3: The Impact of Iron Tool Applications:
The first impact of technological change is on production relations, which refers to the relationships between production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. The core element among these is distribution. Innovations and transformations in production technology have accelerated the rapid increase of social wealth, which in turn has promoted the upgrading of consumption and changes in the methods and content of exchange. As social wealth increases, the stakeholders involved have new demands regarding wealth distribution or status allocation, leading to conflicts and contradictions with vested interests, creating a high-pressure situation that, when it reaches a critical point, can explode like a pressure cooker.
In reverse, the vested interest groups center on distribution, controlling the processes of exchange and consumption to keep their group in a secure parasitic state. A simple example in consumption is that during the late Qing Dynasty, indirect taxes were implemented, while direct taxes were applied to every item purchased, clearly indicating the tax paid on the consumption details. Direct taxes are a direct reflection of civic awareness, as citizens see the tax amounts they pay daily, leading them to realize: “Oh, the people above are supported by me.” Over time, this civic awareness gradually forms.
3.1 The Development of Farmland and the Formation of Intensive Cultivation:
Ditches and plowing are the basic elements of the agricultural system of the well-field system during the Zhou Dynasty. The so-called ditches refer to the irrigation and drainage systems, starting from the fields and sequentially called sui, gou, xiao, and hui, crisscrossing and deepening and widening step by step, corresponding to the road systems such as jing, zhen, tu, dao, and lu; plowing refers to simple cooperation in pairs.
The application of iron tools made paired plowing obsolete; with iron plows and oxen, one person can operate. The change in production methods increased production efficiency, significantly increasing the land area cultivated per person;
At the same time, the use of iron plows allows for deeper soil cultivation, making the soil more suitable for crop growth.
The most obvious change is in crop yields; compared to the early Zhou Dynasty, where the yield per mu was 50-100 jin, during the Spring and Autumn period, it was about 120-150 jin, and by the Han Dynasty, it was generally over 200 jin.
3.2 The Construction of Large-Scale Water Conservancy Projects
Notable water conservancy projects include: the Han Canal during the reign of King Fuchai of Wu, the Shaopei during the reign of King Zhuang of Chu, and the twelve channels of the Yingzhang during the reign of Duke Wen of Wei. Of course, the most famous are the Dujiangyan and the Zhengguo Canal. The numerous water conservancy projects serve both irrigation during droughts and water storage during floods, as well as facilitating transportation in the region.
3.3 The Dramatic Increase in Private Farmland
The cultivated land area during the early Zhou Dynasty was about 100 million mu, with a population of about 20 million. By the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the cultivated land area increased to about 230 million mu, with a population of approximately 25-36 million. Despite the frequent wars during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there was a significant population increase. Compared to the population decline caused by wars such as the Five Barbarians’ invasion, the An-Shi Rebellion, and the Taiping Rebellion, the wars during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods were relatively civilized.
The increase in cultivated land from 100 million mu to 230 million mu is not just a simple numerical increase; it represents a profound social upheaval. The core element is that the distribution system must undergo reform. If we look for an example, we can consider the changes in China’s GDP, which was 9.8 trillion yuan in 1998 and is projected to be 134.91 trillion yuan in 2024. This is also a numerical increase, but it is something we can personally experience as a dramatic change.
Therefore, starting from the year of King Ping of Zhou’s eastward migration, it marks the arrival of a new era, an era that breaks the old system of the Zhou Son of Heaven, an era that changes the fate of people from all classes. In short, a great era has arrived.
4: The Zhou Son of Heaven
4.1 Surnames and Clans
The following content is sourced from Xie Weiyang’s “Family Forms in the Zhou Dynasty”.
Surname: It is a bloodline marker. According to the “Shuowen”, the surname is what a person is born with. It can be seen as given by the mother. In pre-Qin texts, it is derived from the female line, with the female side being added later. In the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou, “common people” was written as “hundred births”, and until the Spring and Autumn period, surnames and births were still not commonly separated. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the existing system of separating surnames disappeared.
Clan: It originated in the Zhou Dynasty to distinguish between nobility and commoners. It mainly refers to the lords or nobles within the territories granted by the Zhou Son of Heaven, using the name of their fief or territory as their clan name. It is not only a bloodline marker but also a manifestation of the Zhou Son of Heaven’s power. As stated in the “Zuo Zhuan – Year Eight of Duke Yin”: The Son of Heaven builds virtue and grants surnames based on birth. The land of Zhuo is granted to establish the clan name. The so-called land of Zhuo refers to the land granted, using the name of this land as the clan name. However, during the Warring States period, the term clan began to be used interchangeably with surname, as recorded in the literature, such as in the “Strategies of the Warring States – Zhao Strategy One”: Knowing the past… changes the surname to Fu. This indicates that the old system of surnames and clans had already changed during the Warring States period, directly challenging the power of the Zhou Son of Heaven, as the clan is an external manifestation of the Zhou Son of Heaven’s power and authority. This is akin to replacing the leader’s portrait in a conference hall with a cartoon character, a blatant challenge.