The term "beggar" has been widely used to refer to people who beggars from the Song Dynasty. For example, in the "Taiping Guang Ji" quoted "Wang Shi Jian He", beggars and horse doctors, bartenders, servants and traffickers It's on par. Another example is "Zhu Zi Yu Lei" also recorded that due to the development of the commodity economy, after the market replaced coins with banknotes, some people were still wealthy businessmen in the morning, and became beggars with nothing in the evening.
Everyone knows that the commodity economy in the Song Dynasty was very developed. Therefore, most people can support themselves through commodity services without having to beg. However, even so, there were many beggars in the Song Dynasty. In Zhang Zeduan's famous painting "A River on the Qingming Festival", a careful audience should be able to see three beggars: one is a disabled person sitting on the ground, one is a child, and the other is an old woman.
These three people do not match the prosperous market depicted on the screen. Should the government help these people?
The Song Dynasty government really set up relief places for these people.
According to the laws of the Song Dynasty, the government must set up such a welfare institution to take in these beggars, and no beggars are allowed to freeze to death on the street. In Zhang Zeduan's portrait, we don't need to worry that these three beggars will be frozen to death, because it was the spring season.
In the ten years of Xining, the imperial court promulgated the law "Beggar Support Law", which was implemented in the eleventh year of Xining. The law stipulates that every October, the government has to conduct regular inspections of the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled in its jurisdiction. Each person distributes food every day. Adults receive one liter of rice beans and children receive half a liter of rice beans. From October to March of the following year, no interruption is allowed, and there is no starvation.
This law has been continued, even after the Song Dynasty moved south. In addition, shortly after the promulgation of the "Beggar Support Law", another law beneficial to beggars was also promulgated. In the first year of Yuan Fu, the imperial court promulgated the "Law on Residential Care", requiring state governments to establish residential homes for those who are alone, widowed, poor and young, and unable to take care of themselves. They provide monthly rations and ask doctors to see a doctor. This is the government's obligation which performed.
In the beginning, the nursing home only took in the orphans, widows, and poor children, and asked for someone to take care of them to maintain their livelihoods. Later, because he did not want to see so many beggars freezing to death in the cold streets, Song Huizong ordered that those poorly-dressed beggars should also be taken into nursing homes in the cold winter. Later, the Southern Song Dynasty added the Sanatorium, and Song Gaozong decreed: to take the beggars who were frozen on the street into the Sanatorium.
In this way, the nursing home has the same function as the nursing home, which is to adopt frozen beggars. The two laws of the Song Dynasty complement each other, one to solve the problem of food and clothing for beggars, and the other to solve the problem of beggars' housing. Of course, both laws are seasonal. Only in winter will the government lend a hand to beggars. At other times, beggars are still required to solve the food, clothing and housing problems themselves.
The government usually starts the relief in October and adopts in November each year, and then begins severance in February and ends the relief in March of the following year. Of course, when special circumstances arise, the government can appropriately extend the time for relief and adoption. For example, in March of the second year of Shaoxing, the government found that the beggars dismissed from Lin'an Prefecture still had nowhere to go, so the government decided to extend the adoption period by one month and wait until the wheat matured before disbanding the beggars so that they could work on their own.
In the eight years of Xining, the Hebei government asked the court to extend the relief period to June, and Song Shenzong agreed to this request. In addition, if beggars get sick, they can get medical treatment for free according to the law.
The welfare given by the government to the socially disadvantaged groups is always unavoidable by some officials.
In order to be able to take a share of these benefits, they often let some strong people who have no worries about food and clothing mix into the ranks of beggars to share the benefits of the government. At the same time, they can also arrange for some idle and wealthy children to live in the nursing home.
What is even more hateful is that after beggars receive their rice beans, they will be robbed by unidentified people, most of whom are internal government officials. Moreover, they will cruelly treat vagrant beggars in nursing homes, Put his bound hands aside. For these officials to take advantage of the system’s loopholes, they still need the government to improve the system so that officials cannot infringe on the interests of vulnerable groups.
Social welfare must come from government taxation. The welfare of the Song Dynasty is so good, then, will it be realized by increasing taxation?
The answer seems to be yes, but we cannot ignore the impact of these benefits. It is the most basic duty of a country to provide citizens with the most basic relief and prevent citizens from being unable to continue their lives due to poverty. If the country does not even have this welfare, how can we feel that this country is getting better and better?
Of course, in addition to the basic welfare provided by the state, the private sector also needs to construct a charity system with a richer level and a wider coverage. The Song Dynasty did this well. In addition to two laws aimed at the treatment of beggars, the Song Dynasty also had some non-governmental charitable organizations composed of gentry groups, temples, and wealthy people. They regularly organized relief activities to extend a helping hand to beggars.
Among them, the most famous is probably the gentry Liu Zai, who has organized like-minded people to set up a porridge shop three times to give porridge to the people who are not full. The first time was in Jiading in October of the second year, helping more than 4,000 hungry people; the second time was in Jiading, November 16, when the largest number of diners on that day reached 15,000; the third time was in Shaoding February of the first year.
According to "Menglianglu" records, Lin'an Mansion encountered heavy snow, and many beggars without clothes to keep warm froze to death by the roadside. Afterwards, a wealthy man specifically checked the situation of the victims along the road, and gave them some silver and clothing along the way so that they could survive in this harsh environment. This story is warmer, and it also lets us know that there is still true love in the world.
Actually, the history of ancient Chinese beggars began almost simultaneously with civilized society.
Although beggars are the poorest people at the bottom of society, they are not valued by the ruling classes of the past and are rarely recorded in official history. However, in the private notes or unofficial history of literati and inkmen, they leave a lot about The record of beggars. In addition, whether it is ancient or modern, the state will have corresponding welfare facilities and relief measures for the group of beggars.
References:
["Song History·Volume Eighty-Five·Zhi Thirty-Eighth", "Shanghe on the Qingming Festival", "Menglianglu"】
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