Live History Broadcast: Opening Ceremony Spoilers - Our Ancestor Was Enraged

Chapter 175 The Ideal Policies of the New Dynasty

The Liu family truly never expected that Wang Mang, after all the effort he put into establishing the Xin Dynasty, would end up following the system of the Zhou Dynasty!

Isn't he being too idealistic?

How could that possibly be possible! Don't leave the Central Plains riddled with holes!

Lin Ke continued, "Wang Mang forced his own son to death for the sake of a servant, which won him a lot of popular support."

"But in reality, as long as it doesn't infringe on your own interests, people won't care whether you drove your own son to his death or what."

"Therefore, his move to abolish slavery did not become a blessing for the world at all; on the contrary, it was met with more opposition."

"Moreover, the first to oppose it were the slaves. Compared to being ordinary citizens, these people were already much happier because they had enough to eat and did not have to face taxes and corvée labor."

"And now this emperor wants to free all the slaves? Isn't that sending them to their deaths?!"

"So the abolition of all slaves in the world sounds like a great act of kindness, but in reality it disrupted the social order at the time, and the consequences it caused were very likely to be contrary to what Wang Mang had envisioned."

A certain official of the Song Dynasty said: "Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you!"

Judy, the General Who Conquers the North: The court is unstable and problems are likely to arise!

A lazy official in the Ming Dynasty said: "His thinking is too idealistic and completely contradicts the facts."

A scion of a prominent family in the Song Dynasty: Land annexation is becoming increasingly serious. Even if these people go out, what can they do?

……

"After Wang Mang's two reforms, society began to be in turmoil, and the contradiction between the powerful clans and the imperial power intensified. Not only did the powerful clans hate Wang Mang's policies, but even the freed slaves did."

"This group of people were kicked out by their master. They had no land and nowhere to settle down. Whether they could survive was another matter. Based on this, the whole society was moving towards chaos."

"Shortly afterward, Wang Mang implemented two more fiscal reforms: the Five Equalizations and the Six Controls."

"These five equal parts and six control points were proposed by the great Confucian scholar Liu Xin based on the Zhou Li and Yue Yu."

"The so-called Five Equalizations and Six Controls refers to Wang Mang's efforts to balance prices and implement credit lending. He established the Five Equalizations Offices in six major cities, including Chang'an, Luoyang, and Handan, and the state collected taxes on the production of salt, iron, and other commodities from mountains and lakes through the Five Equalizations Offices."

"Although agriculture has always played a relatively important role, as the saying goes, 'scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants,' farmers have always seemed to be the most easily exploited group."

"Wang Mang's policies were a way of telling the people at the bottom of society from a moral high ground that he was doing this to limit the excessive exploitation of them by merchants, and also to curb the rampant usurers."

"However, in reality, Wang Mang was merely trying to increase the fiscal revenue of his country and to seek private benefits for the powerful clans associated with the dynasty."

"Never underestimate people's greed. Wang Mang did not go to the grassroots level. When he issued the order for policy reform, did he leave it to local officials to implement it?"

"However, most local officials are descendants of powerful clans," and these people stand above the common people. Why would they be expected to restrict lower market prices for the sake of these individuals? They can set prices however they want.

"You're just a lowly farmer; buy if you want, leave if you don't! If we monopolize the market, even if you want to buy, I'll make sure you can't!"

A scion of a prominent family in the Song Dynasty said: In the end, it was the local powerful clans who got rich, while the common people got poor.

A prince of the Ming Dynasty: This may not have been my original intention, but the final outcome was still worse!

An old farmer from the Ming Dynasty: We farmers suffer the most again!