Research On The Agricultural Economic Functions Of The Qin Governmen

The issue of the agricultural economic function of the Qin government is an important topic in the study of Qin history.Under the national system of granting land,although the Qin government had made clear regulations on the shape of field,it was unlikely that all of them were so regular actually.Among the land granted to farmers,there should be a considerable part of uncultivated wasteland.The 100-acre land was only the general land-granting standard stipulated by law,and the actual number of acres perennially cultivated should be less than 100 acres on the whole.The Qin government had fulfilled a certain degree of security functions in the areas of water conservancy and transportation facilities,the supply of agricultural tools,the importance and protection of farming cattle and the promotion of production technology.The Qin government not only paid attention to the formulation of farmland laws and regulations to regulate agricultural production,but also directly managed the small-scale farming activities.In the small-scale production activities,the government had also given different levels of management on farmland shape planning,water conservancy facilities,grain allocation and growth of crops.In addition,the distribution of grain stored in the Imperial Granary was extremely diverse,including military,bureaucratic,Tuli(徒隶),Juzishuzhai(居赀赎债)and Shuzu(戍卒).For the distribution of rations for different types of people,the way the government had adopted was not the same.There were Tian(田)and Tianguan(田官)in Liye Qin bamboo slips.The chief officer of Tian named Tiansefu(田啬夫)was a county official,who managed the farmland throughout the county.Dutiansefu(都田啬夫)was not a permanent official,and it was substantially a Tiansefu in county or county town.In addition,"Tianguan"was indeed an organization different from "Tian",whose main function was to operate and manage public land at the county level.The ten guansefu(官啬夫)of Qianling County were Sikong(司空),Shaonei(少内),Cang(仓),Xuguan(畜官),Tianguan,Ku(库),Wei(尉),Tian,Fanu(发弩)and Jiu(厩).The "Left Tian"(左田)and "Right Tian"(右田)in Qin bamboo slips were organizations responsible for farmer’s field affairs,and the Left Tian or Right Tian was their competent official respectively.They might be the two Low-level officials under Tiansefu,related to the increasingly heavy background of the peasant field affairs.Tianzuo(田佐)was the deputy of Tiansefu located in the seat of county government while Tianbuzuo(田部佐)was the deputy in townships.In the field of direct management of farmland affairs,Tianbuzuo and Tiansefu were more of a kind of parallel division of labor.Although the level of the branch offices located in townships was low,it was still a relatively important institution.This was closely related to the important functions it undertook.In addition,The "Dian"(典)that appeared on its own was sometimes referred to Lidian(里典)and Tiandian(田典),but it was usually appropriate to understand it as Lidian.Tiandian’s responsibilities were relatively single,mainly assisting in the management of matters related to the farmer’s field affairs.Government-run iron tools were an important part of Qin’s agricultural production tools.There were iron mining(采铁),iron smelting(冶铁)and iron officer(铁官)in central government and some counties,of which the former two were responsible for mining iron ore and casting ironworks respectively,the latter in charge of relevant matters.In addition,there were also iron officers set up in the county widely.It was not advisable to call the workshop for casting iron tools as Gongshi(工室).The county agencies such as Tian,Jiu,Tianguan,Sikong and Cang all had authority of managing or using official farm tools.Qin paid great attention to lending tools to common people and had quite complete laws to guarantee their implementation.In general,the borrowers did not need to worry about its natural damage.There should be also officials responsible for selling iron products.In general,it was indeed inappropriate to underestimate the role of private supply of iron tools of Qin officials in promoting small-scale peasant production.The application of farmers to reclaim wasteland and being filed by the government not only made their possession and use of the land recognized and protected,but also an important part of the Qin government’s determination of the rent.The government’s emphasis on and protection of small-scale farmers’ production was highlighted in the maintenance of farming season(农时).The rulers not only paid attention to the scientific protection of Juzishuzhai’s farming season,but also to ordinary small farmers."Gongtian"(公田)and "Guantian"(官田)in Qin bamboo slips were the names of fields managed by the Qin government in different periods,and the latter was renamed from the former.In addition to the quantity,farming skills were also an important consideration when sending Tuli to the public land.These covered almost all types of criminals at that time,whose rations were ostensibly supplied by Tianguan,and in fact might still be issued by their original regulatory authorities.However,when free people such as Shuzu and Juzishuzhai were dispatched to cultivate public fields,their rations were mostly given by Tianguan and distributed on the first day of the month or early month.The standard for distributing food in Liye was different from that of shuihudi,and it should be a reflection of the changes in the distributing food system before and after the Qin reunification.In the various stages of reclamation such as grain allocation,crop growth and grain harvesting,the guiding principles and system guarantees formulated by the government were scientifically rigorous.These were of great significance for the rational and effective implementation of the public land production.Studying Qin’s granary system was an important window for recognizing the socio-economic situation of the time.The legal terms in Shuihudi bamboo slips should still be understood as the granary officer’s aide in charge of grain distribution,rather than "the granary officer’s aide" and "the person in charge of grain distribution".From the Liye bamboo slips,the township chief,instead of the granary officer’s aide,presided over the work of distributing food in township granary.It should be a reflection of the change in grain distribution system and variation trend of management rights between the county granary and township from pre-unification to post-unification.The original meanings of "Kuai"(廥)and "Cang" were the building facilities for storing fodder and grain respectively.In Qin and later the Qin Dynasty,the former still retained its original meaning to a certain extent,but the type of storage had already overlapped with the latter,so that the law often mixed the two,"Ji"(积)was the storage form of materials such as grains,fodders,etc.It itself was not a certain building entity.In addition,"Shiguan"(实官)were the generic names of officials which stored goods,and they referred to at least two institutions,namely"Cang" and "Shaonei".There were annual statistical instruments for Cang in Liye Qin bamboo slips.Its business management mainly included grain income and expenses,grain and haulm lending,Poultry and livestock breeding,utensil management,money revenue and expenditure and Tuli management.The grain expenditure of County-level granary mainly included the rations of various personnel,the food supply for courier station and the rations of criminal in Sikong.Among the lending objects,some were temporarily lacking rations because of going out to work for governments,and others were because they lacked the source of rations.In addition,there also existed situation for lending materials to persons passing through the county and loaning straw stored for too long to villages.The livestock and poultry raised in Cang mainly included pigs,dogs,chickens,geese,etc.The government should have made detailed examination provisions for the performance of livestock and poultry.The equipment used or managed by Cang included weighing instruments,agricultural tools,hand tools,etc.In the annual statistics,it was necessary to report the actual situation based on their types and specifications.The ways of monetary income were to arrange Tuli to work in handicraft industry,to sell grain to persons who passed through the county and to sell remaining sacrifices.It was an important part of money expenditure to purchase the materials needed by the department and hand over money to Shaonei.For Tuli’s work arrangements,it was necessary to record every day from one person or more.Those who were engaged in labor leaving their own county or beyond the jurisdiction of Cang might be related to "Tulixingyao"(徒隶行徭).There were lots of records about the distribution of grain by the local government of the Qin Dynasty,including both "Chubing"(出禀)and "Chushi"(出食).And the former’s objects were rather diverse except these kinds of criminals such as Chengdan(城旦),Chong(舂),Guixin(鬼薪)and Baican(白粲).Normally,"Chubing"took the way of monthly distribution,which issued to individual.By contrast,"Chushi"was daily distribution and issued to many people.The types of crops issued covered millet,rice,beans and wheat,and the millet was the most common one,followed by rice.Before the unification of Qin,the He(禾),legal rations of Lichen(隶臣),referred to Limi(粝米),but it might be converted into raw grain in the actual distribution.However,the rations were basically processing food in Qin dynasty.The county granary’s competent official "Cang" or "Cangshou"(仓守)was different from each other,and generally presided over a quarter of the work in turn.In addition,the local government generally issued grain at the beginning of the month,and distributed the rations of that month.During the Qin State in the late Warring States Period to the Qin Dynasty,the official price of millet was 30 Qian(钱)per Dan(石),and the market price would fluctuate on this basis.It was not appropriate to regard the high price of 1600 Qian per Dan as the normal state.In addition,there were also price information for provenders such as Chu(刍)and Gao(稾),military equipments such as armor,shields and vests,currency metals such as gold,copper and cloth,clothing such as He(褐),Pao(袍)and Ku(绔),remaining sacrifices products such as sheep head,wine and Fu(脯)as well as other goods such as slaves.With reference to the production rent rate,the average yield per mu of the millet should be about 4.5 Dan per mu.The actual cultivated area was calculated from 30 to 40 mu and the farm rent and grain ration were removed,the annual millet that the small-scale farmers could dominate was between 12.9 and 37.2 Dan.The balance of farmland output would generally not exceed 2,000 Qian,or even less than 200 Qian.For smallholder families using farmland output as their main source of income,their living pressures were not too small.The Qin Empire,which was strong and fulfiled its powerful agricultural economic functions,showed a certain trait that "the country was rich while its people were poor".Until the late imperial period,with various social problems intensifying,the live of Qin people especially the large small-scale farmers was even more difficult.