(上)和欧洲农民起义相比,为什么在中国就那么成功? [美国媒体]

quora网友:因为中世纪欧洲国家和不同的中国朝代之间存在着两个巨大的差异:封建主义VS中央集权,骑士崇拜VS儒家思想........

Why were Chinese peasant revolts so successful compared to their European counterparts?

和欧洲农民起义相比,为什么中国的农民起义那么成功?(上)



Hans Widjaja, B.A. History & Economics, Arizona State University (2009)
Updated Dec 6
Because of the two big differences that existed between the Medi Europe states and the various Chinese dynasties: Feudalism vs Centralization and the cult of Chivalry vs Confucianism.

因为中世纪欧洲国家和不同的中国朝代之间存在着两个巨大的差异:封建主义VS中央集权,骑士崇拜VS儒家思想。



Also, feudalism meant that power vacuums were rare in medi Europe. Throughout most of this period the nobility retained considerable power in most of Europe, functioning as a semi-independent local government that served as a check on royal power. The king really needed their good pleasure in order to have a functioning government. China on the other hand were for most of this period a unitary, centralized state. This allowed a strong and vigorous emperor to exert enormous power, however it also meant that the Chinese state was also more prone to systemic collapse under a succession of weak emperors as too much political power was concentrated in the center. Such power vacuums, without the presence of strong, militarized local nobility to provide an alternative power network, allowed peasant rebellions to succeed much more easily.

而且,封建主义意味着中世纪欧洲的权力真空是很少的。在中世纪的大部分时期里,贵族在大部分欧洲地区保持了相当大的权力,在功能上作为一个半独立的地方政府来监督皇家权力。国王需要取悦这些贵族,才能维持良好的治理。而中国在这期间基本上是一个统一的中央集权国家。这使得一个强大的皇帝能发挥极大的权力,但是这也意味着如果连续上位的都是一些懦弱的皇帝的话中国更可能遭遇系统性的崩溃,因为太多的政治权利集中在中央了。这样的权力真空,如果没有强大的军事化的地方贵族提供替代性的权力网络,那么农民反叛就会变得非常容易成功

Lets take as an example the Jacquerie Revolt in northern France between 1356–1358. France in 1356 was in a thoroughly sorry state; the king of France had just been taken prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers by the English, and many of his great nobles and highest officers of the crown had fallen or been captured with him, so that there was a tremendous power vacuum. At the same time bands of English, Spanish, German and Gascon routiers were roaming unchallenged throughout northern France, looting and brutalizing the populace.

我们以1356-1358年发生在法国北部的扎克雷起义为例。1356年的法国是一个悲剧的国家;法国国王刚刚在普瓦捷战役中被英国人抓获,很多贵族和军官死亡或者同他一起被抓获,所以就导致了巨大的权力真空。同时,英国人,西班牙人,德国人和加斯科涅人践踏了整个法国北部,无人能挡,洗劫和残害了当地人。



Well not so in France. What happened was that the French nobility immediately banded together into an army under one of the king’s relative and swiftly snuffed out the rebellion, with extreme brutality. The French chiers, trained from birth in all their vicious martial arts designed to destroy another human body and believing deeply in their God given rights to rule their social inferiors, didn’t need anyone on the throne to tell them what to do and did not need to hire any peasants to do their fighting for them either. With the power of their mailed horsemen over the largely untrained Jacqueries rabble, and the fact that the insurgent lacked any men with experience in high military command, their success was swift and brutal.

但是法国的情况不是这样。后来法国贵族开始团结起来形成一支军队,在国王亲属的领导下,很快就镇压了起义,以非常残忍的手段。法国骑士从出生开始就接受非常严格的训练,战斗力超强,而且深信上帝赋予他们权利去统治比自己低级的社会阶层,他们不需要在位者告诉他们怎么做,也不需要雇佣农民为他们战斗。所以这些铠甲骑兵完全压过了扎克雷的乌合之众,而且这些起义者当中没有人担任过较高的军事职务,所以法国贵族取得了快速残忍的成功。

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