The seventh year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, 1132 AD.
This year's Lantern Festival is even more lively. The holiday only lasts 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 decided 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 of Yuan will not be changed until New Year's Day next year, but we should discuss it now, and it will save trouble if we decide it early.
"Yongle" definitely won'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. Finally, Fu Jian destroyed the country.
The second person to bear the Yongle reign name was Zhang Yuxian of the Fifth Dynasty.
This person was a Hakka, an official, and 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. Zhang Yuxian was taken to Jinling and beheaded.
The third person with the Yongle reign name is familiar to everyone, and that is Fang La.
Yongle and Changle have similar meanings.
Murong Sheng, the king of Changle, was named Changle in his second reign after proclaiming himself emperor. He was cruel and brutal, killing innocent people indiscriminately, and was eventually assassinated.
There was another King of Changle in the Tang Dynasty, who was Li Shimin's uncle. He led troops in the frontier for a long time and defeated the Turks many times. He was accused of secretly cultivating retainers, and also made friends with foreign forces in an attempt to usurp his nephew's throne as the emperor's uncle. He was awarded by Li Shimin.
die.
Looking at the reign names of all dynasties, there are really few that are worse than Yongle and Changle.
Prime Minister Zhai Ruwen said: "The country is called Ming Dynasty, and it should be prosperous."
All the ministers praised it one after another and thought that the reign name "Jingxing" was a good one.
Scenery, the light of the sun and moon.
Xing, prosperous.
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 are very good, but they are not as appropriate as "Jingxing".
It seems to be settled.
Zhu Ming said to Huan Guo: "You are the new Minister of Rites, and you have one on behalf of the Ministry of Rites."
Huan Guo first bowed to Zhu Ming and then raised his hand to Zhai Ruwen:
"Since His Majesty the Crown Prince raised the army, he overthrew the Song Dynasty, defeated the Xia, destroyed Chu, and chased the Jin. His martial arts were unrivaled in the world. In the previous Song Dynasty, the faint king and the traitorous ministers were in power. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was strong and upright. Shangshu angrily rebuked the six thieves and took charge of Guizhou.
Unyielding. Now that the Ming Dynasty is emerging, 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: "Changes in the main roads, everyone's life is correct, and Taihe is harmonious, which is beneficial to Zhen. Good weather!"
The "Qian Dao" era name is really good, and it is even more awesome if it is combined with the Qian hexagram 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, the main road also means the beginning of all things, vigor and enterprising, pioneering and innovative, continuous self-improvement, stability and long-lasting meaning.
The ministers previously praised "Jingxing", but now they think "Qiandao" is also 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 also said: "Reign names cannot be changed frequently, so as not to be difficult to distinguish between eras. From now on, a Ming emperor can only have one reign name throughout his life."
Although the ministers were surprised by this, they had no reason to object.
The emperor didn't want to mess around, so they could save a lot of trouble.
In particular, officials who advocate virtue and benevolent government are more happy to see this kind of situation.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, various etiquettes have been written into the "Da 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 ascend 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 the like It cannot be reduced.”
This is benevolent government, we must praise it, and the 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 into an acre.”
"Secondly, when clearing the land, landlords are encouraged to go to the government to self-report their hidden land. If the self-reported land is correct, 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 collections. Except for the fixed quota of rat and bird consumption that has been in place since the Five Dynasties, all other changes, surface 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 that we are cooperating with the civil service reform, grassroots officials have their salaries, and we must not 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 for the entire Northern Song Dynasty, household registration and land acres have been increasing across the country. The exception was during the reign of Song Renzong, where both household registration and land acres fell.
The Ministry of Revenue quickly came up with a tax reduction plan and submitted it to the cabinet for discussion.
Fang Mengqing, the 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 should 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 was unimaginable in an agricultural society.
Have farmers received any benefits?
of course not.
The imperial court used various factions to increase agricultural taxes in disguise. 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 one after another. The Ming court had issued repeated orders, but local officials were still collecting them, and the collection became more and more hidden. Even the censors were prone to neglect. Especially
It's the "bui gai money". Officials, businessmen, and officials colluded with each other. From the past robbery, it has become the current swindling. Not only the small people are harassed by the cloth gai, but even the big landowners have suffered greatly. They should be punished ruthlessly
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 the family has more children, they will have to bear more corvées. If the family is divided, fines will be imposed.
Not only are there taxes on buying and selling houses, but there are also taxes on building repairs!
By the way, there is also a farm equipment tax.
Even 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 can be 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 (villagers, Li Zheng, Bao Chang, etc.) allocate the taxes.
Now, Ju Ming wants to abort 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 in the towns, and set up an anonymous mailbox. When "tricksters" who have read the book see it, they will most likely come quietly to complain anonymously.
Every time a case of arbitrary miscellaneous tax assessment is uncovered, merit will be recorded to the censors and monetary rewards will be given.
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 can be promoted 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 in a year and a half.
Become a county magistrate, or be promoted quickly in the imperial 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 the game beautifully.
He cut taxes as soon as he ascended the throne, and his reputation as a benevolent government was firmly established. No matter how harsh other measures were, they still belonged to a benevolent monarch. Tax reductions after he ascended the throne were written into the history books and could not be changed. At most, many people among the people quietly said 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...)