What is the status of the ancient Marquis of Ten Thousand Households today?What about the income l

Mondo History Updated on 2024-01-30

Where is the ancient Wanhu Hou now?How is the income level assessed?

Introduction: In appreciating ancient works of art and related film and television dramas, we often hear a word - Wanhu Hou. So, what exactly is Wanhu Hou?What kind of status does it amount to today?

The Marquis of Wanhu was a group with a very high status in ancient times, and it was also the highest level among all the marquis of the Han Dynasty. It represents the highest honor and holds a lot of resources and wealth in its hands.

To put it simply, the emperor canonized a piece of land for meritorious people, and the grain, taxes, and money in this area did not need to be handed over to the state, but directly handed over to the marquis of ten thousand households.

In the fiery years of the Chu and Han hegemony, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu launched a protracted battle, and the two sides fought to the death. In order to boost morale, Liu Bang promised that whoever could defeat Xiang Yu would be rewarded with a reward of ten thousand households and a thousand gold.

This news was like a heart booster, which stimulated the fighting spirit of Liu Bang's soldiers, and their morale was like a rainbow, and finally forced Xiang Yu into a desperate situation. With this victory, Liu Bang successfully captured the country.

Therefore, the Marquis of Wanhu has become the highest honor that ancient people dream of, and it has inspired the ambition of the ancients to "study and become the Marquis of Wanhu".

Although we often hear the title of "Marquis of Wanhu" in many works, in fact, the difficulty of obtaining this title is quite considerable. After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang canonized his brothers who followed him all the way to conquer the world, and only 139 of them received more than 2,000 households.

Among them, there are only four people with more than 10,000 households, they are Xiao He, Hou Xiaohe, Pingyang, Cao Shen, Zhang Liang, Liuhou, and Liu Bang's cousin Liu Ze. Therefore, the Marquis of Wanhu is not an honor that can be easily obtained.

In the long history of the Han Dynasty, only Wei Qing and Huo Quzhi were canonized as the Marquis of Wanhu, which was obtained by their heroic and fearless exploits after countless life and death tests.

Even Li Guang, who was known as the flying general, fought on the battlefield all his life, but he never had the opportunity to get this honor, and even Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty said to him regretfully: "If you are born in the period of Emperor Gao, what is the Marquis of Wanhu?"

It can be seen from this that the people who won the title of Marquis of Wanhu are by no means idle people, they are either the founding fathers, who have made great achievements, or the generals who pacified the world. Ordinary people can only be sealed up to a few hundred households at most.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the population was relatively small and the land resources were relatively abundant. By the standards of the time, 10,000 households were already quite a lot of land. Kuang Heng, a mathematician in the Western Han Dynasty, was sealed with 600 households, and the land obtained reached 3,100 hectares, equivalent to more than 50,000 hectares, that is, 3,400 square kilometers.

This was close to half of the land resources at that time, and about three times the area of Hong Kong.

According to the records of the Hanshu Food and Goods Chronicle, the land rent in the Han Dynasty was basically maintained at the level of "thirty taxes and one". In other words, 3.15 million liters of grain need to be handed over in a year in the fiefdom of Wanhu Hou.

In addition to land and grain, the taxes in the fiefdom were also firmly controlled by the marquis of Wanhu. According to records, in the Han Dynasty, each household had to hand over 200 yuan, so 10,000 households could receive at least 2 million yuan.

3.15 million liters of grain and 2 million yuan in household tax, which is the basic income level of a 10,000-strong household for a year. Except for the royal relatives and relatives, I am afraid that no one can exceed the income of the marquis of ten thousand households.

In ancient times, the Marquis of Wanhu was a noble position, equivalent to today's mayor. One fief of 10,000 households occupies one-240th of the country's population, equivalent to 5.8 million people and more than 3,400 square kilometers of land today.

Unlike today's mayor, the Hou of 10,000 households can truly enjoy the support of 10,000 households, and our income and taxes today do not fall directly into the hands of the mayor.

In ancient China, imperial power was highly centralized, and although the marquis of Wanhu owned a few hundredths of the wealth of the entire country, he needed to be careful at all times to avoid angering the emperor, not only to himself but also to the entire family.

Therefore, even if he was promised to reward the marquis of Wanhu, Liu Bang only sealed the marquis of Qianhu in the end, and the emperor would weaken the power of the marquis of Wanhu who had already been canonized by various means.

Epilogue Princely generals, symbolizing the highest rank of the emperor's canonization in ancient feudal society, with supreme glory and status, the ancient princes and generals are definitely standing at the top of the pyramid.

In the final analysis, princes and generals are just products born under the rule of imperial power, and no matter how high the power position is, it will be digested by the emperor for various reasons, and gradually lose its past glory.

And the princes and generals themselves have also changed from the "broken cauldron and sinking the boat, and the one hundred and two Qin Passes belong to Chu after all" to the current "people die for money, and birds die for food". After thousands of years of baptism, it has left its unique historical traces.

100 help plan

Related Pages