the legal principle of early Legalists, that is, "don't be intimate with others, don't be noble or humble, and judge according to the law"; specifically, it is against the law to kill people arbitrarily, so we should punish them and restrict slavery

Chinese PinYin : Li Kui