PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL ADMINISTRATION 701Workfare and Other Methods of Relief Yu did not confine his discussion of
the methods of providing relief solely to the ever-normal and village granary
systems because classical wisdom had provided a number of standard methods
to be used in any famine or food crisis. The Rites of Chou listed twelve mea-
sures to take in a famine that included distribution of existing reserves, reduc-
tion of taxes, labor service, and expenditures for mourning rites, ceremonies,
funerals, and marriages, relaxation of penalties for criminal acts committed under
distress, and prohibitions against using the resources of certain forests, rivers,
and waterways. The commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals by Hu An-
kuo of the early twelfth-century Northern Sung dynasty (the Hu-shih Ch 'un-
ch'iu chiian) also suggested transferring grain to areas of famine, moving the
population, selling off surpluses, and initiating public works projects for the
unemployedY
Yu believed that workfare would be preferable to loans to provide relief because
the indigent peasants would not have [he burden of repayment to make in diffi-
cult times. Magistrates might take funds from the ever-normal system and use
it to hire workers without calling it charity, or central agencies of the govern-
ment might hire the starving to work in public works projects. Some parties
objected to Yu's workfare program because it lacked the kind of ancient prece-
dent that existed for other remedies like exemptions from taxation and labor ser-
vice during a famine, but Yu responded that the method had in fact been used by
previous kings (as Hu An-kuo's commentary above revealed), and would kill two
birds with one stone by obtaining some concrete benefit from providing reliefY
Ultimately, however, Yu felt that the solution to relief from famine derived
from the general spirit among the population. If a ruler had been able to govern
well, he would create a spirit of harmony among the people that would over-
come the perversity of some individuals and create a general willingness to obey
the ruler's laws and directions and purify their habits and customs. The people
would diligently engage in their agricultural tasks, be frugal in their expendi-
tures, and save funds for the future. The government would also be frugal and
save as well, and when famine occurred and relief was needed, "everyone would
put their minds to relief and be able to save the population [from starvationl."
The methods delineated by the Rites ()lChou and Hu An-kuo's commentary on
The Spring and AutU1Il1l Annals were all useful, but "one has to be sincere in
extending them to the times, for only then can you really extend benefits to the
people."53
The methods Yu advocated to provide relief in times of famine were not the
product of original or creative inspiration or the application of superior reason
to a complex problem because they were all based on the ever-normal loans
devised first by Li K 'uei in the Chou dynasty and the village granaries of Chu
Hsi in the Sung dynasty. Furthermore, the methods used for relief, like any other
problem in government, was less important than the general aura of governance,
which could only be established by inculcation of fundamental and eternal Con-
fucian moral principles.