[The main text of the novel has some historical depth. Although the text is very simple, there is a slight reading barrier. A little knowledge of background knowledge is likely to spark unnecessary arguments. Therefore, before officially serializing, I first provide some background introduction that has been refined and thought by the author, which is just a personal opinion]
The taxation system implemented in the Tang Dynasty mainly focused on collecting grain, cloth or serving the government. It was a taxation system based on the implementation of the land equalization system. This system stipulates that all households with equal land, regardless of the amount of land allocated to their family, must pay a fixed amount of tax per ding and perform a certain amount of corvee.
The content of the Zuyong modulation is: every ding has to pay two stones of millet to the state every year, which is called rent; he must pay two feet of silk, three liang of cotton, or two feet and five feet of cloth, and three pounds of hemp, called a tune; he must serve twenty days of corvee service, and two will be added in leap years. A day is considered a regular service. If the country does not need him to serve, he can pay the standard of three feet of silk or three feet and seven inches of cloth per day for twenty days in lieu of service. This is called Yong. Generally speaking, "accepting silk as a substitute for service is mediocrity", which is also called "losing mediocrity as a substitute for service". If the country requires him to serve, he will be exempted from transfer except for twenty days of service per day. If he is required to serve for an additional fifteen days, he will be exempted from transfer. If he is required to serve for an additional thirty days, he will be exempted from transfer. Normally, regular service shall not exceed fifty days. In the event of serious natural disasters such as floods and droughts, if crops are lost more than four-tenths, rent will be exempted, if crops are lost more than six-tenths, taxes will be exempted, and if crops are lost more than seven-tenths, taxes and servitude will be waived. The system does not take away farm time and reasonably solves employment problems. It is a system based on the equalization of land.
The original intention of Zuyongdiao is that "if there is land, there will be rent, if there is a household, there will be tune, and if there is a family, there will be yong."
The above is the main content of the "Zu Yong Tiao", and it was also the main land tax system adopted in the Tang Dynasty before the Anshi Rebellion. This method was first proposed by Cao Cao, and was later adopted by many dynasties. It was gradually perfected by the Tang Dynasty.
On the surface, the renting system is just an ordinary land policy. However, with the passage of time and the research on the renting system by later scholars, this system has become a common land policy in medieval and modern times (Japanese scholars proposed )'s iconic dividing line.
The Chinese history from the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty to the An-Shi Rebellion is called the Middle Ages, the period before the Northern Song Dynasty is called the Transitional Period, and the period from then until the end of the Qing Dynasty is called the Modern Period. I personally think that this statement is very detailed and very close to the true context of history. Of course, history is an upward spiral, with many repetitions, needless to say.
The reality of history, its transformation and stability, sometimes does not lie in the change of a political power, but in the changing trend of its grassroots social structure and the economic connections between regions. If you think there is nothing wrong with this sentence, then you can continue reading. If you think this sentence is wrong, then there is no need to read the rest of the content. It is just a waste of time.
The system of renting and adjusting was a by-product of the "equalized land system". However, this by-product itself was so rigid that it hindered the re-implementation of the equalized land system. Since the Anshi Rebellion, the system of renting and adjusting has gone into the corner of history and will no longer be used by later dynasties. The supporting military system was also wiped out.
Let’s not talk about the benefits of the system of renting and adjusting. It is the founding artifact of the feudal empire and the kingly way to stabilize the basic base. However, the blessing and misfortune is that as good as the rent-based adjustment system was in the early stage, the price paid in the later period will be miserable. So after the Anshi Rebellion, this system could no longer be implemented at all and collapsed on its own.
The great harm done by mediocrity to the Tang Dynasty regime at that time included the following, almost all of which had no solution.
First, when the rent adjustment was implemented, it was divided into subjects and exempted households. The exempted households are relatives of the emperor, the upper-class ruling class, and senior bureaucrats. These people have formed a network of relationships. It can be said that they are densely distributed all over the country. The area of exempted land is amazing!
The aristocratic families and dignitaries who were inherently involved in land annexation, coupled with the rent adjustment system that deliberately indulged in land annexation, over the course of hundreds of years of peace, the amount of tax-free land reached an appalling level.
Some people say that feudal society is like this, and it is true. However, as the state apparatus of the ruling class, in order to maintain its rule, it must find other ways to make money, otherwise it will die. The failure to abolish the mediocrity system early was an important catalyst for the decline of the Tang Dynasty.
The "ancestral family law" of the rent-yongtiao system can be said to be one of the deep-seated reasons that led to the Anshi Rebellion. It is at least hundreds of times heavier than An Lushan, although this system is not the only culprit.
Second, in addition to free classes, there were many loopholes in the early stages of establishment. The shortcomings of this system were covered up by Emperor Taizong's civil and military skills, and the best opportunity for innovation was lost. By the time the reforms of the Mid-Tang Dynasty entered the deep water zone, there was no way back.
First of all, the time when renting Yongdiao was proposed was in the early Tang Dynasty. At that time, there were few people and there was no need to worry about not having enough land. Therefore, the standard for renting mediocre land is based on fifty acres of land. But the problem is that by the mid-Tang Dynasty, the average owner-cultivator did not even have ten acres of land, and the rent payment standards were still the same as at the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The tax revenue that the court thought was easy has turned into a mountain that the peasants cannot bear. You don’t have land in your hands, but in the government account books, you can have fifty acres, and you must pay the matching taxes!
At this time, farmers have several choices: 1. Rebellion. 2. Give the land to the big family, and let the big family collude with the local bureaucrats to cancel your account books. From then on, you become a black household, out of the control of the government, and become a link between the family and the local officials. House slaves and tenants of large households.
The risk of rebellion is too great, so the warm embrace of a wealthy family is more appropriate.
You see, it doesn’t even require any natural disaster. Just a tax policy can force farmers to delete their accounts and join private servers.
Secondly, under the rent transfer system, taxes are based on "ding". So what if there is no "ding" in the family? Without Ding, you can pay less tax! How enchanting it is for a man to dress up as a woman.
According to the Tang Dynasty account books and physical objects unearthed in Dunhuang, there were several female villages in the area where women accounted for more than 90%.
Also, the size of the "household" for renting is not specified. It is possible for one hundred people to live in one household. If the local wealthy family cannot be exempted from the tax, then multiple households can be merged into one household to reduce the taxes that need to be paid to the limit.
The above are all basic exercises, and there are many unknown tricks. If land annexation in the feudal era is indeed unavoidable, then the long-term existence of rent mediocrity without abolishment is the best proof that the ruling class desperately safeguards its own interests and refuses reform.
In the last book, I said that Xie Daoyun of the Xie family in Chen County was unparalleled, beautiful and talented, but the Xie family continued to eat people, and they were very rude.
That was an era when people were eating people. When we saw the turmoil in the upper class, wasn't it worth taking a look at how the people at the bottom were living?
Finally, the rent adjustment system is based on strict household registration books, but with the mortality rate in ancient times, it is probably too late to update the account books every year, not to mention the government's execution efficiency, which can be updated every five years, which is already great. Where are there so many manpower to conduct inventory every year?
Will those who have no household be able to harvest their fields? Who will make up for the shortfall? Do local officials want political achievements?
For these problems, the rent transfer system was criticized by local bureaucrats, which is often seen in history books.
Third, the rent transfer system requires the payment of physical goods, that is, grain and cloth. It's very rough here and evils are reappearing.
If the grain produced in different places is traded, the prices are very different. Not to mention, many pieces of cloth are specialty products, and their value is very different from ordinary cloth!
What do I need to pay for food?
What kind of cloth should be handed over?
If the cloth produced by the yeoman farmers is not good, why should the small farmers be allowed to produce it instead of choosing better and faster production methods?
It’s hard to describe the shortcomings here. It’s no accident that mediocrity was eliminated after the Tang Dynasty. It’s not an accident that no one cares about it anymore.
Fourth, even if the rental system does not have all the above problems, it still has a hidden, deeply buried drawback that has a profound impact on the times.
The rent transfer system directly divides people into two types: "landlords" and "tenants" (quasi-tenants), which stifles other possibilities.
In other words, if you are exempt from classes, as long as you live long enough and have talented people in your family, you will become a landlord sooner or later. If you are not exempt from school, then in all likelihood, you will become a tenant, and you will not be able to avoid natural disasters and man-made disasters every time.
Under the rent transfer system, the situation of homesteaders is unstable, and they will become tenants if there is any trouble.
If someone does not want to be a landowner or a tenant, what other option is there? I won’t mention the ascending channel, just talk about the path you can take. If you go to the temple, they are also tenant farmers! In the Tang Dynasty, not everyone could become a monk who was not engaged in production.
Yes, if that person is in a low-level profession, once he enters, it will harm his descendants, and it will be difficult to turn around without war.
If you have a field, you must provide food, weave cloth, and perform corvee labor. This system tightly locks people into their fields and restricts ordinary people's options to their local areas.
The small-scale peasant economy naturally limits consumption, naturally inhibits the development of industry and commerce, and naturally limits the options for ordinary people.
Using this as a prison, each place went its own way, forming one block after another, lifeless.
Currency taxation is a major trend in China and even around the world, and it has continued to this day. I have not heard of any country that can go against the grain and collect physical taxes instead of monetary taxes.
Abolition of the mediocrity of renting is a general trend of history. Tang Ting had a chance to win against the Anshi rebels, but it couldn't win against this general trend, and had no chance at all.
The taxation of rents and mediocrities that should be abolished was not abolished. As a result, during the Kaiyuan period, the tax revenue of rents and mediocrities across the country began to go from bad to worse. Tang Ting used various methods to make money. That is what will be discussed in the text, so I won’t spoil it here. But since the end of Kaiyuan, Tang Ting has been unable to make ends meet, and the state machine is on the verge of collapse.
When one An Lushan falls, thousands of An Lushan will stand up. How can we maintain a stable position if we don't even abolish the mediocrity of renting and reviving the ills?
Dear readers, do you think the Anshi Rebellion was only the fault of An Lushan and Tang Xuanzong?
