The establishment of the ancient social security system in China was initiated by many input subjects through various channels: First, the government behavior, that is, the government provided the minimum social life security for the members of the socially disadvantaged groups. For example, the "Twelve Policies for Famine" mentioned by Zhou Li is the relief measures taken by the government in response to sudden disasters. Since Geng Shouchang in Han Dynasty established the one-meter system of changcang and Yicang in Sui Dynasty, all previous governments have presided over the social relief project of "stabilizing food prices and relieving famine" under changcang, while Yicang, which was presided over by the people under the supervision of the government, directly assumed the responsibility of local relief. After the Song Dynasty, salt, tea and other important materials joined the warehouse operation, and the operating capital increased. A considerable part of the benefits have been transferred to some social relief and old-age care undertakings, such as nursing homes, charity bureaus and leaked Yuan Ze, and even other government agencies that are not responsible for social relief have joined the charity ranks. For example, the "Huzhou Baby Bureau Zengtian Ji" said that "the discussion starts from the school official, and the rice is taken from the square meter, and the law is mainly based on Cao. He Menggui's "The Story of Luling Raising Economy and Buying Land" is about opening a celebration and rejuvenating the army. Square meters "is not as good as raising the economy", and Facao maintained the normal operation of the nursing home through Liao's lawsuit "I want to pay for my sins and buy farmland"; Second, since Buddhism was introduced into China, various charities organized by monasteries. For example, the sad field hospital set up in the temple in the Tang Dynasty took special care of those old and helpless people, giving porridge when they were hungry, medicine when they were sick, and burying them when they died. The "hospital" separated from these charitable functions of Sada Hospital is to treat the sick among the victims collectively, so the "hospital" is also the earliest free clinic in China. The government's flawed Yuan Ze system is a direct imitation of the charity funeral in Sada Garden. In the Song Dynasty, Liu Zai's "Yixing Leaks Yuan Ze" tells the origin of Yuan Ze. " Those who can't be buried because they are poor will return far away, and the ancestral float method comes from this. "Cheng? According to the Record of Establishing a Nursing Home in Jishui County, before the establishment of a nursing home in Jishui County, "loneliness, loneliness, old people, and disease rate? Fautu family. "The ancient Buddhist temples in China undertook some good deeds to help the poor, the sick and the weak, which is one of the important reasons why Buddhism has long been snuggled up and recognized by scholars and customs. Third, scattered in various families' sacrificial sites, clan sites, wedding sites, Yizhuang, Yitian, Yishu and Gongshizhuang, under the banner of "respecting one's own clan", family members are given relief when they encounter difficulties such as childbirth, schooling, poverty, illness, marriage and funeral. Since Fan Zhongyan founded Yitian in the Northern Song Dynasty, various ways to ensure social relief within the clan actually decomposed the survival risks of many social members and alleviated the class contradictions in the later feudal society in a certain sense. Praise for it can be seen everywhere in local chronicles, genealogy and literati essays. Fourthly, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the development of commodity economy and the increasing influence of businessmen, businessmen began to consciously join the ranks of donating social charity, which played an extremely important role in the establishment and improvement of the ancient social security system in China. Some of them served the society through the above three channels, and some independently carried out charity construction with their careers as a link, covering almost all aspects that could be touched by the social security level at that time.

Although the social security in ancient China was generally at a low level due to the limitation of productivity, its coverage was comprehensive and basically covered the main contents of modern social security.

One is to abandon the baby and raise it. Forced by livelihood, parents were unable to raise their children or even abandoned them, which was very common in ancient times. Since the establishment of the Ener Bureau and the Baby Bureau in the Song Dynasty, the history of setting up all-baby halls and nursery halls has been endless. In Qing Dynasty, Yong Zhengdi wrote "The Inscription of Nursery", demanding to improve the rules and regulations of Guangqumen Nursery, calling on scholars to "donate money to do good deeds" and promote it to the whole country, and severely punishing local officials to do a good job in raising abandoned babies so as not to fall into the ravine. The beauty of its good law was formed at the beginning of its creation. For example, it is stipulated in the Record of Increasing Fields of Huzhou Infant Bureau quoted earlier: firstly, Facao "really abandoned his son in books", and then "breast-fed, giving him a millet every month", in addition, "choose five mothers, grow more breasts and feed them one by one." It also provides for raising 80 abandoned babies and corresponding subsidies. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, local officials should carefully inquire about the location of the establishment of the good church and check the registration list and the real number. This is clearly recorded in the compilation of local chronicles, geography and taxation.

The second is poverty alleviation. Imperial examination is the main way to select talents in ancient China, and it is also the life blessing that scholars dream of. However, there are not a few outstanding people who dropped out of school because of poor family circumstances. How to help these poor students is a matter of great concern to the government and society. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the government provided public property income such as studying fields and burning fields as food security. Yixue, Gong's Village, Xixian Village and Qingyun Village, which were established in the local and clan, relieved the worries of poor children in the local or clan to finish their studies. In the preface to the Charter of Wan Gui Hui written for friends, the town felt that its growth had been greatly helped by the villagers. Therefore, "every time he helps an official, he will give 200 thousand" as a "righteous act", "which shows that he does not forget his roots." Later, Yao Mian's "Wuning Shi Tian Xi Xian Zhuang Ji" pointed out that the Tiandelun brothers in Wuning advocated the construction of Xi Xian Zhuang on the basis of Muzhen Xiu De's "righteousness". Essays on Gong's Village in Luling and Jishui Counties written by Ouyang Shoudao and Wen Tianxiang highly affirmed their positive contributions in helping the poor and revitalizing Luling culture. Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in the prosperous Luling cultural camp, it was no accident that poor children had great Confucian officials, and they often benefited from this charity.

The third is the treatment of poverty. It is the same experience for the poor to have no money to treat diseases. How the government and all walks of life help these poor patients is really inspired by the charity of Buddhist temples. Since the government of the Northern Song Dynasty vigorously established the charity of free clinic, free clinic became a common practice in the Southern Song Dynasty and was encouraged as an important good governance of local officials. For example, Gauss's "Qian Yiji, a new pharmacy created by Jiangdong People's Congress representatives for punishment" "Donate companies and save millions to open pharmacies. There are 50 products for people who are in urgent need, and those who are ill and salty have to go to the hospital and take medicine to return them. " Wu Yuan's Ji Min Yao Drama praised Liesheng's virtue of "attaching importance to human life". In view of the fact that "Guanghui Bureau was set up in counties and counties in modern times to facilitate the people to take the bait", Zhejiang sentenced him to buy 35 houses in Suzhou and set up Ji Min Yao Opera to help prevent and control the spring epidemic. In the Yuan Dynasty, Tang Mi-chang's "Notes on the New Huimin Pharmacy on Pingjiang Road" mentioned that the central government asked local governments to "set up Huimin pharmacies, which were distributed in the drug market with money paid by officials, and their interest was collected every month for capital preparation".

The fourth is to provide for the aged and die well. Providing for the aged is the end of everyone's life, but there are always some people who are lonely and helpless because of their respective misfortunes. Since the establishment of Anjifang and Louze Garden in Changpingcang during the Chongning period in the Northern Song Dynasty, nursing homes, residential nursing homes and Anji homes for the purpose of supporting the elderly have been established one after another. For example, Liu Zai's "Zhou Zhen 'an Nursing Home" in the Southern Song Dynasty pointed out: "The nursing home is far from the old, the weak and the sick!" Previously, Zhu's "Jiangxi Yunsi Nursing Home" mentioned that there are several nursing homes outside Yanqing and Chonghe in Nanchang, which specially accommodate the elderly. Similar good churches have sprung up all over the country, so that Janice's "Glorious Ji Fang" marveled that "poor cities still have so-called shelters and help places". After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, although there have been generations of ups and downs, the charitable behavior of the good church with nourishing hospitals as its core is still intact. In the Ming Dynasty, Aoying's "Redundant Words in the East Valley" recorded: "I set up a nursing home to support the widowed people and left without saying goodbye; Huimin pharmacy helps the poor through illness; Leaky Zeyuan buried the dead without a master; The class keeps the order and accumulates the valley, and the temple is the most helpful for the hungry in the fierce year. " At the same time, Yizhuang and Yitian in the family regularly pay maintenance expenses to the widowed elderly, so that they will not live outside begging, effectively supplementing the lack of government pension facilities and even becoming the most powerful social foundation for old-age security.

The fifth is mourning and compassionate burial. China's traditional culture is full of the concepts of benevolence, righteousness and morality. Caring for others after death is the ideal for the ruling class to seek social stability since Mencius called for "benevolent government". During the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the government advocated the construction of leaky gardens to show the virtue of benevolent government, and finally turned kindness into reality, which was later customized. With the introduction of Buddhism, the charitable way of folk compassionate burial has already been quietly implemented. The government's leadership has aroused the concern of the whole society. Since then, Zhong Yi, Yigan and Louze Gardens donated by the people have spread all over the country, which has greatly promoted the development of this charity. For example, in Yuan Dynasty, Gong Shitai's Qian Yi Ji lamented: "Anyone who is lonely, poor and helpless and travels far away without returning will be buried." In the Ming Dynasty, Lin's "New Creation in Fuzhou" praised the lofty benevolence and righteousness of an monk, and deeply realized that "keeping in good health and dying without regret" is good for the dead, but not good for the living!

Sixth, unemployment benefits. It was established with the initial formation of commercial society and unemployment risk. In order to avoid all kinds of survival risks, including unemployment, businessmen actively build a more perfect security system. For example, the mutual assistance and relief of friends in the same trade agreed in the inscription of Suzhou, a place where people stayed up all night in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, is actually another kind of security system different from the family blood security system, that is, social security with industry as the link, which has added the important content of unemployment relief. Another example is Daoguang's regulations on going to Yizhuang, Jiangxi: Yizhuang, Jiangxi was established in Foshan by Jiangxi merchants during the Qianlong period, and it was a guarantee system for merchants' donations. For Jiangxi businessmen living in Nanyue, those who are sick are given medical treatment, those who stop work are given living allowance, those who can't make a living are repatriated to their hometown to pay for the trip, and there is no way to return to the funeral. The undertaker gave relatives six taels of funeral expenses and coffin transportation expenses.

At this point, the ancient social security system in China is improving day by day, which includes the following three levels: first, the establishment of mutual assistance in clan life based on Yizhuang; Secondly, establish a social security system within the industry; In addition, it is a regional community security system established beyond blood relationship and industrial relationship, that is, a security institution initiated by local governments and built by businessmen, which integrates social welfare and medical assistance. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, local officials and businessmen set up donation museums with this feature. Although there are considerations about the convenience of businessmen's trade, they often go beyond the relationship of the industry and provide life help and emotional comfort for overseas travelers and scholars. The all-round development of social security in ancient China since the Song Dynasty reflects that under the property system characterized by "no land system" and "no merger", the whole society is facing increasingly urgent practical responsibilities in preventing social risks and helping the disadvantaged members of society. Although the social security capacity determined by the productivity level is low, the government attaches importance to and leads, mobilizes all positive factors, and establishes a multi-level social security system with multi-subject input and wide coverage, which effectively corrects the grim situation of social polarization, binds a warm veil among the members of the society with disparity between the rich and the poor, relieves class contradictions to a certain extent, integrates social resources and promotes the stable development of society.