were reluctant to use the Chinese in their government. Chinese talent wasexcluded from positions of authority and discriminative social and legal laws were set up,limiting the freedom of the Chinese. To support agriculture, Khubilai Khan created an Office for Stimulation ofAgriculture in 1261.6 Although many of his people wanted to establish the nomadic wayof life inside the Great Wall, in early 1262, Khubilai passed a law forbidding nomads’animals from roaming on farmland. He filled up granaries in case of future famines,especially in the north where the land had been ravaged. At the “Central Capital,” Ta-tu,Khubilai had 58 granaries, which stored 145,000 shih (one shih was equivalent to about133 pounds) of grain.7 He organized the farmers into groups called the she. Each shecomposed of 50 families and were under the supervision of a village leader known as theshe-chang.8 The she’s chief purpose was to serve in the stimulation of agriculture. Theywere encouraged to complete self-help projects such as promoting silk production,planting trees, improving irrigation and flood control, and stocking rivers and lakes withfish. Each she were to observe their own members and reward those who workedefficiently and discipline those who were lazy. The she not only, in a sense, give peasantscontrol over their lives, but also helped the government to watch over the people. It alsointroduced the peasant children with a better education in agricultural techniques and basicliteracy.9Khubilai Khan also organized a fixed, regular taxing system. Instead of payingtaxes to the local collectors, the people just made one annual payment to the centralgovernment. The government then paid the nobles. Khubilai also demanded a great dealof unpaid labor from the people. Not only did Khubilai demand the people to providelabor, but also to provide their own horses and supplies. At the same time he issued lawsand codes demanding o...
