bookbashuk Page 2528
Page 2528
The third person to use the Yongle reign title is someone everyone is familiar with: Fang La.
The meanings of Yongle and Changle are similar.
Murong Sheng, the Prince of Changle, used Changle as his second reign title after becoming emperor.
He was ruthless and cruel, indiscriminately killing innocent people, and was eventually assassinated.
There was also a Prince of Chang Le in the Tang Dynasty, who was Li Shimin's uncle.
He had long served as a military commander on the frontier, repeatedly defeating the Turks. He was accused of secretly amassing followers and forging alliances with foreign powers, plotting to usurp his nephew's throne as the emperor's uncle. He was subsequently executed by Li Shimin.
Looking at the reign titles of all dynasties, it's hard to find many that are worse than Yongle and Changle.
Prime Minister Zhai Ruwen said, "The country is named Great Ming, and it should prosper."
The officials all praised it, thinking that the reign title "Jingxing" was good.
Scenery, the light of the sun and moon.
Xing means to flourish and thrive.
Jingxing means that the Ming Dynasty began to prosper from then on.
The other cabinet ministers came up with several reign titles one after another, all of which had very good meanings, but none of them were as fitting as "Jingxing".
It seems like it's about to be finalized.
Zhao Yuan said to Hu Anguo, "You are the newly appointed Minister of Rites, and you will also represent the Ministry of Rites in sending one."
Hu Anguo first bowed to Zhao Yuan, then cupped his hands in greeting to Zhai Ruwen:
"Since Your Majesty raised your army, you have overthrown the Song, defeated the Xia, destroyed the Chu, and driven out the Jin. Your military achievements are unparalleled in this era."
"During the Song Dynasty, the emperor was in power and the ministers were treacherous. His Majesty was upright and righteous. He submitted a memorial to denounce the six traitors and was exiled to Guizhou, where he refused to submit."
"Now that the Ming Dynasty is newly established, it is the time to make progress and expand, and the restoration of the glorious Han and Tang dynasties is just around the corner."
"Your subject requests that the reign title be changed to Qiandao."
Xiao Chu echoed, "The way of Heaven changes, each thing fulfills its nature and destiny, preserving harmony and balance, which is auspicious and virtuous. A fine sign!"
Chapter 3371 Reducing Taxes
The reign title "Qiandao" is truly auspicious, and when combined with the commentary on the Qian hexagram in the Book of Changes, it becomes even more impressive.
It means that all things in the world are about to mature and prosper, and all things (including people and all industries) will be able to obtain their due value and place.
The world will inevitably become harmonious and perfect, and everything will develop in a positive direction.
Moreover, the concept of Qian Dao also implies the origin of all things, vigorous progress, pioneering and innovation, continuous self-improvement, and stability and longevity.
The ministers had previously praised "Jingxing," but now they also felt that "Qiandao" was good.
At this moment, Xie Kejia, the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies, said: "Although the Qiandao method is good, the ruler of Western Xia has already used it."
The ministers were taken aback, but a few quickly realized that this was the reign title of Li Bingchang, the puppet emperor of Western Xia.
Xiao Chu and Hu Anguo were also quite surprised. The Qiandao era name of Western Xia was only used for two years. They really didn't know that without consulting historical records.
Xie Kejia remembered that the Qiandao era name had been used by the Western Xia because he was in charge of the Court of State Ceremonial and needed to be familiar with the situation of various countries, and he was also sent to the Hanlin Academy to compile history.
Zhao Yuan was not very satisfied with "Jingxing", thinking it was too literary and lacked power: "You can go back and think about the reign title slowly. It must be finalized before November. There are still more than half a year left."
"Yes!"
The ministers accepted the order.
Zhao Yuan further stated, "The reign title should not be changed too frequently, lest it be difficult to distinguish between different eras."
"From this day forward, a Ming emperor can only have one reign title throughout his life."
Although the ministers were surprised by this, they had no reason to object.
The emperor didn't want to cause trouble, which saved them a lot of trouble.
Officials who particularly value virtuous and benevolent governance are more pleased to see this situation.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, various etiquette rules have been written into the "Great Ming Code".
First, a simple style of funeral and sacrificial rites was established.
The emperor's mourning period and burial arrangements were restored to those of the early Song Dynasty, with the main focus on minimizing disruption to the people.
Second, the avoidance of taboos should be weakened.
As long as it doesn't completely overlap with the emperor's name, it doesn't matter if one or two characters are the same.
Furthermore, Emperor Huizong of Song created a series of nonsensical taboos, such as removing the word "dragon" from the list of taboo words.
Zhao Yuan continued, "The positions of officials in the cabinet, ministries, and academies will remain unchanged."
"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"
The ministers shouted in unison, completely relieved.
Zhao Yuan then said, "From now on, I will no longer grant amnesty to criminals, but I will reduce taxes for all people."
"The Cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue discussed a tax reduction strategy."
"Remember, the taxes levied on merchants, such as house tax, shop tax, and transit tax, cannot be reduced."
This is benevolent governance, worthy of praise; the officials bowed again.
Zhao Yuan continued, "The tax reduction edict should also include the following content—"
"First, all provinces are steadily and comprehensively implementing the 'equalization of land tax and poll tax' policy."
"Secondly, during the land survey, landlords were encouraged to report any hidden land to the government."
“If the person who reports the information is found to be correct, the arrears of taxes from the previous years will no longer be pursued.”
"If any hidden land is discovered by the government, not only will the owed taxes be paid, but a fine of ten times the amount will also be imposed!"
"Third, the imperial court will dispatch a large number of censors to various places to inspect tax collection."
"Apart from the fixed quota for rat and sparrow levies that has existed since the Five Dynasties, all other levies, including those based on conversion, surface levies, and miscellaneous levies, shall be abolished."
"This is a rule established at the founding of the country, but officials were still collecting taxes until last year."
"Now that the civil service reform is in place, grassroots officials are receiving salaries, and we are absolutely prohibited from levying miscellaneous taxes indiscriminately!"
"If caught, one will be dismissed from office and exiled; in serious cases, one will be beheaded!"
...
The Song Dynasty began its massive tax increases, starting with the great Emperor Renzong.
The direct results of the tax increase can be seen from the central government's statistics.
According to official data from the entire Northern Song Dynasty, the number of households and the amount of land in the country were constantly increasing.
The only exception was during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, when both the number of households and the amount of land decreased.
The Ministry of Revenue quickly came up with a tax reduction plan and submitted it to the Cabinet for discussion.
Fang Mengqing, the Minister of Revenue, said to the cabinet ministers: "The people of the former Song Dynasty were subjected to additional taxes, and since the reign of Emperor Renzong, commercial taxes have been increased even more."
"Even farmers outside Kaifeng who carry melons and fruits into the city to sell have to pay taxes."
"Farmers have already paid two taxes for planting crops. If they sell a lot of melons and fruits, they should be subject to a commercial tax as well."
"How can we bear to collect commercial taxes from ordinary people who carry a few fruits into the city and sell them along the streets to earn a meager living?"
Emperor Renzong of Song drastically increased commercial taxes, reducing the national agricultural tax rate to 56% of total tax revenue.
"This would be unimaginable in an agricultural society."
What benefits did the farmers receive?
of course not.
The imperial court used various miscellaneous levies to indirectly increase agricultural taxes.
As this trend gained momentum, officials seized the opportunity to exploit farmers relentlessly, while the national treasury saw little increase in revenue.
Fang Mengqing said, "The strategy for reducing commercial taxes is to reduce or cancel them as appropriate, restoring them to the levels at the beginning of Emperor Renzong's reign."
"Of course, it's not a full restoration; we'll retain about half of the tax increase, because the tax was indeed not very high in the early Song Dynasty."
"The main focus is on eliminating the taxes imposed on small vendors, especially those levied on farmers selling their goods in cities!"
"Regarding agricultural taxes, the regular taxes in the former Song Dynasty were not increased much, and all sorts of levies were imposed one after another."
"The Ming court has issued orders and prohibitions repeatedly, but local officials are still collecting money, and they are becoming more and more secretive about it, so much so that even the censors can easily overlook it."
“Especially with ‘cloth-based currency,’ officials, merchants, and clerks colluded, transforming the previous blatant plunder into the current cunning acquisition.”
“Not only were ordinary people harassed by the cloth merchants, but even the big landowners suffered greatly.”
"They should be severely punished!"
Chapter 3372 Worshiping Heaven and Earth
How outrageous were the miscellaneous taxes in the Song Dynasty?
I own a cow. I have to pay taxes while the cow is alive, and I have to pay another tax if the cow dies.
A larger family means more corvée labor.
If the family splits up, they will be fined.
Not only are buying and selling houses taxed, but even repairing houses is taxed!
Oh, and there's also the agricultural implements tax.
Even if my family adds a few hoes, we have to pay taxes. This thing was only abolished for a short time during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song.
The practice of collecting and exchanging shoes even led to the creation of a "shoe money" system.
If you want to wear shoes, then you have to pay for them.
These miscellaneous taxes were extremely difficult to collect, and the central government could not actually collect them into the national treasury.
Most of the miscellaneous taxes were inherited from the Five Dynasties period, but the Song Dynasty never abolished them, which can be regarded as tacitly allowing local officials to embezzle them.
The officials were too lazy to collect taxes one by one according to the tax type, and directly let the village servants (village head, village chief, etc.) apportion the taxes.
Now, Zhao Yuan wants to wipe them all out.
If repeated orders and prohibitions fail to change the situation, then we should encourage "troublemakers to file complaints."
"Troublemakers" generally come from small and medium-sized landlord families. They have some education and can read and write, but they cannot escape the exploitation by officials.
The imperial censors were sent to inspect towns and villages, stay in small towns for a period of time, and post notices at the entrance of the towns and set up anonymous mailboxes.
If an educated "troublemaker" sees this, he will most likely come and anonymously complain about it.
For each case of arbitrarily levied taxes that was solved, the censors would record their merits and be given a monetary reward.
In recent years, censors have been promoted the fastest.
The transfer of many censors to local officials based on their political achievements has become a shortcut to promotion.
Although this job offends people, it promotes you quickly and gives you a good reputation.
A newly appointed Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) would be even happier to be selected as a low-ranking censor than to be directly appointed as a county magistrate.
If you're lucky enough to solve a major case, you might be promoted to county magistrate within a year or two, or you could be promoted rapidly within the censorate system.
After carefully reviewing the tax reduction plan submitted by the Ministry of Revenue, Zhai Ruwen couldn't help but exclaim, "This is a blessing for all the people!"
The cabinet ministers exchanged smiles, thinking, "His Majesty played that move brilliantly."
He reduced taxes immediately after ascending the throne, thus solidifying his reputation for benevolent governance.
No matter how ruthless other methods are, they are still considered benevolent by the ruler. The fact that he reduced taxes upon ascending the throne is written into history and cannot be changed. At most, many people in the public will secretly speak ill of him.
So, how should the era name be determined?
Perhaps we could also lean towards benevolent governance, using the reign title to reflect the new emperor's virtuous rule.
...
The ceremony for the transfer of the throne was very grand, with a budget of five million strings of cash.