Chapter 119 The first section of the yellow book system that racked its brains

As mentioned earlier, the household registration system was the foundation of all systems in the Ming Dynasty.The yellow book system undertakes the three important missions of "maintaining the hereditary system of occupations, preventing the free migration of the people, and ensuring national tax revenue".Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to this system.This is evident from the strict regulations of the yellow book system. There are strict requirements on the specifications of the Yellow Book, and the paper must be high-quality thick tissue paper, which must not be dyed or bleached.The length and width are each one foot and two inches, and there must be no mistakes.It must be written in block letters, with clear standards for font size and line spacing.If there is a word written wrong on each page, the entire page must be copied again, and it is not allowed to smear and fill in.There is also a unified standard for binding: it must be bound with thick and strong cotton thread, and a small amount of paste can be used, but insecticides such as pepper powder must be added to the paste to prevent moths.

The yellow book system is a system of reporting layer by layer. Every time a book is made, each household fills in the "requisition form" in detail the changes in their family's population and property within the past ten years according to the format and content required by the government.The chief officials of each state and county must personally check whether the yellow book is true, and whether each item is completely consistent with the confession record, and then sign the yellow book to show responsibility.Then deliver the yellow book to the mansion.The government also followed this procedure to review it again, compiled the general book of the government, signed it and stamped it with a seal, and then sent it to the chief minister of the province (the local administrative agency in the Ming and Qing dynasties).After being reviewed by the chief envoy, the general book of the province will be compiled and sent to the Ministry of Household Affairs (the organ in charge of household registration and finance).Finally, the Ministry of Households will summarize the national population and property situation and send it to the emperor. (Volume 4 of "Houhu Zhi") Every year when a new book is put into the warehouse, the Ming government will transfer 1,200 supervisors from the Imperial College, and under the leadership of government officials such as Yu Shi, they will carry out the work of "searching the book". "Determined to select 1,200 Guozijian students, and compare the old book with the new one." ("Houhu Zhi" Volume 10) Through the above description, we can find that Zhu Yuanzhang's yellow book system can be said to be painstaking .In his design, this system, together with other outlines and laws established by him, should be regarded as an unshakable "ancestral system" and last forever to ensure the long-term stability of the Ming Dynasty.With the joint efforts of high-pressure policies, sophisticated organization, and Zhu Yuanzhang's high-quality cadre team, the Yellow Book system during the Hongwu period did indeed operate extremely well.Through such a strict degree, the population information of the whole country is sent to Nanjing once every ten years.The yellow book system in this period basically achieved true information and accurate figures, so it did play a good role in equalizing taxation and labor.This was one of Zhu Yuanzhang's original intentions for establishing the yellow book system.