National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0578 Innermost Asia : vol.2
Innermost Asia : vol.2 / Page 578 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000187
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

 

1044   CHINESE INSCRIPTIONS AND RECORDS   [Appendixl

II

INSCRIPTIONS ON SHROUDS OF CLOTH
(See above, p. 708; PI. cxxvii)

No. I.

Ast. ix. 2 b. oII.

t{thl~a~ 3%ffiTit04tu►ACitiffiV-Jtalttï>ï4f-f —14

One hum' of ' rent ' cloth 2 from Chu Po-liang 3 of Mei-shan Li, Hsien-té Hsiang, Hsin-an Hsien, Wu Chou 4. On a day in the eleventh moon of the first year of Kuang-tsê 5.

No. 2.

Ast. ix. 2 a. o7.

ttc 311 41   XVl-[I0 4* AVE V(?)   — -if`r~bifi 31TE   A~1

One tuan of yang and Liao cloth 6 from Yao Ch`ün of Ts`ung-shan Li, Jui-shan Hsiang, Lan-ch`i Hsien 7, Wu Chou. On a day in the eighth moon of the second year of Slzên-lung S.

1 A cloth measure, variously given as equal to 2
chang (zo Chinese feet) or i chang 8 ) ch'ih (18 feet).

2 The character before t is not easy to read, but there

is some reason for believing it to be f ; this would be the rent on land, paid not in money but in the produce of the soil : see below, note 6. The term occurs in the commentary on

A.ti Wig chih, eh. iv, f. 5 r°.

3 The character t• is torn in half, and would not be

legible were the personal name not repeated, apparently for reference, on the lower portion of the strip ; this has been stitched on so that the two fragments of the inscription are now at opposite corners of the whole piece.

' Now Chin-hua Hsien in the province of Chekiang. The li is a territorial division of the hsiang, as the hsiang is of the hsien, and the hsien of the chou.

5 12 December, 684-10 January, 685. Kuang-lsi was the first reign-title assumed by the usurping Empress Wu

() when she seized the reins of government in the

ninth moon.

The inscription is stamped with three impressions of a red seal, about 5 cm. square, containing four characters which unfortunately are too faint for me to decipher.

e Here we obtain an interesting glimpse of what was

known as the lsu yung Liao system of taxation (,fig   ;I 1

it) in actual operation. The system is explained in Hsin tang shu, eh. li, fl. 1-2 :

0 RI   T A   -F-AYt~

* A ---' a l# A -i AIA a 0, =- -i MAy7iM---TA ~~~~0,4ifi--

1411-   T   N15 PA W,   4H

= C1Ç, a 4a   Teff ti

-= x xJ, ~4 = R, 1M a ft11 _~~ ~~

1   I

~~~ ~, ~--~

1311   Tx * EI   )1, ä~

~I~a

/in 12   -f-'   El

t   *AAA W~a

' The regulations for the allotment of land provided that every ling (an adult male between twenty-one and sixty) and other male person aged eighteen and upwards should receive one ch'ing (zoo mou, or rather more than 12i acres under the T'ang dynasty), of which 8o mou were k`ou fin (individually leased) and zo mou were yung yet (permanent property). In return, he paid yearly 2 hu (a measure of capacity equal

to loo ) catties or 1   stone in weight) of millet or

3 hu of rice. This was called lsu (rent). In addition, according to what was produced on his estate, he paid a yearly tax consisting of two pieces (each 4 chang in length) of chuan (a thick, coarsely woven silken fabric), or one zo-ft. roll of ling (with sheeny, glazed surface : something like satin or lustring ?) or shih (a kind of sarcenet ?), or more by one-fifth if he paid in hempen cloth ; also 3 ounces of floss silk, or 3 catties of raw hemp. If there was no silk-cultivation on his estate, he paid 14 ounces of silver instead. This tax was called Liao (collection). Military service was exacted on twenty days in the year, or if there was an intercalary moon, for two days more. Those who did not serve had to pay a 3-ft. length of cliiian daily. This was called yung (service). When there was trouble, those who served for an additional

r