“税收悖论”作为欧洲近代国家形成时期的政治经济学和政治社会学中的核心命题，是理解当时财政发展和国家建设之间互动关系的一条主线索。但这一命题并非只存在于欧洲，我国历史上的大一统王朝也存在着类似的两难境地：小农经济作为国家政权赖以生存的经济基础，国家在不断培植的同时，也不断地摧毁之。因此，如何调适小农经济和大国财政之间的张力，成为了整个帝制时期财税政策的根本出发点，亦是历代王朝“轻徭薄赋”的政策依据。然而，由于法定制度的不完备和约束机制的缺失，“轻徭薄赋”的皇皇明令在实践也逐渐地成为一具空文，历代王朝也在随之而来横征暴敛和财政危机中走向了覆灭。

The paradox of taxation lies at the heart of the political economy and political sociology of modern state during its period of formation in Europe, its solution could help us to understanding the reciprocal relationship between the fiscal development and the state-building. This paradox also appeared in the ancient Chinese history, every dynasty had to kept low levels of tax burden and taken measures to develop the agricultural economy; meanwhile the fragile agricultural economy could not maintain an ever-expanding government. In Chinese history, due to the incomplete law and without hard constraint of government expenditure, the fiscal crisis would make the official tax policy failure, even worse the dynasty also bankruptcy at last.