What impact did ancient Chinese slavery have on the development of Chinese history?

Wu Rong, a professor at the Department of History at Peking University, once said: “During the Shang, Western Zhou, and Spring and Autumn Periods, because the village community system had not yet been disintegrated, the main bearers of agricultural labor were members of the village community, and slaves probably only played a secondary role. During the Warring States Period, village communities began to disintegrate, and the polarization between rich and poor in society intensified. The patriarchal aristocracy that had long been dominant declined, and emerging wealthy merchants and craftsmen emerged, as well as a large number of independent small farmers. The social structure underwent great changes. Changes, so the rich used slaves in large numbers to engage in material production, while the poor became slaves due to bankruptcy. From then on, slavery also developed further. "At that time, not only did the government use slaves for handicraft production, but also merchants. And workshop owners also used a large number of child servants and servants to engage in mining, metallurgy, salt boiling, pottery making, silk weaving and other handicraft production. At that time, the buying and selling of labor force was quite frequent, and a fixed or permanent labor market emerged, which was the so-called "servant shop". As for the sale of slaves, they were often "sold in Luxiang" ("Warring States Policy. Qin Policy").

Feizi, the ancestor of the Qin State, was appreciated by King Zhou Xiao for raising horses, so he was promoted from a slave to a viscount with a fiefdom, and was granted a fiefdom in Qin. Their fate was determined by the king's happiness, anger, love and hate. Their appointment, promotion, demotion, and even beheading were all determined by the will of the king and his close aristocrats. Baili Xi, the prime minister of Qin, was a slave bought with five sheepskins. . In the late fifth century B.C., Li Kui of Wei State carried out the political reform, and his "Book of Laws" stipulated: "Those who steal talismans will be punished by their family members; those who steal seals will be punished; and those who discuss state laws and regulations will be punished by their family members and their wife's family members." "Living his family" means turning all his family members into slaves. This type of law was commonly adopted by various countries at that time. For example, Yunmeng's "Qin Code" contains many provisions regarding the status of slaves in the families of various criminals. In the Shang Yang Reform in 361 BC, "Those who failed to gain anything and were idle and poor were treated as children." People who were engaged in industry and commerce or who were poor were reduced to slaves, while the bureaucracy assigned "concubines" according to military merit and rank (see " "Historical Records. Biography of Shang Jun" and "Book of Shang Jun. Ken Ling Chapter"), which shows how arbitrarily the government violated the people's personal rights. "Book of Shang Jun. Wrong Methods Chapter" records: "Those who are in the same row and minister to each other as concubines are called rich and poor." "Warring States Policy. Qin Policy IV" states that in various countries at that time, "the people were in dire straits, the races were separated, and the ministers were in exile. Concubine, the sea is full of concubines.” Qiu Xigui demonstrated in detail that there were a large number of slaves at that time and they were widely used in production, so it should be classified as a slave society (Qiu Xigui: "New Research on Ancient Literature and History", published by Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House in 1992). In short, after Shang Yang's reform, the number of slaves in the Qin State increased greatly and their use became more widespread. As a result, the Qin and Han dynasties became the period with the largest number of slaves in Chinese history. Until the Qing Dynasty, rulers had no concept of protecting the basic personal rights of their people. It was common for people to become slaves due to crimes and debts. People never understood what "personal rights" were!

Wei Liao said bluntly when he was in the Qin State: If the King of Qin "gets his ambition in the world, the whole world will be captives." After unification, Qin Shihuang himself made it clear that "within Liuhe, the emperor's land, wherever people go, there are all subjects." After the Qin army captured Handan, where he had lived when he was a boy, Qin Shihuang ordered all those who had bullied him to be "trapped and killed." Qin Yingzheng trapped Confucians twice and buried more than 1,000 Confucian scholars alive. Lao Ai had thousands of children (slaves) and killed more than a thousand people; in the case of Lao Ai's party, Lao himself was torn apart by a car and his family was exterminated, more than 20 party members were beheaded, and more than 4,000 people were exiled; Zheng's mother was imprisoned for this case, and Zheng's Two half-brothers were massacred, 27 ministers who persuaded the Queen Mother to be released were executed, and Lu Buwei was ordered to commit suicide. In the 36th year of the First Emperor's reign, a meteor fell, and someone carved on the meteorite: "The First Emperor will share the land after his death." Qin Shihuang killed all the people living around the meteorite.

The highest population in the Qin Dynasty was 20 million. There were about 1,000 "counties" across the country, with an average of 20,000 people per county. In order to satisfy his personal desires, Qin Shihuang built palaces all over the country. The number of palaces was known as "three hundred outside the pass and four hundred inside the pass". Especially the Epang Palace, which covers an area of ??several miles and can accommodate ten thousand people! "Historical Records of the Qin Dynasty" records: "When the First Emperor came to the throne, he conquered Mount Li and conquered the world, leaving more than 700,000 people in the world." That is to say: he started the construction of Qin Shihuang's tomb in Lishan before unification, and recruited 700,000 migrant workers! In the 26th year of the First Emperor's reign, he "went under the Langya Terrace of 30,000 households in the head of Guizhou Province." In the 28th year of the First Emperor's southern tour, he went to the Xiangshan Temple. When he encountered a strong wind, he "was so angry that he ordered 3,000 prisoners to cut down the trees in Xiangshan and destroy the mountains." In the 32nd year of the First Emperor, "he ordered Meng Tian to send 300,000 troops to attack Hu in the north." ", and took some land in Henan" to build the Great Wall and serve 500,000 people.

In the 33rd year of the First Emperor's reign, "all the 'changbu dead people', 'brother-in-laws' and 'Jia people' were sent to seize Luliang land, including Guilin, Xiangjun and Nanhai, and banished Wu." Annotated by Xu Guang Said: "500,000 people guard the Five Ridges." That is to say, Qin Shihuang used 500,000 slave troops to conquer Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Vietnam, and sent troops to stay and garrison. In the 35th year of the First Emperor's reign, the "Afang Palace Hidden Palace, inhabited by more than 700,000 people" was built and stretched for 300 miles. "Hidden Palace" means castration. In addition, there are more than 300,000 people working on Xiuchi Road. There is also the huge Chidao Network and the astonishing Xu Fu fleet... This cannot be achieved by "national power only reaches the county level". There are more than 2.7 million civilians performing slave-style military service and labor without pay, and there are an estimated 2.5 million more people transporting food, grass and equipment for the above-mentioned military and labor armies, as well as soldiers and laborers stationed in the mainland. There are tens of thousands of people. At that time, the country's population was about 20 million, of which the number of prime-age people (including women) who were able to work was only more than 6 million, calculated as 1/3. Among the more than 6 million laborers, 5 million were slaves. Military service and servitude. This is evidence of the large-scale implementation of slavery, so much so that "Ding men were in prison, and Ding women were transferred to other places. They were miserable, and they passed through the Tao tree, and the dead looked at each other" ("Hanshu. Yan'an Biography"). After the death of the First Emperor, Prince Su, General Meng Tian and others were killed by Qin II; Hu Hai beheaded 18 of his brothers and cousins, and killed all 10 sisters by carcasses, and countless others were involved. After that, Li Si was beheaded again and the three clans were executed.

From the bamboo slips in the Qin Tomb in Yunmengsuihudi, it can be seen that the taxation of the Qin State was quite heavy compared with other countries during the Warring States Period. In addition to paying land rent, farmers also paid military taxes in other forms, as well as disguised military taxes such as armor and shields. The land rent not only collects grain (grain), but also cuo (forage) and draft (stem)