A middle-rank palace officer. One memorial of his — the well-field has been dead a thousand years, not even Yao and Shun could revive it in a hundred — reversed the dynasty's central law.
The empire has only just been settled and the ten thousand peoples are newly attached. This is not the time to do it.Hanshu, juan 99 middle — from his memorial against the king's-fields and private retainers law; the book also has him say the well-field has been dead a thousand years and not even Yao and Shun could revive it in a hundred
Appears in
Relations
- Wang Mang commander — He was a middle-rank palace officer in the New's own government, and he was the one man whose argument the emperor accepted — not because it overturned the reading of the classics, but because the empire would not read it.
Myth vs record
Wang Mang's land law was killed by the great families of the empire, an interest-group veto, and the man who spoke it down was their mouthpiece.
The record gives neither the gentry nor a motive to him at all. It keeps one argument, which is about time and not about property: the well-field was a sage's law, but it had been abolished for a very long time; Qin had read the people's hearts and got the greatest profit out of the change, and the realm had still not wearied of the harm Qin left behind; to go against the hearts of the people now and chase a track cut off a thousand years ago was something even Yao and Shun risen again could not do in a hundred years. And the repeal that followed is not a legalisation: the emperor ordered that those holding named king's fields might sell them, and that those who had already bought or sold persons should for the present not be prosecuted.