皇帝節儉利民乎？節儉與唐代後半期的財政構造

Does Emperor's frugality benefit to the common people？A dimension of financial history on Tang Dynasty

本文的出發點如同標題所示：皇帝節儉是否對百姓有利？起因是注意到中唐士人為挽救時弊，提出節用主張，認為節用可以減輕農民負擔。筆者以為，在兩稅法定額制下，即便中央節省用度，也不能改變地方的兩稅定額，則如何可能因節儉而減輕農民負擔？在此疑問下，本文先整理了唐代兩稅法定額制的研究狀況，其次考察皇帝的節儉，皇帝節儉和利民之間的關係，並初步提及士人的節用論。本文認為，皇帝的節儉針對的是各種奢侈行為，雖然具有現實的政治作用，但在唐代後半期的財政構造下，與利民之間似無直接關係。

In this paper I ask one question：Does Emperor’s frugality benefit to the common people? This is because I notice that the Shi-Jen during the middle Tang dynasty propose the Tang government keeping frugal in order to have more resources to save the common people, especially the peasants. I doubt that since the Tang government under the quota system of Liang-Shui-Fa is unable to change the amount of any local government. So even if Emperor or central government saves the tax, it will not change the local tax amount, not to mention that lighten the burden of the common people or peasants. In consideration of this situation, I studied the relation between the frugal behaviors of Emperor and the reduction of burden of the common people or peasants. In the end, I find that Emperor’s frugality is aim to the extravagance of his officials or the rich instead of reducing the burden of the common people or peasants.