Economic measures
The focus of Shang Yang's economic reform is to abolish the well-field system and implement private ownership of land. This is the only example of changing land ownership nationwide through national politics and decrees during the Warring States period. The main contents are as follows:
1) Abandoned minefields and buildings
Shang Yang's major economic move is to "abandon the mine and open the building". According to the historical records, Shang Yang's "building a frontier for farmland, and the taxes are flat". "The Warring States Policy" said that Shang Yang "broke the building to teach the people to plow" and abolished "no porridge in the field" ("porridge" is the same as "glutinous rice", and the intersection is called "stranger". "Frontier" is the boundary of the closed minefield between slave owners and nobles. "Frontier" means removing the frontier that marks the state-owned land, abolishing the slave state-owned land system and implementing private ownership of land. The minefield system has been abolished in law. The law allows people to open up wasteland, land can be bought and sold freely, and taxes are borne equally according to how much land each person occupies. Since then, although the Qin government still owns some state-owned land.
2) Pay attention to agriculture and restrain business, and reward agriculture and weaving.
Shang Yang pursued the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business. It is stipulated that people who produce more grain and textiles can be exempted from personal labor and taxes. Agriculture is regarded as "industry" and commerce is regarded as "the last industry". Those who become poor because they give up basic life or idle away will be punished as official slaves. Shang Yang also recruited landless peasants in Qin State to open up wasteland. In order to encourage the small-scale peasant economy, it is also stipulated that every family with two sons must be an adult.
3) Unified measurement
Before Shang Yang's political reform, weights and measures were not unified in all parts of Qin. In order to ensure the state's tax revenue, Shang Yang formulated standard weights and measures. Now, Shang Yang's legacy is engraved with Qin Xiaogong's eighteen-year prison, "One liter of sixteen (inch) statues". The standard of 1 has risen by about 0.2 liters today. According to rice and its inscription, unified measurement was very serious at that time. Shang Yang also unified the weights and measures such as bucket, bucket, weight, scale and ruler. Qin people are required to strictly implement it and shall not violate it.
The Significance of unified measurement
First, there are standardized measurement standards all over the country, which provide convenient conditions for people to engage in economic and cultural exchanges.
Second, it has played a positive role in the unification of tax system and salary system;
Third, it is conducive to eliminating the influence of local separatist forces;
Fourthly, it laid the foundation for the unified measurement of Qin Shihuang later.
Political measures
The focus of Shang Yang's political reform is to completely abolish the old Shi Qing record system and establish a new feudal autocratic centralization of authority. His contribution in this respect far exceeds that of Li Kui and Wuqi. The main contents are as follows:
1) encourage soldiers to implement a 20-level rank system.
Shang Yang ordered that "those who have military achievements should be honored by themselves, and those who fight privately should be punished" to reward military achievements and prohibit private struggles. It is stipulated that the title should be awarded according to the meritorious military service, and the imperial clan should not enter the public book unless it has the meritorious military service, that is, "those who have made meritorious deeds show honor, and those who have not made meritorious deeds are rich and have no honor." In other words, the noble children who have made meritorious deeds can enjoy prosperity; He who has no credit, though rich, cannot be extravagant.
The establishment of the 20-level title means that Shang Yang completely abolished the old Qing Shilu system. In the future, titles will be awarded according to the size of military service, and officials will be selected from those who have military service titles. 20-level titles: the first level is male scholar, the second level is Shang Zao, the nineteenth level is Guan Neihou, and the twentieth level is Che Hou. "Hanshu" records: "Shang Jun is the Qin law, and those who want to be officials are knighted." The first rank can be 50 stone officials: behead the first two enemies, and the second rank can be 100 stone officials. All titles stipulate the number of houses and handmaiden occupying farmland and the grade of clothes.
The so-called private struggle does not mean ordinary people fighting, but refers to "urban fighting." "City War" refers to ordinary towns occupied by slave owners. Slave owners often fought for land and property. The new law stipulates that private struggle is not allowed, aiming at weakening the power of slave owners and strengthening feudal centralization. The way to severely punish private fighting is to punish private fighters according to the seriousness of the case.
The Qin army greatly enhanced its combat effectiveness because it praised the meritorious military service. In the foreign war, Qin's national strength was further enhanced, thus reversing the long-term passive backwardness. In 355 BC, Qin Xiaogong and Wei Huiwang joined forces in Du Ping, which ended the long-term passive situation that Qin was not aligned with the governors of the Central Plains and improved the status of Qin. Qin also gradually occupied Bashu area with fertile land and high level of agricultural development and northwest area rich in cattle and horses by force, and social production developed rapidly.
2) In addition to Shi Qing's official career system, the imperial clan nobles were encouraged to establish a military service system.
According to Records of the Historical Records, the State of Qin stipulated that "an imperial clan should not belong to a clan unless it has the theory of meritorious military service. Respect and inferiority, each family is inferior, and the clothes of male and female servants are entitled to family. Those who make meritorious deeds show their glory, and those who have no merit are rich. " In other words, according to the size of the meritorious military service, the aristocratic status was determined. This rule dealt a heavy blow to the old nobles of slave owners, which aroused their antipathy. According to Historical Records.
3) Reform the household registration system and implement the deskmate method.
The capital, towns, cities and gathering places of Qin are all natural settlements. In order to strengthen the feudal autocratic rule and manage the vast number of residents, Shang Yang stipulated that residents should register their household registration. For minor crimes, heavy penalties are imposed. The Li Kui Law of Wei State was promulgated and implemented, and the Tongzhi Law was added. The main contents are: residents regard five as "five", ten as "what", what and five? Nine families must report together, and if they don't report, ten families will sit together and be guilty. If you don't report the beheading of traitors, those who report "traitors" will be rewarded with those who behead the enemy, and those who hide traitors will be punished with those who surrender the enemy. This is the same as the later Baojia system. Shang Yang also stipulated that hotels should not take in people who have no official proof of accommodation, otherwise the stores will sit together.
4) implement the county system
Shang Yang's major reform was to "set small towns as counties", take counties as local administrative units, and abolish the system of enfeoffment, "every 31 counties" (some history books think it is 4 1 county or 36 counties). There is a county magistrate in charge of county administration, county officials assist the county magistrate, and the county magistrate is responsible for military affairs.
Later, the state of Qin set up a county in the newly occupied area, with a large scope and the nature of border defense and military control, so the county chief was called the county chief. Later, the situation in the county was stable and turned into civil affairs, so there were several counties under the county, forming the county system of Qin State.
5) Establish Qin law, and "burn poems and write laws".
Shang Yang's measures are to eliminate the interference of retro ideas. The high-pressure policy of "burning poems" initiated by Shang Yang not only greatly suppressed people's thoughts, but also destroyed China's cultural classics.
zhang juzheng reform
Zhang Reform is a series of reforms carried out by Zhang, a politician in the middle of Ming Dynasty, to save the Ming Dynasty.
In the middle of Ming dynasty, the situation of land annexation by aristocratic landlords was quite serious. About half of the land taxed in the country is hidden in the hands of big landlords, who refuse to pay taxes, which seriously affects national income, intensifies social contradictions, and peasant uprisings break out one after another. The Ming dynasty was in danger.
The measures he took mainly include:
In internal affairs, he first reorganized the bureaucracy and strengthened centralization of authority. Zhang created the "Examination Law", which strictly checked the implementation of imperial edicts by officials at all levels, required regular reports on local affairs to the Cabinet, enhanced the real power of the Cabinet, eliminated die-hard officials who were hidebound and opposed to change, selected and promoted new forces supporting reform, and made organizational preparations for the implementation of the new law. He also reorganized the postal service and the civil service system. His political policy is
On the economic front, Zhang's achievements are the most outstanding. He once supervised the Yellow River with Pan Jixun, a famous water conservancy scientist, to prevent the Yellow River from flowing into the Huaihe River, so "the fields are exhausted, and the land that has been abandoned for decades is turned into farming mulberry", and the Caohe River can also reach Beijing directly.
"One whip method" is an important part of Zhang's economic reform, and it is also a major change in the history of labor system in China feudal society.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the tax system was very complicated. At that time, the tax was mainly grain, supplemented by silver wire, and collected in summer and autumn. In addition, farmers are required to take all kinds of corvees and pay special taxes. The content of "one whip method" is: "summarize the tax of a county, measure the field, levy all kinds of silver, decompose the officials and pay them." It greatly simplifies the collection procedure and makes it difficult for local officials to cheat. Using this method, farmers without land can reduce their labor burden, and farmers with land can spend more time cultivating land, which has played a certain role in developing agricultural production. At the same time, farmers have gained greater personal freedom and are more likely to leave the land, which provides more labor sources for urban handicrafts. Industrial and commercial people who have no land can do without silver.
The implementation of the "one whip law" significantly increased the fiscal revenue of the Ming government and improved its financial and economic situation. The national treasury has more than/kloc-0.3 million stone of grain, which can be eaten in five or six years, which is a great progress compared with the situation that the national grain inventory was less than one year during Jiajing period.
Zhang also took some reform measures in the military. He sent Qi Jiguang to guard Jiyumen in Li Zhiliang Town, Liaodong, and built more than 3,000 "enemy platforms" on the Great Wall from Shanhaiguan in the east to Juyongguan in the west. He also conducted tea-horse trade with Dahan Tatars and adopted a peaceful policy. Since then, the northern border defense has been further consolidated. For twenty or thirty years, neither the Ming Dynasty nor Tatar happened.
After the above reforms, the centralized feudal state machine was strengthened, and "laws must be observed" and "words must be carried out" were basically realized. The national economic situation has improved, the fiscal revenue has increased, and the national defense anti-aggression ability has been enhanced. Of course, Zhang advocated reform not to reduce the burden on the people, but to consolidate the feudal rule of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, his reform cannot touch the fundamental interests of the landlord class. Only some tinkering and improvement can be carried out, which can't save the historical trend of the inevitable demise of feudal society. Nevertheless, Zhang's reform limited the vested interests of big bureaucratic landlords to a certain extent.