Early Qing Household Registration

Timeline

1. 1651Beijing (Qing court center) · BeijingThe Qing court issued an edict in the name of the Shunzhi Emperor, requiring governors-general and governors in each province to organize local officials to systematically register households, population, and property within their jurisdictions, in order to fix standards for tax and corvée apportionment and restore the tax order disrupted by war.
2. 1651–1652China's provinces · ChinaLocal officials in each province surveyed households as ordered, recording the population by categories such as civilian, Banner, and salt-boiler registers in the yellow registers, tallying the number of adult males as the basis for apportioning poll tax and corvée, while identifying refugees to maintain social stability.
3. 1652–1655China · ChinaThrough systematic registration, the Qing court built a nationwide household management system, providing population data for poll tax collection and military conscription, and it also became the administrative basis for tracking coastal population movements during the enforcement of the coastal evacuation order.