Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 500 His Name
The twelfth year of Zhenguan.

The powerful people of the Tang Dynasty seemed to have discussed it beforehand, and everyone calmed down.

The aristocratic families headed by Gao Shilian and others handed over their lands willingly without any resistance - or rather, not without any resistance at all, they even began to help the court count the amount of land in their hands.

Quiet yet eerie
In the 13th year of Zhenguan, the next step of land reform began.

That is the distribution

After all, counting the land is not the goal; redistributing the land is their goal and what they must do. Only by doing this can they truly complete the land reform.

The Chen family's descendants, led by Chen Ruohan, began to travel all over the world, and then exercised the responsibility of distributing land.

One decree after another was issued in a very coordinated manner from the Taiji Hall. In this magnificent palace building sat the emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

These policies can be roughly divided into three points.

The first point is about the distribution of land and how the people should obtain land.

The second point is preparation for war.

The third point is the reform of science and technology, culture and political systems.

Any of the three policies would have been very complicated and required careful consideration in any other era, but under the governance of the founding emperor Li Shimin, these policies were issued from the Taiji Hall in a very smooth and orderly manner.

The officials of the imperial court were originally somewhat dissatisfied with this, but as the affairs became more and more complicated, they gradually had no time and energy to question these issues.

So, they cooperated very well and started to complete these tasks.

The entire Tang Dynasty fell into the busy and "vital" Zhenguan reign.

是 的
vitality.

It is not the kind of vitality that "everything is competing to grow", but vitality in the literal sense.

The first piece of content about land system reform that came out of the Taiji Hall clearly pointed out how ordinary people and the powerful should obtain land.

The two have different ways of acquiring land.

The first way for the people to acquire land is to buy it or to have children.
是 的
Have a baby

According to the new Tang Code and Land Law, every Guizhou person owns two mu of land when he is born, of which half of the land is high-quality land, one mu is medium-quality land, and the other half of the land is low-quality land.

Please note that it is "when every person is born"

This also meant that the more people a family had, the more land they could get. This was clearly written in the Tang law - even if the child was just born and had no consciousness, he could get it.

What is more important is that the Tang law clearly states that even women can obtain corresponding land.
This provision has led to a continuous increase in the survival rate of baby girls - after all, in the past, even if baby girls were raised, they probably would not be able to provide any benefits to the family, and there would be disadvantages.
For example: dowry.

According to ancient Chinese customs, bride price and dowry have never existed separately, but have existed together and were mandatory requirements.

A woman without a dowry cannot get married at all, and a man without a bride price cannot get married at all.

This is the principle of yin and yang complementing each other, not that when talking about the bride price it is an attitude, and when discussing the dowry it is not a man.

In ancient times, if the husband's family gave a betrothal gift but the wife's family did not give a dowry, this family would almost be devastated - they would never be able to live a good life in this life, and it would also affect everything in their family.

For example, the men in their family will never be able to marry again - because everyone will think, you are unwilling to give a dowry to your own daughter, so how can you treat my daughter well?

The women in their family will never be able to get married again - if you don't give a dowry to your previous daughter, then you won't give any to us either, right?
Dowry is the reason why the female infant mortality rate was very high in ancient times, or the reason why the artificial mortality rate was very high.

Because when a commoner married off a daughter, it was equivalent to dividing up a large part of his property, and the bride price was not given to the girl's family, but to the girl, who would then take it back to her new home as her own "property."

The use and distribution of these properties also require careful consideration.

For ordinary people, these gifts and dowries are basically not valuable, so after they get home, both of them will use them together - of course the woman will keep some.

In wealthy families, the women would keep the money and use it as their own property. Of course, at certain times they would use these things to supplement the household expenses or even to support their husband's concubines.

What family could withstand such a division of property?
So the mortality rate of baby girls has increased.

Now, the Tang law stipulates that baby girls can also be allocated a portion of the land for use. Even after leaving the family, half of the "land" under the girl's name will remain in the family, while the other half will be taken to the new home.

This improved the status of women to another extent - after all, a woman was the same as a man, they could own land and bring income to the family.

Even in a family that values ​​boys over girls, they will not easily marry their daughter to a bad person, because the benefits that the daughter can bring if she stays at home are much greater than those that can be brought by marrying off.

The regulations on this point in the Tang Dynasty laws are still in place - for example, divorce by peaceful consent.

The Tang Dynasty law stipulated that if a divorce was by peaceful consent, the woman could take away her dowry and financial resources, and even her portion of the land. If her parents accepted them, the land could continue to belong to the woman.

Please note one thing.

The land here does not refer to the land that the woman brought.

The woman took away part of the land, and after she was registered in her husband's family, she could receive another part of the land, which was basically the same amount as the original amount, and she took all of it with her when she left.

This further increases the probability of survival of women and the probability that their family will take care of the married women.

After all, if they don't live well, they can still bring back some land when they leave. Wouldn't they be getting the better deal this way?

Stimulated by this behavior, the ratio of men to women gradually returned to balance, while the fertility rate among the people, especially the common people, increased significantly.

The Tang Dynasty naturally fell into a period of vigorous vitality with all things competing to flourish.

This series of policies came out of the Taiji Hall and then spread throughout the world via fast horses.

But the changes and vitality of the Tang Dynasty are more than just this.

The greater vitality of the Tang Dynasty lies in "Kyoto University" and "Chang'an Research Institute".

The students of Kyoto University began to break the suppression of the Xianyang Academy and the Imperial College in the past, becoming an emerging force in this vast empire, while the Chang'an Research Institute was researching and producing new products one by one at an almost rapid speed.

In fact, this is the accumulation of hundreds of years of Chinese history, not something that happened overnight.

The Mohists and scientists have suppressed me for nearly a hundred years. Now that I can use my strengths without any scruples or hiding, I naturally want to bring out all my original abilities.

For example, Mohism.

The inheritors of Mohism took out the original version of "Mojing" left by Mozi, which recorded many laws for studying the principles of all things in the world. Unlike before, these inheritors of Mohism no longer just looked at Mojing and invented their own things. They began to study why the principles in Mojing existed.

Yes, why.

Whether it is a nation or a country, if it wants to develop rapidly, it must have a most basic essence.

"Why?" Only a curious country and nation can keep moving forward.

For example, the principle of pinhole imaging recorded in the Mo Jing, and some strange inventions, etc., once scientists begin to study the reasons, the inertia of thinking will be broken.

Once the inertia of thinking is broken, things will become serious.

They will begin to discover the truth of this world.

All truths will be presented to them, and it is only a matter of time before they develop the so-called "modern science".

Cement, steel and other materials were researched one by one.

Chen Ruohan stood in front of the Tiangong Bureau and sighed softly. He looked at the "branch of the research institute" located in Chang'an in the distance and subconsciously smacked his lips. He never expected that these crazy people in the Academy of Sciences were no longer willing to use "carriages".

They want to develop a tool that can move on its own without the need for human or animal power. If this tool is invented,
Chen Ruohan didn't know what the world would become.

He smiled and shook his head, then sighed and said, "Forget it, who cares what it will become? Anyway, the door to science has finally been opened."

"And once it's opened, it will be a good thing for the Tang Dynasty."

When science, culture, and even the "land system" that symbolizes the economic system are changing, another thing will inevitably change, because everything in this world is interconnected.

For example, war.

War is also about to happen, but this time, no people of the Tang Dynasty feel afraid. They are even very excited.

Tai Chi Hall
Li Shimin looked strange. He looked at the envoy below the stage and asked with a little confusion and curiosity: "You mean, the leader of Tubo wants to marry my daughter. If I agree, he is willing to maintain peace with the Tang Dynasty?"

"I didn't hear it wrong, did I?"

"Your leader said so? Did you say so just now?"

Lu Dongzan stood there with a normal expression.

The people of Tubo do have the capital to say such things. After all, for Tubo, it is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and it is located on a plateau. These soldiers from the Central Plains will definitely suffer huge losses if they go to Tubo.

This is also the trump card that Songtsen Gampo used to challenge Li Shimin.

The right time and the right place!

"Yes, Your Majesty."

No matter how arrogant he was in his heart, his face showed gentleness and humility: "Tibet is willing to be on good terms with the Tang Dynasty for generations, but I just hope that the Tang Dynasty can marry the princess."

This is easy to say, but who among those present is not a smart person?

From these words, we can directly see the plan behind Songtsen Gampo. If Princess Wencheng were to marry to Tubo, she would definitely bring part of the dowry and property with her, and it was this part that Songtsen Gampo was plotting!

After all, property is not just money, it also includes culture, knowledge, even craftsmen and science!
This was Songtsen Gampo’s purpose.

As for humiliating the Tang Dynasty? That was just a side thing.

Lu Dongzan stood there, looking at the king and his ministers with strange expressions in the distance. He couldn't help but feel a little strange in his heart. Why did he always feel something was wrong?
And his feelings and suspicions were soon confirmed.

Li Shimin stood on the high platform, looked down at the envoy, chuckled and said, "Okay, okay."

"Of course I am willing to make peace with Tubo."

His smile was very gentle, like that of a kind old man: "As long as you have the ability, it's fine."

"I can guarantee that as long as you defeat a general of the Tang Dynasty, I will be willing to marry you and marry my eldest daughter to Tubo!"

"how?"

A general?
Lu Dongzan subconsciously trembled for a moment, but then he calmly looked at the generals present and said with a smile, "May I ask which general it is?"

All the people present looked at Li Shimin with anticipation in their eyes.

Is the foreign war finally about to begin?
Choose me, choose me, choose me, choose me!!!

Li Shimin stepped forward and said nonchalantly, "He is not a famous general either."

"This general hasn't fought in a war or been on a battlefield for more than ten years. He has barely touched a sword in the past ten years, and he is already old."

"Nor is he any famous general of the Tang Dynasty."

"He's not even a general now."

"I will not bully you."

"Lu Dongzan, what do you think of my proposal?"

"If you want to marry my daughter and form an alliance with the Tang Dynasty to be on an equal footing, then you should at least demonstrate the corresponding strength, right?"

When Lu Dongzan heard that he had not fought in a war or been on a battlefield for decades, or even touched a sword, he breathed a sigh of relief. When he heard that he was not a famous general or even a general, he completely relaxed and said confidently, "Your Majesty, I agree to this bet on behalf of our leader."

He raised his head, looked at Li Shimin and asked, "May I ask the general's name?"

But Lu Dongzan did not realize it. After listening to Li Shimin's statement and Lu Dongzan's own arrogant words, everyone present looked very strange.

As for Li Shimin? A slight smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Ah, the name."

A thoughtful look appeared on his face.

"Let me think about it."

"His former name was."

"Grand Commander, Minister of the Interior, Minister of the Chancellery, Grand Commander of Youzhou, Grand Chancellor of the Eastern Shaanxi Circuit, Chancellor of the Yizhou Circuit, Governor of Yongzhou, Governor of Liangzhou, Left and Right Wuhou Generals, Left and Right Twelve Guards Generals, Senior Pillar of the State, General of Tiance, Duke of Tiance."

Li Shimin looked at Lu Dongzan with an unchanged expression and smiled: "Now his name is very short, only one."

"The Emperor of Tang."

"its name"

"Li Shimin!"

(End of this chapter)