Ming Lijia System

Timeline

1. 1381–1398Nanjing · JiangsuThe Hongwu Emperor promulgated the lijia law, stipulating ten jia per li and ten households per jia, with li-heads and jia-heads responsible for collecting money and grain and summoning persons; together with the Yellow Registers and fish-scale registers it formed the early Ming household–land tax control system.
2. 1400–1570Suzhou Prefecture · JiangsuLijia bore the even allocation of grain and duties, pursuit of vagrants, and assistance with corvée; with the development of Jiangnan's commodity economy, li-heads were often drawn by rotation from wealthy households, and tension between actual operation and institutional design gradually increased.
3. 1571–1580Huizhou Prefecture · AnhuiIn the 1570s the Single Whip Reform was piloted in some provinces, and the trend of merging taxes and corvée impacted lijia's original allocation function; but lijia remained the basic unit of rural household registration, tax collection, and mutual responsibility for security, with local documents recording its daily operation extensively.
4. 1581–1644Beijing · BeijingAfter the Single Whip Reform spread, lijia gradually became formalized, with tax-collection functions partly transferred to grain heads and clerks; in the late Ming fiscal crisis lijia burdens increased. After the Qing conquest they switched to the baojia system, but the household-registration logic still inherited lijia's legacy.