The Compilation and Reform of Salt Registers in Fujian during the Jiajing Period
The salt register(yance)served as the basis for the salt tax collection by the Salt Tax Office(Yanke Si).Its compilation occurred after the major compilation of the household registration records(huangce)within the lijia system,when officials from the Salt Transport Office were dispatched to the Provincial Administration Office to transcribe and compile relevant information about the salt-producing households from the huangce.In the mid-Ming Dynasty,the tax burden on salt-producing households in Fujian was lighter compared to civilian and military households.Consequently,people in the salt fields falsely registered civilian land as belonging to salt-producing households,leading to an increase in salt fields and a decrease in civilian fields,which resulted in a shortage of labor for local administration.To address this issue,in the 27th year of the Jiajing reign(1548),Tang Ai,the magistrate of Nan'an County in Quanzhou,initiated reforms to fix the information of salt-producing households and their lands in salt registers for the four salt fields of Quanzhou:Huian,Xunmei,Bingzhou and Wuzhou.This reform not only impacted the fraudulent land registrations by salt field populations but also limited the Salt Transport Office's system by increasing salt taxes.As a result,during a new round of salt register compilation in Fujian in the 44th year of the Jiajing reign(1565),the reform was abolished by He Sizhan,the Fujian Salt Transport Commissioner.
salt registerMing Dynastyfraudulent registrationprefectures and countiessalt fields
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