Zhu Yunying continued, "The Zhu family is fortunate to have received land from the Marquis of Yihui. It is only pitiful that the people of the world have no land to cultivate in life and no land to be buried in death!"
The reasons for "selling oneself to bury one's father" and similar practices are not solely due to the traditional belief that burial brings peace. It's also because finding a burial plot is difficult, as farmers own no land. The land belongs to landlords like Zhang or Liu; do they really think they can just dig a hole and build a grave anywhere?
Huang Zicheng gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty, it was caused by the tyranny of the Mongol Yuan dynasty."
Well, now they're directly blaming it on the Mongol Yuan dynasty. It seems like this can shift the blame, turning the tragic events of the Zhu family back then into a class conflict, making it seem less of a widespread phenomenon and less likely to occur in the Ming dynasty!
This is a joke! As long as there is land consolidation, there will be many farmers without land to cultivate!
Zhu Yunying looked at Huang Zicheng, then swept his gaze across the assembled officials. "Whenever natural disasters or man-made calamities strike, many people lose their land. They sell their children, their families are destroyed, and they are reduced to becoming tenants of wealthy households or fleeing the country. Even so, they still have to pay taxes. How can they pay taxes?!"
This is one of the terrifying aspects of the poll tax: you had to pay taxes even without land, which was no easy task. For many, the only way to avoid paying taxes was to abscond with their household registration, or have their records concealed by landlords and gentry.
Land annexation was undoubtedly a cause of the downfall of many dynasties, and a sign of the decline of a prosperous dynasty. Zhu Yunying understood this principle, and he believed that the civil and military officials in the court were also aware of it.
Zhu Yunying looked at the civil and military officials and said, "What's wrong with letting farmers own their land?"
The idea of "land to the tiller" is a vision of prosperity that many dream of. However, this inevitably infringes on the interests of many, a fact understood by all.
7017k
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
