The Changes in Social Identity of People Having Household Registration during the Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin Dynasties: from the Official Class to Suboffical Functionary and Common People

Ling Wenchao

   During the Qin and Han Dynasties, with the implementation of the system of granting nobility by military merit, the “official class” included the group with titles from Serviceman to Grand Master, who were the principal part of people having household registration in grassroots society at that time, and the targets of the national taxes and corvée. With the development of the nobility-rank system in the Qin and Han Dynasties, the division of giving official and civil ranks brought the aristocratic bureaucrat and homogenization of suboffical functionary (li) and common people (min). Because of the changes in nobility system, especially the increasingly inundation of civil ranks, the significance of official class on title of nobility died out. Meanwhile, the differentiation of ranks led to separation between officials and suboffical functionary, and there separated two levels of suboffical functionary and service within the group of suboffical functionary. The latter gradually became the main means for the empire controlling suboffical functionary and people having household registration. The subofficial functionary and common people got homogenized because of the service, and “limin” gradually became the synonym of people having household registration.