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Yang Yan
Tang chancellor who introduced the Two-Tax Law in 780
Mural of the event “The Twice-a-Year Tax Reform”, which this person took part in.
After An Lushan, imperial household registers were in disarray, the traditional equal-field system had wholly bankrupted, and the original poll-tax-based zu-yong-diao system could no longer fit reality. State finances stood on the brink of death-collapse.
Also known as Yang Yanshan
Yang Yan, courtesy name Gongnan, was from Tianxing in Fengxiang prefecture. After Emperor Dezong took the throne in 779 he was recommended by Cui Youfu and made vice director of the chancellery and joint chancellor. In 780, the first year of Jianzhong, he proposed the two-tax system, which merged many earlier levies, assessed households by property and land, fixed the tax in money and collected it in summer and autumn, with no separate labour service. He had the finance official Liu Yan demoted, and Liu Yan was later killed. In 781 Yang Yan was demoted to marshal of Yazhou and ordered to take his own life on the way.
Life and times
Dates c. 727 CE–781 CE