宋代城市税收视角下的城乡关系变动研究

Changes of Song Dynasty’s Urban-Rural Relationship Viewed from Its Urban Taxation Policy

城市税收是观察城乡关系的重要视角。宋代对坊郭户和乡村户分开征税,税制城乡分野,表明了城乡差别。对坊郭户单独征税是宋代城乡分离的重要标志。城市税收征收以城市经济为基础,农业税收征收以农业经济为前提,两者具有经济形态、地域和征收方式以及税收体制的不同,城乡自然存在差别和分离。宋代城市财税力量的不断崛起,成为政府的财税之源和重要依赖。这表明城市工商业得到充分的发展,进一步加剧了宋代城乡之间的分离。此外,由于宋政府出于增加税收的目的,部分税种城乡共征,城市财税支持农村,农村财税支持城市,表明城乡存在联系和似无差别的一面,城乡呈现一体化的变动趋势。而这种变动趋势是以宋代城乡关系分离与一体并存为特点。宋代城市税收对城乡关系产生了重要的影响,并形成了作用城乡关系的变动机制。中国古代城乡关系的变动受各种因素的影响,从城市税收的视角来看,宋代是中国城乡关系的重要转折点。这对我们重新认识中国传统社会城乡关系具有一定的参考价值。

Urban taxation policy is an important angle to view urban-rural relationship.In the Song Dynasty taxes were levied separately on urban and rural residents to mark out the differences between the city and the village.Taxation on urban dwellers constitutes the basis of urban economy,while taxation on rural residents is a precondition for the development of rural economy.The two differ in economic types,in areas,in ways of tax-levying and in taxation systems,just as the rural areas differ from the urban areas in many ways.The rapid growth of taxes in cities in the Song Dynasty became a very important source of revenue and back-up for the government and an indicator of the growth of commerce and industry in the urban areas.In order to increase tax revenues,the Song government levied some taxes on both urban and rural areas,but used some of the tax revenues from cities to support rural development,and some of the tax revenues from rural areas to support urban development,a fact that seems to indicate that there was a close tie between the urban economy and rural economy and a trend for both to be bound up in an economic community.The trend is marked by the co-existence of separate and joined taxation in the urban and rural areas at the same time.Such taxation policy exerted a far-reaching influence on the urban-rural relationship,and gave rise to a mechanism that brought about subsequent changes to such relationship.The changes were of course conditioned by many factors,but from the perspective of urban taxation policy,the Song Dynasty was an important turning point and a window through which we may gain glimpses of how urban-rural relationship changed in traditional Chinese society.