A Reappraisal of the Corvée Labour System in the Han Period

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Other Title
  • 漢代更卒制度の再檢討 : 服虔-濱口説批判
  • 漢代更卒制度の再検討--服虔-浜口説批判
  • カンダイ コウソツ セイド ノ サイ ケントウ フクケン ハマグチセツ ヒハン
  • 漢代更卒制度の再検討 : 服虔-濱口設批判

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Description

The corvee labour (gengzu 更卒) system consisted of the imposition of one-month period of local labour service on males between the age of 15 and 56. During Qin and early Han, two periods of labour service were required every year, one every six months. Three terms associated with this semi-annual labour service were jiangeng 踐更, jugeng 居更, and guogeng 過更. Jiangeng referred to becoming liable for labour service after five months off duty. Jugeng referred to fulfilling the obligation with actual labour, personally or by hiring a substitute. Guogeng referred to fulfilling the obligation by paying a sum of money, known as guogengqian 過更銭, either in case of there being no need for labour in a given area or in the case of the given term expiring without actual labour being supplied in person or through a substitute. After the debate on the state monopolies of salt and iron in 81 B.C. (the 6th year of Shiyuan 始元 in the reign of Zhaodi 昭帝), the periods of service required per year were reduced from two to one, and simultaneously the practice of submitting guogengqian was adopted as a general rule. The conversion of actual labour service into a kind of tax such as guogengqian made it possible to sum it up together with poll taxes like koufu 口賦 and suanfu 算賦, and the term of gengfu 更賦 came into use to refer to all of them as a whole.

Journal

  • 東洋史研究

    東洋史研究 51 (1), 1-28, 1992-06-30

    東洋史研究會

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