Yang Yan

Yang Yan (born 727, Fengxiang, Shaanxi province, China—died winter 781, China) was a minister to the Tang emperor Dezong (reigned 779–805).

Yang introduced a new system of taxation into China that helped reduce the power of the aristocratic classes and eliminate their large tax-free estates. Yang abolished the various land, labour, produce, and other taxes to which the Chinese peasantry had been subject and the upper classes immune. In their place he created the double tax. Levied twice a year on land in the 6th and 11th months, regardless of ownership, it persisted in its basic form until the communists came to power in 1949. Yang was banished from the court after a jealous co-minister accused him of bribery and corruption, and, while en route to Hainan, he was ordered to commit suicide by the Dezong emperor.