Chapter 259 — The Human Emperor, the Dao Sovereign, and the Tathagata
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
"Many people do not understand. Reform what? Revolutionize what? Things were fine before, were they not? Everyone lived well, in harmony and joy. And now you reform, you revolutionize — is it not all for the sake of your own ambition as emperor? You offend the great clans and noble houses, you offend those sects — is it not all so that Jingping's territory might grow a little larger? And now heaven-sent calamities and man-made disasters come year after year, and it is all your fault, all the fault of the reforms. This is a fallacy!"
At Bazhou Prefecture, Emperor Yanfeng walked the streets with a host of civil and military ministers. Watching the people queued before one charity gruel stall after another, he went over to a stall; the clerk ladling out the gruel was about to kneel, and Yanfeng waved a hand: "It is freezing cold. There is no need for so much ceremony. How much does one person get?"
"Replying to Your Majesty: one bowl of rice gruel for an adult, two steamed buns, one spoonful of dried vegetables."
Yanfeng nodded, told him to step aside, and took up the ladle himself to serve the refugees, the court's civil and military officials crowding behind him. Ladling as he spoke, he went on: "Those who lived well before were never the common people! Minister of Agriculture, tell them: before the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's reforms, how many people could one mu of good farmland feed?"
The Minister of Agriculture said hurriedly: "Before the reforms, one mu of good farmland yielded three hundred and thirty catties of coarse grain a year. But at that time the land was all in the hands of the great clans, the temples, and the Daoist monasteries; the farmers had no land of their own. A farm household of seven or eight souls would till eighty mu, growing grain, fruit, vegetables, and medicinal herbs. They toiled the whole year, planting two crops, and at year's end had no surplus — barely enough to fill their bellies, with meat perhaps once or twice a month; and when disaster struck, they starved. In those years many of the old folk, in a famine year, would throw themselves into the river or go up into the mountains of their own accord, so as not to drag their families down with them. And meanwhile the great clans, the temples, and the Daoist monasteries laid up grain beyond counting, and money beyond counting."
Yanfeng said: "Eighty mu of land to feed a household of seven or eight, a whole year of bitter toil — where did the grain go? Now tell them again: after the reforms, how many people can one mu of land feed?"
The Minister of Agriculture went on: "His Majesty commanded the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping to carry out the reforms, taking all the land under heaven into public hands; the great clans, the temples, and the Daoist monasteries were forbidden to hold land. Each adult male received eighty mu, twenty of it good farmland. In recent years the population has multiplied several times over and the realm has grown considerably, so the rule was changed: each adult male receives forty mu, ten of it good farmland. The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping set the martial artists and the men of divine powers to work at farming; drought and flood alike were made safe — rain in drought, drainage in flood — and so for a hundred and sixty years there has been no famine. Today the yield is eight hundred and twenty catties per mu, the land tax two dan, and a farm household no longer finds it costly to eat meat."
"Three hundred and thirty catties. Eight hundred and twenty catties."