Chapter 701
The New Constitution of Gengwu
Throughout history, the most hated thing in politics has been the census, and the most difficult thing to implement has been the land reclamation.
This is not hard to understand. During the Spring and Autumn Period, in Confucius' time, there was a saying that oppressive government was more ferocious than a tiger. This oppressive government essentially consisted of forced labor and taxes. After the court inspected the land registers, it could force the people into hard labor; after clearing the fields, it could levy taxes from their homes. Later generations said that taking someone's money was like killing their parents. Therefore, the people inherently abhorred land registration and clearing, preferring to flee to the deep mountains and forests to cultivate wasteland, even if it meant facing tigers and leopards, rather than accept the court's control.
But this is no longer an era of small, sparsely populated states. The rule of the Three Dynasties is a distant legend. To survive amidst the various natural and man-made disasters of a chaotic world, the power of the collective is indispensable. However, compared to being governed by the imperial court, most people tend to become tenant farmers or hidden households of local powerful clans.
The reason is simple: although becoming a recluse of a scholar meant paying a considerable amount of land rent and being subject to the demands of powerful clans, at least one wouldn't have to leave their hometown to perform hard labor, nor would they have to worry about being suddenly conscripted by the court and sent to the battlefield to fight for their lives. Between two evils, one should choose the lesser; when it comes to how to live longer, the common people are quite wise.
In this way, the manors of scholars had a large number of hidden retainers as guests, which gave them the capital to resist the government. A small county usually had no more than forty or fifty officials, and unless it was a border area, the county was not allowed to have county soldiers. Facing the local powerful families who ruled over their land and lived in clans, it was naturally extremely difficult to conduct a thorough investigation and clear up the land registers. Rather than a fight to the death, it was better to compromise.
Liu Xian was well aware of this; a swift and decisive victory in the land survey was impossible. Given the current situation, with the realm still unsettled, the only option was to take a long-term approach, using a gradual, incremental method to suppress local powerful families and win over the people to the court's side.
Therefore, Liu Xian and Lu Zhi discussed that although the imperial court had ordered a nationwide review of land registration and clearing of fields, the order of priority should be clarified, proceeding from easy to difficult and from near to far. Thus, the first round of registration and land clearing should primarily target Jingzhou and Xiangzhou. After the first round of registration and land clearing has been successful, the second round will be implemented in Yizhou and Jiangzhou, the third in Guangzhou and Ningzhou, and the fourth in Yangzhou and Jiaozhou.
Similarly, regarding the specific strategies for clearing land registrations, Lu Zhi also advocated against being too forceful at the beginning. He believed in the principle of "casting a long line to catch a big fish," suggesting that they should first engage peacefully with local powerful families, identify problems comprehensively, and then resolve them in stages.
He plans to divide this round of registration and land clearing into four steps.
The first step was to promote the imperial policies in various counties and prefectures within the state, while simultaneously rebuilding grassroots organizations below the county level and clearly defining the specific persons in charge of land registration and land survey.
As mentioned above, ordinary people always harbored a certain degree of fear towards the imperial court's policy of inspecting land registers and clearing up land ownership. Therefore, the imperial court needed to make appropriate concessions and conduct publicity in the short term to improve its image and dispel the concerns of the common people.
To address this issue, Liu Xian's first edict at his coronation was to reduce land taxes nationwide. For the next two years, the taxes collected by the Yi'an court would be only half of those of the previous dynasty. Households with only elderly people over fifty or children under fifteen were exempted from taxes. For households with only wives and daughters remaining, the government was to find them marriage partners.
This is certainly a policy that benefits the people. Generally speaking, the land rent levied by powerful families on unregistered households is slightly higher than that levied by the imperial court, but ordinary tenant farmers can tolerate this in order to avoid corvée labor. If the imperial court makes concessions to this extent, and with half of the country unified and no major wars in the short term, unregistered households have no reason to make things difficult for themselves and continue to suffer under the rule of powerful families.
In this way, the imperial court could use this opportunity to quietly begin its work, and then openly start registering households and investigating land ownership. Otherwise, if they didn't know how much land each household owned, how could they determine the amount of tax reduction or exemption? How could they know how many people were in each household, and how could they implement tax exemptions? This would also prevent the court from inciting hostility among the people.
However, relying solely on the existing county officials was insufficient to truly carry out the work of inspecting land registers and clearing up land. Conservatively speaking, an average county covers an area of about a hundred li, with over a thousand households and nearly ten thousand people. A county official typically numbered only fifty or sixty, plus several hundred local militia recruited to serve as county soldiers, which was enough to maintain the operation of a county seat.
If county officials were to be assigned to this task, at most a dozen or twenty people could be spared. The county soldiers and local militia who assisted them lacked sufficient military strength and were deeply entrenched with local powerful figures. To expect them to carry out the land survey and registration of nearly ten thousand people was undoubtedly a pipe dream.
Therefore, it is necessary to rebuild an administrative system that extends deep into the townships within the county, both to strengthen the county government's control and to ensure the appropriate cooperation of local powerful families, so that there are rules to follow and that things are done in accordance with the law.
In fact, the ancients were aware of this long ago.
In the Qin and Han dynasties, the county level was divided into three tiers: township, pavilion, and village, to strengthen governance. The village was the most basic unit, with a maximum of one hundred households. Its head was the village head, sometimes elected internally and sometimes appointed by the county government. The village head was responsible for managing the villagers, registering households, and calculating land ownership. Above the village was the pavilion, directly under the county government. There was usually one pavilion every ten villages. Each pavilion had a pavilion head, who typically led several dozen locally recruited soldiers to maintain order within the ten villages under his jurisdiction, and had the power of arrest and law enforcement. Above the pavilion were the townships, usually ten pavilions per township. If a county had fewer than ten pavilions, it would not have a township. The township was led by three elders, a steward, and a patrolman. The three elders were responsible for moral education, the steward for litigation, and the patrolman for inspection.
This three-tiered system created a vast and dense network, giving Qin and Han dynasty county governments unprecedented control over population and land, leading to county magistrates being referred to as "lords of a hundred li." However, since the Wei and Jin dynasties, while the administrative divisions of villages and hamlets were not completely abolished, they were largely ineffective except in some border areas under military pressure, especially the village head, who was completely abolished. They were replaced by powerful clans that dominated the villages, forcing county governments to send officials to negotiate governance with these clans.
Now, if Liu Xian wants to rebuild such a huge system, it's nothing short of a pipe dream. Even if Liu Xian wanted to force it, he couldn't find that many officials.
Therefore, Lu Zhi suggested to Liu Xian that they should first establish a system, setting up villages, circuits, and townships below the county level.
The biggest change here was undoubtedly the abolition of the pavilion-level administrative divisions and the establishment of the circuits. This was because Lu Zhi believed that restoring the pavilion-level administrative divisions would be too blatant in their coercion of powerful local families, potentially exacerbating conflicts between the county government and the townships. Administrative divisions below the county level already possessed a strong element of autonomy; restoring the county government's direct jurisdiction to the township level was already a significant achievement. Below the township level, autonomy should remain, with the county government acting as a mediator and arbitrator. Therefore, the abolition of pavilions and the establishment of circuits was intended to demonstrate this.
Therefore, leaders were elected internally at the village and circuit levels. Ten households formed a "zi" (梓), with one "zihu" (梓护) appointed. Ten "zi" formed a "li" (里), with one "lizheng" (里正), one "lijian" (里监), and three "lizuo" (里佐). Ten "li" formed a "dao" (道), with one "daozheng" (道正), two "daoxun" (道巡), and six "daozuo" (道佐). These people were responsible for self-regulating household registers and land surveys. The court provided them with the privilege of exemption from corvée labor and exemption from a certain amount of land tax, but they were not considered officials, referred to as "wuzhi" (无秩), or "xiangyuan" (乡愿). Although the candidates they elected were probably local powerful figures, this was not surprising. Next, the county government divided five "dao" into a "xiang" (乡), appointing one "xianglang" (乡郎), one "xiangyu" (乡喻), and one "xiangbu" (乡捕), who were court officials who paid salaries and liaised with the "xiangyuan" of the "dao" and "li". The "xiangyuan" would submit a number of household registers and land records, which were probably inaccurate, but so what? With a system as the framework and concrete household registers and land records as the basis, there was a reason for correction.
This is Lu Zhi's first task, and also the most tedious one, which will take about half a year to complete.
The second step is simpler; once the administrative framework is rebuilt, it can begin operating. Following the principle of starting with the easy and then moving to the difficult, this step will address issues that are unlikely to provoke conflict.
After publicizing the national policy of tax reduction and exemption, the first step was to register the households and lands willing to be placed under the jurisdiction of the county government, thus fulfilling the imperial court's promise and establishing the court's credibility in the local area. Then, by using the reclamation of land by displaced people and the granting of land to meritorious officials as a breakthrough, the county government's control was gradually strengthened.
The reason for this was that after the wars of previous years, Xiangzhou had many refugees from Sichuan and Chongqing, while Jingzhou had many refugees from the Central Plains. These refugees, having left their homes, could only survive as tenant farmers and suffered oppression from local powerful families. Being weak and powerless, they naturally leaned towards the imperial court. By helping these refugees reclaim abandoned farmland and acknowledging their ownership of the land, the county government would naturally gain their support.
The same applies to the granting of land to nobles. By this time, military garrisons in each county should have been completed, and Han soldiers should have already moved in. After the county government completed the land granting, these armed forces, which had experienced battles, obeyed the imperial court, and were fully armored, were far superior to the local militias of the county government and would inevitably exert a strong deterrent effect on the local sycophants.
These tasks are expected to be completed within two or three months. Then comes the third and most difficult step: verifying any inaccuracies in the household registration and land records.
By this time, the county government had already gained some influence in the countryside, but it would still be quite difficult to confront all the local powerful families. Therefore, the county government should identify those household registrations and land records that were clearly inaccurate and punish the most discredited and notorious local bullies.
The principle is to first use courtesy before resorting to force, combining both kindness and severity. The previous preparations were merely acts of kindness, while this step is about exerting pressure. Only by suppressing these rising local tyrants and making an example of them can the county government establish true order.
Similarly, this will inevitably be the most intense step in the outbreak of conflict. The reason why powerful families are powerful is because their influence in the local area is deeply rooted. Once their fundamental interests are threatened, hiring assassins to kill is a minor matter, and even a clan uprising is not out of the question. If it is not handled properly, no, it should be said that something will definitely be handled improperly, and it will definitely have a very bad political impact, inevitably stirring up a huge wave of opposition to reforms throughout the government and the country.
Therefore, at this critical juncture, Liu Xian must maintain the utmost resolve to support the reforms and institutional changes, without any sign of backing down. Even the slightest hesitation could strengthen the opposition's counterattack. Simultaneously, he must act swiftly and decisively at the local level to minimize the negative impact of the investigation.
Only by weathering this counterattack and clearly punishing all the lawbreakers can the situation fundamentally improve. It's like climbing a hill; once this hurdle is overcome, the court will solidify its influence in the countryside, establish a controlled political order, and escape the predicament of making mistakes rather than doing anything, thus entering a virtuous cycle. From then on, all that's needed is to proceed step by step.
This is the fourth step: to fully extend the verification process and complete the remaining registration and land clearing in Jing and Xiang prefectures.
By this time, approximately two years should have passed, the exemption period has expired, and the imperial court can then levy taxes again based on the existing household registration and land register.
Lu Zhi also had entirely new ideas regarding tax collection. The tax system established since the Wei and Jin dynasties was too crude. Take land rent, for example: regardless of the type of land or the harvest year, the rent was a flat four sheng per mu, which was unreasonable. Since household registration had been implemented, land should be categorized. It could be divided according to its level of cultivation: newly cultivated virgin land and cultivated land that had been cultivated year-round. Furthermore, it could be divided according to the type of grain grown: paddy fields suitable for rice, dry fields suitable for millet and wheat, and miscellaneous fields suitable for other grains. Different land types would have different rents, thus encouraging farmers to cultivate new land and preventing unsuitable land from being abandoned.
Similarly, the household poll tax system was also unreasonable. Different families were of different wealth, so the result of levying three bolts of silk and three catties of cotton on everyone would inevitably lead to the continuous bankruptcy of poor families, while the rich families would be unaffected.
Therefore, Lu Zhi advocated classifying households as well. Landless tenant farmers were considered tenant households and were exempt from household tax, but were required to perform corvée labor for one month each year. Those occupying less than 30 mu were classified as lower-class households, paying one bolt of silk and one jin of cotton per adult male, and were also exempt from corvée labor. Those occupying between 30 and 60 mu were classified as middle-class households, paying three bolts of silk and three jin of cotton per adult male. Those occupying between 60 and 100 mu were classified as upper-class households, paying four bolts of silk and four jin of cotton per adult male. The highest-class households were wealthy households, paying an additional two feet of silk and two liang of cotton for each additional mu of land, with no upper limit.
In short, the new tax system's ideology was to alleviate the burden on the poor as much as possible, while levying more taxes on the powerful and wealthy. This would not only greatly increase the country's tax revenue but also improve the lives of ordinary people and be more conducive to long-term development. Therefore, Lu Zhi simply called it the tax-sharing law.
The combination of the tax-sharing system and the local gentry system constituted the main economic system of the imperial court. Together with the military reforms mentioned earlier, this formed the core of the Gengwu Reforms. Some minor details will be omitted here.
It is clear from this that Lu Zhi's top-down reforms of the court were not merely radical; they were more like crippling changes. To say four or five years would be premature, and even to see results would take at least two or three years.
Liu Xian, however, still held high hopes for this and resolutely pushed it through. In the nearly one year that followed, the two of them examined over a thousand volumes of ancient books and documents in the Secretariat alone—a veritable mountain of documents. The government decrees were also repeatedly revised and revised, totaling hundreds of thousands of words. They often discussed and argued until late at night, frequently resting at the Imperial Archives, seemingly unaware of fatigue. Later historical records, recalling this period, commented:
"Emperor Muwen and Lu Zhongxian plotted national reforms, discussing ancient and modern methods of governance, and tracing the policies of the sages of the Three Dynasties. The emperor and his minister were completely sincere and open, without any reservations, often talking face-to-face until late at night. Sometimes they would sit for a while, their seats shifting, unaware of the weariness they felt. Later, during the reforms, they faced criticism from treacherous officials and petty men, but even close relatives and old ministers could not interfere. People analyzed the situation, comparing the relationship between the two, saying it was like that of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. The prosperity of the Muwen, Wenxuan, Mingyuan, and Yuan dynasties began from this point." (End of Chapter)