The Study Of Han In The Early Stage Of Warring States

Han was the offspring of the Jin Huanshu, after that Han was enfeoffed in Hanyuan, and use this place name as their family name. At the beginning of the enfeoffment, Duke Xian of Jin wanted to kill his clansman, and as one branch of his family, Han almost suffered outright catastrophe. At Duke Ling of Jin, Han Jue was served as the post of Sima at Zhao Dun's recommendation, and then, Han became a distinguished family in Jin. Han was always the weak one the warring states period,and his road of development was very ordinary. Han Jue and Han Qi try their best to manage their family and created a good relationship with Zhao and Wei. Moreover, Jin had no more clansmen and the military policy gave Han the opportunity to become one of “Partition of Jin”.At the beginning of “Partition of Jin”, the three families were still alliance. In the leading of Wei, three families combined with Qi and Chu to force emperor Zhou acknowledged them as vassal states in 403 BC. After that, Han started going after more place in central plain, and annexed Zheng was the first step. Han moved his capital city from Pingyang to Yiyang, and then use Yangzhai as his forward military base,just like auxiliary capital. In 375 BC, Han finished the plan that annexed Zheng, and transferred his capital city to Xinzheng. However, there were powerful clansman in Han and moving capital also created several different powerful groups, so the domestic affairs in Han was not optimistic such as the contradiction between the Duke and clan, and the relationship between different powerful groups was worse than before. Because of there was no effective way to solve these contradictions, and in the end led to the assassination that Xia Lei who was the Prime Minister of Han and Duke Ai of Han was murdered. But when Duke Yi of Han succeeded the throne, he hadn't called anyone to account why his father was murdered. There are four reasons: firstly, Duke Yi of Han and Han Yan were alliance; secondly, other powerful groups wanted to weaken Duke Yi of Han's power; thirdly, Han moved to Zheng in shortly time, and he needed his clans' support to fight against the adherents of Zheng; finally, the alliance between Han, Zhao and Wei was broken, and other states started to fight with them. There's no doubt that, when the Duke Yi Han ruled Han, the sovereignty of this state has been strengthened, and that's why Shen Buhai could have the chance to be the Prime Minister of Han and carried out the reform successfully.Shen Buhai was appointed the Prime Minister in 355 BC, the 8th year of the reign of the Duke Zhao of Han, and started to reform. Han was suffering the period with internal disorder and foreign invasions. In foreign relationships, the alliance with Zhao and Wei was broken, and Han suffered a strong military threat from Wei. In domestic situation, the main mission were restricted clans' power, strengthened the power of duke, appointed worthy people, changed the situation of political corruption, and eliminated people's resistance of Zheng. The most important achievement of the reform was strengthened the power of duke. In diplomacy, one-sided policy gave a chance to establish Han a good relation with Wei, and got a short peace between these two countries. But Han hadn't escaped the fate that became the tributary of Wei. Reform also brought the serious disadvantages to Han; Duke Zhao of Han overused "Shu", and limited the initiative of his official, thus the efficiency of the administration was affected. What's more, the one-sided policy made Han in a passive position in diplomacy, and the decline stage couldn't reverse anymore.However, the authoritarian system of Han was formed basically after the reform of Shen Buhai. On the one hand, it demonstrated the fact that the duke's power was strengthened. The duke was regained the power that appointed officials, and he could also decided their appointments and dispatch. On the other hand, The civil and military officials was controlled by different way, limited the power feoffor, made a strict system about the army and created the prefectures system were all the autocratic performance.The mainly reason for Han suffered the prosperity to decline in the Warring States period was the blunders in diplomacy. Otherwise, the geopolitics and the duke's ability in management also impacted the development of Han.