Shang Yang Fangsheng. Image source: Shanghai Museum official website
The 1972 bicycle tax payment certificate (data photo) preserved by Xingzhen Taxation Office. The interviewed unit provided
"Pucheng mulberry wine, chrysanthemum branches on the Ba'an", located in the northeast of the Guanzhong Plain and along the Luo River, Pucheng County . It is the largest grain-producing county in Shaanxi and is known as the "Guangzhong Grain Store". In the late Qing Dynasty, the national treasure-level cultural relics of Shang Yang Fangsheng were unearthed in Pucheng . The inscription engraved by Fang Sheng, "Daliang's creation of Yang Yang has accumulated sixteen (inch) and five points (inch) to make him one. Chongquan." The " Chongquan" in the inscription is Pucheng.
Shang Yang Fangsheng is one of the important physical evidence of tax collection and payment in ancient my country. As the only physical remains of Shang Yang's reforms so far, Shang Yang's promotion provided strong guarantees for the measurement of land acres and tax collection at that time, allowing the Qin State, which was located in the northwest border, to get rid of the tax difficulties and support the historical process of the "Tiger and Wolf Army" annexing the princes of the world.
Luoshui flows for thousands of years, and the "tax" always leaves traces for months. In July 2018, as the reform of national tax and local taxation was promoted, more than 100,000 well-preserved "tax affairs" old objects in Xingzhen Taxation Office in Pucheng County were re-opened to the public this year. From the stamp duty invoice in 1949, the tax registration certificate in 1954, the agricultural tax invoice in 1973, the national tax and local tax seals in 1994, these precious historical materials that have been sleeping for a long time outline the "imprints" of tax affairs and family and country in the past 70 years of New China.
intensive taxation to consolidate the people's regime
" (Xinhua News Agency, Northwest 23rd) After liberating Tongchuan, the coal area in central Shaanxi on the 20th, the Northwest People's Liberation Army recovered two counties south of Tongchuan and Pucheng east on the 21st... In the battle to liberate Pucheng, the People's Liberation Army captured about 1,000 people below the 4th Brigade commander and commissioner of the 11th Special Zone of the Kuomintang Shaanxi Security Regiment and about 1,000 people below the chief and deputy commander of the Security Regiment..." This press release was published in the Jinsui Daily on February 26, 1949, briefly reported on the situation of the People's Liberation Army's capture of Pucheng at that time. For the working people in Pucheng who were tortured by the Kuomintang for a long time, the news of victory was like the famous fireworks in the local area - "Flying reds are endless and elephants, scattered into the earth and spring."
According to the "Summary of Supporting Work in 1949" left at that time, in order to defend the new regime, the people of Pucheng enthusiastically supported the front, and women sewed 46,000 pairs of military shoes. The masses transported a total of 30,000 stones of grain to Weinan Station, 2,000 stones of grain to Huayin , and mobilized 160 migrant workers to Chengdu, Sichuan, south of the Qinling Mountains. These became the beginning of the tax cause of Pucheng after liberation.
During the War of Liberation, an important and stable source of guaranteeing revolutionary supply was taxation, the most important of which was agricultural tax and public grain for saving the country; After the founding of New China, a large amount of money was needed to heal the trauma of war, restore the national economy, and strengthen the construction of national defense, transportation, agriculture, industry and other aspects. At this time, the "poor and white" New China was under heavy financial pressure. According to a speech at the first tax conference of the Northwest region in the early stage of liberation preserved by Xingzhen Taxation Office, at that time, "the country's financial difficulties were in financial difficulties, and the Northwest region was even worse, with an annual budget of 70% deficit."
In order to consolidate the new people's regime, the first generation of grassroots tax workers in the Republic slept in the open and began a arduous journey to accumulate wealth for the country. In some liberated areas that were recovered earlier, as various reactionary forces and counter-revolutionaries such as Kuomintang spies and bandits remained, tax workers even had to "hold tax receipts in one hand and guns in the other" to collect taxes in the midst of war and guns.
Shi Lanting, who was engaged in tax work in 1947, wrote in his recollection article "The Story of Collection of Taxes under the Enemy's Sweeping" that in the spring of 1948, the Kuomintang struggled desperately and launched a crazy counterattack on some liberated areas in Shandong."Due to the tense situation of the enemy", they hid "all accounts, taxes, and tickets in the tunnel walls"; in mid-April, "the enemy began to sweep the net", "We have no safe place to go, and we ran to the wheat fields of Dawa every day"; "We were attacked by the enemy on May 22, and more than 30 comrades died gloriously in tunnel battle . In this battle, six comrades from our Industrial and Commercial Administration Office also picked up guns, fought bloody battles with the enemy, and died bravely."
In order to ensure the safety of taxes, there was also a special tax police group and a tax police force at that time. According to the book "1921-2021: Tax Theory and Practice under the Leadership of the Communist Party of China", in June 1950, Guangxi tax police Huang Jihe was ambushed by a large number of bandits while on his way to escort the tax. The soldiers fought and withdrew. After joining the county armed forces team, they arranged fortifications on the spot and launched a counterattack. Faced with the crazy counterattack of the bandits, the local tax police soldiers fought for seven days and seven nights, joined forces with the large regional armed forces, and finally annihilated the bandits and ensured the safety of national property.
official documents, bills, previous years' work logs, various daily necessities... Among the more than 100,000 old items, there is an tax inspection certificate issued on December 5, 1963. The person received the certificate is Li Jinlu, 85 years old this year. On the yellowed black and white ID photo, Li Jinlu, who was 27 years old, was in his prime.
"I went to Xingzhen Tax Office in 1953 to work. At that time, the country was in chaos. All our comrades lived in the same house. The whole institute shared a bicycle. It was for the director to attend meetings in the county and the accountants to report the accounts in the county. Others basically walked in the countryside," said Li Jinlu.
dozens of miles back and forth. When going to the countryside to collect taxes, everyone can only "sleep in the open". There are no hotels in rural areas and the living conditions of the masses are limited. Many tax officials often "sleep a night" in thatched huts used by various production teams to watch livestock, and fall asleep with the sound of cattle and the smell of horse manure. Eating is a bit "resigned to fate", "You can have a full meal at the meal time, but you can only be hungry if you miss it."
"We were eating a meal at that time, and the team arranged to go to whoever they were at. Some families had better conditions and could eat a bun and a bowl of noodles. When they had bad conditions, they could only eat two sweet potatoes to satisfy their hunger." Li Jinlu recalled, "No matter whether they were good or not, we had to keep half a pound of food coupons and 15 cents of food cash for every meal, and we could not eat and drink in vain."
"A handful of abacus a bill, and it was bumpy and dusty all the way." Because some people were not very conscious of paying taxes at that time, tax workers could only "run their legs and wear their mouths." Often, they run alone from dawn to dark, and come to collect from door to door. They are covered in mud on rainy days and gray on sunny days. The tax of a few cents and a few cents is required to be "turned around" for a long time. At night, you have to light an oil lamp and make a calculation to summarize every invoice one by one.
The increase in national tax revenue year by year provides strong financial support for consolidating the people's regime and building socialism with . "It is hard for young people to imagine our working conditions at that time, but we are used to it and have fun," recalled some old tax workers.
"Sparrow" Small Window Refractive Great Changes
"Five lakes and four seas are counted in the plate, and the three religions and nine flowing pearls are busy." The abacus originated from my country and has a history of thousands of years so far. In the famous Song Dynasty painting " Qingming Festival, the " , there is a string abacus on the counter of Zhao Taicheng's pharmacy. Before the emergence of modern calculators, abacus was widely used in our country. From "the small common people in the country" to "the country and the country are the great court", it can be said that there are 360 things, and every thing is always inseparable from the abacus.
Among the more than 100,000 old items from Xingzhen Tax Office, the abacus can best draw the long-lasting memories of some old tax workers. Once upon a time, it was in this small space that their hands were flying, and the boring and cold numbers were cheering in an instant. Finally, "the beads sounded and the accounts were clear, and the income and expenditure were in line with the dragon."
"For tax workers in the past, being able to make good abacus is a basic skill." Qu Zhaohong, a retired old tax worker in Pucheng County, said, "Whether we go up the mountain or go to the countryside, we cannot do without abacus every day, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing at all times, and calculating carefully every day." What impressed Qu Zhaohong was also the pencil head that used "the oil was exhausted and the lamp was dry"."In the late 1970s, the conditions were still very poor and there were few supplies. We cut the pencil into two sections from the middle, and used a pen as two pens." Qu Zhaohong recalled, "What should I do if I can't hold it until I can't hold it, and I can't throw it away? Tie a small wooden stick with thin chopsticks at the end of the pen, and then use it until it's completely bald, and it's not replaced by a new one."
"The world turns, and time is forever. Ten thousand years is too long, so I have to seize the day." After the gate of reform and opening up opened, the Chinese people who walked out of the "wasted years" bravely chased the forefront with the enthusiasm of "dare to teach the sun and the moon to change the new sky". The changes in the land of China are changing with each passing day. Calculator, mimeographer , fax machine, computer office, mobile APP, online tax payment... In less than 40 years, tax office has entered the era of electronicization. In today's tax offices, budgeters click the mouse with their fingers, and on the five-color LCD screen, various data come in an instant, decomposing, integrating, superimposing, and cost-effective. The office software automatically arranges the tables and data in a row.
42 flour workshops, 37 tofu workshops, 19 paper workshops, 11 fragrant workshops, and 6 cannon workshops... A "Statistical Table of Rural Side Workshops in Xingzhen Taxation Office" in 1956 clearly outlines the "industrial structure" that Xingzhen had initially formed after socialist construction at that time.
xing Town is located 12 kilometers west of Pucheng County. It was called Jingshifang in ancient times and is one of the birthplaces of ancient papermaking. Tang Ruizong and Tang Xuanzong After the death of his father and son, they were both buried in Pucheng. Influenced by the sacrificial culture of all dynasties, Xingzhen has gradually formed a manual industry chain mainly composed of papermaking, incense, and fireworks. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Pucheng became a famous fireworks countryside. It is said that "there is Liuyang in the south and the Pucheng in the north". Xingzhen, which is in a hub position, has also become a large-scale small commodity distribution center for daily necessities in Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Henan and other places.
Under the rule of the late Qing government and the Kuomintang, Xingzhen and its Pucheng area gradually became "poverty and all industries were withered." According to the "Pucheng County Chronicles", in September 1929, man-made disasters and natural disasters caused Pucheng to " buckwheat and mie valleys to dry up, and the victims were displaced, starving to death by more than 21,000 people." By November of that year, "numerous people, animals, trees, birds and animals were frozen to death, and most of the farmers went out to famine and their lives were in desperate situations." "The tax was lost in the family's land, and they picked up this to fill their hunger." "At that time, farmers continued to initiate the 'transfer of farmers', and merchants broke out in the market."
"According to the tax archives we have compiled, there are only three mutton restaurants in Pucheng County on the eve of liberation. For the Pucheng people who taste water basin mutton , this indirectly reflects the bleak socio-economic situation at that time." Lei Xiaoyang, an old tax worker in Pucheng County, introduced. Nowadays, the data has undergone earth-shaking changes in the same tax "window". In 2020, the total tax revenue of Xingzhen Tax Office reached 10.723 million yuan, while the total tax revenue of Pucheng County was about 1.4 billion yuan, and there are more than 300 registered mutton restaurants.
Looking around the whole country, from 1950 to 1977, my country's tax revenue expanded from 4.9 billion yuan to 46.8 billion yuan; from 1978 to 2012, this figure expanded from 51.9 billion yuan to 100.61.4 billion yuan; in 2020, the national tax revenue reached 154.31 billion yuan.
As the economy takes off and the times are changing dramatically, some traditional tax types that have gone through thousands of years have gradually disappeared in the long river of history. The "Xingzhen 'Tax' Month Exhibition Room" in Pucheng contains the 1955 commercial tax invoices, the slaughter tax invoices in 1960, the 1972 vehicle and ship license tax invoices collected for bicycles and the 1973 agricultural tax invoices. These five tax types have been suspended one after another, and their respective historical missions have been completed.
Among them, the most far-reaching impact is the complete cancellation of agricultural tax.
As the oldest ancient tax type in my country, since the implementation of " initial tax " in the Spring and Autumn Period, agricultural taxes mostly exist in the form of "land tax". From " two-tax law " in the Tang Dynasty to " one-whip law " in the Ming Dynasty to and then to " spread out the " in the Qing Dynasty, from "county officials urgently requesting rent, where does the rent tax come from?" to "selling cattle and paying taxes to tear down houses, and not as hungry as next year", agricultural tax has always affected the suffering of people's livelihood and the rise and fall of dynasties.
In order to completely reduce the burden on farmers, the leading group for rural tax reform was established as early as September 1998; in October 2003, the agricultural specialty tax was abolished nationwide; in July 2004, the State Council clearly implemented a pilot program of agricultural tax exemption in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, and the pace of reform was further accelerated. By 2005, a total of 28 provinces across the country had exempted agricultural tax.
On December 29, 2005, the 19th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress decided that the " Regulations on Agricultural Tax of the People's Republic of China " will be abolished from January 1, 2006. With the 2,600-year "Imperial Grain and National Taxation" in Chinese history, it has withdrawn from the historical stage and benefited 900 million farmers across the country.
At that time, a farmer in Lingshou County, Hebei Province, Wang Sanni, cast a "farewell to the land taxi" with a height of 99 cm and a weight of more than 250 kilograms, in order to declare the joy and expectations of Chinese farmers. "I am the son of a farmer. My ancestors have paid taxes for generations. Today, I have bid farewell to the land tax. On behalf of the farmers, I want to cast a cauldron and carve the inscription, and tell future generations that I will sing praises for generations to never forget them." The inscription on the cauldron body reads this.
At this point, history has completely broken out of the " Huang Zongxi's Law " that "the more reformed the taxes in all dynasties, the deeper the burden on farmers". Chinese farmers have ushered in a new era of agriculture where not only does not pay taxes for growing grain, but can also receive grain subsidies and comprehensive agricultural subsidies. In 2020, the per capita disposable income of rural residents across the country reached 17,131 yuan; in 2021, the land of China will fully build a moderately prosperous society.
Take it from the people and benefit the people
1,000 years ago in the autumn of the thirteenth year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty (754), "for more than 60 days, the walls of the capital were destroyed." The "Poet Saint" who lives in the capital Chang'an , Du Fu , has a difficult life to sustain because of the collapse of the house. Thanks to Zhou Ji, the county magistrate of Fengxian (now Pucheng, in the fourth year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty, he buried Ruizong in Fengshan northwest of the county town, named Qiaoling , and changed Pucheng County to Fengxian County ), Du Fu settled his family in Dujia Village, Pucheng County today.
TianbaoFourth year (755), Du Fu set out from Chang'an, passed by Lishan , and arrived in Pucheng to visit relatives. After he got home, he realized that his youngest son had starved to death. "The broken cup and cold roast are filled with sorrow everywhere." Du Fu, who had been wandering for many years and deeply felt the suffering of the people at the bottom, wrote a poem " from Beijing to Fengxian County to chant the thoughts of 500 words" in the humble room of Pucheng. The famous line in the article "The rich family smells of wine and meat, and there are frozen bones on the road to " is a true portrayal of the feudal rulers who fished out of the pond and charged for heavy taxes.
"The mulberry tree is abandoned and still pays taxes, and the rice seedlings are still collected after the countryside is deserted." "In the Yu and Xia periods, the tribute and taxes have been prepared." In the long scroll of tax history for thousands of years, the lower class people accumulated sand and formed a tower, gathering wealth from the world, but the result is often that the people hang upside down and the temples are still singing and dancing. Taxes not only failed to benefit the general public, but instead became the source of extravagance and enjoyment of the rulers. In 1930, the rural areas of Pucheng "nine out of ten households were empty, and the number of hungry people was huge." In order to give the masses some food, the Pucheng Special Branch of the Communist Party of China actively mobilized the victims to fight against rent, tax, food and donations.
After the founding of New China, the tax revenue that "takes from the people" was "used for the people and benefiting the people" through socialist construction, so that "the people have a good life", especially in feeding back agriculture, tax revenue and agricultural benefits have never stopped.
According to the large number of work logs preserved by Xingzhen Taxation Office, after liberation, all grassroots tax offices in Pucheng County had fixed agricultural support points, and agricultural support achievements were used as an important indicator for the annual work summary. Taking Xingzhen Taxation Office as an example, in 1965, the institute "takes the Party Brigade as the point to assist the brigade in a variety of operations and development teams to run workers and side businesses", "at the end of the year, helping the brigade achieve a value of 80,000 yuan in industrial and side businesses, and six teams achieve a industry and side businesses of 70,000 yuan." In terms of decomposition of the task of assisting farmers, grid management was also implemented at that time, that is, each tax officer contracted a commune and placed a village to carry out assistance to assist members in the development of production. For example, "Comrade Liu Zhiming, the special manager of the Potou Commune, helped Lianxing Third Team plant ten acres of flue-cured tobacco, develop one orchard, and run a paper brushing workshop." "Comrade Wang Jianzhong, the special manager of Jingyao Commune, helped the former Wang Wu team plant twenty acres of watermelon and ten acres of green onions to develop orchards, flour shops, and tofu shops".
In addition to the established tasks, the rural tax workers stationed in the village can be regarded as a revolutionary brick, "moving wherever they need to." There are both those who "help the production team deliver calf " and those who "burn fire and hold children for members." "In the sixth team of Baojiazhai, the poor representatives outside the sixty years old were seriously ill and wanted to eat eggs and biscuits. The specialist paid out of his own pocket and bought two yuan eggs and biscuits for this poor old man." "Comrade Ma Shengyi helped Lianwu Brigade standardize the development of a variety of business opportunities, and personally went to Fuping to buy 2,400 mulberry seedlings."
planted mulberry silkworms, developed pig farming, built fertilizer plants, and improved water conservancy facilities... At that time, the work of supporting agriculture and assisting agriculture "thinks what agriculture thinks, and urgently agriculture is urgent." Li Jinlu, 85 years old this year, still remembers their past when they "carried on the water and moistened the fields". After the autumn of 1959, the area of Dangmu Township, Pucheng County encountered severe drought, and the drought situation was particularly severe after winter. Li Jinlu and the masses, he dug up the ice in the river and carried it to nearby fields one by one to rescue the crops that had been thirsty for a long time.
"We carry the backs, lift them, and help the members to deeply refill the soil and accumulate fertilizer and deliver fertilizer." Li Jinlu still remembers that when they went to the countryside, in addition to bringing tax collection books, they also brought a manure picking cage. "On the way to the countryside, we picked up manure while walking. When we arrived at the production team, we first handed over the manure to accumulate fertilizer, and then checked the accounts and collected taxes, mainly to promote agricultural production."
"tax" changed month by month, and the country changed its appearance. More than half a century later, Fan Lei, a cadre of the Pucheng County Taxation Bureau, was still rushing around in the fields where taxes benefit farmers, but this time the battlefield was poverty alleviation. During summer harvest, he had to ensure that the wheat pellets of poor households were returned to the warehouse; every year, he had to worry about whether migrant workers in the village received their full salary. From 2017 to the first half of 2021, as the first secretary of the Pucheng County Taxation Bureau stationed in Ping'e Village, Chunlin Town, Fan Lei was in the village.
After the victory of poverty alleviation, some of Fan Lei's colleagues continued to fight at the forefront of rural revitalization.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, tax reform has strongly supported poverty alleviation, the comprehensive building of a moderately prosperous society, and the supply-side structural reform of . A series of tax and fee reduction policies have been continuously expanded in scale and dividends have been continuously released. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, my country fully implemented the tax and fee reduction policies, and the total scale of new tax and fee reductions reached 7.6 trillion yuan. The sudden outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has severely impacted my country's economy and society. In the face of relatively difficult fiscal revenue and expenditure, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have introduced 7 batches of 28 tax and fee reduction policies in accordance with the times and situations, with the scale of new tax and fee reductions exceeding 2.6 trillion yuan, effectively promoting the reduction of burdens for enterprises, increase of residents' income and increase of employment.
"The annual autumn wind is strong, not like spring, but better than spring." As the location of the National Time Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the standard "Beijing Time" every day starts from Pucheng and walks into thousands of households on the land of China day and night. In this city with abundant grains, time is changing in the constant changes of "tax" matters. It not only witnesses the new look of Pucheng's "wheat is more fragrant and the warehouse is more solid", but also records the road to rejuvenation of a great country with "a stronger country and richer people".
References: "1921-2021: Tax Theory and Practice under the Leadership of the Communist Party of China" (Reporters Liu Shuyun and Sun Zhenghao)
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph
