In the morning, Kong Yingda, a bachelor of the Secretariat and Hanlin Academy, read newspapers in his office. Although the system stipulates that "hours of work" are not allowed to do private matters, Kong Yingda's behavior of reading newspapers did not violate the regulations.

Because the newspapers he read were publications uniformly subscribed by the government, not hand-written tabloids; secondly, the content he read was not strange stories, but "current affairs comments".

Regarding the revision of the law, a well-educated man published articles and offered suggestions in newspapers and magazines. These are the remarks he wanted to summarize.

The court wanted to revise the "Da Zhou Law". In order to facilitate the distinction between the front and back, the law, which was temporarily called the revised version of the law by the year name, was the "Mingde Law".

Because it is of great importance, the emperor ordered that officials from the state and above could write to the public schools (provincial schools and above) with supreme power to express their opinions in major newspapers and magazines across the country.

Of course, the content mentioned must be reviewed by the newspaper specialist, and there must be no banned remarks. The author can have a real name or a pseudonym.

The Hanlin Academy of the Secretariat of the Secretariat is responsible for collecting opinions from all parties regarding the revision of the Mingde Law. Therefore, the tasks of Kong Yingda and his colleagues are not only collected and sorted out the articles on the offices of officials, but also read newspapers to record the views and opinions of scholars from all over the country on the amendment of the law.

An article I read now is the author of a Ph.D. in Bozhou Prefecture, and analyzes the "particular wealth" clause (prepared) of the "Mingde Law" in the "Mingde Law".

The author objected to this and listed the reasons.

The so-called different family and different wealth means "to establish a separate household registration and separate property", which means that when the father and grandparents are still alive, their descendants will separate their families, establish their own families, and divide their family wealth.

From the perspective of Confucian ethics, this approach is really inappropriate. "Separate family" separates the family, so that parents and descendants are separated, and that their descendants are not allowed to support them well, which affects "filial piety"; differentiate property, so that brothers and sisters can influence "legality" because of "profit".

On the contrary, the practice of living together and sharing wealth (combining family members and sharing wealth) is in line with the moral principles of human ethics.

The current "Da Zhou Law" is divided into "House Marriage", and does not make clear provisions on "different wealth from different sources" and "cohabitation and wealth together", which means that the court's attitude is ambiguous.

Kong Yingda knows some reasons for this.

When Zhou and Qi fought against each other, the Zhou State, which was in poverty, faced a far superior territory, population and resources than its own. Overall, the national strength was obviously at a disadvantage.

To this end, the Zhou State tried hard to mobilize all forces that could be mobilized, and implemented the military system of the government and military forces, and then vigorously encouraged the people to open up land and farm, and promoted the people to separate their families to increase taxes.

The law at that time stipulated that every family, males must "repart from each family after marriage," that is, separate households. Even if they are not married, they must separate households and establish households at the specified age. This is the forced apartnership in the court.

Therefore, when Zhou State destroyed Qi State, the number of households in Zhou State was nearly 3.6 million, while the number of households in Qi State was about 3.3 million, and the number of households in Qi State was not counted.

This is a surprising comparison of numbers. Many people may not understand: How can the Zhou Kingdom, which is clearly at a disadvantage in its national strength, have more households than Qi Kingdom?

The reason is that at that time, the number of households in Zhou State was not a normal average of about five people per household, but an average of two and a half people per household, which was equivalent to a couple and minor children, and was a "small household".

Only when Zhou State encouraged "uniqueness" was the case, the number of households must be increased, taxes should be increased as much as possible, and more troops should be supported to confront Qi State.

After Qi was destroyed, the Zhou Dynasty was in chaos soon. Under years of war, the court's financial pressure was very high, so the "unique" policy continued.

Until the reunification of the world and in the early years of Mingde, the court revised the law and did not make any compulsory requirements for "alternatives".

However, it is not prohibited from "fathers and grandchildren, and their descendants are from different wealth". For large families that do not separate their families, they will collect more taxes to avoid someone evading taxes by not sharing their families.

The court made a choice when the law was revised, but this choice not only required "participation" but also allowed "different wealth" (proposed clauses), allowing the father and grandchildren to separate their families while they were still alive.

Of course, the premise of being a different person is to get married or meet the age requirements.

In order to ensure filial piety and ensure that the elderly can support them, the eldest son and the eldest son are not allowed to separate their families. If the eldest son and the eldest son are not alive, the second son and the second son and the second son must be in harmony with the father and the ancestor.

If there is no legitimate son, legitimate grandson, illegitimate son, illegitimate grandson and father and grandson together.

Such clauses (developed) have caused great controversy now. The reason for opponents is that "the father and grandfather are there, and the descendants are from different wealth" is contrary to human ethics, while supporters believe that according to the current situation, "different wealth" is very necessary.

Kong Yingda has an official draft of the draft "Mingde Law" published, which explains and gives examples of the reasons for the legislation (revision) of each article. There are three reasons for the legislation:

First, many cases occur in various places: families with cohabitation and wealth have unworthy descendants who squander their family wealth. When their parents die after they separate, they ask their brothers to share the inheritance equally, take advantage of them, and honest people suffer losses.

Secondly, if the government stipulates that "fathers and grandchildren are here, and their descendants are from different wealth" is illegal, then loopholes will arise, giving villains an opportunity to take advantage of.

That is, if a family of people living together with wealth, there are treacherous descendants who are cleverly speaking and making things difficult for their father and grandfather to divide their property. After spending all of them, they can bring out the saying that "there are illegal things in other places" and cheating.

This is used to prove that the previous property distribution is illegal, and the family property needs to be redistributed, which in turn embezzles the brothers' property.

Third, if the ownership of personal property (private property) in the big family is not clear, if legislation prohibits "fathers and grandchildren from being in different places," once a member of a family of shared wealth engages in industry and commerce, establishes trading houses, factories, and invests in companies, can the industries and shares under his name be regarded as the shared property of the big family?

Is this fair?

It is reasonable to have a family that you have made your father and grandfather alike to have a share of your brothers and nephews. This is called fairness?

Also, if that person owes debt, can it be regarded as a common debt of the big family?

The prohibition of "fathers and grandchildren are here, and their descendants are from different wealth" is theoretically to ensure the family's filial piety and brotherhood. However, when the prosperity of industry and commerce has become a trend, there will be a risk of fathers and grandchildren being dragged down by unfilial descendants and owing huge debts for no reason.

It is difficult to clarify this kind of family debt. So, can "wealth belongs to a big family, and debt belongs to you alone"?

Based on reality, the Civil Law not only does not prohibit "fathers and grandchildren from being in different places, but also requires families to actively separate families and clarify their own property rights in order to avoid various debt risks.

This made it difficult for many knowledgeable people to accept, and Kong Yingda's own position also tends to oppose it.

In his opinion, living together has many benefits, and a big family with three generations living together and four generations living together can effectively ensure filial piety and brotherhood. This is the moral principle of human ethics.

The court is now promoting the division of families, just like the "dissertation" implemented by Shang Yang of Qin during the Warring States Period during the reform of the Qin State: if there are two or more men, the tax will be doubled. The people are forced to divide the family and analyze the property.

The Qin State unified the world and died in the second lifetime, but the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and this method was also popular in the world at the beginning of the Han Dynasty.

Later, Emperor Wu of Han "demolished all schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone". Confucianism began to intervene in legislation and gradually incorporated Confucian views into the law. By the time of Cao Wei, he eliminated the subjects of different sons and made the father and son have no different wealth.

As a result, living together and sharing wealth has become the mainstream, with more and more large families living together for three generations and four generations living together, and it is becoming more and more common for large families to live together.

Kong Yingda did not think that such a situation was wrong. The existence of a large family gave the clans a shelter, and clans helped each other, walked through ups and downs together, and continued the incense of ancestors.

He believes that allowing "fathers and grandchildren are here, and their descendants are from different wealth" is a challenge to Confucian ethics. Even if the facts do require it, knowledgeable people cannot completely give in on this issue.

To equalize the wealth and poverty, and to support filial piety and brotherhood, is the family ethics advocated by Confucianism. The court’s forced household registration is not conducive to the support of the elderly in the family and is not conducive to "filial piety".

In addition, small families with "unparalleled wealth" can each maintain their own personal relationship, which can easily make brothers indifferent and not help each other, which is not conducive to "legality".

The author focused on the articles in the newspaper that Kong Yingda read, and his views on the author were sympathetic.

Moreover, Kong Yingda believes that these clauses in the Civil Law are not just the confrontation between "an alien child" and "cohabitation and wealth", but their legislative motivation is somewhat "bad".

Because he could probably guess what the emperor wanted to do, but this was an open conspiracy and no one could say anything.

Now it seems that the adjustment was made to cope with the great development of industry and commerce. However, when such terms are passed, it means that the next step is to gain a better position.

Kong Yingda felt that such a hole could not be opened. If it was opened, there would probably be a disaster of "a thousand-mile dike that was destroyed by an ant hole" in the future.

However, in the face of such open conspiracies and the actual legislative needs, opponents can only find ways to "present facts and reason."
Chapter completed!