According to relevant data, in recent years, the mainland's major grain reserves have exceeded 50 percent of the global stocks, making it the world's largest grain storage country. Attaching importance to grain reserves is an excellent historical tradition in China, and the ancient ancestors have always attached great importance to grain reserves. At the Cishan Cultural Site in Wu'an, Hebei Province (more than 8,000 years ago), archaeologists dug up 189 "granaries" that could store at least 50,000 kilograms of millet. In the era when there was no convenient logistics, how did the ancients carry out grain reserve transportation, and what important enlightenment did it bring to today? Let's take a look.
Grain storage and famine: "ploughing three more than one"
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Jia Yi proposed that "those who accumulate are the great destiny of the world", pointing out that the accumulation of grain is the foundation of governing the country. Food production is cyclical, so there must be reserves to keep people eating. Successive regimes, large and small, have paid special attention to grain storage. In many cases, the place of origin of grain and the place of food are not the same, so the transportation of grain has been necessary in ancient and modern times. The cost of grain transportation is very high even in modern times, so in ancient times great importance was attached to the storage and transportation of grain to minimize intermediate costs. In ancient times, low-cost water transportation was mostly used for grain transportation, and for this reason, the Grand Canal of China was built successively to connect the five major water systems of Haihe River, Yellow River, Huai River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River.
Warehousing reflects the level of food security in a country. According to the "Book of Rites: The Royal System": "The country has no nine-year accumulation, no six-year accumulation, and no three-year accumulation. If you plough for three years, you will have food for one year, and if you plough for nine years, you will have food for three years. "Under normal circumstances, three years of cultivation can store one year's surplus grain, and nine years can store three years' worth of grain. This idea of "cultivating three surplus ones" not only reflects the technical level of farming at that time, but also reflects the wisdom of the people of the time to deal with food security, which has a far-reaching impact on Chinese society. In the final analysis, food security is a dynamic security, and it does not require unlimited food reserves, as long as the country's food storage and production can be maintained at a certain level. Pei Yaoqing, an expert on Cao Yun in the Tang Dynasty, pointed out: "Cangli often has three or two years of grain, that is, there is no worry about water and drought", which reflects this idea. If there is too much backlog of grain, it will face the pressure of destocking and waste transportation costs, so grain storage needs to have a reasonable reserve ratio.
In ancient China, a large number of Cao Yun was needed to maintain the balance of grain demand in various places, and how to deal with the relationship between storage and river transportation was an important issue for the governments of previous dynasties, which involved how to balance the setting of Cao Cang and the cost of river management.
Changes in the setting of the Caokura
Generally speaking, grain storage can be divided into two types, one is a warehouse for the consumption of officials and citizens, and the other is a warehouse used for weekly grain transfer. In ancient times, it was more cost-effective to transport grain by water. Cao Yun is a form of transporting grain by water. It is impossible to transport grain by waterway by the same ship at one time, and it is necessary to have ships and hydraulic sections that are suitable for navigation in different river sections. In order to facilitate long-distance storage and transshipment of grain, the state and the government often set up warehouses at the pivotal locations along the river to store the grain transported from all over the country, and then transfer it to the destination according to the water level flow and needs of different river sections, so it is called Caocang.
After the formation of the unified dynasty of the Qin and Han dynasties, the demand for grain turnover was more, and caocang of different sizes was built in various places. There were many caocangs along the inland waterways of the Qin period. According to the "Water and Land Mileage Brochure" of Peking University Tibetan Qin, there are four warehouses in Nanyang County, namely "Yimin Yu", "Wuyu", "Xuqu Yu" and "Yangxincheng Yu", which are part of the important water and land transportation network in Nanyang County. The Qin Dynasty also had Aocang, a national granary that was the highest model of the storage system in terms of scale and efficiency. Ao Cang was in Xingyang, Linbianshui, and provided an important foundation for the victory of Liu Bang's group during the Chu-Han War. Throughout the Western Han Dynasty, Aocang has always been the largest and most important granary, playing a role in maintaining the central autocratic regime. An important Cao Cang in the Han Dynasty also included the Jingshi Cang, or Huacang, which was located near the confluence of the Yellow River and the Wei River, and could be connected to the Yellow River by water transportation through the Cao Canal, mainly storing grain transported from the Kanto region to Chang'an, the capital of Beijing. The millet was transported west from Jingshicang and could be dumped in Taicang, southeast of the capital Chang'an. There are also a number of important national warehouses near Chang'an, among which Xiliucang and Jiacang are connected to Weishui. Near the Luohe River in Xitou Village, Xitou Township, Pucheng County, Shaanxi Province, the "Caocang of Yi" tile was unearthed, revealing that an important granary once existed here. Archaeologists also found an artificial transport channel that has never been recorded in historical documents, from the east of Chengnan Village, Pucheng County, to the east of Chengnan Village, Pucheng County, to join the Wei River near Danjiaya in Weinan County, which is considered to be used to transport food and grain to the capital Chang'an, so "Yiyi Caocang" is "the most important food granary of the Beijing Division".
Chang'an, the capital of the Sui Dynasty, was empty, and the grain depot in Gyeonggi was empty, and it was necessary to transport grain from the Kanto region to Chang'an. In the third year of the emperor's reign (583), Emperor Wen ordered Liyang Cang in Weizhou, Heyang Cang in Luozhou, Chang Ping in Shaanzhou, Guangtong Cang in Huazhou, Caoyun Guandong and Su of Fen and Jin, and enriched Chang'an Cangli. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were Liyang warehouse, Heyang warehouse, Changping warehouse, Guangtong warehouse, Luokou warehouse, Huiluocang, Hanjiacang, Wujiao warehouse, Baiya warehouse, Yongfeng warehouse, Weinan warehouse, etc., all distributed in the estuary intersection with convenient transportation or the place with convenient water and land transportation; The large granaries of this period were mostly concentrated in Luoyang and its vicinity, such as Huiluocang, Heyangcang, Luokoucang and Hanjiacang, which shows the status and role of Luoyang as a transportation center. The Sui Dynasty built the Grand Canal, especially during the period of Emperor Yang, which successively dug the Tongji Canal, Hangou, Yongji Canal and Jiangnan Canal, creating a Cao Yun system centered on Luoyang, communicating the east-west and north-south transportation, thus setting up many Cao Cang along the canal, which can make up for the difference in the transportation capacity of different river sections and improve the efficiency of Cao Yun.
The setting of Caocang is subordinated to the needs of reality and has the characteristics of the times. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were obvious differences between the construction of Caocang, and most of the Caocang in the Sui and early Tang dynasties were built in the city with a warehouse, located in the northern region, and a large amount of grain needed to be transferred, and the grain was stored in the form of a large underground warehouse group; after the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty relied more deeply on the financial endowment in the southeast, and urgently needed to improve the speed of grain circulation. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the construction of Cao Yun and Cao Cang reached the peak of history, the most perfect, Cao Cang is divided into three categories: Jingtong Warehouse, Water Warehouse, and Small Cashing Warehouse, Jingtong Warehouse is the end point of Cao Grain Storage, and Water Warehouse is the intermediary of Cao Grain Transit, and Small Cao Warehouse is the starting point of Cao Grain payment.
Governance problems encountered in Baocao Transportation
In order to ensure the operation of the storage system, it is not only necessary to set up cao warehouses along the river, but also to ensure the smooth flow of water transportation and save transportation costs. Ancient Chinese governments spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build Caocang and control the river, just to ensure Cao transportation.
Water transport requires navigable rivers to transport grain. Most of China's rivers flow from west to east, with a large difference between the upstream and downstream, and the navigation conditions are not superior. Due to the lack of north-south rivers, it is necessary to build a Grand Canal to communicate the water system and realize the smooth transportation between the north and the south. During the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the large-scale construction of the canal not only strengthened the east-west transportation, but also realized the north-south communication for the first time. The Yuan Dynasty opened the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal for the first time, laying an important foundation for the transportation of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Compared with land transportation, the cost of water transportation is low, but the excavation of canals and river treatment is not a one-time project, and it also requires long-term special maintenance, and the cost is still high, and there are many problems:
First, it is difficult to excavate. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty suggested that he wear a ramp, nearly 400 miles, and Emperor Wu sent people to make a ramp for more than 500 miles, but it could not be washed and was unsuccessful. Sanmenxia is the throat of the Yellow River, but because of the geographical environment constraints, the past dynasties have either dug the river, or dug the mountain to build bridges, or changed the water, or adopted a roundabout way to avoid the Sanmen natural hazards, etc., and tried their best to sort out and remediate the river, but the actual effect is unsatisfactory.
Second, the flow of river water is uneven, and a lot of water is insufficient, shallow and astringent to hinder transportation. In the golden age of Caoyun in the Tang Dynasty, it was already felt that the water of the Bianhe River was insufficient, which was very unfavorable to shipping. During the Song Dynasty, the riverbed became higher and higher, and the water felt more shallow. In the second year of Jingde of Song Zhenzong (1005), the ships were transported to Kyoto one after another, but because of the shallow water, they had to be transported, resulting in the price of grain in the capital was quite expensive.
Third, the sediment is seriously blocked and easy to be abandoned. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Cao Yun waterway was centered on Kaifeng, including the Bianhe River, the Huainan Canal, the Jiangnan Canal, the Yellow River, the Cai River, the Guangji River and the Yuhe River. In order to ensure the operation of large-scale water transportation, the government invested a huge amount of money to control the various water transportation waterways, and achieved certain results, but after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, most of the waterways lost the necessary treatment, and the condition of the river deteriorated, leading to annihilation and abandonment.
Fourth, shipping and irrigation are contradictory. Most of the banks of the canal are fertile fields and towns, and the water needs to be guaranteed for water transportation, which will affect the water used for irrigation and the people. In the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Xining of the Song Dynasty (1073), the capital water supervisor Cheng Hou Shuxian requested to lead the water to silt the idle fields, and Wang Anshi strongly implemented it. After several releases, the Bianhe River is almost out of flow, and it is difficult for heavy boats to drive and it is easy to run aground.
Fifth, the ice blocked transportation in winter, which reduced the transportation volume. During the Song Dynasty, it was stipulated that the mouth of the Yellow River should be closed every winter and October to prevent the Yellow River from entering and affecting the transportation of the Bianhe River.
These problems make the government since the Qin and Han dynasties in order to ensure the transportation of water, put a lot of manpower and material resources into the river dug and governance, the situation of the smooth canal is not common in the history books, and the amount of grain transportation is also unstable, with large fluctuations. During the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Shandong Caoyun once reached 6 million stones a year, "in the middle of one year, Taicang and Ganquan were full". And when Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, under the improvement of Wei Jian, he only transported four million stones of Shandong Su. Due to the high cost of river management and the difficulty of Cao Yun, in the case of high cost and loss rate, Cao Yun in the Tang Dynasty will reach the level of "fighting rice and money", which also limits the number of Cao Yun to a certain extent.
启示
As a storage system to maintain the survival of the country, it has been valued by successive rulers, but how to balance the relationship between storage and river transportation capacity, and reduce the cost of river management and transportation, is also an important issue for the government to consider. "Historical Records and Pingzhun Book" records the early years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: "The Su Chen Chen phase of Taicang is full of dew and accumulates outside, so that it is corrupt and inedible. The Tang Dynasty Yuan Jie recorded: "In the Kaiyuan Tianbao, the cultivator is powerful, and within the four seas, the mountains are extremely high, and the ravines are also full." People's grain reserves are all years old. Taicang is accumulated, and the stale is incomparable. These two cases have been regarded by many historians as the embodiment of the economic development of the prosperous era, but in ancient times, hoarding so much grain required a huge cost, and the cost of transportation was quite high, which was not reasonable.
"Old Tang Dynasty Book: The Biography of Pei Yaoqing" records that during the Zhenguan and Yonghui periods, the grain transferred to Guanzhong was only one or two hundred thousand stones, and later the cost increased. This reflects the helplessness of the Tang Dynasty in the face of Caoyun's difficulties, and also shows the pragmatic attitude of Tang Xuanzong at that time, and did not require Caoyun to meet the needs of Guanzhong. With the rigidity of the rulers' thinking, how to maintain the reasonable way between warehousing and transportation has been increasingly neglected, and the benefits of the medieval Grand Canal in the first 700 years outweigh the disadvantages, and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages in the last 500 years. In the late Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River migrated northward, the transportation channels were silted, and shipping and railways became the dominant modes of grain transportation, and the storage settings also changed. However, the four prefectures of Xu, Yang, Huai and Tong in Jiangbei still transfer more than 100,000 Shicao grain to Tongzhou through the canal every year, and the river transportation cost is amazing, and the time is as long as 35 years, because the Qing court does not value its practical value to the people's livelihood of the country, but tries to take the Jiangbei river transportation as the starting point, and use the Cao-related interest groups and the old-fashioned river transportation faction inside and outside the imperial court to check and balance the "Western" reform forces with the "Xianghuai Group" as the main body, so as to contain and curb the expansion of the power of the Xianghuai Group, and even change the "internal and external importance" of the late Qing Dynasty and interest groups with Caoyun and the Governor of the River as the core are also happy to use this to maintain their private interests from the river transport. After experiencing the depreciation of grain and the saving of redundant expenses and returning to the public during the Xianfeng period, the local governors of the late Qing Dynasty began to question the operation logic regardless of the cost, and paid more attention to the gains and losses of the mode of Cao affairs.
It can be seen from this that in ancient China, the relationship between warehousing and transportation costs was generally considered, and the cost was not disregarded because of the importance of warehousing to control the river and increase the transportation, resulting in huge waste, and even the storage was more sufficient to suspend the transportation to save people's resources;
(Source: People's Tribune Magazine, the author is Duan Wei, researcher and doctoral supervisor of the Historical Geography Research Center of Fudan University, and chief expert of the major research project of philosophy and social science of the Ministry of Education)