Class structure and tax system in the Northern Song Dynasty

(I) Social class structure

After the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, while ending the division and separatism of the Five Dynasties, in response to the chaos of the household registration system of the Five Dynasties, in the fourth year of Jianlong (963 AD), in response to the need for centralized rule, the states ordered to re-create the household registration and land conditions of each county. Later, this work was formed into a system, which stipulated that the counties were counted every leap year, and the prefectures were reported to the zhongyāng government, and a leap year chart was made, which was used as the basis for the tax quota of each state and county.

The Song Dynasty divided residents across the country into two categories: main households and customers. The residents living in towns were Fangguo households, and the households living in rural areas were rural households. The division between the main households and customers in Fangguo households was mainly based on whether there were real estate and other living materials. The real estate households were called main households, but no real estate, and those who rented houses were called customers. The main households in rural areas refer to those farmers who occupied land and paid summer and autumn taxes to the state; rural customers were tenants who had no land, even no production materials such as oxen, farm tools, and rented landlords, also known as tenants and floating guests. During the Northern Song Dynasty, customers accounted for about 33%-36% of the total households. Such a large proportion of farmers lost land and became customers, which was the result of the unsuppressed merger policy that led to the vicious development of land mergers.

The main households are divided into five levels according to the amount of assets occupied by the main households: the first-class households of the main households are people who occupy more than three hectares to dozens of hectares and hundreds of hectares, and are the large landlord class. The second-class households are people who occupy about one hectares to several hectares, and are the small and medium-sized landlord class. The first and second-class households are usually called upper households. They annexed land and make a living by exploiting tenants. These two-class households constitute the upper class of the landlord class in the Song Dynasty.

The third-class household is also called the middle-class household, mainly among the households that occupy a small amount of land but are able to support themselves and have a relatively wealthy family. The third-class household includes the wealthier self-cultivated farmers in the countryside and the small landlords who do not own much land but rent out land to exploit tenants. Because there are also some annexed households among the third-class households, the first, second and third-class households were called the upper-class households in the Song Dynasty. The upper-class households were the landlord class of the Song Dynasty.

Fourth, the fifth-class household is a farmer who covers 30 or 50 acres or only a few acres of land. He belongs to the self-cultivated or semi-cultivated farmer class in the countryside. At that time, it was also called lower households or poor lower households. Some poor people without industries were also included in the fifth-class households to pay taxes, called property tax households.

Farmers who belong to the fourth and fifth grades of households have a difficult life and have no choice when they encounter a bad harvest. Once they fall into the exploitation of usury, they will eventually lose very little land, so they are also the main targets of the landlord class annexation.

Fourth and fifth-class households account for a large proportion of the main households, often nine out of ten. Among them, the fifth-class households may account for about 70% of the lower households.

Rural customers were mainly tenants. They had no land or living tools at all, and mainly relied on renting landlords' land to make a living. The customers of the Song Dynasty were generally not private relatives of landlords, and were also registered as household registrations and became official household registrations in the country, paying taxes on their own and laboring duties, and some customers directly bear the taxes on summer and autumn.

(II) Land possession and farmers and handicraftsmen's situation

1. Land possession status (1) After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the power of aristocratic clans was weakened, and landlords stepped up the merger of farmlands. Most of the official fields were occupied by landlords and noble families or were abandoned and abandoned. The official fields in the Northern Song Dynasty were Guanzhuang, military farmland and Yingtian. The military farmland and Yingtian were the settlements of soldiers' garrisons. Most of the official fields were deserted and unowned fields. After the farmers reclaimed the farmlands, the court collected rent.

In the form of land possession in the Song Dynasty, official land did not occupy an important position.

(2) Officials occupy land in the Song Dynasty, officials occupied a large amount of land, mainly to purchase land on their own based on exploitation proceeds. They no longer have the privilege of occupying land at the official level, nor have the restrictions on the number of land occupied.

(3) Landlord's farmland Since the middle of the Tang Dynasty, landlords occupied large areas of landlord's farmlands, forming landlord's farmlands. The landlord's farmlands in the Song Dynasty were even more viciously expanded. Large landlords built houses on the farmlands to form houses. Tenants called floating guests also lived in the landlord's farmlands, and one farmland formed a village as a natural economic unit. The landlord's farmlands were spread all over the place. In the Song Dynasty, there were statistically leasing and tax fields, except for the only small piece of land that self-cultivated farmers, they were mainly landlord's farmlands.

Officials of the Song Dynasty could purchase land and become landlords of all sizes at will, and landlords could also become officials at all levels after passing the imperial examination. Officials and landlords merged into one and occupied most of the land in the country. Inspired by the policy of resilient annexation, the royal family, aristocrats, bureaucrats, and landlords annexed more and more land.

2. Farmers: Landlords occupy land and exploit tenant farmers by renting tenant farmers. This was a form of exploitation of farmers by landlords in the Song Dynasty. The peasant class was mainly tenant farmers who rented landlords and self-cultivated farmers who owned small plots of land, semi-cultivated farmers. They were jointly affected by economic exploitation and political pressure from the landlord class, but each had different situations.

(1) Tenant farmers are customers. Tenant farmers have no land at all and live by renting landlords. They are the poorest class among farmers. A large landlord can own hundreds of tenants. A large landlord in the Liangchuan area can even have thousands of households. Tenant farmers suffer from landlords' land rent and usury exploitation.

The exploitation method commonly used in the early Song Dynasty was to share the rent collection. The land rent rate generally accounts for more than 50% of the harvest. If the tenant does not have oxen and farm tools and rents it from the landlord, the rent must be increased. The other is the fixed-quota rental system, which stipulates a fixed-quota rental rate by the landlord. Land rent is the main means for the landlord to occupy land and exploit tenant farmers.

With the development of the tenant-based relationship, landlords' usury loans have also become an important means of exploitation. Landlords borrowed grain or money from tenant farmers and exploited twice to three times the interest, and even had the peasant's children to be used as coupons as collateral. In fact, they were free slaves. The tenant farmers did not have much harvest, they were not enough to pay rent, and they were unable to repay their debts. They borrowed debts every year and owed debts every year. Tenant farmers were exploited by landlords for generations. Among the peasants in the Song Dynasty, tenant farmers were most exploited and the most revolutionary. In the struggle between the peasant class against the landlords, tenant farmers were always the basic revolutionary force.

(2) Self-cultivating farmers, semi-cultivating farmers also have a large number of self-cultivating farmers who occupy a small amount of land. According to statistics on household registration in the Northern Song Dynasty, the fourth and fifth grade households in the main households are poor households, which are roughly the same as the number of customers. But in fact, quite a lot of them are semi-cultivating farmers who also serve as tenant farmers, or even completely tenant farmers. Because, first, in order to squeeze more taxes, the semi-cultivating farmers who rented landlords' land, although there were only a small amount of land, were still incorporated into the main household, and among the fifth grade households, a large number of semi-cultivating farmers were semi-cultivating farmers; second, the self-cultivating farmers went bankrupt and sold the land to the landlords. After becoming tenant farmers, they could not immediately cancel the land, change their household registration, and the tax was deposited. As the landlords wantonly merged the land, the number of self-cultivating farmers went bankrupt, and the number of such households who lost their property and tax was deposited will inevitably gradually increase.

Although self-cultivating farmers do not pay their ancestors to the landlords, they have to bear heavy taxes and labor service to the government, and their lives are also very difficult. Self-cultivating farmers, semi-cultivating farmers, relying on farming their own small pieces of land, it is difficult to provide food and clothing. When they encounter famine in bad years, they have to borrow money from the landlords, and are exploited by the landlords at usury, and eventually go bankrupt and become tenants.

Self-cultivated farmers, semi-cultivated farmers, and tenant farmers rely solely on agricultural production and do not have enough food and clothing. They must operate side businesses in addition to farming. The mountains rely on lacquer, paper, bamboo, wood, tea, mulberry, silkworms, rivers and lakes rely on pampas, reeds, lotus, and shrimps.

But even the side business was robbed by the government. They had no way to make a living and were forced to resist.

Self-cultivation farmers and semi-cultivation farmers are an important revolutionary force against the landlord class.

(3) The Northern Song Dynasty retained a certain number of slaves, mainly used for service in the homes of landlords and bureaucrats. The slaves had no property and had extremely low status, and everything was obeyed by the families of landlords and bureaucrats.

3. Handicraftsmanship situation. Craftsmen were direct producers of handicrafts. In the Song Dynasty, most of the official handicraftsmen adopted a different employment system between recruitment and hiring, and took turns to recruit craftsmen to serve, giving employment value and food. Private handicraftsmen were generally adopted and hired, and the employer and craftsmen were generally willing to both parties. In some economically developed areas, there were also machine households. Such households or workshops specializing in the textile industry were the inevitable result of the separation of handicrafts and agriculture. Among them, there were thousands of companies in Zizhou (now Santai, Sichuan). However, machine households were often forced to weave pieces by the government or official history, and they gave less or owed wages, and eventually went bankrupt and unemployed.

There were still many wealthy merchants living in the prefectures and counties of the Northern Song Dynasty. There were many merchants with assets of more than 100,000 in Kaifeng, and many wealthy merchants with assets of one million were also present. Many scholars and officials also took advantage of all opportunities to traffic in goods and make huge profits. The status of merchants was improved and they became one of the four people of the feudal country (scholars, farmers, industry and commerce) and obtained the qualification of a common people. The state allowed geniuses among merchants and capable people to participate in the imperial examination, and their children were allowed to participate in the imperial examination. Merchants could also accept recruitment from the court to manage taxes for feudal countries, or to collect money and grain from the government, act as envoys, or marry royal families and officials, and get official positions. Merchants generally had to purchase land and become landlords or merchants and landlords.

(III) Taxation and corvee

1. The taxes of the Song Dynasty The taxes of the Song Dynasty followed the two tax system since the middle of the Tang Dynasty, namely the two taxes of the summer and autumn. However, the two taxes of the Song Dynasty were different from the two taxes of the Tang Dynasty, which were combined into one, but specifically referred to the land tax. In addition to the two taxes, there are also taxes for the body, various miscellaneous taxes and corvee labor.

(1) A man who is a dying tax at the age of 20 is a dying tax at the age of 60 is an old age. Men between the age of 20 and 60 have to pay dying tax (or millet and silk). Tenants are registered as customers and they also have to pay dying tax as the main household. However, this dying tax is only implemented in the southern region, and the tax amount varies from place to place.

(2) Land tax (two taxes)

The Northern Song Dynasty land tax, which stipulates that land owners collect taxes based on the amount of land, are collected once every summer and autumn, also known as summer taxes and autumn seedlings. Autumn tax refers to the collection of grain on a mu after autumn harvest every year.

In the north, roughly one stone was harvested per mu of medium-sized land, and one dou of official tax was lost. In Jiangnan, Fujian and other places, three dou of tax was paid. In the autumn tax in the Song Dynasty, the autumn tax was often not taxed according to the actual output, but was taxed according to the quota of a mu. Due to the different agricultural production conditions in different places, the tax amount also varies greatly. Summer tax money may be folded into silk, silk, cotton, cloth, and wheat, and is collected when the fields and silkworms mature in summer. The tax amount is based on the above, middle, and lower fields, etc., but there are also great differences in different regions.

The tax amount of summer and autumn taxes is only the minimum standard specified. During the actual collection, the Song Dynasty also used the so-called branch transfer and change method to increase exploitation. Branch transfer refers to the excuse of border food and grass needs, and ordered the autumn taxes from Hebei, Hedong and Shaanxi to be transported to the border areas for payment by taxpayers. The autumn taxes from harvest areas are transported to the poor areas for payment, so they are transferred to the poor areas for compensation, and the ones are transferred to the other and the near and far away, so they are called branch transfer. If you are unwilling or unable to bear the labor of running far away, you have to pay another branch transfer money. The change is the cash and silk, cotton, cloth, wheat and other quotas stipulated by the government for summer taxes. According to the price situation, the excuse of temporary needs, it is arbitrarily changed to increase exploitation, such as using silk to make up for money and then using money to make up for wheat.

During the change, the government raised and lowered the price at will. The government, merchants and landlords colluded with each other, and used the change to embezzle to make profits, and the farmers who paid taxes were heavily exploited.

(3) Guanzhuang rents taxes and attracts tenants to cultivate the land, and the government collects land rent, which is called the public land tax. No one pays the second taxes for the official land, and the government often adds the second taxes to the tenants of the official land, which is the so-called repeated taxes. Tenants are double exploited.

(4) Miscellaneous changes During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, various separatist countries established names and set up various taxes and set up various taxes to peel off their property. After the Song Dynasty unified the country, all these taxes were inherited and collectively called miscellaneous changes, also known as miscellaneous changes. Miscellaneous changes were even more harsh than miscellaneous taxes in the Five Dynasties. For example, in the Southern Tang Dynasty, people were allowed to make wine privately and pay minus money, and they exchanged official salt for silk and grain rice for the people. However, the Song Dynasty prohibited private wine production and no longer distributed official salt, but the original people who had banned the minus money, silk, silk and grain rice had to pay as usual. Miscellaneous changes included silk, salt money, cowhide money, artemisia money, agricultural instrument money, shoe money and other names. In addition to the prescribed miscellaneous changes, the Song Dynasty also extorted a variety of property at any time in the name of offering sacrifices, local tributes (contributes local specialties), etc., and forced farmers to contribute.

(5) Hebao, and buying and buying (buying grain) refers to the government's forced purchase of private grain and rice; Hebao refers to the government's forced purchase of private cloth. In name, it is buying, but it is actually a forced collection, without even paying a price. Although the law stipulates that Hebao is limited to households above the fourth grade, and buying is limited to households with upper grades, it is actually a self-cultivated farmer who is the lower household, and semi-cultivated farmer cannot be avoided.

Among the various types of tax items, miscellaneous changes are subject to the second tax, and the refining of the same is based on the second tax amount. Miscellaneous changes and refining of the same food, and refining of the same food is actually tax plus tax and renting.

2. The Northern Song Dynasty's labor service laws included servants and servants. Services were the official service of landlords to the country, which mean that farmers were transferred to the state to serve labor service. They were two systems with completely different natures.

(1) Services and service are also called service. The current civil and military officials and the Xushishi of the prefectures and counties are called family members of the situation, and the family members of the officials and their descendants are called official households. The situation households and official households enjoy the privilege of exemption from service. Services are borne by the first, second, and third-class households in the main households, that is, the landlords of all sizes. This system is actually the power of the so-called landlords of the private households to exploit and rule the vast number of peasants, and rely on the landlords and gentry to expand the feudal rule of the Song Dynasty. The main contents of service are: yahangzhou - the responsibility is to take care of the warehouses or escort property for the government. The legal responsibility is to be the first-class landlord with assets of more than 200 stalemates. If you are a first-class landlord with an asset of more than 200 stalemates. If you are a first-class landlord, you can be exempted from the official position and change, and you can be awarded official titles, which will be promoted every three years, and you can be promoted to the Ministry of Education.

Lizheng, household chief, village clerk - the responsibility is to supervise taxes on behalf of the government. Lizheng collects rent and has the right to arrest people and sends them to the county to whip them; the household chief is Lizheng's deputy; the village clerk helps Lizheng to determine that the first-class household is the second-class household is the second-class household is the third-class household is the evil minion of the government ruler. They use their power to embezzle and extort, which is the vicious minion of the government and suppress the people.

The elders, archers, and sturdy men - their responsibilities are nominally to capture thieves for the government, and in essence to help local governments suppress the resistance of farmers. The elders are second-class households, and the archers and sturdy men are recharged by third-class households, and everything is receptive to the command of the elders. Sometimes they are also extracted from the fourth-class households. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the landlord class also competed for the yamen and the yamen. They can take advantage of the opportunity of the servants to plunder money and get promoted and make money. Later, the service law became increasingly chaotic. If there is any loss in the yamen, they would have to pay compensation, and even be criticized by the warehouse officials and extorted. The yamen and the yamen are not fully taxed, so many landlords also regard it as a burden and are unwilling to serve. Some small and medium-sized landlords, especially small landlords of third-class households, often go bankrupt due to service.

According to the laws of the Song Dynasty, the servants were assigned to the upper households by households. In fact, the official households and situations did not serve, the female households, single households, monks and Taoists were all exempted from service, and the big landlords also tried to escape the service, and they all transferred the service to the farmers. In the end, all kinds of service were borne by the lower-class landlords and self-cultivated farmers, and even the customers were served by the servants. The service brought heavy burden to the people. Those who act as archers and strong men must be themselves.

Those who are skilled in martial arts can even escape for life. When households flee, the household chiefs themselves have to pay taxes, causing the people who are appointed as household chiefs to flee one after another. The phenomenon of household registration in the Song Dynasty was caused by land annexation and the pressure of servants. During the Xianping period (998-1003 AD), 2,500 head households fled in Caizhou (now Runan, Henan), which reduced the government's land tax revenue by more than 5,300 guan.

(2) Husband service is also called miscellaneous labor. The Northern Song Dynasty's husband service was on the surface according to the Dingkou department, but the official households and households enjoyed the privilege of exemption from service. The upper third-class households who have already undertaken duty no longer bear the service. The landlords who were sent by the department often paid for the service to hire people to serve on their behalf or forced tenants to serve on their behalf. Therefore, in fact, the only ones who are responsible for the service to the lower households are only self-cultivated farmers and semi-cultivated farmers. At the same time, tenants were assigned to customers, and as the country's civilians, they also had to serve the service to the Dingkou. The Northern Song Dynasty's husband service was actually self-cultivated farmers, semi-cultivated farmers, tenants and other farmers.

There is no fixed time limit for the husband's servants. Before the spring plowing, those who were dispatched were called spring husbands, and those who were dispatched were urgently dispatched due to fortifications were reported. The zhongyāng government and local officials of the Northern Song Dynasty could dispatch farmers to serve. Large-scale husband's servants include: repairing and dredging rivers. The largest husband's servants were to manage the water damage of the Yellow River. The Northern Song Dynasty had to dispatch servants almost every year to block or build dams. Large-scale projects were dispatched to serve tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of servants. The recruitment areas were far away from Hedong, Jingxi, Huainan and other roads. The recruitment period was often one to two months, resulting in the abandonment of agricultural affairs.

Civil construction includes building cities, building official houses, temples, roads, bridges and other matters. Building city defense along the north side requires frequent recruitment of a large number of servants.

Transporting official goods. The government transports official goods such as food, grass, salt, tea, etc., and recruits farmers to bear the burden. This is a heavy husband's servant.

During the service of Ding Fu, the government also distributed some money and goods, but it was difficult to actually fall into the hands of the servants. The servants came from all over the country, not only abandoned farming, but even died in the hospital on the road. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty, more than 100,000 people died on the road. h!.
Chapter completed!