Three provinces and six departments system

Founding of the People's Republic of China: After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Emperor Wendi set up six departments in three provinces to strengthen centralization, which integrated the establishment of central officials in the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Perfection: During the reign of Emperor Taizong, the reasons for the powers of the three provinces were further clarified: it was the result of the contradictory struggle between monarchical power and relative power, and the relative power was gradually decomposed. Since the Han Dynasty, the imperial power has been strengthened, but the relative power has been weakened. By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the single-phase system had developed into a group-phase system.

(Function:

① Zhongshu Province (decision-making body): responsible for drafting and issuing imperial edicts.

(2) The province under the door (deliberative body): responsible for reviewing government decrees and vetoing the infeasible.

(3) Shangshu Province (administrative agency): responsible for implementing important state laws and regulations.

First, the official department: responsible for the assessment, appointment and removal of officials (the first of the six departments)

B. Household Department: responsible for household registration, taxation, etc.

C. Ministry of rites: in charge of the national etiquette system.

D. Ministry of War: in charge of military and political affairs

E. Penal Department: in charge of criminal law.

F Ministry of Industry: in charge of national engineering construction.

Status: ① Three provinces: the highest government agency in the central government.

② Six departments: subordinate institutions of Shangshu Province.

Features:

(1) The division of functions and powers, cooperation, mutual restriction and supervision made the feudal bureaucracy form a complete and strict system.

The governors of the three provinces are all prime ministers, but most of them are at a lower level.

Function:

(1) For the central government, the administrative efficiency has been improved and the ruling power of the central government has been strengthened.

(2) For the emperor, the relative power was weakened and the imperial power was strengthened.

(3) For later generations, it was a major change in the history of China's official system. After that, the dynasties basically followed this system.

Establishment and perfection of imperial examination system

Background:

(1) With the decline of gentry and the rise of civilian landlords, the multi-Zheng Zhi system cannot continue.

② During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, in order to maintain the centralization of absolutism, talents were attracted from the landlord class to participate in the political power and consolidate the rule.

The economic strength of small and medium-sized landlords has grown, and the feudal small-scale peasant economy has also developed greatly. Small and medium-sized landlords and yeomen can obtain corresponding status through the imperial examination, and the imperial examination system is the embodiment of this feudal economy in the superstructure.

Meaning: subject: examination subject; The purpose of selecting talents is to win over scholars and consolidate the feudal dynasty.

Form:

(1) Sui Wendi: Abolished the Nine-Graded System and began to select officials by subject examination.

(2) Yang Di: The Imperial Examination was founded and the imperial examination system was formed.

Perfection: The Tang Dynasty inherited the system of Sui Dynasty.

① Emperor Taizong: The examination subjects were added, mainly Jinshi and Mingjing.

② Wu Zetian: The number of candidates in imperial examinations increased greatly, and martial arts and palace examinations were also created.

(3) Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (Kaiyuan period): Appointed senior officials to preside over the examinations (to improve their status).

Role: Heads:

(1) The establishment of the imperial examination system is a great progress of the feudal official selection system;

A, break through the situation that aristocratic families monopolize official career, and play the role of restraining the gate valve.

Expand the source of officials and the ruling base.

C, improve the cultural quality of officials.

D, strengthening centralization is conducive to the stability of the political situation (concentration of power in selecting talents and appointing people).

(2) This system has been used by all previous dynasties and has far-reaching influence.

③ It is beneficial to the development of Tang poetry.

Negative:

(1) is an important means to strengthen the autocratic rule of imperial power, which is one of the reasons why China's feudal society is longer than other countries.

(2) Strengthening the orthodox position of Confucianism is beneficial for feudal rulers to win over intellectuals and strengthen ideological control, especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which severely imprisoned people's thoughts.

(3) The content of the examination is unreasonable, which has formed an atmosphere of attaching importance to literature and art while ignoring technology and light industry, and ignoring practical knowledge.

(4) The value orientation of society lies in being an official, but it is too lazy to explore nature, which restricts scientific inventions and original ideas, and is not conducive to knowledge innovation and the cultivation of innovative talents, so that China's traditional science and technology cannot develop into modern science and technology.

⑤ The cultural factors that prevented modern intellectuals from opening their eyes and being out of tune with western culture led to China's backwardness.

Zu Yong Diao system

(1) The background of land rent modulation in Sui and Tang Dynasties: land rent modulation in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

(2) Tax system reform in Sui Dynasty:

① Background: Rent adjustment was implemented in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

② Contents:

First, the number of rent adjustments is lighter than that of Zhou Bei.

B, farmers' service time is short

C at the beginning of the agent service system, "People's Republic of China (PRC) will be exempted from service for 50 years.".

(3) Tenancy system in Tang Dynasty:

① Guiding ideology of reform: light tax.

② Reason:

First, Tang learned the lessons of the Sui Dynasty;

B in the early Tang dynasty, the political situation was chaotic, the economy was in recession, the government was in financial difficulties, and the people were displaced.

C, therefore, it is imperative for the rulers to rectify the farmland system and tax system, reduce the burden on the people and ease class contradictions.

③ Content:

A. Land rent: Adult men pay a certain amount of grain to the government every year ("Ding tax").

B adjustment: pay a fixed amount of silk and cloth (family tax)

C. Agency: Those who do not go to military service during the corvee period can take silk or cloth instead of service, and there is no age limit, thus forming a complete land rent, agency, modulation (agency tax) labor rent → physical land rent.

(4) The role of tenancy system in Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty:

A, reduce some burdens on farmers, ensure production time and increase the amount of cultivated land.

B, increase government revenue and make the country rich and strong.

C, relax the personal control of farmers, so that they have more time to put into production, which is conducive to social and economic development.

D, consolidated the system of officers and men.

Two tax laws

Background: During the Tianbao period, due to the prevalence of land sales and mergers, the land equalization system was destroyed, the tenancy adjustment system could not be maintained, and the national fiscal revenue was greatly reduced.

Goal: directly solve the financial crisis and increase government revenue; Fundamentally speaking, it is to consolidate feudal rule.

Time: 780.

Character: Tang Dezong accepts Yang Yan's suggestion.

Main contents:

① Each household pays household tax according to assets and local tax according to fields.

(2) Cancel the rent and all miscellaneous taxes and chores.

③ Pay taxes twice a year in summer and autumn.

Features:

① Take the amount of assets and land as the tax standard, that is, replace the per capita tax since the Warring States Period with asset tax.

(2) Simplify tax items

③ The tax payment time is relatively fixed.

Function:

(1) Ensure the national fiscal revenue in a certain period.

(2) It has changed the labor service system with people as the mainstay since the Warring States Period.

(3) Expand tax sources, increase government revenue, and relatively reduce the burden on farmers.

④ It was a major reform and progress of the tax system in feudal society of China.

Song dynasty

After Song Liguo, politicians need to face the problem of what kind of political structure to build to overcome the disadvantages of various dynasties since Qin Dynasty. The imperial examination system established a talent selection and appointment mechanism, which not only broke the political pattern of "Daimon Masaru", but also solved the drawbacks of bureaucratic hereditary system. Although the imperial examination system began in the Sui Dynasty, it was established in the Song Dynasty as a basic system for selecting talents. With the decrease of access conditions and the increase of the number of candidates, the implementation of the imperial examination system, as a means for the state to open courses and recruit scholars, made the Song Dynasty quickly enter the era of literati. As the highest chief executive of the central and local governments, civil servants have higher status than military attache. The main duty of local officials is herders, and the duty of guarding the land is the responsibility of full-time military officers appointed by the central government. Both are sent by the central government and are not subordinate to each other. This completely eliminated the political tradition of warlord separatism since the Tang Dynasty, and also completely eliminated the political basis of frequent replacement of the Five Dynasties. Because the emperor of Song Dynasty carried out the ancestral training of Taizu well, ministers and officials dared to express their opinions and even argued face to face with the emperor. This enlightened political atmosphere made the ministers of Song Dynasty play a very important role in the political life of the country. Because of the adoption of civilian officials to govern the country, military power is concentrated in the central government, and the central government in the Song Dynasty has greater and more effective power than previous dynasties. Power is actually more concentrated. Secondly, because Song Ting adopted a more liberal and enlightened political skill, the imperial power was bound to a certain extent, and the power of ministers to participate in decision-making and policy implementation was greater than that of any dynasty in history. It is precisely because of this that the prosperity and progress of economy, science and technology, culture, art and technology in the Song Dynasty were created.

Industrial and commercial policies and industrial and commercial development in the Song Dynasty: Different from other major dynasties, the Song Dynasty did not put too much emphasis on agriculture, and the commercial trade in the Song Dynasty was very developed. In the Song Dynasty, due to the constant border problems, the annual coinage was always the routine expenditure of the imperial court. The huge army and bureaucracy also need the country to have enough income to pay for it. In the case that the land area is smaller than that of Han and Tang dynasties, the expenditure has increased greatly. It is very important to increase the country's financial resources. Obviously, the income from relying on land is definitely limited. The land tax is too heavy to support the people, and the national income is too low to support the political power. Developing trade is the main source of increasing revenue for the imperial court. The trade in the Northern Song Dynasty was very developed. During the Southern Song Dynasty, trade was more important to the country's economic status. It can even be said that the Southern Song Dynasty was a trading country. The development of trade promotes the prosperity of commerce, which in turn promotes the development of handicrafts and large-scale industries. During the Song Dynasty, China's gold, mining and ceramics industries were very developed. During the Northern Song Dynasty, a large number of mineral deposits such as gold, silver, copper, iron and coal were mined, and the earliest manufacturing plants and processing plants in the world history also appeared all over the country. Such as shipyards, firearms factories, paper mills, printing plants, weaving factories, official kilns and so on. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were seven or eight thousand craftsmen in the Military Equipment Institute, and the workers in the factory were paid on time. Because industry and commerce need advanced technology, three of China's four great inventions were invented in the Song Dynasty or began to be widely used. The iron and steel output in the Northern Song Dynasty exceeded that in the British Industrial Revolution (American scholar Robert Hartwall calculated that the iron output in the first year of Song Shenzong Yuanfeng (1078) was about 75-150,000 tons according to the consumption of weapons, iron coins and farm tools in the Song Dynasty). This output was 2.5-5 times that of the British industrial revolution in 1640, while the iron output of European countries (including Russian Europe) in 18 in the 8th century was roughly between14-180,000 tons, so the iron output of China in Song Dynasty could basically reach this level. )。 Kaifeng, the capital, is already a metropolis with a population of more than one million (this scale is remarkable even today), and people cook and burn coal instead of firewood (the coal output in Song Dynasty is undoubtedly the highest in the world, and the mining technology is also very advanced). This shows the industrial level and the living standard of ordinary people at that time. In Song Dynasty, the main body of national fiscal revenue was no longer agriculture, but industry and commerce, and the agricultural society gradually moved towards the industrial society. The huge financial revenue in Song Dynasty did not aggravate the exploitation of farmers, but was the result of the rapid development of national economy, the extremely prosperous industry and commerce and the improvement of productivity. As a traditional agricultural country, the direct collection of agricultural taxes on a large number of "small farmers" has always been the basis of state rule, which is really unique in the Song Dynasty. Due to the high prosperity of industry and commerce, the country adopted paper money-Jiaozi (the first year of Song Renzong Tiansheng (1023), and the government formally established Jiaozi service. With the increase of paper money circulation, more and more regions use this convenient currency. The earliest paper money in the west was issued by Stockholm Bank in 166 1 year, but the bank soon closed down. By 1694, the Bank of England began to officially use paper money, about 700 years later than China).

With the development of industry and cities, business activities are becoming more and more active. The development of commerce in Song Dynasty was first manifested in the expansion of market scale and market quantity.

Substantial growth. In the Tang Dynasty, the city implemented a strict market system, separated the commercial areas from the residents, and prohibited doing business in the residential areas. Song dynasty gradually broke the pattern of square market, allowing businessmen to do business, and shops could be opened everywhere on the street. In particular, Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Lin 'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, both had urban populations exceeding one million, making them the largest and most prosperous metropolises in the world at that time. According to some scholars' statistics, there were more than 6,400 large and medium-sized businessmen and 8,000-9,000 vendors in Kaifeng during the Northern Song Dynasty. Many large and small markets have gradually formed around the main roads in cities and rural areas. This kind of market is called "market" in Lingnan and "grass market" in North China. These fairs, also known as workshops, spread all over the country, forming a dotted exchange network, all indicating that commercial activities in the Song Dynasty were unprecedentedly active. At the same time, the overseas trade in Song Dynasty was unprecedentedly prosperous. According to Zhou's "Qu Fei answers the generation outside the ridge", there are more than 50 countries that maintain trade with the Song Dynasty, so the overseas trade scope of the Song Dynasty is greatly expanded compared with the previous generation. At that time, China's merchant ships were not only durable, but also huge. According to Meng Lianglu, the ships used by big maritime merchants in the Song Dynasty can accommodate 500-600 people. More importantly, businessmen who go to sea have mastered the most advanced navigation technology in the world, the most important of which is the application of compass in navigation, thus making overseas trade develop greatly. The high prosperity of industry and commerce and trade objectively requires the matching of technology and technology. So it is not surprising that China was obviously ahead of the world in technology in Song Dynasty. It is no coincidence that three of the four great inventions matured and began in the Song Dynasty, but it is the objective requirement and inevitable result of high economic development and prosperity.

the Yuan Dynasty

The administrative system of the Yuan Dynasty consists of Zhongshu Province, Privy Council, Yushitai, Sinong Division, Academy, Surrender Academy, Academy and Five Guards Army. Among them, Zhongshu Province is in charge of government affairs and officials, the Privy Council is in charge of national military defense and operations, and Yushitai is equivalent to today's Supreme Procuratorate, specializing in monitoring official corruption and dereliction of duty.

Following the administrative system of Arabia and Roman Empire, the Yuan Dynasty first established provinces in China, which is today's provincial-level zoning system, including Lingbei, Liaoyang, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang and Zhengdong1province (Hebei and Luxi are directly under the jurisdiction of Zhongshu Province). The provincial system is a great development of the county system since Qin Dynasty and a great revolution of China's administrative management system, which has a far-reaching influence on the political system of later generations. Since then, the province has become the local administrative organ of our country, and it has been preserved to this day.

The Yuan Dynasty pursued an open policy in economy and actively encouraged and participated in trade with other countries in the world, making China a leading economic power in the world. The unprecedented prosperity of the Silk Road on land, especially on the sea, is undoubtedly the most direct driving force for the economic development of the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty inherited and carried forward the Song Dynasty's policy of opening to the coastal areas and along the Yangtze River, and compared with it, it made great improvements, such as further opening up ports and setting up administrative agencies specializing in commercial shipping and trade in port cities. Ports in Yuan Dynasty were extremely prosperous, both in scale and quantity far exceeding those in Song Dynasty. Experts and scholars who studied the Maritime Silk Road verified that the then Erythrina Port (now Quanzhou, Fujian) was one of the two largest ports in the world, which was juxtaposed with Alexandria, Egypt. The Six Victory Pagoda, which stands on the coast of Quanzhou so far, is the remains of a lighthouse that guided ships in and out. At that time, there were a lot of ships in the port of Erythrina Port, and huge goods piled up like mountains.

Encouraged by the open economic policy of the Yuan Dynasty, spices, medicinal materials and other materials from Arabia, Persia and India were transported to China in large quantities, so that "there was an endless stream of businessmen coming to China"; China's famous silks and porcelains have also traveled a lot across the ocean, even as far away as Europe.