Discourses on salt and iron : a debate on state control of commerce and industry in ancient China, chapter I-XXVIII / translated from the Chinese of Huan K'uan, with introduction and notes, by Esson M. Gale. |
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| VI. | CHAPTER VI |
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 | CHAPTER VI Discourses on salt and iron : |  |
CHAPTER VI
BACK TO ANCIENT TRUTHS
a. The Lord Grand Secretary: In his report on the salt and iron
regulations the former military commander at Shan-shui, P'êng-tsu
Ning,[1]
has stated that said regulations were very explicit; the
conscripted laborers receive food and clothing from the district
magistrates and they make and mould iron implements in great
plenty to meet the need, with no hindrance from the people.
However, there may be subordinate officers who are not disinterested
and do not give effect to the regulations, with the result that the
people are disturbed and distressed.
b. The present plan for unifying the salt and iron monopoly is
not alone that profit may accrue [to the state], but that in the future the
fundamental [of agriculture] may be established and the non-essential
repressed, cliques dispersed, extravagance prohibited, and plurality
of offices stopped. In ancient times the famous mountains and
great marshes were not given as fiefs to be the monopolized profit
of inferiors, because the profit of the mountains and the sea and the
produce of the broad marshes are the stored up wealth[2]
of the
Empire[3]
and by rights ought to belong to the privy coffers of the
Crown; but Your Majesty has unselfishly assigned them to the
State Treasurer[4]
to assist and succor the people. Ne'er-do-wells and
the seas as their own rich inheritance, exploit the common people. Therefore
many are those who advise to put a stop to these practices.[6]
c. Iron implements and soldiers' weapons are important in the
service of the Empire and should not be made the gainful business
of everybody. Formerly the great families, agressive and powerful,
obtained control of the profit of the mountains and sea, mined iron
at Shih-ku[7]
and smelted it, and manufactured salt. One family
would collect a host of over a thousand men, mostly exiles who
had gone far[8]
from their native hamlets, abandoning the tombs of
their ancestors. Attaching themselves to a great house and collecting
in the midst of mountain fastnesses and barren marshes, they made
wickedness and counterfeiting their business, seeking to build up
the power of their clique. Their readiness to do evil was also
great. Now since the road of recommending capable men has been
opened wide, by a careful selection of the supervising officers, restoring
peace to the people does not wait on the abolition of the salt and
iron monopoly.
d. The Literati: What the commander at Shan-shui said was to
the benefit[9]
of the administration at the time; but all these artifices
are not to be continued interminably, for generation after generation.
country and patronizing the people. It is said in the Odes:
Do not take the ancients for their pattern,
And do not regulate them by great principles.
They only hearken to shallow words. . . ."[10]
Way, but are skillful at[11] power and profit. The Emperor Wu[12]
put down the nine barbarian tribes and pacified the hundred
Yüeh,[13] repeatedly raising armies. As grain was insufficient, he
established officers in charge of the fields to procure money flowing
into the grain-dispatching office[14] to tide over the crisis when food
supplies were not being delivered. Now Your Majesty succeeds to
a task of great merit in nourishing the burdened and wearied
people. This is a time of using thin gruel![15]
e. The high officers of state should bethink themselves as to how
to pacify and bring together the people, attain profitable ends and
abolish evils. They should help the Enlightened Lord[16]
with their
benevolence and righteousness and prepare ways of benefiting his
Vast Heritage.[17]
The Enlightened Lord came to the throne more
than six years ago.[18]
Among the high officials there is no one who
has yet demanded that unnecessary offices be abolished and profiteers
be dismissed. While others have left the matter in abeyance
too long, the people have fixed their hope on the Emperor. Proclaiming
Your holy virtue and showing forth Your brilliance,
Your Majesty has commanded the worthies and the learned from
to discuss the ways of the Five Emperors and the Three Kings,[20]
and the principles of the Six Arts.[21] We have set forth the difference
between peace and danger, profit and harm, clearly and fully[22]
according to our ideas. Now the high officers of the state have
made great argument without arriving at a decision. This is what
is called sticking to trifles and ignoring the main body, clinging
to small advantages and forgetting greater advantages.
f. The Lord Grand Secretary: Within the universe the swallows
and sparrows know nothing of the distance from earth to heaven;
the frogs in a well know nothing of the vastness of rivers and
seas; poverty stricken bumpkins and their stupid wives know nothing
of the cares of statecraft. Peddlers with packs on their backs know
nothing of the wealth of I Tun.[23]
The former Emperor,[24]
pondering
on the profit to be got from foreign countries, estimated the opposing
forces of the barbarians as weak and easily overwhelmed.
Exerting himself but little, his achievement was great; and the
result was that by availing himself of circumstances[25]
he made
himself master of the four I.[26]
Territories from the mountain slopes
to the shores of the sea were brought within the Great Wall. He
opened roads into the country of the Hsiung Nu beyond the River
on the northern boundary. The task is not yet completed. After
Wên Wang[27]
received the mandate to attack Ch'ung,[28]
and built a
on the march,[31] conquered Shang, captured Chou,[32] and built up a kingly
heritage. Ts'ao Mo, despite the humiliation of three defeats, recovered
the lost territory. Kuan Chung, though bearing on his shoulders the
complicated affairs of his age, established the glory of the Hegemony.[33]
Thus we see that those of great determination ignore small
things, and those who employ exceptional measures[34] suited to the
circumstances, differ from the commonplace. Those in office think
to emulate the plans of the tutor Wang[35] and complete the task of
the late Emperor. Their aim is to destroy the barbarian Hu and
Hê[36] and cut off the chiefs of the Hsiung Nu. Therefore they have
no time for deliberations behind closed doors, and recording the
discussions of bigoted Confucianists.[37]
g. The Literati: The swallows and sparrows on leaving their
frogs in the wells on leaving their habitations have worries from
snakes and rats. What if they should soar a thousand cubits or
swim in the four seas? Their disaster would be great. This is how
Li Ssŭ[38] broke his wings and Chao Kao[39] drowned in the deep.
We have heard that Wên and Wu[40] received the mandate to punish
the unrighteous in order to bring peace to the nobles and ministers;
we have not heard of ruining all the Chinese people that warfare
be carried on against the I and the Ti.[41] Formerly the Ch'in[42] dynasty
frequently raised the forces of the Empire and used them against the Hu
and Yüeh.[43] With the use to exhaustion of the wealth of the Empire
they could not achieve success. Moreover a million expeditionaries
were used for one fellow's affair. This is universally known. Furthermore,
much fighting overburdens the people; long campaigns ruin
the soldiers. This is the grievance of the people and the concern
of your "bigoted Confucianists".
[OMITTED], here not "treasure house", "magasin" (Chavannes), "Vorratskammer" (Franke,
op. cit., 7), as in the original passage in the Shih-chi.
Wang's note: Chang suggests reading [OMITTED] for [OMITTED], following the
Shih-chi, ch. XXX, and the Han-shu, ch. XXIV.
The revenues derived from "salt and iron" should be paid into the shao-fu [OMITTED],
the personal treasury of the Emperor, and not into the ta-nung [OMITTED], the public
treasury. Cf. Chavannes, Mém. hist., III, 570, note 4. [OMITTED] "State Treasurer",
actually "Minister of Agriculture and Commerce", a title established in 104 B.C. Ibid.,
II, 519.
[OMITTED]: itinerants, vagabonds, "des gens dont les moyens d'existence sont
incertains". Chavannes, Mém. hist., III, 570.
The Shih-chi, ch. XXX, reads [OMITTED].
"Les délibérations qu'on a entendues sur les moyens d'arrêter ces pratiques sont innombrables".
Chavannes, Mém. hist., III, 57]. The passage is based upon the Shih-chi,
loc. cit., the celebrated address to the Throne of K'ung Chin and Tung-kuo Hsien-yang
in advocacy of the state control of salt and iron. The memorial of these two former
industrialists, manufacturers of iron and salt, who now had come to identify their interests
with the government as ardent advocates of the new fiscal system, has been translated
by Chavannes (Mém. hist., III, 570—571), and by Franke (Staatssozialistische Versuche, 7).
Cf. also Gale, Hist. Evidences relating to Early Chinese Public Finance, for the rôle of
these persons in establishing the public control of salt and iron at this time.
[OMITTED] etc. Wang states that
[OMITTED] crept in due to its similarity in shape to [OMITTED], while [OMITTED] is also superfluous.
[OMITTED], the Han Emperor (140—86 B.C.) whose reign of fifty-four
years is renowned in the military annals of the Chinese Empire.
[OMITTED]. The latter may be taken also as "central depot", "capital",
as well as an office in charge of memorials, rescripts, etc., where persons awaiting
Imperial orders were boarded temporarily.
[OMITTED]: the five legendary Emperors of remote antiquity, T'ai Hao
[OMITTED], Yen Ti [OMITTED], Huang Ti [OMITTED], Shao Hao [OMITTED] and Chuan Hsü
[OMITTED]; the three Kings, traditional founders of the Hsia, Shang and Chou dynasties.
[OMITTED] ceremonial observances, [OMITTED] music, [OMITTED] archery, [OMITTED] charioteering,
[OMITTED] writing, [OMITTED] mathematics.
[OMITTED] is not to be taken literally. The Shih-chi, ch. IV, relates how
Wu Wang made a tablet of wood representing his ancestor Wên Wang and had it
carried on a chariot in the centre of his army. Chavannes, Mém. hist., I, 165, note 1
Ts'ao Mo [OMITTED], Kuan Chung [OMITTED]. For these personages and the
episodes referred to, see the glossary.
This is evidently [OMITTED] who was counsellor to both Wên Wang and Wu
Wang. See Giles, Biog. Dict., No. 1862.
[OMITTED]: barbarian tribes. Maspero, who characterizes early China as "un îlot
civilisé au milieu des barbares", has assembled the notices of the aboriginal tribes
China in his study, "Les origines de la civilization chinoise", in Annales de Géogr.,
1926, 138—142. (See also La Chine Antique, 5—11).
[OMITTED] is here rendered "Confucianist", a term which found its own special definition
in the Han dynasty. It cannot, however, have obtained at this time the precision attached
to the later Confucianist school, for, as has been indicated (see Introduction), the Literati
are under influences which can be associated with both the Legalist and Taoist schools.
It would seem to mean firstly "a scholar", "a man of learning"; "a ju is said to be
one who understands heaven, earth and man", said Yang-tzŭ [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]. The ju chia are those who make use of the six classics [OMITTED],
who make benevolence and righteousness [OMITTED] their end, who pattern after Yao
and Shun, and Wên and Wu, and who follow Chung Ni [OMITTED] as their master.
Cf., sub [OMITTED], the Ch'ien-han-shu, XXX.
| CHAPTER VI Discourses on salt and iron : | |