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Toward a Study of the Economic Views of Sang Hung-Yang

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

J. L. Kroll
J. L. Kroll*
Affiliation:
Leningrad Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies
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Extract

The study of the economic views of the eminent Han statesman and thinker Sang Hung-yang (152-80 B.C.) permits various approaches. One tendency has been to examine his ideas within the context of the general history of economic thought. T'ang Ch'ing-tseng, for instance, has attempted to find modern European parallels in his analysis of the Yen t'ieh lun (especially those theories attributed to Sang). Later attempts, however, which examine Sang's economic ideas in the context of the history of Chinese economic thought itself seem more fruitful. For example, V. M. Stein has convincingly established the connection between the Kuan-tzu and Sang's views in the Yen t'ieh lun. Stein concluded first that Sang was “a Legalist of a new formation” who “approved of any source of income,” even of the kind of “profiteering” which was later endemic to the society of Peter the Great of Russia; and, second, that he was a practical financier, who borrowed the theoretical basis for his measures to regulate the economy from the Kuan-tzu, but disregarded the “deep-laid ethical basis” of this work.

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Articles
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Early China , Volume 4 , 1978 , pp. 11 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1978

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References

FOOTNOTES

1. Ch'ing-tseng, T'ang, Huan K'uan Yen t'ieh lun ching-chi hsüeh-shuo chin chleh ,” Tung-fang tsa-chih 26.17 (1929), pp. 71–89Google Scholar.

2. Stein, V. M., Guan-tsui: Issledovanle i perevod [Kuan-tzu: A Stuay and Translation] (Moscow, 1959), pp. 23, 180–181Google Scholar; also see pp. 30, 33, 37, 45, 115-118, 128, 163-167, 175-176, 178, 184-185, 190, 195-196, 201-208.

3. Chi-ch'uang, HuChung-kuo ching-chi ssu-hs1ang shih (Shanghai, 1963), vol. 2, pp. 77–91Google Scholar.

4. Yu. L. Krol', “Prostranstvennule predstavleniya v polemlke han skikh mulsliteley (po materialam traktata ‘Yan te lun’” [Space concepts in a dispute of Han thinkers (as reflected in the treatise ‘Yen t'ieh lun’)], Shestaya nauchnaya konferentsiya “Obshchestvo i gosudarstvo v Kitae.” Tezisui i dokfadui (Moscow, 1975), I, pp. 122–128Google Scholar.

5. Sang and his subordinates in the Yen t'ieh lun share the Legalist no fon of the universalism of law. See Yen t'ieh lun chlao chu ed. by Li-ch'i, Wang (Shanghai, 1958), ch. 34, p. 245, ch. 57, pp. 353-356Google Scholar. (All citations of the text, hereafter referred to as YTL, are to the p'ien and page numbers In this edition.) Universalism seems to be one of the characteristic features of the worldview of the Legalist school. It is deeply rooted in the reforms of Shang Yang, who not only established universalistic laws, but also introduced uniform administrative division, and thus realized universalism in the realm of space by having the newly created administrative districts subordinated to the Ch'in prince, as well as standardized taxes, measures and weights, which 1s to be looked at as another case of the realization of the universalism of the monarch. See Shih chi, Shiki kaichū kōshō ed. by Kametaō, Takikawa (Kyoto, 1936 and 1958), ch. 68, pp. 7–11Google Scholar.

6. Hu, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 80. A better formulation of Sang's view can be found In Chunming, Chang, “The Genesis and Meaning of Huan K'uan's ‘Discourses on Salt and Iron’,” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review XVIII (1934) pp. 38–39Google Scholar.

7. Krol', op- cit., pp. 123-126; Krol', Yu. L., “Kitaitsui i ‘varvarul’ v sisteme konfutsianskikh predstavlenly o vselennoy (II v. do n.e. - II v. n.e.)” [Chinese and ‘Barbarians’ in the Confucian Worldview (2nd cent. B.C. -- A.D. 2nd cent.)], Narodul Azii i Afriki 6 (1978), pp. 45–57Google Scholar.

8. See, for instance., Needham, J., Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge, 1956), vol. 2, p. 262Google Scholar.

9. For the traditional definition of a “merchant” as one who “circulates” (t'ung) wealth and goods, see Cheng Hsüan's comm: to Chou liShih-san ching chu shu 14. 11a. Felber, R., Die Entwicklung der Austauschverhältnisse im alten China (Berlin, 1973), pp. 118, 110, et passimGoogle Scholar.

10. Here as well as later quotations from chapters 1-28 are adopted with modifications from Gale, E. M., Discourses on Salt and Iron (reprinted Taipei, 1973)Google Scholar. For a Confucian parallel to the above quotation see Tjan, T. S., Po Hu T'ung (Leiden, 1952), vol. II, p. 416Google Scholar.

11. Chou YiShih-san ching chu shu ed., 8.4a-b; Wilhelm, R. and Baynes, C. F., The I Ching or Book of Chanties (Princeton, 1977), pp. 530–333Google Scholar; Tökei, F., Genre Theory in China In the 3rd to 6th Centuries (Budapest, 1971), pp. 140–141Google Scholar.

12. Translations from the I ching are adopted from Tökei (see note 11 ). Almost ail Internal quotes referred to herein are only more or less accurate, some resembling the text of the original source rather remotely.

13. Shih chi, ch. 129, p. 5.

14. Passages marked by quotes are from the I ching (see note 11).

15. YTL, ch. 50, p. 314; cf. also the works referred to in note 11.

16. Tökei, op. cit., p. 140, n. 178.

17. Shih chi, ch. 30, p. 42; YTL, ch. 1, p. 4; see also Meng K'ang comm. to Han shu (critical ed. with pu chu comm. by Hsien-ch'ien, Wang (Peking, 1959)Google Scholar; Ho u Han shu , Po-na pen erh-shih-ssu shih (Peking, 1958), ch. 43, p. 643Google Scholar and commentary by Li Hsien. Also see Hsi-tsu, Chu, “Sang Hung-yang chih ching-chi cheng-ts'e fu Sang Hung-yang nienpiao ,” Kuo-li Pei-ching ta hsüeh she-hui k'o-hsüeh chi-k'an 4.1-2 (1925), pp. 133-134, 136–138Google Scholar; Chang, pp. 21-22; Swann, N. L., Food and Money in Ancient China (Princeton, 1950), pp. 64-65, 314–315Google Scholar; Hu, vol. 2, pp. 98-101.

18. Hou Kan shu, ch. 43, p. 643.

19. Shih chi, ch. 30, p. 28; Han shu, ch. 24B, p. 2052.

20. For shu meaning “transport” see Chiu chang suan shu , Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng, 1st. series, (Shanghai, 1935–1937), ch. 6, p. 85Google Scholar.

21. Ibid. Also cf. discussion at Beryozkina, E. I., Matematika v devyuati knigakh [Mathematics in Nine Books], Istoriko-matematicheskie issledovaniya X (Moscow, 1957), p. 478Google Scholar; Needham vol. 3, p. 26.

22. Shih chi, ch. 30, pp. 42-43; YTL, ch. 1, p. 4; Han shu, ch. 24A, p. 2061; Ch'ien Han chi Ssu-pu ts'ung k'an ed. (Shangnai, 1928), 13.5aGoogle Scholar. See also Chu, pp. 134-136, 138-140; Hu, vol. 2, pp. 101-103; Swann, p. 65.

23. Han shu, ch. 21A, p. 1629. Internal quote from the Shu ching, see Legge, J., The Chinese Classics, Vol. III: The Shoo King (Hongkong, London, 1865), pp. 35–36 (translation modified)Google Scholar; cf. Shih chi, ch. 1, p. 36. For the connection between the term p'ing chun and such standards as pitch-pipes and measures, see Ch'i-hsiang, Wang, Chou Ch'in ming-chia san tzu chiao-ch'üan (Peking, 1957), p. 23Google Scholar. It is to be noted than in Confucianism the standardization of market prices was looked upon as one of the portents of the age of “the Great Peace and Equality” (T'ai p'ing), the period of the triumph of royal universalism. See Lun heng (chiao shih ed. by Hui, HuangTaipei, 1964), ch. 52, pp. 751–752Google Scholar; Krol, “Kitaitsui …,” n. 56, In A.D. 5 an attempt was made to connect the standardization of prices with the achievement of “the Great Peace and Equality” alleged to have been due to Wang Mang's efforts. See Han shu, ch. 99A, p. 5693.

24. Internal quote from the Meng-tzu, see Legge, J., The Chinese Classics, Vol. II (1940 Peking reprint of 1865 ed.), p. 256Google Scholar.

25. Hu, vol. 2, pp. 88-89, 104-105; Swann, pp. 298-294.

26. Stein, pp. 152, 164-165, 202; Hu, vol. 2, p. 103.

27. Kuan-tzu t'ung shih ed. by Wei-ch'eng, Chih (Shanghai, 1924), ch. 73, p. 441, ch. 79, p. 481Google Scholar.

28. For a review of translations and Interpretations of the term, see Stein, pp. 149-158 and Blue, R. C., “The Argumentation of the Shih-huo chih chapters of the Han, Wei, and Sui Dynastic Histories,” HJAS XI (1948), pp. 102–104Google Scholar; cf. also Swann, pp. 25, 222-224, 229, 358; Maverick, L., Po-fu, T'an and Kung-wen, Wen, Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: Selections from the Kuan-tzu (Carbondale, Ill., 1954), pp. 6, 97-98, 105-112, 267, 374–376Google Scholar.

29. Cf. Yin Chih-chang's note that ch'ing chung means “dear and cheap, high and low prices,” quoted at YTL. ch. 14, p. 101, n. 1. See also Stein, op. cit., p. 153.

30. Kuan-tzu, ch. 73, p. 442.

31. Ibid., ch. 73, pp. 440-441.

32. Han shu, ch. 24B, pp. 2034-2035.

33. Internal quotes from the Kuan-tzu, ch. 74, p. 447.

34. Cf. Ibid ch. 75, p. 450.

35. A quote from the Kuan-tzu, ch. 81, p. 502

36. A quote from the Shih chi, ch. 30, p. 47.

37. Internal quotes from the Kuan-tzu, ch. 73, pp. 438-440.

38. According to Sang, the military function of the state is one manifestation of royal care for the safety and repose of subjects “whereas state riches are a prerequisite of royal help for them.

39. See also YTL, ch. 5, p. 38. Such an aim has also been ascribed In antiquity to the policy of setting up the “five equalizations” with a standardization of prices. In A.D. 10, Wang Mang explained the establishing of Institutions destined to stabilize the economy (the “five equalizations,” state monopolies, etc.) as an attempt to equalize the people and crush the rich. See Han shu, ch. 24B, p. 2067.

40. YTL, ch. 16, p. 114 (reference in note 4).

41. Han shu, ch. 24B, pp. 2073-2074; Swann, op. cit., pp. 357-359; Blue, op. cit., pp. 46, 60-62.

42. Chou yi, 2.19a; Wilhelm/Baynes, p. 64 (translation modified).

43. Han shu, ch. 24A, p. 2010; cf. Chu, pp. 135-136.

44. The I Ching connects “decrease” and “increase” with the “times” and “seasons”. See Chou yl 4.15b-16a, 17b; Wilhemm/Baynes, pp. 590, 597; Wilhelm, H., “Der Zeitbegriff im Buch der Wandlungen,” Eranos-Jahrbuch 20 (1952), p. 342Google Scholar. According to Stein, the sovereign's Interference with the economy is concordant with annual and seasonal fluctuations and follows the principle of conforming to the seasons. The same principle is also accepted by Sang, see Stein, pp. 151-152, 154, 156, 165, 183, 186, 189-191. It seems that the principle of regulating the economy in conformity with time (in particular, the seasons) is another example of the influence of the I Ching on the economic thought of the Kuan-tzu, Sang, and others.

45. See also Kuan-tzu, ch. 20, p. 167, ch. 73, pp. 438-441, ch. 83, p. 517, etc.; Stein, pp. 41, 151-152, 189-192, 284-288, etc.

46. Swann, op. cit., pp. 63, 65-66, 275-283; Han shu ch. 6, p. 197; cf. also Chu, pp. 141-142.

47. Swann, pp. 44-45, 166-167, 169-172, 245-246, 317; YTL, ch. 6, p. 43, ch. 10, p. 73, ch. 32, p. 240.

48. Han shu, ch. 24A, p. 2019.

49. The first internal quote 1s from Shih chi, ch. 122, p. 11; the second from Kuan-tzu, ch. 67, p. 425

50. Lao-tzu chiao shih ed. by Ch'ien-chih, Chu (Shanghai, 1958), ch. 77, p. 192Google Scholar. See also Chou yi 2.19a; Wilhelm/Baynes, p. 462.

51. Stein, pp. 146, 152; Maverick et al., op. cit. pp. 5, 227-228; Rlckett, A., Kuan-tzu: A Repository of Early Chinese Thought (Hongkong, 1965), pp. 2-4, 151-153, 22O–223Google Scholar.

52. Han shu, ch. 30, p. 3141, 3148; Chou yi 2.19a-b

53. See reference in note 4 above, especially p. 128. Also see Krol', Yu. L., “Predstavleniya drevnekitaiskikh mulsliteley o vremeni (po materialam traktata Iv. do n.e. ‘Yan te lun’)” [Time Concepts of Ancient Chimase Thinkers (as Reflectad in the Treatise ‘Yen t'ieh Tun’ of the 1st cent. B.C.;], Sed maya nauchnaya konferentsiya “Obshchestvo i qosudarstvo v Kitae.” Tezisui i dokladui (Moscow, 1976), I. p. 157Google Scholar.

54. See also Meng-tzu, Legge, (tr.), p. 269Google Scholar.

55. See, for Instance, Loewe, Michael, Crisis and Conflict in Han China (London, 1974), p. 98Google Scholar.