A Study On Retainers Of The Lu State During The Spring And Autumn Period

In the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn period,"Family"means a kind of organization in the fiefs and the clans of the Qingdaifus. In the history literatures, the Retainers meant the ministers in the"Family", their responsibility is dealing with all sorts of affairs in the fiefs and the clans. The earliest usage record in all of literatures is, in the Tso Chuan, the year of Xiang 29,"If the ministers of the state is not enough in any case, the retainers could reinforce."Although the word"retainer"was not been mentioned before, the stories of retainers were allusioned for many times. After that, the retainers were recorded more and more times. Relative to the monarch, the retainers could be called"Pei ministers". Retainers played an important role in the Spring and Autumn Period, especially in the Lu State.The Retainer System in Lu, was originated from the patriarchal clan system and the enfeoffment of the Zhou Dynasty. In these systems, the King of the Zhou, as the suzerain of the clan and the king of the country, enfeoffed his brothers and ministers state, made them become monarches. In the Lu State, the monarch enfeoffed fiefs to the Qingdaifus. Qingdaifus set retainers in"Families". The Retainer System of the Lu State was imitating the minister system of the Zhou Dynasty and the minister system of the Lu State. And, the retainers of the Lu State, expressed duality, patriarchality and liquidity. In the Lu State, during the Spring and Autumn Period, the Qingdaifus'clans and fiefs became larger and larger, they set more and more retainers to manage, in this case, the Retainer System of the Lu State became perfect.In politics and economic, the retainers of the Lu State depend on their lords very much, their benefits contacted with their lords closely. In order to protect their benefits, retainers just carried out their lords' order, they were the lords'political satellites. Retainers were centrifugal force to the monarch, they weakened the power of the monarch. In the sequel, gradually, the retainers turned to a kind of opposite power to both their lords and the monarch.In the Spring and Autumn Period, the more advanced County and Prefecture System had been founded and extended in some states, but not in Lu. Qingdaifus of the Lu put their mostly force into the agons with each other gradually, some important retainers got more and more powers, especially in the fiefs of"SanHuan". As time passes, the ambition of retainers who got the most important power inflated. In order to satisfy their benefits, they weakened the power of their lords ceaselessly, even wanted to replace their lords. The retainers"extended the powers of the monarch","hold the national political power", even launched insurgencies, shocked the SanHuan and the monarch heavily.Faced the menace from the retainers together, the monarch of the Lu State and the Qingdaifus united to weaken them. On Kongzi's suggestion, they decided to backout the firm defence on the fiefs of SanHuan, in order to eliminate the power foundation of the retainers. But the retainers who held the power of the fiefs for a Long-term and got more benefits argued against. They launched insurgencies again to protect their rights and benefits. After fighting for many times, the monarch and the Qingdaifus of the Lu State retracted the powers held by retainers, but paid miserably heavy price. They began to weaken the retainers'strength and the Retainer System, the retainers and the Retainer System came down gradually.The insurgence of the retainers in the Lu State proved, as a kind of Local administration system, the Fief System was defective, certainly, it will perish. The new Centralization System is the inevitable request of the history.