A Research On The Expenditure And Revenue Of Imperial College In Nanjing In Ming Dynasty

As one of the highest official school in the Ming Dynasty,Nanjing Imperial College had all its funds set up for cultivating talents.The funds of Nanjing Imperial College are small to the lamp oil and paper used in daily recitation,and large to the salary given by officials according to the grade,which involves the whole process of talent training.Clarifying the funds of Nanjing Imperial College and the system behind it can help to study the self-adjustment ability of the education department in the Ming Dynasty in the tide of tax reform and the changes of the education policy in the Ming Dynasty.The income of Nanjing Imperial College can be divided into three parts.One part came from local counties,which mainly came from Nanzhili and Huguang province.The other part came from the Nanjing Military Department,the Ministry of Punishment and other Nanjing government departments.The other part were the multi-financing income of the competent officials of Nanjing Imperial College and the rent of the premises in Nanjing Imperial College.The expenditure of Nanjing Imperial College is divided into three categories,including ensuring the life of officials and students,maintaining normal operation and promoting the development of Nanjing Imperial College,which involved all aspects of cultivating talents.During Longqing and Wanli years,the wave of ’ silver monetization ’ swept the country.The main form of various funds collection and release of Nanjing Imperial College also changed from in-kind of rice and wheat and silk and corvee to silver.The way of raising funds was to gradually increase the use of fixed funds,plan the surplus silver in Nanjing Imperial College,plan the " Record in the book " surplus silver and other internal adjustment methods,so as to make more flexible use of funds,in addition to department coordination,demand and cost savings.The change of the form of expenditure had led to great changes in the content of various expenditure.On the basis of the original salary,the official salary had increased the categories of silver of servants,meals and temple,etc.The food,clothing,housing and transportation of students gradually changed from the state arrangement in the early Ming Dynasty to the government ’s distribution of silver,rice and self-solution.In addition to the monthly grain,the official clerks also increased the silver of meals.Servants changed from levying labor to paying silver and hiring people to serve.The food expenses were originally distributed in the form of daily meals for teachers,students and officials in the food hall.After the period of Jingtai,the meals in Nanjing Imperial College was abolished,and the materials were distributed for teachers and students.After the tax reform,the food materials were also converted into silver.Some of them were dispersed between teachers and students,and some were used as public in Nanjing Imperial College.Through the comparison of the income and expenditure of Nanjing Imperial College in the Ming Dynasty,it can be found that after the period of Xuande,the funds of Nanjing Imperial College,only with the coordination between various departments,could ensure the balance of income and expenditure;during the Jiajing period,the funding gap appeared,and the balance of payments was gradually difficult to maintain;in Longqing years,there has been a negative situation of fixed income;the funding gap gradually expanded in Wanli period;in the years of Tianqi and Chongzhen,although the fixed income on the book of the Nanjing Imperial College was greater than the fixed expenditure,with the national financial crisis in the late Ming Dynasty,the fixed income of the Nanjing Imperial College was daily deficiency.The ideal situation that the income in writing is greater than the expenditure is difficult to exist.In order to cope with the serious imbalance of income and expenditure after the ’ silver monetization ’,Nanjing Imperial College gradually adjusted its own fund management system.The internal management of Nanjing Imperial College is mainly carried out through a wide variety of bookkeepings.It also set up officials to coordinate and supervise the process of collecting and releasing funds,and cooperated with Nanjing Ducha Yuan and other government offices to check the funds from time to time,and formed a relatively strict fund management mechanism.However,the lack of executive ability of officials led to the theft of power by clerks.The loose management of bookkeepings and the repeated prohibition of corruption and anonymous encroachment led to chaotic management of silver in Nanjing Imperial College.After the years of Longqing and Wanli,with the increasing financial crisis,Nanjing Imperial College ’s non-fixed income was insufficient,and the bulk funds,such as dry fish silver,mealman silver,in fixed income were frequently deprived.Although officials were recovered and raised funds in various ways,the effect was not obvious.Nanjing Imperial College was caught in a financial crisis that was difficult to alleviate.The fund operation mode of Nanjing Imperial College in the Ming Dynasty had undergone great changes.At the beginning of the founding of the Ming dynasty,the Imperial College of Nanjing had his own fund operation mode,included daily meals for officiales and students,various servant’s activities,material supplement and fund coordination of Nanjing ’s various government offices.After the period of Longqing and Wanli,under the joint action of the financial crisis and the ’ silver monetization ’,the Nanjing Imperial College carried out the adjustment of the internal functions and the operation mechanism of the funds consciously or unconsciously.The funds of the Nanjing Imperial College consisted of the abolition of the daily meals,the conversion from goods to silver about the meals materials,the monthly grain of the officials and the service of the servants,the formulation of the anti-corruption regulations,the coordination and investigation of the Nanjing government departments.However,in the context of the national financial crisis,as the education sector,the Nanjing Imperial College ’s self-adjustment ability was still insufficient to solve its increasingly serious funding crisis,which also led to the Nanjing Imperial College ’s effectiveness of training talents greatly reduced.