Under the T'ang dynasty, capitations called tsu _??_, yung _??_ and t'iao _??_ were levied on men of productive age (between 21 and 59).
Tsu consisted in two tan _??_ 4 of unhulled millet, yung in 1.5 p'i _??_ of silk or 1.5 tuan _??_ of flax, and t'iao in 0.5 p'i of silk plus three liang _??_ of silk wadding or 0.5 tuan of flax plus three chin _??_ of hemp. Both tsu and t'iao could be replaced with 15 days of labor for the Government, and yung with 20 days of labor. Even at the beginning of the Tang period, however, paupers were exempted from yung and t'iao for grace, tsu alone remaining. Those who were registered as fu-ping _??__??_ in the regular army could also claim this benefit when the actual service was not demanded for reasons of poverty. In the early years of T'ien Pao _??__??_, this exemption was replaced with the tsu-yung exemption, which leaves t'iao alone.
The reason for this change was that flax or silk had the nature of currency more than unhulled millet. In the fifth year of T'ien Pao, the scope of exemption was enlarged so that 30 men, instead of 10 men as was formerly the case, could claim the benefit in one hsiang _??_, that is, an administrative unit made up of 500 households.
This enlargement of the scope of exemption was effected, because the number of taxable men had increared from 1, 000, 000 to 7, 000, 000 or even 8, 000, 000 as a result of the more efficient census taking.
The fact that there were so many paupers exempt from yung-t'iao or tsu-yung duties, or even from the military service as fu-ping, however, suggests the conclusion that the chün-t'ien _??__??_ method of dividing land for cultivation was not enforced even in the early T'ang period.
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