The disintegration of the equal land system
In the mid-Tang Dynasty, due to the improvement of social productive forces and the development of commodity economy, land annexation was unprecedented, and state-owned land was constantly transferred to Yang Yan in various ways.
Turning it into private land, the land controlled by the government is becoming scarcer and scarcer, and the government has no land to grant land. At the same time, the Tang government levied exorbitant taxes and levies on the peasants who had originally granted land, and the peasants were unbearable, or fled in succession, or sold their land to take refuge in aristocratic bureaucratic landlords as tenant farmers. "Ding Kouzi is loyal and blind." In the first year of Jianzhong in Tang Dezong (780), at the suggestion of Prime Minister Yang Yan, two tax laws were promulgated, and the land equalization system collapsed.
The purpose of editing this land equalization system
The purpose of the land equalization system is to establish a fixed land system, coordinate the internal contradictions of the ruling class, ease the resistance of the ruled, combine the labor force with the land, facilitate the government's control over farmers, restore and develop agricultural production, and ensure the source of government labor. At the same time, the interests of aristocratic bureaucrats and landlords were protected by means of handmaiden, plowing cattle, receiving farmland (before the Sui Dynasty) or granting permanent farmland according to official property (after the Sui Dynasty).
The role of editing this equal land system
First of all, to a certain extent, landless peasants have acquired the ownerless wasteland, which makes it possible for them to live and work in peace and contentment, and their enthusiasm for production has increased. At the same time, a large area of wasteland has been reclaimed, and the grain output has been increasing, which has actively promoted the recovery and development of the northern economy; Secondly, the land equalization system is the land ownership system of feudal countries, which does not touch the interests of feudal landlords. On the one hand, it is beneficial for the state to collect taxes and corvee, on the other hand, it promotes the feudalization of the Northern Wei regime and fundamentally consolidates the rule of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Thirdly, the implementation of the equal land system greatly promoted the transformation of backward nomadic life of all ethnic groups in the north to feudal farmers, and promoted the emergence of the climax of great ethnic integration in the north during this period; In addition, the farmland equalization system had a great influence on the farmland system of later generations, which was adopted in the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty for more than 300 years. The choice and implementation of this system laid a solid material foundation for the emergence of China's feudal heyday.
The disadvantages of editing this equal land system
Although the land equalization system includes private land, the only land that can be given and accepted is ownerless land and wasteland, and the number is limited. As a result, farmers in the fields generally failed to reach their due amount at first. Although Kubenden stipulates that old age, physical weakness and physical death are official duties, in fact, very few officials can be returned. With the increase of population and the occupation of a large number of public land by aristocratic bureaucratic landlords legally and illegally, less and less land can be granted back. Although Tian Jun ordered restrictions on the sale and possession of land, Tian Jun farmers lack land, their economic strength is weak and their tax burden is heavy. In the face of natural and man-made disasters, they were forced to sell their land and go bankrupt and flee. It is inevitable that landlords will annex land. Because of this, the equal land system was destroyed soon after it was implemented in the Northern Wei Dynasty. After the war in the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were more ownerless land and wasteland. The Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties, the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty followed, but they were all destroyed after implementation. After the peasant uprising at the end of Sui Dynasty, the population was greatly reduced and the land was barren. The newly established Tang dynasty re-implemented the equal land system and achieved remarkable results. After Tang Gaozong, the land equalization system was gradually destroyed. With the development of land ownership of big landlords, state-owned land has been transformed into private land in various ways. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, it was almost impossible to recover the land. After the implementation of the two tax laws in the first year of Dezong Jianzhong, the land equalization system finally collapsed.
Research on the Establishment of the Land Equalization System in this Section
The essence of equal land system
There are two opinions in academic circles: 1, and the land equalization system is the land ownership of feudal countries. However, this theory has different understandings of whether the land equalization system includes private land that has long existed in society. Research on equal field system
Scholars believe that the original private land has been incorporated into the land equalization system. Some scholars believe that private land exists outside the land equalization system and coexists with it. 2. The land equalization system has duality, including both the land ownership of feudal countries and private land ownership. When the Northern Wei Dynasty implemented the land equalization system, on the one hand, there were a lot of ownerless land and wasteland in northern China, which were traditionally owned by the state; On the one hand, it is the huge landlord power represented by the patriarch and the deep-rooted private ownership of land. The implementation of the land equalization system has not changed the ownership nature of private land. The duality of the land equalization system is the reflection of two objectively existing laws and regulations of different land ownership. The implementation of the land equalization order not only registered the state-owned land according to the names of mulberry fields and open fields, but also registered the original private land according to the provisions of the land equalization order, so as to offset the due amount without changing the ownership. This principle was carried out in the equal land system from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty and remained unchanged. Open field (Kubunden), work field, public field, etc. All belong to the state within the scope of equal farmland system. The original private fields, garden houses, mulberry fields (Martin, Shi Ye and Yongye fields), Guanren Yongye fields, Xuntian and Citian, etc. Are all private. These two kinds of land with different feudal ownership coexist, influence and transform each other within the scope of equal land system, and the feudal landlord land ownership is dominant.
Scope of implementation of equal land system
There have been different opinions on the scope of implementation of the equal land system in academic circles. One view is that from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the system of equal land was always implemented only in the north of China, but not in the south of the Yangtze River. One view is that after the Sui and Chen Dynasties unified the north and the south, the land equalization system was implemented in the south of the Yangtze River. The implementation of the land equalization system has affirmed the ownership and possession of land, reduced disputes over land property rights, and is conducive to the reclamation of landless wasteland, thus playing a positive role in the recovery and development of agricultural production.
Number of land granted under the equal land system
The number of receiving fields stipulated in the average land law refers to the maximum number of fields that should be received. When the land equalization order is implemented, except for the original private land and the occupied small piece of unowned land, the number of households shall be registered according to the provisions of the land order, which shall be counted as overcharged and dissatisfied. Whether it can be made up depends on the time and place. Generally speaking, the vast majority of farmers do not own enough land. In the long war, a large number of landless and barren lands appeared, and farmers owned more land, such as Shandong in the Northern Wei Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty. However, there is an imbalance between different regions. From the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, all land distribution orders were divided into wide townships and narrow townships. At the time of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, Lingkou in Guanzhong was a small rural area with only 30 acres of farmland. Some areas are less than 30 acres. In times of relative peace, farmers got little land because of the lack of ownerless land. For example, in the early Sui Dynasty, there were only 20 mu of Ding in the narrow township, and there was even less land without Ding Gateway. Judging from the documentary records, the hand-held, bookkeeping and household registration found in Dunhuang and Turpan, as well as the books, land grants and lack of land granted by abel tamata, the land equalization order has undoubtedly been implemented. Until the Kaiyuan period, Xizhou was still granting land, although the number of land granted was very small.
Edit the land equalization system and tax system in this paragraph.
The equal land system is closely related to the tax system. The promulgation of equal land system is to increase tax revenue, so the change of the content of equal land system will also cause the change of tax system. After the announcement of the Tian Jun Order, the Northern Wei Dynasty formulated a new rent system. Farmers in Tian Jun, in addition to Ding Nan's garrison and handyman, have a husband and a woman to give silks or a horse (four feet) and millet stones. There are four unmarried men and women over 15 years old, eight handmaiden engaged in farming and weaving, and twenty oxen, and their rents are equivalent to the number of monogamous women respectively. The above contents have changed in various dynasties. The Northern Zhou Dynasty mainly abolished the name of "double fields" and changed it to "one husband and one woman 140 mu" and "single ding 100 mu". The age of closing the field was changed to eighteen and retired at sixty-five. The burden of labor is changed to monogamy, one silk horse, eight taels of cotton (or one cloth horse, ten catties of hemp), five loads of rent for millet, and half of Dan Ding. Ding Nan, 18 to 59 years old, served for 30 days a year. In the third year of Heqing in the Northern Qi Dynasty (564), the Land Equalization Order was re-promulgated, which stipulated that all the land within 30 miles of Yecheng should be used as public land and distributed to Yu Lin and Hu Ben (the so-called "relocated households" who had just moved to Luoyang) according to the equal difference. Land within 30 miles and 100 miles is distributed to Han officials and soldiers according to the equal difference. Hundreds of miles away and the States are general areas, and the number of fields collected and the number of years of returning farmland are roughly the same as those in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. The number of handmaiden recipients is limited to 300 to 60 according to official products. The burden of labor, the tone of monogamy is the same as that of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and the rent is to plow two stones and rent five buckets. A maid is half a good citizen. In the second year of Sui Dynasty (582), Dingnan and NANBERT ZHONG received the same amount of land as the Northern Qi Dynasty. The outstanding point in the supplementary content is that the permanent land of officers is suitable for grades. From the king to the governor, the maximum grant is 100 hectare, and the minimum grant is 40 acres. In addition, officials at home and abroad grant vocational fields (vocational fields) according to grades, with a maximum of five hectares and a minimum of one hectare. The internal and external offices of the government also give the public a public use area. The burden of labor is to have a husband and a wife as the bed, rent three stones of millet, adjust one horse (reduced to two feet in the second year), and make three liang of cotton. Single Ding, handmaiden, folk song and guest girl are paid by half a bed. Ding Nan served 30 days a year (reduced to 20 days in the second year). Emperor Yang Di Yang Guang acceded to the throne, exempting women and handmaiden from paying rent and abolishing their system of receiving land.