Social assistance is the basic content of social security, and it is also the most common safeguard measure in ancient society.
The assistance to special groups in society is also an important part of the social security provided by the Northern Wei government, and the objects of assistance mainly include widows, widows, lonely and poor people, elderly groups, children and children, and new dependent groups unique to ancient society, of which widows, widows, lonely, sick and poor people are the focus of assistance.
Widows, widows, lonely, sick and poor groups
"Widowhood and widowhood and loneliness and waste disease" was first seen in the "Book of Rites and Fortunes": "The journey of the great road also makes the old have an end, the strong have some use, the young have growth, and the widows and lonely people (ancient same as "widows") have some support."
Including "widows", "widows", "orphans", "loneliness", "loneliness", "waste disease" five categories of people, of which "old and wifeless widows, old and no husbands and widows, old and childless, young and fatherless and lonely", disabled and unable to do things are "waste diseases", are poor and helpless people with low working ability.
In addition, the poor are also socially disadvantaged groups and need certain relief and support from the government. The Northern Wei Dynasty's assistance to widows, widows, lonely, sick and poor people was centered on the guarantee of food and clothing, and most of them adopted the form of relief, and were mainly concentrated in the period of Emperor Xiaowen.
The first rescue was seen in Emperor Taiwu, when "the people of shanggu wrote to the people, the words were excessive, the people had no land, and begged to reduce it by half, in order to give the poor." Half of the royal court was given to the poor who had no land for farming.
Later, in August and September of the second year (467) of Emperor Tian'an, he "gave cloth to the poor and orphaned people in the six towns" and "gave cloth to the poor people in the six towns, three horses", respectively, to provide clothing assistance for the orphans and poor people in the six towns.
Emperor Xiaowen provided nearly 30 bailouts in the 25 years from the third year of Yanxing (473) to the twenty-first year of Taihe (497), mainly to give gubu, and in the third year of Yanxing (473), he decreed: "He who has widows, widows, loneliness, poverty, and does not survive, and restores his miscellaneous", exempting the poor from certain servitude;
In the seventeenth year of Taihe (493) and the twenty-first year of Taihe (497), they were given food and clothing at the same time; in the eleventh year of Taihe (487), the drought in Kyoto was severe, the people were starving, and Emperor Xiaowen was even more "commanded to give out the treasures of the imperial palace's clothes, the miscellaneous utensils of the Taiguan, the servants, the eight-tenths of the inner treasury bow and sword, and the foreign clothing cloth silk for the use of the state, with its Tai half ban Baisi, down to the industrial and commercial soap, arrested in the six towns, the widows and widows and the lonely poor";
In the thirteenth year of Taihe (489), he also decreed that "the scattered things of the building are raised, so that the people are enriched, and there are many injuries, and now they can be broken, and the things they have spent, they will be given to the poor, the old and the poor and the lonely"; the twenty-first year (497) edict of Taihe "less than sixty and there are diseases of ruin, no relatives who have no great merit, and those who are poor and unable to heal themselves, all send medical care to other places, give four doctors, and ask for medicine to cure them", to provide medical assistance for orphans and poor patients;
Yuan Cheng also "reduced the land of the park to give the unemployed poor, forbidden to make cloth and silk and not to wear clothes", to win production resources for the poor, and to guide their rational production to avoid hunger and cold. In addition, Emperor Xiaowen also implemented the three-chief system, so that "those who are lonely, sick, old and poor cannot survive on their own, and the three longs are indies to feed themselves."
During the Xuanwu Period, the content of the relief was relatively diverse, except for the official palace or the envoy who ordered the envoy to save the pension, in the fourth year of Jingming (503), due to the successive droughts in the north, the source was on the table "The paddy fields of the towns, please distribute them to the people according to the orders of the land."
During the xiaoming emperor's period, there was less relief, and in the second year of Xiping (517), "the ambassador was sent to the four directions to ask about the sick and the widows", in the first year of the Divine Turtle (518), for the widows and widows who could not survive on their own, they "gave millet five axes and two horses", and in the second year of the divine turtle (519), they issued an edict to "help the poor and widows".
Emperor Xiaowu only ordered in the first year of Taichang (532) that "if there are orphans, old people, sick people, and no one to return to, there is Si Ming plus concealment, yi ge relief."
Elderly groups
The Northern Wei government paid great attention to the lives of the elderly, and successive rulers repeatedly saw the elderly and asked about the people's sufferings, and the main methods of assistance were relief, tax reduction, light punishment reduction and return to the countryside, the rescue efforts were larger, and the content was relatively comprehensive, of which the rescue measures during the Xiaowen Emperor period were the most abundant.
As early as the first year of Tianxing (398), Emperor Daowu issued an edict: "If the people have old people who cannot survive on their own, Zhao County will give them relief."
It can be seen that in the early Northern Wei Dynasty, there were various ways of rescue, but the number of rescues by various generations of rulers was small, and by the time of Emperor Xiaowen, the frequency of rescue increased, and the methods were also very rich, including the son of a senior citizen who did not serve in the military, the release of the elderly palace people, the granting of orphans and old people, the pardon of the punishment of the elderly, and so on.
By the time of Emperor Xuanwu, he still provided relief for the orphans, the poor, and the elderly who could not survive on their own, and used millet to help them. In the first year of Taichang (532), Emperor Xiaowu also issued an edict: "If there are orphans and old people, sick people, and those who have no one to return to, there is a Si Mingjia hidden, Yige relief", to check the situation of orphans and elderly people, and in accordance with relevant regulations, respectively, to ensure that the elderly have dependence.
Groups of young children
The Northern Wei rulers' assistance to the child and child groups was mainly reflected in the two aspects of three long supports and judicial tolerance.
According to the Book of Wei and the Chronicle of Food and Goods, in the tenth year of Taihe (486), Li Chong said: "Yi Zhungu, five families and one neighbor, ... Three long indigo diets".
Gao Zu heeded this suggestion and implemented the three-chief system, making the three chiefs responsible for food and clothing, providing basic living security for orphans and children, and to some extent, the three-chief system has also become an important auxiliary for local implementation of state assistance.
In addition, during the reign of Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the regulations on the 100-day execution of pregnant women were promulgated, that is, if the offender was pregnant, he could wait until the 100-day sentence after giving birth before being executed.
After Emperor Taiwu ascended the throne, he believed that the punishment at that time was too heavy, so he ordered Situ Cui Hao to reformulate the law, so he stipulated that "women should be sentenced to pregnancy, and the decision after childbirth is a hundred days", which fully reflects the human care of the rulers of Northern Wei and also protects the right to life of these infants and young children who have not yet been born. At the same time, the Northern Wei law also stipulates that "the fourteenth year has been lowered, and the sentence is reduced by half", and the punishment for children who commit crimes is mitigated and tolerated.
New vassal groups
The Northern Wei rulers' rescue of the newly attached people lasted from the beginning of the founding of the country to the Xuanwu Emperor period, initially to provide agricultural production resources such as farmland and cattle, and gradually stabilized, since the Ming Yuan Emperor began to send envoys to comfort and restore the new people, instead focusing on emotional security and living security. In the first year of Tianxing (398), Emperor Daowu first issued an edict to "give the new people who migrated internally to cultivate cattle and count their mouths to receive the fields", and then "personally climbed the top of the mountain to comfort the new people".
In the fifth year of Yongxing (413), Emperor Mingyuan also "placed the new people in the Daning River, gave agricultural tools, and counted the mouths to receive fields". god? In the third year (430), Emperor Taiwu "performed a journey to the city of Xincheng, comforted Chufu, pardoned the people of Qin Yong, and gave him seven years of restoration", and sent emissaries to comfort Chufu with Cui Kuan, and Liu Jie also said to Emperor Taiwu: "The new people of Longtu, the beginning of the dyeing of Dahua, it is advisable to give you the blessings to spare the truth."
Soldiers and horses are fed and then available", Emperor Taiwu adopted his advice. When Emperor Wen was presented, Wei Yuan also said: "Pengcheng Cangmiao is vain, people are hungry, and they ask for luck, Xiang, Ji, and Yan sizhou millet." Take the nine hundred ships abandoned by Zhang Yong and transport them along the Qing Dynasty, so that the new people can be saved", and from there.
During the reign of Emperor Xiaowen, the number of rescues was the most numerous, and the means were also very rich, and in the fourth year of Yanxing (474), "dispatched his attendants to follow the seven prefectures of Henan, observe customs, and comfort the initial annex";
In the fourteenth year of Taihe (490), Gao Lu petitioned for a reduction in the restrictions on the movement of the newly migrated people in Beizhen and "the food of Macheng in Kaiyun to provide relief";
In the nineteenth year of Taihe (495), Emperor Xiaowen also decreed that "those who surrender to the people of Xiaoluan shall be given fifteen years" to reduce the taxes of the new people; Cui Jian wanted to appease the new people and requested that the elderly people in them be kept as a guard, and Emperor Xiaowen granted his request;
Wang Ling also served as an emissary in the early years of Gaozu's reign as an emissary to inspect the four prefectures of Qing, Xu, Yan, and Yu, and to comfort xinfu in the next week.
Emperor Xuanwu had provided assistance to the new people of Yiyang in the third year of the reign (506), and later Longyou was affected by the war and the local people could not live and work in peace and contentment, and he ordered Li Shaoshan to take care of them, which won the hearts of the people.
Medical assistance
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, natural disasters and man-made disasters occurred frequently, which were very easy to cause large-scale injuries and diseases, and there were epidemics from time to time, with a wide range of infections, which often caused serious consequences to ancient societies with low living standards, so it was very necessary for the government to provide certain medical assistance.
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, medical assistance was mainly based on the dispatch of doctors and medicines, and the content of assistance in the middle and late period was gradually enriched and more comprehensive.
The first rescue was seen in the second year of Emperor Xing (468), when Emperor Xianwen saw that the people were suffering from illness, many of whom died of illness, were sorry and could not sleep at night, so he extensively gathered famous doctors and collected famous medicines to protect the people, and decreed: "It can be declared that the world, the people who are sick, the lawsuit will send doctors to their homes for medical treatment, the necessary drugs, and the amount of medical treatment."
In the twentieth year of Taihe (496), the Northern Wei Dynasty suffered a severe drought, Emperor Xiaowen even dropped out of the meal for three mornings in order to seek relief from the disaster, in order to alleviate the impact of the disaster, Emperor Xiaowen also ordered that "the six poles of illness and suffering, the gods and men are reserved, it is appropriate to visit the poor and waste at the right time, in order to save the poor and wasted", the so-called "six poles of illness and suffering" refers to the six diseases of cold disease, fever disease, terminal disease, abdominal disease, confusion disease, and heart disease, and Emperor Xiaowen requested that such people be visited and compensated to save the poor and wasted among them.
In the twenty-first year of Taihe (497), Emperor Xiaowen again issued an edict, so that Sizhou Luoyang "was less than sixty and had a disease of ruin, no relatives of great merit, and those who were poor and unable to treat themselves, all sent medical care to Beifang, gave four doctors, and asked for medicine to cure them", believing that "mourning the poor and the old, the king first, widows and widows with six diseases, especially yiyi", widows and widows are the most in need of mercy, so not only medical medicines are given, but also medical places are provided, and another room is set aside for patient diagnosis and treatment.
Emperor Xuanwu not only followed the precedent of setting up a medical center in an open place, but also allowed patients inside and outside the capital to live here, and at the same time, he also ordered the Medical Department to assign doctors to treat patients and reward and punish them according to their ability.
In addition, due to the fact that the doctor is Haobo, it is difficult to deduce the use of medicine in a timely manner according to the condition, so the relevant officials ordered the relevant officials to summon the doctors to select more than thirty volumes of essential volumes and issue them in various places, so that the people of the townships can also know the methods of saving the sick and eliminating the sick, and the rescue content implemented is very extensive.
In the fourth year of Yanchang (515), a major earthquake occurred in Yanzhou, killing and injuring many people, and Emperor Xuanwu sent Tai Doctor and Wounded Doctor to treat the wounded and send them the medicine they needed. However, in the period of Emperor Xiaowu, there was almost no medical assistance to the people, only a record of the rescue of important state officials.
According to the "Biography of Fan Zihu of Wei", Fan Zihu fell ill in the military camp, and Emperor Xiaowu ordered him to send medicine to him, but the main purpose of this rescue was probably to not affect the victory of the war, and had lost the meaning of social security, so the medical assistance of Northern Wei was basically gone after Emperor Xuanwu.