Mongol Household Registration in North China

Timeline

1. 1229North China · North ChinaAfter acceding, Ögedei adopted Yelü Chucai's advice and ordered a household census in the occupied Han territories of North China. Previously Mongol armies had massacred and plundered after taking the Central Plains, causing severe loss of records; registration aimed to establish population and arable land totals to stabilize rule and provision the war against Jin.
2. 1229–1230circuits of North China · North ChinaMongol authorities dispatched officials and troops to conduct registration in the Yanjing, Zhending, Shuntian, and other circuits. Those registered included farmers, artisans, Buddhist and Daoist clergy, and others, recording names, origins, occupations, and tax-and-labor obligations, bringing scattered populations back into the household system; some fugitive households were tracked down and registered.
3. 1229–1230North China · North ChinaWith registration complete, the Mongol regime used the results to set the tax-collection base in North China, levying poll tax and land tax by household. This made Han revenues a stable source of imperial income and supported the later wars against Jin and the western campaigns, marking the transition of Mongol rule over the Central Plains from wartime plunder to institutionalized extraction and administration.