Zhao Xu couldn't help but smile bitterly: "It's just a nice thing to say."
He really doesn't believe this now.
He even believed that the current situation was caused by the idea of hiding wealth among the people.
As a result, the court has no money and the people have no money.
He still completely favored Wang Anshi's philosophy of enriching the country and strengthening the army.
Wealth should be controlled by the state.
Zhang Fei explained: "My intention is not to implement the concept of Sima Shishi, but to use this concept to provide them with a legal tax avoidance channel."
Zhao Xu asked doubtfully: "How do you say this?"
Zhang Fei did not answer and asked instead: "Your Majesty, do you know that many wealthy businessmen and scholar-bureaucrats use Xiangguo Temple to avoid taxes?"
Zhao Xu nodded: "Of course I know."
Zhang Fei asked again: "Does Your Majesty know that many people choose to be ordained and become monks in Xiangguo Temple in order to avoid labor taxes?"
Zhao Xu sighed: "Thousands of people work on the vegetable gardens of Xiangguo Temple. How could I not know that?"
Zhang Fei asked again: "Most of these people are unable to afford the taxes and labor of the imperial court, resulting in bankruptcy and homelessness. If there is no Xiangguo Temple to take them in, I am afraid they will just starve to death on the streets."
Zhao Xu nodded slightly.
Zhang Fei said: "If Xiangguo Temple can play a greater role and benefit the people with the benefits obtained, and these benefits come from those big landowners and wealthy businessmen, isn't this how Sima Xueshi and others hide their wealth for the people?"
Zhao Xu smiled and said: "You are too naive to think about it. How much of the benefits gained by Xiangguo Temple are used to benefit the people?"
Xiangguo Temple is already an open secret, but Zhao Xu has no choice. For example, Empress Dowager Cao is a very believer in Buddhism, and there are many relatives of the emperor and scholar-bureaucrats who are loyal believers in Buddhism. The political cost of moving Xiangguo Temple is definitely high.
higher than taxing landowners.
"What your Majesty said is absolutely true."
Zhang Fei said: "I have never thought that relying on Confucian benevolence and Buddhist compassion can make those people willing to spend money to benefit the people. This is fanciful. Therefore, legal system is needed to force them to do so.
But if the court directly legislates to collect their taxes, I'm afraid they won't agree easily, so the court must find an appropriate reason to leave them speechless."
"What reason?"
"charitable."
"charitable?"
"Yes."
Zhang Fei said: "Your Majesty can integrate charity and law and use the law to force them to do charity. In this way, I believe no one will dare to oppose Your Majesty."
Zhao Xu didn't seem to understand what he heard, "Use the law to force them to do charity? How can this be done? Charity should start from good thoughts. If the law is used to force it, can it still be called charity? Can they not object?
?”
Zhang Fei said: "Of course the court cannot say so clearly, but it can guide them to do so."
Zhao Xu hurriedly asked: "How to guide?"
Zhang Fei said: "May I ask Your Majesty, do you need to pay taxes for charity?"
Zhao Xu said: "Of course not."
Zhang Fei asked again: "If those big landowners donate their fields for charity, do they need to pay taxes?"
Zhao Xu said: "Of course you don't need it, but they won't be willing to donate it!"
Zhang Fei said: "If they were allowed to donate their left hand to their right hand, would they still be unwilling?"
Zhao Xu became more and more confused as he listened, "What's the point?"
Zhang Fei said: "As long as the law is added, all this can become meaningful. For example, once the property and land are donated for charity, it definitely does not belong to you. Who does it belong to?"
Zhao Xu was stunned for a moment, "Yes! Who did you donate it to?"
Zhang Fei said: "So before that, they must set up a charity to store their donations, so that they can donate from their left hand to their right hand."
Zhao Xu wondered: "If you do this, aren't you still allowing them to evade taxes?"
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "Your Majesty, who allows this charity to be tax-free? This needs to be affirmed by the court's legislation, and the court can take the opportunity to intervene with the law. For example, it is stipulated that the donated money belongs to public property and does not
It is private and cannot be appropriated without authorization."
Zhao Xu shook his head and said, "How could they agree to this?"
Zhang Fei said: "But so much property needs people to manage and hire people to farm. Under normal circumstances, the donor is naturally the helmsman of this charity. He can arrange all his descendants to join this charity and pay monthly
Pay these people wages."
Zhao Xu was confused again, "This is tantamount to allowing them to evade taxes!"
Zhang Fei said: "The court cannot force anyone to do charity. This is purely personal will, and the law cannot intervene. But charities are different. The meaning of establishing a charity is to do charity. It uses this obligation to exchange for tax-free privileges.
Yes, if you don't do this, it is cheating and illegal.
The court can stipulate that this charity must use a certain amount of its profits for charity every year, even if the profits are equal to the taxes they have to bear, they will be willing to do so."
Zhao Xu shook his head and said, "If that's the case, then why don't they pay taxes directly?"
Zhang Fei explained euphemistically: "When doing charity, you can follow your own wishes. You can freely choose how to donate and who to donate to. You are forced to pay taxes. Even if you spend the same amount of money, they can still choose."
I am definitely more inclined to do charity.
Secondly, what they are most afraid of is not paying such a small amount of tax. Your Majesty should know this better than me."
Zhao Xu glanced at Zhang Fei, "I know it very well, but I didn't expect that you also know it very well!"
Zhang Fei said sarcastically: "This is human nature."
Are those people who are so opposed to this really reluctant to part with that little money?
Not entirely.
If they just spent this little money to eliminate disasters, they would definitely be willing.
What they really care about is the court's taxing power.
If we pay taxes so easily today, and your court wants to increase taxes tomorrow, then we have to pay them too. If you increase taxes again, and we pay them again, then sooner or later everyone will be done with it.
Those common people are the best example. They couldn't resist, so the court specially caught them.
The scholar-bureaucrats have all read history books and know how these rules work. It is impossible for the court to always collect taxes according to the law.
Therefore, the political cost of taxing them must be raised.
That's why it's so difficult to ask them for even a penny.
Because of this they are safer.
This is actually a power game.
The law is not in it at all.
Zhang Fei added: "This charity can avoid this. The money is still in their hands, but the court loses the power to tax them.
At the same time, the imperial court also stood on the moral high ground. It had exempted them from taxes and encouraged them to do charity. If they failed to fulfill their obligations, the imperial court would punish them. No matter whether they were Duke Wen or Sima, they would never do so.
Mostly a complaint."
Wen Yanbo, Sima Guang and others have a very important idea in their "Hiding Wealth for the People", which is that the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of the scholar-bureaucrats, not just any ordinary man.
Because they believed that the emperor ruled the world together with the scholar-bureaucrats, not with the common people.
Naturally, civilians do not need to bear this responsibility, as long as they fulfill their obligations.
These common people have never read a book and just want to survive. They don't know the responsibility of the world. If something goes wrong, if you don't catch them, they will definitely run away.
The scholar-bureaucrats are deeply educated in Confucianism and understand what it means to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. They also understand the principle that if the skin is not left, the hair will be attached. This wealth is in the hands of the scholar-officials, and they can shoulder this responsibility.
Of course, this is just their philosophy at the moment and the goal they strive for.
Then again, this group of civil servants in the Northern Song Dynasty can actually be said to be the last shining point of Confucianism. After that, it really fell into ruins. Confucianism completely became a tool of governance and lost its concept.
But it has to be said that even so, reality is still far from the ultimate goal of Confucianism.
In the end, it is no match for human nature.
Human nature still needs to be restricted by laws.
Therefore, when Zhang Fei introduced the concept of charity, he actually wanted to bind the Confucian idea of storing wealth among the people within the law.
You keep saying that we will rule the world together and rule the world together. OK, the court will give you tax exemption rights first, and then it will depend on your performance.
If you don't take responsibility, it's illegal.
But this is quite different from Zhao Xu's philosophy.
What about imperial power?
What about rich countries?
Zhao Xu said tactfully: "If they all donate their money here, the imperial court will not receive tax money. Now the imperial court's finances have reached an unsustainable point!"
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "Didn't I just say that this charity also needs to be run? It is a business. Since it is a business, it needs to be traded with others. The business tax that should be paid still needs to be paid."
Zhao Xu's eyes lit up when he heard this, that's right! You can collect the money from other places.
Zhang Fei added: "This is actually in line with the imperial court's policy of shifting the focus to business, so we should not make the mistake of agricultural tax again.
In addition, if all states and counties establish such charitable institutions, they can also provide great help to the court in terms of disaster relief. If everything must be coordinated by the court, the loss will be unimaginable."
Regarding this point, the concepts of Zhang Fei and Wang Anshi are very different.
Wang Anshi hopes that the central government will control all wealth and then allocate it uniformly. However, Zhang Fei believes that given the current traffic environment, it is almost impossible for the central government to achieve unified allocation. It is best to cultivate the ability of states and counties to save themselves.
The imperial court provided assistance.
Zhao Xu very much agreed with Zhang Fei's policy of doing business first and then farming. In terms of agricultural taxes, the power that the imperial court could exert was very limited. This game of chess was really too complicated. With constant cutting and confusion, it was better to find another way and asked again.
: "Then how do you get them to donate money to charity."
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "Didn't I just say that we would win this lawsuit and then force them to seek safer legal tax avoidance."
After Zhao Xu thought for a while, he nodded and said, "Okay! I'm willing to give it a try to see if they are really willing to spend the money they want to pay for charity as you said."
This conversation with Zhang Fei also prompted Zhao Xu to make up his mind to fight this lawsuit.
But when he returned to the palace, Lan Yuanzhen said to Zhao Xu: "Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager asked the maid next to her how long it has been since your Majesty went to have dinner with her."
It seems that they are serious this time, and they all went to the eldest lady. Zhao Xu asked: "Where is the eldest lady now?"