"Yongzheng Dynasty", a historical drama that has attracted much attention in recent years, not only shows the power and scheming of ancient officialdom, but also reveals the wisdom of dealing with people and surviving in the workplace.
However, have you ever thought deeply about it, the real theme of this drama is actually reform - Yongzheng New Deal, those seemingly fancy schemes and favors, but it is just an embellishment after it becomes a classic, and the spirit of "working hard to rejuvenate the country" is the real core of "Yongzheng Dynasty" becoming a classic.
So, what specific actions did Emperor Yongzheng take to solve the problems of the old society? Why did he insist on reforms? Today, let's take a look at it.
Although there are also some people in the play who are deeply saddened by the darkness and exploitation of the old society, because of the excitement of the plot, people have some questions about these so-called "real" - after all, it is very common for political enemies to attack each other.
Jiangxia Town was originally the hometown of "etiquette and morality" given by Kangxi himself, however, land annexation was extremely serious here. This is not an isolated case, and the situation in other regions is also far from optimistic.
So, why is this happening? The answer lies in the irrationality of the tax system. The peasants had to pay taxes and grain to the emperor after a year of hard work, while the gentry who did not have to do anything were exempt from taxes.
This unfair system put a heavy social burden on the peasants, causing them to go bankrupt and eventually sell their land to the gentry. Zhang Laohan was able to "sell" his land at a low price, which is already a blessing in misfortune.
In the play, it also tells about a land annexation incident, and in the process of rescuing Zheng Chunhua, the thirteenth elder brother met his former domestic slave Wen Baosheng. Although Wen Baosheng has a relationship, his land was snatched away by others, and he couldn't resist, so he could only eat Coptis chinensis dumbly, and he couldn't say anything about his suffering.
This once again reveals the irrationality of the tax system, which puts farmers in a vulnerable position and is unable to protect their rights and interests.
In order to evade taxes, Wen Baosheng's father "sold" his land to the local gentry, ostensibly as a fake sale, but in fact he attached the land to the gentry to enjoy tax exemptions, which was a win-win practice.
However, when the old landlord died, the new landlord who accepted the new idea repossessed the land in a reasonable and legal way by virtue of the documents of Wen Baosheng's father and the old landlord. This phenomenon reveals that under an irrational system, the rights of the people at the bottom are wantonly violated, and the income that should belong to the state falls into private hands.
In the distant Qing Dynasty, although the late feudal dynasty was faced with the problem of fiscal deficits, the financial monopoly was the fundamental cause of the country's poverty and weakness. At the beginning of Yongzheng's ascension to the throne, this drawback was ruthlessly exposed by the "stunned youth" Sun Jiacheng.
At that time, in order to show the atmosphere of the new dynasty, Yongzheng changed the proportion of coinage from half of copper and lead to four of copper and lead, although the appearance of copper coins was improved, but it caused greater problems.
During the Qing Dynasty, there were two main types of currency in circulation: silver and copper coins, of which copper coins were mainly used by the people, and silver was used as the only currency for official taxation. In order to ensure fairness, the state stipulates that one tael of silver can be exchanged for 2,000 copper coins.
The problem, however, is that because copper is more valuable than lead, some profiteers melt down the copper coins minted by the state and sell them into bronze and lead wares, respectively. Moreover, every time the country issues new currency, profiteers will exchange a large number of copper coins at a ratio of 1 to 2000.
In this way, there will be less copper coins circulating in the market, and scarce things will be expensive, and the people at the bottom will need to pay more copper coins. When the peasants needed to pay taxes, because the official ratio was 1 to 2,000, and the copper coins in their hands were worthless, they had to pay 2,000 copper coins to exchange for 1 tael of silver to pay taxes.
This kind of monetary monopoly caused by *** knot is actually robbing the people's wealth in the open. And the biggest problem with financial monopolies is that every transaction is exploited.
Without land and living under the exploitation of life, the lives of the people at the bottom have become very difficult and even precarious. When the Yellow River flooded, Cui'er sold herself for a few copper coins in order to raise money for her mother's funeral; Fifth Brother Zhang's father and son under the fence were also "willing" because they wanted to take the blame for the owner; After the death of her husband, Liu Wang's family was also falsely accused by the gentry and was almost murdered.
These facts show that land annexation, financial monopoly, and unjust imprisonment are rampant, and society is terminally ill.