Chapter 5 Section 4 Rent Modulation in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

From Cao Cao’s promulgation of rent modulation at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the disintegration of rent modulation in the middle of Tang Dynasty, the development of China’s taxation system has entered a new stage.The basic feature of the changes in the taxation system at this stage is that the old poll tax was replaced by the new household tax and household tax, and it began to transform into a property tax.The land tax structure of land tax plus head tax in the Qin and Han Dynasties was replaced by land rent and household adjustment. In 196 AD, Cao Cao recruited farmers to farm in Xuchang.At that time, it was a period of war, and the people fled and fled, leaving a lot of unowned wasteland.Tuntian objectively has the effect of inhibiting mergers.The peasants in the fields do not perform military service and labor service, but specialize in family business production and pay land rent to the state.Cao Cao's farming ensured the need for military rations at that time.

In 204 AD, Cao Cao promulgated rent regulation.It is stipulated that the people pay four liters of millet to the state per mu of land, which is called land rent;All other tax items shall be stopped.Abolished the counting tax and oral tax collected on the basis of the head since the Han Dynasty.Powerful landlords must also pay land rent according to the number of acres of land, and transfer from households, and the common people are not allowed to rent taxes on behalf of them.Rent adjustment changed the head tax into a household tax, and the amount was not large, which was easier to collect than the oral tax and calculation tax system in the Han Dynasty, and was conducive to reducing the burden of landless farmers.Emphasizing that powerful landlords should not conceal the acres of land and evade rent and tax, which is conducive to increasing the country's land rent income.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, silk fabrics were levied from private households for official use, and rent adjustment became the basic taxation system of feudal countries, starting from Cao Wei.Since then, Shu and Wu in the Three Kingdoms also implemented rent adjustment. After the Western Jin Dynasty unified the whole country, the land occupation system was promulgated in 280 AD, which further developed the rent regulation.The land occupation system stipulates that men can occupy 70 mu of land and women can occupy 30 mu of land, which cannot exceed this number.At the same time, it is stipulated that men and women aged 16 to 60 are Zheng Ding, and Ding Nan can teach 50 mu of land. (In ancient times, the collection of taxes was called "ke", Ketian, that is, the land on which taxes were collected, 50 acres of land, that is, 50 acres of land to pay tax), Ding female Ketian 20 mu, Ci Ding male (13-15 years old, 61 years old) - 65 years old is Ciding. Under 12 years old and over 66 years old are old and young, and do not bear tax) Ketian 25 mu.A total of 50 mu of class land has been paid for rent and four dendrobium millet, which is eight liters per mu.Twice the amount of field rent modulated by Cao Wei Zu.However, because the land occupation system gave the common people the right to cultivate and occupy the land legally, and the 50 mu of taxable land was lower than the required 70 mu of land, so farmers were able to pay their taxes.The land occupation system first provided a reliable guarantee for national taxation from the land system.Each labor force can occupy a small piece of land, which establishes a reliable basis for national taxation and guarantees the country's tax sources in terms of agricultural production.In addition to land rent, farmers still need to pay household adjustments.Ding Nan, who is the head of the household, pays three bolts of silk and three catties of cotton every year.If a woman or second-tier male is the head of the household, the household adjustment is halved.This is the average amount of the household adjustment.When actually expropriating, the system of "nine products interlinked" is implemented.The government divides the households that should pay the rent adjustment into nine grades according to wealth and poverty, and the household adjustment varies according to the households.The rich should pay more, and the poor should pay less. The system of "nine products interlinked" embodies the principle of capital tax collection to a certain extent.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties Song and Qi Tianfu also implemented rent modulation. Household regulation is levied on the basis of households. Since the Western Jin Dynasty, although the "nine grades are connected" system has been implemented, the households are divided into categories, and the tax amount is not proportional to the property.It is extremely unreasonable for wealthy families to shelter a large number of relatives and clients, and they often pay the same household adjustments as small households with three or five members.In order to avoid heavy taxation, peasants had to join the rich and powerful families with their own land and become their shadow households.Large landlords often have 30, 50, or even hundreds or thousands of shady households.The shady households were exploited by the powerful landlords, but they did not bear the state taxes.This kind of situation where hundreds of households live together and thousands of people share their residences has not only caused extreme inequality in tax burdens between the rich and the poor, but also affected the country's household income.In 485 A.D., Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty promulgated the Order of Land Equalization, and the following year the Three Chiefs System was promulgated.The land equalization system and the three-head system in the Northern Wei Dynasty changed the old household-based rent adjustment to the new Ding-based rent adjustment, and a large number of labor forces occupied by big landlords also had to bear taxes, thus solving the household adjustment more effectively. disadvantages.

If rent adjustment is to be levied on the basis of Ding, it must first be ensured that Ding Fu, that is, each laborer has the basic material condition for realizing his labor power——land.If farmers do not have land, even if they have the ability to work, it is impossible for them to engage in agricultural production, and it is impossible to provide taxes for the country.Therefore, the land equalization system in the Northern Wei Dynasty first equalized the land according to the labor force, so that each laborer could own a piece of land and have the basic conditions for producing wealth.The land equalization system stipulates that men over the age of 15 are entitled to 40 mu of open field (cultivated land), and women 20 mu.The slaves and maidservants receive the fields like ordinary farmers.Farm cattle are granted 20 mu of land per head, and each household is limited to four cattle.The above standard is Masada.If there is any surplus arable land, it will be given to the common people as double fields, and the double fields will be one to two times the number of Zhengtian.In the open fields, only five grains are planted, no trees are planted, and trading is not allowed. When the recipient of the field dies or reaches the age of 70 and cannot work, the open field should be returned to the state.The servants and cattle will be given back as they have.In addition to the exposed fields, each male will be granted another 20 mu of mulberry fields. The mulberry fields are privately owned by the people and will not be returned after death, but can be passed on to their descendants.And it can be bought and sold within the following limits: mulberry fields with more than 20 mu can be sold, and those with less than 20 mu can be bought, but more can not be bought, and mulberry fields within the specified amount (20 mu) cannot be sold.After the farmer receives the mulberry field, he must plant 50 mulberry trees, five jujube trees, and three elm trees within three years.In the township of hemp production, men receive ten mu of hemp fields, women five mu, and the same amount for slaves and maidservants.Ma Tian is given and returned like Lu Tian.The whole family is old, young, sick, and disabled, and those who are over 11 years old and under 15 years old will be granted half-husband land.The land equalization system does not violate the interests of the big landlords, and a large amount of land owned by the big landlords can continue to be kept in their hands as their private property in the name of mulberry fields.On the other hand, the land equalization system uses the large amount of wasteland held by the state to recombine the landless and landless peasants with the land.It prompted a large number of shady households to break away from the control of powerful families and become registered households who received land from the state.In this way, under the premise of ensuring the interests of the big landlords, the land equalization system bound the peasants to the land directly controlled by the state and became the source of taxation for the state.

The land equalization system basically resolved the separation between land and laborers caused by land mergers, and ensured that each laborer had the land necessary to use his labor force.On this basis, the government of the Northern Wei Dynasty implemented a rent system based on Ding, and the specific regulations were: one husband and one wife paid one piece of silk and two stones of millet every year. There are four unmarried men over the age of 15, eight servants and maidservants, and 20 cattle, each of which is rented for one husband and one woman.In areas where linen is produced, cloth can be paid instead of silk.Rent adjustment based on Ding Fu has a certain meaning of equalization.Although the rent adjustment for slaves, maidservants and farm cattle is much lower than that of ordinary men and women, big landlords who own a large number of slaves, maidservants and farm cattle must bear the tax obligation after all. Compared with the household-based rent adjustment, this still increases the tax burden of the rich and powerful families somewhat.

Rent regulation in the Northern Wei Dynasty had a great influence on history.After the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Qi, Northern Zhou and Sui in the Northern Dynasties all implemented the land equalization system and rent regulation.The Eastern Jin Dynasty and later Southern Dynasties Song and Qi also implemented the household adjustment of "nine grades in common", but in the Liang and Chen dynasties, in line with the reforms of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the rent adjustment was also changed from household to household.Since the Southern Dynasties did not implement the land equalization system, the land tax was levied at the standard of two liters of rice per mu while rent was levied on the basis of Ding.

The Northern Qi Dynasty completely inherited the land equalization system and rent regulation of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and then made some changes. For example, the age of adults was raised from 15 years old in the Northern Wei Dynasty to 18 years old, and the amount of open fields was increased to 80 mu, instead of the double-field system.There is a limit to the number of slaves and maids receiving land. The highest is the prince, limited to 300 people, and the following are reduced according to the official rank, and the lowest is the common people, limited to 60 people.The number of rent adjustments has also changed slightly. A husband and a wife make a bed, one bolt of silk, eight taels of cotton, one catty of ten catties of cotton is converted into silk, two stones of rent (turned over to the state treasury), and charity rent (Najun, Prepare for floods and droughts) five buckets.The rent of slaves and maidservants is half that of ordinary people.Niu Tiao two feet, Ken Rent a Dou, Charity Rent five liters.Ding men without wives will lose half the bed rent.Rent adjustment can be paid on behalf of silk.The land equalization system in the Northern Zhou Dynasty was roughly the same as that in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the number of rent adjustments also changed slightly.After the Sui Dynasty unified the whole country, it basically followed the Northern Qi's land equalization system, and the rent adjustment amount was: Ding Nan rented millet and three stones for one bed.In mulberry-producing areas, one piece of silk and three taels of cotton; in hemp-producing areas, one end (five feet) of chofu, and three catties of hemp.Dan Ding and his slaves make half-maid tunes.Later, the age of Chengding was changed from 18 to 21, and the age of silk was changed from one piece (four feet) to two feet.In 590 A.D., it was stipulated that all persons over 50 years old were exempted from military service (20 days per year), that is, cloth was used instead of forced labor, and labor tax was changed to tax in kind.

Although these systems provided a lot of care and preferential treatment to landlords, they also showed a tendency to require powerful landlords with large land holdings, strong family assets, large labor forces and farm animals to bear more state taxes.Reflecting this tendency, several property taxes also emerged during this period.For example, during Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, it was stipulated that from the princes to the small people, all must donate gold and silk and private wealth, and required the four states of Yangzhou, South Xuzhou, Yanzhou, and Jiangzhou (now Wuchang, Hubei and Jiangxi Province) to enrich the people and their families. Those who have reached 50 million and monks and civilians who have reached 20 million will contribute a quarter of their assets to help the country.During the Northern Qi Dynasty, the wealthy households above the sixth grade among the ninth grade households were transferred to pay money and levied property taxes.

In terms of taxation management institutions and systems, there were also great changes in the Wei and Jin Dynasties compared with the Han Dynasty.There are princes under the emperor, and there are three provinces under the princes: Shangshu, Zhongshu, and Menxia. There are six ministers under Shangshu province. One of the six ministers, Duzhi Shangshu, is in charge of financial and tax matters.At this time, the position of Sinonong was only an official who collected millet.