Tang and Song Tea Industry Economy

Author: Sun Hongsheng / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Time: 2001-01-01
Features: The development of the commodity economy weakened the personal between peasants and landlords, and the status of the class before the Tang Dynasty also underwent significant changes. According to the research of Japanese scholar Miyazaki Ichisada, the slave and bùqū (client) classes in the Tang Dynasty gradually gained liberation with the development of the commodity economy, and by the Song Dynasty, the legal status of was abolished. Correspondingly, corvée labor was gradually abolished, while the tenant farming system continued to develop. Some scholars have conducted comparative studies on the agricultural books 《Four Seasons Essential》 of late Tang and 《Four Classes Monthly Ordinances》 and 《Essential Techniques for Agriculture》 before the Tang Dynasty, and found that the form of exploitation seemed to have shifted to one primarily based on land rent and wage labor in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Undoubtedly, the changes in the status of expanded the ranks of tenant farmers and wage laborers. Tea was an important economic crop in the south, and the development of tea production required a large labor force. Farmers who had lost land and other productive resources also found ways to make a living in the emerging tea industry. They either rented tea gardens or were employed by tea garden owners. Miyazaki Ichisada pointed out that during the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the development of resources such as tea led to economic prosperity and absorbed a large labor force. Tea-producing areas were often concentrated areas of poor people. For example, during the Song Dynasty, Anfeng Chariot (now Shou County, Anhui Province) had the advantages of logging, charcoal burning, lacquer tapping, and tea picking, and a large number of famine-stricken people gathered there. Of course, during the Tang and Song dynasties, there were also many self-cultivating farmers who could rely on their own efforts to operate tea gardens. The large number of southern households specializing in tea production indicates that the labor resources of society at that time could meet the specialized production needs of economic crops such as tea. In agricultural production, labor and land hold equal importance. "The huge demand for food and the extremely low efficiency of agricultural production forced low-income countries to allocate most of their labor and land resources to agriculture. In the early stages of economic development, 60-80% of the population engaged in agricultural production." Here, agricultural production mainly refers to grain production, which is generally not a misunderstanding. A large number of people engaged in grain production, so there was not enough labor supply for the specialized production of economic crops, which was the case in Chinese society before the Tang and Song dynasties. Labor played an important role in agricultural production, especially in traditional agriculture. American scholar John Mel has a profound discussion on this: "Land and labor are the main inputs of traditional agriculture, and labor is the primary tool for increasing production within the traditional agricultural structure. Under existing land and capital resources, using more labor in activities such as seedling management, water utilization, weeding, and harvesting can directly increase production, or increase production through labor-intensive land reclamation, well-digging, and farmland improvement. In the initial stage of transitioning to dynamic agriculture, labor is also the primary factor, as many technological innovations require an increase in labor. Similarly, during the economic transformation process, labor is also a decisive factor in agricultural production." During the Tang and Song dynasties, the population grew rapidly, as previously discussed. Let's take the Song Dynasty as an example to look at the class composition of the population at that time. According to the research of Mr. Qi Xia, from the early years of Emperor Renzong's Tiansheng to the fifth year of Emperor Shenzong's Xining, the proportion of clients decreased from 37.9% to 30.4%, and then gradually increased again, reaching 36.15% by the fourth year of Emperor Gaozong's Shaoxing. Among the main households, the self-cultivating and semi-self-cultivating farmers, who were mainly composed of the fourth and fifth households, accounted for a very large proportion of the total households in the Song Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, they accounted for about 43.3-58.5% of the total households, with an average of around 50%. The clients, the fourth and fifth households, and the wealthy farmers among the third households accounted for more than 85% of the total households. If artisans, workshop owners, and ordinary small merchants are included, the proportion could reach 93% or 94%. The landlord class was composed of a small part of the first, second, and third households, plus large merchants and usurers, accounting for about 6% or 7% of the total households. It can be seen that "the significant population growth in the early Song Dynasty for a hundred years was primarily the growth of productive labor: this was an important feature of the population growth in the Song Dynasty, as well as in the feudal society." After the Tang Dynasty, China's economic center gradually shifted southward, and the economic strength of the south increased, providing favorable conditions for tea production. The Grand Canal, which had already been opened during the Tang Dynasty, facilitated economic and cultural exchanges between the north and south, and the southern custom of drinking tea spread northward. People in northern areas began to enjoy drinking tea, and even ethnic minorities in the frontier regions gradually developed a taste for tea. As a result, the tea market in the north gradually formed and expanded, accelerating the commercialization process of tea, and southern households began to widely plant tea trees. Since tea was an important economic crop in ancient society, tea-producing households were different from those who grew rice and wheat. They engaged in production with the purpose of selling tea, not just selling surplus products, so these households had the function of commodity producers. After the middle Tang Dynasty, southern households made full use of their favorable natural conditions to extensively cultivate tea trees. Because tea trees had high economic value, there was a saying in agricultural proverbs: "One tea bud is worth seven pounds of rice." Moreover, tea trees are perennial crops with long-term and continuous growth. As long as cultivation and harvesting are done properly, the economic benefits can last for fifty to sixty years or even longer, "A thousand tea trees and ten thousand camphor trees, prosperous for generations," which was extremely beneficial for changing the economic conditions of farmers. In southern areas, there are many hills and mountains, and households could widely plant tea trees in front of their houses and on hillside slopes. High mountainous areas, which are not suitable for growing rice and wheat, are ideal for tea production. "High mountains are misty and famous for tea," "Flat land has good flowers, high mountains have good tea," because the high mountainous areas are covered with mist, the natural conditions are good, and the quality and price of the tea produced are high, so tea trees were widely planted in the south. There are many references to "tea mountains" in literature, and even poets used tea mountains as subjects for lyrical descriptions. For example, Li Jiaozhu wrote in 《Seeing Lu Shilun Off to govern Yixing》: "Clearing the wild temple, green tea covers the spring mountain"; Du Mu praised the tea mountains of Yixing in 《On Tea Mountain》: "The mountain is indeed beautiful in East Wu, tea is the king of auspicious grasses"; Zheng Gu wrote the line "Returning by boat to the grass market at night, taking a spring walk on the tea mountain" in his poem. There are many references to tea mountains in Tang and Song literature. According to Zhu Zizhen's statistics, there are more than 700 poems about tea in 《Complete Tang Poems》, of which about 1% are from the early Tang Dynasty, and about 45% are from the middle Tang Dynasty. This reflects that southern households began to engage in large-scale tea production from the middle Tang Dynasty. Since the market price of tea was far higher than that of grain crops, tea production was more profitable than growing rice and wheat, so many households shifted some of their resources used for grain production to tea production, making tea production an important sideline for some households. Thus, during the Tang and Song dynasties, many households that combined tea production appeared in southern areas. They grew grain crops while also planting tea trees and processing tea for the market to fulfill tax obligations, supplement household expenses, and maintain simple reproduction. During the Tang Dynasty, "the people of Yichang mostly planted tea trees on the mountains for their own profit," which was likely to be tea production as a sideline. In the Song Dynasty, there were even more households engaged in tea production. Fan Chengda wrote in his poem: "Children sleep on their backs as they go up the mountain to pick tea after finishing silkworm rearing," referring to households engaged in tea production picking tea during the slack season of silkworm rearing. Another source, 《Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government》 said: "There were also common people who paid taxes by converting tea, called 'tax tea in tea'," and in the eighth year of Taipingguo, the Song government, due to the neglect of many old tea gardens by the people, specially stipulated: "If there is no tea, they are allowed to pay with other goods." Clearly, the households that paid "tax tea" and "paid taxes with tea" were different from the tea garden households that "paid annual taxes by making tea and sold the rest to the government," the former were undoubtedly households engaged in tea production as a sideline. For this reason, the Song government continuously adjusted its tax policies to adapt to the production realities of households engaged in tea production, stipulating that tea could be used to pay taxes, which was beneficial to the development of tea production. Households engaged in tea production were not only individual small farmers but also some landlords. The famous Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi once built a tea garden near Lushan; Li Ao, a Tang Dynasty scholar, recorded that the landlord Wang Yeren "planted tea to form a garden and farmed thirty acres of land for food," being a landlord who grew grain, raised silkworms, and also engaged in tea production. The tea production of households engaged in tea production would not be very large, but the accumulated quantity would be significant. Tea production was closely related to tea production volume, because the expansion of tea production areas also meant an increase in total tea production. At the same time, with the accumulation of experience in planting tea and the improvement of production technology, the unit area yield of tea also increased. Due to the lack of accurate statistical data, it is very difficult to clarify the tea production of the Tang and Song dynasties. It is precious that some scholars have made pioneering research on this, and now we will explore it further. First, we examine the yield of tea per mu during the late Tang Dynasty. According to Wang Hongjun's calculation, the yield at that time was about 143 market jin per mu, while Zhou Li's calculation was different, totaling 182.7 jin/mu. The two scholars based their calculations on the same record in 《Four Seasons Essential》: "After three years, each tax collection yields eight taels of tea, with a total of 240 tax collections per mu, yielding 120 jin of tea." Why are the results of the calculations inconsistent? Wang Hongjun's 143 jin/mu did not fully convert to the modern system, that is, 143 jin of tea per Tang mu. Zhou Li calculated based on the standard of 1 Tang mu = 0.788 modern mu and 1 Tang jin = 1.2 modern jin. According to the calculation, 1 Tang jin is about 1.1936 modern jin, and 1 Tang mu is about 0.783 modern mu, then the yield per mu should be 120 × 1.1936 ÷ 0.783 = 182.9 jin/mu. In our country, the yield of tea per mu is generally about 100 jin/mu. The yield of tea after planting for three years in the late Tang Dynasty reached over 180 jin/mu, which is suspected to be the yield of fresh tea. If it is dry tea, the yield per mu would be about 45.7 jin. After three years, the yield would increase significantly, and the yield of tea per mu in the Song Dynasty would be even higher than that in the late Tang Dynasty. Mr. Zhang Zexian believes that it is impossible to trace the annual tea production of the Tang Dynasty. Although we cannot know the total tea production of the Tang Dynasty, we can still learn a little about the tea production of the Tang Dynasty through the records in Tang Dynasty literature. 《Seal's Records of Famous Incidents》 said: "Tea comes from Jianghuai, with continuous transportation of boats and carts, piled up everywhere, with many colors and types." Yang Hua, a Tang Dynasty scholar, listed many famous teas and their sales areas at that time, including Shu tea, which "took millions of jin every year after Guyu, scattered in the east and west"; tea from Hengzhou, which "took 100,000 jin every year"; and Mengding tea, which "within a few decades, became the grass market of An County, taking millions of jin every year," showing that the total tea production of the Tang Dynasty was not small. After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, China entered the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Although there was a lack of a stable and unified environment, tea production and trade still maintained a good development momentum. Japanese scholar Miyazaki Ichisada pointed out that during this period, tea production and trade developed greatly: "What is remarkable is the development of tea processing industries in Shu and Jiangnan. Tea, as a special commodity in China, has long been famous in the world, and its production has actually gained a solid economic foundation during the division of the Five Dynasties." In fact, the southern regimes did indeed pay great attention to the role of the tea industry. Ma Yin, who had Hunan, not only used tea to repair tribute to improve relations with neighboring countries but also vigorously developed tea production to enhance economic strength: "Setting up offices to sell tea from the capital to Xiang, Tang, Ying, and Fu, with a profit ten times that of tea. Also ordering the people to make tea to facilitate trade and collect taxes. The annual income is tens of thousands, and the land is greatly improved." The Southern Tang also used tea to solve economic difficulties: "Strengthening the people with tea and salt and collecting grain and silk, called 'bidding tax'," because the total output of tea increased, tea trade flourished, and collecting tea tax became an important income for feudal regimes. In the first year of Longde of Later Liang, the salt and iron transport envoy Jing Xiang "petitioned to set up tea tax offices in three places: Yongzhou, Heyang, and Xuzhou" and was approved. The tea production of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is also unknown, but it should have increased significantly compared to the Tang Dynasty. Because of the prevalence of credit sales and credit purchases, many contradictions and economic disputes arose around credit sales in the Song Dynasty, and the problems in the credit purchase and sale of tea were even more numerous. As the seller of credit, to obtain more commercial profits, they sometimes sold at prices much higher than the general market price, and mostly sold to "wandering and young" people; as for the buyer of credit, there were many cases of default and refusal to pay. An edict on February 23, 1121, said: "It is learned that cunning people in all provinces and cities buy tea and salt on credit from customers without returning according to the agreement, leading to customers being taken to court. They then create false records with the names of households and the amounts of debt, and the whole family flees. Officials take advantage of these false records to issue warrants and pursue supervision, harassing good people, and causing the loss of the money of the customers, which is harmful to the great laws of tea and salt. It is hereby ordered that the officials in each province and city should strictly monitor and report any cases of violation to the for consideration of severe punishment and reassignment." Because the default on tea and salt credit sales had a serious negative impact on normal market trade, it attracted the attention of the government, and some measures were taken to prevent such incidents from happening. In the eleventh month of the eleventh year of Emperor Xiaozong's Chunxi, the government issued an edict specifically targeting the situation where unscrupulous children secretly bought tea on credit, sold it at a loss, and then forced their parents to bankruptcy to repay the debt: "It is hereby ordered that in the future, customers who buy tea on credit should have their parents and elder brothers sign a written contract, and the local officials should force them to evenly distribute and repay the debt. The same should be applied to those who buy salt and goods." In the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month of the second year of Emperor Guangzong's Shaoshu, the edict said: "According to the law, the debt of tea and salt money and goods should only be settled by estimating the property of the debtor and the guarantors, and there should be no detention of relatives or filling in of the wife who has remarried. Recently, the government has strictly implemented this, allowing people to file complaints. It is learned that households who owe money to travelers or shops, related to monopoly goods, have already estimated and settled their property but are still insufficient, and the officials and guarantors are still detained. It is hereby ordered to release them all to prevent violations." The government severely cracked down on the behavior of defaulting on tea and salt credit purchases. With the emergence of many new problems in the economic life, the Song government also made some explorations in economic legislation, establishing a relatively complete legal system for credit purchases and sales among the people, especially for tea and salt, to crack down on the fraudulent and defaulting behavior of credit buyers and protect the legitimate rights and interests of credit sellers, while also restricting credit sellers. This was beneficial to the normal operation and development of commercial credit, and also conducive to the normal development of tea commodity circulation and tea trade.