耿寿昌 / Geng Shouchang (Western Han)

Overview

耿寿昌 / Geng Shouchang enters the wiki through Hanji 456-1 as a Western Han Da Sinong subordinate who proposes two linked grain reforms under 汉宣帝: substitute nearer purchases for part of costly Guandong transport, and build 长平仓 as a price-stabilizing reserve system.

Current Profile

The source presents Geng Shouchang as an administrator who sees both logistics and price effects. Consecutive harvests lower grain prices and hurt farmers, while the old capital-supply system uses large labor commitments to move grain from east of Hangu Pass. Geng proposes buying grain from Sanfu, Hongnong, Hedong, Shangdang, Taiyuan, and neighboring areas to supply the capital, reducing transport labor from Guandong by more than half in the episode’s summary.

He then proposes frontier granaries that buy when grain is cheap and sell when grain is expensive. Xuan accepts the idea and rewards him as Guannei Hou. In the wiki this makes Geng the first focused figure for state grain price stabilization rather than merely a minor economic-policy name.

Key Characteristics

• Western Han fiscal-agricultural official whose proposals combine logistics, price stabilization, and famine preparation.
• Diagnoses low grain prices after repeated harvests as a farmer-income problem rather than only a consumer benefit.
• Replaces distant supply movement with nearer regional procurement around the capital.
• Designs or advocates Changping granaries as countercyclical public reserves.
• Receives Xuan’s acceptance and Guannei Hou reward in the episode.

Evidence

Logistics reform:

• Hanji 456-1 says Geng Shouchang serves as Da Sinong Zhongcheng.
• Hanji 456-1 says repeated harvests make grain cheap and farmers’ returns weak.
• Hanji 456-1 says the old pattern moves four million hu of grain annually from east of Hangu Pass to the capital with more than sixty thousand transport laborers.
• Hanji 456-1 says Geng proposes buying from Sanfu, Hongnong, Hedong, Shangdang, Taiyuan, and nearby commanderies to reduce Guandong transport labor by more than half.

Granary policy:

• Hanji 456-1 says Geng proposes building granaries in frontier commanderies.
• Hanji 456-1 says the policy buys at higher prices when grain is cheap and sells at lower prices when grain is expensive.
• Hanji 456-1 says Xuan accepts the proposals and grants Geng the rank of Guannei Hou.

Qualifications

This page is bounded to one source note and does not reconstruct Geng Shouchang’s full office career, precise account-book figures, full implementation geography, later institutional history, or the difference between this source’s wording and classical historiographical terminology for 常平仓 / 长平仓.

What Changed

• Created the Geng Shouchang page from Hanji 456-1 as a grain-logistics and public-reserve policy actor.

Relationships

• Emperor Xuan of Han / 汉宣帝 / 刘询 / 刘病已 - ruler who accepts and rewards Geng’s grain proposals.
• 长平仓制度 / Changping Granary System - institution associated with Geng’s proposal in the episode.
• 国家粮价平准 / State Grain Price Stabilization - policy concept represented by Geng’s buy-low/sell-high public granary design.
• Price-Signal Resource Steering / 价格信号调控物流 - related economic concept because Geng uses price conditions to time public purchasing and release.