Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The seventh year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, 1132 AD.

This year's Lantern Festival is even more lively. The holiday only lasts for seven days, but the lantern festival lasts for ten days.

On the third day of February, under the dissuasion of his ministers, Zhu Guoxiang officially decided to abdicate and chose to hand over power at the end of the month.

Then, the cabinet and the Ministry of Rites began to discuss changing the Yuan Dynasty.

The change will not be until New Year's Day next year, but we should discuss it now, and it will save trouble to decide it early.

"Yongle" definitely doesn't work, it's too damn annoying.

The first person to use the Yongle reign name was Zhang Chonghua of the Qianliang Dynasty, and it was the reign name established by the "Fake Liang King".

This man worked hard to govern in the early stage, but in the later stage he indulged in pleasure. After his death, his son was usurped, and a bunch of relatives killed him. In the end, Fu Jian destroyed the country.

The second person to use the Yongle reign name was Zhang Yuxian of the Fifth Dynasty.

This person was a Hakka and was an official. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Arhat. He rebelled in Lingnan and once reached Ganzhou. Eventually, all the generals rebelled and defected to the Southern Tang Dynasty, and Zhang Yuxian was taken to Jinling to be beheaded.

The third person with the Yongle reign name is familiar to everyone, and that is Fang La.

Yongle and Changle have similar meanings.

King Murong Sheng of Changle, his second reign title after proclaiming himself emperor was Changle. He was cruel and brutal, killing innocent people indiscriminately, and was eventually assassinated.

There was also a Changle King in the Tang Dynasty who was Li Shimin's uncle. He led troops on the border for a long time and defeated the Turks many times. He was accused of secretly cultivating retainers. He also made friends with foreign forces in an attempt to usurp the throne of his nephew as the emperor's uncle. He was sentenced to death by Li Shimin.

Looking at the reign names of the past dynasties, there are really few that are worse than Yongle and Changle.

Prime Minister Zhai Ruwen said: "The country's name is Ming Dynasty, and it should be prosperous."

All the ministers praised it one after another and thought that the reign name "Jingxing" was good.

Scenery, the light of the sun and moon.

Xing, flourishing.

Jingxing means that the Ming Dynasty will prosper from now on.

The rest of the cabinet ministers named several reign names one after another. The meanings were very good, but they were far less appropriate than "Jingxing".

It seems to be settled.

Zhu Ming said to Huan Guo: "You are the new Minister of Rites, and you will also have one on behalf of the Ministry of Rites."

Huan Guo first bowed to Zhu Ming and then bowed his hands to Zhai Ruwen:

"Since His Highness the Crown Prince raised his troops, he overthrew the Song Dynasty, defeated the Xia, destroyed the Chu State, and conquered the Jin Dynasty. His martial arts achievements were unparalleled in the world. In the previous Song Dynasty, the faint king and traitorous ministers were in power. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince upheld the law. Shangshu angrily rebuked the six thieves and organized Guizhou. Unyielding. Now that the Ming Dynasty has begun to emerge, it is the time to be enterprising and pioneering. Restoring the prosperous age of the Han and Tang Dynasties is just around the corner. Please change the Yuan Dynasty to Qiandao."

Xiao Chu echoed: "With the changes in the main roads, everyone is rectifying their lives and maintaining peace, which is beneficial to the people. Good weather!"

The "Qian Dao" era name is really good, and it is even more awesome when combined with the Qian hexagrams of the "Book of Changes".

It means that all things in the world are about to mature and prosper, and all things (including people and industries) can obtain their due value and position. The world will inevitably become harmonious and complete, and everything will develop in a good direction.

Moreover, Qiandao also means the origin of all things, vigor and enterprising, pioneering and innovative, continuous self-improvement, stability and long-term meaning.

The ministers praised "Jingxing" before, but now they think "Qiandao" is good.

At this time, Xie Kejia, the minister of Honglu Temple, said: "Although the main road is good, the Lord of Xixia has already used it."

The ministers were stunned, but a few people quickly realized that this was the reign name of the Xixia puppet emperor Li Bingchang.

Xiao Chu and Huan Guo were also quite surprised. Xixia's Qiandao reign only lasted two years. They really didn't know it without looking through historical materials.

It was also because the Xie Ke family was in charge of Honglu Temple that they needed to be familiar with the situation in various countries, and they were sent to the Hanlin Academy to study history. Only then did they remember that the Qiandao era name was used by Xixia.

Ju Ming was not satisfied with "Jingxing" and thought it was too formal and unimpressive: "As for the year name, you can think about it slowly when you go back. It must be finalized before November. There is still more than half a year left."

"yes!"

All ministers took orders.

Ju Ming added: "Reign names cannot be changed frequently, so as not to make it difficult to distinguish between eras. From now on, a Ming emperor can only have one reign name for his entire life."

Although the ministers were surprised by this, they had no reason to object.

The emperor didn't want to mess around, and they could save a lot of trouble.

In particular, officials who advocate virtue and benevolent government are more happy to see this situation.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, various etiquettes have been written into the "Ming Law".

The first is to establish a simple funeral and sacrificial style.

The emperor's mourning period and tombs were restored to those in the early Song Dynasty, focusing on not disturbing the people.

The second is to weaken taboos.

As long as it doesn't completely overlap with the emperor's name, it doesn't matter if one or two characters are the same.

There was also a mess of taboo words created by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, such as "dragon", which were all removed from the taboo words.

Ju Ming continued: "After the handover, the positions of officials in the cabinet, monasteries and monasteries will not change."

"Prince Shengming!"

All the ministers shouted in unison, feeling completely relieved.

Ju Ming said again: "When I ascended the throne, I will not amnesty the world's criminals, but I will reduce taxes for all people in the world. The cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs will discuss a tax reduction strategy. Remember, merchants' bed tax, shop tax, overtax and so on It can’t be reduced.”

This is benevolent government and must be praised, and officials will pay homage to it again.

Ju Ming is still saying: "In the tax reduction edict, the following content should also be written -"

“First, all provinces must comprehensively and steadily implement the method of apportioning one person to one mu.”

"Secondly, when clearing the land, landowners are encouraged to go to the government to self-report their hidden land. If the self-reported land is verified correctly, the tax payment in previous years will no longer be held accountable. If any hidden land is discovered by the government, not only must the arrears be paid Taxes, and fines of ten times the amount of money and food!”

"Third, the imperial court will send a large number of censors to various places to inspect tax collection. Except for the fixed quota of rat and bird consumption that has been in place since the Five Dynasties, all other changes, face consumption, and miscellaneous factions will be cancelled. This is a rule set since the founding of the country, but it was not until last year There are still officials collecting taxes. Now with the reform of civil servants, grassroots officials have their salaries, and we are absolutely not allowed to levy excessive taxes anymore! If you are caught, you will be dismissed from office and exiled, and in serious cases, you will be beheaded!"

…

The Song Dynasty's crazy tax increases started with the great Song Renzong.

The direct result of the tax increase can be seen from central statistics.

According to official data throughout the Northern Song Dynasty, household registration and farm acres have been increasing across the country. The only exception was during the reign of Song Renzong, where both the household registration and the number of acres of land fell.

The Ministry of Revenue quickly came up with a tax reduction plan and submitted it to the cabinet for discussion.

Fang Mengqing, Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, told the cabinet ministers: "In the former Song Dynasty, the remnant people increased taxes. Since the Renzong Dynasty, commercial taxes have been especially increased. Even farmers outside Kaifeng who carry melons and fruits into the city to sell are taxed. Farmers have already paid two taxes for farming. If they sell more melons and fruits, they will be levied commercial taxes. But ordinary people carry a few melons and fruits into the city and just sell them along the streets to make a small living. At this time, they go to collect commercial taxes. How can you bear it?"

Song Renzong frantically increased commercial taxes, reducing the national agricultural tax rate to 56% of the total tax revenue. This is unimaginable in an agricultural society.

Have farmers received any benefits?

of course not.

The imperial court increased agricultural taxes in disguise through various factions. As soon as this trend increased, officials took the opportunity to follow up and exploited farmers wildly, but the national treasury did not increase much.

Fang Mengqing said: "The tax reduction strategy for commercial taxes is to reduce or cancel it as appropriate, and restore it to the beginning of Song Renzong's accession to the throne. Of course it is not a full restoration, but about half of the tax increase should be retained, because the tax collection in the early Song Dynasty was indeed not high. The main thing is It is to cancel the tax increase on small businessmen and hawkers, especially the tax on farmers who go to cities to sell goods!"

"In terms of agricultural taxes, the regular taxes in the former Song Dynasty were not increased much, and various assessments emerged in endlessly. The Ming court had issued repeated orders, but local officials were still collecting them, and the collections became more and more hidden. Even the censors were prone to neglect. Especially the censors were prone to neglect. It is the "buqi money". The three parties of officials, businessmen and officials colluded, and the robbery in the past has become the current one. Not only the small people are harassed by the cloth, but even the big landowners are suffering. Be ruthless Deal with it severely!"

How outrageous were the miscellaneous taxes in the Song Dynasty?

I raise a cow. I have to pay tax while the cow is alive. If the cow dies, I still have to pay a tax.

If there are more children in the family, they will have to bear more corvee labor. If there is a separation, there will be a fine.

Not only are there taxes on buying and selling houses, but they are also taxed on repairs!

By the way, there is also the farm equipment tax.

If I add a few hoes to my family, I have to pay taxes. This thing was only abolished for a while during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty.

Collecting it again and again, even "shoe money" was born.

If you want to wear shoes, then you have to pay for them.

It is extremely difficult to collect this kind of messy miscellaneous taxes, and the central court cannot actually collect them into the national treasury. Most of the miscellaneous taxes were inherited from the Five Dynasties, but the Song Dynasty never abolished them, which was regarded as acquiescence to the corruption of local officials.

Officials are too lazy to collect taxes one by one according to tax types, and directly let the township servants (xiangshou, Lizheng, Baochang, etc.) allocate the taxes.

Now, Ju Ming wants to kill them all.

If the government fails to change after repeated orders, then "unruly people will be encouraged to file complaints."

"Difficult people" generally come from small and medium-sized landlord families. They have read some books and know some words, but they cannot escape the exploitation of officials.

Let the censors inspect the villages and towns, live in the towns for a period of time, post notices at the market towns, and set up an anonymous mailbox. If the "tricksters" who have read the book see it, they will probably come quietly and complain anonymously.

Every time a case of random taxation was uncovered, the censors would be credited with merit and given monetary rewards.

In recent years, censors have been promoted the fastest.

A large number of censors became local officials due to their political performance, which has become a shortcut to promotion.

Although this thing offends people, it rises quickly and has a good reputation. If a new Jinshi is selected as a low-level censor, he will be happier than being directly sent to the county magistrate. If he is lucky and solves a major case, he may be promoted to the county magistrate in a year and a half, or he may be promoted quickly in the censor system.

Zhai Ruwen carefully read the tax reduction plan submitted by the Ministry of Household Affairs and couldn't help but sigh: "This is a blessing for all people."

The ministers looked at each other and smiled. The prince played this skill beautifully.

He cut taxes as soon as he took the throne, and his reputation as a benevolent government was firmly established. No matter how cruel the other methods are, they still belong to a benevolent king. Tax reductions after enthroning the throne are written into the history books and cannot be changed. At most, many people among the people whisper bad things.

So, how to determine the year name?

Perhaps we can move closer to benevolent governance and use the reign name to reflect the new monarch's moral governance.

…

(The Industrial Revolution is not a panacea. Don’t build an industrial country at every turn. First, cotton is still being promoted, and the conditions for the prosperity of the textile industry are not sufficient. Second, the Industrial Revolution will accelerate land annexation, leading to more landless refugees. Third , the landless refugees caused public security chaos, and their number far exceeded the factory’s demand for workers, which led to more serious exploitation of workers...)

(There is no second update today.)