Chapter 4 Section 3 Land Rent and Oral Fu in Qin and Han Dynasties

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang unified the whole country. With the formation of a unified feudal empire, the feudal taxation system began to spread throughout the country and became increasingly complete.Feudal land tax mainly includes the following two aspects: 1. Land rent is land tax.After Qin Shihuang unified the whole country, he ordered that "the head of Guizhou should come from Shitian" ("Historical Records·The Chronicle of Qin Shihuang").In the Qin Dynasty, the people were called "the head of Guizhou", and "self-realized land" means that they truthfully reported the amount of their own land, and after verification by grassroots officials, they determined the amount of land rent payable.Qin's land rent collection was extremely heavy, and the tax amount accounted for 2/3 of the total harvest.In addition to corn, straw was also paid to meet the government's needs for feed, fuel and building materials.According to the Qin law, the Qin Dynasty stipulated that "there are three stones for the grass, and two stones for the draft" ("Qin Law·Tian Law"), that is, 360 catties of forage grass and 240 catties of straw for every 100 mu of land.

2. Poll tax.In addition to land rent, the feudal state also levied a poll tax based on population.In Qin Dynasty, it was called oral Fu.The so-called "Touhui" in Qin's "Touhui Jilian" ("Historical Records · Zhang Er and Chen Yu Biography") refers to counting the population and collecting taxes based on the head.The amount and rate of poll tax in Qin Dynasty are unknown, but like land tax, it is also very heavy.In addition to the land tax, the poll tax can be levied. First, it can increase the amount of tax revenue. Second, it can make people who own less land or no land also bear the obligation of taxation, because farmers not only have land income, but also other sideline income. Poll tax This part of farmers' income can also be brought into the scope of tax payment.At the same time, poll tax can also strengthen the grasp and control of population and labor resources, so as to facilitate the feudal personal slavery of peasants and the general public.

In 206 BC, Liu Bang proclaimed himself emperor and established the Han Dynasty, which was called the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-8 AD) in history.The Han inherited the Qin system, the political system was like this, and the taxation system was basically the same.However, the rulers of the Han Dynasty learned the lessons of Qin's violent expropriation and the death of the second generation, and implemented a policy of light corvee and low tax and resting with the people, which greatly reduced the tax and servitude of farmers compared with the Qin Dynasty.The Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220) basically inherited the taxation system and policies of the Western Han Dynasty. Except for the slight increase or decrease of individual tax items in certain periods, the taxation system and policies remained unchanged.The land tax in the Han Dynasty was also divided into two parts: land rent and poll tax.

1. Land rent.In the early Han Dynasty, the land rent was greatly reduced compared with that in the Qin Dynasty. The tax rate was 15 to 1, and later it was reduced to 30 and 1, and the land rent was exempted for a time.In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to large military expenditures, the land rent was changed to "tithe tax". However, after the unification of the whole country, the old system of the Western Han Dynasty was implemented again, and the tax rate was one at thirty. The statutory land tax rate remained unchanged until Cao Cao changed to rent regulation.The method of collection is to calculate the amount of tax payable based on the number of acres of land per household, the average yield per mu, and the tax rate, and the people will pay the tax to the state.The payment items are corn and straw (straw).In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the method of grading taxation was implemented.In 78 A.D., the land in the whole country was divided into upper, middle and lower grades according to their fertility, and the annual per-acre yield of each grade was determined, and then the annual tax payable per mu of each grade of land was determined according to the same tax rate, thus simplifying the tax calculation program.In order to promote the recovery and development of agricultural production, the state issued an edict to reduce or exempt land tax at any time in case of special circumstances such as famine.

2. Poll tax.In the Han Dynasty, there were two kinds of poll tax: calculated tax and oral tax.Suanfu was practiced in 203 BC.It is stipulated that adult men and women between the ages of 15 and 56 each pay 120 yuan to the state every year, which is called a single calculation, which is used as a combat readiness fund to purchase chariots, horses and weapons.During the reign of Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty, the calculation was reduced to 40 yuan.During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, due to the huge military expenditure, the calculation of fu was restored to 120 yuan.It was reduced to 90 coins during Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, and reduced to 80 coins during Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty.

In order to reflect the country's policy intentions, there are various special regulations for calculating Fu.The merchants and slaves are double-calculated, that is, each person pays 240 yuan, which aims to restrain merchants and tyrants.In the sixth year of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty (189 B.C.), unmarried women over the age of 15 to 30 were divided into five age groups. Every time the age rose to a level, the tax was increased by one, and when the age reached 30, the tax was increased to five, that is, 600 yuan per year to encourage early marriage.For the Bazhong Man, Qushuai of the seven surnames was exempted from taxation, and the rest of the barbarians paid 40 qian per person per year to show preferential tax treatment for ethnic minorities.In the first year of Jianyuan (140 BC) of Emperor Wudi, the old man who was 80 years old was exempted from the calculation of Fu by the two of his family. The Eastern Han Dynasty once stipulated that pregnant women were exempted from calculation of Fu for three years, and pregnant women were exempt from their husbands from calculation of Fu for one year. Care for the elderly, women and children.

Koufu is also called Kouqian.In the early Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that underage men and women between the ages of seven and 14 should pay 20 qian per year "to eat the emperor", that is, as the royal family's income.During the reign of Emperor Wu, the oral tax was changed from three years old, and increased from 20 qian to 23 qian.During the reign of Emperor Yuan, the levy was restored at the age of seven.The oral tax is sometimes reduced or exempted by the imperial court. Computational Fu and oral Fu are collected in August every year. At that time, the local officials will register the population, verify their age, compile them into books, and collect them by the government according to their household registration.

In the Qin Dynasty, the county guards and county magistrates were in charge of tax collection in various places, and the township grassroots organizations had stingy men who were responsible for specific tax collection matters.In charge of fiscal and tax affairs in the central government is Zhisu Neishi, one of the nine ministers.In the early Han Dynasty, the official position of the central government in charge of financial and taxation affairs was still Zhisu Neishi, which was changed to Da Nong Decree during Emperor Jing, and Da Si Nong after Emperor Wu.Township grassroots organizations are still in charge of taxation work by the miser.The tax system, as well as the tax accounting and year-end reporting system, are more detailed than those of the previous generation.

The Western Han Dynasty was the first prosperous feudal age in China. While the feudal economy developed rapidly, the inherent contradictions of the feudal economic system also became acute.Private ownership of land will inevitably lead to land annexation, resulting in serious conflicts between the rich and the poor in land ownership.Under the feudal private ownership of land, land could be bought and sold freely.Big bureaucrats, big landlords, and big businessmen, relying on their powerful political and economic power, annexed a large number of farmers' land through legal purchases and forcible plunder, while the majority of farmers had to sell their land due to natural disasters and man-made disasters. , fell into a situation of starvation and cold.Dong Zhongshu, a famous thinker in the Western Han Dynasty, profoundly exposed the private ownership of land in the Qin and Han dynasties, which led to land annexation and serious confrontation between the rich and the poor.He said: Qin "used the law of commercial martingale to change the emperor's system. In addition to the well fields, the people can sell and buy. The rich have thousands of fields, and the poor perish. Extravagance is high; there are people in the town who are respected by the emperor, and there are rich princes in the town. How can the small people live in peace?... Or plow the fields of the powerful people, and see the tax ten. Therefore, the poor often wear cows and horses, and eat dogs and pigs. Food." ("Hanshu Shihuozhi") After the peasants lost their land, they could not make a living and could not bear the state's taxes at all.The big bureaucrats and big landlords who own a lot of land do everything possible to evade state taxes.Therefore, land annexation not only intensified the opposition between rich and poor, caused the separation of land and labor, and affected the development of feudal production, but also led to serious uneven tax burdens, which affected the country's tax revenue.With more and more peasants losing their land and exiled in large numbers, it is impossible to guarantee state taxes, whether it is poll tax or land tax.Therefore, restricting land mergers and enabling farmers to hold a small piece of land relatively firmly became the key to ensuring the tax revenue of the feudal state.Since Dong Zhongshu put forward the idea of ​​"restricting the people's famous land to support the inadequacy, the road of consolidating and consolidating" ("Han Shu·Shi Huo Zhi"), until the late Western Han Dynasty, the call for restricting land annexation by big landlords became stronger and stronger.In 8 AD, Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty. He condemned the private ownership of land which led to land annexation, resulting in a serious situation where the powerful occupied tens of thousands of acres of land, while the poor and weak had no land to stand on.He said that the Han Dynasty implemented a thin tax policy of 30 and 1 tax. On the surface, it was lighter than the "tithe tax" of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. More than 1/2 of the land rent is subject to heavy corvee. In fact, what is added to the people is the "five taxes", that is, a heavy tax of 5/10.Therefore, Wang Mang promulgated the Wangtian system, calling all land in the world "Wangtian", and no trading is allowed. If the family has less than eight males, and the land exceeds one well, that is, 900 mu, the excess land must be divided among relatives, Neighbors and fellow villagers who lack land.Farmers who had no land before received land according to the amount of "one hundred acres of land for one husband and one wife", and paid 1/10 of the land tax to the state.Although Wang Mang’s criticism of private land ownership and the light taxation policy of the Han Dynasty was justified, his attempt to abolish private land ownership that was still in line with the productivity conditions at that time and restore the long-extinct well field system in the era of slavery clearly went against the trend of historical development.The royal land system directly violated the interests of large landowners. At the same time, Wang Mang did not really allow landless and landless farmers to obtain land.He denied that in the Han Dynasty thirty and one tax was imposed, and implemented "tithe and one tax" on the royal land system, which was equivalent to raising the land tax threefold from the Han Dynasty basis, and obviously would not win the support of the landlords and the majority of self-cultivating farmers.Therefore, under the dual opposition of the powerful landlords and the masses, the royal land system soon declared its failure.In 11 AD, Wang Mang had to announce the abolition of the Wangtian system on his own.

After the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the land annexation activities of powerful landlords became more rampant.They not only own a large amount of land, but also own a large number of dependent farmers.A large number of household registrations were hidden by the powerful, causing a large part of the country's tax sources to be lost.This situation will inevitably prompt the feudal rulers to reform the taxation system.