Chapter 3 Section 2 Field Fu in the Pre-Qin Dynasty

From 770 BC when King Ping of Zhou moved east to Luoyi to 221 BC when Qin Shihuang unified China, it was the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in Chinese history.The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were the period when China's slavery society transformed into a feudal society.In the history of taxation in China, it was also the period when the taxation system of slavery collapsed and the feudal taxation system emerged and formed. The feudal taxation system was produced and developed on the basis of the feudal land system.In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, with the development of productivity, a large number of private fields appeared besides well fields.Some of these private fields were reclaimed by commoners, some by fugitive slaves, and some by princes and lords to expand their own land.Some farmers who owned more private land began to rent out the land to others for cultivation, collected land rent, and became landlords, while some farmers or slaves became their tenant farmers.The princes and lords also began to rent out the private land they occupied to the slaves for cultivation and collect land rent.In the end, even the sealed national well fields were treated as private fields, and they were divided into small pieces and leased to their own slaves or civilians for farming.In this way, these feudal nobles became new feudal nobles, and some commoners and slaves were transformed into their tenant farmers.Feudal relations of exploitation emerged.During the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC), fierce wars for hegemony began between the princes of various countries and the emperor of Zhou, as well as between them in order to occupy more land and property.The extravagant needs of the ruling class and large military expenditures are far from being met by the old taxation of "a hundred acres" in the well field system.Therefore, in order to increase fiscal revenue, after entering the Spring and Autumn Period, countries successively started feudal tax reforms.

In the twelfth year of King Zhouzhuang (685 B.C.), Guan Zhong, a famous statesman in the Spring and Autumn Period, helped Duke Huan of Qi implement the taxation policy of "levying [xiang] the land and declining [cui Cui]" in the state of Qi.Phase means observation; badness means difference. "Phase land decline levy" is to levy taxes according to different land types.Taxes in the Western Zhou Dynasty were collected in units of well fields.Under the well field system, each household has 100 mu of land, so the tax and labor paid by each well are the same.Guan Zhong advocated grading taxes according to the quality of the land, which changed the collection standard and amount of the well tax system recorded by slaves, and destroyed the old tax system of the Western Zhou Dynasty to a large extent.Good-quality land requires more taxes, which can increase the country's land tax revenue.Low-quality land pays less tax, so that farmers who cultivate barren land can produce with peace of mind, and will not migrate and flee due to poor land and high taxes.

About 90 years later, in 594 B.C., the state of Lu "taxed mu at the beginning", that is, it began to levy taxes by mu.Regardless of public land or private land, all land is subject to land tax per mu, officially abolishing the previous system of collecting land taxes based on well fields.The private land that did not pay taxes also began to bear the state tax, which greatly increased the state tax revenue.The state's taxation on private land actually recognized the legitimacy of private land, which was tantamount to recognizing the legitimacy of the nascent feudal land ownership relationship.After about another 100 years, that is, in 483 BC, the Jisun family of Lu State carried out another military tax reform, "using land tax", that is, to collect military service and military supplies from the people on the basis of acres of land.In this way, the State of Lu adopted a new system compatible with the feudal land ownership relationship in not only the land tax, but also the collection of the military tax.

Similar reforms have taken place in other countries.For example, in 548 BC, Zimu, the magistrate of the State of Chu (the supreme chief executive), implemented the principle of "refining the Fu according to the amount" when rectifying the military Fu of the Chu State.The specific method is: registering the situation of soil, marshes and fields across the country, measuring the production of mountains, forests and water marshes, distinguishing hills and highlands, indicating saline-alkali land, calculating flooded land, dividing small cultivated land, and planning well fields on fertile land, etc. In fact, according to different Taxes are determined based on the specific conditions of the land and the types and quantities of its products.In 538 BC, Zheng Guogong Sun Qiao (Zi Chan) "made Qiu Fu", which was the same as Ji Sun's "Yongtian Fu".These new tax collection methods adapted to the actual economic situation also broke the old well tax system.

Qin, which was relatively backward among the vassal states, entered the Warring States period (475 BC-221 BC) and also began feudal taxation reforms.In 408 BC, Duke Jian of the Qin Dynasty "first rented grain", that is, regardless of public and private land, taxation was levied according to the number of acres of crops planted, and a taxation reform of the same nature as the "first taxation of acres" was implemented.In 361 BC, Duke Xiao of Qin succeeded to the throne and appointed Shang Yang to carry out reforms in order to enrich the country and strengthen the army.In 359 and 350 BC, Shang Yang made two reforms in Qin State.The main content of Shang Yang's reform is to abolish the well field system in the era of slavery, implement private ownership of land, and stipulate the amount of private land according to the merits of bureaucrats and nobles and their titles.Transform the original state-owned land into the private property of bureaucrats and nobles, which can be bought and sold freely.At the same time, a new taxation system was promulgated, the main contents of which are as follows: 1. Breaking the boundary between well fields and private fields, all land is taxed according to a unified standard: "Taxes are flat for the development of fields and borders" ("Historical Records") ·Shangjun Biography ").2. All taxes are levied on millet and grain, so as to encourage the people to work in agriculture.3. To reduce the agricultural tax, "relevant to the city's tax" ("Shang Junshu Reclamation Order"), increase the tax and labor of merchants, so as to restrain the development of commerce.4. Formulate the household registration system, register the population and labor force figures, draw poll taxes according to the population, collect corvee and military votes.Fifth, using taxes and labor as rewards and punishments for implementing the agricultural war policy.For example, in order to promote the development of farmers' private ownership of small land, it is stipulated that two or more brothers must separate their families, otherwise, their taxes will be doubled.For farmers who concentrate on farming and produce a lot of food and cloth, the state exempts them from hard labor.If you can kill one enemy in a battle, you will be exempted from taxation, etc.

The Shang Yang Reform was a revolution in which the feudal economic system replaced the slavery economic system, and it was also a revolution in which the feudal taxation system finally replaced the slavery taxation system.It is a symbol of the basic establishment of the feudal taxation system in Chinese history. Although the nascent feudal taxation system was not perfect, it was conducive to the development of productivity.For example, as long as the state tax is paid, the private land cultivated by the people will be recognized and protected by the state, which will greatly promote the encouragement of land reclamation and the expansion of cultivated land.Another example is that taxes must be paid with grain, reducing the burden on farmers, etc., all of which have the significance of promoting agricultural production.Feudal taxation is also more reasonable than the taxation system of slavery. Taxation is not only the obligation of common people. Regardless of bureaucrats, landlords, and farmers, anyone who owns land must pay taxes to the state and cannot violate tax laws.For example, Lord Pingyuan, the nobleman of the state of Zhao, refused to pay the land rent, and Zhao She, the official of Zhao State’s field department in charge of taxation, beheaded nine of Lord Pingyuan’s men who resisted paying taxes, forcing Lord Pingyuan to also pay taxes according to law.