明代采木之役及其弊端

Forest Felling in Ming Dynasty and Its Maladies

明初,缮治宫殿所需木材薪炭,以任土作贡的方式索取曰"岁办",民不给,官出钱于市,实行采办。采木之役,自明成祖兴建北京宫殿始。万历年间,易官办为商办,木商唯利是图,病民耗财。由于历代侈俭不同,采木时多时少。明代连年采木,二百余年消耗了大量的森林资源,给人民带来了沉重的灾难。

In order to build palaces, the imperial government asked civilans to contribute wood in the early Ming Dynasty, which was called ＂Suiban＂ （ 岁办 ）. If civilians didn＇t want, the officials would purchase wood in market, which was called ＂Caiban＂ （采办 ）. The forest felling started with the Emperor Chengzu （明成祖） constructing the imperial palace in Beijing. During the Wanli（ 万历 ） period, the official wood purchasing was changed to business. The businessmen prefered only profit to the life of civilian. Due to different emperors＇ extravagancy, the amount of forest felling was more or less. The large consumption of wood and heavy burden of people caused by forest felling lasted two hundred years in Ming Dynasty.