My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 399 Jin Bulu?
Kim Bu-ru.

Whether for later generations or the general public of the Han Dynasty today, these three words are very mysterious and seem to be something that everyone is reluctant to mention.

So what is so special about these three words?
What does this legal decree, which was personally brought onto the historical stage by Empress Dowager Lu, mean to the Han Dynasty today?
First of all, one point that must be mentioned is that the vast majority of dynasties in Chinese history did not have only one law named after the dynasty.

Specifically speaking, the laws of the Qin Dynasty were not a complete "Qin Law", but were composed of various different legal provisions, and each of them was an independent law that did not interfere with each other and had no order of merit.

The laws of the Han Dynasty were not a single integrated "Han Code", but were also composed of different legal provisions, such as the Law on Theft, the Law on Tutoring, the Law on Tianjin and Guanguan, etc.

In later generations, it is actually the same.

——There has never been a law called "Dragon Kingdom Law".

Yes, there are many legal provisions such as the Constitution, Marriage Law, Law on Protection of Minors, and Wildlife Protection Law.

And now the laws and regulations of the Han Dynasty~
How to say it;

The situation is the same as with coins.

Almost every time a regime changed and a new Han emperor ascended the throne, new laws would be enacted and old laws would be removed.

The most original foundation of the Han Dynasty's laws is the "Three Articles of Agreement" which is well-known to later generations.

That is, after Emperor Taizu Liu Bang entered Xianyang, he made an agreement with the elders of Guanzhong: anyone who kills will be put to death, and anyone who injures or steals will be punished.

But it was obvious that with only three laws and regulations, not even a village could function normally under these three "rules", let alone maintaining the operation of a unified Chinese dynasty.

Therefore, after being named King of Han and regaining control of the Three Qins shortly afterwards, Liu Bang, who truly became the "King of Guanzhong", ordered his prime minister Xiao He to draft the "Han Law".

Therefore, Prime Minister Xiao integrated and formulated the first generation of legal system of the Han Dynasty based on Qin law and the "Book of Law" written by the original author of Qin law: Qin Prime Minister Li Si.

This legal system is usually referred to as the "Nine Chapters of Laws".

As the name suggests, the "Nine Chapters of Law" consists of nine specific legal provisions.

They are: thief, robber, prisoner, arrest, miscellaneous, tools, unauthorized activities, stable, and household.

The first six chapters were written by Li Kui, a great sage of the Legalists, and were used by Li Si, prime minister of Qin, as the basis for drafting the Qin Law.

On this basis, Xiao He revised the last three chapters and added many more humane and gentler explanations of the articles in the first six chapters inherited from Qin.

For example, the same crime, according to Qin law, was either beheaded and thrown into the streets, or exiled to the frontier.

However, in Han law, there is an additional sentence: If the criminal is willing, he can pay for his crime with gold or titles.

Using money to pay off a crime is easy to understand - pay a fine, pay bail, and avoid jail time;

To use a title to atone for a crime can probably be understood as: your ancestors have made contributions to the country, so I'll let you go for his sake.

But a favor can only be used once. This time, he used his title to atone for his crime, and his title was subsequently stripped away.

It can be said that all the laws and regulations of the Han Dynasty today are extensions and expansions based on Xiao He's "Nine Chapters of Laws".

It was during the reign of Emperor Taizu Liu Bang that the Han laws underwent their first "expansion".

——In the seventh year of Emperor Taizu of Han, Shusun Tong, Fengchang, followed Liu Bang's order and drafted eighteen new chapters of "Bangzhang" on the pretext of formulating "Han Li".

"Bang Zhang" is also more commonly known as: Han Yi.

Although it appears in the form of legal provisions, it is a guide to the etiquette and legal system.

Therefore, when Emperor Taizu Liu Bang passed away and Emperor Xiaohui Liu Ying ascended the throne, the Han Dynasty's legal system already had a total of twenty-seven chapters - or twenty-seven targeted legal regulations formulated for different situations.

Even if the eighteen chapters of "Bangzhang" are ignored, there are still as many as nine chapters of "Jiuzhanglu" written by Prime Minister Xiao.

As for the three dynasties of Emperor Xiaohui and the former and latter Shaodi, in most cases they are interpreted as the period when Empress Dowager Lu was in power.

During this period, the Han legal system underwent another large-scale extension.

The most specific manifestation is that Prime Minister Xiao's "Nine Chapters of Laws" became the "Two-Year Law Order" issued in the second year of Emperor Xiaohui.

"Two-Year Laws and Regulations" contains 27 chapters of laws and one chapter of decrees.

Of the nine chapters included in Prime Minister Xiao's "Nine Chapters of Laws", four of them, namely theft, thief, tools and households, were retained in the "Two-Year Laws and Regulations".

The remaining five articles were not deleted, but extended and subdivided into the remaining dozen articles.

In addition, there is also a "new chapter" that did not exist in the Han legal system.

Such as money law and field law;
Such as setting up the official law and the equal distribution law;

Another example is Jinbulv.

In fact, after Empress Dowager Lü's "Two-Year Law", the Han Dynasty continued to experience continuous additions to legal provisions.

For example, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen issued the "Order to Allow the People to Relax in Mountains and Marshes" and abolished the law on defamation, no longer punishing people for speaking;

For example, after Emperor Xiaojing conquered Wu and Chu, he personally promulgated a law to restrict the princes and their relatives: "Zuoguan Order".

In the original history, Liu Rong's good brother, the Emperor Wu of Han, would also further restrict clan princes through legal regulations such as the "Enfeoffment Order".

Let’s talk about Jinbululu.

The text of the decree is a bit lengthy. In summary, "Jinbu Law" is the first legal decree in the Han Dynasty and also in the history of China that clearly stipulates how to compensate for damage to official property, as well as the payment of fines, ransoms, and repayment of debts.

It sounds like there is nothing much to say;

But just by giving a few simple examples, it is not difficult to find the role and significance of "The Golden Code" to the current Han Dynasty and even to the entire Chinese civilization.

For example: The Jinbu Law clearly stipulates the compensation methods for different items when they are damaged.

Moreover, the categories of compensation have been specified to include intangible objects, such as how to compensate for precious metals, how to compensate for food and cloth, and how to compensate for daily necessities, weapons and military equipment.

And living things - how to make compensation in addition to accountability and punishment for causing injury, disability or even death to people, or what about harming other people's poultry and livestock.

Does it sound familiar?
In addition to the criminal judgment, civil compensation is carried out simultaneously!
In later times, this was commonplace;
But for the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, the four words "civil compensation" were so advanced that countless historians in later generations were amazed!

Furthermore, the Jinbu Law also has clear and extremely detailed provisions on all the Han taxes, levies, military service, and corvee payment methods.

For example, agricultural taxes and head taxes, how to pay, when to pay, and to whom to pay;

How should the taxes collected by local governments be counted and stored, how much should be retained, and how much should be submitted to the central court?

For example, how much should be paid for military service and corvee labor, who pays, how should it be paid, etc.

At this point, it is actually a bit strange. - Isn't it that Liu Rong wanted to launch a new coin, the Wuzhu, and completely take back the coinage rights?
This "Golden Cloth Law" obviously has nothing to do with money!

Even if he had to consider it, Liu Rong should have considered the money law of the "Two-Year Law" rather than the gold and cloth law, right?
But in fact, everything is buried under this seemingly straightforward but actually extremely obscure expression.

As mentioned above, the Jinbu Law is mainly a law regarding civil compensation and how to compensate when non-official groups or individuals damage official property.

It seems that it really has nothing to do with coins.

But the answer is right there on the riddle.

——Civil compensation, what is the compensation for?
——What will be the compensation for damaging official property?
The answer is obvious: money.

A copper coin that is widely circulated throughout the country and recognized by people all over the world - at least by the majority of people in the world.

At this point, the problem is actually very simple.

The Jinbu Law stipulates civil compensation and compensation methods when official property is damaged.

Among them, there are also rigid regulations on compensation money.

The provisions can be roughly summarized as follows: All "money", whether it is the round copper coin of the Warring States Period, or the round square-hole Qin Banliang and Han Banliang;

As long as the inscription indicating the face value can be identified on the surface of the coin, the copper color can be seen, and the coin is not completely broken, then even if there are some defects, it can be judged as: money.

This kind of "money" that can be officially judged as qualified cannot be refused by any official or unofficial individual or group, whether it is used to compensate the government, pay fines, taxes, civil compensation, or even in daily trading activities.

Violators will be fined four taels...

Obviously, this regulation was Empress Dowager Lu's way of covering up Liu Bang's three-zhu lead pod coins.

In order to rebuild the credit of the currency and, more importantly, the credibility of the government, Empress Dowager Lü officially endorsed the Sanzhu Lead Pod Coin with a piece of "Golden Cloth Law".

In order to avoid being fined, the common people at that time naturally had to continue using the inferior three-zhu lead pod coins.

But in the end, the money gradually flowed back to the Shaofu in the form of taxes, levies, fines, and even commodity transactions.

In other words: Emperor Taizu Liu Bang "traded time for space" and overdrawn the future with three-zhu lead coins. It was eventually the "Second Emperor of Han" Empress Dowager Lu who completed the subsequent follow-up work and filled the overdrawn hole.

And this is precisely where Liu Rong is in trouble, or where he is constrained.

——"The Golden Cloth Law" allows any kind of "fake money" that has the shape of money and a more or less copper-yellow surface to have currency legitimacy!
Moreover, due to the special status of Empress Dowager Lü as the 'Empress of Han', Liu Rong was unable to resolve the issue through decree coverage - that is, by introducing a new law that negated the old law.

In order to unify the currency, promote the Wuzhu coin, and eliminate all other miscellaneous inferior coins, Liu Rong had to face the "Jinbu Law".

Either, abolish the Jinbu Law;
Or, on the basis of accepting the definition of "money" in the "Golden Bullet Law", endure the market law that bad money drives out good money, and pass on the promotion of Wuzhu coins to your sons, grandsons, and even to future generations of rulers.

Liu Rong would obviously choose the former.

However, the repeal of old laws is extremely difficult, especially those issued personally by people of special significance such as the founding emperor or empress.

The reason is very simple: in the feudal era, politics was never about discussing the issue at hand, but about discussing people based on the issue, and discussing the issue based on the people.

Take a very simple example.

It’s still “The Golden Rule”.

Because of the "Lü Rebellion", Empress Dowager Lü's political image in the Han Dynasty was actually the "Jie and Zhou" among women.

However, due to Empress Dowager Lu's status as "Empress Gao", the Han court adopted a low-key approach to this political characterization.

To put it bluntly, everyone knows and agrees that Empress Dowager Lu is a worthless person;
But in order to save the face of the Han family, especially Emperor Taizu Gao, everyone should just know about this matter and no one should tell it to anyone else.

Especially as Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, who was the illegitimate son of Empress Dowager Lu, was unable to do anything to deny Empress Dowager Lu's characterization due to the constraints of human ethics and filial piety.

Thus, Empress Dowager Lü became a victim who "neither participated in the Lü Rebellion nor was she ever aware of it", and ended up being betrayed by her unworthy descendants and ruined her reputation in her later years, or in other words, "lost her reputation after death".

In the "Two-Year Law", a series of new laws, including the "Golden Cloth Law" introduced by Empress Dowager Lu, were also "treated coldly".

What is cold treatment?
Just leave it alone.

Don't abolish it, don't adopt it, don't deny its existence, but don't admit that it can be used.

The entire court, inside and outside, tacitly agreed that the new laws in the "Two-Year Law" - especially the "Golden Cloth Law" - did not exist.

It's like an ostrich burying its head in the sand when it encounters danger.

The Jinbu Law is clearly there, has not been abolished, and still has legal effect;
But the entire Han court became like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand.

In the past, this was certainly fine.

After all, the right to mint coins was open, and everyone could mint money. Regardless of whether there was the "Golden Code" or not, everyone could gain profits from minting coins.

But now, Liu Rong wants to take back the right to mint coins and launch an official unified currency, which will be a major source of income for people all over the world, especially the nobles.

As the saying goes: Cutting off a person's financial resources is like killing his parents.

What would be the result if Liu Rong "killed" the parents of almost all the aristocrats in the world?
The result is that in the future, countless people will appear outside the Weiyang Palace, waving the "Golden Cloth Law" that has been ignored for more than 30 years and questioning Liu Rong: Your Majesty, do you recognize Empress Dowager Lu?

Do you recognize this "Golden Rule"?
Since you admit it, why do you do something that violates the "Golden Rule"? !
Why is it that the money in our hands is not "money", and only the five-zhu coins in the Shaofu are "money"? ! !
The Jinbulu said that this is my money, why doesn't your Majesty recognize it? ! ! !

This is the crux of the problem.

——Liu Rong was not worried at all about normal coins that were truly valuable and had considerable copper content.

Because even if the people could not melt those coins into new money, they could at least melt them into copper, and then sell the copper in exchange for Wuzhu coins.

They have a way out - at worst they can melt and sell the copper.

But those exaggerated inferior coins - such as the low-quality four-zhu coins made by Deng Tong and Liu Bi, and even the three-zhu lead pod coins of Emperor Taizu Liu Bang, had no way out for their holders.

They could not, by smelting that money, obtain a sufficient quantity of copper, or recover sufficient wealth, to make up for their losses;
They could only rely on the endorsement of the Jinbu Law to force the government to take over and thus transfer the losses to the Han family.

Liu Rong obviously did not accept it.

If he did not accept it, it meant that before the Wuzhu coin came out, Liu Rong had to first get rid of the cancer of "Jinbu Law".

Even if the Jinbu Code is not abolished, at least that disgusting law should be deleted or revised.

But this also means that Liu Rong, as a great-grandson, will soon touch upon one of the few political taboos in the current Han political arena.

——The political characterization of Empress Dowager Lu!
(End of this chapter)