Yang Yan

Yang Yan (Chinese 杨炎, Wade-Giles Yang Yen), (727-781) was an 8th century minister and reformer of the Tang dynasty Emperor Dezong. Yang served for less than two years.

Dezong became emperor in 779/780 and Yang, a close friend of the emperor, was made chancellor on his accession. Yang and the emperor believed that China was in decline. Outdated tax systems demanded immediate attention, and Dezong tasked Yang with those reforms.

Emperor Suzong (r. 756-762) had attempted to achieve similar reforms, although he focused primarily on China's canal infrastructure and the imperial salt monopoly.

Yang fought China's powerful aristocracy and abolished their tax-free estates. A property tax was levied on the size of the aristocrats' land holdings, and another on the sale of harvests was implemented throughout China in 780, only a year after Dezong became emperor. China's former tax structure - the "zuyongdiao", a threefold tax on grain and silk, and the corvée - was borne primarily by the peasantry; it and a variety of punitive taxes on the peasantry were entirely abolished. Instead, Yang created an income tax that was collected twice every year, the "liangshuifa". Yang also directly reformed China's economy - he attempted to stabilize the price of grain in China by storing some of it in granaries when it was overproduced, and turned the tea and yeast (for the production of alcohol) industries into state monopolies.

Yang bore the blame for a scandal in China's foreign relations in 781; the emperor, trying to improve his relations with Tibet, had returned all captives held by the Tang government. The Tibetans, however, were offended by Dezong's condescending tone in his letters and demanded language of mutual equality. The blame for the original letter was placed on Yang Yan, who had written the original letter.

Consequently, Yang was replaced as chancellor. Yang was forced to commit suicide two months later when a libel suit was brought against him.

Yang's reforms bore fruit; China's financial situation quickly improved, bolstered by new practices in rice farming and the development of China's canals. Yang's reforms, however, were highly unpopular among the aristocracy, who found their previous position of privilege from taxation completely reversed, and the policies ultimately backfired on Dezong and his minister when they contributed to the massive revolts that began in the mid-780s and came to occupy the emperor's attention throughout the remainder of his reign.

Yang was also influential in the selection of Shen Chi-chi as court historian; Shen would write a series of important annals chronicling the history of his country.

External links

* [http://www.san.beck.org/AB3-China.html A history of China from 7 BC to 1279]
* [http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Tang/tang-event.html Chinaknowledge.de article]
* [http://nacrp.cic.sfu.ca/nacrp/articles/panyihong/panyihongtext.html Article on foreign relations during the Tang dynasty]