描述:
the financial system of the Ming Dynasty was
always changing, this dissertation makes research on the state silver Treasury of the Ming Jiajing, Cunji Salt(存积盐effective way to solve this problem was to cultivate generations of gentry scholars with
high-level morals. That was the fundamental reason that the Ming country preferred the
selection and appointment of virtued talents to the complex and precise construction of the
country’s systems. The basic problem of the Ming Dynasty’s tax system did not lie in whether
the tax rate was high or low, but lie in the up-grading contradiction between the country’s
decreasing ability to collect taxes and the increasing financial need in reality. The standard to
measure the Ming Dynasty’s financial system was whether it corresponded to Ming people’s
financial ideas and values. Compared with the modern capital society in which the personal
interest has its natural justice, Ming China, with the limited productive capability, paid the
most possible attention to the living conditions of the maximum current people. Judged by
this idea, Ming China’s tax policy aiming to maintain the society’s steadiness and the
minimum economic developing level was at least comprehensible rather than preposterous.
) was occasionally sold and the silver got by this was sent to
Taicangku due to Taicangku’s financial need. However, this behaviour never became formally
systematized. In the Jiajing period, in the dilemma that the forefathers’ governing systems
should be maintained and the problem that Kaizhong System(开中制
) could not effectively
meet the north military towns’ financial need, a two-way system was formed gradually, in
which Zhengyan(the original amount of salt controlled by the government, 正盐
) was still
kept for the north military towns and Yuyan(the residual salt, 余盐
) was sold into silver and
the silver was sent to Taicangku. Through this system, the Ministry of Revenue collected most
of the incomes of the salt system into Taicangku and therefore strengthened its supervision
and control towards the Salt Monopoly system. Because of the principle that the income from
the Salt Monopoly system should be used to provide the military provisions and pays, which
was set up in the early Ming Dynasty, the relationship between Taicangku and the north
military towns’ financial expenditures was further strengthened too.
All in all, the financial system of the Ming Dynasty was full of life and it kept changing
as time went by or under the influences of different historical factors. This transforming
process never ceased. Thus the study on the financial system of the Ming Dynasty or even the
systems of the traditional China should pay attention to the community’s whole life process
that the concerned system lived in. Only in this way can the reforming reasons and the basic
conditions of the studied system be understood more clearly. As to the Emperor’s power in the
Ming Dynasty’s financial system, it seems that the previous study has exaggerated it. In the
Ming Dynasty, it had a clear tendency that the government’s public finances and the
emperor’s personal finances separated from each other step by step. In this process, the
Ministry of Revenue had a certain amount of administrative power towards Taicangku.
Although all the economic decisions should get the emperor’s permission at last, it did not
mean that the emperor’s financial power could not be divided or all the institutions under the
emperor had only duties but no powers. Most of the previous study on the Ming Dynasty’s
economics used the class struggle theory and paid too much attention to the contradictions
between the ruling classes and the ruled ones. This dissertation’s study shows that inside the
ruling classes there were enduring and profound struggles between the gentry scholars, who
paid more attention to the country’s entire benefits, and the interest group with the emperor at
the core, who put too much emphasis on their personal interests. The goal of the Ming
Dynasty’s finances was to maintain the proper administration of the country by levying the
minimum taxes and the ideological essence behind it was to protect the basic physical living
conditions of the maximum people. The contradiction between the personal interest and the
country’s public benefit was the basic problem in the Ming Dynasty’s financial system. Under
the condition of keeping the imperial system unchanged, the comparatively practical and
Dynasty, which in Chinese was called “Taicangku”(太仓库)
, and aims to draw a line of what
Taicangku’s financial system and status were and how they changed as the time went by. In
order to show the main vertical line of Taicangku’s evolution, the basic method is to arrange
the concerned historical materials in the chronological sequence.
As to the bibliography, Mingshilu (《明实录》
) keeps a complete record from the
beginning to the end of the Ming Dynasty, and thus covers the whole developing course of
Taicangku, which makes it the core document of this dissertation. Meanwhile, in order to
know more precisely about the lateral condition of Taicangku’s financial system and status,
this dissertation makes full use of the historical documents on the Ming Dynasty’s systems,
such as Zhusizhizhang (《诸司职掌》
), Minghuidian (《明会典》
) , Taicangkao (《太仓考》
),
Wanli Kuaijilu (《万历会计录》
) and so on. Besides, the collected works of Zhao Shiqing (赵
世卿)
, Bi Ziyan (毕自严
), Ni Yuanlu (倪元璐
), who were the First Lord of the Ministry of
Revenue (户部尚书
), contain many official papers on Taicangku and therefore are important
to this dissertation. This dissertation also refers to many other gentry scholars’ personal
collected works or official papers.
This dissertation’s study shows that Neiku( 内库
) was an institution both for the
government’s public finances and the imperial household’s private finances at the early period
of the Ming Dynasty. As Neiku kept reducing its government financial duties and became
mainly the setup for the imperial household’s private finances, Taicangku,which was set up in
the seventh year of Zhengtong’s reign(正统)
, took up more and more public financial duties
of the country. Besides, the larger and larger silver need in the north military towns was
another reason that Taicangku’s revenue items kept increasing. After a long and slow evolving
process in Zhengtong, Jingtai(景泰
), Tianshun(天顺
),Chenghua(成化
) and so on, Taicangku
developed quickly in Jiajing(嘉靖
), Longqing(隆庆
) and Wanli (万历
). As Taicangku’s
revenue became larger, its financial status got higher and this process reached its peak in the
first period of Wanli, when its income in the outside warehouse was used for the regular
expenditures in the capital and the north military towns while the silvers in the old and
underground warehouses were stored and saved for military emergencies or serious natural
calamities. At this period, the income of Neiku was used mainly for the imperial household’s
expenses. In the middle period of Wanli, on one hand, the financial need of the north military towns was still expanding while the Ministry of Revenue was no longer capable of enlarging
Taicangku’s revenue items and its income amount, which resulted in the bigger and bigger
gap between Taicangku’s fixed revenue and the north military towns’ practical financial need.
On the other hand, Taicangku’s revenue items and its practical income amount kept
decreasing due to the increase of the uncollected taxes and exempted taxes so that it was
unable to pay its fixed amount of annual silver to the north military towns. Although the
augmentation of new taxes and the borrowings from the old and underground warehouses of
Taicangku and the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing relieved Taicangku from its financial
difficulties temporarily, they could neither change the tendency that Taicangku’s income
became less and less nor alter the fact that the financial needs of the north military towns kept
increasing. The reverse transformations between Taicangku’s practical revenue and the north
military towns’ financial needs led to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty’s government
finances.
Among Taicangku’s spending items, the most important one was the annual silver sent to
the north military towns. In the early and middle developing periods of Taicangku,
Taicangku’s annual silver was only a part of the Capital’s annual silver(Jingyunyin, 京运银
).
At the end of Jiajing and the beginning of Longqing, Taicangku took up the main duty to
provide the Capital’s annual silver. In the early period of Wanli, the issue of Taicangku’s
annual silver was ruled by the steady system and this part of silver became a regular
component of the north military towns’ financial provisions to maintain their fundamental
administration. From then on to Chongzhen, Taicangku’s annual silver and the Capital’s
annual silver became one thing.
Although the record of Taicangku’s providing the annual silver could be seen in the
documents of Chenghua, the record of its yearly provided amount appeared in the first year of
Longqing. In Jiajing’s reign, Taicangku had become the important setup to grant the Capital’s
annual silver, although there were not enough historical materials to prove that this period’s
Capital annual silver was entirely taken on by Taicangku. In Longqing and the early period of
Wanli, the yearly amount of Taicangku’s annual silver was steady and the difference between
different years was not big; the budget of Taicangku’s annual silver could be realized and
there was no big gap between the budget amount and the practical granted amount of
Taicangku’s annual silver. From the fifteenth year of Wanli to the thirty-sixth year of Wanli,
the yearly amount of Taicangku’s annual silver increased quickly and formed so much
financial pressure to Taicangku that the Ministry of Revenue had to borrow silver from its
own old and underground warehouses, or from the the silver storehouse of the Court of the
Imperial Stud(Taipusi, 太仆寺
). On the other hand, as Taicangku’s practically colleted
revenue became less and less, Taicangku’s practical expenditure of its annual silver became decreasing. From the late period of Wanli to Chongzhen, the annual silver’s budget of the
previously built warehouse of Taicangku(
Jiuku,
旧库)
stopped increasing and maintained
at a relatively steady level. At the same time, the practical silver amount that Taicangku
provided to the north military towns reduced quickly and the gap between them became larger
and larger.
At the end of Longqing and the beginning of Wanli, the proportion of Taicangku’s annual
silver and the north military towns’ total amount of military provisions was almost equal to
one third. On one side, this rate showed that Taicangku’s annual silver had become very
important to the north military towns; on the other hand, this rate also reflected that the
provisions of the north military towns were not completely relied on Taicangku’s annual silver
and the incomes from the Soldiers’ Field (Tuntian,屯田
),
peasant-transported tax (Minyun,
民运)
and salt monopoly, which were two thirds of the whole provisions of the north military
towns, were still the fundamental part.
The basic financial principle of the Ming Dynasty was to expend according to the
income and this year’s revenue and stock were usually expended for the next year. However,
in the most years after Jiajing, due to the high financial pressure of the north military towns
and the fact that the income was not enough to cover the expending need, the Ming
government had to take measures to enlarge Taicangku’s revenue items. As a result, some of
the provisional income items or the items that were meant to meet certain emergencies finally
became formal and institutional elements of Taicangku’s income. In the most years from the
late period of Wanli to Chongzhen, Taicangku’s yearly expenditure frequently exceeded its
yearly income. Not only the newly-added revenue could not be collected, but also more and
more original amount of income could not be collected.
In most of the recorded years from the seventh year of Jiajing until Chongzhen,
Taicangku’s yearly expenditures exceeded its yearly revenues. However, in this situation,
Ming China’s financial system kept running for more than a century. The first reason was that
the editors of Mingshilu had a strong inclination to choose Taicangku’s losing years to record,
which strengthened the impression that Taicangku was at a loss for a long period. The second
reason was that Taicangku’s revenue amount generally referred to the incomes of the fixed tax
items while the borrowed silver from other institutions were included in Taicangku’s
expenditures but excluded from Taicangku’s incomes. The third reason was that one of the
motive forces of Taicangku’s development was its enlarging financial expenditures. The last
reason was that Taicangku’s value to the Ming government’s financial system, especially to
the north military towns’ militrary provisions and pays, was not fundamental but subsidiary.
Finally, the history of the evolving relationship between Taicangku and Salt Monopoly
system showed that the Jiajing period was the watershed of their financial relationship. Before
描述:
and trends,
these new situation on the traditional family ethics raised new challenges in the
traditional Confucian family ethics formed a huge impact.
描述:
Group headed by
Cao Cao, Shuzhong Group led by Liu Bei, Jiangdong Group led by Sun Quan. The
political bloc led by Cao Cao had the most abundant strength and talents came forth in
large numbers. During the long-term expedition two major factions within formed:
Ru一Ying Group and Qiao Pei Group. Ru-Ying Group charged civil service mainly and
Qiao Pei Group was mainly made up of generals. These two groups had a long-term
punitive expedition since Cao Cao fought against Dong Zhuo. Finally they unified
vast areas of Northern China and carried out fruitful management, which avoided
serious damage in the region by a long war and laid a good economic, political and
military foundation for the unification of China in the future.
Cao Cao fought against Dong Zhuo at the beginning, seizing Yanzhou, Zhangxiu,
Xuhuai, Guandu, the four states, Wuhuan and Jingzhou, beat the seemingly invincible
powerful opponents one after another. His forces got stronger and stronger. The two
major political groups of Cao Wei supported Caocao on political and military aspects.
Because these two groups represented the interests of their own, inevitably
buried hidden dangers of can get on well with in adversity but can not share wealth.
Ru-Ying Group is represented by the family of Han who was in the name of
safeguarding the rule of the Eastern Han dynasty but to protect their interests. They
can support Cao Cao's domination, but resolutely oppose his taking over Han dynasty.
Qiao Pei Group on behalf of Cao Cao's family numbers who wished to gain greater
benefits through Cao Cao's taking over Han dynasty.
AD 209 years, The Battle of Red Cliff, which was Cao Cao's great cause of
reunification of the most important ended in failure. As the highest strategic staff
groups, Ru Ying Group throughout the campaign process simultaneously
inconceivable aphasia, and the army of Cao Cao was defeated. Cao Cao became
unable to dominate the country again in the rest of his life. This result was what Sun
Quan, Liu Bei would like to see, Ru Ying Group was also willing to see it. From the
historical records there was no record of staff at the Advanced Medium's death to give
people the impression that Ru-Ying Group seemed to have known the defeat in advance.
When Cao Cao was still alive, Qiao Pei Group holded the upper hand. But after
the death of Cao Cao, Ru-Ying Group strongly supported Cao Pi to be the king.
Finally Chen Qun put forward "Jiupinzhongzheng system", which established the
family of Han's political monopoly. The two major political groups gradually moved
towards a balance.
After the death of Wei Ming King, the two major political groups split from
co-operation, eventually formed a situation of endless immortality. Cao Shuang and
He Yan of Qiao Pei Group were launched by Sima Yi through Gaopingling case when
the situation was good. Sima Yi killed Cao Shuang and holded military and political
power in the country. He cruelly blowed members of the Group Qiao Pei through a
series of charges against them. Then, Jin Dynasty took place Wei. Ru-Ying Group
obtained a comprehensive win. While Qiao Pei Group after its three generations with
a heavy heart exit stage of history.
描述:
th about three
of culture and materials
the country's territory changed a lot. The country's territory was in an extending period before
and
the
An-Shi Armed Rebellion, and once extended to the Central Asia area.At the same time, the Tang
government founded the Ji-Mi-Fu-Zhou system in the Western Regions. The situation changed
rapidly when the An-Shi Armed Rebellion broke out. Then the central government mobilized the
troops in the Western Regions to participating in putting down the Rebellion, so the border defence
was weakened. Tu-bo took the chance to occupy a large amount of territory. Almost Long You Area
was oppupied by Tu-bo later in Tang Dynasty.
The thesis is divided into five chapters: political geography circumstance in northwest area in
early Tang Dynasty,including the situation of physical geography and the nation regime; the
political geography situation in the extending period of territory from Tai Zong to Gao Zong;the
political geography situation in the stable period of territory from Wu-zhou era to An-Shi Armed
Rebellion;the political geography situation in the shrinking period of territory after An-Shi Armed
Rebellion;relationship between the change of political geography situation and economy and
traffic.
Conclusion: From A.D. 7th to 9th century,Asia-Erope Continent was a place where Tang,
Da-shi and Tu-bo contended for political space. The country's power of politics, economy and
military strengthened before An-Shi Armed Rebellion, and part of the Central Asia area belonged to
Tang government. The territory reached to an unparalleled scale at that time, which can be divided
into three parts: the capital area where Chang-an and Luoyang were located in was the empire's
center of politics, culture and military; the Zheng-zhou that around the captals was where the finance
of central government stemmed from; the Ji-mi-fu-zhou system Tang government founded in the
frontier area was the military buffer zone with nation regimes in vicnity. At the same time, Tu-bo
appeared in the stage of history in A.D 7th century. After the King Song-zan-gan-bu unified the Tibet
plateau, Tu-bo's power strengthed rapidly and harassed Tang's frontiers inceasingly. The Tang
government put the defense police actively into effect so as to resist Tu-bo's aggression and defend
country's benefit in Long-you area. When An-Shi Armed Rebellion broke out, Tu-bo took the chance
to occupy vast territory of Tang Dynasty, like Minzhou, Lanzhou, Kuozhou, Guazhou, and so on.
Eventually, almost all Long-you areas belonging to Tang Dynasty was occupid by Tu-bo. In the field
of geopolitics, the national power strengthened in the earlier stage of Tang Dynasty and stronger than
Tu-bo. Tu-bo didn't have the strength contending with Tang Dynasty, even harassed the frontier once
a while. Until the An-Shi Armed Rebellion, the Tang government had no more advantage and the
national power was weakened.