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Volume 3: A blow of destiny, the king appears Chapter 38: Huaiqing Terrace

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    In terms of calculating the volume of objects, various countries have standards for calculating quantities. For example, the measurement system of Wei State uses Yi, Dou, and Dendrobium as the units, while the measurement system of Qi State uses liters, beans, districts, cauldrons, and bells as units.  According to "Zuo Zhuan", Jiang Qi's customs are four liters for one bean, four beans for one area, four areas for one cauldron, and ten cauldrons for one bell.

    In order to seize the political power of the Jiang family and win over the people, the Tian clan of Qi changed the number system, using five liters as beans, five beans as districts, five districts as cauldrons, and ten cauldrons as bells.  On the other hand, in terms of scales for measuring the weight of objects, Zhao's scale system uses yi and yi as units.  The units of Chu were baht, liang, and jin.  According to the weights unearthed from Chu tombs, the average weight per kilogram made by Chu was 260,798 grams.

    The differences in the weights and measures systems in various places are obviously not conducive to unification. Therefore, Qin Shihuang ordered the unification of weights and measures across the country in 221 BC (the 26th year of Qin Shihuang). The Qin weights and measures formulated during Shang Yang's reform were used as the standard. It was stipulated that standard weights and measures must be supervised by the government.  It was made by the people and was not allowed to be made privately. It also stipulated that six feet was a step and 240 steps was an acre.

    The measurement standards for weights and measures in the Qin Dynasty are: a foot is 231 centimeters, a liter is 201 milligrams, a bucket is 2010 milliliters, a pound is 25625 grams, and a stone (120 pounds) is 3075 kilograms. Each standard weights and measures instrument is engraved with  Inscription written in Xiaozhuan:

    In the twenty-sixth year of the year - the emperor conquered the whole world - the princes of Guizhou were in great peace - he was named the emperor - and the prime minister was ordered to state the law - the rules of the law - no one suspected - all should be clear about it

    Explanation: The twenty-sixth year in the edict is the 26th year of Qin Shihuang (221 BC).  The emperor refers to Qin Shihuang.  The head of Guizhou refers to the common people.  The prime minister Xiang Zang and Wan refer to the right prime minister Wei Xiang and the left prime minister Wang Wan.  The rules of weight and measurement should be understood clearly if there is no one or any doubt, which means that if there are inconsistencies or problems with weights and measures, they must be clarified and unified.  ©¤"Bronze Edict Edition"

    But Qin Shihuang also understood.  It is very difficult to promote a single standard of weights and measures in a short period of time, and it may even cause a great chaos.

    Therefore, it is generally inferred that Qin Shihuang will set up a transition period before issuing an edict to unify weights and measures, temporarily recognize the weights and measures standards of various places, and formulate strict conversion rates as a compromise.

    During the Warring States Period, the currencies used by various countries were different in shape and value.  There were four main forms of currency in circulation at that time. Cloth currency was the main currency in circulation in the Sanjin area.  The shape is like the bo (Bo, Bo) among the agricultural tools; in addition, the Qi, Yan and Zhao Three Kingdoms also popularly used knife coins in the shape of a knife, and some knife coins can be up to 16 centimeters long; Qin, Western Zhou, Eastern Zhou, Zhao Wei Yanhe (near Qin  Yuan coins are popular in the country); as for Ying Yuan and copper shells, they are only circulated in the Chu country.  At that time the monetary economy was still not established.  Countries mint their own currency, or even privately minted currency, and the value of the currency depends on the copper content. The higher the copper content, the higher the value of the currency.

    Due to the disorder of currency systems in various places, Qin Shihuang abolished the currencies of pearls, jade, turtle shells, silver and tin that were originally used in the six Kanto countries, and replaced them with gold as the official currency.  With yi as the unit, copper coins with round square holes are the lower coins, which are half a liang and one inch and two cents in diameter.  It weighs twelve baht.

    It should be noted that Banliangqian is just a general term for the Qin copper coins, and does not refer to the actual weight of the copper coins.  According to "Historical Records Pingzhunshu", Qin money was heavy.  They also vary in severity, making them difficult to use.  Not an ideal currency.

    On the other hand, the design of the half-liang coins with round square holes was not the first of its kind by Qin Shihuang. Ban Gu's "Han Shu Food and Huo Zhi 2" records that the quality of Qin coins was like Zhou coins. It can be seen that there were already similar coins before Qin Shihuang unified the six countries.  design.

    But in any case, the design of copper coins with round square holes can be tied into strings with ropes and is easy to carry, so it became the prototype of currency in various countries in East Asia.

    After Qin Shihuang unified China, he vigorously promoted measures to emphasize agriculture and suppress business. He carved a stone on Langyatai and clearly wrote: The emperor's merit is to encourage labor.  When farmers are removed from the countryside, Guizhou becomes rich.  The specific measures are to take merchants, criminals, and slaves as the first targets of exile (exile to the army), and let them go on long-term expeditions, and to cultivate in newly conquered desolate places, such as Hetao, Guilin, Nanhai and other places, so that the border areas  be developed.

    At that time, the Qin corvee law stipulated that the first thing to do was to recruit guilty officials, surrogate sons-in-law and merchants (i.e. merchants); secondly, to recruit people who had been merchants; and thirdly, to recruit people whose grandparents or parents had been merchants.  In addition, the rich had to serve as corvees first, and were called Faluyou, and finally the poor and weak were recruited, and they were called Faluzuo.

    However, Qin Shihuang did not despise businessmen. On the contrary, he still gave a certain degree of respect to some wealthy merchants. For example, there was a tycoon named Wushiluo who was engaged in animal husbandry at that time. His livestock was so numerous that the number was calculated based on the valley.  The First Emperor of Qin ordered that the Wushi Luo should be ranked in the same rank as the feudal lord, and that he and his ministers should go to the palace to pay homage at the specified time.

    On the other hand, there was a widow named Qing in Bashu. After her ancestors obtained the cinnabar mine, they had monopolized the wealth for several generations, and the family property was too numerous to count. She even used the body of a weak woman to protect the family property of her ancestors.  .  Qin Shihuang believed that the widow Qing was a chaste woman. In addition to treating her with courtesy, he also built a female concubine for her in order to praise her.Clear Taiwan.

    According to the narration of Xu Guang of the Eastern Jin Dynasty quoted in the "Collected Commentary of Historical Records" by Pei Si of the Liu Song Dynasty, in 216 BC (the 31st year of the First Emperor of Qin), the First Emperor of Qin issued an edict to send the head of Guizhou to Shitian. However, as to the true meaning of this edict, historians are still unclear.  There are different opinions in the world.

    Some scholars stated in their works that this edict was to allow the head of Guizhou to try to occupy a sufficient amount of land according to the amount stipulated by the state. It no longer guaranteed that land would be granted according to regulations or classes. They believed that this was the collapse of the land granting system in the Warring States Period. In addition, it also pointed out that  The famous land system in the early Western Han Dynasty was a continuation of the policy of making the head of Guizhou own real land.

    In addition, the price of grain in the 31st year of Qin Shihuang was extremely high. The price of rice was 1,600 qian per shi (in normal years, the price of grain was 30 qian per shi). However, there were no records of any major natural disasters in that year.  .  Due to the lack of historical data, it is impossible to know the cause-and-effect relationship between the high price of food and the deprivation of fields in Guizhou.

    Another point of view is that Qin Shihuang is unlikely to let the people own the land on their own, because since Shang Yang's reform, the Qin State has been binding farmers to the land through the land grant system to ensure the government's personal control over the farmers, and the land is in principle state-owned.  , the state grants land to the people for farming.

    From the perspective of controlling the people, giving the people the freedom to occupy their own land is tantamount to weakening their control over the people. Once the control is weakened, the country will cause chaos, which is exactly what Qin Shihuang did not want to see.

    Therefore, the sentence "making the head of Guizhou own land" does not necessarily mean the abandonment of the original land system of the Qin State (the state-granted land system). The policy of state-owned land has not fundamentally changed. The edict may be asking the people who have recently been granted land to enrich the land they received from the state.  We should work hard to reclaim the land, concentrate on farming, and don¡¯t abandon farming and doing business.

    During the reign of Qin Shihuang, the large-scale construction projects were mainly for the security and construction of the country, but they also brought a heavy burden of corvee to the people at that time.

    ??The Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty, the small point is the Great Wall built by the Six Kingdoms of Guandong, and the large point is a part of the Great Wall built during the Qin Shihuang period. The imperial courts of all dynasties used the Qin Great Wall as their blueprint and regularly repaired and extended it.

    In 214 BC (the 33rd year of Qin Shi Huang), Qin Shi Huang sent General Meng Tian and 300,000 men to attack the Xiongnu and occupy Hetao.  In order to resist the invasion of northern nomads, Qin Shihuang ordered the old city walls built by the Qin, Zhao and Yan kingdoms to be connected, stretching thousands of miles from Lintao to Liaodong, becoming the predecessor of the Great Wall.

    While the Great Wall in the north was being built, the walls used by the vassal states for mutual defense were demolished.

    The Qin Great Wall can be roughly divided into the western section and the northern section.  The western section starts from Min County in present-day Gansu Province, follows the Taohe River north to Lintao County, passes through Dingxi County and goes northeast to Guyuan County in Ningxia, Huanxian in Gansu, Jingbian, Hengshan, Yulin, and Shenmu in Shaanxi, and then turns north to the south of Tuoketuo in Inner Mongolia.  , arrived at the south bank of the Yellow River.
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