The Development Of The Household Archives During The Han And Tang Dynasties

Household registration system is a fundamental system of state administration. It played an important role in the population management, local control and fiscal revenue of the ancient empires. China's household registration system has been formed in the Qin and Han Dynasty. After the great development of Southern and Northern Dynasties, household registration system has been nerely natured in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and inherited by later dynasties. The household registration system's formation and evolution,which between the Han and Tang Dynasty, is very important to the whole history of ancient the household registration system.Specific content of the household registration system between the Han and Tang, left few records in the history books. In modern times, archaeologists found some unearthed documents include Qin and Han bamboo slips,San Guo Wu bamboo slips, Dunhuang and Turfan manuscripts. These materials have a great value to the study of household registration system.The unearthed documents used in this paper include:Liye Qin bamboo slips, Dongpailou Han bamboo slips, Qianqin Jianyuan Ji, Xiliang Jianchu Ji, Beiliang Chengyang Ji, Xiwei Datong Ji. The last four are paper's files.By analyzing these unearthed documents, this paper summarizes the development of the household archives between the Han and Tang in three ways: material, shape and contents. From the material point of view, household file developed from bamboo slips to paper's files. From the shape point of view, paper's files of Southern and Northern Dynasties inherited some bamboo slips' characteristics at first. Later, according to the specific characteristics of paper, the shape of household files had new development. From the contents point of view, Liye Qin bamboo slips only recorded the family's simple informations without recording informations about census and Taxes and Forced Labor. Dongpailou Han bamboo slips subjoined the informations about Taxes and Forced Labor. Paper's files contained more rich informations,and it subjoined the statistics informations about Dingzhong. Juntian System also promoted the household registration system to be more consummate.In short, the development of household file relates to two factors include the forthputting of paper and the development of Taxes and Forced Labor system. Paper provides a material foundation for the rich informations. Taxes and Forced Labor system stipulates the household file's contents.