In Chinese history, the imperial court was most skilled at calculating and scheming against the common people. Many times, the common people didn't even realize it and had to thank the court. During the Song and Jin periods, collecting grain taxes required the common people to transport grain to designated locations specified by the court. It wasn't a matter of going to the countryside to collect taxes; rather, the court told you where to deliver, and you had to deliver there. When the Jin Dynasty collected grain taxes, they also required you to send the grain to a designated place.

However, the Jin court paid for the transportation costs. They would reduce your tax amount based on the distance you traveled. For example, if you owed 100 jin of grain, and you delivered it for the court, the court would only collect 90 jin, and the 10 jin saved would be considered your transportation fee.

On the other hand, in the Song Dynasty, you had to pay for the transportation yourself. Not only did you cover the transportation costs, but the court also took advantage of this. For example, in your village, if transporting grain was "too troublesome," the government would help you transport it. The transportation fee would then be earned by the government, called "land foot money." The same tax payment, but in Jin, the court paid for transportation; in Song, you paid for it yourself, and only the government could profit from this transportation fee.

Worse still, this "land foot money" became a fixed tax item that the court was accustomed to collecting. Sometimes, if the grain didn't need to be transported elsewhere, you could just deliver it locally. Theoretically, there would be no transportation fee, but you still had to pay this "land foot money."

In the second year of Emperor Huizong's Da Guan era, someone petitioned the court, saying that this "land foot money" was just the transportation fee for the grain. How much did the court collect? 56 wen per dou. The problem was, how much was one dou of grain worth? The transportation fee was already equal to the price of one dou of grain. Because of this "land foot money," the common people paid double the taxes.

The Ministry of Revenue said that now, the common people selling cattle or land couldn't even afford this transportation fee. The court was "really quite generous." Emperor Huizong issued an edict saying that if your family was too poor, and your tax was less than one dou of grain, meaning you owed less than one dou, you didn't have to pay this transportation fee. I would exempt you.

What is the core logic of this matter? Essentially, the court was shifting its responsibility of transporting grain—something that belonged to the court—to the common people. The court collected grain and money but did not bear any administrative costs or other expenses.

However, many common people couldn't see this clearly. They still thought they were grateful to the court, believing that the court was helping their production and livelihood. They thought, "The court is so good," paying taxes and having the court help with transportation, and that paying this transportation fee was justified.