Chapter 14 Lecture 3 Song Dynasty-3

3. The tax system of the Song Dynasty The taxation system of the Song Dynasty was largely inherited from the two-tax system of the Tang Dynasty, so we will not go into details here.Just talk about something more important.In the original two-tax system, all tax items were merged into a single two-tax system.There are three items in the rent regulation: there is rent for land, there is regulation for labor, and there is regulation for household registration.Let's take a simple example in front of us. For example, Taiwan's expropriation of farmland and rice grains is rent.It is mediocre to ask the people of Taiwan to serve voluntarily, to repair airports, roads, and water conservancy projects.Sugar is a native product of Taiwan. How much sugar the government asks Taiwan to contribute will be apportioned among the people and distributed by households. This is the regulation.The two-tax law combined these three items into the land rent, so the land rent increased.After the government collects land rent, if it wants to build airports and roads, the government should pay for self-employed labor.If the government needs sugar or other items, the government should also pay for them.Taxes collected by the government from the private sector are all classified under one item.After many years in this way, something went wrong with this method.Since the military period in the late Tang Dynasty, when the army went to a certain place, it still asked the people for help, such as building roads, and also wanted to confiscate local specialties, such as sugar from Taiwan. When troops from other places came to Taiwan, they did not want to buy sugar themselves, but asked the people for it.They think that this has always been the case, but they forget that these mediocrity and tune have already been included in the two taxes, which increased the land rent of the people, and now they have to pay labor and pay tribute. ?This possible abuse was mentioned long ago when the two-tax system was adopted in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, it was unbelievable because of the convenience of taxation only, but it was gradually realized later.There is one more important point.In the Han Dynasty, there were local self-government organizations in China, and their leaders were called the three elders, and under the three elders were stingy men and women.The three elders are in charge of the education, the stingy husband collects land rent, and the freelancer manages the police and thieves.They all represent the locality and assist the government.This system disappeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and became a nameless system.By the time of the Five Dynasties, every time the army went to a place, they needed local labor and tribute. These were not in the system stipulated by the state, so they had to find local leaders temporarily, and asked them for houses, straw, horse feed, and horse feed. Utensils need a strong man and supplies.This is obviously difficult to do, but it has to be done reluctantly.The army often comes and goes, and these local leaders become specialized in dealing with their superiors.The local administrators feel that there is such a person, which is convenient and easy to supervise, so even if there is no such person in the locality, they insist on naming one or two.The army flows like water, and when they arrive at a certain place, they will be sent on missions. Therefore, after three or five years, the furniture will collapse.If one breaks down, find another.In the future, even if there is no need for the army, the local governor will still follow the old habits and still ask the local government to carry out errands as usual, which will become another burden on the local government.What's worse is that there is no family in the area that can prosper. If it prospers, it will be his turn to dispatch.This is the so-called labor law of the Song Dynasty.The guards in the Song Dynasty, like the frontier guards in the Qin Dynasty, were all inherited from the previous history. The government did not pay close attention to it, and it caused great harm to society.Wang Jinggong reformed the law and began to work out the method of exempting money.According to the government's regulations, the local governments are asked to contribute money, and each family apportions the money. This can save local private individuals from going bankrupt for government office work.But this incident has caused a lot of controversy, because if the public is required to share the exemption money, wouldn't it increase the burden on the public?However, Wang Jinggong's view is that the government will inevitably demand from the local government. Instead of picking fat and devouring it, it is better to apportion the money evenly, so that the harm will be less.Later, Duke Sima Wen became prime minister, and he opposed Jinggong's new law in all respects, because he wanted to restore the official service. The public is indeed confident in the reform of this system.Su Dongpo also opposed the immunity law at first, but later he opposed the reinstatement of Princess Sima Wen.Duke Wen insisted on carrying it out, and Dongpo said to him: "In the past, we opposed Wang Anshi and did not allow people to have objections. Why do you not allow others to have objections when you are in power?" Libao said that I could finish the workmanship law in three months, and it was finally done for him.But later, when the old party was expelled from Duke Wen and a new method was adopted, it was Cai Jing.Now everyone knows that Cai Jing is a bad person, and even Duke Sima Wen recognized him as a good person at that time.Based on the changes and disputes of this system, we can see that it was not easy to evaluate the pros and cons of a system at that time.It is even more difficult to distinguish the virtues and villains of the characters.But Cai Jing harmed Wen Gong lightly, and he harmed Jing Gong deeply.Because he advocated a new law later and ruined the Song Dynasty, later generations even called Duke Jing a villain. Didn't Cai Jing implicate King Jinggong to suffer this injustice?However, Wang Jinggong's exemption from military service did not exist until the Qing Dynasty, and until today, Chinese society has never had forced labor.However, precisely because there is no service, the population should not be calculated in detail.The Chinese government's household registration booklet existed in the Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty, but gradually disappeared.Even if it existed in the Song and Ming dynasties, it is not considered important, so it is not very reliable.In Wang Jinggong's exemption law, everyone had to pay for exemption. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a whipping method, and the tax was included in the land rent, so people were not valued.After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, there was an order that the distribution of land and grain would never increase the tax, so there was no need for small books.However, in this way, only the land has a direct relationship with the government, and the population and the government seem to have no direct relationship.As long as a citizen has no heaven and earth, he should not take imperial examinations, do not violate government laws, and even have no direct relationship with the country in his life. How can this be expected and sincerely approved by idealists who have always valued light corvee and light taxation in Chinese politics? What about?