On the Establishment of the Fu-i_??_·_??_System (the Land Tax and Labor Service Duties) in the Ch'ing Dynasty

Abstract

The present article concerns the nature of chunt`ien-chuni-fa _??__??__??__??__??_ and shunchuang-pienli-fa _??__??__??__??__??_, as enforced in Chiangnan _??__??_ in the Ch'ing dynasty Chunt'ien-chuni-fa _??__??__??__??__??_ was enforced already in the late Ming period, to reform lahor service duties.It aimed to assess labor service duties upon land owner, including gentry(hsiang-shen _??__??_)who had been legally exempted from being imposed of them.As a matter of fact, the gentry proved unwilling to bear the duties, and so the problem remained unsolved.However, the miscellaneous labor services related to the transportation and storage of gain, disappeared in the early Ch'ing period.Then, the nature of chunt'ien-chuni- fa _??__??__??__??__??_ was changed. The main purposes of chunt'ien-chuni-fa _??__??__??__??__??_ in the early Ch'ing period were as follows1.Lichia _??__??_ was to be organized on the basis of the equal fields.2.The main labor service duties of lichia(_??__??__??__??_), which formed lichang _??__??_, chiashon _??__??_, tsungchia _??__??_, liangchang _??__??_ and t'angchang _??__??_, were to be abolished.3.Paochia _??__??_ system was enforced to maintain public peace in the village.Actually the labor posts(cf, _??__??_ and _??__??_)related to conduct tax collection in the village remained unchanged as actual labor service duties.Then.shunchuang-pienli-fa _??__??__??__??__??_ was enforced in the Yung cheng _??__??_ age, whose main purpose was to put the basis of tax collection on the actual village(t'sunchuang _??__??_)and to abolish the actual labor service duties.