The Research Of "Imperial Clan Subsidy Problem"

The problem of imperial clan subsidy,which had a great influence on the Ming dynasty,has always been an important subject in the study of the history of the Ming dynasty.Compared with other dynasties,the imperial clan subsidy of the Ming dynasty has received more attention.The basic conclusion of the existing studies is that the huge expenditure of imperial clan subsidy in the Ming dynasty not only exerted great pressure on the finance in the middle and later period of the Ming dynasty,directly or indirectly leading to the raising of taxes such as the “there kinds of taxes used for recruiting troops”,“mining taxes”,etc.,but also became one of the main reasons for the financial bankruptcy and the final collapse of Ming dynasty.For people in the Ming dynasty,the imperial clan subsidy is a heavy burden caused by Chinese absolute monarchy.However,the existing research is mainly based on some summary historical records of the Ming dynasty,such as “the rapid population growth of imperial clan" and "the lack of imperial clan subsidy",lacking the strong support of statistics and analysis of formal financial data.Therefore,it is the only way to promote the study of imperial clan subsidy in the Ming dynasty to comprehensively investigate the number of imperial clan and the amount of imperial clan subsidies in the Ming dynasty,deeply discuss the actual distribution of imperial clan subsidies in various periods,and make detailed analysis on the actual distribution of them.In the Ming dynasty,due to the rigid "clan restriction policy" and the characteristic of imperial clan subsidy which was paid according to the population of imperial clan,the imperial clan subsidy raised rapidly,arousing the wide attention of the Ming dynasty.The so-called "imperial clan subsidy problem" had always been an important content in the collected works and the memorial to the throne of the Ming people.By enumerating the population of the imperial clan and the total number of the imperial clan subsidy,many courtiers pointed out that the imperial clan subsidy system was not only a "disease of the nation",but also caused a serious survival crisis of some imperial relatives.On the one hand,they believed that the growth of imperial clan subsidy in the Ming dynasty was so rapid that it far exceeded the limits of the national finance.On the other hand,many courtiers also noticed that some lower and middle class of imperial clan had fallen into poverty,and criticized at the "clan restriction system" which gradually developed after the Yongle period based on the "Hongwu ancestor instruction".In order to solve this problem,the Ming court took a series of measures.As early as the early years of Hongwu,Zhu Yuanzhang greatly decreased the amount of subsides given to each prince by 89.4%.In the Hongzhi period,the Ming dynasty began to adopt the principle of "Half of subsidies are paid by rice,and the other half of them are paid by cash",which actually cut the total amount of imperial clan subsides by half.After the Jiajing period,due to the increasing seriousness of the problem caused by imperial clan subsides,the Ming dynasty not only sent some kings committed a crime in prison and encouraged some kings to cut their subsidies voluntarily,but also further reduced the proportion of rice in imperial clan subsides and set more limits on the payment of them.Such measures had some effect: according to the statistics in this paper,from the beginning of Jiajing period to the beginning of Wanli period,although the population of clan increased by 3.66 times,the total amount of silver given to them only increased by about two times.In the period of Wanli and Tianqi,in order to stop the amount of imperial clan subsides from rising with the increase of population,the Ming dynasty finally implemented the fixing of them,which made the imperial clan subsidy adapt to the principle of “fixed tax” in the local government.According to the estimation of this paper,the total amount of imperial clan subsidy in the Ming dynasty was about 1,567,524 Liang in the Tianqi period,accounting for 8.66% of the total revenue of the Ming dynasty.In conclusion,although these measures were not enough and too slow,the total expenditure of imperial clan subsidies in the Ming dynasty were limited to less than 10% of the national revenue,which greatly reduced the financial burden caused by them in the Ming dynasty.The characteristics of "imperial clan subsidy problem" in the Ming dynasty included four aspects: Firstly,although the total amount of imperial clan subsides in the Ming dynasty was not small,it did not cause substantial damage to the finance of the Ming dynasty,and the biggest victim of “imperial clan subsidy problem” was the inferior clan fallen into poverty.Secondly,there was a sharp contradiction between the characteristic that imperial clan subsides raised with the increase of population and the principle of "fixed tax" in the Ming dynasty.Thirdly,In the Ming dynasty,the local officials' "contempt" towards imperial clan subsidy became more and more intense with the passage of time.Such contempt made officials defaulted on imperial clan subsidy and embezzled it.This kind of "default" behavior had important relationship with the gradual decline of the status of imperial clan in Ming dynasty,the neglect of the funds remained in provinces in Ming dynasty and the local officials' belief that it was always improper to increase the amount of taxes.Fourthly,because the subsidies were often paid by local government,the circumstances of their payment varied among different regions.In conclusion,due to the implementation of measures such as "Half of subsidies are paid by rice,and the other half of them are paid by cash " and "All subsidies are paid by silver instead of rice",there was a huge gap between the actual amount of subsidies in Ming dynasty and "the total number of imperial clan subsides paid by cash and rise",and the former was usually less than one fifth of the latter.The immense amount of imperial clan subsidy described by Ming officials was often meaningless.What's more,due to the negative attitude of local officials,the imperial clan subsides,which had been deducted,could not even be paid in time.The victims of “imperial clan subsidy system” were the imperial clan,not the people.Therefore,the influence of imperial clan subsides on the finance of Ming dynasty was extremely limited,and the bankruptcy of finance at the end of Ming dynasty should have other reasons.