When Zhu Jingyuan faced his grandfather Zhu Zhongliang's questioning, he replied naturally:
“In fact, this is the same as simplified Chinese characters and vernacular Chinese, which are aimed at breaking the monopoly of knowledge and rules.
“In order to reduce the difficulty for the lower class people to obtain knowledge and to reduce the difficulty for the lower class people to understand and master social rules.
“These plans, like the reduction of titles, the imposition of gift tax, inheritance tax, and progressive income tax, are all intended to slow down the rate of class solidification and increase the mobility of people from different classes.
"To prevent society from dividing into a few classes that never interact with each other.
“To put it bluntly, we should give people at the bottom the opportunity and possibility to become people at the top through hard work, and let them believe that they can significantly change their situation within the existing rules.
"This will prevent them from turning to violent resistance...
"The ultimate goal is to maintain long-term social stability. This should actually be the highest goal of the Ming Dynasty royal family."
When Zhu Zhongliang heard this explanation, he couldn't help but nodded:
“It’s good if you have this awareness, but now that you have this awareness, the current planning is not thorough enough.
"The rules of your imperial solar calendar are still too complicated.
"The setting of spring, summer, autumn, and winter in separate columns, as well as the setting of these days as a separate month, actually have no meaning to real ordinary people, but increase the complexity.
"Workers in cities are actually not too sensitive to changes in solar terms. They no longer need to farm."
Zhu Jingyuan was obviously stunned for a moment, and then said as if he suddenly realized:
"I understand, although I tried hard to avoid it, I still unconsciously showed the pretentiousness of intellectuals.
"The solar calendar facing cities and workers should be simpler and more crude.
“Directly divide the year into four quarters, one quarter is divided into nine ten days, and one ten day is fixed as ten days.
"Thirty-six ten days total 360 days. The remaining five days of the year are Chinese New Year holidays, and one extra day of annual leave is given in leap years.
“And, for ordinary people, it only needs to announce a leap every four years.
“The setting of one hundred and twenty-eight years without leap years only needs to be taught in middle school history classes.
"Ordinary people may not be able to experience one hundred and twenty-eight leaps in their lifetime.
“When it comes out, it’s bound to be in all kinds of newspapers and radio.
“The month can still be retained, but the month is fixed to thirty days.
"In this way, a quarter is exactly three months, and a month is exactly thirty years.
"In daily life, it can be said that in a certain month of the imperial calendar, various plans of the court and government-owned manufacturers are mainly formulated on a quarterly and ten-day basis. The month is only used as an auxiliary parameter to facilitate positioning the time of the year.
“At the same time, the system of two days of rest every ten days has been implemented to facilitate the rapid spread of the new calendar with more holidays.
“If intellectuals want to show their superiority, they only need to calculate and introduce the solar terms in their daily lives.
"The imperial court also continued to publish a standard calendar every year, marking all solar terms and festivals for easy reference."
Zhu Zhongliang nodded again:
“Yes, if you want to make knowledge and rules as popular as possible, you must make them as simple and easy to understand as possible.
“In order for a new thing to be promoted quickly, it must be made profitable to the target group.
"Write down all your thoughts and compile them into a report and send it to your father.
"If he wants to get involved, he can do it in the next few years. If he doesn't want to get involved, he can leave it to you."
Zhu Jingyuan agreed casually and continued chatting with his grandfather to discuss the details of various ideas.
The next day, Zhu Jingyuan spent a whole day writing down his ideas and sent them to his father.
Zhu Jianyan received and checked his son's report during his work break that afternoon, and was stunned.
In Zhu Jianyan's view, all the things this kid mentioned were too outrageous.
What's even more outrageous is that his own father also started to make noises.
The grandfather and grandson unanimously decided to build several halls more than 200 meters high.
Yes, there are several, not one, because the entire Forbidden City system has several important palaces of different natures.
The Fengtian Hall is where major ceremonies are held, the Ancestral Temple is where ancestors are worshipped, and the Daxiang Hall of the Temple of Heaven.
Unlike the Thai and Western church towers, which are all tied together, China's traditional buildings are all separate.
Zhu Jianyan just wanted to throw this report away.
Why build a place more than 200 meters high when it is only used a few times a year?
Then there are even more outrageous things, such as Ying Tianfu, overthrowing and rebuilding the solar calendar and lunar calendar, and simultaneously revising the General History.
After Zhu Jianyan read it all, he finally couldn't help but throw it on the table.
"Every single one of these points reveals a great success. It's better for you to do it yourself..."
After thinking about it in his mind for a while, Zhu Jianyan picked up the report again.
I patiently read through the above assumptions and purpose again.
"Being a parent..."
After Zhu Jianyan was silent for a long time, he asked his secretary to draft a decree for him and issued a series of orders.
The first is to prepare for the southern tour of Yingtian Mansion.
This time it is not a visit, but a more formal one. I plan to stay in Yingtian Mansion for a while.
It is necessary to bring along the ministers of the Nine Qing Dynasties, the General Administration Department and other directly subordinate officials.
Let Yingtian Mansion also prepare.
The preparation time is relatively wide, and the departure will not take place until two months later.
Then, the Qin Tian Supervisor, the Ministry of Construction, and the royal family consortium were notified to explore the Laoshan area in the north of the Yangtze River in Yingtian Prefecture.
Prepare to invest in planning and building a new royal palace.
The higher the height of the main hall, the better...
Very similar to later generations, the built-up areas of Yingtianfu are mainly concentrated in the areas east and south of the Yangtze River.
Because Nanjing often serves as the capital of the southern separatist regime.
Since it is a southern-style government, it means that the north has been lost, and those who come from the north are enemies.
If the city is placed in Jiangbei, unless it can launch a last-ditch battle, it will be waiting for the northern army to attack.
Therefore, for a long time, Nanjing City was placed south of the Yangtze River.
Even in the dynasty that unified the north and south, the urban area located in the south of the city was a ready-made built-up area, and historical inertia was difficult to reverse.
Moreover, Jiangnan is more prosperous than Jiangbei.
There are currently only two counties in the area north and west of the Yangtze River, Jiangpu and Liuhe.
Although placed in other places, these two counties are quite wealthy, but they are far behind compared to prefectural cities, provincial cities, and the capital.
The new formal palace Zhu Jingyuan planned to build was planned to be placed in Jiangpu County to the west of the Yangtze River corresponding to Yingtianfu City, and under the Laoshan Forest Convention within the jurisdiction of Pukou District, Nanjing in later generations.
The future new central government office building, which will be the administrative center of the Ming Dynasty Central Court in the future, will be placed outside the palace, and of course it will also be placed in Jiangpu County to the west of the Yangtze River.
The purpose is simple, referring to the old and new cities of Shuntianfu, to separate the administrative center and the economic and cultural center.
However, Nanjing is different from Beijing. Even if the administrative center is placed in the northwest of the Yangtze River, it is impossible to restrict the construction of various civil facilities in the Jiangbei area. At most, it can only set aside an area.
The existence of this administrative center can actually promote the development and construction of the surrounding area, which will just pull the Jiangbei area of Jianghuai Province.
Finally, another order was issued to start designing a new central court office area.
The height of the building is relaxed to 80 meters.
The political logic of the Ming Dynasty was still open, and most affairs flowed according to specific rules.
Especially after Emperor Shizu, the scope of Dibao was expanded again.
Unless there is a real need for confidentiality, it will basically be announced to the world on a regular basis.
Although it is only a general description and will not be introduced in too much detail, it will let people who follow politics know what is going on.
What's more, what Zhu Jianyan is doing is to be widely publicized and deliberately cause a sensation.
Therefore, the order was issued directly and openly to the relevant departments.
The central court of the Ming Dynasty was suddenly in an uproar.
The news about the "higher the better" palace and the eighty-meter-high imperial office building is really too exciting.
Then the reactions of these officials were just as analyzed by Zhu Zhongliang.
Although they were all surprised, no one immediately jumped out to object. Instead, some people began to inquire about the technology of building high-rise buildings.
The values of architectural design and engineering construction personnel have begun to rise in unison.
Then there are the market prices of building materials, from steel and cement to paint and wood, which have also begun to rise slowly.
Basically no one thought that Zhu Jianyan might want to return to Yingtian Mansion.
It is just a natural guess that Zhu Jianyan will retire in a few years, and may want to go to Yingtian Mansion to retire.
Now we are starting to build a palace in Laoshan, Jiangbei, which will be used when we retire.
Now that I am on my southern tour, I might want to go there in advance. Like the Supreme Emperor, I want to see my son.
Everything is very logical.
As a result, private housing prices and land prices in major cities in the Ming Dynasty have risen.
However, current land and real estate are mainly operated by the royal family and government-owned manufacturers, and are stuck by the ticket and purchase restriction system.
So there was no massive rise.
However, the relevant new public opinion also quickly suppressed the enthusiasm for tax reform.
Some people even suspected that Zhu Jianyan wanted to collect taxes just to build a garden.
In this complex and chaotic atmosphere, the discussion of tax reform entered the next stage before Zhu Jianyan went south.
Zhu Jianyan controlled the forces of all parties in the court and completed a new round of compromises and compromises.
Just as Zhu Zhongliang expected, the basic conditions for universal tax exemption were changed from no illegal record to no criminal record, and no record of tax evasion was required.
The retrospective time was also changed from the lifetime before the occurrence to within the last ten years.
However, since it is a compromise, it is impossible for only one party to give in.
The terms of tax exemption have become more relaxed, and the amount of tax exemption has been reduced simultaneously.
The general tax-free point has been reduced from 250,000 silver notes to 50,000 silver notes.
Fifty thousand silver notes are equivalent to five million yuan in future generations. Professional shopkeepers and senior managers can save these industries.
It is equivalent to lowering the inheritance tax from being purely for nobles and business owners to being directly for senior white-collar workers.
The revised plan is that for inheritances of less than 50,000 silver coins, as long as both the heir and the decedent have no criminal records or tax evasion records in the past ten years, they do not need to pay taxes.
For items above 50,000 silver banknotes, half the amount will be deducted.
The tax rate for the portion between 50,000 banknotes and 250,000 banknotes is 5%.
The tax rate for the portion between 250,000 banknotes and 1 million banknotes is 10%.
For amounts between one million and five million banknotes, the tax rate is 15%.
For amounts above five million banknotes, the tax rate is 20%.
And this part of the general tax exemption has been changed from paying first and paying later to direct exemption.
This can avoid the trouble of paying tax on the loan in the current year and repaying the tax in the second year.
Because the proportion of this part is also fixed and the conditions are rigid, there will be no impact if it is not levied directly.
Other tax refunds specially approved by the Chief Envoy, the Ministry of Rites, and the Emperor must still be paid first and refunded.
The regulations related to the payment plan also directly refer to the suggestions of the Supreme Emperor.
For equity-type inheritances, shares can be paid directly in proportion.
At the same time, Daming Bank specializes in inheritance tax loans to provide loans to heirs who do not have sufficient liquidity.
There is also the capital promotion order proposed by Zhu Zhongliang.
If more than five heirs divide the inheritance equally, the inheritance tax will be calculated based on 75% of the amount of the inheritance.
If there are more than ten heirs, the inheritance will be divided equally and the inheritance tax will be calculated based on 50% of the amount of the inheritance.
Finally, new additional exemption conditions have been added.
In the case where the heir does not have a house in his personal name, the only house acquired through inheritance does not need to be taxed.
If ordinary people live in a house under their parents' names, the situation where their children will be kicked out if they cannot pay the inheritance tax after the death of their parents is avoided through this provision.
In terms of gift tax, the conditions for basic universal tax exemption were revised simultaneously with inheritance tax, from no illegal record for life to no recent criminal record or tax evasion record within the past year.
The basically universal exemption node has also been reduced from 10,000 silver notes to 1,000 silver notes.
For qualified persons, gift tax of less than one thousand silver notes is exempted.
Gifts of less than one thousand silver notes throughout the year are inherently tax-free.
Therefore, unless you regularly donate large amounts of assets to others, this eligible general exemption will have little impact on the significance of the threshold.
It is also because the corresponding conditions are low enough, and within three years is enough.
For gifts of more than one thousand silver coins, the tax rate is also reduced by half.
Between 1,000 silver notes and 10,000 silver notes, the effective tax rate is 5%.
The tax rate for the amount between 10,000 silver notes and 100,000 silver notes is 10%.
The tax rate is 20% for the amount between 100,000 banknotes and 1 million banknotes.
The payment method is still paid by the donor.
Since you have the ability to gift large amounts of assets to others, you have the ability to prepare the corresponding taxes in advance, otherwise don't mess around.
Other provisions of gift tax have also been adjusted similarly to inheritance tax.
However, the plan proposed by Zhu Jingyuan when he originally discussed it with Zhu Zhongliang was added.
Ordinary people can choose to pass on part of their assets to their children during their lifetime under the impartiality of the court notary agency.
This part of the tax is not levied according to the gift tax rate, but is levied according to the inheritance tax.
But once the gift is made, it cannot be returned again, otherwise gift tax will be levied.
Moreover, any person and his or her specific heirs have only one chance to make an inheritance during their lifetime.
In other words, parents can only give each child one piece of property while they are alive.
Otherwise, you have to pay gift tax, or make a will during your lifetime, and the child can get another share according to the will after his death.
(End of chapter)
