By the time the Zhou Dynasty declined, the tyrants and corrupt officials in the imperial court ignored the boundaries of the mine fields, imposed excessive taxes, abused manpower, failed to keep their promises in government orders, defrauded each other, and left public fields unmanaged. Therefore, Duke Zhuang of Lu first abolished the well-field system and implemented the "initial taxation of acres". The "Spring and Autumn Annals" satirized this matter, because the implementation of the "initial taxation of acres" not only made officials more greedy and made the people resentful, causing disasters to continue to occur and the chaos has continued since then. start.
The Zhou Dynasty declined and entered the Warring States Period. The vassal states only focused on conspiracy and violence but despised benevolence, justice and morality. They sought to possess wealth first and then be courteous. At this time, Li Kui, as the prime minister of Wei State, proposed the further development of agricultural production. He believed that the land area within a hundred miles was about 90,000 hectares, excluding the mountains, rivers, capital and one-third of the area where people lived. , there are still six million acres of fields. If you work hard, you can increase the yield by three bushels per mu. If you don't work hard, the yield will be reduced by three bushels. Based on this figure, the top-grade fields with a radius of a hundred miles will increase and decrease. That’s 1.8 million shi of grain. He also said that if food is sold too expensively, it will damage the interests of ordinary people, and if it is too cheap, it will damage the interests of farmers. If it hurts the interests of ordinary people, they will disperse to other places, hurting the interests of farmers. If agricultural production is not good, the country will suffer. will be poor. Therefore, it is not good if the food is too expensive or too cheap. It will cause the same harm to the people. Those in power who are good at governing the country must prevent the interests of the people from being harmed and at the same time encourage farmers to do a good job in production. Now, in an average farmer's household, one male laborer supports five people, cultivating one hundred acres of land, and harvesting grain per mu per year. Calculating one stone and a half meter, the total grain harvest is 150 stone. After excluding the tax, which accounts for one-tenth, the total is 15 stone, and the remaining 135 stone is the ration, which is one stone of rice per person per month, which is enough for a family of five for a year. The ration is ninety stones, and after deducting it, there are forty-five stones left. Each stone of grain was sold for 300 yuan, and the total amount was 1,350 yuan. After excluding the 300 yuan allocated by the community to worship the gods during the Spring and Autumn Period, there was still 1,050 yuan left. It costs about 300 per person to buy clothes, and a family of five needs 1,500 yuan a year. This expenditure alone is 450 short of money. If unfortunately there are illness and funeral expenses, there are also the expenses of paying taxes, which are not included here. This is why farmers have been impoverished for a long time, farmers are not encouraged to develop production, and the price of food is so expensive.
If people from all over the world are allowed to divert grain to the border, so that they can be rewarded with titles and exempted from crime and punishment, then within three years there will be a lot of grain on the border.
Emperor Wen then followed Chao Cuo's suggestion and stipulated that the people who paid grain to the border would be awarded 600 shi for the title of nobility, and later gradually increased to 4,000 shi for the title of the fifth official. Twelve thousand dan is the title of concubine and chief, and the inspection of grain payment is different for different titles. Chao Cuo further advised the emperor: "Your Majesty's method of allowing the people to send grain to the border and confer titles on it has greatly benefited the country. I was worried about the lack of food for the soldiers on the border, so I advocated sending the grain scattered across the country. Now that there is enough food in the border area for five years, the people can be ordered to pay the food to the local government. If the local government stores enough food for another year, it can be exempted from taxes on the farmers. The emperor's favor extends to the people, and the people will work hard to cultivate. In this way, even if they often have to serve in the military or encounter floods and droughts, the people will not be poor, and the country will still be peaceful. If the harvest is good, the people will be rich and happy. "The emperor followed his advice and ordered that half of the twelve years' tax be given to the people. The next year, the tax was finally exempted. Thirteen years later, in the second year of Emperor Jing's reign, it was stipulated that common people's private land system should be levied a general rent tax, with a tax rate of one in thirty. After this year, there was a drought to the west of Shangjun, and the court reinstated the order to sell officials and titles, and used grain at a reduced price to absolve them of the crime. At this time, the imperial court began to build horse ranches, and a large number of horse farms were raised to meet the vast demand. In particular, the demand for carriages and horses in the palace, royal family, and hotels at that time increased greatly. However, the imperial court repeatedly ordered the officials in charge to give priority to agriculture, and the people were still willing to engage in agriculture. By the early years of Emperor Wu, the country had not had a war in seventy years. If there were no floods or droughts, everyone would have food. Eat, every family will be rich, the capital and border areas will be full of food, and the treasury will have a surplus of finances. The money accumulated in the capital amounted to tens of billions, and the ropes that tied the money were so rotten that they could not be counted. The grain in the imperial warehouses accumulated year by year, and had no place to store it. It was always pushed outside the house, and it was so rotten that it was inedible. There are horses in the streets and alleys in the folk, and there are herds of wild horses in the countryside. People who are born into mares are despised and ostracized everywhere, and they are not even allowed to attend gatherings. The common people live and work in peace and contentment, and eat delicious sorghum. Officials are in office for a long time and have children and grandchildren. Nor does he change his position; after he has been an official for a long time, he takes the official position as his surname. People love themselves, respect laws and do not violate laws. They generally value character and morality, and feel ashamed of immoral behavior and call it shame. As a result, the legal net is loose and lax, and some people illegally get rich, seize property, indulge in excess, and even annex land; a group of wealthy and evil gentry run rampant in the countryside, doing well in imposing authority without asking what is right or wrong, and the royal family and princes, ministers, and other officials in the ghost land Pursue a luxurious life. Their knowledge, carriages, horses, and clothing exceeded the regulations of the imperial court and had no restrictions. Things go from prosperity to decline, and this change is no accident.
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The following part was translated by Kou Huaiyu, an undergraduate student in Grade 05 in 2006:
From then on, we continued to use troops against the barbarians and implemented Due to policies such as the Salt and Iron Bureau and other government-run policies that seek quick success and profit, the taxes and labor borne by the people are increasing day by day, and they no longer have peace of mind in agricultural production. Dong Zhongshu said to the emperor: "The Spring and Autumn Annals do not record the situation of other food crops, but the poor harvest of wheat and rice is described. From this we can see that the sage paid most attention to wheat and rice. Now in the Guanzhong area His habit is not to grow wheat, so he will lose the food crops that are particularly valued in the "Spring and Autumn" every year; and it will affect the people's food problem. I hope that your Majesty will order the chief minister of agriculture to urge the people in the Guanzhong area to grow more winter wheat and not miss the farming season. " He also said: "In ancient times, the taxes levied by the monarchs on the people were only one-tenth. Such taxes were easy to pay. The former kings made the people serve for no more than three days, and the people were able to do such labor.
The people's property is enough to support the elderly to fulfill their filial piety internally, enough to provide taxes externally, and enough to support their wives and children below. Therefore, they wholeheartedly support the emperor. This was not the case in the Qin Dynasty. It used the decrees formulated by Shang Yang to change the system of the previous kings, abolished the well field system, and the people could buy and sell land freely. Therefore, there is a great disparity between the rich and the poor. The rich occupy large areas of land, while the poor have no place to stand. He also specializes in the profits of fish and salt, and is in charge of the production of minerals and timber. He is extravagant, extravagant and show off his superiority to each other. Some people in the county are as noble as emperors, and some people are as rich as princes. How can the common people not be poor? In addition, the common people have to work for the county and local governments for one month every year from the beginning of the year. , is to serve as a regular soldier. Starting from the age of twenty-three, he has to serve as a guard for one year and as a knight for one year. He is called a regular soldier. The corvee burden borne by the people has increased thirty times compared with ancient times. The land rents, oral taxes, salt and iron patents collected by the government increased twenty times compared with ancient times. Some people rent fields from wealthy landlords and have to pay 50% of the land rent. Therefore, poor people often wear the same clothes as cows and horses, and eat the same food as pigs and dogs. Coupled with the indiscriminate punishment and killing of the people by corrupt officials, the people's lives were miserable and helpless, so they had to flee to the mountains and become thieves. People wearing criminal clothes accounted for almost half of the pedestrians on the road. The government handled tens of millions of cases every year. count. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, it followed the Qin system without much change. Although the ancient well-field system is difficult to implement, measures similar to those in ancient times should be adopted. Private land occupation should be restricted to adjust for land shortages and block the way to annex land. Salt and iron are all managed by the private sector. Rescue slaves and abolish the privilege of killing slaves. Reduce taxes and corvee so that people can recuperate and recuperate. Only in this way can the country be governed well. "After Dong Zhongshu's death, the imperial court's various undertakings became more and more expensive, the world's financial resources were exhausted, and cannibalism occurred again.
In his later years, Emperor Wu regretted that he had beaten too many people