春秋时代五等爵制的存留及其破坏

西周、春秋时期,诸侯列爵五等：公、侯、伯、子、男。五等爵是分封制度下诸侯的法定身份。西周时期,诸侯阶层内部依据五等爵规定的等级制原则分配权力、财富并确立对天子承担的不同义务。迨至春秋,五等爵仍被奉为重要的外交准则,对列国的朝聘会盟活动发挥一定的影响。然而,随着天子的衰微和诸侯的强大．春秋列国开始依据实力强弱进行权力和财富的再分配,五等爵原有的政治功能逐渐丧失。战国时代,五等爵制退出了历史舞台。

On the Existence and Destruction of the System of Five Ranks of Nobility in the Spring and Autumn Period

The ranks of nobility of the monarchs under the emperor were duke, marquis, earl, viscount and baron in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period. "The five ranks of nobility were the legal status of the monarchs under the system of enfeoffment. During the Western Zhou period, the stratum of the monarchs under the emperor distributed the power and the wealth and defined the obligations to the emperor according to the hierarchy principle of the five ranks of nobility. By the time of the Spring and Autumn Period, the five ranks of nobility still had some influences on the activities of having the audiences with the emperor or the hegemons and the meeting of the allied countries as a diplomatic principle. However, with the decline of the emperor's power and the strengthening of the power of feudal princes, the countries of the Spring and Autumn Period distributed the power and the wealth again according to the change of strength, which made the system of the five ranks of nobility lose its original political function. The system of the five ranks of nobility gone out of the history stage eventually in the Warring States Period.