The Historical Changes Of The Aristocrat Politics During The Spring And Autumn Period

In the Spring and Autumn Period,the most important positions of the government organitions in various countries were occupied by the aristocrats.The aristocrats at different levels possessed land and ruled the dependent people according to their own political ranks.In the aristocrat clans,the patriarchs organized the clansmen according to the patriarch relations.Therefore the political formation of the Spring and Autumn Period was the typical aristocrat politics.During the three hundred years in the Spring and Autumn Period, the aristocrat politics changed from prosperity to decline.This article intends to probe into the historical changes of the aristocrat politics in the Spring and Autumn Period from five angles.The article consists of three parts:the introduction,the main body and the concluding remarks.The main body comprises five chapters.In the introduction we mainly discuss the significance and the current research achievements of this problem and the main thought of the article.We hold that the study of the historical changes of the aristocrat politics in the Spring and Autumn Period is helpful for recognizing the feature and the law of the social formation evolution of Zhou dynasty,understanding the feature and the role of the class struggle in the slave society of China,tidying up the change clues of a series of important systems in Zhou dynasty. The current study of the aristocrat politics in the Spring and Autumn Period has gained some achievements,but on the whole it lacks integration and systematicness.So it is necessary for us to probe into the aristocrat politics in the Spring and Autumn Period again from different angles and levels.Chapter one discusses the existence and destruction of the five ranks of nobility under the hegemony politics system,from which we can draw the following conclusion:The ranks of nobility of the monarchs under the emperor were duke,marquis,earl,viscountand baron in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period.The five ranks of nobility were the legal status of the monarchs under the system of enfeoffment.During the Western Zhou period,the stratum of the monarchs distributed the power and the wealth and defined the obligations to the emperor according to the hierarchy principle of the five ranks of nobility.By the time of the Spring and Autumn Period,the five ranks of nobility still had some influences on the activities of having the audiences with the emperor or the hegemons and the meeting of the allied countries as a diplomatic principle.However with the decline of the emperor's power and the strengthening of the power of the feudal princes,the countries of in the Spring and Autumn Period distributed the power and the wealth again according to the change of strength,which made the system of the five ranks of nobility lose its original political function.The destruction of the system of the five ranks of nobility was the starting mark of the historical changes of the aristocrat politics duing the Spring and Autumn Period.Chapter two debates the inner contradictions between the nations and the clans during the Spring and Autumn Period.In the ancient books of the Pre-qin period,the"clans"which were the counterpart of the"nations"refered to the local regime based on the manors of the senior officials in various countries at that times.Under the historical conditions during the Spring and Autumn Period, that the monarchs of various countries built up the"clans"was an inevitable formality of the aristocrat politics.The clans of the senior officials in various countries during the Spring and Autumn Period possessed public and privare quality,which determined the relationship between the the nations and the clans had two aspects: one was interdependence ,the other was struggling with each other.The contradiction and struggle led to the political situation that"the senior officials managed all kinds of powers"and made the nation structure advance towards the centralization.Chapter three probes into the disintegration of Gong-zu(公族) and the evolution of the relationship between the monarch inheritance system and the patriarch system.During the process of the disintegration , Gong-zu was devided into three kinsfolk groups:the clans of the living monarchs,the clans of Gong-z(i公子),the clans of Bie-z(i别子).The clans of the living monarchs included only their lineal descendants.The clans of Gong-zi consisted of the previous monarchs'descendants who hadn't been conferred the surnames. The clans of Bie-zi referred to the clans of the senior officials which had been conferred the surnames.With the disintegration of Gong-zu, the patriarch system separated itself from the monarch inheritance system . The patriarch system couldn't cast greedy eyes on monarch's position.While the monarch inheritance system took the patriarch system as protective screen.The principle of dividing line between the monarch inheritance system and the patriarch system couldn't restrain the aristocrats gradually. In order to scramble for power and wealth, the fierce struggles took place not only among the monarch inheritance system but also between the monarch inheritance system and the patriarch system.The Gong-zu politics during the Spring and Autumn Period had fallen into crisis thoroughly .Chapter four observes the rise and fall of the clans of the senior officials and the change of the internal politics in various countries.The general trend of the internal politics in various countries was identical.All the countries in the Central Plains came to the political situation that"the senior officials managed all kinds of powers".Because of the different historical tradictions and national conditions,each country had its own political features.In Lu,Zheng,Song and Wei ,Gong-zu was in power.In Qi the political power was mastered by Gong-zu and the different surname people now and then.In Jin the different surname people controled the political power.In Chu the monarch had stronger power and the regime hadn't fallen into the senior officials.The struggles of annexation and seizing power among the senior officials in various countries during the Spring and Autumn Period weakened the force of the patriarch aristocrats,which reduced the resistence for the bureaucrat politics to replace the aristocrat politics.Chapter five analyses the decline of the clan politics of the senior officials.In our opinions, The political pattern of the clan politics of the senior officials during the Spring and Autumn Period was in the state of contradiction and struggle.For one thing the patriarch hierarchy lasted and the hereditary system of the family officials remained,which was the conservative characteristic of the clan politics of the senior officials;on the other hand the traditional patriarch hierarchy and the hereditary system of the family officials headed for collapse, which was the variation characteristic of the clan politics of the senior officials.In a world this was a historical trend which nobody could be able to resist.The decline of the clan politics of the senior officials during the Spring and Autumn Period made the aristocrat politics lose its social foundation .In the concluding remarks we sum up the main points of the whole article and generalize two total tendencies of the historical changes of the aristocrat politics during the Spring and Autumn Period : From prosperity to decline;From dividing power to centralization.