國家的千年大歷史：國家是怎麼誕生的？統治者最怕人民做出...？進擊的巨人背後的國家理論？國家起源論新觀點，改寫人類千年文明史/ 書來面對EP33《反穀》 by James Scott

Summary

本视频剧本由美国人类学家詹姆斯·斯科特所著《逆谷》一书启发，重新审视了国家的起源。斯科特借助最新考古证据，挑战了传统的文明观念，揭示了人类从定居生活到农业技术的出现，再到国家形成的真实历程。他指出，国家并非由农业灌溉工程直接产生，而是在农业出现数千年后，基于对粮食的控制和征税能力形成。此外，斯科特还探讨了税收、官僚体制和城墙是早期国家共有的三大特征，以及如何通过粮食生产、文字的发明和对外战争等方式，形成并维持了国家机构。这一新视角挑战了关于文明进步的传统叙述，强调了人类生存方式的多样性和复杂性。

Takeaways

• 😮 最新考古证据否定了国家起源于农业灌溉工程的理论
• 😯 人类先定居再发展农业,国家的出现远远滞后于此
• 🤔 早期人类沿河流三角洲地区生活,利用丰富的自然资源,不需依赖农业
• 😀 真正的问题是,人类明明能在4000年里不依赖农业过游牧生活,为何公元前3000年前后突然出现了建立在农业之上的国家体系
• 🧐 谷物最适合国家进行统一征税,这就是“谷物假说”国家起源的解释
• 😠 国家通过发明“农历”等方法计算谷物产量,以便征税
• ☹️ 文字的出现也是为了国家行政管理服务的
• 😫 疾病的出现与人口的集中居住、与畜群动物的共处有关
• 😖 农业国家的劳动时间更长、营养更差、更有可能早死
• 😣 许多“民族”的概念是国家创造出来的,以便治理

Q & A

国家的起源与农业有什么关系?

传统认为,国家起源于农业灌溉工程的管理需要。但最新考古证据显示,定居生活早于农业4000年出现,国家又晚于农业4000年形成。国家利用农业谷物方便征税统计,所以选择依托谷物生产。

文字的起源与国家有什么关系?

文字起源于国家行政管理的需要,用来记录农民的赋税债务。只有官僚阶级掌握文字,500年后才开始用于创作文学神话。文字本身就源自国家统治。

城市的起源与奴隶有什么关系?

早期城市国家需要建立强制劳动制度,通过获取外来奴隶的劳动积累资本。许多被废弃的城市国家可能是奴隶集体逃亡的结果。

疫情与国家有什么关系?

人口集中在城市后,与畜牲和作物共处,导致传染病易于在人群中传播。疫情的出现往往会造成国家的瓦解和人口的消失。

古代文明代表了人类文明的进步吗?

不代表,农业国家使劳动时间加长、营养变差、死亡率提高。文明国家的衰亡往往意味着人类福祉的提高和摆脱国家控制的机会。

游牧民族与古代国家是什么关系?

游牧民族经常袭击古代国家,抢掠其粮食和资源。有时甚至接管统治,建立新的王朝。游牧生活往往比国家统治下的生活更为自由。

原始部落为什么会避免文字技术?

他们意识到文字技术会被国家利用来编码、统计和统治他们。文字的出现往往意味着被国家征服。

国家为什么要建城墙和惩罚逃亡?

为了固定和获得足够的劳动人口,对付人口外流。地理环境的限制也有助于国家权力的集中。

为什么构建野蛮人的概念?

让国内人民畏惧城墙外的生活,不敢轻易逃亡。以避免统治者用暴力囚禁人口的需要。

人类历史上大部分时间生活在国家统治之外吗?

是的。尽管国家在5000年前出现,但直到17世纪,仍有三分之一的人类生活在国家之外。国家治理只占人类文明史0.2%。

Outlines

00:00

😦国家的起源

本段论述国家的起源。最新考古证据发现,人类定居出现在农业技术之前,国家出现在农业之后4000年。人类祖先其实一直保持多种生存方式,有时会放弃定居农业生活,与生态环境共生。真正的问题是,为什么公元前3000年的时候,人类突然建立了依赖农业的国家体系。“粮食储藏假说”认为,储藏性强的谷物更经济,便于国家征税统计。谷物是政治作物,国家需要它来方便统一征税。“粮食假说”解释了国家的起源。

05:02

😰国家的祸害

本段阐述国家的祸害。人类被迫选择农业,谷物和文字原本都是服侍国家的工具。新证据表明,城市生活没有让人类文明化,反而更脆弱。许多早期城邦会因瘟疫战争等原因突然消失。农业国家使劳动时间更长、营养更差、更有可能死亡。国家的崩溃才是人类福祉的改善。历史课本称颂的“文明”时期,其实是人类最受压迫的时刻。

10:02

😡奴役的起源

本段讲述奴役的起源。所有早期国家都需要制造一套强迫劳动体系。国家通过战争获取新的奴隶,以控制人口、获取财富。国家需要增加人口来巩固统治,最简单的方式就是从外部获取。这就是频繁战争和殖民扩张的原因。奴隶贸易历史上占世界人口的三分之二。古希腊哲学家认为奴隶天生适合服侍,没有质疑过奴隶制。

15:03

😒逃亡、流民与游牧民

本段讲述面对国家统治,人民的各种反抗方式。国家通过法律惩罚逃亡奴隶。它通过污名化外部游牧民族,让人不敢逃离国家。但游牧民的生活其实更为自由。历史上许多民众选择逃亡国家,变成游牧民族。这是一种政治选择,而不是落后的生活。今天看似“原始”的少数民族,其祖先可能就是选择逃亡国家的政治流亡者,是无政府主义者的后代。

20:04

😌少数人的国家统治史

本段指出,国家统治只占人类历史的0.2%。人类有文字记载的国家只有5000年历史,而整个人类历史有20万年。即使到了17世纪,仍有全世界三分之一的人口生活在国家之外。因此中美帝国的统治,并不是历史的常量,是变量。

Keywords

💡国家的起源

视频否定了国家起源于农业灌溉的理论,提出“谷物假说”,认为国家依靠统一的谷物计税统计实现中央集权。如古埃及和古中国的第一个国家城邦都出现在尼罗河和黄河上游,而不是三角洲。

💡奴隶

视频指出获取奴隶劳动力是古国家频繁发动战争的原因,不是为了占领新土地,而是掠夺人口。奴隶提供了国家积累资本的方式,也成为维持国家人口的重要方式。

💡文字

文字的出现与国家管理有直接关系。公务员使用文字记录人口、土地、农业等信息,以便清点税收。只有官员才识字。文字的行政功能远早于文学创作功能。

💡瘟疫

视频指出城市生活的出现反而导致人类更容易遭遇瘟疫。人与畜聚居的环境成为病毒的温床。瘟疫常成为古国家崩溃的原因,当疫情爆发,民众会全面逃亡。

💡游牧民族

生活在国家疆域之外的游牧民族实际上过着更为自由富足的生活。他们定期抢掠国家的农产品,而国家也不得不向其支付“保护费”。游牧民族的存在常抑制中央集权,并成为反抗国家统治的选择。

💡逃亡

当国家统治压迫到难以忍受时,民众会选择“投山从猿”式的逃亡生活。重返狩猎采集生活(二次原始化),以逃避赋税等国家机器的榨取。“原住民”的祖先可能就是历史上的逃亡者。

💡国家神话

国家创造农业神话(上帝赐予人类),并污名化狩猎采集为野蛮落后的生活方式。目的是让人相信离开国家就回归野蛮,增加国家的正当性。

💡文明

所谓“文明”其实是欧洲殖民扩张时代的产物,旨在合理化帝国的存在。考古学证据显示,古国家时代的人们其实过着更为痛苦的生活。所谓文明的兴衰只是人类从国家机器中解放和再次被奴役的过程。

💡城墙法律

除了自然屏障,国家也会人为设置城墙、制定法律,将人口围困,防止税源外流。这是中国修建长城和台湾设置海禁的真正动机。墙内民众向往墙外自由生活的历史则屡见不鲜。

💡国家机器

赋税、官僚机构、城墙是国家的三要素。国家依赖统一的谷物计税体系榨取农民剩余,然后设置官僚机构强制执行税赋关系。城墙则将人口围困,防止逃亡。这套机器运行5000年,成为人类历史的重要变量。

Highlights

人类先开始定居而后4000年后才出现农业技术

国家只是利用了灌溉和农业技术

真正的问题不是为什么人类没有立即转向农业文明

粮食是政治作物

文字本身起源于国家统治

农业国家使劳动时间更长、营养更差、更容易死亡

文明国家的出现其实带来税收、疾病、高工作时长、高死亡率

奴隶是国家财富的来源

城市无法发展没有强迫迁移来的奴隶劳工

所有国家都需要建立一套强迫劳动制度

国家消亡是人类福祉的改善、摆脱国家控制的机会

劫掠就是我们的农活

游牧民族的存在其实有助于压制国家权力

游牧生活其实更为自由

原住民其实是无政府主义者的后代

Transcripts

Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan in August this year

The national security issue, the issue of unification and independence, has once again set off discussions

How will Taiwan find a way out between the two great empires of China and the United States?

To clarify this problem, we must first understand what is a state

The book that I'm going to face today, "Reverse Valley"

Let’s talk about what kind of existence a country is?

The author of this book is American anthropologist James Scott

he is in this book

Retelling the origins of nations with the latest archaeological evidence

subvert your view of civilization

Common civilized discourses tell us:

Human ancestors replaced hunter-gatherer with agriculture at some point

a major advance in economic production

In order to develop agriculture, fixed-point farming must be

Irrigation projects began to appear in the two river basins

Dayu's flood control appears in China

These all require a central authority to organize a large working population

So the nation was born

Then a class society with unequal power and unequal wealth naturally emerged.

This kind of story makes me feel

Sedentary life and state organization are a natural consequence of the development of agricultural technology

But the latest archaeological evidence finds just the opposite

Humans first began to settle down before 12,000 BC

The first agricultural technology appeared 4,000 years after settlement

And then 4,000 years after the advent of agriculture did the state appear

Therefore, the theory that the country originated from agricultural irrigation projects is wrong.

Because they existed thousands of years before the state

The state is only using the technology of irrigation and agriculture

So what did humans do in the 4,000 years from the emergence of agriculture to the birth of the nation?

archaeologists found

Lower Nile

Hemudu Culture in Hangzhou, China

And the Indus civilization

These early human settlements were rich in natural resources in wetlands

The Mesopotamia now looks like a desert

But 6,500 years ago rivers regularly flooded for half a year

The Persian Gulf will rise directly to the gate of Ur in Sumer

A large alluvial delta formed outside the city

Attracts a large number of fish, birds and migratory animals

People just need to stay in the same place

terrestrial resources during the dry season and aquatic resources during the wet season

No need to develop agriculture at all

At this time, human beings are more like living in a primitive communist society

All share natural resources No class distinction

Archaeologist Melinda Zeder found

Even after the advent of agricultural technology

Human ancestors also avoided relying entirely on agriculture in response to climate change

Instead, hunter-gatherer agriculture is supplemented by

Because in ancient times, there were often small ice ages.

Warming after the end of the ice age

Planting a single crop is too risky

Sometimes our ancestors tried to coexist with the environment

try different survival strategies

For example, the aborigines in Taiwan have developed agriculture 5,000 years ago

One of these people migrated to Southeast Asia 5,000 years ago

Found forests everywhere

They gave up farming techniques and went back to hunter-gatherer life.

So we must abandon the idea of ​​historical single-line progress

Humans did not suddenly switch from hunter-gatherer to agricultural civilization at some point in time

Archaeological evidence to the contrary

Our ancestors have always maintained a variety of survival styles

Sometimes give up the choice of settled agricultural life and coexist with the ecological environment

So the real question is not why humans didn't immediately turn to agricultural civilization

But why is it clearly up to 4000 years

Humans are not dependent on agriculture to live a nomadic life

how suddenly 3000 BC

The emergence of a country founded on agriculture?

There is a group of people who propose the "food-storage hypothesis"

Because the crops can be stored for a long time, they can be harvested once without working.

So it's more economical and you don't have to go out hunting every day

But actually

Hunter-gatherers know the pickling technique

Even big fish and meat can be stored for a long time

Economist Ester Boserup proposes another theory of population pressure

think because 3000 BC

The population of the two river basins has increased, and hunting large prey is no longer enough to eat

Humans were forced to turn to agriculture when they had to acquire more resources

So we think agriculture is the beginning of progress

just the opposite

Human ancestors were forced into a corner before they chose agriculture

If agriculture is the way to go

How did the country emerge?

First we have to define what counts as a country

All early states in history have at least three characteristics:

Taxation, bureaucracy and walls

According to this standard

The Sumerian city-state of Uruk before 3200 BC was the earliest state

Then why did the farming population gather to form a country at this time?

Because of the frequent climatic changes in ancient times

just a drought

farming populations must be concentrated in areas with irrigation water

At this time, human resources are highly concentrated on a piece of land for farming

This sets the perfect stage for the country

Originally, the population was scattered all over the place, but now the population and grains are concentrated in one place.

The state can parasitize on this farming population

The author puts forward a set of "grain hypothesis" of national origin

Early nations in history required people to produce grains instead of other crops

why?

Because the grain is most suitable for one harvest, it is convenient for the state to collect taxes

If root crops

It's all buried in the soil. The country can't calculate how much it produces.

If it is beans, different types of beans have different maturity periods

It is not convenient for the state to check taxes at all

by contrast

Grains are all ripe at the same time

Therefore, the state only needs to invent a set of "peasant calendar" to stipulate the sowing time

Re-evaluate the size and quality of the farmland to estimate the harvest and know how much tax to collect

And grains are also the easiest to calculate

The daily wage for laborers in Mesopotamia is 2 liters of barley

Medieval church had eleven taxes requiring farmers to bundle grain into bundles

So you can see at a glance how much grain is in a tenth tax

So grain is essentially a political crop

This "grain hypothesis" explains

Why didn't countries emerge 4000 years after agriculture

Because the living resources of human ancestors in the delta wetlands were very diverse at that time

There are farming, fishing and hunting, gathering, slash-and-burn farming

These multiple modes of production are not conducive to the formation of a state

Because the country needs a weight and measure that facilitates uniform taxation

must be built on a single grain

Therefore, the first national cities in ancient Egypt and ancient China

They all appear in the upper reaches of the Nile and Yellow Rivers, not in the lower deltas

Rulers invent myths to make people believe

Agriculture is a technology given to mankind by God

allows us to feed more people

while stigmatizing those who do not grow grains

Describing hunter-gatherer nomads as barbarians

Because the state can't pay their taxes

For example, the boundaries of the Roman Empire were within the grain line

Because the area unsuitable for cultivating grain is worthless if conquered

The Romans believed that barbarians were a group of people who didn't understand farming but only meat and milk

And the civilized Romans only ate grain, not meat and milk

This is why the social class in ancient China was "Scholar, Farmer, Industry and Commerce"

Because peasants' harvests can be taxed by state statistics in favor of state rule

But the businessman's income is opaque and the country has no idea how much he earns

So the ruling class deliberately belittles businessmen

Implement the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce

But a system of taxes alone cannot form a state

There must also be a bureaucracy to enforce the tax

Every year there are government officials to record the population, land, farming and livestock

This is the origin of the text

in Mesopotamia

The writing system first appeared for state administration

Keep track of how much tax debt farmers owe

Only government officials are literate

It wasn't until 500 years after the appearance of writing that it began to be used to create literary myths

China's Qin Dynasty unified written weights and measures not for literary and artistic creation

Instead, let the ruler know at a glance how many people and wealth he rules.

This is why all peasant revolts in human history

The first thing is to burn down the official government archives

Because these state documents are the source of oppression

Archaeologist Lamberg Karlovsky found

Aborigines around Sumerian city-states deliberately avoided writing techniques

Because they don't want to be codified by the state

We thought that the aboriginal people did not have writing because they were very backward and could not learn to write

the opposite is true

They realized thousands of years ago that the state wanted to conquer them so they avoided words

This is also why after the collapse of the state in ancient times

The use of text will also disappear

Because no more officials oppress peasants with written debts

Like the linear script B used by the ancient Greek Mycenaean civilization

Lost after the disintegration of the country

After that, people passed on their culture through oral transmission.

For example, Homer's epics are sung orally.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire

Latin literacy drops to almost zero

Because writing itself originates from the rule of the state

So when the people are no longer ruled by the state

Writing is no longer necessary

Past civilizational discourses tell us:

Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Country Words

They are all symbols of civilization that let human beings escape from the barbaric era.

but now we know

Human beings are forced into a corner before they choose farming and animal husbandry

Moreover, grains and words were originally tools used to serve the country.

Not only that new archaeological evidence found

After the emergence of urban life, it did not lead human beings to "civilization"

become more vulnerable

Many early city-states were suddenly abandoned for unknown reasons

people suddenly disappeared

And can't find any archaeological evidence left

why?

Because there is one thing that leaves no material evidence

an epidemic

The population is forced to concentrate after the emergence of the state

And live with livestock and crops in the city

Many epidemic diseases are easily transmitted from livestock to people

Like measles, smallpox, bird flu, it's all because humans and animals swarm

It can be said that human beings themselves turn the city into a petri dish of a virus

Sumerian Gilgamesh Epic

It is recorded that the great plague made the whole Euphrates river a floating corpse

But at that time people didn't know the principle of the epidemic

thought it was God punishing them

So I went to the temple to pray and sacrifice animals to calm the gods.

This may be the origin of religious rituals: people invent religion to explain epidemic disasters

But they don't know that epidemics are actually caused by the state

especially when nations go to war

The movement of a large army population is equivalent to spreading pathogens everywhere

Therefore, ordinary civilians will deliberately avoid routes where troops and refugees pass by.

Ancient countries encountered epidemics, unlike now they can lock down cities

Therefore, all citizens flee the country immediately, or else they will end in a dead end.

e.g. 1320 BC

The plague of the West Tai Kingdom spread to Egypt and caused a great famine

The farmers at that time refused to continue farming and fled the farmland.

166 BC Roman soldiers return home from war

Infectious disease brought back kills a quarter of Rome's population

Plague dormitories begin to appear at Oxbridge University after the Medieval Black Death

Students with symptoms must be sent to quarantine

In the 16th century, Italy developed a special epidemic isolation institution Lazaretto

These all show that the early states were actually very fragile

May be completely disintegrated due to an epidemic

on the other hand

Agricultural civilization has not made people's quality of life better

Archaeologists compare skeletons of farmers and hunter-gatherers

It was found that the health of farmers was actually worsening

Because hunter-gatherers eat more diverse foods, up to 190 species of plants

Aboriginal people in the Mesopotamia can supply a year's worth of animal protein by hunting in one week

by contrast

The peasants have to work for a whole year according to the peasant calendar invented by the state.

Moreover, fixed-point cultivation of crops is prone to breeding of pests and diseases

In ancient times, there were no pesticides, and many grains may have been eaten by insects

The word "parasite" in ancient Greek means next to grain (para-site)

Therefore, most of the early rural population was malnourished and lacked vitamins and proteins.

Infant mortality rate as high as 50%

In summary, agricultural countries make labor hours longer, less nutritious, and more likely to die

The ruled people are of course aware of this

So when countries go to war, epidemics appear or crops fail

Many will flee to the countryside to protect themselves

Refusing to grow grain and switching to a hunter-gatherer life

so you can avoid taxes

The best way to rebel against the country is to become a "rebel" boy(??)

So we are seeing the population disappearance of many ancient civilizations

Like the collapse of the ancient kingdom of Egypt, the Sumerian dynasty, the Mayan kingdom

As if society stagnates into a dark age

But the truth is that people are finally free to flee the country

Go back to living a self-sufficient life without working for the ruler

Instead, the dynasties taught in history textbooks

It is the time when human beings are most oppressed

So the question is why do we call these periods "civilizations"?

Because of the relics of ancient civilizations that we know

Many were discovered by European archaeologists in the 19th century

It was at the height of European imperial expansion

So European countries began to compile textbooks and build museums

Celebrating the "brilliancy" of ancient civilizations like the Pyramid Parthenon Terracotta Warriors

Deliberately emphasizing that the strength of an empire equals civilization

It's actually a hint: if empires end, it's a sign of civilization's decline

Use this to rationalize the colonial expansion of European empires

But the latest contemporary evidence has disproved this civilizational superiority theory

The emergence of the civilized state actually brought taxes, disease, high working hours, high death

The collapse of civilized countries is the improvement of human well-being

Opportunity for people to escape state control

Since the state was very fragile when it first appeared

People are often lost due to plagues, wars, and crop failures

So the way to govern a country is to maintain the population of the country.

Proverbs in the bible

"The glory of a monarch is that the population is large and the emperor's downfall is due to the lack of citizens"

How to increase the population?

The easiest way is to get it back from the outside

The Sumerians often went to the surrounding mountains to catch the aborigines

In ancient Sumerian the word slave is written as "mountain" and "woman"

It means taking the local women after invading the mountains.

This is also why ancient countries have frequent wars

Not to open up territories, but to control the population

Because even if new land is occupied and no one cultivates the land, it is of no use to the country

The way to measure the outcome is by how many prisoners of war were enslaved

This way you can maintain political stability in the country without exploiting your own people.

This is the first principle of Spain's colonial expansion overseas

Sociologist Max Weber calls this

"booty capitalism"

The goal of state military operations is not to occupy new land

Rather, they plunder foreigners as slaves to accumulate the nation's capital.

Like all countries in early Southeast Asia were slave countries

Male prisoners of war captured by Malays will also integrate into local society

Back to help catch slaves

in ancient greece athens

Two-thirds of the country's population are slaves

But the ancient Greek philosophers never debated the abolition of slavery

but take it for granted

Aristotle defended slavery by saying:

Certain ethnic groups are born with a lack of rationality and are very servile, and are naturally suitable for slavery as animals.

Socrates also served in the army when Athenian colonial expansion launched the Peloponnesian War

Plato himself was not even sold into slavery and he did not object to slavery for this reason

Why do they all take slavery for granted?

Because slaves are the source of the nation's wealth

A country with more slaves is a richer country

So the ancient Greek historian Thucydides praised the Spartan general Brasidas

Instead of slaughtering surrenderers, negotiating to bring them home

Turning into productive slave labor increases Sparta's taxes

in ancient rome

A Gallic War added 1 million new slaves to the country

The elite class in Rome relies on the gorgeous lineup of servants to show their superiority

until the height of the slave trade in 1800

Three-quarters of the world's population lives in slavery

But slavery was not without obstacles

Many countries find aboriginal prisoners of war unwilling to work after capturing them

Anthropologist Marshall Sahlins pointed out

Indigenous society before the country appeared

People have no incentive to produce more, just eat and drink

The rest of the time will be spent playing and not doing more work

Aboriginal people will not do more work than they need unless forced to do so

This is a big problem for the country

Like after the Dutch colonized Taiwan

Discovered that Taiwan has a lot of uncultivated agricultural land

But the aborigines in Taiwan lived a free hunter-gatherer life

Unwilling to submit to the Dutch capitalist system

So the Dutch can't

I had to arrest a group of farmers from China and tell them that they were "reclaimed" immigrants

But in fact it was the Dutch colonial regime that needed slave labor to develop farmland

to expand the scope of cereal production

So the Dutch captured 30,000 Han Chinese to expand the rule of Jelanja

The Neo-Assyrian Empire captured 200,000 Babylonians to build a city

It can almost be said that the origin of the city-state is the military colonization

Urban civilization cannot develop without forcing migrants to work as slave laborers

All countries need to create a system of forced labor in the early days

On the one hand, it is necessary to squeeze the maximum economic value

On the other hand you can't squeeze too much or people will want to flee the country

Many abandoned city-states in history may have run away from slaves

The "ancient civilizations" we see happen to be those areas that cannot escape

like ancient egypt

Both are areas surrounded by mountains, seas and deserts, so it is difficult for people to escape

This is what anthropologist Robert Carneiro calls the "limitation theory"

Only the geographical environment that cannot escape will a country appear

Therefore, there is no country in North America and the Amazon rainforest.

Because there are wide jungles there slaves can easily escape

even without geographic restrictions

In fact, the state can also build its own city wall laws

2000 years ago

Soviet-American King Surgi builds a wall between the two river basins

Claimed to be to prevent the invasion of the Amorites, a nation outside the Great Wall

But in fact it's to lock up taxpayers in the South so they can't escape

The Babylonian code spelled out how to punish escaped slaves

There are even "bounty hunters" who specialize in catching runaway slaves alive

Historian Owen Lattimore also points out

China's construction of the Great Wall is said to be to defend the common people against barbarians

But actually

Also to keep the Chinese inside the wall so they can't escape from China

This is why the Qing Dynasty immediately issued a ban on crossing Taiwan after it occupied Taiwan.

Because at that time Taiwan was the den of pirates who fought against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty.

China fears people fleeing the country to mutiny and join the ranks of pirates

Or the many foreign workers fleeing in Taiwan today

The state also uses the law to punish them

So for thousands of years

All countries are trying to keep people in captivity

Because only if the people can't escape can the country's working population be maintained

on the other hand

What the ruling class has feared most for thousands of years is the mass exodus of people from the country

The ruler wants to prevent the people from fleeing, so he builds walls and legislates punishment

But there's actually a better way

to stigmatize foreigners as barbarians

Make people afraid of the world outside the city walls

As if leaving the country will return to the wild state

This way people will stay in the country by themselves without the need for state coercion

For example, the Huns, the Mongols, the Goths that we read about in our history textbooks

These are all fictional tribal concepts of the state.

They are not a unified nation

but against a temporary coalition organized by the state

But the state invented the concept of "tribe" in order to facilitate the stigmatization of governance

For example, in the earliest Gilgamesh epic

The hero warrior Enkidu was originally just a herdsman

But in the version 1000 years later, it turned into a half-orc

Must learn city life to become literate

In ancient China, there was a distinction between Hua and Yi

The Book of Rites of the Zhou Dynasty records:

Those who eat grain are civilized people, barbarians, Rong and Di do not eat grain and do not know how to use fire

In the Ming Dynasty, China invented the concept of "shengfan and cooked fan" to govern barbarians

What cannot be taxed, what sovereignty cannot reach is Shengfan

Those who can be governed by the state and have the obligation to pay taxes are Shufans

Therefore, the aborigines in Taiwan do not want to be ruled by the Qing Dynasty and do not want to pay taxes

was stigmatized as a group of "fans"

It was not discovered until Japanese anthropologists came to Taiwan to study

"Fanren" are literally dozens of different ethnic groups

It's only the ruling technology of the state that makes them virtual into a unified clan

But why does the state go to great lengths to engage in these tricks?

Because they don't want the people to know that savages actually live freer

Better nutrition among hunter-gatherers

Life expectancy is also longer than people in agricultural countries

Most of the time for leisure

They don't have to work because they just need to harvest the country's crops

The Berbers of North Africa say: plundering is our farm work

The state captures slaves to farm and the nomads are plundering the country’s harvest during the harvest season

Therefore, all empires in history were often invaded by peoples outside the Great Wall.

Mesopotamia was invaded by the Amorites

Roman Empire invaded by Celts

The existence of these barbarians actually helps to suppress state power

This is why there has never been a centralized power in the history of India

Because there are too many powerful nomads around that hinder the centralization of state power

And it is very difficult for the state to fight back against the nomads

Because they don't settle in the city, don't accumulate private property

For example, the Huns often attacked China's Eastern Han court, and the Huns had already retreated when they wanted to take revenge.

But if the barbarians keep plundering the country's resources

The barbarians have nothing to plunder after the people flee the city

So barbarians have a better way

Tell the urbanites not to run away and we can protect you from other barbarians

As long as you provide us with a little benefit on a regular basis

This is the origin of the protection fee

The King of Persia paid an annual tribute to the Cissians who lived in the Zagros Mountains

The Roman Empire had to use gold to win over the Locelts during the Roman Republic

Two-thirds of the Han government's annual budget was for the protection of nomads

The Tang Dynasty government gave the Huihe people 500,000 pieces of silk every year

But the history textbooks say that this is "exchange and trade with ethnic minorities"

Or the frontier peoples "come to pay tribute" as if they were vassals

But in fact, the protection fee is paid to them, otherwise China will be subjugated.

Like the Yuan Dynasty in China, the Qing Dynasty or the Ottoman Empire

are examples of countries being seized by nomads

The country is particularly concerned that

People find that nomadic life is actually more free than domestic life

like overtaxed taxes in the late Roman Empire

The people can't stand it but they can't resist the government

So it turned to Attila, the leader of the nomadic "Hun" who attacked the Roman Empire.

Or when there was a big famine in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there would be "going to the west entrance"

Refugees in northern China escaped from the "killing tiger's mouth" and changed their lives as nomads

"Kill Hukou" originally meant to kill Hu people, that is, to kill foreign Mongolians

But the Chinese people cannot stand the tyranny of the government

Instead, they fled to the world of the Mongols

This tactic of fleeing the country decides to choose to live a primitive life

Called secondary primitivism by anthropologist Pierre Clastres

Many of the "Aboriginal people" we see today may not be as primitive as we think

Their ancestors may have fled to the periphery of the country in order not to be included in the country

Hunter-gatherer is actually a political choice, not a backward life

in other words

Aboriginal people are actually descendants of anarchists

let's not forget

Although nations were born in the world as early as 5,000 years ago

But the population of ancient civilizations is simply a minority

The vast majority of people live on the periphery of the country

Live a free hunter-gatherer life

Until the 17th century, a third of the world's population lived outside the country

Therefore, in the 200,000-year history of mankind, state hegemony has only appeared for 400 years.

Only occupy 0.2% of human history

If the state is not a constant in human history

but a variable

Then the two empires of China and the United States that rule the world today will not be constants in history.