Chapter 21 Section 3 Average Burden Thoughts

Uneven taxation and labor is another important feature of feudal taxation and labor exploitation.This inequality is mainly manifested in the following aspects: First, feudal bureaucrats and aristocratic privileged classes enjoyed various preferential treatment. Although they had huge wealth, they did not bear any or only a small amount of taxes and servitude.For example, the government of the Western Han Dynasty stipulated that officials with a salary of more than 600 shi (the official system in the Han Dynasty ranged from 2,000 shi to 100 shi, a total of 16 levels, and 600 shi was the eighth level), and the whole family was exempted from all corvee except for the change of tax.All the emperors with the same surname, that is, Liu, were exempted from all corvee service. By the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the population of the Liu surname had exceeded 100,000.Ninth-level Jue Wu doctor and above, I am exempted from military service for life.The seventh-level martial arts master is equivalent to five doctors, and he is also exempted from military service for life.All lower-level officials (below five hundred shi) will be exempted from service for life.Ordinary people who study in Taixue are also exempted from military service for life.Second, the tax system itself favored the landlords, not the ordinary peasants.The more land the landlord possesses, the lighter the tax burden.On the contrary, the less farmers have, the heavier the tax burden.Take the so-called equalization of rent adjustment in the Northern Wei Dynasty as an example. After the equalization of fields, a large amount of land occupied by big landlords has not been touched at all, and they still own tens of thousands of acres of land.According to regulations, ordinary farmers only occupy 20 mu of mulberry field, 40 mu of open field, and 20 mu of open field for women.Moreover, farmers in some areas did not even get the stipulated number of acres of land granted.However, rent adjustments are all levied on a dime basis.In this way, powerful landlords who own tens of thousands of mu of land and peasant families who own only 60 mu of open fields and 20 mu of mulberry fields pay the same rent adjustment, which is extremely uneven.In order to cultivate the large tracts of land he owned, the big landlords at that time possessed a large number of slaves and oxen engaged in farming and weaving. Accept the rent adjustment of a couple.These regulations, obviously to take care of the big landlords and big bureaucrats, further exacerbated the inequality of taxes and servitudes between landlords and peasants.Third, the bureaucratic landlords evaded taxes and servitude by concealing property and land and other means, so that the heavy burden of levies and servitude fell entirely on ordinary people.For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, the two taxes were levied on the basis of acres of land, and powerful landlords colluded with local officials to conceal a large amount of land property.Zhang Juzheng cleared up 7,013,976 hectares of land in the sixth year of Wanli (1578 A.D.), an increase of 3 million hectares compared with that of Hongzhi (1488-1505 A.D.), and nearly 50% of the land was found, most of which belonged to the escape of big landlords. Hidden field of taxation.Large landowners shifted taxes on so much land to peasants, making the tax burden even more uneven.

The feudal state was a tool for the landlord class to oppress and exploit the peasants.The class nature of a feudal state determines that it must place the main burden of taxation and labor on the peasant class instead of the landlord class.Under the feudal system, the inequality of taxes and servitudes between landlords and peasants could not be truly eliminated.However, the excessive inequality of taxes and servitude will cause dissatisfaction among the peasants on the one hand and affect the consolidation of the rule of the landlord class; It is also detrimental to the rule of the landlord class.Therefore, advocating the average tax burden has become another important content of taxation thought in Chinese feudal society.

The idea of ​​average burden was first seen in the book "Yu Gong". The graded taxation system stipulated in "Yu Gong" embodies the idea of ​​equal burden.Through grading tax collection, the land tax burden in different regions can be basically consistent.In "Zhou Li", the idea of ​​"equalizing the governance of the world (Zheng)" ("Zhou Li · Local Official · Da Situ") clearly appeared. "Zhou Li" puts forward three principles of equal burden: one is to equalize the burden according to the fertility of the land.It divides the land into five types of places: mountains, forests, rivers, hills, tombs, and plains. At the same time, it divides the land into nine different types of soil. , Tian Fu is also different.The second is to balance the burden of the people through a reasonable mix of taxes and labor.According to the distance from each region to the royal city, it is divided into middle school, suburb, outer suburb, Dian, Shao, county, capital and other different regions from near to far.The farther the distance from the royal city, the higher the tax rate: "There is no tax for national houses, twenty for gardens, eleven for the suburbs, twenty for the outer suburbs, and no more than twelve in Dian, Shao, counties, and capitals." ("Zhou Li Local Officials Zai Shi") The reason is that the closer the people are to the king's city, the heavier the official duties are.The taxation of areas with heavy labor is reduced accordingly, and the taxation of areas with light labor is increased accordingly. In this way, through the reasonable matching of taxes and corvees for people in various regions, their tax and labor burdens can be roughly consistent.Third, the average burden varies by year.In good years, the tax rate is higher; in bad years, the tax rate is lower, so that the tax burden of the people is roughly the same in different years.

The idea of ​​average burden in "Zhou Li" had a profound impact on later generations, and became a basic taxation principle constantly emphasized by thinkers in feudal society. During the Three Kingdoms period, when Cao Cao promulgated rent regulation, he particularly emphasized the importance of equal taxation.He pointed out: The most feared thing in governing the country is inequality. Under Yuan Shao's rule, the tyrants were allowed to merge, conceal land property, evade taxes and taxes, and force the poor to pay rent and taxes on behalf of the people, which made the people unbearable.He said that uneven taxation could not make "the common people attached to each other and the armored soldiers strong" ("Three Kingdoms·Wei Zhi·Wu Di Ji").He promulgated land rent and household regulation precisely in order to realize the equalization of tax burden.

Zhang Juzheng of the Ming Dynasty discussed the significance of equal distribution in a more profound way.First, he believes that equalization is an important measure to increase national fiscal revenue.He pointed out that the tyrants have land but don't pay them, and they pass the tax on to the poor.If the taxation is equal, the peasants will not flee due to excessive taxation, and the gentry and dignitaries pay the same tax as the common people according to the amount of land they own, the tax revenue of the country can be greatly increased.Second, he believes that equalization can reduce the burden on the poor and help alleviate social class contradictions.He pointed out that the reason why the people gathered together to rebel was mainly due to the looting by corrupt officials and the annexation by powerful and powerful people, and the burden on the people was too heavy.If the country's land tax is equalized, and the heavy burden on the shoulders of the poor is given to the big landlords, so that the poor peasants can survive, they will not rebel.This is obviously conducive to social stability and the consolidation of the feudal regime.Third, equalization is ultimately beneficial to the fundamental interests of the big landlord class itself.He pointed out that the reason why big landlords have ten thousand wealth and not be robbed by others is because of the protection of national laws.Now they evade the state's taxes, breaking the state's laws, and once the state's laws are violated, their property will lose their security.If they can pay taxes according to the law like other common people, and the laws of the country have been upheld, then even if they are like mountains of gold, others will not dare to peep.Therefore, although the equalization requires the big landlords to hand over some of their savings to the state, it makes their property obtain reliable legal protection from the state, which is in line with their fundamental interests.Zhang Juzheng's exposition fully demonstrated the class essence of the idea of ​​equal burden in feudal society.

Since equalization would violate the vested interests of the big landlord class, when the principle of equalization was put into practice, they would always encounter their stubborn resistance.As the political representative of the big landlord class, the feudal country always shifted the burden of taxes and labor to the poor to accommodate the interests of the big landlord class.Therefore, although the idea of ​​equal burden has been repeatedly emphasized in history, it has never been really implemented in the history of feudal taxation.