Abstract
This chapter develops a reading of the Sui shu 隋書 ‘Treatise on Economics’ (Shihuo zhi 食貨志) in the light of a comparison with the equivalent treatise in the Han shu. Far from reducing the Sui shu treatise to an ideological piece following the intellectual and rhetorical thread of the Han shu model, such a reading allows us to better understand the questions raised by the author(s), which pervade not only the long introduction but also the body of the treatise. One of the more central questions will prove to be the paradoxical nature of imperial economic policy, especially as concerns the management of granaries and canals—the guarantors of sufficiency, circulation and, at the same time, the interests of the imperial clan and its display of power.
Résumé
Ce chapitre propose une lecture du « Traité sur l’économie » (Shihuo zhi 食貨志) du Sui shu 隋書, à la lumière d’une comparaison avec le même traité dans le Han shu. Une telle lecture ne consiste pas à analyser le traité du Sui shu comme une œuvre idéologique qui reproduirait la perspective intellectuelle et rhétorique de son modèle dans le Han shu, mais nous permet de mieux comprendre les questions posées par le (ou les) auteur(s), qui non seulement parcourent la longue introduction, mais aussi structurent le corps même du traité. Il apparaît ainsi que l’une des questions les plus importantes est celle de la nature intrinsèquement paradoxale de la politique économique impériale, en particulier en ce qui concerne l’administration des greniers et des canaux impériaux, censés garantir la suffisance alimentaire et la circulation des biens, tout en protégeant les intérêts du clan impérial et en affirmant sa puissance.
The government presses for the land-tax, but where it is to come from?
We know by now that it is bad to have sons, and better to give birth to daughters
Daughters at least will marry in the neighbourhood,
While boys will die and disappear in the wild grass…
New ghosts complain about injustice, old ghosts weep,
Whistling sounds under the cloudy sky and the heavy rain.
縣官急索租, 租稅從何出
信知生男惡, 反是生女好
生女猶得嫁比鄰
生男埋沒隨百草 …
新鬼煩冤舊鬼哭
天陰雨濕聲啾啾.
—Du Fu 杜甫, ‘Ballad of the military chariots’ 兵車行
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Notes
- 1.
The Han shu postface (xuzhuan 敍傳) uses this expression at the very beginning of the ‘Shihuo zhi’: ‘From its beginning, the priority for the living people is food and commodities’ 厥初生民,食貨惟先.
- 2.
On this emperor, see Xiong (2006).
- 3.
This was very disrespectful for the dead, but it was the only way to conceal the human losses before the arrival of emperor Wen.
- 4.
Sui shu, 24.683.
- 5.
On the important figure of Yang Su during the reigns of Emperors Wen and Yang, see Twitchett and Fairbank (1979: 68–69), who characterize him as ‘the hatchet man every autocrat needs’ (p. 72). Yang Su is a figure that typifies the great resemblance between military campaigns and public works: he was not only charged with the campaigns against the Southern Kingdoms at the beginning of Sui dynasty, but also with the construction of Renshou Palace, described here, and the building of a new capital at Luoyang 洛陽. The new capital, like the palace, was achieved swiftly with a complete indifference for human losses.
- 6.
For all we know, the Sui shu ‘Shihuo zhi’ may very well have been a collective work, under the direction of Wei Zheng 魏徵 (580–643).
- 7.
This passage is quoting the Han shu postface, variations upon which are placed in brackets (see Note 1).
- 8.
Given that the introduction only mentions the Sima Qian and Ban Gu treatises by name, the ‘previous writings’ most probably refers back to these. That said, qian shu 前書 ‘former writing(s)’ may also be referring to the Qian Han shu 前漢書, presenting the current treatise as a continuation of Ban Gu’s.
- 9.
Sui shu, 24.673.
- 10.
See van Ess (2014: esp. Chap. 10).
- 11.
The Wei shu treatise likewise quotes the Han shu treatise several times and includes a memoir by Yuan Cheng 元澄 (467–519), Prince of Rencheng 任城, which also relies heavily on the Han shu treatise.
- 12.
To this he adds that ‘the general line of development of public works for water-control can be traced to, and understood in terms of, the necessity of holding and developing the key economic area as the principle underlying the economic policy of succeeding dynasties’ (Chi 1936: 14).
- 13.
Here are his exact words: ‘L’effort tendant à la prise de conscience et à une nouvelle évaluation du lourd héritage de quatre siècles se traduisit dès la stabilisation des T’ang par une série d’histoires dynastiques commandées par T’ai-tsong (Taizong). Entre 622 et 649, date de la mort de cet empereur lettré, huit grands ouvrages d’histoire s’élaborèrent. … Le Livre des Souei occupe une place à part, non seulement à cause de la proximité de l’époque traitée ou de l’importance déjà signalée de la dynastie pour les T’ang, importance qui découle de cette proximité, mais aussi parce que tous les ouvrages précités ne contenaient que les annales des règnes et les biographies des personnages importants. Aucun, sauf le Tsin-chou (Jin shu)—un peu à part, comme on l’a vu, et qui porte essentiellement sur l’histoire des Tsin [Jin] Occidentaux (265–317), ne contenait des traités, ces monographies si précieuses pour l’histoire des institutions’ (Balazs 1953: 117).
- 14.
‘Editor’s Preface’ in Hsu (1980: xx).
- 15.
Huangshi richao, 46.258–259.
- 16.
Shiji, 130.3306. This translation is inspired by Watson (1993: vol. 2, 31) but I chose not to follow him when he translates 並兼玆殖 by adding ‘the great landholders’ as the subject. It seems to me that the problem of the great landholders and of the concentration of land and wealth in their hands comes somewhat later and that the most urgent problem which the ‘Pingzhun shu’ deals with is the economic competition between Emperor Wu’s government administrators and the citizenry.
- 17.
This sentence is also inspired by the ‘Yi ji’ 益稷 chapter of the ‘ancient-script’ Classic of Documents: ‘He encouraged the people to exchange what they had for what they had not so as to transfer what they had in surplus’ 懋遷有無化居 (Translation based on Kong Yingda’s commentary: ‘He encouraged the people in the world to transfer the surplus of a given product to regions in need of this product, [for example] to transfer fish and salt to the mountain regions [and, vice versa,] to transfer wood to the marshlands, all so as to exchange their respective surplus stocks’ 勉勸天下, 徙有之無, 魚鹽徙山, 林木徙川澤, 交易其所居積). On this expression, see Guwen Shangshu zhuan yi, 2.13.
- 18.
Han shu, 24.1117; tr. modified from Swann (1950: 110).
- 19.
Han shu, 24.1079.
- 20.
Cf. Yang (1946: 110): ‘The ten treatises in Sui shu were designed to cover five dynasties, Liang, Chen, Northern Qi, Zhou and Sui, and consequently were once well known as Wudai shi zhi 五代史志. The Shihuo zhi is not an exception, and in parts it covers the Song, the Southern Qi and even the Eastern Jin (317–420). Its compilation was begun in 641, a few years before Jinshu was started, but the finished chapters were not presented to the throne until 656, ten years after the completion of Jinshu. Among the twenty-one known editors and compilers of Jinshu at least four worked also on the Wudai shi zhi. It was probably due to their effort that there is no overlapping in the treatises of the two histories. A peculiar result is that some records on the economic history of the Eastern Jin period are found in Sui shu but not in Jinshu as one would expect. As if in compensation the Shihuo zhi in Jinshu not only gives extensive accounts on the Western Jin (265–317) but also goes back to the Later Han dynasty (25–220), picking up the thread left by Ban Gu in Han shu’.
- 21.
Strictly speaking, although it is a common assumption that the Han shu is the first ‘dynastic history’, this label is not perfectly appropriate: the Han shu covers also the history of Wang Mang’s Xin 新 dynasty (9–23), and its treatises and tables are not exclusive to the Han.
- 22.
For examples of such criticism, see Chap. 12, this volume.
- 23.
Cited in Han shu, 24A.1128–1129, and Xinshu jiaozhu, 4.163; tr. Chi (1936: 12–13).
- 24.
About the completion of an empire-wide transportation system, see Twitchett and Fairbank (1979: 134–138, esp. 135): ‘If one looks at a relief map of China and envisages the area of settled agriculture it is clear that these canals, plus the natural waterways, assured for the Sui the resources of all the most productive land with the exception of Sichuan (which was linked to the capital by a well-established road). … Much of the prosperity of the Tang can be attributed to this network which they inherited and improved’.
- 25.
Shitong tongshi, 3.67.
- 26.
Han shu, 24.1145; tr. modified from Swann (1950: 215–216).
- 27.
Sui shu, 24.692.
- 28.
It would be interesting to compare this with the description of imperial granaries in the Han shu, which is not developed at all according to Swann (1950: 17): ‘It seems strange, however, that in the case of the treatment of grain supplies (food), the occasional references to government granaries and depots do not furnish enough threads of information to be woven together into even a partial portrayal of the Han granary system’.
- 29.
Sui shu, 24.688.
- 30.
The grandson of Emperor Yang, Yang You 楊佑 (605–619), the Prince of Dai, was quite young at the time of the Sui’s collapse. He seems to have supported the rebellion of Li Yuan 李淵 (566–635), then Governor of Taiyuan 太原, and future founder of Tang dynasty, who first recognized Yang You as the new emperor, Gongdi 恭帝, but then deposed him six months later to found his own dynasty. Soon after, Yang You died for unknown reasons.
- 31.
See the report of the same event later in the treatise, in Sui shu, 24.689.
- 32.
Sui shu, 24.673.
- 33.
Sui shu, 24.688–689.
- 34.
Sui shu, 24.686–687; tr. Wright (1979: 137).
- 35.
Here, the preceding year was marked by a tragic famine and several cases of cannibalism.
- 36.
Han shu, 24.1172; tr. modified from Swann (1950: 303–304).
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Acknowledgements
My heartfelt thanks go to Michael Nylan for her suggestions and corrections, and to Daniel Morgan for improving the clumsy style of the original text.
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L’Haridon, B. (2019). The Treatise on Economics and Its Influences. In: Morgan, D., Chaussende, D. (eds) Monographs in Tang Official Historiography. Why the Sciences of the Ancient World Matter, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18038-6_8
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