Refugees And Village Control Of The Western Han Dynasty

Farmers who lost their lands or discharged from household registers often became refugees, for which natural disasters were only a catalyst. While the tide of severe land annexation led by Local despotic force was the root cause of this problem. Xiang and Li in Western Han dynasty not only included peasant class who might be the potential refugees, but also the powerful landlords who annexed the lands of the farmers. Therefore, refugee problems in the Western Han dynasty inevitably connected with the situations in Xiang and Li, which means the local forces implemented personal control by dominating the census register system as well as prevented the increase and flow of the refugees by organizing the mass people to product and relieve famines.Besides constraints from the local forces, Western Han also had two other systems controlling refugees. One is placing strict personal control on these refugees, the other is restraining the power of Local despotic force annexing the lands of the mass people. During the early period of Western Han dynasty, the rulers did a quite good job in the two aspects. Based on the twenty peerage levels, rulers compiled the mass people into different Wu and practiced strict Grade identification system. To a great extent, the twenty peerage levels restrained the Local despotic force in the early Western Han dynasty.However, the Grade identification system based on peerage began to change after the reign of the empire Wen and Jing. Peerage wasn’t considered to be superior in Xiang and Li any more. A new climate emerged----power and money foremost was highly honored. This change resulted in the rise of the despotic forces in the mid-and late Western Han dynasty, whose coalition with the state power made Xiang San Lao and Li Fu Lao grow into despots in the mid-and late stage. The rise of the Local despotic force was inevitable and the land annexation led by these forces was also natural in history. Due to land annexation, The Western Han Dynasty declined in the end.