Which dynasty did the theory of salt and iron belong to?

The history of China's economic thought is a history of the development of market economy, in which there is only the so-called social policy and no socialism. Which dynasty did the theory of salt and iron belong to? Do you want to know? Come and have a look at its related content with me!

China's characteristic market economy is based on the philosophy of "storing wealth for the people, enriching the people and strengthening the country". However, when I visited Shanghai, China in June 5438+2000 10, the slogans on the road still read the words about policies such as "enriching the country and strengthening the people", which made people suspicious. On my way back to Taipei from Shanghai, I visited the residence of Mr. Nan, a Zen master of Chinese studies, and asked Mr. Nan about China's economic thoughts on "enriching Qiang Bing" or "enriching the people and strengthening the country". He said: "The country is rich and the people are rich and the country is strong. They are mutually causal, and the law is not seen. The wise are resourceful and the able are decisive." The debate about "the people are rich and the country is strong" or "the country is rich and strong" can be discussed from the financial dispute of salt and iron in the Western Han Dynasty.

The Theory of Salt and Iron is a book compiled by Huan Kuan in the Western Han Dynasty according to the minutes of the salt and iron conference held during the Han Dynasty. This book describes a great political, economic, military, diplomatic and cultural debate during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The book is divided into sixty articles, with titles and contents one after another. Huan Kuan's thought is the same as that of a virtuous writer, so there is inevitably criticism of Sang Hongyang in the book. The language in the book is very concise, and the descriptions of all parties are very vivid, which reproduces the scene at that time for modern people. Tu Youyou 1487 (twenty-three years of Ming Chenghua) published a good edition. Modern reference editions include Guo Moruo's A Reader on Salt and Iron and Wang Qili's A Collation on Salt and Iron.

The Theory of Salt and Iron is a collection of political essays in the Western Han Dynasty. Written by Huan Kuan in the Western Han Dynasty.

Collection of political essays in the late Western Han Dynasty. It was originally a document of the Hanzhaodi Salt and Iron Conference, and was later compiled by Huan Kuan.

Huan Kuan, the second word. Runan (now Shangcai, Henan) people. The year of birth and death is unknown. When Emperor Xuan Di was promoted to Lang, he was later appointed as the satrap of Lujiang.

In the sixth year of Zhao Di in the Western Han Dynasty (the first 8 1 year), a "Salt-Iron Conference" was held, in which the sages were on the one hand and the ancient scholar Sang Hongyang was on the other, and issues such as salt-iron monopoly, liquor monopoly and average loss were debated. According to the minutes of the meeting at that time, and introduced by Zhu Zibo, a Confucian scholar who attended the meeting, Huan Kuan arranged and adapted it into On Salt and Iron. Articles 1 to 41 describe the process of formal debate at the meeting and the main viewpoints of both sides. Articles 42 to 59 write the main points of the debate between the two sides on the Huns' diplomatic strategy and legal system after the meeting. The last article is a preface.

The theory of salt and iron is an important historical material for studying the economic and political history of the Western Han Dynasty. Because the description of Sang Hongyang in Historical Records is not complete, Hanshu has not made a special biography. Salt and iron theory can make up for this deficiency because of Sang Hongyang's dialogue. The discussion of Salt and Iron Theory is based on reality, criticizing the current disadvantages and hitting the nail on the head. The language is concise, fluent and unpretentious. In addition, The Theory of Salt and Iron is written in dialogue, and the articles are interrelated, which is rare in ancient Chinese works.

However, the fly in the ointment is that Huan Kuan, the author of On Salt and Iron, is partial to Confucianism and cannot keep an objective position. In the minutes of this meeting, Huan Kuan took an obviously biased stance on "virtuous literature", describing the embarrassment of government officials many times, either silently wrong, angry or ashamed. There are many derogatory terms.

Guo Moruo called it "a historical novel with dialogue style". The Theory of Salt and Iron has been published in all dynasties since the Song Dynasty, and the most popular one is the textual research of Zhang Dunren in Qing Dynasty. In addition, Guo Moruo is the author of A Reader on Salt and Iron, and Wang Qili is the author of two books, A Collation on Salt and Iron.

Book writing background

In order to grasp the lifeline of the national economy, strengthen the feudal centralization economically, resist the military invasion of Xiongnu and crack down on the local separatist forces, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty carried out a series of major financial policies, such as salt and iron official camp, liquor monopoly and even loss, and leveling and unifying coins. Although these economic measures adapted to the need of consolidating the regime of the Western Han Dynasty at that time and laid a solid financial and economic foundation for the Western Han Dynasty, they also brought some inconvenience and difficulties to agricultural production, small and medium-sized businesses and people's lives, especially deprived local governors and wealthy businessman dajia of their vested interests, which inevitably aroused their strong dissatisfaction and opposition, so the problems of salt and iron official camp and liquor monopoly became major events in social, political and economic life at that time.

In February of the lunar calendar in 8 1 BC (in the sixth year of Zhao Han), the imperial court summoned more than 60 people from all over the country to Chang 'an, the capital, to discuss the sufferings of people's livelihood with government officials headed by the ancient imperial doctor Sang Hongyang. Later generations called this meeting the Salt-Iron Meeting. At the meeting, the two sides had a heated debate on a series of important issues, such as the official operation of salt and iron, the monopoly of wine, the loss sharing, the leveling and unification of coins, the reclamation and border defense, and the peace war against the Huns. This is the first large-scale ethnic policy debate in ancient history of China.

At the Salt-Iron Conference, Xianwen made a comprehensive criticism of the political and economic policies formulated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Economically, it is required to "crack down on the monopoly of salt, iron and wine, and lose both sides." They take Confucianism as a weapon, stress morality, benevolence and righteousness, and oppose "profit-making". They believe that the implementation of official policies such as salt and iron is "competing for profits with the people", which violates the creed of ancient sages of "respecting morality but not wealth", corrupts the simple social fashion in ancient times and lures people onto the road of "rebelling against righteousness and seeking profits". They put forward the Legalists' theory that government-run industry and commerce "is not the main business of governing the country" since the Warring States Period, and advocated "promoting capital and retreating to benefit agriculture", accusing the government of "competing with businessmen for market profits" in operating industry and commerce. German literature also puts forward the laissez-faire proposition that "it is convenient for the people to use the sea outside, but it can't help the people to use the money inside". The result of the meeting was the abolition of the state liquor monopoly and customs officials. Thirty years later, according to the official record of this meeting, Huan Kuan "deduced" and expanded the items, described in detail the problem of mutual accusation, and wrote "On Salt and Iron".

At the Salt and Iron Conference held during the reign of Emperor Zhao, virtuous literature praised Dong Zhongshu's neo-Confucianism, and often quoted the language of Spring and Autumn Fan Lu as the basis of his argument. Most of their economic thoughts are inherited from Dong Shi, and they are conservative dogmas. The document "On Salt and Iron: This Discussion" says: the way to steal the people, the source of preventing prostitution, the end of spreading virtue, the end of restraining profit, and opening benevolence and righteousness, not showing profit, and then prospering, and customs can be moved. In this county, the state-owned salt and iron, liquor monopoly, both lose, and compete with the people for profits. Scattered simple and honest, become greedy and contemptuous. It is based on the fact that there are few people, and there are many people in the end. If the husband writes a lot, the quality will decline, and if he finally prospers, he will lose money. Finally, the people are immoral, and in this process, the people are embarrassed, embarrassed by their own wealth, hungry and cold. I would like to go to salt and iron, wine and wine, both lose, so it is also convenient to enter the capital and retreat to the end, benefiting farmers. This is Xian Wen's first speech at the Salt and Iron Conference, that is, from the beginning, he explicitly opposed competing with the people and invited them to stop the salt and iron theory, indicating that they basically inherited Dong Zhongshu's thought. However, the reasons they expounded around the salt and iron strike deviated from Dong Shi's original intention. For example, the so-called benevolence and righteousness in virtuous literature, which values righteousness over profit, stifles Dong Zhongshu's enterprising spirit, which includes pursuing merit and seeking profit. Although Dong Shi attaches great importance to agriculture and does not stress the suppression of the end, they actively advocate going to Beijing and retreating from the end. Dong Shi opposed the profligacy of the ruling clique and turned into the idea of preventing prostitution and being clean. It can be seen that the Confucian economic thought represented by sage is based on free economy and has great practical role.

This book about salt and iron was edited by Huan Kuan. Huan Kuan is from Runan. Emperor gaozu was named lang, and the official was the satrap of Lujiang. About salt and iron? The reference to Xuan Di Jianxue Museum in Sanbu indicates that this book was finalized after the death of Xuan Di and Emperor Han Yuan. The written materials left by the Salt and Iron Conference have been polished by Huan Kuan and permeated with his own views everywhere. "On Salt and Iron" praised virtuous literature, and the idea of "going to the bottom and retreating to the end" was beyond words, and it was listed as Confucianism by various histories, which fully reflected the advanced concept of Confucianism in the Han and Yuan Dynasties. Since Yuan Di, the Western Han regime has attached great importance to pure Confucianism, the orthodox position of Confucianism has been thoroughly established, and a free atmosphere has emerged in the economic and ideological circles. In addition, Dong Zhongshu's economic retro thought has also become a new trend of thought in the late Western Han Dynasty.

main content

The Theory of Salt and Iron is divided into 60 volumes 10. The first article, 4 1, is a formal debate at the salt and iron conference, and the forty-second to fifty-ninth articles are postscript. The last essay, Miscellaneous Essays, is the preface written by the author. The title of the article is interlocking, adopting dialogue style, and truly reflecting the debate scene at that time with vivid language, and preserving a large number of economic historical materials and rich economic ideological materials in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty. It is recorded in the book that at the Salt and Iron Conference convened by Emperor Zhao of Han Dynasty, the virtuous writers suggested that the monopoly of the Salt and Iron Government and the economic policies such as "flat compensation" were the main causes of the people's suffering, so they demanded that the government's monopoly on salt, iron and wine be abolished and compensation officials be abolished.

Sang Hongyang's equal-loss standard was in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (from 140 BC to 88 BC). Its original intention is to intervene in the market and adjust prices through administrative means. Equal damage is to set up equal damage officials in various places to be responsible for the collection, sale and transportation of goods. Local tributes should be converted into money and handed over to the loss officer. Equal-loss officials will buy and sell cheaply in various places to adjust prices, which will also increase the income for the country. The principle of equality is that the government is responsible for stabilizing prices in the capital and big cities. When it's cheap, the state buys it, and when it's expensive, the state sells it, curbing profiteers' speculation and stabilizing prices. However, because the theory is too idealistic, it has caused a vicious circle of what people buy and what is expensive.

Sang Hongyang, an ancient scholar in the book, stands on the position of the feudal central government, emphasizing the rule of law, advocating utilitarianism, adhering to the policy of state intervention in the economy, and resolutely defending major policies and measures such as official management of salt and iron, flat and even losses. He believes that "benefiting the country and the people" can not only increase the state's fiscal revenue, but also develop agricultural production. "Keeping cronies and forbidding extravagance" He put forward his own views on industry and commerce in an all-round way when defending policies such as official management of salt and iron. He accepted the mercantilist thoughts of Fan Li and Bai Gui and the state's management of industry and commerce. He believed that industry and commerce were indispensable in people's economic life, and all the "tools for health and death" needed by people's lives were "waiting for the business to pass by, waiting for the work to become", so he advocated "opening the way to the end, making use of it" and "trading with agriculture, industry and commerce, benefiting from it to the end". However, he believes that industry and commerce should be controlled by the government and develop government-run industry and commerce. This can not only increase the national fiscal revenue, but also "crowd out the wealthy businessman dajia" and curb his merger and plunder, which is conducive to "people-oriented, not the end" and "building the foundation and restraining the end". Its essence is to strengthen the decadent state monopoly, which is not conducive to the long-term economic development.

Value at purchase price

At the Salt-Iron Conference, the Confucian economic thought at that time, through the exposition of the sages and articles in the debate and the "extension" of the Salt-Iron Theory, became more comprehensive and systematic, forming the dominant economic thought of China feudal society. Huan Kuan, the author of Salt and Iron Theory, obeyed Confucianism politically and stood against Sang Hongyang. However, he faithfully sorted out the thoughts and speeches of both sides in the debate at the Salt and Iron Conference, so that this Salt and Iron Theory not only preserved the rich economic historical materials in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, but also preserved the short life, thoughts and speeches of Sang Hongyang, an outstanding financier in feudal society, and became a study of the history of economic thought in China, especially in the world.

Brief introduction of the author

Huan Kuan (date of birth and death is unknown) was born in Runan (now southwest of Shangcai, Henan Province) and was an essayist in the late Western Han Dynasty. Emperor gaozu was promoted to lang and later served as the satrap of lujiang. He has ten volumes and sixty articles about salt and iron. "On Salt and Iron" was originally a summary of the dispute between salt and iron official operation and liquor monopoly by Emperor Han Zhaodi, with Sang Hongyang and Prime Minister Tian as one side and sages and documents from all over the country as the other side, and was later compiled by deduction. "On Salt and Iron" vividly records this debate in the form of dialogue. The book has a unified style, consistent style, tight structure and fluency, which is of great value in the history of economic thought and literature.