Gengfu is the money levied on behalf of those who should serve but fail to serve according to regulations. The Han Dynasty stipulated that every adult man has the obligation to serve as a regular soldier, a guard soldier and a garrison soldier; but it is not required as soon as he reaches the age of service.
To serve, the number of people who serve does not need to be so large. When there is no need to serve or you have money and do not want to serve, you can pay for the service according to regulations. This kind of payment for service is called Gengfu.
In the Han Dynasty, the collection standards for Gengfu were: (1) For regular soldiers: if they did not serve in person, they could pay two thousand, and the government would hire someone to serve on their behalf. (2) For garrison soldiers, if they did not serve, each of them would pay three hundred per year.
.Since the number of garrison soldiers increased or decreased depending on the amount of national labor services and the use of troops, especially in the Eastern Han Dynasty, garrison soldiers were often recruited from criminals. The payment and use of more taxes varied in different periods, which made
There is a partial balance in the fund used for corvee (gengfu), and this balance belongs to the national fiscal revenue.
There was another important measure for corvee service in the Han Dynasty: Buying, that is, selling the right to be exempted from service. Buying began with Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty. At that time, one could obtain the right to be exempted from service by paying a certain amount of grain to the country and buying a title of five or more officials.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, many people were allowed to buy restitution. For example, during the Yuanshuo period (124-123 BC), due to excessive military expenditures and empty treasury, the people were allowed to pay a certain number of slaves and be exempted from the obligation to serve for life.
During the Yuanfeng period (109 BC - 108 BC), it was allowed to pay grain to buy immunity from servitude. In the sixth year of Yuan Shuo (123 BC), Emperor Wu sold martial arts nobles again, divided into seventeen levels, this time for money or gold.
, whoever buys the prescribed title will not be required to perform corvee service for life, and will not be required to pay any more taxes.
Although the country can temporarily gain some income through the implementation of the buy-back measure, it is not cost-effective for the country in the long run. A few decades later, in the third year of Emperor Yongguang of the Yuan Dynasty (41 BC), because there were fewer people serving,
It has brought difficulties to the country. Of course, this measure is beneficial to the rich and powerful families, but if the rich families are exempted from corvee, the feudal rulers will impose it on the working people, making the working people unbearable.