Research Of The Houhu Archives

The Houhu Archives, built on the small island in Houhu in Nanjing during the reign of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, was the archives'storehouse specialized for central government and was specially used to store up taxes archives, such as the Yellow Registers and the Land Registers. It was a specialized service agency which mainly aiming for levying taxes and corvee for Ming Dynasty. Due to the reasons such as its superior geographic location and characteristic storehouse for preservation archives, The Houhu Archives could still stay there when Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing, while most of the central government's function agencies had to move with him. Special officers were sent by the central government in charge of the Houhu Archives and worked in Guanhu government office. Regular staff was responsible for the daily management in the Houhu Archives. It had been formulated strict rules and regulations for the collecting, sorting, keeping and utilizing of the Yellow Registers. What's more, there were many heavily-guarded defense systems. Since its safely prevention measures of fire, according to the archives there was no one fire in the Houhu Archives. Because of heavy guard, there were seldom pilferage, falsification and something like that. Looking from its size, the Ming Dynasty Houhu Archives could be called as the world's largest national special archives. Looking from its system, its advanced experience in the process of management was worthy of reference. Starting from the basic conditions of the Houhu Archives, this thesis will detailedly and systematically introduce its process of establishing, developing and dying, and its official settings and defense system. It lays emphasis on the reasons for its not moving to Beijing with the central government and also introduces the specific rules and situations of the collecting, sorting, keeping and utilizing of the Yellow Registers. This thesis will elaborate the setting and development of the Houhu Archives, its impact on that era and the later ages, and the disadvantages of itself in hope that it can provide reference for the future development of archives.