Chapter 46 Section 12 The Miserable Life of "Zhanhu" in the Yuan Dynasty

In order to control the people more effectively, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty divided the people into several professional households according to different industries, such as civilian households, military households, artisan households, medical households, Confucian households, etc. Among them, there is a special household called "station household". ". As the name suggests, "station account" is an account that is closely related to the station.There were many post stations in the Yuan Dynasty, and the expenses required were also huge. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty passed these burdens on to the common people, and asked some households to bear the expenses of the post station servants.These households are called "station households".

The station household system began in the era of Wokuotai before Kublai Khan unified China.At that time, it was stipulated that every 100 households in the vicinity of the post station would send out 10 vehicles, and each household would pay one nanometer per stone per year.After Kublai Khan unified the north and the south, a large number of post stations were set up, and some households were selected to serve as special station households.These station households are separated from the civilian households, and are not registered in the civilian household registration, but in the station household registration.Once registered, it is inherited from generation to generation and cannot be changed.

Most of the station households are former ordinary farmers and herdsmen, and they bear a very heavy post station tax and labor.First of all, they have to provide meals for the officials coming and going at various post stations. It is called "Shousi" in Mongolian and "Lingi", "Yinshan" or "Zhiying" in Chinese.This is not a small burden, especially when princes, nobles and high officials are entrusted with it, delicacies from mountains and seas are extremely extravagant.Secondly, the means of transportation for the envoys was also provided, mainly horses at that time, and in some places, cattle, donkeys, dogs, and vehicles, as well as perennial fodder, harness and vehicle accessories.The cost is not small.Thirdly, station households also undertake the labor of post stations, such as acting as guides, coachmen, boatmen, and porters for envoys.These errands are unpaid, and you have to bring your own food and drink.

In the late Yuan Dynasty, due to political corruption, the officials on the post road acted like a domineering and oppressed the people along the post.If the staff at the post station are not satisfied, they will be hanged and beaten immediately.In addition to the heavy burden of station service at that time, within four months of Yuan Chengzong's reign, the horses were raised more than 13,300 times. Even if all the horses were on the road day and night, they could not handle it.As a result, a large number of post animals fell and died on the way.On June 23, the first year of Yuanyou (AD 1314), 199 stall horses and 24 post camels were reported to have died in Gansu Province alone ("Yongle Dadian" volume 19421).

These burdens made Yuan Dynasty station households breathless.Some really couldn't hold on, so they had to leave their hometowns, fled outside, and finally died of old age in the wilderness.Xu Youren, a poet of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote a poem describing their miserable life: "There is no end to fur in the winter, and there is not enough food in the good year. I occupy the post for the people's residence, and the bones of the horse are like my bones. The bundles of grass and buckets [shu uncle] are all sweated out of blood and sweat." ..." ("Zhi Zheng Ji").It means that I am still wearing a tattered leather jacket in the cold winter, and even in the harvest year, it is difficult to have enough food.Being a naturalized station household suffers like a drafted horse.Every bunch of hay and every bucket of grain handed over are all paid by my blood and sweat!In the end, this poem called out their injustice for the poor Zhan households: "Birds are willing to be slaves, and horses are willing to feed millet." Are we willing to be cows and horses for generations, as cheap as slaves?This poem faithfully reflects the life of station households in the Yuan Dynasty.

Under such heavy oppression and exploitation, the station households went bankrupt one after another. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty's Zhanchi system based on the blood and sweat of the station households could not be maintained.At that time, there was a historian who said: "Standing red and disappearing, the accumulation is not a day", and "the disadvantages cannot be changed in the end" ("Yongle Dadian" volume 19420).If we can't reform the old disadvantages, we can only go to extinction. At the beginning of the 14th century, according to the statistics of Ganquan Post Station in Gansu Province: 60 years ago, there were 348 station households in this station, and only 176 households remained after 60 years.Station households fled or became monks one after another.