Chastity Layman

  Chapter 1249 Qin Concession

  Hakata Bay.

  Qin Jun, accompanied by Qin Zhong, Consul General in Japan and a group of Tang merchants, came to Wanxi on purpose.

  The galley sailed along the bay into a estuary twenty or thirty feet wide in the west, and went up the river with flat banks and connected rice fields.

Qin Zhong introduced, "There were a few small fishing villages here before, and there were some manors in the upper reaches. The land in the west of the river is surrounded by the bay in the north, two high hills in the west, and the river in the east. It is about twelve or three miles long. , about four or five miles wide, and about thirty thousand acres in size."

  With the division of Chikushi Kingdom into two and the establishment of Dazaifu, Hakata Bay has now become the most affluent place in the West Kaido of the Wa Kingdom. The desolate place by the bay is also becoming lively.

"Over the years, many of our Tang merchants have bought land and real estate on this land, and gradually everyone has gathered together and become a Tangrenfang. We hope that your son can talk to Prince Wa this time to see if we can buy the whole land. , In this way, it will also benefit our long-term development here.”

  Qin Jun did not express his opinion in a hurry, but asked Qin Zhong and the others to take him ashore, and carefully walked all over the land.

  The land is very flat, with the east river in the west facing the sea in the north, and two mountains and a river in the south.

   There is also a nice deep-water bay in the north, which is suitable for a port.

  The hills separated to the west are not really big mountains. The height of the two hills is no more than a hundred feet, and the width is no more than six or seven miles.

Two mountain mausoleums lie obliquely, separating Chikuzen Maehara from the west. Chikuzen Maehara is no more than 20 miles long and no more than 10 miles wide. Chikuzen Maehara is surrounded by mountains on both sides, and Karatsu Bay is on the east, where Tang ships first arrived before Chikushi was divided into countries. place.

  Later, Dazaifu was set up in Hakata Bay, which became the new trade center in the western part of the country of Japan, and Tang ships all went to Hakata.

   "It's only twenty miles from here to Hakata Wharf."

  The mountains, rivers and seas are separated by a section, but it is close to Hakata, relatively independent, and the transportation is convenient.

  Tang merchants took a fancy to this place, and gradually bought some land over the years, but when they wanted to buy the whole land to make it easier for them to build a complete Tangrenfang, the Japanese side was a little reluctant.

  They are only willing to sell retail, but the price is getting more and more expensive.

  The Tang merchants in Japan are also very shrewd, and they don't want to be taken advantage of.

   "It's really a good place."

  After Qin Jun walked around, some of the Qin family stewards who accompanied him also thought this place was very good. If you can buy the whole land, you can do a lot of things.

   “Buying land is worse than renting land.”

  After returning to the ship, Qin Jun spoke to Qin Zhong and a group of businessmen stationed in Japan.

"rent?"

   "Yes, but it is not an ordinary lease. We rent the land and build a Tang Dynasty concession."

  The concession was first established in Linyi. When Qin Lang was in charge of Lingnan, he supported the Queen of Linyi to return to the country to quell the chaos and restoration.

  This concession is not an ordinary leased land or tenant land. Although rent is also paid, it is actually a country that is equivalent to an extraterritorial land.

  The concession is governed by the laws of the Tang Dynasty, and the autonomy is managed by the people of the Tang Dynasty. Lin Yiguo has no right to enter the concession, has no law enforcement power, and so on.

It can be said that the Tang Concession in Linyi has greatly protected Tang merchants and facilitated the development of Tang merchants in Linyi. The Linyi Concession has also made Linyi the country with the largest number of Tang merchants in recent years. , one of the most bustling and bustling ports.

  Even the aristocratic merchants of Linyi Kingdom like to live in the Tang Concession, because the security there is far better than that of Wangcheng, and it is also more prosperous and lively, so it is called Little Taiping Port.

  The success of the Linyi Concession is obvious to all. For Tang merchants, the concession is the same as in Datang.

   Outside the concession, not only have to be subject to various jurisdictions, but even have to be exploited in various ways. But this is not the case in the Linyi Concession, because the concession is not only self-governing, but also has armed guards in the concession, and even the Tang Navy in Da Nang has an office in the concession, not only a regiment of marines, but also the navy Warships also often come to buy supplies and patrol.

   No one dared to go to the concession to make trouble.

The queen of Linyi has always been friendly to Tang Gongshun, and has always been friendly with Tang merchants. Although the Tang merchants in the concession often use the concession to do something like smuggling, the queen mostly turns a blind eye. For the Queen, the existence of the Tang Concession has attracted more Tang merchants and Tang products, and it has also made Linyi's trade a step further.

  Now that Linyi Port is the largest port in Nanyang, how many merchants it has attracted, these real benefits can be seen and felt.

night.

  Prince Katsuragi hosted a banquet in honor of Qin Jun and his party, accompanied by merchants in the Great Tang Dynasty.

  In Dazaifu, the banquet is almost completely modeled on the banquet of the nobles of the Central Plains, but the dishes are much simpler.

  Deer, wild boar, fish, shrimp, radish, tofu, just a few dishes over and over.

  Sitting next to Qin Jun, Qin Zhong, who is a master of the Wa Kingdom, also explained to him that today’s banquet is of the highest standard, and that was the standard that the Wa Kingdom had previously entertained the canonized ambassadors sent by the imperial court to the Wa Kingdom.

   He also said that the country of Japan was poor in small things, so it was always frugal. Even the king of Japan usually had mixed rice with nine cents of white rice and one cent of beans. Generally, there were only three dishes, one meat, one vegetable and one soup.

   "Don't you even have chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep?"

It's not that Qin Jun likes ostentation, but he just thinks that in Datang, even if it's an ordinary small folk's house, if a guest comes, he probably has to get a few eggs, and in the small landlord's house, he probably has to cut a piece of bacon for frying, and the officials will eat it at will. Noble family, if there are guests, mutton must be indispensable.

   Needless to say, such as palace banquets, roasted sheep and camels are nothing to worry about.

  The famous dish Hunyang Shihu not only roasts the lamb, but also puts a goose in the belly of the goose, and puts meat and glutinous rice in the belly of the goose.

And when Qin Jun’s uncle, Qin Xun, was conferred the third-rank position of General Zuowei, Cui also specially held a grand burnt tail banquet for the prime ministers of the court and the central government. The menu has a total of 108 dishes, cold dishes Hot dishes, frying, frying, stewing, steaming, flying in the sky, and fruit snacks from all over the world.

  In contrast, the king's son entertained him with only eight dishes that could only be called side dishes. It was really shabby and a little disrespectful.

   "Dahua Heavenly King worships Buddha very much, so after he ascended the throne, he issued a ban on eating five kinds of livestock, including cattle, horses, dogs, chickens, and monkeys, and from the fourth day to the first day of the first lunar month to the 30th day of the ninth month, eating all kinds of gourds is prohibited. At other times, it is forbidden."

  After Heavenly King Xiaode came to the throne, the palace he lived in was renamed Dahua Palace, so he was called Heavenly King Dahua.

  The Heavenly King of Xiaode respected Buddhism and despised local Shintoism. His reverence for Buddhism can be compared to Emperor Wu of Liang who locked himself in a Buddhist temple in the Southern Dynasty and asked the court to redeem him with a huge sum of money.

  When Buddhism came to the Central Plains, meat was not forbidden at first, but five meat, that is, five kinds of spices. However, Emperor Wu of Liang issued an edict prohibiting monks from eating meat, fish and meat.

  Although later Theravada sects did not completely prohibit meat and meat, the Hinayana sect believed that meat with three cleanses could be eaten, and meat that was not the three cleanses could not be eaten.

  The so-called “Three Clean Meat” refers to the meat that my eyes couldn’t see when it was killed, and the meat that I couldn’t hear when it was killed. Its death is undoubtedly the one who killed for me.

  All three kinds of meat can be eaten.

  However, it was Mahayana Buddhism that was introduced into the Daxing of the Wa Kingdom. The King of Wa worshiped Buddhism very much, so he also asked the Wa Kingdom to ban eating meat.

  However, Qin Jun felt that the ban was a bit strange, why only the five meats of cattle, horses, dogs, chickens and monkeys were banned? Does he think this is five meat?

   Chicken is banned, why not ducks and geese? Cattle and horses are prohibited, so why not sheep and deer, dogs and monkeys, but why not pigs?

   What's even more strange is, why can't the fish help?

  Qin Zhong helped to explain, but he couldn’t say anything specific. He only talked about the Japanese tradition. Chickens seem to be quite sacred. It is said that they exist in their myths and legends, so they are different from ordinary livestock.

   It is also said that deer and pork are collectively called rou in Japan.

  Qin Jun became more and more confused as he listened.

In the end, I had no choice but to accept these strange regulations of the Wa Kingdom, but a few elders who came with me made some guesses from the other side, and felt that although these prohibitions were due to the great Mahayana Buddhism, they must not be all. Customs are also related to the economy of Japan today.

  Since the reform of Prince Shotoku, the country of Wa has entered a new stage after decades of continuous reforms.

As early as when Prince Shotoku was in power, people of insight from all over the country could see that the tribe system of slavery had long been difficult to sustain. The surname nobles had caused the crisis of the disintegration of Yamato's state ownership, and the tribe system collapsed. The tribesmen were unbearable to be oppressed, and they raised their poles to rebel one after another. Even the emperor and nobles who were aloof from above felt uneasy under their buttocks.

  The so-called reform is actually just to maintain the existing superior interests.

   It's just that people in different positions have different reform directions in mind.

  For example, the reforms from Prince Shotoku to Prince Nakadai, etc., are mainly based on the perspective of maintaining the emperor's royal family.

Therefore, in today's so-called reform and new policy of Dahua Reform, surnames and tribesmen are abolished, and the land is taken into public ownership, and the land is granted by the Bantian. They became tenants of the imperial court, farming the land and paying rent, and reshuffled the cards before returning.

The Yamato court carried out comprehensive reforms from top to bottom, centralizing power, with two officials and eight provinces in the central government, and local counties and counties, including the new military system of anti-human orders. This is to fully imitate the Tang system, for the purpose of Let the collapsing and turbulent Yamato dynasty, and then restore stability.

  This kind of new policy, of course, the big aristocrats and powerful clans of the Japanese country are not satisfied. Therefore, in the past hundred years, the Japanese court coups have been commonplace, and the emperor’s abolition is common, and the clans and powerful clans themselves have fought fiercely.

  It was just that with the destruction of the number one official and the number one rich family, the Soga family, the internal struggle was temporarily decided, so the reform entered a new stage.

  Dahua reform is fully implemented, and the new system replaces the old system. It is still in a turbulent period.

  Although the introduction of the bantian system liberated the enslaved tribesmen, labor security, and stabilized the situation, it is impossible to say that it was successful in one day.

  At this time, the Wa country is like a patient recovering from a serious illness, still very weak.

  Meat prohibition, like alcohol prohibition, is also out of economic considerations.

  You must know that even the Central Plains Dynasty often issued a ban on slaughter and selling at the beginning of the founding of the country, or during times of famine and turmoil. This ban is the prohibition of slaughtering livestock and alcohol.

  Alcohol is not a necessity in life, but winemaking consumes food. When food reserves are not abundant, alcohol prohibition is also for the survival of the people.

  In the same way, cattle and horses are important working animals, which can be cultivated and transported. If they are slaughtered for meat, this is a serious loss of production materials. What's more, the tendons and horns of cattle and horses are also important military materials.

  Until now, in the Tang Dynasty, private slaughtering of farm cattle is still prohibited. Although more beef is eaten in Datang now, these are beef cattle trafficked in from Hudi, not farm cattle. All farm cattle in the Tang Dynasty had to be registered for supervision and management. Even if they died of old age and illness, they had to be reported to the officials, and then slaughtered and sold by special personnel.

  Datang can’t ban alcohol now, but because of the abundant grain reserves, the imperial court changed the prohibition to alcohol tax, and strengthened supervision and control through alcohol tax.

  But in the current Japanese country, even the level of Wude Zhenguan can't reach it, so it is very common to ban meat and alcohol. The Wa country does not prohibit fish, so it can be seen that they are not essentially prohibiting eating meat, but only prohibiting eating some livestock that they think are very important.

  Monkeys are like people, so they think they are disgusting and cannot eat them.

  Chickens are related to myths and legends, and they are considered sacred and cannot be eaten, but they did not say that they should not eat eggs, nor did they say that they should not eat ducks and geese.

  Similarly, they do not prohibit eating pigs, deer, sheep, etc.

  Dogs don’t eat, probably because dogs are housekeepers.

  Looking at the Japanese people from this limited prohibition on five types of meat, one knows that it is not true that they do not eat meat. Five species are not allowed to be eaten throughout the year, and deer and pork are only not allowed to be eaten during the half year from April to September every year.

   From this point of view, it should indeed be formulated to protect agricultural development.

  As for monks, there is a special ban on them. All monks and nuns, those who drink alcohol, eat meat, and eat five spices, will be punished with one month of hard labor.

  The ban on meat is mainly to protect agriculture. After all, the Bantian system has just been implemented, and the Japanese country hopes that the people will focus more on farming instead of raising livestock and animals.

   "Is it true that the Wa country completely forbids eating the five kinds of meat?"

   "It's not all. During the half year from April to September every year, it is fasting, but during the half year of winter and spring, the imperial court of Japan will specifically allow the slaughter of some old, sick and emaciated cattle, horses, dogs and chickens."

  Summer and autumn are labor seasons, winter and spring are not production seasons.

  Ox can plow the land, horses can carry it, dogs can guard the house and fields, and roosters can wake up the morning.

   "Is Wa very poor now?"

"poverty!"

Qin Zhong told Qin Jun that before the abolition of the tribunal system, there were not even one in a hundred people who could be called masters in the country of Wa, and the remaining ninety-nine out of one hundred were slaves of the tribal people. I can't even eat the dry rice balls.

  That's why the ministry system cannot be maintained.

  (end of this chapter)