Volume 176 Treatises 129: Finance and Economics 1d

食貨上四〈（屯田常平義倉）〉

Finance and Economics, Part Four (Military Colonies, Ever-Normal Granaries, and Charity Granaries))

前代軍師所在，有地利則開屯田、營田，以省饋餉。宋太宗伐契丹，規取燕薊，邊隙一開，河朔連歲繹騷，耕織失業，州縣多閑田，而緣邊益增戍兵。自雄州東際於海，多積水，契丹患之，不得肆其侵突；順安軍西至北平二百里，其地平曠，歲常自此而入。議者謂宜度地形高下，因水陸之便，建阡陌，浚溝洫，益樹五稼，可以實邊廩而限戎馬。端拱二年，分命左諫議大夫陳恕、右諫議大夫樊知古為河北東、西路招置營田使，恕對極言非便。行數日，有詔令修完城堡，通導溝瀆，而營田之議遂寢。時又命知代州張齊賢製置河東諸州營田，尋亦罷。

In earlier dynasties, wherever armies were posted, favorable ground was turned into military colonies and garrison farms to cut the cost of supplying the troops. When Emperor Taizong of Song marched against the Khitan with an eye to Yan and Ji, the frontier was thrown open and the Hebei region was unsettled year after year. Farming and weaving collapsed, idle land accumulated in the prefectures and counties, and border garrisons only grew larger. East of Xiongzhou as far as the sea lay extensive flooded ground that checked the Khitan and kept them from raiding freely; but from Shun'an Army west to Beiping for two hundred li the country was flat and open, and the invaders usually came in along that corridor every year. Advisers argued that the land should be surveyed for height and slope, waterways and roads used to advantage, fields laid out, canals dug, and the five grains planted more widely—thereby stocking the border granaries and blocking the enemy cavalry. In 989, Chen Shu and Fan Zhigu were appointed to organize garrison farms on the eastern and western Hebei circuits respectively; Chen Shu argued forcefully in audience that the plan was ill-advised. A few days into their mission an edict came ordering them instead to repair fortifications and clear waterways, and the garrison-farm scheme was dropped. About the same time Zhang Qixian, prefect of Daizhou, was told to organize garrison farms across Hedong, but that effort was soon abandoned as well.

六宅使何承矩請於順安砦西引易河築堤為屯田。既而河朔連年大水，及承矩知雄州，又言宜因積潦蓄為陂塘，大作稻田以足食。會滄州臨津令閩人黃懋上書言：「閩地惟種水田，緣山導泉，倍費功力。今河北州軍多陂塘，引水溉田，省功易就，五三年間，公私必大獲其利。」詔承矩按視還，奏如懋言。遂以承矩為製置河北沿邊屯田使，懋為大理寺丞充判官，發諸州鎮兵一萬八千人給其役。凡雄莫霸州、平戎順安等軍興堰六百里，置斗門，引澱水灌溉。初年種稻，值霜不成。懋以晚稻九月熟，河北霜早而地氣遲，江東早稻七月即熟，取其種課令種之，是歲八月，稻熟。初，承矩建議，沮之者頗眾；武臣習攻戰，亦恥於營葺。既種稻不成，群議愈甚，事幾為罷。至是，承矩載稻穗數車，遣吏送闕下，議者乃息。而莞蒲、蜃蛤之饒，民賴其利。

He Chengju, commissioner of the Six Residences, proposed diverting the Yi River west of Shun'an Stockade and building dikes for military-colony fields. Floods then struck the Hebei region year after year. When He became prefect of Xiongzhou he urged storing the floodwater in ponds and developing rice paddies on a large scale to feed the region. About then Huang Mao of Fujian, magistrate of Linjin in Cangzhou, memorialized: "In Fujian we grow only wet rice, channeling springs down from the hills at twice the usual labor. Here in Hebei the garrisons already have many ponds. Irrigating from them would take less work and succeed quickly; within three to five years both the state and the people would profit greatly." The court ordered He Chengju to inspect the ground and report; his memorial confirmed Huang Mao's assessment. He Chengju was then appointed commissioner for border military colonies in Hebei, with Huang Mao as his assistant judge from the Court of Judicial Review, and eighteen thousand troops from the border garrisons were assigned to the project. Dikes six hundred li long were built across Xiong, Mo, Bazhou, Pingrong, Shun'an, and neighboring commands, with sluice gates installed to draw water from the Baiyang Marshes for irrigation. The first year's rice planting was ruined by an early frost. Huang Mao noted that late rice ripens in the ninth month: Hebei frosts early though the soil warms slowly, whereas early rice in the lower Yangtze ripens in the seventh month. He brought seed from the south and had it planted under quota; that year the rice ripened in the eighth month. When He Chengju first proposed the scheme, many spoke against it; and career officers, bred for combat, were ashamed to be put to building and ditch work. After the failed rice crop opposition swelled, and the whole project nearly collapsed. He Chengju then sent several cartloads of rice ears to the capital by official courier, and the critics fell silent. The wetlands also yielded rich harvests of reeds, rushes, and shellfish on which the people came to depend.

度支判官陳堯叟等亦言：「漢、魏、晉、唐於陳、許、鄧、潁暨蔡、宿、亳至於壽春，用水利墾田，陳跡具在。議選官大開屯田，以通水利，發江、淮下軍散卒及募民充役。給官錢市牛、置耕具，導溝瀆，築防堰。每屯十人，人給一牛，治田五十畝，雖古制一夫百畝，今且墾其半，俟久而古制可復也。畝約收三斛，歲可收十五萬斛，七州之間置二十屯，可得三百萬斛，因而益之，數年可使倉廩充實，省江、淮漕運。民田未辟，官為種植，公田未墾，募民墾之，歲登所取，並如民間主客之例。傅子曰：『陸田命懸於天，人力雖修，苟水旱不時，則一年之功棄矣。水田之制由人力，人力苟修，則地利可盡。』且蟲災之害亦少於陸田，水田既修，其利兼倍。」帝覽奏嘉之，遣大理寺丞皇甫選、光祿寺丞何亮乘傳按視經度，然不果行。

Chen Yaosou and other fiscal commissioners of the Revenue Section also argued: "From Han through Tang, Chen, Xu, Deng, Ying, Cai, Su, Bo, and as far as Shouchun had been brought under cultivation by water control—the evidence is still there. Officials should be chosen to reopen military colonies on a large scale, restore the waterways, and assign scattered troops from the Jiang-Huai commands plus recruited civilians to the work. State funds would buy oxen and tools, canals would be dug, and protective dikes built. Each colony would hold ten men, each with one ox and fifty mu under cultivation. The ancient allotment was one hundred mu per man; for the present half that would suffice, and the full measure could be restored in time. At roughly three hu per mu, annual yield would reach one hundred fifty thousand hu; twenty colonies across the seven prefectures would produce three million hu, and further expansion in a few years could fill the granaries and spare the Jiang-Huai grain convoys. Unopened private land would be planted by the state; unreclaimed public land would be opened by recruited tenants; and the annual levy would follow the usual landlord-tenant shares. Master Fu wrote: "Dry farming hangs on the weather: no matter how hard men work, untimely flood or drought wastes a year's effort. Wet rice depends on human labor; where labor is steady, the land's full yield can be had." Insect damage is lighter than on dry land, and once wet fields are in order the return is twice as great." The emperor approved the memorial and sent Huangfu Xuan and He Liang on fast courier to survey the ground, but the plan was never executed.

至咸平中，大理寺丞王宗旦請募民耕潁州陂塘荒地凡千五百頃。部民應募者三百餘戶，詔令未出租稅，免其徭役。然無助於功利。而汝州舊有洛南務，內園兵人種稻，雍熙二年罷，賦予民，至是復置，命京朝官專掌。募民戶二百餘，自備耕牛，立團長，墾地六百頃，導汝水溉灌，歲收二萬三千石。襄陽縣淳河，舊作堤截水入官渠，溉民田三千頃；宜城縣蠻河，溉田七百頃；又有屯田三百餘頃。知襄州耿望請於舊地兼括荒田，置營田上、中、下三務，調夫五百，築堤堰，仍集鄰州兵每務二百人，荊湖市牛七百分給之。是歲，種稻三百餘頃。

During the Xianping period, Wang Zongdan asked that civilians be recruited to farm fifteen hundred qing of pond and waste land in Yingzhou. Over three hundred households answered the call; an edict exempted them from corvée until rent and tax came due. The scheme brought little practical gain. Ruzhou had once maintained the Luonan Office, where palace-garden troops grew rice; it was abolished in 985 and the land given to civilians, but now it was restored under a capital official appointed to run it. More than two hundred tenant households supplied their own oxen; group leaders were appointed; six hundred qing were opened; the Ru River was channeled for irrigation; and the annual harvest reached twenty-three thousand shi. In Xiangyang county dikes on the Chun River had long diverted water into the official canal to irrigate three thousand qing of private fields; the Man River at Yicheng county watered seven hundred qing; and there were more than three hundred qing of military-colony land besides. Prefect Geng Wang of Xiangzhou asked to add waste land to the old sites and set up upper, middle, and lower garrison-farm offices. Five hundred laborers built dikes and weirs; two hundred troops from neighboring commands were assigned to each office; and seven hundred oxen were bought in Jing-Hu and issued to them. That year more than three hundred qing of rice were planted.

四年，陝西轉運使劉綜亦言：「宜於古原州建鎮戎軍置屯田。今本軍一歲給芻糧四十餘萬石、束，約費茶鹽五十餘萬，儻更令遠民輸送，其費益多。請於軍城四面立屯田務，開田五百頃，置下軍二千人、牛八百頭耕種之；又於軍城前後及北至木峽口，各置堡砦，分居其人，無寇則耕，寇來則戰。就命知軍為屯田製置使，自擇使臣充四砦監押，每砦五百人充屯戍。」從之。既而原、渭州亦開方田，戎人內屬者皆依之得安其居。

In 1001 Liu Zong, Shaanxi transport commissioner, also urged establishing Zhenrong Army at old Yuanzhou with military colonies. The army already consumed over four hundred thousand shi and bundles of fodder and grain a year, costing some five hundred thousand in tea and salt equivalents; forcing distant civilians to haul supplies would only add to the burden. He proposed military-colony offices around the garrison, five hundred qing opened to cultivation, two thousand lower-army troops and eight hundred oxen assigned to farm them; and stockades before and behind the city and north to Mukou Pass, garrisoning the men so they would farm in peace and fight when raiders came. The army commander would serve as colony commissioner, choose envoys to supervise the four stockades, and assign five hundred colony troops to each. The court approved. Yuan and Wei prefectures soon opened square fields as well, and tribesmen who submitted were able to settle securely.

是時兵費浸廣，言屯、營田者，輒詔邊臣經度行之。順安軍兵馬都監馬濟請於靖戎軍東壅鮑河，開渠入順安、威虜二軍，置水陸營田於其側。命莫州部署石普護其役，逾年而畢。知保州趙彬復奏決雞距泉，自州西至蒲城縣，分徐河水南流注運渠，廣置水陸屯田，詔駐泊都監王昭遜共成之。自是定州亦置屯田。五年，罷襄州營田下務。六年，耿望又請於唐州赭陽陂置務如襄州，歲種七十餘頃，方城縣令佐掌之，調夫耘耨。

As military costs mounted, any proposal for military or garrison farms brought orders for border officials to plan and execute it. Ma Ji, military superintendent of Shun'an Army, proposed damming the Bao River east of Jingrong Army, cutting a canal into Shun'an and Weilu, and establishing land and water garrison farms along it. Shi Pu, deployment commander of Mozhou, was put in charge; the work took more than a year. Zhao Bin, prefect of Baozhou, also proposed tapping Jiju Spring and diverting the Xu River south from the prefecture west to Pucheng into the transport canal, with extensive land and water military colonies; Wang Zhaoxun, stationed fleet superintendent, was ordered to help finish the work. Dingzhou then established military colonies as well. In 1002 the lower garrison-farm office at Xiangzhou was abolished. In 1003 Geng Wang asked for a similar office at Zheyang Pond in Tangzhou; more than seventy qing were planted yearly under the Fangcheng magistrate and staff, with corvée labor for hoeing and harvest.

景德初，從京西轉運使張巽之請，詔止役務兵。二年，令緣邊有屯、營田州軍，長吏並兼製置諸營田、屯田事，舊兼使者如故。大中祥符九年，改定保州、順安軍營田務為屯田務，凡九州軍皆遣官監務，置吏屬。淮南、兩浙舊皆有屯田，後多賦民而收其租，第存其名。在河北者雖有其實，而歲入無幾，利在蓄水以限戎馬而已。天禧末，諸州屯田總四千二百餘頃，河北歲收二萬九千四百餘石，而保州最多，逾其半焉。

Early in the Jingde period, at the request of Zhang Xun, western capital transport commissioner, an edict forbade drafting garrison-farm troops for corvée. In 1005 border commands with military or garrison farms were told that their chief officials would concurrently oversee all such farms; existing special commissioners were left in place. In 1016 the garrison-farm offices at Baozhou and Shun'an Army were renamed military-colony offices; supervisors and clerks were posted to all nine border commands. Huainan and the two Zhe circuits had once had military colonies too, but most land was later assigned to civilians for rent while the names alone survived. In Hebei the colonies still functioned, but annual revenue was slight; the real benefit was impounding water to block enemy cavalry. By the end of the Tianxi era colonies nationwide totaled over forty-two hundred qing; Hebei yielded over twenty-nine thousand four hundred shi a year, more than half from Baozhou alone.

襄、唐二州營田既廢，景德中，轉運使許逖復之。初，耿望借種田人牛及調夫耨獲，歲入甚廣。後張巽改其法，募水戶分耕，至逖又參以兵夫，久之無大利。天聖四年，遣尚書屯田員外郎劉漢傑往視，漢傑言：「二州營田自復至今，襄州得穀三十三萬餘石，為緡錢九萬餘；唐州得穀六萬餘石，為緡錢二萬餘。所給吏兵俸廩、官牛雜費，襄州十三萬餘緡，唐州四萬餘緡，得不補失。」詔廢以給貧民，頃收半稅。

After the Xiang and Tang garrison farms were abolished, transport commissioner Xu Ti restored them during the Jingde period. At first Geng Wang borrowed tenants' oxen and drafted labor for hoeing and harvest, and revenue was substantial. Zhang Xun later changed the rules, recruiting wetland tenants to farm in shares; Xu Ti added troops to the mix; in time little profit remained. In 1026 Liu Hanjie of the Ministry of Revenue's Colony Section was sent to inspect. He reported: "Since restoration, Xiangzhou had produced over three hundred thirty thousand shi of grain, worth more than ninety thousand strings; Tangzhou over sixty thousand shi, worth more than twenty thousand strings. But pay, rations, official oxen, and overhead had cost Xiangzhou over one hundred thirty thousand strings and Tangzhou over forty thousand—the accounts showed a net loss. An edict abolished the farms and gave the land to poor civilians at half tax for a period.

其後陝西用兵，詔轉運司度隙地置營田以助邊計，又假同州沙苑監牧地為營田，而知永興軍範雍括諸郡牛頗煩擾，未幾遂罷。右正言田況言：「鎮戎、原、渭，地方數百里，舊皆民田，今無復農事，可即其地大興營田，以保捷兵不習戰者分耕，五百人為一堡，三兩堡置營田官一領之，播種以時，農隙則習武事。」疏奏，不用。後乃命三司戶部副使夏安期等議並邊置屯田，迄不能成。

When war broke out in Shaanxi the transport office was told to find spare land for garrison farms to ease frontier costs; pasture at Shazhou in Tongzhou was also lent for the purpose; but Fan Yong of Yongxing Army's roundup of oxen from many prefectures caused such trouble that the scheme was soon dropped. Right Rectifier Tian Kuang proposed: "Zhenrong, Yuan, and Wei cover hundreds of li that were once farmland but lie idle. Garrison farms could be opened there; Baojie troops unfit for battle could farm in groups of five hundred per stockade under one farm officer per two or three stockades, sowing on schedule and drilling in the farming slack season. The memorial was ignored. Later Xia Anqi and others of the Three Departments were ordered to plan border-wide military colonies, but nothing came of it.

治平三年，河北屯田三百六十七頃，得穀三萬五千四百六十八石。熙寧初，以內侍押班李若愚同提點製置河北屯田事。三年，王韶言：「渭原城而下至秦州成紀，旁河五六百里，良田不耕者無慮萬頃，治千頃，歲可得三十萬斛。」知秦州李師中論：「韶指極邊見招弓箭手地，恐秦州益多事。」詔遣王克臣等按視，復奏與師中同。再下沈起，起奏：「不見韶所指何地，雖實有之，恐召人耕種，西蕃驚疑。」侍御史謝景溫言：「聞沈起妄指甘穀城弓箭手地以塞韶妄。」而竇舜卿奏：「實止有閑田一頃四十三畝。」中書言：「起未嘗指甘穀城地以實韶奏，而師中前在秦州與韶更相論奏，互有曲直。」韶遂以妄指閑田自著作佐郎責保平軍節度推官，師中亦落待制。其後韓縝知秦州，乃言：「實有古渭砦弓箭手未請空地四千餘頃。」遂復韶故官，從其所請行之。明年，河北屯田司奏：「豐歲屯田，入不償費。」於是詔罷緣邊水陸屯田務，募民租佃，收其兵為州廂軍。

In 1066 Hebei military colonies covered three hundred sixty-seven qing and yielded thirty-five thousand four hundred sixty-eight shi. Early in the Xining reforms the eunuch Li Ruoyu was made co-superintendent of Hebei military colonies. In 1070 Wang Shao reported: "From Weiyuan city down to Chengjii in Qinzhou along the river for five or six hundred li lie at least ten thousand qing of good land lying fallow; working one thousand qing would yield three hundred thousand hu a year. Prefect Li Shizhong of Qinzhou objected: "Shao means land on the extreme frontier where mounted archers are being recruited; Qinzhou will only see more trouble. The court sent Wang Kechen and others to inspect; they agreed with Li Shizhong. Shen Qi was consulted next and reported: "I cannot tell which land Shao means. Even if it exists, calling in settlers to farm may alarm the western Tibetans. Censor Xie Jingwen said: "I hear that Shen Qi falsely cited Gangu city archer land to discredit Shao." Dou Shunqing memorialized: "In fact there is only one qing and forty-three mu of idle land." The Secretariat said: "Qi never pointed to Gangu city land to substantiate Shao's memorial, while Shizhong and Shao had long traded accusations in Qinzhou, each with some justice on his side." Shao was demoted from Assistant Archivist to military judge of Baoping Army for falsely claiming idle land; Shizhong lost his pending appointment as well. Later Han Zhen as prefect of Qinzhou reported over four thousand qing of unclaimed archer land at Guwei Stockade. Shao's rank was restored and his proposal approved. The next year the Hebei Military Colony Office reported that even in a good year revenue did not cover costs. Border land and water colony offices were abolished, the land rented to civilians, and the troops reassigned as prefectural garrison soldiers.

時陝西曠土多未耕，屯戍不可撤，遠方有輸送之勤，知延州趙禼請募民耕以紓朝廷憂，詔下其事。經略安撫使郭逵言：「懷寧砦所得地百里，以募弓箭手，無閑田。」禼又言之，遂括地得萬五千餘頃，募漢蕃兵幾五千人，為八指揮，詔遷禼官，賜金帛。而熙州王韶又請以河州蕃部近城川地招弓箭手，以山坡地招蕃兵弓箭手，每砦五指揮，以二百五十人為額，人給地一頃，蕃官二頃，大蕃官三頃。熙河多良田，七年，詔委提點秦鳳路刑獄鄭民憲興營田，許奏辟官屬以集事。

Much of Shaanxi still lay uncultivated while garrisons could not be reduced and distant regions bore heavy transport costs. Zhao Xu, prefect of Yanzhou, asked to recruit civilians to farm and ease the court's burden; the proposal was referred for action. Pacification commissioner Guo Kui replied that the hundred li around Huaining Stockade was already allotted to mounted archers and no idle land remained. Zhao Xu persisted; a land survey found over fifteen thousand qing; nearly five thousand Han and tribal troops were recruited in eight commands; and Xu was promoted and rewarded with gold and silks. Wang Shao of Xizhou also asked to recruit mounted archers on river-valley land near Hezhou cities and tribal archers on hillsides—five commands per stockade, two hundred fifty men each, one qing per man, two for tribal officers, three for senior tribal officers. The Xi-He region had abundant good land; in 1074 Zheng Minxian, Qinfeng circuit penal intendant, was ordered to open garrison farms and allowed to recruit staff by memorial.

樞密使吳充上疏曰：「今之屯田，誠未易行。古者一夫百畝，又受田十畝為公田，莫若因弓箭手仿古助田法行之。熙河四州田無慮萬五千頃，十分取一以為公田，大約中歲畝一石，則公田所得十五萬石。官無屯營牛具廩給之費，借用眾力而民不勞，大荒不收而官無所損，省轉輸，平糴價，如是者其便有六。」而提點刑獄鄭民憲言：「祖宗時屯、營田皆置務，屯田以兵，營田以民，固有異制。然襄州營田既調夫矣，又取鄰州之兵，是營田不獨以民也；邊州營屯，不限兵民，皆取給用，是屯田不獨以兵也；至於招弓箭手不盡之地，復以募民，則兵民參錯，固無異也。而前後施行，或侵占民田，或差借耨夫，或諸郡括牛，或兵民雜耕，或諸州廂軍不習耕種、不能水土，頗致煩擾。至於歲之所入，不償其費，遂又報罷。惟因弓箭手為助田法，一夫受田百畝，別以十畝為公田，俾之自備種糧功力，歲畝收一石，水旱三分除一，官無廩給之費，民有耕鑿之利，若可以為便。然弓箭手之招至，未安其業，而種糧無所仰給，又責其借力於公田，慮人心易搖，乞候稍稔推行。」九年，詔：「熙河弓箭手耕種不及之田，經略安撫司點廂軍田之，官置牛具農器，人一頃，歲終參較弓箭手、廂軍所種優劣為賞罰。弓箭手逃地並營田召佃租課，許就近於本城砦輸納，仍免折變、支移。」

Councilor of State Wu Chong wrote: "Military colonies are hard to run today. In antiquity each man held one hundred mu plus ten mu of public field; better to adapt the ancient aid-field system to the mounted archers. The four Xi-He prefectures had at least fifteen thousand qing; a tenth as public fields, at roughly one shi per mu in an average year, would yield one hundred fifty thousand shi. The state would avoid colony barracks, oxen, tools, and ration costs; use popular labor without overburdening the people; suffer no loss in famine years; save transport costs; and stabilize grain prices—six advantages in all. Zheng Minxian, penal intendant, said: "Under the founding emperors military colonies used troops and garrison farms used civilians, each with its own office—the two systems had always differed. Yet at Xiangzhou the garrison farm drafted corvée labor and still drew troops from neighboring prefectures, so garrison farms were never staffed by civilians alone; On the frontier, garrison colonies made no distinction between soldier and civilian and pressed both into service, so military colonies likewise were never manned by troops alone; Where mounted archers could not fill the quota, civilians were recruited as well; soldiers and civilians were jumbled together, and in practice the two systems amounted to the same thing. In repeated trials the policy brought encroachments on private fields, forced loans of weeding labor, county-wide roundups of oxen, mixed soldier-civilian plowing, and garrison troops who knew nothing of farming or local conditions—altogether a heavy burden on the people. Annual yields never matched costs, and the scheme was abandoned once more. Only the mounted-archer aid-field plan looked promising: each man would hold one hundred mu plus ten mu of public field, supplying seed and labor himself; the levy was one shi per mu yearly, with a third forgiven in flood or drought. The state would avoid granary payouts and the farmers would keep the gains of cultivation—an arrangement that seemed genuinely advantageous. But the archers, once recruited, had not yet put down roots, lacked seed and provisions, and were already liable for labor on the public fields; lest morale falter, he asked that the plan wait until the land had yielded a few good harvests." In the ninth year an edict ordered that until Xi-He archers could work their allotments, the Pacification Commission should detail garrison troops to farm the land, supply oxen, tack, and tools at one qing per man, and at year's end rank archer and garrison yields for reward or penalty. Archers' abandoned plots and garrison-farm tenancies would be assessed for rent, payable at the nearest home fort or stockade, with conversion fees and transport diversions waived.

元豐二年，改定州屯田司為水利司。及章惇築沅州，亦為屯田務，其後遂罷之，募民租佃，役兵各還所隸。五年，詔提舉熙河等路弓箭手、營田、蕃部共為一司，隸涇原路製置司。提舉熙河營田康識言：「新復土地，乞命官分畫經界，選知田廂軍，人給一頃耕之，餘悉給弓箭手，人加一頃，有馬者又加五十畝，每五十頃為一營。」「四砦堡見缺農作廂軍，許於秦鳳、涇原、熙河三路選募廂軍及馬遞鋪卒，願行者人給裝錢二千。」詔皆從之。

In 1079 the Dingzhou Military Colony Office was renamed the Hydraulic Office. When Zhang Dun fortified Yuanzhou he set up a colony commission too, but it was later abolished; civilians were hired to tenant the fields and the corvée troops sent back to their commands. In 1082 an edict merged the Xi-He mounted archers, garrison farms, and frontier tribes under one superintendency subordinate to the Jingyuan Pacification Commission. Kang Shi, superintendent of Xi-He garrison farms, proposed: "On the newly recovered lands, officials should survey boundaries, assign one qing apiece to garrison troops who know farming, and give the rest to mounted archers at an extra qing per man—fifty mu more for those with horses—forming a camp every fifty qing. Where the four forts and bastions lacked farming garrison troops, he asked to recruit garrison troops and courier-station soldiers from Qinfeng, Jingyuan, and Xi-He, with two thousand cash in outfit money for each volunteer. The throne approved every item.

知太原府呂惠卿嘗上《營田疏》曰：「今葭蘆、米脂裏外良田，不啻一二萬頃，夏人名為『真珠山』、『七寶山』，言其多出禾粟也。若耕其半，則兩路新砦兵費，已不盡資內地，況能盡辟之乎？前此所不敢進耕者，外無捍衛也。今於葭蘆、米脂相去一百二十里間，各建一砦，又其間置小堡鋪相望，則延州之義合、白草與石州之吳堡、剋胡以南諸誠砦，千里邊麵皆為內地，而河外三州荒閑之地，皆可墾辟以贍軍用。凡昔為夏人所侵及蘇安靖棄之以為兩不耕者，皆可為法耕之。於是就糴河外，而使河內之民被支移者，量出腳乘之直，革百年遠輸貴糴，以免困公之弊。財力稍豐，又通葭蘆之道於麟州之神木，其通堡砦亦如葭蘆、米脂之法，而橫山膏腴之地，皆為我有矣。」

Lu Huiqing, prefect of Taiyuan, once memorialized on garrison farms: "The fertile land around Jialu and Mizhi runs to ten or twenty thousand qing at least. The Xia name the region Pearl Mountain and Treasure Mountain for the grain it yields. Reclaim even half of it and the new frontier forts on both routes would no longer lean wholly on the interior for supplies—let alone if the whole were brought under the plow. The reason plowing had not been attempted earlier was simply that there was no shield on the outside. Build a fort at Jialu and another at Mizhi, a hundred and twenty li apart, with smaller posts between them in mutual view, and from Yizhou's Yihe and Baicao to Shizhou's Wubao and Kehu and the forts beyond—a thousand li of frontier becomes hinterland. The idle lands of the three prefectures across the river could then be opened to feed the armies. Every field once raided by the Xia and left fallow under Su Anjing's policy of mutual abstention could be planted by this same method. Grain could be bought locally beyond the river, while people within it who had borne transport diversions would be compensated for porterage—ending a hundred years of costly long hauls and ruinous state purchases. As revenues strengthened, the route from Jialu to Shenmu in Linzhou and its chain of posts could follow the same pattern, and the rich soil of Hengshan would be firmly in our hands."

七年，惠卿雇五縣耕牛，發將兵外護，而耕新疆葭蘆、吳堡間膏腴地號木瓜原者，凡得地五百餘頃，麟、府、豐州地七百三十頃，弓箭手與民之無力及異時兩不耕者又九百六十頃。惠卿自謂所得極厚，可助邊計，乞推之陝西。八年，樞密院奏：「去年耕種木瓜原，凡用將兵萬八千餘人，馬二千餘匹，費錢七千餘緡，穀近九千石，糗糒近五萬斤，草萬四千餘束；又保甲守禦費緡錢千三百，米石三千二百，役耕民千五百，雇牛千具，皆強民為之；所收禾粟、蕎麥萬八千石，草十萬二千，不償所費。又借轉運司錢穀以為子種，至今未償，增入人馬防拓之費，仍在年計之外。慮經略司來年再欲耕種，乞早約束。」詔諭惠卿毋蹈前失。

In 1084 Huiqing hired oxen from five counties, sent regular troops to guard the perimeter, and plowed Papaya Plain, the rich ground between newly taken Jialu and Wubao—over five hundred qing in all, plus seven hundred thirty qing in Lin, Fu, and Feng prefectures and nine hundred sixty qing for archers, poor civilians, and fields long left idle by both sides. Huiqing declared the harvest enormous and a boon to frontier finance, and asked that the scheme be spread across Shaanxi. In 1085 the Bureau of Military Affairs reported that farming Papaya Plain the previous year had consumed more than eighteen thousand regular troops and two thousand horses, over seven thousand strings of cash, nearly nine thousand shi of grain, fifty thousand jin of field rations, and fourteen thousand bundles of fodder; community-defense levies added thirteen hundred strings and thirty-two hundred shi of rice; fifteen hundred farmers and a thousand hired oxen had all been wrung from the populace by force; the harvest—grain, millet, and buckwheat—totaled eighteen thousand shi and fodder one hundred two thousand bundles, falling short of the outlay. Seed money and grain borrowed from the transport commission remained unpaid, and the extra manpower and horses for frontier defense still sat outside the annual accounts. They feared the Pacification Commission would try planting again the next year and asked that limits be set at once. An edict warned Huiqing not to repeat his earlier error.

河東進築堡砦，自麟石、鄜延南北近三百里，及涇原、環慶、熙河蘭會新復城砦地土，悉募廂軍配卒耕種免役。已而營田司言諸路募發廂軍皆不閑田作，遂各遣還其州。

Hedong pushed forward fortifications for nearly three hundred li from Linshi to Fuyan, and across the newly recovered posts of Jingyuan, Huanqing, and Xi-He Lanzhou and Huizhou garrison troops were recruited to farm with corvée waived. Before long the Garrison Farm Office reported that recruited garrison troops everywhere were useless in the fields, and each man was sent home to his prefecture.

紹興元年，知荊南府解潛奏辟宗綱、樊賓措置屯田，詔除宗綱充荊南府、歸峽州、荊門公安軍鎮撫使司措置五州營田官，樊賓副之。渡江後營田蓋始於此。其後荊州軍食仰給，省縣官之半二。三年，德安府、復州、漢陽軍鎮撫使陳規放古屯田，凡軍士：相險隘，立堡砦，且守且耕，耕必給費，斂復給糧，依鋤田法，餘並入官。凡民：水田畝賦粳米一斗，陸田豆麥夏秋各五升，滿二年無欠，給為永業。兵民各處一方，流民歸業浸眾，亦置堡砦屯聚之。凡屯田事，營田司兼之；營田事，府、縣兼之。廷臣因規奏推廣，謂一夫授田百畝，古制也，今荒田甚多，當聽百姓請射。其有闕耕牛者，宜用人耕之法，以二人曳一犁。凡授田，五人為甲，別給蔬地五畝為廬舍場圃。兵屯以大使臣主之，民屯以縣令主之，以歲課多少為殿最。下諸鎮推行之。

In 1131 Xie Qian, prefect of Jingnan, recommended Zong Gang and Fan Bin to set up military colonies; Gang was made commissioner for garrison farms in five prefectures under the Jingnan pacification command, with Fan Bin as deputy. Southern garrison farming likely dates from this moment. Thereafter Jingzhou fed its garrisons from the farms, easing by about half what local officials had once been obliged to furnish. In 1133 Chen Gui, pacification commissioner for De'an, Fuzhou, and Hanyang Army, revived the old colony system. Soldiers were to hold defensible points, build forts, and farm while they guarded; the state paid farming costs and issued grain at harvest under the hoe-field rule, with the surplus to government stores. Civilians owed one dou of husked rice per mu on paddy land and five sheng of beans or wheat per mu in each of summer and autumn on dry land; after two years without default the plot became theirs in perpetuity. Soldiers and civilians lived apart; as refugees returned in swelling numbers, forts were also raised to settle them in colonies. Military-colony business fell jointly to the Garrison Farm Office; garrison-farm business to prefectures and counties. Following Gui's proposal, court officials urged a wider rollout: one hundred mu per man was the ancient rule, and with wasteland abundant the people should be free to apply to reclaim it. Where oxen were scarce, two men should pull a single plow by hand. Every grant would group five men in a tithing, with five mu of vegetable ground set aside for houses, yards, and gardens. Military colonies would answer to grand emissary officials and civilian colonies to magistrates, ranked by annual yield. The plan was dispatched to the prefectures for adoption.

詔江東、西宣撫使韓世忠措置建康營田，如陝西弓箭手法。世忠言：「沿江荒田雖多，大半有主，難如陝西例，乞募民承佃。」都督府奏如世忠議，仍蠲三年租，滿五年，田主無自陳者，給佃者為永業。詔湖北、浙西、江西皆如之。其徭役科配並免。五年，詔淮南、川陝、荊襄屯田。

Han Shizhong, pacification commissioner of Jiangdong and Jiangxi, was ordered to organize Jiankang garrison farms on the Shaanxi archer model. Shizhong replied: "Wasteland is plentiful along the river, but most of it already has owners; the Shaanxi model will not do—I ask instead to recruit civilians to tenant the fields. The Chief Council agreed, exempting rent for three years and providing that after five years, if the owner did not claim the land, the tenant would receive it in perpetuity. Hubei, western Zhe, and Jiangxi were ordered to follow suit. Corvée and special levies were waived entirely. In 1135 an edict extended military colonies to Huainan, Sichuan-Shaanxi, and the Jing-Xiang region.

六年，都督張浚奏改江、淮屯田為營田，凡官田逃田並拘籍，以五頃為一莊，募民承佃。其法：五家為保，共佃一莊，以一人為長，每莊給牛五具，耒耜及種副之，別給十畝為蔬圃，貸錢七十千，分五年償。命樊賓、王弗行之。尋命五大將劉光世、韓世忠、張俊、岳飛、吳玠及江淮、荊、襄、利路帥悉領營田使。遷賓司農少卿，提舉江、淮營田，置司建康，弗屯田員外郎副之。官給牛、種，撫存流移，一歲中收穀三十萬石有奇。殿中侍御史石公揆、監中獄李寀及王弗皆言營田之害，張浚亦覺其擾，請罷司，以監司領之，於是詔帥臣兼領營田。

In 1136 Zhang Jun proposed renaming Jiang-Huai military colonies as garrison farms, registering all official and abandoned fields, grouping them into five-qing estates, and recruiting civilian tenants. Five households would form a mutual-liability group to tenant one estate under a headman; each estate received five oxen, plows, seed, ten mu for vegetables, and a loan of seventy thousand cash repaid over five years. Fan Bin and Wang Fu were put in charge. Shortly afterward the five great generals—Liu Guangshi, Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, Yue Fei, and Wu Jie—along with the Jiang-Huai, Jing, Xiang, and Li route commanders were all named garrison-farm commissioners. Fan Bin was promoted to vice minister of agriculture and superintendent of Jiang-Huai garrison farms with headquarters at Jiankang; Wang Fu, outer-sect director of military colonies, served as his deputy. With oxen and seed from the state and care for the displaced, the program harvested more than three hundred thousand shi in a single year. Shi Gongkui, Li Cai, and Wang Fu all denounced the abuses of garrison farming; Zhang Jun too saw the disruption and asked to abolish the dedicated office in favor of surveillance commissioners—whereupon commanders were ordered to oversee garrison farms concurrently.

九月，以川陝宣撫吳玠治廢堰營田六十莊，計田八百五十四頃，歲收二十五萬石以助軍儲，賜詔獎諭焉。三十二年，督視湖北、京西軍馬汪澈言：「荊、湖兩軍屯守襄、漢，糧餉浩瀚。襄陽古有二渠，長渠溉田七千頃，木渠溉田三千頃，兵後堙廢。今先築堰開渠，募邊民或兵之老弱耕之，其耕牛、耒耜、種糧，令河北、京西轉運司措置，既省饋運，又可安集流亡。」從之。

In the ninth month Wu Jie, Sichuan-Shaanxi pacification commissioner, was commended by edict for restoring ruined weirs and operating sixty garrison-farm estates on eight hundred fifty-four qing, yielding two hundred fifty thousand shi yearly for army stores. In 1162 Wang Che, overseer of Hubei and Jingxi forces, reported: "The Jing and Hu armies holding Xiangyang and Hanzhong consume provisions on a vast scale. Xiangyang once had two canals—the Long Canal watering seven thousand qing and the Wood Canal three thousand—but both had silted up in the wars. He proposed rebuilding the weirs and clearing the channels, hiring frontier civilians or aged and weak soldiers to farm them with oxen, plows, and seed furnished by the Hebei and Jingxi transport offices—cutting transport costs while resettling refugees. The court agreed.

隆興元年，臣僚言州縣營田之實，其說有十，曰：擇官必審，募人必廣，穿渠必深，鄉亭必修，器用必備，田處必利，食用必充，耕具必足，定稅必輕，賞罰必行。且欲立賞格以募人，及住廣西馬綱三年以市牛。會有訴襄陽屯田之擾者，上欲罷之。工部尚書張闡言：「今日荊襄屯田之害，以其無耕田之民而課之遊民，遊民不足而強之百姓，於是百姓舍己熟田而耕官生田，或遠數百里征呼以來，或名雙丁而役其強壯，老稚無養，一方騷然，罷之誠是也。然自去歲以來，置耕牛農器，修長、木二渠，費已十餘萬，一旦舉而棄之，則荊襄之地終不可耕也。比見兩淮歸正之民，動以萬計，官不能續食，則老弱饑死，強者轉而之他。若使之就耕荊襄之田，非惟可免流離，抑使中原之民聞之，知朝廷有以處我，率皆繈負而至矣。異時墾辟既廣，取其餘以輸官，實為兩便。」詔除見耕者依舊，餘令虞允文同王玨措置。二年，江、淮都督府參讚陳俊卿言：「欲以不披帶人，擇官荒田，標旗立砦，多買牛犁，縱耕其中，官不收租，人自樂從。數年之後，墾田必多，穀必賤。所在有屯，則村落無盜賊之憂；軍食既足，則饋餉無轉運之勞。此誠經久守淮之策。」詔從之。

In 1163 officials laid out ten requirements for sound garrison farming: careful choice of officers, broad recruitment, deep canals, repaired district posts, complete equipment, well-sited fields, ample provisions, sufficient plows, light taxes, and strict rewards and punishments. They also proposed bounty scales for recruitment and a three-year halt to the Guangxi horse tribute so the proceeds could buy oxen. Complaints about abuses at Xiangyang's military colonies reached the throne, and the emperor moved to shut them down. Minister of Works Zhang Kai argued: "The trouble at Jing-Xiang colonies is that men with no land to farm are taxed while vagrants are pressed into service; when vagrants ran short, commoners were dragooned—leaving their own ripe fields to work raw government soil, hauled in from hundreds of li away, or taxed as two-adult households while only the strong were taken and the old and young left destitute. The region was in turmoil, and abolition is justified. Yet since last year more than one hundred thousand has been spent on oxen, tools, and the Long and Wood canals; to throw that away now would be to abandon Jing-Xiang cultivation for good. Refugees returning to the Two Huai now number tens of thousands; if the state cannot keep feeding them, the old and weak starve and the strong wander off. Set them to farming Jing-Xiang and you not only halt the wandering—you show people of the Central Plain that the court has a place for them, and they will come in swarms with infants on their backs. Once reclamation widens, the surplus delivered to the state would serve both people and treasury. An edict kept fields already under cultivation as they were and assigned the rest to Yu Yunwen and Wang Jue. In 1164 Chen Junqing of the Jiang-Huai Chief Council proposed using unarmed men on abandoned government land, marking out stockades, buying oxen and plows in quantity, and letting them farm rent-free so that people would come willingly. In a few years reclaimed acreage would swell and grain would cheapen. Colonies scattered across the land would spare villages the fear of bandits; and once army rations were secure, the burden of long supply lines would lift. That, he said, was the lasting way to hold the Huai line. The throne approved.

乾道五年三月，四川宣撫使鄭剛中撥軍耕種，以歲收租米對減成都路對糴米一十二萬石贍軍。然兵民雜處村疃，為擾百端；又數百里外差民保甲教耕，有二、三年不代者，民甚苦之。知興元府晁公武欲以三年所收最高一年為額，等第均數召佃，放兵及保甲以護邊。從之。八月，詔鎮江都統司及武鋒軍三處屯田兵並拘收入隊教閱。六年，罷和、揚州屯田。八年，復罷廬州兵屯田。

In the third month of 1169 Sichuan pacification commissioner Zheng Gangzhong put troops to the plow, applying the annual rent harvest against twelve thousand shi of Chengdu-route harmonized-purchase rice for army rations. But soldiers and civilians mingled in every hamlet, and trouble sprouted on every side; and community-defense peasants were drafted from hundreds of li away to teach farming, some not relieved for two or three years, to the people's great distress. Chao Gongwu, prefect of Xingyuan, proposed fixing the quota at the best of three years' harvests, recruiting tenants by graded shares, and freeing troops and militia for border defense. The court agreed. In the eighth month an edict recalled military-colony troops at the Zhenjiang command, the Wufeng Army, and three other posts to their units for drill. In 1170 military colonies at Hezhou and Yangzhou were abolished. In 1172 Luzhou's troop colonies were abolished as well.

淳熙十年，鄂州、江陵府駐紮副都統製郭杲言：「襄陽屯田，興置二十餘年，未能大有益於邊計。非田之不良，蓋人力有所未至。今邊陲無事，正宜修舉，為實邊之計。本司有荒熟田七百五十頃，乞降錢三萬緡，收買耕牛農具，便可施功。如將來更有餘力，可括荒田接續開墾。」從之。

In 1183 Guo Gao, deputy overall commander at Ezhou and Jiangling, reported: "Xiangyang's military colonies, running more than twenty years, have scarcely helped frontier finance. The soil is not to blame—effort has simply fallen short. With the frontier at peace, he urged renewal as the way to make the border truly secure. His command held seven hundred fifty qing of idle and half-worked land; he asked for thirty thousand strings to buy oxen and tools and begin at once. If capacity allowed later, more wasteland could be registered and opened in turn. The request was granted.

紹熙元年，知和州劉煒以剩田募民充萬弩手分耕。嘉定七年，以京西屯田募人耕種。十三年，四川宣撫安丙、總領任處厚言：「紹興十五年，諸州共墾田二千六百五十餘頃，夏秋輸租米一十四萬一千餘石，餉所屯將兵，罷民和糴，為利可謂博矣。乾道四年以後，屯兵歸軍教閱，而營田付諸州募佃，遂致租利陷失，驕將豪民乘時占據，其弊不可概舉。今豪強移徙，田土荒閑，正當拘種之秋，合自總領所與宣撫司措置。其逃絕之田，關內外亦多有之，為數不資，其利不在營田之下，乞並括之。」初，玠守蜀，以軍儲不繼，治褒城堰為屯田，民不以為便。因漕臣郭大中言，約中其數，使民自耕。民皆歸業，而歲入多於屯田。

In 1190 Liu Wei, prefect of Hezhou, used surplus land to recruit civilians as ten-thousand crossbowmen farming in rotation. In 1214 Jingxi military colonies recruited farmers. In 1220 Sichuan pacification commissioner An Bing and fiscal commissioner Ren Chuhou reported: "In 1145 the prefectures together reclaimed more than twenty-six hundred fifty qing, paid one hundred forty-one thousand shi of rent rice in summer and autumn, fed the garrisoned troops, and ended harmonized civilian purchase—the gain was enormous. After 1168 colony troops went back to drill while garrison lands were leased by the prefectures; rent revenue collapsed, arrogant generals and local strongmen grabbed what they could, and the abuses are too many to list. Now the bullies have gone and the fields lie fallow; this is the season to put them under cultivation again, they said, and the fiscal and pacification offices should jointly take charge. Abandoned fields within and beyond the passes are likewise numerous and no less profitable than garrison farms—they asked that those be registered too. When Wu Jie first held Shu, military stores ran short and he turned the Bao city weir into colonies; the people found it anything but convenient. At transport official Guo Dazhong's urging, the levy was cut to a median figure and the people were left to farm on their own. Every household went back to its trade, and yearly income from the fields surpassed what the military colonies had yielded.

端平元年八月，以臣僚言，屯五萬人於淮之南北，且田且守，置屯田判官一員經紀其事，暇則教以騎射。初弛田租三年，又三年則取其半。十月，知大寧監邵潛言：「昔鄭剛中嘗於蜀之關隘雜兵民屯田，歲收粟二十餘萬石。是後屯田之利既廢，糧運之費益增，宜詔帥臣縱兵民耕之，所收之粟計直以償之，則總所無轉輸之苦，邊關有儲峙之豐，戰有餘勇，守有餘備矣。」從之。

In August of Duanping 1, following memorials from the bureaucracy, the court settled fifty thousand troops on both banks of the Huai to cultivate land and hold the line. A special intendant supervised the scheme, drilling the men in horsemanship and archery whenever they were off duty. Land tax was waived entirely for the first three years; in the next three, only half was levied. In the tenth month, Shao Qian, director of the Daining office, memorialized: "Zheng Gangzhong had once intermingled troops and commoners for frontier farming at the mountain passes of Shu, harvesting over two hundred thousand shi of grain each year. Since then that system had lapsed and freight costs had climbed. He urged the court to let frontier commanders put soldiers and civilians back on the land and pay fair value for the harvest, sparing the supply bureau endless convoys, filling the passes with stores, and leaving campaigns and garrisons with grain to spare." The court approved.

嘉熙四年，令流民於邊江七十里內分田以耕，遇警則用以守江；於邊城三、五十里內亦分田以耕，遇警則用以守城；在砦者則耕四野之田，而用以守砦。田在官者免其租，在民者以所收十之一二歸其主，俟三年事定則各還元業。

In Jiaxi 4, refugees along the Yangtze frontier were given plots to till within seventy li of the banks; at the first alarm they were to man the river line. Similar allotments were made thirty to fifty li outside border towns, with the same duty to fall in for urban defense when danger threatened. Men stationed in fortified camps worked the open fields around them and rallied to hold those camps. State land was rent-free; on private plots, only ten or twenty percent of the crop went to the original owner. After three years of calm, every man was to return to his former livelihood.

咸淳三年，詔曰：「淮、蜀、湖、襄之民所種屯田，既困重額，又困苛取，流離之餘，口體不充，及遇水旱，收租不及，而催輸急於星火，民何以堪！其日前舊欠並除之，復催者以違制論。」

In the third year of Xianchun an imperial edict declared: "Peasants farming military colonies in the Huai, Shu, Hunan, and Xiang regions are crushed between punitive quotas and corrupt levies. Already uprooted and half-starved, they cannot meet the tax when flood or drought strikes—yet collectors descend like wildfire. How can the people bear it! Every outstanding debt is cancelled, and any official who duns the people again will be prosecuted for violating regulations."

常平、義倉，漢、隋利民之良法，常平以平穀價，義倉以備凶災。周顯德中，又置惠民倉，以雜配錢分數折粟貯之，歲歉，減價出以惠民。宋兼存其法焉。

The Ever-Normal and Charity Granary systems were two exemplary Han and Sui policies for the common good—the first to even out grain prices, the second to stockpile against famine. Under Later Zhou Xiande, the court added People's Relief granaries, turning assorted surcharge payments into stored grain to be sold cheaply in bad harvest years. The Song preserved all three institutions.

太祖承五季之亂，海內多事，義倉浸廢。乾德初，詔諸州於各縣置義倉，歲輸二稅，石別收一斗。民饑欲貸充種食者，縣具籍申州，州長吏即計口貸訖，然後奏聞。其後以輸送煩勞，罷之。淳化三年，京畿大穰，分遣使臣於四城門置場，增價以糴，虛近倉貯之，命曰常平，歲饑即下其直予民。

When Taizu seized power amid the wreckage of the Five Dynasties, civil turmoil left the Charity Granaries moribund. Early in Qiande, the throne mandated a Charity Granary in every county, funded by a one-dou levy on each shi of the twice-yearly land tax. Starving farmers who needed seed grain would be registered by the county, the prefect would lend grain by headcount on the spot, and only then notify the capital. The scheme was later scrapped as too burdensome to supply. After a bumper harvest around the capital in Chunhua 3, agents opened purchase stations at all four gates, paying above market to buy grain for nearby empty stores—the Ever-Normal Granaries. In famine years grain was sold back to the people at the original price.

咸平中，庫部員外郎成肅請福建增置惠民倉，因詔諸路申淳化惠民之制。景德三年，言事者請於京東西、河北、河東、陝西、江南、淮南、兩浙皆立常平倉，計戶口多寡，量留上供錢自二三千貫至一二萬貫，令轉運使每州擇清幹官主之，領於司農寺，三司無輒移用。歲夏秋視市價量增以糴，糶減價亦如之，所減不得過本錢。而沿邊州郡不置。詔三司集議，請如所奏。於是增置司農官吏，創廨舍，藏籍帳，度支別置常平案。大率萬戶歲糴萬石，戶雖多，止五萬石。三年以上不糶，即回充糧廩，易以新粟。災傷州郡糴粟，鬥毋過百錢。後又詔當職官於元約數外增糴及一倍已上者，並與理為勞績。天禧四年，荊湖、川峽、廣南皆增置常平倉。五年，諸路總糴數十八萬三千餘斛，糶二十四萬三千餘斛。

During Xianping, Treasury official Cheng Su persuaded the court to expand People's Relief granaries in Fujian, prompting an empire-wide review of the Chunhua relief model. Jingde 3 brought a memorial to establish Ever-Normal stores across Hebei, Hedong, Shaanxi, Jiangnan, Huainan, and both Zhes. Each prefecture would keep two or three thousand to as many as ten or twenty thousand strings of tribute funds, proportioned to household counts. Transport commissioners were to appoint honest officers to manage them under the Ministry of Revenue, with the Three Departments forbidden to raid the funds. Each summer and autumn officials bought grain above market when prices fell and sold below market when they rose, never discounting below the original purchase cost. Frontier districts were exempt. The Three Departments deliberated and recommended adoption as proposed. New Ministry of Revenue staff, offices, and ledgers followed, and the Expenditure Bureau created a dedicated Ever-Normal desk. The rule of thumb was ten thousand shi per ten thousand households, capped at fifty thousand shi no matter how large the county. Grain unsold after three years was rotated into military stores and replaced with fresh stock. In disaster counties purchase price was capped at one hundred cash per dou. Officials who doubled their purchase quotas would have the excess credited as meritorious service. Tianxi 4 extended Ever-Normal stores to Jinghu, Sichuan gorges, and Guangnan. By year five circuits had bought 183,000 hu and sold 243,000 hu.

景祐中，淮南轉運副使吳遵路言：「本路丁口百五十萬，而常平錢粟才四十餘萬，歲饑不足以救恤。願自經畫增為二百萬，他毋得移用。」許之。後又詔：天下常平錢粟，三司轉運司皆毋得移用。不數年間，常平積有餘而兵食不足，乃命司農寺出常平錢百萬緡助三司給軍費。久之，移用數多，而蓄藏無幾矣。

During the Jingyou era, Huainan vice transport commissioner Wu Zunlu said: "This circuit has one million five hundred thousand adult mouths, yet Ever-Normal money and grain total only four hundred thousand-odd; in famine years that is insufficient for relief. I ask to raise the reserve to two million myself; none other may divert it." The request was granted. A later edict barred both the Three Departments and transport offices from touching Ever-Normal reserves anywhere in the empire. Within years the Ever-Normal coffers swelled even as army rations ran short, so the court released one million strings from the granary funds to feed the troops. Repeated raids soon drained the reserves.

自景祐初畿內饑，詔出常平粟貸中下戶，戶一斛。慶曆中，發京西常平粟振貧民，而聚斂者或增舊價糶粟，欲以市恩；皇祐三年，詔誡之。淮南、兩浙體量安撫陳升之等言：「災傷州軍乞糶常平倉粟，令於元價上量添十文、十五文，殊非恤民之意。」乃詔止於元糴價出糶。五年，詔曰：「比者湖北歲儉，發常平以濟饑者，如聞司農寺復督取，豈朝廷振恤意哉？其悉除之。」

When the capital region famished early in Jingyou, middle and lower households each received one hu on loan from the Ever-Normal stores. During Qingli western-capital grain was opened for the poor, yet some venal officials marked up the sale price to curry favor. Huangyou 3 brought an imperial rebuke. Pacification commissioners Chen Sheng-zhi and others said: "Disaster-stricken prefectures and armies seeking to sell Ever-Normal grain were told to add ten or fifteen cash above the purchase price—utterly contrary to the intent of cherishing the people. An edict ordered sales only at the original purchase price." In the fifth year an edict said: "Recently Hubei had a lean year and Ever-Normal grain was released to aid the hungry; we hear the Ministry of Revenue again pressed for repayment—is this the court's intent to relieve and succor? All such debts are completely remitted."

明道二年，詔議復義倉，不果。景祐中，集賢校理王琪請復置：「令五等已上戶，隨夏秋二稅，二斗別輸一升，水旱減稅則免輸。州縣擇便地置倉貯之，領於轉運使。計以一中郡正稅歲入十萬石，則義倉可得五千石，推而廣之，則利博矣。明道中，饑歉，國家欲盡貸饑民則軍食不足，故民有流轉之患。是時，兼並之家出粟數千石則補吏，是豈以官爵為輕歟？特愛民濟物，不獲已為之爾。且兼並之家占田常廣，則義倉所入常多；中下之家占田常狹，則義倉所入常少。及水旱振濟，則兼並之家未必待此而濟，中下之民實先受其賜矣。」事下有司會議，議者異同而止。慶曆初，琪復上其議，仁宗納之，命天下立義倉，詔上三等戶輸粟，已而復罷。

Mingdao 2 revived debate over Charity Granaries, but nothing came of it. During the Jingyou era, Hanlin collator Wang Qi proposed reviving Charity Granaries: "Let households of the fifth rank and above, with the summer and autumn two taxes, for every two dou separately submit one sheng; when water and drought reduce taxes, submission is exempted. Counties would site stores at convenient locations under transport commissioners. A typical county yielding one hundred thousand shi could stock five thousand—a model that scaled empire-wide would be transformative. In Mingdao famine years the state could not feed both the army and the starving, and refugees filled the roads. Wealthy landlords who donated thousands of shi won petty office—surely they did not scorn rank? They acted from genuine concern for the afflicted, having no other choice. Large landowners held the most fields and would contribute the most; modest farmers held less and would pay less. Yet in disaster the rich needed no relief, while middling and poor families would be saved first. The proposal went to the ministries, where divided counsel killed it. Early in Qingli Wang Qi pressed again; Renzong ordered Charity Granaries empire-wide with levies on the top three household ranks—then cancelled the scheme.

其後賈黯又言：「今天下無事，年穀豐熟，民人安樂，父子相保。一遇水旱，則流離死亡，捐棄道路，發倉廩振之則糧不給，課粟富人則力不贍，轉輸千里則不及事，移民就粟則遠近交困。朝廷之臣，郡縣之吏，倉卒不知所出，則民饑而死者過半矣。願放隋制立民社義倉，詔天下州軍遇年穀豐登，立法勸課蓄積，以備凶災。此所謂『樂歲粒米狼戾，多取之而不為虐』者也，況取之以為民耶？」下其說諸路以度可否，以為可行才四路，餘或謂賦稅之外兩重供輸，或謂恐招盜賊，或謂已有常平足以振給，或謂置倉煩擾。

Later Jia An also said: "Today the realm is without incident, the harvest is abundant, the people are peaceful and joyous, and fathers and sons keep one another safe. One drought turned abundance to corpses on the highways; state granaries could not stretch, levies on the wealthy could not suffice, grain convoyed a thousand li arrived too late, and resettling the hungry only spread misery. When ministers and magistrates panicked without a plan, half the populace could perish. He urged restoring Sui-style communal Charity Granaries, with laws encouraging every prosperous prefecture to save against calamity. As Mencius said, abundance permits levy without cruelty—and here the levy would serve the people themselves. His proposal was sent to the circuits to gauge feasibility; only four deemed it workable; others cited double taxation, fear of bandits, faith in Ever-Normal stores, or administrative burden.

於是黯復上奏曰：「臣嘗判尚書刑部，見天下歲斷死刑多至四千餘人，其間盜賊率十六七，蓋愚民迫於饑寒，因之水旱，枉陷重辟。故臣請復民社義倉，以備凶歲。今諸路所陳，類皆妄議。若謂賦稅之外兩重供輸，則義倉之意，乃教民儲積以備水旱，官為立法，非以自利，行之既久，民必樂輸。若謂恐招盜賊，盜賊利在輕貨，不在粟麥，今鄉村富室有貯粟數萬石者，不聞有劫掠之虞。且盜賊之起，本由貧困。臣建此議，欲使民有貯積，雖遇水旱，不憂乏食，則人人自愛而重犯法，此正消除盜賊之原也。若謂有常平足以振給，則常平之設，蓋以準平穀價，使無甚貴甚賤之傷。或遇凶饑，發以振救，既已失其本意，而費又出公帑，今國用頗乏，所蓄不厚。近歲非無常平，小有水旱，輒流離餓莩，起為盜賊，則是常平果不足仰以振給也。若謂置倉廩，斂材木，恐有煩擾，則今州縣修治郵傳驛舍，皆斂於民，豈於義倉獨畏煩擾？人情可與樂成，不可與謀始，願自朝廷斷而行之。」然當時牽於眾論，終不果行。

Thereupon Jia An again memorialized: "I once served as judge of the Ministry of Justice and saw annual death sentences nationwide often reach more than four thousand; of these robbers comprised sixteen or seventeen in ten—ignorant people pressed by hunger and cold, owing to flood and drought, wrongly fallen into capital punishment. Charity Granaries, he insisted, were the only hedge against such years. The objections from the circuits were mostly spurious. On double taxation: Charity Granaries teach self-reliance against disaster—public law for public good. Given time, people would contribute willingly. On bandits: thieves prefer gold to grain; wealthy villages store tens of thousands of shi without incident. Banditry itself springs from want. Full barns would let men live without crime—the true cure for banditry. Ever-Normal granaries were meant to stabilize prices, not sustain famine relief. Using them for relief perverts their purpose, drains the treasury, and reserves are already thin. Recent minor disasters still produced refugees and bandits—clear proof Ever-Normal stores cannot carry the burden. As for administrative burden, the state constantly conscripted labor for post stations—Charity Granaries deserved no special timidity. People resist new ideas but embrace their fruits—only imperial resolve could break the deadlock. Yet at the time public opinion prevailed, and in the end the plan was not carried out.

嘉祐二年，詔天下置廣惠倉。初，天下沒入戶絕田，官自鬻之。樞密使韓琦請留勿鬻，募人耕，收其租別為倉貯之，以給州縣郭內之老幼貧疾不能自存者，領以提點刑獄，歲終具出內之數上之三司。戶不滿萬，留田租千石，萬戶倍之，戶二萬留三千石，三萬留四千石，四萬留五千石，五萬留六千石，七萬留八千石，十萬留萬石。田有餘，則鬻如舊。四年，詔改隸司農寺，州選官二人主出納，歲十月遣官驗視，應受米者書名於籍。自十一月始，三日一給，人米一升，幼者半之，次年二月止。有餘乃及諸縣，量大小均給之。其大略如此。治平三年，常平入五十萬一千四十八石，出四十七萬一千一百五十七石。

Jiayou 2 mandated Broad Relief granaries nationwide. The state had been selling land forfeited by extinct households. Privy councilor Han Qi asked to keep such land under cultivation, sequestering rent in new stores to feed the aged, sick, and destitute in county seats under judicial intendants, with annual accounting to the Three Departments. Reserves scaled with population: one thousand shi below ten thousand households, doubling at ten thousand, rising to three thousand at twenty thousand, four thousand at thirty thousand, five thousand at forty thousand, six thousand at fifty thousand, eight thousand at seventy thousand, and ten thousand at one hundred thousand. Surplus land was still sold as before. Year four placed the stores under the Ministry of Revenue, with two local officers managing disbursements, autumn inspections, and registered recipients. From November through February each eligible person received one sheng every three days, half rations for children. Any surplus went to surrounding counties in proportion to need. Such were the broad outlines. Zhiping 3 saw Ever-Normal stores take in 501,048 shi and disburse 471,157 shi.

熙寧二年，製置三司條例司言：「諸路常平、廣惠倉錢穀，略計貫石可及千五百萬以上，斂散未得其宜，故為利未博。今欲以見在斛斗，遇貴量減市價糶，遇賤量增市價糴，可通融轉運司苗稅及錢斛就便轉易者，亦許兌換。仍以見錢，依陝西青苗錢例，願預借者給之。隨稅輸納斛斗，半為夏料，半為秋料，內有請本色或納時價貴願納錢者，皆從其便。如遇災傷，許展至次料豐熟日納。非惟足以待凶荒之患，民既受貸，則兼並之家不得乘新陳不接以邀倍息。又常平、廣惠之物，收藏積滯，必待年儉物貴然後出糶，所及者不過城市遊手之人。今通一路有無，貴發賤斂，以廣蓄積，平物價，使農人有以赴時趨事，而兼並不得乘其急。凡此皆以為民，而公家無所利其入，是亦先王散惠興利、以為耕斂補助之意也。欲量諸路錢穀多寡，分遣官提舉，每州選通判幕職官一員，典幹轉移出納，仍先自河北、京東、淮南三路施行，俟有緒推之諸路。其廣惠倉除量留給老疾貧窮人外，餘並用常平倉轉移法。」詔可。

In the second year of Xining the Fiscal Reform Bureau said: "Ever-Normal and Broad Relief granary money and grain of all circuits, roughly totaling strings and shi, could reach more than fifteen million; collection and dispersal did not obtain their proper balance, so benefit was not vast. They proposed using existing stores to sell below market when prices rose and buy above market when they fell, with transport offices allowed to swap tax grain and cash as local conditions required. Cash reserves would also fund advance loans on the Shaanxi Green Sprouts model for any farmer who applied. Repayment would follow the tax schedule in two halves, summer and autumn, with borrowers free to pay in grain or cash depending on market prices. Disaster victims could defer payment until the next harvest. The loans would buffer against famine and keep wealthy landlords from exploiting the lean season with usurious rates. Ever-Normal and Broad Relief grain sat idle until scarcity drove prices up, benefiting only urban speculators. Circulating reserves across each circuit—selling high, buying low—would stabilize prices, keep farmers working through the seasons, and deny landlords their moment of leverage. All of this served the people, not the treasury—true to the sage-kings' ideal of public benefit as support for farming and taxation. Officials would be dispatched to audit reserves and appoint a deputy in each prefecture to manage transfers, piloting the scheme in Hebei, Hebei East, and Huainan before rolling it out empire-wide. Broad Relief stores would keep only enough for the aged, sick, and poor; the rest would follow Ever-Normal circulation rules. An edict approved."

既而條例司又言：「常平、廣惠倉條約，先行於河北、京東、淮南三路，訪問民間多願支貸，乞遍下諸路轉運司施行，當議置提舉官。」時天下常平錢穀見在一千四百萬貫石。詔諸路各置提舉官二員，以朝官為之，管當一員，京官為之，或共置二員，開封府界一員，凡四十一人。

Soon after the Regulations Bureau again said: "Ever-Normal and Broad Relief granary regulations, first implemented in Hebei, Hebei East, and Huainan three circuits—inquiring among the people many wished to receive loans; we beg to send down to all circuits' transport commissions for implementation, and should deliberate establishing overseeing officials. At that time Ever-Normal money and grain currently in store throughout the realm amounted to fourteen million strings and shi." An edict appointed two overseers per circuit—one court official and one capital official, or both roles combined—plus one for the Kaifeng metropolitan district, forty-one in all.

初，神宗既用王安石為參知政事，安石為帝言天下財利所當開闔斂散者，帝然其說，遂創立製置三司條例司。安石因請以著作佐郎編校集賢書箱呂惠卿為製置司檢詳文字，自是專一講求立為新製，欲行青苗之法。蘇轍自大名推官上書，召對，亦除條例司檢詳文字。安石出青苗法示之，轍曰：「以錢貸民，使出息二分，本非為利。然出納之際，吏緣為奸，雖有法不能禁；錢入民手，雖良民不免非理費用；及其納錢，雖富民不免違限。如此則鞭笞必用，州縣多事矣。唐劉晏掌國計，未嘗有所假貸。有尤之者，晏曰：『使民僥幸得錢，非國之福；使吏倚法督責，非民之便。吾雖未嘗假貸，而四方豐凶貴賤，知之未嘗逾時。有賤必糴，有貴必糶，以此四方無甚貴甚賤之病，安用貸為？』晏之言，漢常平法耳，公誠能行之，晏之功可立俟也。」安石自此逾月不言青苗。

Early in Shenzong's reign, after making Wang Anshi vice grand councilor, the emperor accepted Wang's argument that the state must actively manage the flow of national wealth, and established the Fiscal Reform Bureau. Wang then appointed Lü Huiqing as text examiner for the bureau and focused on drafting new institutions, above all the Green Sprouts loan program. Su Zhe, a legal officer at Daming, submitted a memorial, was summoned to court, and likewise joined the bureau as text examiner. Wang showed Su the Green Sprouts draft. Su said, "Lending cash to farmers at two percent interest was never meant to be a profit scheme. But at every point of disbursement and collection clerks would find ways to cheat, and no law could stop them; once cash reached a household, even honest farmers would spend it unwisely; and when repayment came due, even prosperous families would miss their deadlines. The result would be floggings across the countryside and endless trouble for local officials. In Tang times Liu Yan had run national finance without ever making state loans. When criticized, Liu Yan said, "Handing cash to people on easy terms is no blessing for the state; and having clerks enforce repayment by law is no convenience for the people. I never lent, yet I always knew within the hour whether grain was plentiful or scarce, cheap or dear in every quarter of the empire. When prices fell I bought; when they rose I sold—and so the realm never suffered extreme scarcity or glut. What need was there for loans?" That is simply the Han Ever-Normal system. Implement that, and you will match Liu Yan without lending a copper coin." Wang Anshi said nothing more about Green Sprouts for over a month.

會河北轉運司幹當公事王廣廉召議事，廣廉嘗奏乞度僧牒數千道為本錢，於陝西轉運司私行青苗法，春散秋斂，與安石意合。至是，請施行之河北，於是安石決意行之，而常平、廣惠倉之法遂變而為青苗矣。蘇轍以議不合罷。而諸路提舉官往往迎合安石之意，務以多散為功。富民不願取，貧者乃欲得之，即令隨戶等高下品配，又令貧富相兼，十人為保首。王廣廉在河北，一等戶給十五千，等而下之，至五等猶給一千，民間喧然不以為便。廣廉入奏謂民皆歡呼感德，然言不便者甚眾。右正言李常、孫覺乞詔有司毋以強民。時提舉府界常平事侯叔獻屢督提點府界縣鎮呂景散錢，景以畿縣各有屯兵，歲入課利僅能贍給；又民戶嘗貸糧五十餘萬石，尚悉以聞；今條例司又以買陝西鹽鈔錢五十萬緡為青苗錢給散，恐民力不堪。詔送條例司，召提舉司官至中書戒諭之。王安石言：「若此，諸路必顧望，不敢推行新法，第令條例司指揮。」從之。

Then Wang Guanglian of the Hebei transport commission was called in for consultation. He had once sought permission to raise capital by selling thousands of ordination certificates and had quietly run a Green Sprouts program in Shaanxi—loans in spring, collection in autumn—matching Wang Anshi's design. He now asked to extend the scheme to Hebei. Wang Anshi committed fully to it, and the Ever-Normal and Broad Relief granaries became the Green Sprouts program. Su Zhe was removed for dissent. Circuit overseers competed to please Wang by disbursing as much money as possible. Wealthy families refused the loans while poor ones wanted them, so officials graded allotments by household rank and grouped ten households—rich and poor mixed—with one guarantor. In Hebei Wang Guanglian gave fifteen thousand cash to first-rank households, tapering down to one thousand even for fifth-rank families—and the public outcry made clear the scheme was no benefit. Guanglian reported to court that the people cheered in gratitude, though complaints were widespread. Remonstrators Li Chang and Sun Jue asked the throne to forbid officials from forcing loans on unwilling borrowers. Hou Shuxian, overseer of Ever-Normal stores in the capital district, kept pressing Intendant Lü Jing to lend out cash. Jing replied that garrison costs already consumed the counties' entire tax yield; that more than five hundred thousand shi of grain was already on loan to farmers, which he had duly reported; and that the bureau now wanted to add five hundred thousand strings from Shaanxi salt-certificate purchases as Green Sprouts funds—more than the people could possibly repay. The throne referred the matter to the bureau and summoned the overseers to the Secretariat for a reprimand. Wang Anshi objected: "That will make every circuit hang back from implementing reform. Leave direction to the Regulations Bureau alone. The emperor agreed."

三年，判大名府韓琦言：

In the third year of Xining, Han Qi, prefect of Daming, memorialized:

臣準散青苗詔書，務在惠小民，不使兼並乘急以要倍息，而公家無所利其入。今所立條約，乃自鄉戶一等而下皆立借錢貫陌，三等以上更許增借，坊郭戶有物業勝質當者亦依鄉戶例支借。且鄉村上等戶並坊郭有物業者，乃從來兼並之家，今令多借之錢，一千令納一千三百，則是官自放錢取息，與初詔絕相違戾。又條約雖禁抑勒，然須得上戶為甲頭以任之，民愚不慮久遠，請時甚易，納時甚難。故自製下以來，上下惶惑，皆謂若不抑散，則上戶必不願請；近下等第與無業客戶雖或願請，必難催納。將來必有行刑督索，及勒幹係書手、典押、耆戶長同保均陪之患。

The edict on Green Sprouts promised relief for small farmers, protection against usurious landlords, and no profit for the state. The new rules fixed loan quotas for every rural household down to the lowest rank, allowed upper ranks to borrow more, and extended the same terms to wealthy townspeople. Yet those upper rural and urban households were precisely the moneylenders the policy was meant to restrain. Forcing them to borrow at thirty percent interest made the state itself a usurer—in direct violation of the original decree. The rules banned coercion in name, but required well-off guarantors for every loan group. Farmers thought only of the easy cash at borrowing time, not the hard repayment ahead. Since the program began, officials and commoners alike had feared that without compulsion prosperous households would never borrow, while poorer applicants who did want the money would surely default. Sooner or later there would be torture to collect debts, with clerks, jailers, elders, and guarantors all held jointly liable.

去歲河朔豐稔，米斗不過七八十錢，若乘時多斂，俟貴而糶，不唯合古制，無失陷，兼民被實惠，亦足收其羨贏。今諸倉方糴而提舉司已亟止之，意在移此糴本盡為青苗錢，則三分之息可為己功，豈暇更恤斯民久遠之患？若謂陝西嘗行其法，官有所得而民以為便，此乃轉運司因軍儲有闕，適自冬及春雨雪及時，麥苗滋盛，定見成熟，行於一時可也。今乃建官置司，以為每歲常行之法，而取利三分，豈陝西權宜之比哉？兼初詔且於京東、淮南、河北三路試行，俟有緒方推之他路。今三路未集，而遽盡於諸路置使，非陛下憂民、祖宗惠下之意。乞盡罷提舉官，第委提點刑獄官依常平舊法施行。

Last year the north had a bumper harvest—rice at seventy or eighty cash a dou. Buying grain then and selling when prices rose would have honored the ancient Ever-Normal system, protected the harvest, helped the people, and still yielded a surplus for the state. Instead overseers halted grain purchases precisely to redirect those funds into Green Sprouts loans—thirty percent interest counted as their achievement, with no thought for the harm ahead? The Shaanxi pilot succeeded only because military grain stores ran short and timely rains promised a good wheat crop—it was a one-season emergency measure, not a permanent model. To build a permanent bureaucracy around thirty-percent interest was nothing like Shaanxi's temporary expedient? The original edict had limited the trial to Hebei, Hebei East, and Huainan, to expand only after results were in. To appoint overseers empire-wide before the pilot circuits had even reported violates both Your Majesty's care for the people and the spirit of our ancestors' benevolence. I beg you to abolish the overseers and restore the old Ever-Normal system under the judicial intendants.

帝袖出琦奏示執政曰：「琦真忠臣，朕始謂可以利民，不意乃害民如此。且坊郭安得青苗，而使者亦強與之？」安石勃然進曰：「苟從其所欲，雖坊郭何害？」因難琦奏，曰：「陛下修常平法以助民，至於收息，亦周公遺法也。如桑弘羊籠天下貨財以奉人主私用，乃可謂興利之臣；今抑兼並，振貧弱，置官理財，非所以佐私欲，安可謂興利之臣乎？」曾公亮、陳升之皆言坊郭不當俵錢，與安石論難久之而罷。帝終以琦說為疑，安石遂稱疾不出。

The emperor produced Han Qi's memorial for the chief ministers. "Han Qi is a true loyal minister. I thought this policy would help the people. I had no idea it would hurt them like this. Urban wards aren't even supposed to get crop loans—why are envoys forcing money on them?" Wang Anshi flushed and stepped forward. "If they want the money, what harm is there in lending to townspeople?" He refuted Han Qi's arguments. "Your Majesty restores Ever-Normal stores to help the people. Collecting interest is itself a practice handed down from the Duke of Zhou. Sang Hongyang, who monopolized the empire's wealth for the emperor's private purse—that was a 'profit-seeking minister.' Restraining landlords, strengthening the poor, and appointing officials to manage public finance—this serves no private greed. How can you call that profit-seeking?" Zeng Gongliang and Chen Shengzhi both argued that townspeople should not receive allocated loans; they wrangled with Wang Anshi at length before the meeting broke up. The emperor remained troubled by Han Qi's account, and Wang Anshi pleaded illness and stayed home.

帝諭執政罷青苗法，公亮、升之欲即奉詔，趙抃獨欲俟安石出自罷之，連日不決。帝更以為疑，因令呂惠卿諭旨起安石，安石入謝。既視事，志氣愈悍，麵責公亮等，由是持新法益堅。詔以琦奏付製置條例司，條例司疏列琦奏而辨析其不然。琦復上疏曰：

The emperor told the chief ministers to cancel Green Sprouts. Zeng and Chen wanted to obey at once, but Zhao Bian insisted on waiting for Wang Anshi to return—and for days the court could decide nothing. More uncertain than ever, the emperor sent Lü Huiqing to fetch Wang back. Wang appeared at court to thank the throne. Once back at work his temper was fiercer than before. He berated Zeng Gongliang to his face and dug in harder on every reform. The throne referred Han Qi's memorial to the Fiscal Reform Bureau, which issued a point-by-point rebuttal. Han Qi submitted another memorial:

「製置司多刪去臣元奏要語，唯舉大概，用偏辭曲難，及引《周禮》「國服為息」之說，文其謬妄，上以欺罔聖聽，下以愚弄天下。臣竊以為周公立太平之法，必無剝民取利之理，但漢儒解釋或有異同。《周禮》「園廛二十而稅一，唯漆林之征二十而五」，鄭康成乃約此法，謂：「從官貸錢若受園廛之地，貸萬錢者出息五百。」賈公彥廣其說，謂：「如此則近郊十一者，萬錢期出息一千，遠郊二十而三者，萬錢期出息一千五百，甸、稍、縣、都之民，萬錢期出息二千。」如此，則須漆林之戶取貸，方出息二千五百，當時未必如此。今放青苗錢，凡春貸十千，半年之內便令納利二千，秋再放十千，至歲終又令納利二千，則是貸萬錢者，不問遠近，歲令出息四千。《周禮》至遠之地止出息二千，今青苗取息過《周禮》一倍，製置司言比《同禮》取息已不為多，是欺罔聖聽，且謂天下之人不能辨也。

"The bureau stripped my memorial of its essential arguments and answered with selective quotations. It cites the Zhou Rites on "national service as interest" to dress up absurdity—deceiving Your Majesty above and misleading the empire below. The Duke of Zhou's order was for great peace, not suited for stripping the people of profit—though Han commentators may disagree on details. The Zhou Rites taxes garden plots at five percent and lacquer groves at twenty-five percent. Zheng Xuan inferred from this that official loans carried five percent interest on ten thousand cash. Jia Gongyan extended the logic: near suburbs would pay ten percent, distant suburbs fifteen percent, and the outer domains twenty percent on a loan of ten thousand." Even at the highest rate that would mean twenty-five percent—and only for lacquer growers. The Zhou economy almost certainly did not work that way. Green Sprouts lends ten thousand in spring and demands two thousand interest within six months, then lends ten thousand again in autumn and demands another two thousand by year's end—forty percent on ten thousand, everywhere alike. The Zhou Rites cap interest at twenty percent even in the farthest domains. Green Sprouts doubles that—yet the bureau insists its rates are modest by Zhou standards, as if the entire empire were too stupid to tell the difference.

且古今異宜，《周禮》所載有不可施於今者，其事非一。若謂泉府一職今可施行，則製置司何獨舉注疏貸錢取息一事，以詆天下之公言哉？康成又注云：「王莽時貸以治產業者，但計所贏受息，無過歲什一。」公彥疏云：「莽時雖計本多少為定，及其催科，唯所贏多少。假令萬錢歲贏萬錢催一千，贏五千催五百，餘皆據利催什一。」若贏錢更少，則納息更薄，比今青苗取利尤為寬少。而王莽之外，上自兩漢，下及有唐，更不聞有貸錢取利之法。今制置司遇堯、舜之主，不以二帝、三王之道上裨聖政，而貸錢取利更過莽時，此天下不得不指以為非，而老臣不可以不辨也。

Times change. Much of the Zhou Rites cannot be applied today—and this is only one example. If the Treasury Office is truly revivable today, why does the bureau cherry-pick only the passage on loan interest to silence every critic in the empire? Zheng Xuan also notes that under Wang Mang, loans for productive enterprise charged interest only on actual profits, capped at ten percent per year." Jia Gongyan explains that Wang Mang fixed the principal in advance but collected only on what the borrower actually earned. Ten thousand profit meant one thousand interest; five thousand profit meant five hundred—always one-tenth of gains." Smaller profits meant smaller payments—far gentler than Green Sprouts. Apart from Wang Mang, no dynasty from Han through Tang ever codified state lending at interest. Faced with a ruler as wise as Yao and Shun, the bureau offers nothing from the sages' governance but a lending scheme worse than Wang Mang's—an outrage your aging servant must answer.

況今天下田稅已重，固非《周禮》什一之法，更有農具、牛皮、鹽曲、鞋錢之類，凡十餘目，謂之雜錢。每夏秋起納，官中更以綢絹斛斗低估，令民以此雜錢折納。又歲散官鹽與民，謂之蠶鹽，折納絹帛。更有預買、和買綢絹，如此之類，不可悉舉，皆《周禮》田稅什一之外加斂之物，取利已厚，傷農已深，奈何又引《周禮》「國服為息」之說，謂放青苗錢取利乃周公太平已試之法？此則誣汙聖典，蔽惑睿明，老臣得不太息而慟哭也！

Land tax already exceeds the Zhou ideal of one tenth, with more than a dozen miscellaneous levies—farm tools, ox hides, salt yeast, shoe fees, and the rest. Each summer and autumn the government undercounts silk and grain, forcing farmers to make up the gap in miscellaneous cash payments. Each year the state distributes salt—the so-called silkworm salt—payable in silk cloth. Advance purchase and harmonized purchase of silk add yet more—I cannot name them all. These burdens already far exceed the Zhou tithe and already crush the farmer. How dare the bureau invoke Zhou Rites to claim Green Sprouts interest is the Duke of Zhou's own proven method? This defiles the classics and obscures your sagacity—I can only sigh and weep in grief!

製置司又謂常平舊法亦糶與坊郭之人。坊郭有物力戶未嘗零糴常平倉斛斗，此蓋欲多借錢與坊郭有業之人，以望收利之多，妄稱《周禮》以為無都邑鄙野之限，以文其曲說，唯陛下詳之。」

The bureau claims the old Ever-Normal system also sold grain to townspeople. Property-owning townspeople never bought grain by the bowl from Ever-Normal stores—the bureau only wants to lend them more cash for more interest and invents a Zhou Rites excuse to erase the difference between town and country. I beg Your Majesty to judge for yourself."

樞密使文彥博亦數言不便，帝曰：「吾遣二中使親問民間，皆云甚便。」彥博曰：「韓琦三朝宰相，不信，而信二宦者乎？」先是，王安石陰結入內副都知張若水、押班藍元震，帝因使二人潛察府界俵錢事，還言民皆情願，無抑配者，故帝益信之。初，群臣進讀邇英畢，帝問：「朝廷每更一事，舉朝洶洶，何也？」司馬光曰：「青苗出息，平民為之，尚能以蠶食下戶至饑寒流離，況縣官法度之威乎？」呂惠卿曰：「青苗法願則取之，不願不強也。」光曰：「愚民知取債之利，不知還債之害，非獨縣官不強，富民亦不強也。」帝曰：「陝西行之久，民不以為病。」光曰：「臣陝西人也，見其病不見其利。朝廷初不許，有司尚能以病民，況法許之乎！」及拜官樞密副使，光上章力辭至六七，曰：「帝誠能罷製置條例司，追還提舉官，不行青苗、助役等法，雖不用臣，臣受賜多矣。不然，終不敢受命。」竟出知永興軍。

Military Affairs Commissioner Wen Yanbo also protested repeatedly. The emperor said, "I sent two palace envoys to ask the people themselves. They report universal satisfaction. Wen replied, "Han Qi served three reigns as grand councilor—and you trust two eunuchs instead?" Wang Anshi had privately cultivated Inner Deputy Director Zhang Ruoshui and Duty Shift Leader Lan Yuanzhen. The emperor sent them to inspect capital-district lending. They returned reporting willing borrowers and no coercion—and the emperor's faith in the program only grew. After a lecture session at the Zhiying Hall, the emperor asked, "Why is the entire court in uproar every time we change a policy? Sima Guang said, "Private lenders already gnaw away at poor households until families starve and scatter. What will happen when county officials enforce the law?" Lü Huiqing said, "Green Sprouts is voluntary—no one is forced to borrow." Sima Guang said, "People see the benefit of borrowing but not the pain of repayment. Rich lenders do not have to force anyone either—the poor beg for the money." The emperor said, "Shaanxi has run it for years without complaint." Sima Guang said, "I am from Shaanxi. I saw the harm, not the benefit. Officials abused the people even when the law forbade it—what will they do once it is legal!" When offered the vice commissionership of military affairs, Sima Guang refused six or seven times, writing: "If Your Majesty abolishes the Fiscal Reform Bureau, recalls the overseers, and cancels Green Sprouts and corvée substitution, I need no office—I will still owe you a debt of gratitude. Otherwise I dare not accept the appointment." In the end he was posted as prefect of Yongxing.

當是時，爭青苗錢者甚眾，翰林學士範鎮言：「陛下初詔雲公家無所利其入，今提舉司以戶等給錢，皆令出三分之息，物議紛紜，皆云自古未有天子開課場者。民雖至愚，不可不畏。」後以言不行致仕。台諫官呂公著、孫覺、李常、張戩、程顥等皆以論青苗罷黜。知亳州富弼、知青州歐陽修繼韓琦論青苗之害，且持之不行，亦坐移鎮。知陳留縣薑潛之官才數月，青苗令下，潛即榜於縣門，又移之鄉村，各三日無人至，遂撤榜付吏曰：「民不願矣！」府、寺疑潛壅令，使其屬按驗，無違令者。潛知不免，即移疾去。

Opposition was widespread. Hanlin Academician Fan Zhen said, "Your first edict promised the state would take no profit. Now overseers lend by household rank at thirty percent interest. Public chatter says no emperor since antiquity ever ran a pawnshop for the throne. However simple the people may seem, they are not to be underestimated. When his advice went unheeded he retired from office. Censorial officials Lü Gongzhu, Sun Jue, Li Chang, Zhang Zhan, Cheng Hao, and others were all removed for opposing Green Sprouts. Fu Bi of Bozhou and Ouyang Xiu of Qingzhou followed Han Qi in denouncing Green Sprouts and refusing to enforce it—they too were transferred. Jiang Qian had been magistrate of Chenliu only a few months when the Green Sprouts order arrived. He posted notices at the county gate and in every village. After three days at each site with no applicants, he took the notices down and told his clerks, "The people do not want these loans! The prefectural and judicial commissioners suspected Jiang of blocking the policy and sent investigators—but found no violation of the order. Knowing punishment was inevitable, Jiang Qian at once claimed illness and left office.

知山陰縣陳舜俞不肯奉行，移狀自劾曰：「方今小民匱乏，願貸之人往往有之。譬如孺子見飴蜜，孰不染指爭食？然父母疾止之，恐其積甘足以生病。故耆老戒其鄉黨，父兄誨其子弟，未嘗不以貸貰為不善治生。今乃官自出舉，誘以便利，督以威刑，非王道之舉也。況正月放夏料，五月放秋料，而所斂亦在當月，百姓得錢便出息輸納，實無所利。是使民一取青苗錢，終身以及世世一歲嘗兩輸息錢，乃別為一賦以弊生民也。」坐謫南康軍鹽酒稅。陝西轉運副使陳繹止環、慶等六州毋散青苗錢，且留常平倉物以備用，條例司劾其罪，詔釋之。五月，製置三司條例司罷歸中書，以常平新法付司農寺，命集賢校理呂惠卿同判寺，兼領田役水利。七年，帝患俵常平官吏多違法，王安石請縣專置一主簿，主給納役錢及常平，不過五百員，費錢三十萬貫耳。從之。

Chen Shunyu, magistrate of Shanyin County, refused to enforce the policy and submitted a self-impeachment memorial: 「The common people are now in dire want, and many would gladly take a loan. It is like children spying sweets—who would not reach out and fight to taste them? Yet parents quickly forbid it, lest the accumulating sweetness make them sick. Elders warn their neighbors, fathers and elder brothers teach their sons, always calling borrowing a sign of bad household management. Now the state itself lends money, luring people with convenience and driving them with harsh penalties—this is no kingly way to govern. Worse, the summer tranche is disbursed in the first month and the autumn tranche in the fifth, yet repayment is due the same month; peasants get the cash only to pay interest at once, gaining nothing in fact. One Green Sprouts loan binds a household for life—and generations after—for a year in which interest is paid twice; it becomes a separate tax that ruins the people. For this he was banished to supervise the salt-and-wine tax at Nankang Circuit. Chen Ze, deputy transport commissioner for Shaanxi, barred six prefectures including Huan and Qing from issuing Green Sprouts loans and kept Ever-Normal stores in reserve. The Legislation Commission charged him, but an edict pardoned him. In the fifth month the Fiscal Reform Commission was dissolved and restored to the Secretariat. Ever-Normal reforms passed to the Ministry of Revenues, with Lü Huiqing as its concurrent chief, also supervising field corvée and waterworks. In the seventh year the emperor grew troubled that Ever-Normal officers frequently broke the law. Wang Anshi proposed a dedicated registrar in each county for corvée and Ever-Normal duties—at most five hundred posts, for just three hundred thousand strings. The emperor agreed.

帝以久旱為憂，翰林學士承旨韓維言：「畿縣近督青苗甚急，往往鞭撻取足，民至伐桑為薪以易錢。旱災之際，重罹此苦。」帝頗感悟。太皇太后亦嘗為帝言：「聞民間甚苦青田、助役錢，盍罷之！」會百姓流離，帝憂見顏色，益疑新法不便，欲罷之。安石不悅，屢求去，四月，出知江寧府。然安石薦韓絳代相，仍以呂惠卿佐之，於安石所為遵守不變。既而詔諸路常平錢穀常留一半外，方得給散。兩經倚閣常平錢人戶，不得支借。民間非時闕乏，許以物產為抵，依常平限輸納。當輸錢而願輸穀若金帛者，官立中價示民。物不盡其錢，足以錢；錢不盡其物者，還其餘直。又聽民以金帛易穀，而有司少加金帛之直。六年，戶部言：「準詔諸路常平可酌三年斂散中數，取一年為格，歲終較其增虧。今以錢銀穀帛貫、石、匹、兩定年額：散一千一百三萬七千七百七十二，斂一千三百九十六萬五千四百五十九。比元豐三年散增二百一十四萬八千三百四十二，斂增一百三萬四千九百六十三；四年散增二百七十九萬九千九百六十四，斂虧一百九十八萬六千五百一十五。」詔三年四年散多斂少及散斂俱少之處，戶部下提舉司具析以聞。

Anxious about the long drought, Han Wei, Chancellor of the Hanlin Academy, said: 「Around the capital, Green Sprouts collection has grown fierce—officials whip people to fill quotas; peasants are felling mulberries for firewood just to raise the cash. At the height of drought, they must endure this torment on top of famine. The emperor was deeply shaken. The Grand Empress Dowager also told the emperor: 「I hear the people are crushed by Green Sprouts and corvée-assistance payments—why not end them! As refugees streamed across the land, grief filled the emperor's face. He came to doubt the new laws and wanted them abolished. Wang Anshi, displeased, repeatedly asked to resign. In the fourth month he was posted prefect of Jiangning. Before leaving, Wang Anshi recommended Han Jiang as chancellor and kept Lü Huiqing as his aide; Wang's policies went on unchanged. An edict then required every circuit to keep half its Ever-Normal stores on hand before any disbursement. Households that had twice deferred repayment were barred from new loans. When peasants faced seasonal shortages, they could pledge crops as collateral and repay on the Ever-Normal schedule. Those who owed cash but preferred grain or cloth could pay at official fair rates. If pledged goods fell short, cash covered the remainder. If cash fell short of the goods' value, the surplus was refunded. Peasants could also trade silk or gold for grain, though officials added a small premium on the metal and cloth. In the sixth year the Ministry of Revenue reported: 「As ordered, each circuit should set Ever-Normal quotas from the three-year median of lending and collection, then at year's end report gains and losses. Annual targets were set—in strings, piculs, bolts, and ounces: disbursements of 11,037,772; collections of 13,965,459. Disbursements rose 2,148,342 over the third year of Yuanfeng; collections rose 1,034,963; In year four disbursements rose 2,799,964, while collections fell short by 1,986,515. Circuits where lending outpaced collection—or both lagged—in those years were ordered to file detailed explanations with the Ministry.

十年，詔開封府界先自豐稔畿縣立義倉法。明年，提點府界諸縣鎮公事蔡承禧言：「義倉之法，以二石而輸一斗，至為輕矣。乞今年夏稅之始，悉令舉行。」詔可，仍以義倉隸提舉司。京東西、淮南、河東、陝西路義倉以今年秋料為始，民輸稅不及鬥免輸，頒其法於川峽四路。元豐二年，詔威、茂、黎三州罷行義倉法，以夷夏雜居，歲賦不多故也。八年，並罷諸路義倉。

In the tenth year the court first instituted charity granaries in the capital region, starting with the most fertile metropolitan counties. The next year Cai Chenxi, overseer of the capital counties, said: 「The charity levy—one peck per two piculs—is already modest enough. I ask that it take full effect with this summer's tax collection. The court agreed and placed charity granaries under the supervising offices. In the eastern capital, Huainan, Hedong, and Shaanxi circuits, charity granaries began with the autumn tax; those owing less than a peck were exempt. The rule was extended to the four Sichuan circuits. In the second year of Yuanfeng three frontier prefectures—Wei, Mao, and Li—were exempted, as Han and non-Han lived side by side and yields were too low. In the eighth year charity granaries were abolished throughout the empire.

元祐元年，詔：「提舉官累年積蓄錢穀財物，盡樁作常平錢物，委提點刑獄交管，依舊常平倉法行之。罷各縣專置主簿。」四月，再立常平錢穀給斂出息之法，限二月或正月以散及一半為額，民間絲麥豐熟，隨夏稅先納所輸之半，願伴納者止出息一分。左司諫王岩叟、監察御史上官均、右正言王覿、右司諫蘇轍、御史中丞劉摯交章論復行青苗之非。八月，司馬光奏：「先朝散青苗，本為利民，並取情願。後提舉官速要見功，務求多散，或舉縣追呼，或排門抄紥；亦有無賴子弟謾昧尊長，錢不入家；亦有他人冒名詐請，莫知為誰，及至追催，皆歸本戶。今朝廷深知其弊，故悉罷提舉官，不復立額考校，訪聞人情安便。欲下諸路提點刑獄，申嚴州縣抑配之禁。」詔從之。

In Yuanyou 1 an edict ordered that funds hoarded by supervising officers be reclassified as Ever-Normal stores, placed under judicial intendants, and run under the old Ever-Normal rules. Dedicated county registrars were abolished. In the fourth month Ever-Normal lending with interest was revived, capped at half quota disbursed in January or February. Where wheat and silk flourished, half could be prepaid with the summer tax; voluntary borrowers owed only one percent interest. Wang Yansou, Shangguan Jun, Wang Di, Su Che, and Censor-in-Chief Liu Zhi jointly memorialized against reviving Green Sprouts. In the eighth month Sima Guang wrote: 「The previous dynasty meant Green Sprouts to help the people and relied on voluntary uptake. Supervisors then rushed for credit and pushed ever more loans—calling whole counties to account or going door to door; Worthless sons tricked their elders and kept the cash; Strangers borrowed under false names, and when collectors came, the debt always landed on the registered household. The court now knows these abuses well, which is why it abolished supervisors and quota audits—and I hear the people breathe easier. I propose ordering judicial intendants on every circuit to enforce the ban on forced allocation. The court agreed.

中書舍人蘇軾不書錄黃，奏曰：「熙寧之法，未嘗不禁抑配，而其害至此。民家量入為出，雖貧亦足，若令分外得錢，則費用自廣。況子弟欺謾父兄，人戶冒名詐請，似此本非抑配。臣謂以散及一半為額，與熙寧無異。今許人願請，未免設法罔民，使快一時非理之用，而不慮後日催納之患。二者皆非良法，相去無幾。今已行常平糶糴之法，惠民之外，官亦稍利，何用二分之息，以賈無窮之怨？」於是王岩叟、蘇轍、朱光庭、王覿等復言：「臣等屢有封事，乞罷青苗，皆不蒙付外。願盡付三省，公議得失。」初，同知樞密院範純仁以國用不足，建請復散青苗錢，四月之詔，蓋純仁意也。時司馬光以疾在告，已而台諫皆言其非，不報。光尋奏乞約束州縣抑配，蘇軾又繳奏，乞盡罷之。光始大悟，遂力疾入對。尋詔：「常平錢穀，止令州縣依舊法趁時糴糶，青苗錢更不支俵。除舊欠二分之息，元支本錢驗見欠多少，分料次隨二稅輸納。」

Su Shi, a Secretariat drafter, refused to endorse the edict and wrote: 「Even Xining's laws banned forced allocation—and still the damage was this great. Families live within their means; even the poor get by. Give them extra cash and spending swells of its own accord. When sons deceive fathers or loans are taken under false names, that hardly looks like forced allocation—but it is the same harm. Capping disbursement at half the quota differs not at all from Xining policy. Calling it voluntary still means trapping people—indulgence today without heed for collection tomorrow. Neither approach is sound; they differ little. Ever-Normal grain sales already help the people and bring the state modest profit—why court endless hatred for two percent interest? Wang Yansou, Su Che, Zhu Guangting, Wang Di, and others protested again: 「We have repeatedly asked to abolish Green Sprouts, yet the court never forwarded our memorials. Send them to the Three Departments and debate the matter openly. Earlier, Fan Chunren of the Bureau of Military Affairs, citing empty coffers, had urged reviving Green Sprouts—the April edict was largely his doing. Sima Guang was then on sick leave. When censors and remonstrators objected, the court answered nothing. Sima Guang soon urged tighter limits on forced allocation; Su Shi submitted another memorial demanding full abolition. Sima Guang finally saw the truth and dragged himself from sickbed to face the throne. Soon an edict ordered counties to buy and sell Ever-Normal grain in season as before and to stop all Green Sprouts disbursements. Waive outstanding two-percent interest; verify remaining principal and collect it in installments with the regular taxes.」

宣和五年，令州縣歲散常平錢穀畢，即揭示請人名數，逾月斂之，庶革偽冒之弊。先是，諸路災傷，截撥上供年額米斛數多，致闕中都歲計，令京東、江南、兩浙、荊湖路義倉穀各留三分，餘並起發赴京，補還截撥之數。六年，詔罷之。

In Xuanhe 5 counties were told to post all borrowers' names after annual disbursement and collect after one month, to curb fraud. After disasters had drained tribute grain and left the capital short, the court ordered charity granaries in the east, Jiangnan, two Zhes, and Jinghu to keep thirty percent locally and send the rest to the capital to make up diverted tribute. In the sixth year the order was revoked.

孝宗隆興二年，遣司農少卿陳良弼點檢浙東常平等倉。乾道六年，知衢州胡堅奏廣糴常平。福建轉運副使沈樞奏，水旱州郡請留轉運司和糴米以續常平，上即為之施行。八年，戶部侍郎楊倓奏：「義倉在法夏秋正稅鬥輸五合，不及鬥者免輸，凡豐熟縣九分以上即輸一升。令諸路州縣歲收苗米六百餘萬石，其合收義倉米數不少，間有災傷，支給不多。訪聞諸州軍皆擅用，請稽之。」

In Longxing 2 (1164) Chen Liangbi, vice minister of revenues, was dispatched to inspect Ever-Normal granaries in eastern Zhejiang. In Qiandao 6 the prefect of Quzhou, Hu Jian, asked to expand Ever-Normal grain purchases. Shen Shu, Fujian's deputy transport commissioner, asked drought-stricken prefectures to keep coordinated-purchase grain for Ever-Normal reserves; the emperor approved at once. In year 8 Vice Minister Yang Tan reported: 「Charity granaries legally levy five sheng per peck of summer and autumn tax; those owing less than a peck are exempt; in fertile counties the rate rises to one sheng per nine-tenths or more. Circuits collect over six million piculs of tax rice yearly—charity reserves should be substantial—yet when disaster strikes, payouts are meager. I hear prefectures spend it freely—please investigate.」

寶慶三年，侍御史李知孝言：「郡縣素無蓄積，緩急止仰朝廷，非立法本意。曩淮東總領岳珂任江東轉運判官，以所積經常錢糴米五萬石，樁留江東九郡，以時濟、糶，諸郡皆蒙其利。其後史彌忠知饒州，趙彥悈知廣德軍，皆自積錢糴米五千石。以是推之，監司、州郡苟能節用愛民，即有贏羨。若立之規繩，加以黜陟，所糴至萬石者旌擢，其不收糴與擾民及不實者鐫罰，庶幾郡縣趨事，蓄積歲增，實為經久之利。」有旨從之。

In Baoqing 3 Censor Li Zhixiao said: 「Local governments keep no reserves and lean on the court in crisis—that was never the law's purpose. When Yue Ke was Jiangdong transport vice commissioner, he bought fifty thousand piculs with surplus funds and stored them across nine prefectures, selling and lending grain as needed—all benefited. Later Shi Mizhong in Raozhou and Zhao Yanjie in Guangde each bought five thousand piculs from local savings. From this it follows that thrift and care for the people will yield surpluses at every level. Set rules with rewards and punishments—promote those who stock ten thousand piculs, penalize those who hoard, harass, or falsify records—and counties will build reserves year by year for lasting benefit. The throne agreed.

景定元年九月，赦曰：「諸路已糶義米價錢，州郡以低價抑令上戶補糴，正稅逃閣，義米用虧，常平司責縣道陪納，縣道遂敷吏貼、保正長、攬戶等人均納。自今視時收糴，見係吏貼等人陪納之錢並與除放。」五年，監察御史程元嶽奏：「隨粳帶義，法也。今粳糯帶義之外，又有所謂外義焉者，絹、綢、豆也，豈有絹、綢、豆而可加之義乎？縱使違法加義，則絹加絹，綢加綢，豆加豆，猶可言也；州縣一意椎剝，一切理苗而加一分之義，甚者赦恩已蠲二稅，義米依舊追索。貧民下戶所欠不過升合，星火追呼，費用不知幾百倍。破家蕩產，鬻妻子，怨嗟之聲，有不忍聞。望嚴督監司，止許以粳帶義，其餘盡罷。其有循習病民者重其罰。」從之。咸淳二年，以諸路景定三年以前常平義倉米二百餘萬石，減時直糶之。

A Jingding 1 (1260) amnesty condemned a common abuse: after charity rice was sold for cash, prefectures forced wealthy households to buy grain at low prices to refill stores. Tax evasion left charity stocks empty; Ever-Normal offices held counties liable, and counties spread the cost across clerks, ward chiefs, and tax brokers. Henceforth purchase grain in season, and remit all outstanding replacement payments owed by clerks and others.」 In year 5 Censor Cheng Yuanyue wrote: 「The law ties the charity levy to hulled rice alone. Yet beyond rice, officials impose so-called outer charity on silk, satin, and beans—how can charity attach to cloth and legumes? Even illegal surcharges should at least match the commodity—silk on silk, beans on beans; But counties squeeze every tax item with a ten-percent charity markup—and even after amnesties wipe the two main levies, charity rice is still collected. The poor owed mere handfuls of grain, yet urgent collection cost them hundreds of times more. Families were ruined, wives and children sold—the cries of despair were unbearable. I urge strict oversight: charity levy on hulled rice only—all other surcharges abolished. Punish harshly any official who persists in these abuses. The court agreed. In Xianchun 2 more than two million piculs of Ever-Normal and charity rice hoarded since before Jingding 3 were sold at reduced market prices empire-wide.

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