Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 398 The Not-too-Distant Middle Ages
In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, under the intentional admiration of the court, the status of filial piety reached an unprecedented height.

Along with these changes came changes in the commentary on the canon.In terms of understanding the Spring and Autumn Period, the Han Confucianism's theory of "killing the mother for the father" is no longer the mainstream, but adopts the view that "there is no way for mother and child to be close relatives".

When Du Yu, a great Confucian in the Western Jin Dynasty, commented on "Zuo Zhuan", he opposed the Han Confucianism's proposition and believed that children should not sever their relationship with their mothers anyway.Du Yu believes that the relationship between mother and child is above the relationship between husband and wife, so the "never be relatives" mentioned by the Spring and Autumn Annals refers to that Duke Zhuang of Lu should sever his relationship with Qi's foreign relatives because of the promiscuous relationship between Qi people and Wen Jiang; , to sever the mother-child relationship between Wen Jiang and Lu Zhuanggong.

Of course, the reason for this change could not be more obvious in the eyes of Greek scholars: the core of this set of arguments, one is to emphasize the higher status of filial piety, and the other is to emphasize the priority of blood relationship.

Why the special emphasis on filial piety?Because the legitimacy of other places of the regime at that time was too weak, we could only catch this.

Why the emphasis on blood relatives?Because the other identities of the country have been tossed and collapsed, and this is the only thing left.

People don't stick to one relationship if they have other options.It can be clearly seen that since the Spring and Autumn Period, society has valued more than one value, and many virtues are above filial piety.

The relationship and morality based on blood relationship are the most basic ones, but they are also the most backward ones. Today’s Greek scholars themselves feel that the political level of the Greek city-states in the classical era was not high, but even the Greeks at that time did not have a high level of politics. Know to break up the blood clans in the city-state and build a more effective organization.So, this situation is indeed a regression.

The reason why Han Confucianism attaches great importance to patrilineal families is because this kind of relationship is more expansive.The emphasis on the father is actually to emphasize the country and the organization.In fact, the Central Plains people themselves should know this kind of thing.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a famous example.The power minister Sima Zhao held a meeting with everyone to discuss the case of killing mothers that occurred at that time.Ruan Ji, a famous scholar, said with emotion that it is understandable to kill his father, but it is too much to kill his mother.

The others were very surprised. Sima Zhao asked him to explain. Ruan Ji said that beasts only recognize their mothers but not their fathers, so killing their fathers is an act of beasts; more serious.Sima Zhao and others also thought it made sense.

This incident can be seen as a typical example of people's thinking at that time.Du Yu's commentary was also influenced by this trend, and he refined it to a theoretical level.

But this is obviously not a good thing.

According to Jin people's own understanding, they can find the problems.They all know that it is the behavior of beasts to only recognize their mothers and not their fathers; too much promotion of the mother's status means that they have begun to slip in the direction of beasts.

This is certainly a little better than beasts, but the goodness is limited.If it's that kind of primitive and ignorant barbarian, it's easy to understand.But for the Seris civilization, which has had brilliant achievements, this is obviously a step backward.

After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, this retrogressive influence did not disappear, and it was further expanded, which had an impact on written laws.

The jurists of ancient Seris also avoided the topic of killing one's mother to avenge one's father.

From the two typical cases of the Han Dynasty, it can be seen that although Kong Jiyan made a systematic explanation, the result of the explanation caused more controversy, so it is better not to explain.However, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was much more politically sensitive than him. He directly avoided the most difficult part of the topic, discussed the matter as it stood, and quickly solved the problem with a method that was satisfactory to all parties.Therefore, the codes and books of later generations generally regard the precedents of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty as the standard.

But in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, some people discovered other loopholes, which is the problem of reporting.

According to the law at the time, if parents committed a crime, their children should not report it.For example, if a father kills his mother and his children report it, the father will undoubtedly die, which is tantamount to indirectly killing the father.This conflicts with filial piety, so it needs to be banned.The same is true if the mother kills the father.

This regulation is also full of contradictions from beginning to end.

First of all, what should be done when the family and the country are in conflict, and who should listen to?To put it bluntly, this is the reason for whether parents report crimes.

Reporting would be detrimental to parents and unfilial; but failing to report would allow others to break the law, and behind the law lies the overall interests of the court and the emperor's authority.If you don't report it, you will be disloyal and disrespectful, which is also a big problem.

The reason is, of course, not difficult to understand.

Guo Kang still remembers that once, Shi Huizhen complained to Theodora about why the elders of the family had such great power.Theodora thought that Guo Kang knew these questions best, so she asked him to ask Guo Kang.

Guo Kang thought for a while and told her that this was because all countries in the world, including Seris and Rome, still had strong feudal relics and could only be regarded as "semi-bureaucratic countries."

Although the bureaucratic system has been basically realized within the government, even the most powerful regime can only extend the bureaucratic system to the village level.Further down, it is beyond the ability of the imperial court, and can only recognize the de facto local enfeoffment system.

Therefore, although it is called a bureaucratic empire, everyone is like the Han Dynasty, "prefectures and states run in parallel".Moreover, this situation is difficult to change in the future—at least until Guo Kang’s known era, the country with the strongest management ability is at most able to manage neighborhoods and villages.At the family level, it is called self-government at a good level, or the recognition of enfeoffment at a bad level.

The leader of the family is actually the "vassal" of the country.His various powers also come from this.

Why does Shi Huizhen's family have jurisdiction over her?Because she is a vassal of vassals.This is also the reason why it is not good for the state to directly intervene in the management of family affairs.

For the government, it is natural to want to manage as much as possible.But in reality, due to various constraints, this ideal situation is almost impossible to achieve.

To give the simplest example, if the family is also completely bureaucratized, then parents should be the same as officials, and they must pass the exam before they can hold positions and have children; If there is no responsibility, the government should come forward, remove it, and call other people to manage it.

Many future sci-fi works will not be so exaggerated...

Since this kind of "enfeoffment" family and family has existed for a long time, of course various institutions relying on these organizations will also exist, such as family-inherited business institutions and so on.Therefore, although they are in a "modern society", it is not surprising that they are full of medieval elements such as hereditary, autocratic, and guild monopoly.

After all, we are not far from the Middle Ages, let alone people who lived in that era.

(End of this chapter)