The six-dimensional pictures of emperors of all dynasties were exposed, and the ancestors panicked

Chapter 696: Is it the prosperous era of Kangxi... or not?
On the canopy.

Four words were written on the light curtain that spanned the sky.

"The Prosperous Era of Kangxi"

However, between the four golden words, there is a white star.

……

Great Qin.

"Taibai Jingtian..."

Ying Zheng and others looked at Yin Xing Taibai, who shouldn't have appeared, and looked at each other in confusion.

Xiao He frowned and said strangely:

"It shouldn't be like this. How can there be chaos in this prosperous era?"

"Could it be... another Li Longji?"

Several people were stunned and couldn't help but think of the extreme reversal.

"That's impossible to say..."

Yes, who could have imagined that the prosperous Tang Dynasty would suddenly turn into its collapse.

……

[Kangxi said many times: "The people are the foundation of the country, and their families must be well-fed", "The overall goal is to keep wealth in the hands of the people, so that their families can have enough food and clothing, and courtesy and tolerance will become more and more popular, and we may gradually achieve a peaceful and harmonious governance", "We may achieve a culture of having enough food and clothing at home"]

[This was not just a catchphrase. After the three expeditions against Galdan, "the family's abundance" became Kangxi's slogan for the Qing Dynasty's orthodoxy. Not only was he pleased by his ministers' praise, he himself also thought it was close to the truth.]

【The most commendable thing about his efforts to maintain a peaceful and prosperous era was that he exempted the entire country from paying taxes for a week for three years starting from the 1711th year of Emperor Kangxi (), totaling more than million taels of grain.】

In the 1713nd year of Kangxi’s reign (), Kangxi issued another decree that shocked the world:

Today, the country has been at peace for a long time, and the population is increasing day by day. It would be unacceptable to levy additional taxes and levies based on the number of people present.

Although the population has increased, the land has not expanded. The governors of the provinces should be ordered to see that the number of people listed in the current tax and grain registers should not be increased or decreased, and the quota should be set permanently. No tax or grain will be collected for people born in the future. ... This will not only benefit the people, but also be a great event. 】

[This is an extremely important institutional reform and an epoch-making event.]

[Because from then on, the total amount of tax revenue of the Qing Dynasty basically remained unchanged.]

[The annual land tax, or agricultural tax, collected by the Qing Dynasty was stable at 28 to 29 million taels. Adding other taxes such as tariffs, the annual fiscal revenue was basically around 40 million taels.]

[This is the "ancestral system" and "red line" set by Emperor Kangxi. No matter how the situation changes, this number must not be exceeded.]

……

Datang.

Li Chengqian looked at the sky, then looked at his father.

“Is this a good thing?”

Li Shimin was a little unsure.

"Just looking at this decree alone, it is indeed a good thing."

“Taxes are really very light.”

"It can be regarded as a permanent solution to reduce the burden on the people... that is..."

"How did he keep the war going and still lower taxes?"

Li Shimin felt that his cognition was challenged.

Fighting a war = spending money

If you spend money, you must make money.

How does the court make money?

Raise taxes.

"But it's a good thing after all, right?"

……

"Good thing you're a ball."

Li Longji looked at Yang Yuhuan, and said with regret:

"What? You only consider the present moment and not the future?"

"Isn't this the same mistake as Zhu Yuanzhang?"

Yang Yuhuan stiffened her neck and said:
"I don't understand the principles you're talking about, but you can tell me that no matter how much the country's population grows, you will never increase taxes again. Can you do that?"

"If you can't do it, don't do it!"

Li Longji was so angry that he pinched the chattering little mouth with two fingers.

"Let me ask you, if prices start to rise but taxes don't, is the country's tax revenue normal or a loss?"

Yang Yuhuan looked at her pinched pouting lips and then glanced at Li Longji.

Li Longji let go of his fingers in disdain. Yang Yuhuan raised her slender neck and said loudly:

"do not know!"

Li Longji was very happy.

You know nothing, yet you dare to say anything.

"Okay, I'll tell you then."

"If prices rise threefold but tax revenues do not rise in tandem, that means the country's tax revenue has been reduced by one-third of what it was before."

“Can a country still operate normally if its fiscal revenue is reduced by two-thirds?!”

"If the country encounters a major emergency, can this rigid financial system support it?"

"As the population grows and more people are needed to be supported, the need for fiscal expenditure will continue to increase."

"But the emperor has also restricted that taxes will never be increased. Will local officials desperately try to find ways to pay for the "fees" that the court cannot openly supervise?"

"In the end, the actual taxes borne by the people will only be higher than they actually are."

Yang Yuhuan was stunned and could only stammer:
"So... never increasing taxes... is a cover?"

Li Longji felt helpless when he saw her like this.

“Things are not black and white.”

“I can only say that the policy is good, but the restrictions are too strict…”

"Besides, this is a matter for the future. At least it is a good thing for the people at that time."

……

{At first glance, this is a good thing, right? But you need to know another thing.}
{The population and the amount of taxable land in the early Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty were roughly the same, but the tax revenues were very different.}
{In the early Qing Dynasty, the annual tax amount alone was as high as 30 million taels, which was almost equal to the total of the regular tax amount and the three taxes in the late Ming Dynasty.}
{The fundamental reason why Kangxi was able to implement a large number of tax exemptions was that the high taxes far exceeded the ability of local people to bear.}
{The so-called exemption was actually to convert the debt that could not be recovered even if all efforts were made to exhaust all resources into a favor from the court.}
{When Kangxi was rational and clear-minded, he never failed to consider this. In the 38th year of his reign, he made an imperial decree to the Ministry of Revenue: "Taxes are voluminous, people's livelihood is in a tight spot, and the arrears of taxes are increasing year by year. Jiangsu and Anhui owe nearly one million yuan in old taxes and grain. Considering that the common people are just paying the new taxes and the old arrears, it is difficult to handle both of them with limited resources." He also said: "The taxes and grain that have been paid over the years have been difficult to pay, resulting in a lot of arrears."}
{However, as a Manchu ruler, Kangxi had to conceal the facts and distort history: "I have exempted taxes and levies many times, why is it still like this? It is because of the injuries sustained in the late Ming Dynasty, and our dynasty has rested for more than 60 years, and its vitality has not yet recovered. Or is it the fault of the officials who are not good at caring for the people?"}
{Or they blame the common people for not being frugal. "Although I have exempted the provinces from taxes and levies from time to time and have repeatedly shown mercy, the livelihood of the common people is still difficult."}
{Li Guangdi once lamented: "The imperial court exempted the people of Jiangnan from paying 2 million silver and rice. There has never been such a large amount in history. However, there is no sense of abundance and prosperity in the world."}
{“The state spent millions of dollars to exempt grain and levies, but the people were not affected.” However, intimidated by Emperor Kangxi, they could only attribute the cause to “there are no good officials” and “I think the officials are bad.”}
{However, one of the basic characteristics of the financial and taxation system during the reign of Emperor Kangxi was that he never actually reduced the tax amount, but preferred to continue to cancel arrears to promote the "most benevolent policy in ancient and modern times" of "loving and supporting the people."}
{Otherwise, how could it be the most authentic proof of the Qing dynasty's success?}
{Correspondingly, there were huge arrears in various places and new and old taxes were levied simultaneously, leaving the people with no respite.}
{If you just check the historical data, you will know that when the three-year tax exemption was implemented nationwide for one week, the local debts were still as high as before. The actual effect of the tax exemption is completely different from its political significance, but many historians still talk about it with great relish.}
……

[This is a very self-sacrificing institutional design, and Kangxi has indeed become a "wise ruler of all ages" who is warmly praised by later generations. ]

[When later Qing emperors talked about the Qing dynasty's achievements, the first item they mentioned was often "the increase of population, never increasing taxes", and "the deep benevolence and generosity that penetrated deep into the bones and marrow".]

[When the ministers mentioned this benevolent policy, they praised it endlessly, calling it "the grace of heaven is vast and unprecedented in history" and "this is truly a grand ceremony that has never been heard of by emperors since ancient times, and it is the source of our country's long-term prosperity and recuperation." ]

[“The imperial ancestors have issued instructions to never impose additional taxes”, “Looking back over the past hundred generations and looking around the world, there is no other country that has as light a tax as our Great Qing.”]…

Qing Dynasty Yongzheng Period
Yongzheng pinched his brows, feeling annoyed.

Others may not know, but he knows it very well.

A prosperous era? What the hell!
"Mafa is truly a wise ruler throughout the ages."

Yongzheng opened his eyes tiredly and looked at Hongli who was full of admiration, and said in a deep voice:

"In the fifty-fifth year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi, He Shou, the governor of Jiangnan, was ordered to exempt the money and grain owed in the previous year, but he still collected the money annually."

"I then submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying that the taxes in Jiangnan were heavy, and the taxes and levies were so high that they were already in arrears this year. Moreover, the taxes and levies that had been exempted were not only beyond the people's ability to pay, but also the people believed that they had been exempted, but they were not paid, and in fact they were being levied at the same time."

"Therefore, please follow the example already implemented in Shaanxi and forgive the old debts in Jiangnan."

"You Mafa should copy the order and submit it to the emperor."

"When He Shou's proposal was submitted to the capital, it was rejected by the Ministry of Revenue and was not implemented until March of the following year."

"Do you know why?"

Hongli shook his head to show that he didn't know.

Yongzheng closed his eyes and turned the eighteen beads in his hands, the past events were still vivid in his mind.

"The reason is that you, Mafa, suspected that He Shou's request for pardon was made at the request of Zhao Shenqiao, a Han Chinese from Jiangnan, in order to please the local authorities."

"And the letter from He Shou said that the western part of the country was in the process of using military pay, and that the debts owed to old friends had not been exempted, and that the tax should be collected annually according to the Ministry's decision. This must have offended you, Mafa."

"You Mafa made it clear that war will never affect exemption."

"So, at the end of that year, when you Mafa learned that the Junggar Army had invaded Tibet and the situation on the front had obviously deteriorated, and you had to expose the truth to the Han officials, you announced that you would exempt all the more than 2 million silver in land tax and military levies in the eight southeastern and northwestern provinces, and exempt half of the grain tax in Anhui and Jiangsu."

Hongli was stunned for a moment, then suddenly said:
"Mafa insisted on providing relief and exemption because he was worried that the Han people would doubt the stability and prosperity of the Qing regime because of the war with the Zunghars?"

Yongzheng said nothing.

Hongli looked at his father who agreed, and followed his father's words and thought about the events of the last years of Kangxi's reign.

Yongzheng spoke again, but his tone was inexplicable.

"In the 58th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, a large army was mobilized to enter Tibet, and part of the grain was intercepted and stored in the southeast for relief."

"In the summer of the 60th year, the wheat harvest in Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi had failed, and many people were starving."

"It was difficult to continue to whitewash the prosperous times, and the Qing army was unable to penetrate deeply into the Dzungars."

"The high taxes created a false prosperity, but at the same time they undermined the foundation on which the Qing dynasty was built."

"Do you think you can rest easy just because you're the emperor?"

"You are wrong... Things are far from being as easy as the exemptions and relief make them seem."

……

【Kangxi paid great attention to restoring and developing production and resting with the people.】

【In the early Qing Dynasty, due to long-term wars, social production declined. During the reign of Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, rewards were given for land reclamation, but the effect was minimal. Therefore, an order was issued to stop the bad policy of enclosure in the early Qing Dynasty to ease class contradictions and develop social production.】

[During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, in order to attract people to reclaim wasteland, the regulations for reclaiming wasteland during the reign of Emperor Shunzhi were revised, and the maximum limit for tax collection was changed from six years to "ten years in total".]

[It also stipulates that local officials who recruit people to open up wasteland will be promoted, otherwise they will be dismissed.]

【The "rename of fields" was implemented, and the land of the Ming vassal kings was given to the original farmers, and changed to civilian households, which were inherited as hereditary property, so that the farmers who cultivated the vassal fields became self-cultivating farmers.】

【Implement exemption policies to encourage agricultural production.】

[It was also announced that "there will be no additional taxes as long as the population increases", thus fixing the national population tax and reducing the burden on the people. ]

[After decades of hard work, the area of ​​cultivated land in the country increased from 550 million mu at the end of the Shunzhi period to more than 800 million mu at the end of the Kangxi period. Production developed and the population grew rapidly, resulting in the so-called "Kangxi Prosperity"]

[Evaluation level A, score 4 points]

……

｛The score is high.｝
｛Although Kangxi made great achievements in unifying politics and clearing the borders, in the rural areas where the imperial power did not extend to the countryside, tens of thousands of Chinese people were still struggling in the abyss of pain.｝
{In important areas such as taxation and rural administration, Kangxi ultimately failed to make positive and effective changes.}
{He seems to think that it is impossible to take a census of land ownership under the existing social conditions.}
{In terms of taxation, he also followed the old system of the late Ming Dynasty, using labor service to pay taxes in exchange for silver of equal value.}
{Only a small portion of the tax silver remained in the local area to pay the salaries of officials and servants, or to be used as local disaster relief and construction funds.}
{Therefore, local officials had to collect a large amount of additional fees to supplement the treasury, but most of the money was pocketed by officials, given as gifts to superiors, or honored as tributes to officials in the capital, in the hope that the relevant government offices would be more lenient when evaluating their behavior.}
{This kind of lax state is not worthy of the word "prosperous era".}
{That can't be said, it depends on the angle from which you look at the problem.}
{Based on the historical background at that time, it was a prosperous era with national unity, vast territory, ethnic harmony, cultural integration, large population, economic development, social stability, and the presence of all nations.}
{Moreover, in the history of Chinese dynasties, there were six emperors of unified dynasties who reigned for more than 40 years: Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Emperor Shizong of Ming, Emperor Shenzong of Ming, Emperor Shengzu of Qing, and Emperor Gaozong of Qing.}
{Emperor Wu of Han had the Tianhan Rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang had the Anshi Rebellion, Emperor Jiajing of Ming had the Gengxu Rebellion, Emperor Wanli of Ming had the Battle of Sarhu, Emperor Qianlong of Qing had the Wang Lun Uprising, but the only "peaceful era" in the Central Plains without war for more than 40 years was during the reign of Emperor Kangxi.}
{The reason why I couldn’t get five points was because I hadn’t cleared the field, but I could still get four points.}
……

Qing Dynasty and Qianlong period
Ignore the glaring high word.

Qianlong sighed.

"Kiyata..."

As soon as the fields were cleared, a civil uprising broke out!

“It’s not that easy.”

……

[Employing people and judging people: Kangxi employed people in a flexible way]

[Let’s not talk about the people used in marching and fighting. ]

【Only one thing can lay the foundation for Kangxi's ability to employ people. 】

【That is to control the Yellow River. 】

[The "Records of Emperor Kangxi" contains a large number of his edicts on river management issues. And every river management plan was directly decided by Emperor Kangxi.]

[And the main purpose of the six southern tours was to inspect river defense. ]

[Especially the series of important river management decisions made by the river officials were mostly instructed by Emperor Kangxi.]

[Emperor Kangxi himself knew how to manage rivers, so he appointed many of the right people as river officials.]

[Famous officials in charge of river management in the Qing Dynasty, such as Jin Fu, Yu Chenglong, Zhang Penghe, and Zhao Shixian, basically all appeared during the reign of Emperor Kangxi. This is not accidental.]

【Only by deeply understanding the matter can one deeply understand the talent of doing good deeds. 】

【Thanks to the efforts of Emperor Kangxi and his ministers, river engineering has achieved great results. 】

[After the 16th year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign, the Yellow River generally stabilized. Although there were a few years of heavy rain and flooding, breaches rarely occurred, and a peaceful situation lasted for forty years.]

[Evaluation S level, 5 points]

【Later influence: literary inquisition.】

[The number of literary inquisitions during the reign of Emperor Kangxi was far less than that during the reigns of Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong, but it set a precedent for literary inquisitions during the Qing Dynasty.]

[In order to maintain the Qing emperor's own imperial power and the privileges of the Manchu nobles, they took precautions and suppressed it, obliterating the philosophical brilliance of Neo-Confucianism, eroding the spirit of self-esteem, clamping down on thoughts, and restricting public opinion. The consequences in the future are worth pondering.]

[Rating B, three points]

[Total score: twenty-seven points]

……

Just as the emperors of the previous dynasties were looking thoughtfully at the comments in the column on influence on later generations.

The multiple-choice questions that haven’t been seen for a long time appear again!
"Is Kangxi considered the greatest emperor of all time?"

Option 1: Calculate

Option 2: Not Count

(End of this chapter)