Collection of Lishui's Grain Tax Suspended, 1261 CE

Date and content

In the sixth month of 1261 CE, the second year of the Jingding era, the collection of Lishui's grain tax was suspended. The gazetteer records:

二年辛酉，六月倚阁溧水苗税。

Translated: In the second year, in the sixth month, the collection of Lishui's grain tax was suspended. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

The term used, yige, means to set a tax aside and suspend its collection. The gazetteer had already recorded a suspension of Lishui's grain tax in the eleventh month of 1260, the first year of the same era; the two entries fall within two years.

Other records of the period

Under 1262 the gazetteer records that Lishui's farmland was "planned and laid out", and under 1263 a remission of the county's grain tax. The gazetteer has a series of entries on Lishui's land tax in the Jingding years.

Consequences

The collection of Lishui's grain tax was suspended. The gazetteer records neither the share affected nor the term, and does not say whether the arrears were collected later.

Uncertainties

How the suspension was carried out is not recorded, nor is it clear what the phrase about Lishui's farmland under 1262 refers to; the gazetteer offers no explanation.