The Structure Of The Ming Dynasty Hall

From the research findings by historians of Ming Dynasty, the legal servant system presents a greater uncontinuity than those in previous dynasties. To think or assume, main reasons for the divergence may be due to the deviations of acknowledgement of the properties and requisition of service levy in Ming Dynasty. In order to solve the issue, discussion will be approached theoretically and empirically. From the research findings by historians of Tang and Song Dynasty, the item of servant, conducted from Song Dynasty, is composed of service servant and labor servant with various properties. Evaluated by theories in neo-institutional economics, service servant is focused on the management expenses with the purpose on ensuring and protecting land-ownership. Labor servant is relatively simple which is focused on the reallocation of labor rent. It is the remnant of the national servant system.From the records in documents of Ming Dynasty, the legal servant system of Ming Dynasty is also divided into service servant and labor servant. Thereinto, service servant is a kind of labor force assembled from soldiers and common people offering constructions to the governors of the country. It is a significant presentation of national servant system and the reallocation of labor rent. Same with previous dynasties, it is conducted on the principle of requisition by the number of people yet is combined with other approaches practically. As the monetizing process for national finance deepened, labor servant had been gradually transformed into a kind of taxation. As a consequence, the burden by common people had been gradually lessening. However, in a nation of absolutism, national servant system would not disappear completely because of the ever-existence of the extra-economic coercion.In the exception of labor servant, there was also service servant in Ming Dynasty which was divided into formal servant and affiliated servant. Besides, affiliated servant is fundamentally different from labor servant in respect of approaches and principles of requisition. In difference from views of historians to Ming Dynasty, there were separate arrangement approaches. And then, two forms of service servant maintained similar regulations of requisition until the emergence of average labor arrangement. Therefore, the structure of servant in Ming Dynasty did not follow the path from the dichotomy pattern service servant-affiliated servant to the trichotomy pattern Li-Jia compilation -average labor-broad affiliated servant. But it has been divided into the dichotomy pattern of labor servant and service servant which is composed of formal servant and affiliated servant.