A Study Of Population Policy In Ming Dynasty

The population policy of the Ming Dynasty was not only constrained by the prevailing reality of the broken society at that time,but also closely related to the idea of population held by the ruling class.In terms of the relationship between the two,the population thought is the ideological basis and the subjective motive of the population policy,the population policy is the externalization and embodiment of the population thought.Based on the reality of the withered population in the early Ming Dynasty and the urgent need to restore social production,as well as the ideological and policy tradition of the history of population proliferation(increase),the dominant population thinking of the Ming Dynasty is still the idea of population proliferation.In connection with this,some officials and emperors of the Ming Dynasty also were also concerned about the quality and enlightenment of the population,such as the recognition of the importance of eugenics,advocacy of self-cultivation,the rectification of custom and supporting educations,etc.On the basis of this idea,the Ming Dynasty to implement the population proliferation policy,including the encouragement of seasonable marriage and childbirth,prohibition of castration,restrictions on women to monks and the protection of girls.The population management policy of the Ming Dynasty was also constrained by the reality of household registration chaos,people's exile and the idea of population management.Ming Dynasty population management ideas mainly are: considered mastering the number of people as the sign of ruling of the country and managing the society;the idea of keeping people to their businesses and paying the due taxes;established the thought of strict population management and the concept of population hierarchy.Correspondingly,the population management policy of the Ming Dynasty is also more stringent and rigorous: from the “granting people their certificates of identity and ownership of farm lands” before the founding of the Dynasty,to the establishment and implementation of the system and the implementation of the system,as well as the coexistence and continuation of the annual reporting of the household registration system,and then to the close collaboration of the Yellow Book household registration system and Lijia system,the population management system is constantly improving.However,the seemingly rigorous yellow book system has a big omission.Grassroots officials and the local cunning people collusion,malpractice,resulting in the Yellow Book is difficult to reflect the real situation of household registration and farmland ownership.and eventually declined and became useless.The establishment and development of the population management policy in the Ming Dynasty shows the purpose and significance of its existence,that is household registration and tax collection.The migration policy of the Ming Dynasty included the government organized migration,the migration of the rich people,the migration of prisoners and the Mongolian people(Mongolian people left behind after the demise of the Yuan Dynasty).Especially,for the migration of the people,Reflects the reasonable thought of matching the land area and the population,to avoid more people,less land or more land less people.the policy of the government is to encourage and support.Also include the migration of people who had to leave their hometown because of living.The government's policy of treating these migrants can be divided into three historical stages: during period of Hongwu to Tianshun,as the initial stage of the policy,as the number of migrants is relatively limited,the government mainly used returned them to home method.When the number of migrants increase,some new placement method which attached to the local household registration were used.The mid-term development stage of the policy mainly reflected the change of migration policy in Jingxiang during Chenghua.The government began to use the radical forced evictions,military repression and other means caused the fierce confrontation between the migrants and the governments.Later,the government adopted relatively modest way to solve the crisis of migration.There was no more new idea in the migration policy but just a basically a continuation the policy of former stages.The combing of the policy of the displaced people can be found in two issues: Firstly,the principle of the policy of the displaced people of the Ming Dynasty has not changed,To do everything possible to reintegrate the exiled and the fugitive people into the ruling system of the Ming dynasty,assigned tax and serve according to the household registration.And the root cause of exile is the heavy tax burden.And this basic principle can not be changed within the ruling system of the Ming Dynasty.Secondly,the greed and tricky of the feudal landlord class,the unlimited connivance and acquiescence of the ruling class,eventually leading to the late Ming Dynasty economic and political crisis.This is also the shortcomings and deficiencies,which the Ming Dynasty itself could not overcome.The population relief policy of the Ming Dynasty included the relief during the famine period,the relief of the widowed population,and the elderly population.The relief during the famine period covers the procedures and related systems such as disaster reporting,investigation,auditing of victims and distribution of relief supplies.And adjust method and content according to the urgency of disaster.The content include tax cuts,delay tax,stop tax and disaster relief,alms porridge,transfer goods from other areas and so on.The relief of the widowed is mainly reflected in the establishment of the nursing home and benefit the people pharmacy and cemetery.The scope of the protection of the elderly population in the Ming Dynasty covers the ordinary people,officials,the old royal family,school teachers,military(sergeant),craftsmen,cooking people and others,Praised by the government and groups such as prisoners.For different groups,the contents of the care are also different,generally contain exemption from labor service,give money,rice and other material incentives and condolences,hat and belt and other spiritual awards.The population relief policy in the Ming Dynasty was complete,it played a positive role in protecting the people's life and helping the disadvantaged groups.However,due to the problems of dereliction of duty and corruption in the process of implementation,the effect reduced.The population policy of the Ming Dynasty also includes the policy of the imperial clan population and the policy of the monks and Taoist population.The policy to the imperial clan population was generous,they have title,annual salary,and other privileges,superior living conditions,as a result,the population of the clan surge which brought great pressure on the expenditure of the clan.The government limit the clan population by decreasing their salary and expenditure.The policy of the Ming Dynasty for the population of the monks and Taoist is restrictive,mainly include,the establishment of the management agencies and monks and Taoist officer,awarded the monks and Taoist personnel certificate,Severely punish the phenomenon of private slaughter and counterfeit monks,and urge the monks to operate their own business,prohibited begging.The basic characteristics of the Ming Dynasty's population policy are: historical inheritance,relatively complete system,poor policy implementation and significant grade difference.On its influence,from a positive perspective,the economy can be restored and developed,such as the increase in population,the commensurate proportion of people to farm land made agricultural productivity developed;the area of cultivated land had been expanded,the government revenue had been increased and the taxation were relatively fair;the people's production and life had been assured.The political rule has been consolidated,cultural exchanges and integration had been enhanced,the superior Chinese tradition of supporting the suffered & poor,respecting the elderly and sages had been carried forward.From the negative side,the early days of immigration reclamation opened the start of unfair allocation of the land and taxes;the rigidness and closeness of population management limited the people's autonomous activities and business development;the implementation of the Yellow Book System caused the taxations seriously unfair and people exiled;a large number of population escapes posed a huge threat to social stability,the actual decline in government control.Not only that,immigrants and fleeing people at the gathering place carried out extensive land reclamation,which brought serious ecological problems.Throughout the Ming Dynasty population policy,we can see that its establishment and development process reflects the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty.The important revelation that brings us is that the formulation of population policy should conform to the law of economic and social development,reflect the needs and characteristics of the times.