parentshiftbook Chapter 777: Land Annexation, The Response Policies Of Past Dynasties [Please Subscribe, Please Subs
Chapter 777: Land Annexation, The Response Policies Of Past Dynasties [Please Subscribe, Please Subs
"Land annexation?!!"
After Yan Changqing finished speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately understood what land annexation was about.
Again, Zhu Yuanzhang rose from the bottom of the beggar to the throne and became the emperor. It can truly be said that he has experienced all classes from bottom to top, and naturally encountered all class problems.
It's just that in the past, those problems were caused by my lack of vision and knowledge, so I didn't realize the real reasons behind those class problems.
To put it bluntly, Zhu Yuanzhang had enough practical experience, but it was difficult to summarize it into a systematic theory.
But now that Yan Changqing has stated the systematic theory, Zhu Yuanzhang has found the practical problems corresponding to these theoretical contents under the guidance of the theory.
Take land annexation as an example. When he was very young, his family also had a small piece of land to make a living.
Unfortunately, due to natural and man-made disasters, they had to sell the piece of thin farmland to a landlord near their home. Then the whole family became tenant farmers of the landlord's family. The adults helped the landlord's family farm the land, and people like him The children help the landlord's family herd cattle.
In the process, the landlords annexed the fields of poor people like theirs one after another.
Later, he encountered natural and man-made disasters, and his parents and eldest brother died of starvation one after another. He also became a monk, a refugee, and a beggar. Finally, he joined the Red Scarf Army, overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, and established the Ming Dynasty.
It can be said that if their family still had a piece of thin land, then he would not have become a beggar and a refugee, let alone join the Red Scarf Army [risking his life to gain first-line livelihood opportunities.
Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang also expressed his thoughts:
"In this case, then we will order a ban on land sales later. This should solve the problem of land annexation, right?!!"
On the podium, Yan Changqing shook his head and said:
"Not every problem can be solved with just one order."
“The issue of land annexation is not limited to the Ming Dynasty.
"We can look at how the emperors and courts of the past dynasties dealt with the issue of land annexation, and then see if this problem can be solved by His Majesty's order prohibiting the sale of ten lands." 17
"In the early Western Han Dynasty, in order to restore vitality as quickly as possible, the rulers of the dynasty adopted the Huang-Lao school of "governing by doing nothing" to recuperate and interfere less with the economy, which led to the continuous spread of private land annexation."
“Dong Zhongshu and Shi Dan during the period of Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty both proposed ‘land restrictions’, but they were not implemented due to pressure from all parties.”
"By the late Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the number of refugees in Guandong (east of Hangu Pass) recorded in history books had reached millions."
"By the time Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, the refugee problem was already very serious."
"In order to solve this problem, Wang Mang wanted to solve the land annexation through retro reforms. He imitated the well-field system and implemented the 'king field system'. He announced that the country's land would be nationalized and redistributed according to the population of each household. Then he banned land sales, trying to Fundamentally end the root cause of land annexation.
"Well, the policy prohibiting land sales that His Majesty just mentioned is also one of them."
"And what's the result?!!"
"With this order, Wang Mang, who was originally touted as an unparalleled saint by all the noble families, officials and landlords, his reputation immediately fell to the bottom.'
"Aristocratic families and bureaucrats from all over the country spontaneously resisted Wang Mang's orders, and countless powerful people rebelled. The world was in chaos, and the refugee problem also broke out at this time, completely shattering the dream of the communist master to pieces."
Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's face darkened.
He didn't expect that Yan Changqing would immediately turn around and find corresponding examples in history for the solution he just proposed.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang was confident that he was the emperor who conquered the world and was not the emperor who usurped the throne like Wang Mang, he was far superior to Wang Mang in terms of ability and prestige.
Policies that Wang Mang cannot implement may not be implemented by him.
But what if?!!
What if he fails to implement it and causes chaos in the world?!!
Thinking of this, even Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but hesitate.
On the podium, Yan Changqing continued:
"After that, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty Liu Xiu relied on the support of powerful landowners to revive Yanhan."
"And since it relies on powerful landowners to make its fortune, it is naturally even less likely to harm the interests of powerful landowners."
"Because powerful landlords are Liu Xiu's base, if he damages the interests of powerful landlords, those powerful landlords may support another 'Liu Xiu' at any time.
“So the emperor and the imperial court in the Eastern Han Dynasty adopted a permissive policy towards land annexation by landlords, and the phenomenon of land annexation was far more serious than that in the Western Han Dynasty.’
"The powerful landlords occupied a large amount of local land and recruited a large number of dependent farmers to cultivate the land for them, gradually forming a manor economy."
"The manor economy emerged from the Eastern Han Dynasty and continued to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Although the manor economy can reduce the harm caused by land annexation to a certain extent, it allows farmers who have lost their land to rely on landlords and gain space for survival."
"However, this model has also resulted in serious local separatism, and the status of the dependent farmers is also very low."
"After that, the Northern Wei Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties began to implement the land equalization system. This system was actually the redistribution of land after the establishment of the dynasty, stipulating the specific share of land occupied by each household."
"This system continued into the Tang Dynasty, bringing stability to the Tang Dynasty for two hundred years."
"But in fact, this system was the implementation of 'land restriction', which was enforced when the dynasty had just been established and the population was declining on a large scale."
"But later, it was also land annexation and population growth that led to the disintegration of the equal land system."
Hearing this, King Zhu Bo of Qi did not turn around and asked:
"Sir, haven't we already implemented the policy of equalizing land and limiting land?!!"
"How come there are still land annexations and the disintegration of the equal land system?!!"
Yan Changqing's eyes fell on Qi Wang Zhu Su and explained:
"To give an example, suppose that a dynasty has just been established and everything is in ruins. This is because the country has just encountered great chaos, the number of people is relatively small, and there are relatively many ownerless fields. The founding monarch announced that the land will be distributed to farmers."
"You are an ordinary old farmer. You have been allocated six acres of land. As long as you work hard every day, you can support yourself and your family, and you will still have a surplus.
"Fifty years later, you have three sons. At the same time, after fifty years of cultivation and growth, the country's population has increased. At this time, the country has no extra acres of land to share with your three sons."
"So after you died, you distributed the land to your three sons. Each of them had two acres of land, and they could live on barely."
"In fifty years, your sons will all die. They will divide your six acres of land among your six grandchildren. So each grandson will only have one acre of land. No matter how hard you work, you will not be able to support him. I have a whole family of my own.”
"So what are they going to do?!!"
"Usually, the land is sold and then farmed by the landlord's family as tenant farmers, also known as wage farmers."
"Another way is to sell the land and go to other places to survive. If you are lucky, you may be able to work as a servant for a wealthy family. If you are not lucky, you will have to beg for food on the street. These people are called refugees in history."
"So, after a dynasty has been stable and peaceful for a hundred years, the land-owning farmers in the country, or homesteaders, will begin to go bankrupt and transform from homesteaders into hired farmers or refugees."
"After a dynasty has been stable for two hundred years, domestic farmers will almost disappear, and farmers' land will be concentrated in the hands of landlords."
"The land of the Central Plains is full of wage-farmers who are exploited and oppressed by landlords and live a life worse than pigs and dogs, as well as refugees who are begging and making trouble without a legitimate livelihood."
The refugees themselves are living a precarious life. Once their number becomes large, it is inevitable that some people will stand up and yell, 'Starving is death, making trouble is death, it's all death. Why don't we all work together to cause trouble! "
"Or maybe he shouted: 'Princes, generals and prime ministers would rather have their own kind'!"
“As a result, a large number of refugees instantly turned into bandits and thieves, began to plunder the city, kill landlords, gentry and officials, and establish their own bases.
"And those oppressed wage-farmers will respond in groups, and the world will be in chaos, and the dynasty will change in just the blink of an eye."
"This is also a manifestation of the three-hundred-year dynasty periodic law."
King Zhu Shu of Qi stopped talking. Even if the policy of equalizing land and limiting land is implemented, sooner or later the number of acres of land will be insufficient due to the massive growth of population, which will then lead to the collapse of the policy of equalizing land and limiting land, and finally lead to the occurrence of land shortages. The rebellion of the people......
It doesn’t work evenly, it doesn’t work evenly, it just doesn’t work!
After seeing that Qi King Zhu Su had no doubts, Yan Changqing continued:
"In the late Tang Dynasty, land annexation was serious and national tax revenue was also affected. Under such circumstances, the Tang Dynasty began economic reforms."
“In the first year of Emperor Dezong’s founding in the Tang Dynasty, Prime Minister Yang Yan proposed the promulgation of the ‘Two Tax Law’, which would unify the original local tax and household tax in summer and autumn, and the amount of tax paid would be based on the amount of land and property.”
"This system reduces the personal control of farmers and allows them to choose their industries more freely, but at the same time it also acquiesces to the existence of land annexation."
"As for the Song Dynasty, I don't know if the Song Dynasty discovered the reason why land annexation could not be fundamentally solved, so it just ignored it."
“In terms of land policy, the Song Dynasty adopted the policy of ‘no land establishment’ and ‘no suppression of annexation’, which directly recognized the legality of land annexation.
"Therefore, the land annexation in the Song Dynasty can be said to be the most serious and the most public in all dynasties."
"Similarly, the Song Dynasty also had the largest number of refugees due to land annexation!"
"And in order to prevent these huge numbers of refugees, someone stood up and shouted, 'Princes, generals, and ministers would rather live in peace.
"So the Song Dynasty chose to recruit all the refugees who had lost their land into the army, forming a huge army with millions of people - Xiang
"Then this large Xiang army will be responsible for various other daily corvee tasks in the country."
"To put it bluntly, on the one hand, the state pays to support these landless refugees, lest they choose to rebel because they cannot survive at all.
"On the other hand, the country also uses this method to carry out an alternative form of 'work-for-service', thereby reducing the daily corvee burden of other good people."
"And such policies do have a certain positive effect on the stability of the country and society.
"If the Song Dynasty had not spent money to support these Xiang armies composed of a large number of refugees, I am afraid that they would not have to wait until the Jin and Yuan Dynasties destroyed the Song Dynasty. Many refugees who had lost their land long before that would have gathered to rebel and overthrow the Song Dynasty.
“But the disadvantages of such a policy are also obvious. First, almost all the corvee work of all the people in the country has been passed on to the Xiang army.
"Although there are a lot of millions of Xiang troops, the Song Dynasty at its peak had hundreds of millions of people!"
"In other words, the corvee work of hundreds of millions of people is 560 borne by the millions of corvee workers."
"Even if those Xiang troops are made of iron, they can't handle them, let alone the Xiang troops composed of ordinary people."
“So when we review the people’s corvee in the Song Dynasty, we often come to the conclusion that ‘the people’s corvee in the Song Dynasty was very light’ and ‘the people’s corvee in the Song Dynasty was very heavy’.
"And such conclusions are all correct, the difference just depends on which side we are on."
"If we look at it from the perspective of good people outside the Xiang army, then the corvee in the Song Dynasty can indeed be said to be almost the lightest in all dynasties.
"If we look at it from the perspective of the Xiang army, then the corvee in the Song Dynasty can indeed be said to be almost the heaviest in all dynasties!"
"So the death and flight of Xiang troops in the Song Dynasty was very serious!"
"Secondly, the Xiang army composed of ordinary people has almost no combat effectiveness at all!"
"Although it is called an army, it is actually nothing more than corvées made up of refugees."
“In addition to occupying a large amount of national finance, it was hardly used for any purpose, so that it was repeatedly defeated in foreign wars and eventually died in the enemy country.
"Third, it takes up more and more national finances."
"As I just said, the land policy of the Song Dynasty was 'no land system' and 'no suppression of annexation', so the number of people who will lose their land and become refugees will inevitably increase in the future.
"When there are one million people, the national finances can still support it. When there are two million people, the national finances may be able to support it."
"But if the number of displaced people who have lost their land increases to three million, five million, or even ten million, will the national finances still be able to support it?!!"
"And if the national finances cannot support it, then millions or even tens of millions of refugees will burst out, and the change of dynasty in the Song Dynasty will also be a matter of the blink of an eye."
"In addition, the number of people's uprisings in the Song Dynasty was also the largest in all dynasties. There were 433 in total, which averaged 1.4 times a year."
"This is the Song Dynasty that those civil servants and officials boasted about, in which the Holy Emperor and the civil servants ruled from the side!"
At the end of the day, Yan Changqing usually pulled out the scholar-bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty and trampled them.
After all, the scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty really couldn't help but talk about Confucian benevolence, justice and caring for the people every day.
Haha, which dynasty’s benevolence, justice and love for the people would force the common people to cause trouble twice every year?!!
The so-called benevolence and love are just scholar-officials who are benevolent and scholar-officials who are loving.
As for the common people, they are nothing more than cattle and horses responsible for corvee labor.
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