A Study Of The "New Land" In The Qin Bamboo Manuscripts

In the late Warring States period,the term "new land" was more commonly used and had a general meaning,meaning "land of other countries that had just been conquered".In terms of documents and bamboo manuscripts,both the Qin State and the Zhao State were used,but the term "new land" in the Qin bamboo manuscripts had a specific meaning.As far as the records are concerned,the "New lands" of the Qin include Huaiyang,Liudong,Dongting and Cangwu.These territories are the territories of the former six states.Therefore,from the perspective of time and region,Yan,Dai and Qi,as well as the three counties of Lingnan and Henan,which were captured later,should also be included in the category of the "New lands" of the Qin.It is inappropriate for scholars to call the Qin land corresponding to the "New lands" as "former land" or "old land"."Former land" has special meaning.Judging from the Qin bamboo manuscripts,the Qin people called the six states that had died as"previous plus the name of the state",it is more appropriate to call them "previous Qin State".In the process of conquering the six states and Qin Dynasty,the Qin State took the previous Qin State as its foundation and called the territories it had occupied the"New Lands".Therefore,the geographical scope of the previous Qin State is east to East County,south to South County,north to Shang County,west to Longxi County,including the region and Longxi,Beidi,Shang County,Hedong,Taiyuan,Shangdang,Sanchuan,East County,Nanyang,South County,Hanzhong and Shuba,these 12 counties,namely the twelve counties of the Law of Officials Appointment in the Shuihudi Qin bamboo manuscripts.The difference between the previous Qin State and the "New Land" is to some extent the difference between Qin State and the six states.The Qin State regarded the geographical scope of the "twelve counties" as the previous Qin State,and the other places as the "New Land",for many reasons.From the perspective of the the previous Qin State,the ancient people liked the number twelve very much,thought this is the big number of the Heaven,and when Lv Buwei was in charge of the Qin State,he carried out a series of reforms.Including the reform of culture and casting system,the reform of the county system,Implemented the system of prefectures and counties completely.He not only carried out the Qin Law throughout the Qin State,but also fixed the number of counties "twelve" in the form of law,set east,west,south,north four direction counties.In the 17th year of the King Zheng(230 BC),the land occupied after the fall of the Han State,though belonging to the state of Qin politically,was considered as the "New Land" because it did not belong to the "twelve counties" and did not carry out the Qin system reform.In the Spring and Autumn period and the warring states period,the popular Wufu system provided a theoretical basis for the existence of "new land".The entire state structure of the Qin State is divided into four parts,with Neishi as the core area,the twelve counties as the second layer,the "New land" as the third layer,and Korea,south Vietnam and the southwestern barbary as the fourth layer.In the process of implementing the system of prefectures and counties in the Qin State,there are two ways:one is to transform the old counties,and the other is to set up new counties.In the early stage,the Qin State mainly adopted the system of enfeoffment,that is,enfeoffment to the meritorious officials and clan members,and then the system of prefectures and counties.In the later period,governance was mainly in the form of a state.In this process,the reform of prefectures and counties was carried out.After the disintegration of the bureaucracy and the clan,the prefectures and counties were transformed into pure prefectures and counties.The"New land" mainly adopts this model.