After ending the brutal rule at the end of Qin Dynasty and the eight-year war, Liu Bang finally ascended the throne of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty and established a new unified feudal empire-Han.
At the beginning of Liu Bang's accession to the throne, the whole society was in ruins, and even there was a scene of no one in thousands of miles. The population of the whole country has dropped sharply, the economy is depressed, prices are rising and people are living in poverty. According to historical records, the number of people who died in war and famine exceeded half of the country's total population. "Most of the famous cities are scattered, and there are twelve or three accounts." This shows the degree of social decline. The country is vast and sparsely populated, the countryside is barren, social production has been seriously damaged, material wealth has dried up, and there are miserable scenes of depression everywhere.
As far as grain prices are concerned, the price per stone meter in the Warring States Period was about 3 yuan. At the end of Qin Shihuang's reign, due to excessive corvee, exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees, there was a shortage of food in the world, and the price of rice per stone rose to about 1600 yuan, and the food price rose by more than 500 times! Due to the shortage of food, the supply of grain and grass for the army has also become a thorny issue.
As early as the Battle of Julu, Xiang Yu's army could not get enough food supply. Xiang Yu loudly rebuked Yi Song, the leader of the Rebel Army, for "being hungry for food, the people are in poverty, and the army is out of food", but Yi Song was still drinking and having fun, and Xiang Yu killed him in a rage. After several years of Chu-Han war, production was further damaged, food was scarce, and rice prices soared. Even in the rich Guanzhong area, the price of rice has risen to 10 thousand yuan per stone, and the working people have no money to buy rice. There is even a tragedy that "people eat people and more than half of them die".
After Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang proclaimed himself emperor, the military struggles in various places decreased one after another and the society became more and more stable. However, production cannot be achieved overnight, and the country is still in famine. "It is worth 10,000 yuan per hour, and the horse is worth 100 yuan." The national treasury is empty, people's homes are surrounded by walls, and everything is poor. People everywhere are displaced, hungry and cold, and people live in extreme poverty. Even the living standards of rulers can't be compared with those of past dynasties, so that "the emperor should not be arrogant and must take an ox cart", which means that the emperor can't find four horses with the same color when traveling, so he has to find horses with similar colors instead; Some ministers went to court and couldn't find a horse, so they had to take an ox cart.
Therefore, with the assistance of Prime Minister Xiao He and others, Liu Bang immediately began to adjust various social systems. In addition to inheriting most of the systems of the Qin Dynasty, it also learned the experience and lessons from the demise of the Qin Dynasty. Different from the cruel criminal law and strict thoughts of governing the country in Qin Dynasty, the guiding ideology of governing the country in Han Dynasty is Huang Lao's thought of doing nothing, which is embodied in the economic aspect, that is, attaching importance to agriculture, restraining commerce and saving taxes to recuperate. To this end, Liu Bang issued a series of imperial edicts that were conducive to resuming production and developing social economy.
Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD)