中国大一统的历史密码破译——基于政治经济制度的阐释

Decoding the Historical Code of China's Unification——Based on the Interpretation of the Political and Economic Institution

中国“大一统”国家形态的形成源于治理水患与抵御外敌所需要的国家管理能力,而其维持则需要适应性的政治经济制度设计以维持中央政权的全面掌控能力。在农业社会,国家的控制能力取决于有效的组织体系与稳定的土地税收。为此,中国历代政权经过长期调整形成了以科举制为选拔机制的核心政治密码及建立有效土地制度和税收制度的经济密码。科举制能够更多地促进社会阶层的有序流动,延缓了侵占国家权力与土地税收的大地主的崛起,而土地制度虽然为适应人口及生产状况最终走向了私有制为主的道路,但在科举制确立以后的土地兼并再未形成影响国家行政能力的门阀地主阶层,从而有效地维持了国家的统一。因此,有序社会流动与土地税收制度设计正是保持历史上中国大一统的核心政治、经济密码。

The formation of China's“great unification”state form stemmed from the national management capabilities required to manage floods and resist foreign enemies,and its maintenance requires adaptive political and economic institution design to maintain the central government's overall control capabilities.In the agricultural society,the state's control ability depended on an effective organizational system and stable land taxation.For this reason,after long-term adjustments,the successive Chinese regimes formed the political code with the imperial examination system as the selection mechanism and the economic code with establishing an effective land system and taxation system.The imperial examination system effectively promoted the mobility of social classes and delayed the rise of big landlords who invaded the state power and land taxation.Although the land system finally moved to the road of private ownership in order to adapt to the population and production conditions,however,after the establishment of the imperial examination syst em,land mergers did not form a family of landlords that affected the country's administrative capacity,thus effectively maintaining the unity of the country.Therefore,orderly social mobility and the design of the land tax system are the core political and economic codes for maintaining China's unification in history.