vrcanaries Chapter 153 Single Tax
Chapter 153 Single Tax
Emperor Zhao Zhen, the greatest benevolent ruler of all time: ...There's no need to mention me!
"Leaving aside primary and junior high school, the subjects tested in the college entrance examination are divided into two categories: humanities and sciences."
"The humanities mostly include: language, such as articles and poems, and mathematics, such as arithmetic and geometry. Emperor Kangxi and his sons studied these kinds of books."
Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty: I have learned well!
"There are also foreign languages, which are the languages spoken by Westerners. Using these languages allows for better communication internationally. However, I am not very good at this subject, so much so that I often regretted why the whole world could not speak Chinese!"
"But there are hundreds of countries in the world, and they use thousands of languages. It was only later that I understood the significance of Zheng Ge's standardization of writing and the standardization of cart tracks."
Lin Ke: Ugh, there are so many chargers! You have to search for them all the time! It's so annoying!
First Emperor: Moved.jpg
Big Han Liu Zhuzhu: Praising the First Emperor again! Am I not good enough?
"Besides these humanities subjects, there are also disciplines such as politics, geography, and history. Geography studies and understands environmental changes such as geology and climate, while history studies the history and culture from primitive people to modern times."
"Science subjects mostly include Chinese, mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, biology, etc. This part is actually not easy to explain. Let me give a few examples. In terms of physics, let's take two ancient books as examples - the Mo Jing (Mohist school) and the Kao Gong Ji (Qi state people)."
"These two books record knowledge about physics, such as mechanics and optics. There are also Liu An's 'Huainan Wanbishu' and 'Huainanzi', and Zhang Hua's 'Bowuzhi', etc."
"Pay special attention here to Shen Kuo's *Dream Pool Essays* from the Song Dynasty and Song Yingxing's *Exploitation of the Works of Nature* from the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties."
Shen Kuo of the Song Dynasty: Ah! My book!
Song Yingxing (Ming Dynasty): !!!
Zhu Baba of the Ming Dynasty: This is a talent of our Ming Dynasty!
Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty: If the Ming Dynasty had a share in this person, then the Qing Dynasty also has a share!
General Judy, the Northern Expeditionary Army: What the hell are you babbling about?! ...? %...
"I won't go into too much detail about Shen Kuo and Song Yingxing here; I'll talk about them next time. If you're interested, you can check out these two books. However, both 'Dream Pool Essays' and 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature' are works with far-reaching influence."
"Let's continue talking about chemistry. There's something here that you're all very familiar with, especially Emperor Zheng, Yongzheng, and other emperors who wanted to live forever."
"That's right, that's the elixir you've been eating. It's also recorded in the 'Tiangong Kaiwu' (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature). Things like ceramics, gunpowder, fuel, and winemaking are made using chemical processes."
First Emperor, Ancestral Dragon: ...
Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty: ...
"After completing all of the above, you can take the college entrance examination. As for law and medicine, those are majors you will study in college after high school."
"There are dozens of such majors, and you'll be overwhelmed with choices. But even if you choose a major, you still need to get high enough scores, otherwise you'll miss out on your dream school."
"This is our education system. As the saying goes, there is no end to learning. If you don't want to become a member of society, you can continue your studies, such as postgraduate and doctoral studies after undergraduate studies."
A spoiled young master from the Song Dynasty: My God! From kindergarten at the age of three to university, it takes more than ten years of study, and there are so many subjects! I feel exhausted!
A scion of a prominent family in the Tang Dynasty: I hadn't noticed before, but looking at it now, it's definitely not easy!
Big Han Liu Zhuzhu: If you can't study to death, then study like there's no tomorrow! Hahahaha!
……
"Ahem, now let's get back to the main topic. Although the age for marriage varied from dynasty to dynasty, they were generally similar."
"Moreover, during the Han Dynasty, there was a special regulation that unmarried women aged fifteen to thirty would be fined five suan, which is about six hundred coins. You should know that at that time, the price of grain was only 100 coins per shi, so that amount of money could buy several shi."
"In addition, there was a so-called head tax, from age 15 to 56, each person had to pay 120 coins per year, so single women had to pay 720 coins in taxes per year."
"With this policy, the population of the Han Dynasty, which was plagued by war for many years, increased, but in reality it was an oppression of women. Faced with such a high tax rate, ordinary poor families simply could not afford it, so many women were married off indiscriminately."
"Of course, it wasn't just the Han Dynasty; other dynasties were the same. At best, you'd be fined; at worst, you'd go to jail, and your family would be imprisoned too!"
A spoiled young master from the Tang Dynasty: This seems perfectly normal! Doesn't it mean there are no punishments in later generations?
A young man from a prominent family in the Song Dynasty: Judging from Miss Lin's expression, it should be abolished!
A little girl from a farming family in the Song Dynasty: Oh my, the later generations are so wonderful!
.........
"In later generations, there was naturally no such tax, and it was stipulated that men must not be older than twenty-two and women must not be older than twenty."
A young woman from a prominent family in the Song Dynasty: ? ? So late!
"So when I learned that people in ancient times married and had children around the age of fifteen, I was very surprised. Moreover, the infant mortality rate in ancient times was also very high, reportedly reaching 43.8%."
"One of the reasons is that the age of childbearing is too young. Girls around thirteen years old are still developing, and in today's terms, they would just be children still in school."
"Giving birth before one's body is fully developed is very harmful to a woman's health. However, even if a minister mentions this, those in power may not listen, because from a population perspective, it is beneficial to the country's development."
"However, the only person who caused the harm was a woman."
"In addition, medical conditions were poor in ancient times, and the chances of being saved in the event of a difficult childbirth were very slim, so both women and infants were very likely to lose their lives."
"For example, Emperor Kangxi, who married and had children early, had a total of 35 children, but only 24 of them survived to adulthood and were recognized as his successors."
"Take Emperor Renzong of Song, Zhao Zhen, for example. He really wanted to have a son, but he only had 16 children in total, 13 of whom were daughters. However, his last son never grew up. His family really needed someone to inherit the throne!"
Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty: Much worse off than me!
Emperor Zhao Zhen, the most benevolent ruler of all time (emo): Who could be more miserable than me!
"However, compared to other dynasties, the Song Dynasty royal family did have a high infant mortality rate, and they generally had to be adopted. However, the number of offspring in the late Ming and Qing dynasties was also not high."
Emperor Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty: ...
Zhu Bajie of the Ming Dynasty: ...
Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty: ...