Author: Li Dakui.
After Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu founded the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to find out the base of the country's land population, in 39 AD, he promulgated the famous Dutian Order, which is what we now call the land and population census.
Today, it's not that difficult, it's not a large-scale statistical work. Who knows?In the Guangwu Zhongxing era, which was still in its heyday at that time, this work was not easy to implement, and it once led to the "Dutian Incident," which almost led to the collapse of the dynasty.
What is the reason for this?It is so difficult to let the eloquent Emperor Guangwu implement it, and he has to compromise and make concessions
It turned out that the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty were in the same line, and they were both another feudal unified dynasty under the regime system of "the emperor and the powerful ruling the world".
Although Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu created the famous Guangwu Zhongxing, a good era of recuperation with the people and a good recovery of national strength, from the political attributes of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was still a feudal era of co-construction, co-management and sharing of agricultural civilization with the support of local tyrants.
The reason why Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu was able to establish the Eastern Han Dynasty was closely related to the support of the Nanyang faction, the Hebei faction and other local heroes. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, although Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu retired from meritorious service and entered literature and history to govern the country with softness, he still needed the strong support and cooperation of the powerful landlords with the new nouveau riche and the old nobility as the main body in order to stabilize the world.
As far as the land population situation of the whole country at that time was concerned, in fact, the most important thing was still in the hands of the local powerful landlords. Because these land populations are their core interests, the foundation of their survival and development.
After all, at that time, the food system of the princes and nobles was clearly stipulated in this way, and the amount of money they received mainly depended on the area of the fief and the number of peasant households they owned.
The fundamental purpose of the implementation of the "Dutian Order" is to find out the situation of the land and population of the whole country, and only after understanding these family backgrounds can we understand the grain output of the whole country, formulate production and living plans that are in line with reality, and ensure the security of the country and the people.
This was originally a good thing for the benefit of the country and the people, but in ancient times more than 2,000 years ago, this move seriously touched the bottom line of the powerful landlords, who willingly accepted that the cheese was cut away and lost their vested interests like cutting leeks
Naturally, they will rebel and even rebel.
This is the biggest obstacle that Emperor Guangwu encountered in implementing the Dutian Order, and of course it will be difficult.
After all, at that time, the tax revenue mainly relied on the land tax and the agricultural tax, and the princes and nobles who did not want to lose the glory and wealth and the powerful landlords in their own fiefdoms, how could they not conceal and omit the land population, so as to maximize the vested interests of Gong Wei?
In particular, in the imperial city of Henan and the imperial township of Nanyang, the land population data is even more false, and the situation of concealment and omission is particularly prominent.
Because the land tax paid at that time was based on the amount of land area, and the large fiefdom was, the tax was paidAgricultural taxes are also determined according to the number of people, and the larger the population, the more taxes will naturally be.
Therefore, in order to pay less taxes and enrich their own small treasury of one acre and three points of land, the powerful landlords, especially the royal relatives of the same clan as Liu Xiu, tried every means to win over the local assassin Shi Taishou and others to collude, and only symbolically filled in the land population data and reported it.
As a result, there is naturally a conspicuous problem that there are many cultivated fields in the world that are not realistic, and that there are also increases and decreases in the age of household registration.
Knowing that the situation is not optimistic, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, in the face of the local and powerful landlords jointly ambushed, there is a wide range of under-reported land area, under-reported population of the grim situation, understand that this is the competition between each other's core interests, can only face the difficulties and solve them flexibly, so as not to intensify the contradictions, in order to achieve the expected goal of win-win cooperation, so as to actively solicit feasible opinions from all rivers, and finally get an excellent strategy:
That is, Enwei at the same time, with an iron fist to suppress the local ** and powerful landlords who concealed and underreported, and took the initiative to make concessions with the other hand, dismantling the powerful forces and making them into pieces, which did not pose a potential threat to the dynasty.
In terms of iron-fisted repression, as long as it is discovered that there is omission or concealment of the land population data reported by the local government, it will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.
At one time, Yin Zhangling of Henan, Wang Yuan of Shangcai Ling, including Ouyang She, the great Situ and others were directly imprisoned and executed.
In terms of compromise and concessions, we have adopted a policy of attacking the heart by combining disintegration with Huairou, allowing all localities to report each other, and as long as five people expose one person Dutian's falsehood, they can be exempted from the crimeEven if these five people were powerful landlords with criminal records, they would not be executed, and they would be allowed to move to other places and be given arable land for production and life.
At the same time, all counties are strictly ordered to fulfill their duties and responsibilities, and must carefully count the land and population data of the areas under their jurisdiction, and not to falsify them. As long as the real situation of the local Haoqiang is clarified, the previous mistakes can be offset.
In this way, under Emperor Guangwu's policy of "carrots and sticks," the "Dutian Incident" was effectively quelled, and the large-scale "Dutian" work was successfully completed.
After all, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, the Dutian Order, which could stabilize the political situation in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, not only restricted the powerful landlords from annexing the land and population, but also increased fiscal revenue, facilitated the collection and issuance of forced labor, and strengthened the ruling order of the dynasty.
To sum up, such a good measure as the Dutian Order was met with resistance at that time, and it was not easy to implement, which shows that the success of the great cause is not easy.
It can be seen that in the face of unprecedented arduous tasks, we must analyze the specific situation, and it is not appropriate to be rigid and complacent, and only to break the deadlock of following the rules, get out of the characteristics, and enter the road of innovation to face difficulties, is the key to achieve the expected goals.
It's for remembering. 
Author: Li Dakui, born in the 70s, from Meitan, Guizhou, bachelor of law, literature and history lover.
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