What was the ancient tax?

In ancient China, land tax (including household tax and household tax attached to land) was the main tax system, supplemented by commercial tax (including tariff and municipal tax). This tax system was originally formed in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Qin and Han dynasties have gradually completed; During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, the system of equal land was constantly reformed and improved.

During the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the destruction of the land equalization system, the wind of land annexation became more and more fierce. On the basis of clearing land and sorting out cadastre, we gradually merged land, household and household taxes, and strengthened the collection system of business tax and commodity tax on salt, tea and wine, so that business tax and commodity tax became an important source of national fiscal revenue in the late feudal period of China.

Expanding information ancient taxation:

People over the age of seven have to pay taxes, and adults have to serve the court and counties. At that time, the national population was 20 million, and 3 million people were recruited to build palaces, tombs and the Great Wall. Qin Shihuang wanted to carry on the family line, and the third generation even lived forever. As a result, only the second generation died. Bobby Chen and Guangwu were among the first.

Daqin Empire unified the whole country without threat, and natural taxation was more casual, which not only increased taxes and corvees, but also invented hundreds of taxes at once. This is also an important reason for the demise of Daqin.

As for how the "Ding tax" was collected, we found that there was a special tax collector in the Qin Dynasty, who was said to be one of the nine ministers. "Literature and History" records that Zhou Li belongs to Guan Chun Zongbo, and the method of granting, respecting, abolishing, deciding, killing, living, giving and taking away.

In the Qin dynasty, with the implementation of the county system, public tax collectors had a fixed and very important position. It is difficult for us to know how tax collectors collect taxes from people in the literature. However, it is easy to count the number of people in a family. I believe that tax collectors can go to various places to collect taxes regularly.

Baidu Encyclopedia-China Ancient Tax System