Preface:
Whenever we enjoy ancient works and related film and television dramas, we always hear a word called Wanhuhou. So what exactly is Wanhuhou? What is the equivalent of today?
Wanhuhou was a group with extremely high status in ancient times, and it was also the highest rank among all marquis in the Han Dynasty. It represents the highest honor and holds a great deal of resources, wealth.
To put it bluntly, the emperor canonized a piece of land for ten thousand households for meritorious people, and the grain, taxes, money, etc. of the people in the area did not need to be handed over to the state, but directly handed over to the marquis of ten thousand households.
During the period of Chu-Han hegemony, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought a protracted war, and it was difficult to fight. In order to boost morale, Liu Bang promised to kill Xiang Yu, seal the Marquis of Ten Thousand Families, and reward him with thousands of gold.
When Liu Bang's soldiers heard the news, they all cheered up as if they had beaten chicken blood, and finally trapped Xiang Yu in Wujiang. Liu Bang also won the world.
As a result, the Marquis of Ten Thousand Households became an honor that everyone in ancient times dreamed of. Then the ancients will have the pride and ambition of "reading and being the marquis of ten thousand households".
Wanhuhou is not a good canonization
Since we always hear the title of Wanhuhou in various works, ordinary people will have the illusion that Wanhuhou is very common. But in fact, it is extremely difficult to obtain the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Families.
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang canonized his brothers who followed him all the way to fight the world. Only 139 people were granted more than 2,000 households. Including the well-known Han Xin, Fan Yu and others.
Among them, there are only four households with more than 10,000 food households. They were: Xiao He of Fuhou, Cao Shen of Pingyang, Zhang Liang, Marquis of Liu, and Liu Ze, a cousin of Liu Bang.
After these four, only two people in the entire Han Dynasty were canonized as Marquis of Ten Thousand Households. They are Wei Qing and Huo Qubing. This is also what they have experienced nine deaths in their lives and made great battle merits.
Even the famous Fei general Li Guang fought all his life, but he never won the honor, and Emperor Wudi of Han said to him with regret: "If Lingzi is a high emperor, how can the Marquis of Ten Thousand Households be enough!" ”
It can be seen from this that those who can obtain the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households are not idle people, either the founding fathers who have made great achievements, or the generals who have pacified the world. Ordinary people can be blocked at most a few hundred households.
What is the property of Wanhuhou
In the early years of the Han Dynasty, there were only about 12 million people, which was relatively sparsely populated. Therefore, if you can make up enough land for 10,000 households, it is already a large area.
Kuang Heng, a mathematician of the Western Han Dynasty, was given 600 households. The land he acquired was as high as 3,100 hectares, which is equivalent to more than 50,000 hectares, or 3,400 square kilometers of land, if converted into 10,000 households.
That's half the size of the above, and more than three times the size of Hong Kong.
According to the records of the "Hanshu Food Goods Record", the rent of land during the Two Han Dynasty was basically maintained at the level of "thirty taxes and one tax". In other words, 3.15 million liters of grain must be handed over a year in the fiefdom of 10,000 households.
In addition to land and grain, the taxes within the fiefdom were also firmly controlled by the Wanhu Marquis. According to records, in the Han Dynasty, each household had to pay 200 money, so that ten thousand households could collect at least 2 million money.
With 3.15 million liters of grain and 2 million yuan in household taxes, this is the basic income level of a 10,000 household for a year. In addition to those royal relatives and state relatives, I am afraid that it is the highest income of Wanhuhou.
What is the level of Wanhuhou today
In ancient times, it was common to have a family of 5 people. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, there were 12 million people, which was 2.4 million households. That is to say, one 10,000-family marquis fiefdom occupies one of the two hundred and forty percent of the country's population.
Converting this ratio to today, it is equivalent to a population of 5.8 million and more than 3,400 square kilometers of land, so it can be said that 10,000 households are almost the same as the mayor of a city today.
However, unlike the mayor, our income and taxes paid today will not fall directly into the hands of the mayor, and the ten thousand households will truly enjoy the real money of ten thousand households.
Ten thousand households are not necessarily benefits
Ancient China was a feudal autocracy with a high concentration of imperial power. But a 10,000-person marquis can enjoy one-hundredth of the wealth of the entire country, which greatly affects the financial income of the imperial court.
Therefore, although Liu Bang promised to seal the Marquis of Ten Thousand Households for those who killed Xiang Yu, in the end, he only sealed the Marquis of Thousand Families. And those who have been canonized by the Wanhu Marquis, the emperor has also been weakening their power through means.
Therefore, the Marquis of Ten Thousand Households could only be cautious, for fear that a slight trespass would make Emperor Long Yan furious, and not only himself, but also the entire family would suffer. Behind the glamorous beauty, but also trembling.
epilogue
Wanhuhou, symbolizing the highest rank canonized by the emperor in ancient feudal society, has supreme honor and status, and the ancient Wanhuhou is definitely a figure standing at the top of the pyramid.
In the final analysis, the Marquis of Wanhu is just a product of the birth of the imperial rule, even if the power status is high, it will be digested by the emperor for various reasons, and gradually lose its former glory.
And the Marquis of Ten Thousand Households himself has also changed from the "Marquis of Ten Thousand Households to the Marquis of Ten Thousand Families" in those years, to the current "Marquis of Ten Thousand Households of Manure". After thousands of years of baptism, it has left its unique historical traces.