1. Introduction

2. Shang Yang's Reform
     Background    Measurement    Influence  

3. Reform of xiaowen emperor
     Background    Measurement    Influence  

4. The reforms of Wang Anshi
     Background    Measurement    Influence  

5. Zhang Juzheng Reform
     Background    Measurement    Influence  

6. References

7. External links

Introduction

There are plentiful far-reaching reform movements in Chinese history, including economic, political and cultural impacts. It seems that a reform movement accompanies every change in the dynasty. There are different purposes for every reform movement for instance, enhancing majesty, relieving social conflicts and boosting economic development.

Shang Yang's Reform

Background

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were the transitional periods which experienced collapse of the feudalism system and the establishment of a centralized system .^[1]During this period, the use of iron farming tools and the gradual promotion of cattle farming led to that original state ownership of land gradually replaced by private ownership of land.^[1] Also, it caused two opposite classes----landlords and farmers.

As increase of the economic strength of the emerging landlord class, they require the political rights and it has caused changes in social position. Therefore, they have demanded political reforms, the development of feudal economy, and the establishment of rule of landlord class. Therefore Countries have started reform movements, such as the Li Yi reform in Wei State and the Wu Qi Reform in Chu State. In order to strengthen the power of the Qin State, Shang Yang started to reform in many aspects.

Measurement

There are two stages, which have different measurements in the reform.

First stage

1. Strict rule of law, all citizens whether aristocrats or commoners are equal.^&91;2&93;Even the emperor did not have privilege.
2. Rewarding social rank or releasing from slavery, by farming or success in war.^&91;2&93; Slaves can get rid of slave status through military exploit.
3. Dividing household into groups of five or ten.^&91;2&93; Each group response for behaviors of every member and directly controlled by local government which governors were nominated by emperor.

Second stage

1. Abolishing well-field system, admitting private ownership and allowing free trade off.^&91;2&93; Buying and selling agricultural are permitted.^&91;3&93;
2. Implementing county class administration system.^&91;2&93;
3. Moving capital to Xianyang and built palace.^&91;2&93;
4. Unifying weights and measures.^&91;3&93; The weight and measures of the country has been standardized.

Influence

The influence of Shang Yang Reform on Qin and Qin Dynasty is very far-reaching. Shang Yang's reform is a successful reform in ancient China, not only for Qin and Qin dynasty but also entire Chinese history, especially in law aspect .^[4] He made Qin become a powerful country and laid the foundation for the future reunification of the six countries, and determined the systematic change in legal system. ^[5]

After the Shang Yang reform, it established the private ownership of land; politically, it has abolished the old system of bloodlines, improving country system. In addition, the construction of a centralized system has begun; militaryly, it has rewarded military power and achieved purpose of strong military which has greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the military and developed into the most powerful country in the later period of the Warring States^[4]. It has created favorable conditions for Qin's next strategic development and is beneficial for unifying the country later.

Reform of xiaowen emperor

Background

The Xianbei is an ancient northern nation in Chinese history. The Tuoba Department is a branch of the Xianbei in the eastern part of the Daxinganling Mountains.^[6] The Tuoba Department continued to move south. In the Western Jin Dynasty, Tuoba department was enfeoffed a land, called Dai, which was rewards of helping emperor of Jin to fight against non-Chinese usurpers in 307.^[6]But soon, they were destroyed the Former Qin Dynasty.^[6]

After the Battle of Feishui, the former Qin ruled the disintegration, Tuoba department reestablish their country and change the name to Northern Wei.^[6] They unified the North in 439.^[6] At that time, the Northern Wei Dynasty monarchs had attached great importance to the study of Han culture. Emperor Xiaowen was deeply influenced by the Han culture.^[6]

Around the middle period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, although the national contradictions have been gradually eased, due to the excessive exploitation and oppression of the ruling class, the class contradictions have become increasingly sharp. The peasant uprising broke out every year. In 471, Tuoba Hong became the Emperor named Xiaowen. Xiaowen emperor was rose up by his grandmother Empress Feng.^[7] He learned much knowledge of Han during his childhood.^[7] Since then, the peasant uprising has continued to increase, and the brutal suppression of the court has not only failed^[6] to calm the people's uprising, but has stimulated more contradictions and struggles. In order to alleviate social contradictions and ethnic contradictions, Emperor Xiaowen successively carried out a series of reforms, known as the reform of Emperor Xiaowen. He aimed to develop Xianbei’s economy, culture, society, politics and power strength.{{cn}}

Measurement

1. Official system: “officials were provided with salaries and the descendants of the tribal chiefs were fixed as lineages and became candidates for appointment as officials.”^&91;7&93;
2. Moving capital to Luoyang: in 494, Emperor Xiaowen moved their capital from Pingcheng to Luoyang.^&91;8&93;
3. Changing last names to Han last name.{{cn}}
4. Learning Han language to integrating nationals especially between Han and Xianbei.{{cn}}

Influence

The reformation measures implemented by Emperor Xiaowen are conducive to easing class contradictions and playing a positive role in the recovery and development of the social economy. Because the Xianbei people did not have a high cultural literacy, and did not have independent political reform ideas, resulting in blindly copying the previous Han regime policy, it also inherited this gate system that has seriously affected social development. “The system was extended from Wei Jin to the Northern and Southern Dynasties until the Sui Dynasty established the imperial examination system. One of the reasons for the success of Emperor Xiaowen’s reform was that most of the Hu people were able to speak Chinese and wear Hanfu. They could only speak Hu language and wear Hufu. This reform only accelerated the process of customizing the customs. After reform, the control of emperor Xiaowen had been enhanced and he also contributed in integrating Han and Xianbei people.^[9]

The reforms of Wang Anshi

Background

The financial deficit forced the government to increase taxes. ^[10] In addition, there were a variety of taxes, which imposes a heavy burden on the people. Moreover, people suffered from wars and frequent natural disasters. There are constant complaints. The peasants have resisted for living.

At the same time, the intrusion of foreign enemies brought enormous survival pressure to Northern Song. After the establishing of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was not peaceful which caused many wars around frontier especially in northeastern and northwestern. Due to the political corruption in the Northern Song Dynasty and the weakness of the military, although it cost huge amounts of financial and human resources, it often ended in failure. ^[11]

After the Song Emperor Shenzong took the throne, it seems that the Great Song Dynasty is flourishing; it actually contained contradictions and problems. Due to the serious land annexation phenomenon, a large number of peasants lost their land. It eventually resulted in a sharp drop in fiscal revenue. There was a rare fiscal deficit since the establishing of the country. Fiscal deficit in 1064 is 15,726,002.^[10] Under this circumstance, Wang Anshi tried to launch a reform to relieve it. Wang Anshi attempted to set a Confucian system to solve the fiscal deficit problem.^[10]

Measurement

The core of reform of Wang Anshi is implementing new law which also called “Wang Anshi’s New Law”.

1. In every spring, the government will provide the crops loans, and take interest of two or three percent every six months and must return in harvest time.^&91;12&93;
2. Ordered the officials to verify the owner of land and the land according to the quality of the soil had been divided into 5 levels. Government would levy based on the level of land.^&91;12&93;
3. A department called Shiyisi was set up in Bianjing. It is an official department that control the tradeoff. It would purchase unsalable goods, and then sell it when there is a shortage of the goods in market.^&91;12&93;
4. The rural households will be compiled, and the ten households will be a group. Each household that had more than two men would choose one of the men as Baoding. Baoding would receive military training when they are have leisure time.^&91;12&93;
5. Government supervised the manufacture of weapon, which strictly manage and improve the quality of weapons.^&91;12&93;
6. The Gongju law was promulgated, while the Mingjing Ke was abolished. The examinations of the officials were based on the theory of Jingyi and Celun, and the law part was added.^&91;13&93;

Influence

This is a failed reform movement.^[14]Nevertheless, the new law had restrained the merger of powerful landlords to some extent.^[10] The New Law caused that some of the business profits monopolized by big businessmen had been returned to the country.^[12] The New Law caused that some of the business profits monopolized by big businessmen had been returned to the country. ^[15]This had hampered the manipulation of the market by businessmen and releases the taxation exploitation of farmers. Moreover, building hydraulic engineering of farmland projects for agricultural production played a significant role for development of agricultural.^[10] Society and economy continued to develop. The burden of the people had been reduced.^[10]

Zhang Juzheng Reform

Background

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the situation of land merger was serious. Most of this situation is caused by the nobles, and the eunuchs who used political privilege to occupy a large amount of land (Su, 2017).^[16] This seriously affects the national income. The aristocratic landlords frantically plundered the land, and the feudal exploitation was further aggravated. Farmers were suffering.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the government's financial crisis gradually increased. In the 16^th century, the sums of all kinds of taxes were 37 million liang (taels) in sliver 363,339.^[16] At the end of 16^th century, the government publicly collected 14.61 million liang in sliver.^[16] The annual collection of tax for National Sliver Treasury (Taicangku) 2-4 million liang between 1522 and 1617.^[16] However the government's spending was increasing. In the last year of Ming Dynasty, there were only 1.3 million liang in sliver in national treasury.^[16] The financial situation of Ming Dynasty reached a terrible point.

Measurement

1. All levels bureaucrats was strictly inspect, request regular reporting of local political affairs to the Cabinet, which improve the real power of cabinet. New officials that support the reform were promoted, which prepare for the new law.^&91;16&93;
2. In order to prevent Mongolia from entering the border, Zhang Juzheng sent Qi Jiguang to defend the Jimen, Li Chengliang to Liaodong. Furthermore, he ordered to strengthen and repair the border of Great Wall.^&91;17&93;
3. Single-whip Tax (Yitiao bian fa): He combined the original compulsory service such as military service and corvee into one. In general, the people did not need to do corvee. If government needs the power services, they need to pay for it. Land tax and other tax were all levied in silver; the county calculates the number of tax and corvee; the local officials directly collected the sliver of tax and corvee.^&91;16&93;

Influence

After this reform, the centralized of country was strengthened, so that the Ming government's fiscal revenue has increased significantly, and the social economy has recovered.^[18]Compared with the situation in Jiajing (1522), which the stock of treasury was not enough for one year, it was an essential improvement. In addition, it also released the corruption of Ming Dynasty.

However, the reforms inevitably harmed the interests of a large number of bureaucrats and nobles. So the reform obviously was against by them. Those who interests were harmed by this reform immediately required the revocation of lord of Zhang Juzheng and confiscation of his property after Zhang Juzheng's death.^[16] Moreover, one son of Zhang Juzheng had suicided because of unfair treatment.^[16]

References

External links

• USS Dodge County
• USS Dodger
• USS Dodger II
• USS Dodger II (SP-46)
• USS Dogwood
• USS Dogwood (YN-3)
• USS Dogwood (YN-9)
• USS Dohema Jr.
• USS Dohema Jr. (SP-612)
• USS Dohrn
• USS Doloma
• USS Doloma (SP-1062)
• USS Dolphin (SP-318)
• USS Dolphin (SP-874)
• USS Domino
• USS Donald B. Beary (FFT-1085)
• USS Donaldson (DE-55)
• USS Don Juan de Austria
• USS Don Juan de Austria (1887)
• USS Don Marquis
• USS Donnell (IX-182)
• USS Don O. Woods
• USS Don O. Woods (DE-721)
• USS Doris B. III
• USS Doris B. III (SP-733)