Abstract:At the core of the law of Ming and Qing Dynasties on taxation,reasonable proportional limits were conducive to the collection of taxes and corvee,while if the limits were set too close, it could become the source of many problems in the collection of taxation and corvee. People of Ming and Qing Dynasties took countermeasures to minimize the possible problems in this system. There were three major means (modes). The first was to avoid corvee and Bi by ways Guiji, Huafen, Feisa, Yingshe and Xuxuan,etc. The problems brought about by them were that the acreage and number of households could not be authentically accounted and reported, so that the government had to reform and innovate its way of enrollment. The second was to avoid corvee and Bi by the means of the land market,transferring the burden of taxation and corvee from one household to another, which resulted in the delay of taxation and the prevalence of tax-farming. The third was to cope with the various problems in the tax-farming through the integration of households. The core of the system was to enlarge the household in order to cope with the difficulties brought about by the closely divided limits,and at the same time this integration of households directly promoted the internal integration and cohesion of the patriarchal clan. The long development of the clans in Ming and Qing Dynasties ought to have been deeply related to the introduction of the Bixian system.
胡铁球. 明清百姓避役避比的主要手段及其影响[J]. 华中师范大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2021, 60(6): 120-136.
Hu Tieqiu. The Main Means by which the People of the Ming and Qing Dynasties Avoided Corvee and Bi and Their Effects. journal1, 2021, 60(6): 120-136.