Specific legal measures of disaster relief system in Qing Dynasty

The following points are stated: exemption refers to exemption from taxes on money and food when disasters occur. This is an important measure for disaster relief in Qing Dynasty.

The famine was carried out earlier in the Qing Dynasty, and as early as the second year of Shunzhi, floods in eight counties, including Bazhou, Zhili, were exempted. However, the allowance was not customized at first, and it was not until the tenth year of Shunzhi that the total amount was divided into ten points, which decreased according to the degree of disaster in the field. After that, the Qing emperors gradually increased the proportion of disaster relief. During the Kanggan period, money and grain were often exempted from all parts of the country. If disasters occur in the same year, counties and cities can postpone the exemption to the next year.

The specific practice of exemption is that whenever money and grain are exempted, each state and county will find out the amount that should be exempted, and expect to issue bills, submit them to the Francisco Department for verification, and then send them back to the business households for collection, and still open notices according to the bills to show their explanation. In order to ensure the normal implementation of the famine, in the process of implementing the exemption from service, the illegal and criminal acts of officials were severely punished. If the money and food in the disaster area is not enough, but the money and food have been collected this year, it should be "allowed to flow to the end of next year". If officials are deceived, they will be "according to the law of stealing money and food"; If tax exemption is granted, the tax exemption certificate shall be printed and paid by households. If an official refuses to grant an exemption after the exemption, or gives it falsely, it will be regarded as "violating the purpose and getting several stolen goods"; In the sixth year of Kangxi, five disciplinary regulations were formulated in detail. Anyone who breaks the law, "all county officials are guilty of violating the purpose and bullying the city." If the boss can't find out, he will be demoted. If the boss doesn't correct it, he will "talk about the case"; In addition, there are penalties such as salary and dismissal. Exemption from service is one of the most important and common disaster relief measures in Qing Dynasty.

The measure related to the disaster is to postpone taxation. Deferred collection is to delay the collection of the application amount in the slightly affected areas. Generally speaking, in counties affected by disasters above 5%, the requisition of mature mu of money and grain is allowed to be postponed, that is, to the next year. Although there are essential differences between extension and exemption, extension can always relieve the people's strength a little when a disaster occurs, and it also plays a de facto role in disaster relief. Relief refers to the free relief of victims with money and food.

Dong Xuan, the author of the Law of Famine Policy, said: "There are three kinds of famine policy: famine policy, famine policy and famine policy, with different names and different uses." Lin Xiyuan in the Ming Dynasty said: "There are three ways to save the famine: the extremely poor help rice, the second poor help money, and the slightly poor help loans." Although his rhetoric is slightly different, it is consistent to give relief to the poorest people.

The relief materials in Qing Dynasty were mainly rice grains. If there is not enough rice, you can give them both rice and silver, or exchange rice for silver. The main forms of relief are normal relief, large-scale relief, exhibition relief, picking relief, cooking relief and work relief. Relief is January relief for local people suffering from floods and droughts, regardless of the disaster score and the number of poor people. It is also called emergency relief or general relief. The big relief is for 10% of the people affected by the disaster. In April, the poor were supplemented by relief, and in March, the poor were supplemented by relief. If the local area suffers from disasters year after year, or the disaster situation is abnormal, the special hardship must be supplemented for five or six months to seven or eight months, and the second poverty must be supplemented for three or four months to five or six months. After the relief is completed, the victims still have difficulties in life, or the victims are unable to support the next year, they may temporarily request additional relief for one to three months. Relief is an emergency relief measure that the relief object can choose flexibly under special circumstances.

Another way of relief is cooking relief, also known as porridge relief, which is to distribute porridge to the victims. In the Qing Dynasty, factories were mainly set up to cook food, and porridge was provided for signing, and men and women were divided into bars, so as to strengthen the order of porridge factories and eliminate the long-standing disadvantages of hungry people competing for food. In the Qing dynasty, porridge was mainly given to immigrant victims, including local victims. It is said that since the eleventh year of Yongzheng, Suzhou has been cooking every January until the end of the year. In the Qing Dynasty, extensive relief was given priority to, supplemented by cooking relief, which provided ready-to-eat conditions for more victims. In addition, work-for-work relief is also a kind of relief method often implemented in the Qing Dynasty, that is, in disaster years, the government set up projects to raise the victims to work and give them money every day. Because the relief from work in Qing Dynasty was mostly irrigation and water conservancy projects, it had the nature of self-help in production. Working for relief can not only save the famine of the victims, but also use the power of the people to set up projects, which can be said to be the most active disaster relief measure.

As the heyday of China's ancient relief development, in addition to the official relief mentioned above, there were also folk relief in Qing Dynasty. Official relief is also called official relief, and folk relief is charity relief or community relief. The so-called folk relief refers to the way that people set up their own institutions and distribute relief materials to the victims themselves. Of course, this kind of folk relief is out of the laws of the Qing Dynasty because it is not under official control, so I won't elaborate here. Adjusting millet is to relieve the victims through grain allocation.

There were two ways to adjust millet in Qing dynasty: moving millet for the people and moving millet for the people. The difference between them is whether the country has enough food reserves and transportation capacity to distribute disaster relief food. In the middle and early Qing Dynasty, due to political stability, economic prosperity and developed transportation, the grain reserves in various provinces were relatively sufficient. Therefore, the adjustment of millet is mainly based on moving millet to the people, and the method of placing millet is rarely used. Even occasionally, people who go out for food are asked to "return to their hometown as soon as the wheat harvest here is expected" and stop immediately afterwards. During the Jiaqing period, due to the increasing population pressure and famine, the restrictions on immigrants were gradually relaxed, mainly allowing victims in Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places to move home for dinner. As far as the ways of moving millet to the people in Qing dynasty are concerned, the specific operation methods are as follows: first, intercepting grain, that is, intercepting a considerable amount of rice (grain) from relevant provinces to distribute grain in disaster areas; The second is purchasing, that is, ordering the provinces around the disaster area to buy rice to transport crops in the disaster area; The third is transportation, that is, the government will arrange to transport the rice from the warehouse to the disaster area at a reduced price, or transfer rice from other provinces to help the disaster area. As can be seen from the above, the adjustment of millet in Qing dynasty was mainly used to level crops, that is, to stabilize food prices, so as not to drive food prices up due to disasters, and at the same time to alleviate the phenomenon of food shortage after disasters. Therefore, this measure will not only benefit those who still have the remaining ability, but also benefit the extremely poor and sub-poor people who receive relief money to buy food. In short, in terms of system and theory, the adjustment of millet in Qing Dynasty was not only based on the imminent famine, but also based on the grain storage situation in various provinces in advance. There are both intra-provincial cooperation and inter-provincial transportation, which is a huge amount and extensive economic benefits. Lending means that the state lends money, food and other things to the victims and pays them back in autumn.

This is a relief measure for the victims who can still make a living but can't have children. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Housing (volume 84) and the "Clear Cases" (volume 222) of Jiaqing Tongzhi for four years, specifically, there are three kinds of loan targets: one is the poor affected by the disaster; Second, the victims whose vitality has not fully recovered after the rescue; The third is the victims who lack seeds and rations when the green and yellow are not connected. In the Qing dynasty, there were loans to buy rations, seeds and cattle. The sources of money and grain for borrowing are: first, regular warehouses and social warehouses; The second is to cut off the rice; The third is to issue bank loans. For example, in 60 years, Kangxi borrowed rice to send water to the victims in Zhili, and in the same year lent 202,000 yuan from the state treasury to the victims in Shaanxi and Gansu. When state and county officials borrow rice, they must name their names and repay them door by door after the autumn harvest. If a petty official cheats or impersonates, which leads to irrecoverable, according to the example of Jiaqing in the Qing Code (Volume 222), petty officials should be punished according to law, and the amount owed should be recovered by state and county officials, and the negligent crime should be discussed. If this measure is really implemented, it should be said that it will play a great role in resuming production and promoting the self-help of the victims. Pest control mainly refers to the elimination of locusts.

The plague of locusts was serious in Qing dynasty, so we attached great importance to catching locusts. Kangxi wrote "The Theory of Catching Locusts" for this purpose, and discussed the growth law of locusts and the methods of catching locusts. Local officials also summarized a lot of experience in catching locusts. According to the Regulations on Catching and Curing Locusts contained in the Regulations of the Ministry of Household Affairs (Volume 84) for four years of Tongzhi, locusts should be prevented from metaplasia in low-lying areas near lakes and rivers in the province. The governor should strictly control his subordinates, take precautions early in February and March every year, and try his best to search. As soon as the seeds germinate, more military servants are sent to catch them in time, or dig the seeds, or set fire to them when the water runs out and the grass dries up. According to the facts, all counties reported that the governor had fought. If you deliberately violate it, don't catch it early and let the bugs fly. Once found, you will be punished again. If there are migratory locusts, we must mobilize a lot of manpower to organize and fight carefully. In the Qing dynasty, officials who didn't catch locusts were severely punished. According to Jiaqing's Qing Dynasty (Volume 88), state and county officials will not go to catch locusts in person, but will dismiss those responsible on the pretext that they are from neighboring countries. If the pipeline government does not arrest quickly, it will be demoted to three levels and remain in office; The envoy failed to make the trip, arrested him in a hurry, and was demoted to the second place to wait for it; The governor can't visit unless he is strictly arrested, and he will be demoted and retained. If the arresting officer does not try his best to arrest, resulting in the formation of wings and endangering crops, he should be removed from his post and investigated. If local officials at all levels fail to report the plague of locusts, they should be dismissed or demoted to remain in office. This pest control measure has brought certain effects in preventing pests, protecting agriculture and improving disaster resistance. Anji refers to the victims who are resettled in exile in the disaster.

Because the victims are in exile, the fields are barren, which affects the national tax revenue. If the refugees cannot be properly resettled, it is easy to cause trouble. Therefore, like the previous regime, the Qing government attached great importance to the collection of refugees. The security measures in Qing Dynasty were mainly to adopt refugees and send them back to China. When there was a local disaster, the government sent a message to the governor, ordering all counties to properly accommodate and resettle foreign refugees, give them food and porridge, and build sheds to live in; At the same time, it is also suggested that wealthy families take compassionate assistance according to their own ability, and give red flags or even top awards according to the degree of assistance to show encouragement. In addition, in order to ensure the production of spring ploughing, after the spring, the adopted foreign refugee funds will be sent back to the home country, that is, the government will give them a meal fee according to the population size of the victims and send them back to the home country. Theoretically, this kind of relief measures for overseas victims can promote social stability and the victims return home to resume production. There are many kinds of pension measures in Qing Dynasty. According to Jiaqing's "Qing Li Example", there were several kinds of pensions in the Qing Dynasty, such as caring for orphans, raising young orphans, staying poor, filial piety, caring for officials, caring for prisoners, helping foreigners and disaster relief, but the pensions related to disaster relief were mainly measures taken to alleviate the damage caused by some sudden disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and flash floods. Its purpose is to resettle the victims and make them recover as soon as possible so as to engage in normal production.

Jiaqing's Rites of the Qing Dynasty (Volume 2 17) stipulates: "Those who are affected by disasters, whose houses are unable to be repaired after collapse, and whose houses are actually hungry and cold, should be given appropriate relief and resettlement. In case of hail, hurricane and other disasters, if there are extremely poor people, they will also be given a case of relief. " However, the amount of repair fees for collapsed houses and the amount of pension funds for flooded people in different provinces are not fixed at first, and each province is different. Forty-one years after Qianlong, the provincial pension standards were formulated. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (84 volumes), under normal circumstances, the cost of repairing collapsed houses is about one or two hundred and five yuan for each tile-roofed house and eight yuan for each thatched house, and the flooded population is about one or two yuan for each big mouth, and the small mouth is halved. As for the houses collapsed in the earthquake and the people killed, they will be given repair fees and pension funds accordingly. It can be said that these old-age care measures, if seriously implemented, will play a certain role in coping with the reconstruction and growth of disaster victims.