Shang Yang: households and state power

During the fourth century BCE, Warring States governments competed for land, population and military resources. Duke Xiao of Qin employed Shang Yang, with major reforms traditionally dated to 356 and 350 BCE. Measures addressed agriculture, household registration, military achievement and administration. They drew labour and residents more directly into state mobilization, changing the distribution of resources formerly associated with inherited aristocratic status and expanding the ruler’s administrative reach.

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Registration and collective responsibility placed households within systems of supervision and punishment. Military ranks linked battlefield achievements with status and benefits, while agricultural rewards sought grain and revenue. Local officials applied these rules in everyday life. Measurable conduct and prescribed rewards also imposed severe controls. The Book of Lord Shang preserves arguments associated with this political direction; excavated Qin documents provide evidence for administrative practices that developed within it.

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After Duke Xiao died, Shang Yang was executed, but many measures survived. Qin’s later mobilizing capacity rested on continuing developments in registration, farming, law and local administration. The reforms thus concerned a political figure and the organization of ordinary residents. They changed some routes to status while concentrating authority within rulers and officials. Placing Qin’s eventual unification in this institutional history reveals the household labour and administrative arrangements behind conquest.

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