What's the difference between feudal autocracy and feudal monarchy?

27-11-6 14:57:19 From: Spoon your sea

Feudalism is not autocracy

Wen/Qiu Feng

Feudal autocracy has become an inherent term to describe autocracy, ignorance and corruption, as well as its social phenomena and values. People also blame China's backwardness in modern times on "feudal autocracy".

However, if we sort out the history a little and pay attention to the discussion of serious historians in modern times, we will find that the concept of "feudal autocracy" is simply a joke. People may never realize or consciously ignore a most basic historical fact: "feudalism" and "autocracy" are two completely opposite things.

the word "feudalism" is not an invention of modern people, but has existed since ancient times. What was the system of Xia and Shang Dynasties? It can be argued. However, after the Zhou people destroyed the Shang Dynasty, they clearly carried out at least two large-scale activities of "closing the land to build the country", which is China's "feudal system". Although the vassals of all sizes who were enfeoffed by the emperor assumed the necessary obligations to the Zhou royal family, they enjoyed quite complete management rights above their fiefs, while the emperor of Zhou had little right to interfere in the internal affairs of the vassals.

by the warring States period, this feudal system was gradually in crisis, and the princes merged to become seven countries, all of which began to establish the autocratic monarchy system. By the time Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms, Qin Shihuang clearly established supreme power for himself according to the Legalist theory, and resolutely rejected feudalism. The "county system" is adopted for local management.

therefore, in China's traditional political discourse, "feudalism" and "counties" are two completely different political arrangements. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties and Ming and Qing Dynasties, Tessa scholars have been discussing the advantages and disadvantages of feudalism and counties. This discussion makes people think that feudalism and counties are just two different arrangements between the central and local governments. But in fact, a careful study of the relevant discussions will reveal that feudalism and counties are actually two completely different regimes.

this point will be clearer once it is compared with western history. At the beginning of the 2th century, China scholars began to understand western history and translate western historical works. In this process, they found that the arrangement of social, political and economic systems in Western Europe in the Middle Ages was very similar to that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, so naturally they translated the concept of feudalism, which was used by western scholars to describe the history of Western Europe, into what Tessa in ancient China called "feudalism".

in essence, the feudal system is a decentralized multi-center governance order, regardless of China and the West. In western Europe, every Lord thinks he is a little king, but the king is just the Lord with the most territory. Similarly, Zhou's feudal system was the same, otherwise, Zhou's royal family could not have done anything about it by watching the vassals annex each other.

strangely, after the collapse of feudal order, western Europe also entered the era of autocratic monarchy, similar to the autocratic monarchy of Qin dynasty after the collapse of feudal system in Zhou dynasty. The word used to describe this system in western Europe is absolutism, the essence of which is to abolish the power of feudal lords and concentrate power in the hands of kings, who directly rule their subjects. This autocratic era lasted from the 16th and 7th centuries to the 18th century. "I am the country" said by French King Louis XIV is the motto of this autocratic system, and no king in feudal times dared to imagine such a reality.

Therefore, whether in China or in Western Europe, feudalism and autocracy are two completely opposite regimes in a historical period. Politics under the feudal order can't be autocratic, at least it can't be as autocratic as the emperor under the later autocratic regime. You can't imagine that the Emperor of Zhou could spank the Duke of Zhou or the Duke of Qi at the meridian gate. On the other hand, a typical autocratic regime must consciously reject feudal factors and concentrate power in the hands of the emperor.

Unfortunately, since the mid-2th century, historians have interpreted the meaning of the word "feudalism" at will, and simply called the autocratic regime that has collapsed and replaced feudalism a feudal society, resulting in huge conceptual confusion. Such conceptual confusion will certainly hinder people from accurately understanding history. For example, since feudalism and autocracy are confused, what is the difference between the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty?

The confusion of concepts leads to the confusion of values. For example, many people criticize the organizational structures such as families, clans and guilds. Because, it is said that these are feudal factors, and the real autocracy has been lightly spared. Even many historians loudly applaud the efforts of autocratic emperors to destroy the multi-center governance order of society and establish centralized dictatorship, and completely ignore these so-called feudal factors, which is actually a shelter against authoritarian power.

So, no matter what your value judgment is on feudalism and autocracy, at least stop talking about the concept of "feudal autocracy". The word "feudal autocracy" is not only a slander on feudalism, but also a beautification of autocracy.