A Study On The Rural Control In Qin And Han Dynasties

Since the ancient times, the concept of regarding the populace as root of political govnerment, the controlling mode over those mass of countryside and its effect directly influence and determining the fate of the state. Yet, the structure of the bottom-stratum society oder was not only relate to the controlling idea of the country, but more was restrict with some certain society constrcture, and changed along with the society constrcture change. Dynasties of Qin and Han were a key period when the constrcture of we Chinese ancient bottom-stratum society took shape and the theory of society controlling came into being. With the foundation of the absolutism and centralization unification system among the state where were a set of countryside controlling systems step by step based on the reality society constructure, which ever played an effective role in controlling the countryside then. From the perspective of institutional design, the controlling theroy and system for the countryside got better and better in the state government administration along with the Confucianism morality and ethic circulated in the rural areas after the mid-period of Pre-Han dynasty. But, the change of countryside society constructure influenced on the effect of the controlling which was forced to it from the state, thus making this controlling weaker and weaker.There are six parts in this paper, which choose different perspectives and sides to doing the static and dynamic research about the controlling system and constructure problem of countryside in Qin and Han dynasties.The first chapter makes an analysis of the construction of controlling system in the countryside of Qin and Han dynasties. Firstly, we reanalysize the controversial problem of the settlement form in Qin and Han dynasties by combining the bamboo chips data, and clarify the gradual change of rural settlement from incorporation to separation happened in the relationship of Li and Ju, so that we can have a macroscopic understanding of spacial environment on which the controlling and system constructure of rural domination depended during that time; Secondly, we account for the construction of the rural power agent which centered on the informal officials i.e. Xiangguan and Lili because they were the basic strength which the state enforcement of rural control relied on. Basing on those mentioned above, we do a research of the institutional controlling which the state enforced to the countryside by underlining the three aspects such as individual, economy and producing process.Through those researches above, we can have a overall knowledge about the system and theory of rural control in Qin and Han dynasties.The second chapter analyzes the evolvement of social class about the dominating mechanism and populace neighbouring community .This part carries out by revolving on the two problems i.e. the law regulation of getting the accessary punishment each other among any five neighbouring families and the domination of social class which the state enforced to the countryside. During the period from Qin dynasty to the early time of Pre-Han dynasty ,there was a rank of political class which was established in the domination of kingship centering on the twenty-grade rank of nobility, and the other one was a mechanism of that punishment regulation above, both of them played a vital part during the process of shaping the rural order carried out by the country then.With the change of society constructure, esp. the rank of nobility depreciation and the development of the spontaneous class concept which regarded the wealth as the nut core, the social class mastership toward rural pepole led by the political "marquis" had lost its effect little by little; and along with its undue issue and the penetration into the countryside from Confucianism morality and ethic, the function of that mechanism of punishment mentioned above also had been changed. By the dynamic careful view of the mechanism of rural class domination and the neighbouring familiy units dividing by five households as a starting step from society strcture research, we can disclose the constrctrual evolvement of the theory and its practical effect about rural control from the special pointview.Chapter three discusses the rural power constructure basing on the relationships between the family clan, powerful landlord and the country. In this part ,we keep eyes on the different ideas about the rural control and order constructure theory of Qin and Han dynasties in the scholar field, and try to give a new and reasonable explanation. The contents are establised on the change of social constructure happened in Qin and Han dynasties below: we research the relationship between the informal countryside officials and the clan-powerful landlord stage by stage ; the fomer was on behalf of the state adiministration power system, the latter one standarded for the social strength. Through those orientation analysis of character and effect during the order-shaping process in the two parts mentioned above, we bring forward a dynamic explanation again about the theory of rural order constructure existed that time.Chapter four carries out a research on the change from "no harm of mergence" tothe weaker controlling over the economy and person of countryside ,on footing of thepractical effect of social constructure and domination. Namely, because the state putthe cropland-according system into action and enforced relatively effective restrict onthe powerful landlord, the countryside came forth a condition of "no harm ofmergence" which estabished the foundation of controlling many sides such as therural economy and individual effectively for the state. With the go-up of socialstrength of family clan and the inherent relativity of the throne power inside,mergence of land and other things launched by the powful landlord in the countrysidegradually developed and showed more and more intensely. Although the state adoptedmany measures and means to retrieve the bad situation for making the base of ruralcontrol stable, there was of no avail that more and more populaces wentbankrupt,came into exile everywhere and became a subordinate peasant or a slavebecause of incapability of solving the root of mergence fundamentally. As a result, thestate had less and less domination over the economy and people of countryside.Chapter five will clarify the domination over the countryside enforced from the center government mainly from the perspective of thought and culture. Such kind of controlling took on a very important side of the domination for Qin and Han dynasties in which the regime strengthened the controlling from the morality mold and the thought culture of the rural pepole by the means of the confucius school ethic morality, so that it played an effective part in the transform of folklore and the public opinion direction as a "soft" controlling function. Different from the past research which reviewed the function and way of the thought and culture then by emphasizing the sides such as ethic morality, but basing on those scholar achievements, this part will be on the footing of the social constructure and its change and review the practical effect which was related to the mold and controlling of thought and culture in the contryside from the country government during that time. By this way, we can grasp the government concept then from the side of thought and culture, futhermore, catch a sight of the development about the bottom-class society sequence from the new pointview.The sixth chapter will emphasize the relationship and variance between the folk society organization and kingship domination in the countryside. With the set-up of those countryside governmental organization during Qin and Han dynasties, the organizational activity of the "She" did not disappear in which content was mainly those activities of religion sacrifice appearance with the unit of Li. In some specific period of Qin and Han dynasties, the system of Li-She incorporation was a masterpiece of kingship used to dominate the basic society effectively, and the pure folk personal association had not posses the space of liberal development. As the society constructrue changed afterward, association tonged in the folk sprang up and grew up in some period and was allowed and used, and it also revealed the change of the idea implemented in the kingship domination over the countryside world and the basic society order to be some extent.