Food-oriented policy
In the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong, a statesman of Qi State, discussed the importance of grain production and grain reserve to the national economy and people's livelihood earlier. "Guanzi Herdsmen" said at the beginning: "Where there are land herders, they will stay in the granary at four o'clock. When the country has more money, people from afar will come, and when the land is improved, the people will stay. In fact, the granary knows etiquette, and food and clothing know honor and disgrace. " [1] indicates that the management of the country must pay attention to the arrangement of farming season and agricultural production, and the key to consolidating the country lies in grain reserves; When the country is rich, people from afar will come to us, the land will be extensively reclaimed, and the people will live and work in peace with the development of agriculture; When the grain reserves in the granary are full, the people will have plenty of food and clothing, and moral concepts such as etiquette and honor and disgrace will be promoted. This passage of Guan Zhong brilliantly expounds the decisive influence of material production on spiritual and moral production, and expounds the extreme importance of agricultural production and food saving.
Guan Zhong specifically emphasized the importance of food from two aspects: First, "people's lives are also important when grains eat rice" [2], emphasizing that food is the lifeblood of the people and its fundamental significance to people's livelihood; First, "millet, the skill of the king, the great event of people, the way of people, the way of governing the country" [3], emphasizing that grain production is an important task of the country, and grain is of great significance to governing the country. Guan Zhong also said: "Those who don't have millet will die; Su Sheng and the dead, bullies; Su Sheng will not die, Wang. Millet also, the people return; Xiaomi is also, and wealth is also; Millet also belongs to the land. If there are more millet, everything in the world will be exhausted. " [4] This means that countries that do not produce food will perish; Countries that can only be self-sufficient in food production can only dominate; Only countries with abundant grain production and surplus can rule the world. In the practice of Qi presiding over the reform of a powerful country, Guan Zhong carried out his grain thought and implemented a series of policies of attaching importance to agriculture.
Guan Zhong's grain thought and policy of attaching importance to agriculture have far-reaching influence, and most of them have been inherited and developed by later generations, which has become the principle pursued by traditional politicians in China. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo, a political commentator, put forward the policy of "emphasizing millet" to Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, and put forward the idea that "the way of emphasizing millet is to make the people reward it with millet and punish it", stipulating that the people should accept grain from the government and "worship the nobility and eliminate evil". Through the implementation of such measures, "in this way, the rich have nobles and the farmers have money" [5]. Emperor Wendi of the Han Dynasty adopted Chao Cuo's suggestion and issued the Order of Selling Jue in the 12th year of Emperor Wendi (168), which achieved the expected effect, stimulated farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain and promoted the development of agriculture.
The ancient dynasties of China adopted many policies to ensure food production. The policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business is one of them. The policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business was first implemented by Guan Zhong in the reform of Qi State. Later, Shang Yang made a political reform in the State of Qin, and clearly put forward that "work hard for your own cause and the tiller will be rehabilitated; In the end, those lazy and poor people think they will be rewarded. [6], forcing the people of Qin to concentrate on agricultural production and increase grain production and cloth production. Those who produce more grain and cloth can avoid corvee, and those who are poor because of business or idleness are punished as government slaves. Since then, attaching importance to agriculture and restraining commerce has become a basic policy of successive dynasties, and its policy goal of attaching importance to agriculture and ensuring food is very clear. Dynasty countries also implemented a policy of prohibiting monopoly, and the government monopolized lucrative industries such as salt, iron, tea and wine. On the one hand, they seize monopoly profits to enrich the national finance, on the other hand, they restrain the development of private industry and commerce, and curb the people, especially farmers, from abandoning agriculture and doing business, and also have the purpose of ensuring grain production. Dynasty countries often levied heavy taxes on private industry and commerce, such as re-levying asset tax of industrial and commercial enterprises, re-levying goods passage tax and re-levying goods transaction tax in the market. In order to achieve the dual purpose of restraining business and attaching importance to agriculture. Of course, the dynasty countries also adopted various policies and measures to give active support to agriculture and grain production, such as the land grant system in Qin and Han Dynasties, the land equalization system in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Through the state's control and regulation of land resources, farmers' possession of small plots of land is guaranteed and farmers can directly combine with the land. Another example is that many dynasties implemented measures such as encouraging reclamation, reducing taxes, building water conservancy projects, distributing relief funds and popularizing technology.
The policies and measures of China's ancient dynasty countries attached importance to agriculture and millet, which played an important role in the development of agricultural production and grain production in various periods, maintaining the rule of the dynasty countries and stabilizing social order.