Historical origin
According to the records of the historian, Yin Benji: "since the beginning of the reign of emperor Zhongding, all the disciples have been established, and the disciples may vie with each other to establish themselves", thus creating a situation of "more chaos than the Ninth World" and "no Dynasty for the princes". In the later period of yin and Shang Dynasties, the elder brother was replaced by the younger brother. For example, the eldest son of younger brother B, Weizi Qi, was born in Wei and was named as a viscount. Because Qi's mother was not a proper wife, although Qi was the eldest son, he could not inherit the throne. Xin (King Zhou), the son of emperor B, inherited the throne of the Shang Dynasty because his mother was in the imperial palace. It was this Xin who made the Shang Dynasty perish. This shows that in the late Shang Dynasty, the system of succession of Di Zhang had been established.
According to the Zhou tribe living in Zhouyuan (now Qishan, Shaanxi Province) in the Yellow River Valley, the system of succession by the direct leader was not fully established in the time of the ancient Gongbi's father. Kugong's younger son, Jili, inherited the throne, while his eldest son, Taibo, and his second son, Zhongyong, went to the Yangtze River Delta and later established the state of Wu. Ji Li is said to be located in Jichang, the eldest son, and Jichang is said to be located in Jifa, the eldest son. After Ji Fa exterminated the Shang Dynasty, he vigorously carried out the system of inheriting the chief. Since then, the patriarchal system has been regarded as the principle of founding the country, and has continued from generation to generation.
According to the patriarchal clan system, the Zhou Dynasty stipulated that only the eldest son is the only one who can inherit the throne or the title. Even if the eldest son is older or more talented than the eldest son, the eldest son has no right to inherit. This makes the younger brother unified over the elder brother, and the younger patriarch unified over the larger one. Although the concubines could not inherit the throne, they could get other titles inferior to the throne. Therefore, according to the basic principles of the patriarchal system, the Zhou Dynasty created the "enfeoffment system". The specific methods are as follows: first, the king of the Zhou Dynasty set up a large area of land along the lower reaches of the Wei River and the middle reaches of the Yellow River, with the capital city of Ho Jing as the center, and established a central special administrative region directly ruled by the king of Zhou, which is called "Wang Ji". 2、 All the land outside Wang Ji was divided into innumerable blocks of different sizes and enfeoffed to various vassals. However, the area of these feudal states was very small. In fact, they were all fortress like military strongholds, which were used as the center to control the surrounding areas. The total area of about 20 to 30 feudal states was not as large as that of Wangji. This ensured the central government's absolute control over the feudal state, and the vassals surrounded the royal capital like stars holding the moon. There are two kinds of enfeoffment: 1. All the relatives of the Zhou royal family with the Ji surname could be allocated a piece of land to establish a feudal state there, which was the vassal state with the same surname. At the beginning of Zhou Dynasty, 71 vassal states were enfeoffed successively. Among them, King Wu of Zhou granted 15 brothers and 40 surnamed Ji. For example, King Wu of Zhou granted his younger brother Zhenduo to Cao (now Dingtao in Shandong), and King Cheng granted his younger brother Shuyu to Tang (Yicheng in Shanxi). After putting down the Wugeng rebellion, the Duke of Zhou enfeoffed 26 states of the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty. 2. Different surnames. This can be divided into two situations: one is the enfeoffment of a few meritorious officials, such as Jiang Ziya, in Qi; the other is the enfeoffment of some tribes that can neither conquer nor prevent disturbance, such as donglougong (surname SI), a descendant of Xia Dynasty, in Qi, and fengxiong, a descendant of Fuxi, in Suzhou. King Wu of Zhou granted Wu Geng (surnamed Zi), the son of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, to the state of song as a political appeasement. Later, Wu Geng made trouble with Guan Shu and Cai Shu, which was pacified by the Duke of Zhou. He was granted the title of Wei Zi, the elder brother of the king of Zhou.
The patriarchal clan system is a system that distinguishes kinship from estrangement according to the distance of blood. As early as the primitive clan period, the patriarchal system had sprouted, but the formation and emergence of a complete system to maintain the relationship between the nobility was a matter of the Zhou Dynasty. Under the patriarchal system, "the emperor was founded, the princes established their families, the officials set up side rooms, the officials had two schools, and the scholars had subordinates" (the second year of Duke Huan in Zuozhuan), forming a systematic and complete system. One of the key contents of patriarchal clan system is to strictly distinguish between di and Shu, and to carry out the system of Di eldest son inheritance. Its purpose is to stabilize the internal order of the aristocracy. This system relies on the naturally formed kinship to define the hierarchical status of the nobility, so as to prevent the fight for power and property among the nobility. Under the patriarchal system, the lineage was inherited from the eldest son of the ancestor. This system is known as the main, the eldest son is known as zongzi, also known as the suzerain, which is respected by the clansmen. Patriarchs have the right to sacrifice their ancestors. If the patriarch is unable to offer sacrifices, then the common son can offer sacrifices on his behalf. And the corresponding large is small. In general, the eldest son of the Zhou Dynasty was the successor of the emperor, and the common sons were the vassals. In the past dynasties, the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty was the major one, and these vassals were the minor ones. The princes also succeeded to the throne by their eldest son, and the common sons were appointed as the officials. These officials were small families, while the princes were large ones. The eldest son was the chief official, and the common son was the scholar. In the patriarchal clan system, the princes and the officials had the dual identities of large and small clan. From this we can see that the difference between large and small families is completely in line with the feudal hierarchy of the nobility. If the enfeoffment system established the hierarchical order among the nobles from the aspect of political structure, then the patriarchal system stabilized the hierarchical order with the traditional concept of clan which injected specific content and implemented new principles. There are many records of "Zongzhou" in the literature and Yi inscriptions. Gongliu in the book of songs says: "food and drink, the king's family." From the perspective of patriarchal system, the emperor of Zhou is the most important patriarch. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the patriarchal system was first implemented between the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty and the princes, and then gradually extended to the middle and small nobles, even between the scholars and the common people.
Xia, Shang and Zhou are called "Three Dynasties" by historians. The supreme heads of state of Xia and Shang Dynasties were called "Emperors". In the Xia Dynasty, the throne was taken over by sons, and occasionally by brothers. In the Shang Dynasty, the throne was mostly passed on to his younger brother, and finally passed on to his eldest brother's eldest son by his youngest brother, or to his own son by his deeds. In the eighth century B.C., King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty and built the Zhou Dynasty. He lived in the capital of Ho, and changed "emperor" to "King". The throne of the Zhou Dynasty clearly stipulated that only the eldest son should be passed on, and that "the eldest son should not be passed on to the common people, and the eldest son should not be passed on to the virtuous.".
This system of Zhou Dynasty is "patriarchal system", and its connotation has a direct relationship with Chinese surnames. Patriarchal clan system is a very complex system, its main spirit is "direct long inheritance system", which is a kind of "inheritance (including ruling power, wealth and fiefdom) law" based on paternal blood relationship
The division of Di Shu
Patriarchal system originated from patriarchal family. With the development of society, the long primitive matriarchal clan society was gradually replaced by the patriarchal clan society, and finally established the dominant position of patriarchy in the family. The history of "knowing mother but not knowing father" of Archean ancestors finally came to an end. Patriarchal families generally practice "polygamy", and they have different wives. According to dogmatism, the situation of "polygamy" in the three dynasties is as follows: "the emperor married twelve, Xia married twenty-seven. There were thirty-nine and twenty-seven more people in Yin Dynasty, including thirty-nine people and eighty-one imperial daughters. In the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial concubine of kuzheng, the emperor of France, was 81 in 1999, which increased to 120. When the son of heaven marries twelve daughters, he is like December, with nine concubines in three days. Princes marry nine daughters, like Kyushu, one wife and eight concubines. I have a wife and two concubines. A wife and a concubine. " Many concubines, wives and concubines give birth to a large number of children, if not divided into a sequence, do not set a rule, it will be a mess. According to the mother's status and the birth order of the daughter-in-law, all the children (the daughter is not among them) are divided into "Di" and "Shu". Di, the wife is Di, the son born by the wife is called Di Sheng, Di Zi, which means orthodox. The son born to a concubine is called a concubine. Di is the chief, Shu is the minor. The standard of division of Di Shu is as follows
General appellation of wives and concubines (offspring of wives and concubines) patriarchal appellation (legitimate son, common son) inheritance
Wife (with) three elder brother (20 years old), six elder brother (14 years old) di eldest son, di second son
Concubine one (side room), eldest brother (25 years old), fourth brother (19 years old), eldest son, third son
Concubine two (side room) two elder brother (22 years old), five elder brother (15 years old) common second son, common fourth son
Feature
Patriarchal clan law is a kind of right inheritance system, which determines the succession of the throne in the form of the eldest son inheritance system, improves and consolidates the enfeoffment system, and prevents disputes between nobles because of the inheritance of power. Under the patriarchal system, the concept of hierarchy is very strict, with strict hierarchy and orderly hierarchy. It takes the blood relationship as the link and the relationship between the monarch and the minister as the discipline, which ensures the aristocracy's monopoly and privileged position in politics and maintains the stability and unity within the aristocratic group. Hereditary system, enfeoffment system and patriarchal system together constituted the main body of the political system in Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, which had a profound impact on Chinese society.
Influence: since its birth, the patriarchal system has been influencing China's feudal society. People respect the great family names, flaunt the same family name, and influence China's social structure and family structure. Up to now, the patriarchal system has disappeared, but the influence of patriarchal ideology in Chinese traditional culture still exists.
The positive role is to pay attention to family construction, advocate respect for the old and love the young, which is easy to form a strong national cohesion.
The negative effect is to emphasize family standard, pay too much attention to human relationship, artificially divide distant and near superiority and inferiority, and restrict individual's independent consciousness and equal rights. This is somewhat contrary to the modern sense of equality and legal system.
The simplest explanation of religious law is that the doctrinal principles of religion develop into a kind of law
Religious law has a deep influence in Europe
as Monogamy is the profound influence of religion on law
Enfeoffment system
The local administrative system of Zhou Dynasty is the system of "dividing the land and seizing the Marquis", or the system of "seizing the Marquis and building the vassal system". All the vassals were outside the king's capital, and each state was established. There are three reasons for being granted: first, the relatives of the king of Zhou with the same surname (Ji surname), second, the meritorious officials, and third, the descendants of the ancient emperors. "Xunzi · Ru Xiao Pian" says: "at the beginning of Zhou Dynasty, seventy-one states were established, and fifty-three people with Ji surname lived alone." The princes were subordinate to the emperor and had the obligation to guard the territory, defend the royal family, pay tribute and taxes, and make pilgrimages. The vassals were monarchs in the feudal states. They were semi independent at the beginning of the feudal states, and they also carried out the system of enfeoffment in the feudal states. Part of the land in China was under the direct control of the vassals. A part of the land was granted to the officials as fiefs. The officials then distributed the land to the scholars in the same way. The scholars directly ruled and exploited the common people. The system of enfeoffment at different levels in feudal China is also combined with patriarchal system, that is, the hereditary system of the eldest son. Such layers of enfeoffment formed a political pagoda, which was under the pressure of the working people. From the emperor to the scholars, they were aristocrats at all levels, and the common people were mainly agricultural laborers.
The political system of the Shang Dynasty was the alliance of the States. Fangguo is a tribal group. The system of Fangguo alliance was established on the basis of the original tribes. It did not break the tribes and retained the original human social organizations. The Shang Dynasty established the state power with the Shang tribe as the center, and the Shang King controlled the power of the alliance and dominated all countries. The political system established by human beings in the first place was generally like this. The feudal states of the Western Zhou Dynasty broke the form of tribes and enfeoffed the kingdoms established everywhere. They no longer took the leaders of the tribal groups as the rulers, but mainly took the relatives of the Zhou royal family as the objects of enfeoffment and re established a set of system. At the same time, the patriarchal system was used to strengthen the royal power and solve the inheritance of administrative power at all levels. This kind of system is obviously more effective than the League of nations, because on the one hand, the vassal states and the central government (the royal family) formed a subordinate relationship; on the other hand, the blood relationship between the vassal states and the royal family ensured the validity of the political subordination relationship. Of course, it was impossible for the Western Zhou Dynasty to break all the tribal organizations. In order to control the whole country, the land granted by relatives, meritorious officials and in laws of the same surname was either a strategic important place or a rich area. At the same time, the land granted was accompanied by a large number of material, armed and population, which ensured the ruling effect. From this we can see that the enfeoffment system and patriarchal clan system of the Western Zhou Dynasty were more mature than those of the Xia and Shang Dynasties. However, the patriarchal clan blood relationship can not fundamentally guarantee the subordinate relationship between the central and local governments. The blood relationship will gradually alienate after several generations. Once the power of feudalism becomes stronger, the control effect of the central government will inevitably weaken.
