Baojia system

Timeline

1. 1070Kaifeng Prefecture area · KaifengIn the twelfth month of the third year of Xining, the Court of Agricultural Affairs formulated and promulgated the Capital Prefecture Baojia Regulations: in rural areas, ten households formed a bao, five bao a great bao, and ten great bao a du bao, with bao heads, great bao heads, and du bao heads appointed; households with two or more adult males provided one bao militiaman; great bao took turns nightly on patrol duty, and members of the same bao bore collective liability for crimes such as robbery. It was first tried in the Kaifeng Prefecture area.
2. 1071–1085Kaifeng and frontier circuits · ChinaAfter the regulations were promulgated, the organization was extended to all circuits, and the household scale was later reduced (e.g., five households per bao). Bao militiamen practiced martial arts in agricultural slack seasons and took turns serving at patrol inspector offices, with the aim of 'curbing the arrogance of recruited soldiers and saving the expense of maintaining them.' Drills were denser along the frontier in Hebei, Hedong, and Shaanxi, and training of bao militiamen near Kaifeng was especially valued by the court.
3. 1086–1100Rural areas of the Northern Song circuits · ChinaUnder Zhezong, military drills for bao militiamen were abolished, but the baojia as a system of mutual guarantee in household registration and local patrol was not entirely abolished. After the Yuanyou reforms, the names of the New Policies repeatedly changed, yet the rural baojia framework still played a practical role in prefecture and county security and tax collection.
4. 1102–1123Kaifeng · KaifengAfter Chongning, Cai Jing again advocated the New Policies, and baojia and exemption-from-service items were emphasized anew. By the fifth year of Xuanhe (1123), an imperial edict already stated that the baojia system had been in force so long that prefectures and counties had grown lax and negligent, with bao militiamen inaccurately registered and levies harassing the people. Thereafter the northern organization collapsed with the Jingkang crisis.