A Non-existent Reform?

Yeqi reform is a big event in the history of salt industry in Ming dynasty,but since the 1940 s,some scholars believe that the reform does not exist,there are still discussions on the question that whether this reform exist today.In order to explore the existence of Yeqi reform,first,this paper takes the records of Yeqi reform as the breakthrough point,comb its production and flowing deformation and find that there maybe some other original records about Yeqi reform except the source texts that scholars have found,therefore,we can not use the argument from silence to question the existence of Yeqi reform.Next,this paper start from the the core elements of the story of Yeqi reform,try to find the true colors of these elements on salt administrative phenomenon and find that,the core elements of the story of Yeqi reform can be confirmed on salt administrative phenomenon,this is probably the reason why Yeqi reform story was widely spread and rarely questioned in the middle and late Ming dynasty.Of course,the story of Yeqi reform exist some place of exaggeration and false,which is to a certain extent misled the later generations about the evolution of kaizhong system in the Ming dynasty.Last,this paper review the research of predecessors and find that predecessors have neglected the possibility of the Ming Shi-lu and the Ming reign’s Missing register,and pay little attention to the complicate process of the establishment and abolition of the paying silver at yunsi system.When we put the Yeqi reform into the historical process of the development of the paying silver at yunsi system,it is found that Yeqi reform can fit it.So this paper argues that the story of Yeqi reform do exist some place of exaggeration and false,but the event of Yeqi reform probably exist and is a key point of the process of the establishment and abolition of the paying silver at yunsi system,meanwhile the key point of the process of kaizhong system transforming from the paying grain at frontier system to the paying silver at yunsi system,and.the process of kaizhong system transforming from the paying grain at frontier system to the paying silver at yunsi system is accompanied by the historical process of the rise and fall of the paying silver at yunsi system.