Sui Census and Household Registration System

Timeline

1. 581–582Daxingcheng · GuanzhongAfter Emperor Wen replaced Zhou with Sui, he first inherited the prefectural and county registers of the Northern Zhou, reorganizing local officials to lay the administrative groundwork for a nationwide household survey; at this time the registers still bore the accumulated ills of hidden and unregistered households under local strongmen of the divided era.
2. 583–585Guanzhong and the prefectures of Shandong · ChinaThe court ordered dasuo maoyue: searching out hidden and unregistered households, verifying registers by age and appearance, and enrolling dependents of the powerful, monks and Daoists, and fugitives into the official prefectural and county registers; records show a great increase in households, a marked rise in tax and labor revenue, and a blow to the power of local strongmen.
3. 589–592Prefectures of Jiangnan · JiangnanAfter destroying Chen and unifying north and south, the registers of Jiangnan under the Chen system were gradually recompiled according to Sui rules, providing the population registration needed for the equal-field and zu-yong-diao systems; northern and southern register practices converged, and central control over Jiangnan's taxes and labor strengthened.
4. 595–600Prefectures and counties of the Sui · ChinaBy the late Kaihuang era, prefectures and counties compiled registers every three years, with household rolls coordinated with the nine-grade household system, forming the routine operation of 'registered commoners'; registers, land acreage, and tax-labor obligations were linked, becoming the standard model of Sui and Tang state governance of grassroots society.