Chapter 49 Section 2 The most stringent household registration system
Transforming society into an atomic state is not Zhu Yuanzhang's ultimate goal, because loose sand will flow freely under the wind and sun, forming sand dunes, forming a new uneven and unstable state.Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the "grass grid sand control method" to fix the sand with political power.His grass grid is a series of edicts to solidify society.
The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty ruled the country immediately, with more than enough martial arts, but not enough literary talent.The Mongols regarded the Han people as slaves, and their ruling methods were brutal and brutal, which constituted a major retrogression in the history of Chinese political technology.However, Zhu Yuanzhang inherited the remaining threads of the Great Yuan Dynasty and pushed the barbaric and tyrannical rulers of the Yuan Dynasty to a new height.
The Ming Dynasty inherited the strict occupational hereditary system of the Yuan Dynasty, and divided the national population into three categories: farmers, soldiers, and craftsmen, and then divided them into several subcategories. For example, among craftsmen, they were also divided into cooks, tailors, and boatmen. Wait.Among the military households, it is also subdivided into wrestlers, archers, shop soldiers, etc.Among the private households, in addition to ordinary farmers, there were stove households drying salt along the coast, horse households raising horses for the army, mausoleum households showing graves to the emperor's family, garden households managing gardens, and tea households growing tea.In addition, there are more than 80 kinds of rice households, hoarders, vegetable households, fishermen, kiln households, wine households, egg households, station households, altar households, female households, beggar households, etc. (Luan Chengxian's "Yellow Book of Taxes and Service and Ming Dynasty Rank Status") "Registration is not allowed to be disordered, and service is always filled." That is to say, occupation is determined innately and inherited from generation to generation, and no one has the freedom to choose.For example, if you are a soldier, then your children and grandchildren will be soldiers for generations to come. Unless you become an official and become the Minister of the Ministry of War, you are not allowed to leave the military.In the same way, if your father was a tailor, you and your descendants will always be able to tailor for a living, whether you have six fingers or are disabled.
After classifying the population, Zhu Yuanzhang established the most stringent household registration system in ancient Chinese history and also in the ancient history of the world, also known as the system.
Population statistics registration is still a huge systematic project, which requires accurate and scientific organization and the mobilization of huge manpower and material resources.It is conceivable how difficult it would be to carry out accurate population registration under the technical conditions of communication, transportation, and statistics at that time.However, Zhu Yuanzhang's harsh punishments are infinitely powerful.The order he issued in the early years of Hongwu said: "The world is peaceful now, but the household registration is not clear yet... My army here is not going to fight now, and I will teach these soldiers to go to the states and counties, and go to the fields to get a book. Check locally to see if the common people's writing is true. Those who are verified to be true are good people, and those who are not true will be used as soldiers. If there are officials who dare to hide their household registration, they will be executed. The common people have avoided it. , According to the law, you must be convicted, and you will use it as an army. This is it."
He stipulated that all people in the whole country should be registered in the household registration, and the household registration book should state in detail the basic information such as the name, occupation, age and property of the family members.This murderous order announced that China's household registration system has entered a new stage.The imperial army formed a task force, armed with weapons, and went deep into the countryside and fields of various places, and went door to door to register the population. Because the cover of the household registration book was made of yellow paper, it was called the "yellow book".
The population registration work during the Hongwu period was carried out under the continuously strengthened bloody laws.In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, because fraudulent behavior was discovered in the population registration, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order that all household registration books must be filled in by the parents themselves or reported in person, and no one else is allowed to arrange it for them. Those who did not report would be "executed as a whole, the households were concealed, the parents were executed, and the population was relocated."
Such a large-scale population registration is carried out every ten years, and the slight changes of each household are carefully reflected in the household registration book.With the joint efforts of high-pressure policies, sophisticated organization and Zhu Yuanzhang's high-quality cadre team, the census work during the Hongwu period was extremely accurate.The national household registration has been investigated clearly and clearly.
The following is the content of a Ming Dynasty account book:
Lin Rongyi, a private household in Xuzi, 23du, Lingsu Township, Jiaxing County, Jiaxing Prefecture.A family of five.
There are two males: one Cheng Ding and one Lin Rong. They are thirty-nine years old.
Not a small mouthful, male A Shou, five years old.
There are three women: wife Zhang Yiniang, forty years old; daughter Ahuan, twelve years old; second daughter Azhou, eight years old.
Industry: One room per room, one farm, six acres of land.
Hongwu four years X month X day
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