Officials from all over the Ming Dynasty were busy with the census, and Liu Jin, who was in the center of the capital, had been busy and dizzy during this period.
Matters involving population were originally under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Liu Jin was the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, so it was logical that he would not care about Liu Jin's affairs. However, the Ministry of Household Affairs was Liu Jin's old employer, and not long ago Liu Jin was the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
In addition, Liu Jin proposed to conduct a census, so the Minister of Household Affairs Zhong also asked Emperor Hongzhi for orders to ask Liu Jin to help complete the census.
Well, the census does not actually require Liu Jin to do too many things. He can just formulate the contents of the census and let the following officials do it.
The real problem is the matter of identity cards and level classification.
The first is the matter of identity cards. According to Liu Jin's suggestion, after the census, every citizen of the Ming Dynasty must be enthroned and issued a uniform identity card.
In fact, it is similar to the ID card of later generations. Only with this thing can one be considered a truly legal Ming Dynasty person, who can enjoy the rights of a Ming Dynasty person and at the same time perform the obligations that a Ming Dynasty person should perform.
But we all know that even though an ID card is just a small card, it contains a lot of technical content. In the Ming Dynasty, it was not an easy task to create an identity card.
What's more, in ancient times, without photography technology, identity cards actually didn't mean much.
However, Liu Jin believes that ID badges still need to be issued and issued, because in the future, the census will become a regular task, with a census conducted every ten years.
The Ming Dynasty is no longer the Ming Dynasty before. With the advent of the capitalist era and the colonial era, the flow of population will become more frequent and the exchanges between various places will become more intensive.
The Ming Dynasty could no longer implement a strict household registration management system to restrict the flow of the population as before. Factories, workshops, trading houses, sea ships, overseas colonization, etc. all needed people. After all, official organizations were limited, and ultimately they had to rely on private spontaneity.
to complete.
Therefore, it has become inevitable to loosen restrictions on population mobility. This system of identity tags has also become a system that has become popular in all countries in the world in later generations.
Maybe the conditions are not mature now and the technology is not developed yet, but this is a trend. Since it is a trend, we must follow the development of the trend.
Having an identity card not only facilitates the movement of the population, but also facilitates the management of the floating population. More importantly, it can distinguish different levels.
"Now it seems that we can only use steel and use steam stamping to make this ID badge."
In Liu Jin's office, Liu Jin looked at the plan for making identity tags proposed by the Ministry of Industry and pondered carefully.
"The ID tag should not only contain your name, place of origin, age, identity number, and ethnicity, but it should also have special anti-counterfeiting measures that cannot be easily copied."
"Well, the most important thing is to reflect the level of citizens. The level should be displayed on it."
Thinking of this, Liu Jin couldn't help but think deeply.
The issue of identity tags is still a trivial matter. Now that the steam engine has been invented, many processes that were impossible before can now be easily done. Making identity tags with steam stamping is not a difficult task.
The thing that troubles Liu Jin the most now is the matter of citizen status. This matter was raised by Liu Jin himself, so naturally Emperor Hongzhi asked Liu Jin to handle it.
"I've never done anything serious."
Liu Jin sighed helplessly, as if he had never done any serious work since he became an official.
When he was first in the Hanlin Academy, Emperor Hongzhi asked Liu Jin, a civilian official, to fight in the war. After the war, he transferred himself as a civilian official to the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion to be responsible for the reform of the military system. Later, he went to the Ministry of Revenue to fight again, and continued to work.
Only by talking about the tax reform can we consider ourselves doing our job.
Now when we got to the Ministry of Personnel, we actually started working on the Ministry of Household Affairs again. My official examination at the end of the year in Chengdu was about to begin.
Liu Jin picked up the pen and began to write slowly on the paper.
First-class citizens are naturally Han people, and all Han people in the Ming Dynasty are first-class citizens.
Second-class citizens are non-Han citizens who have changed their surnames to Chinese names, are proficient in Ming dialect, respect Confucianism and Taoism, and can write more than 500 Chinese characters.
Third-class citizens are non-Han citizens who have changed their surnames to Chinese names, can only speak some Ming Dynasty Mandarin, but are not proficient in it, and do not know Chinese characters.
The fourth-class citizens are non-Han citizens who have neither changed their Chinese surnames nor taken Chinese names, and cannot speak Ming Mandarin or write Chinese characters.
The fifth class is a slave...
After writing this, Liu Jin thought for a while and crossed out the fifth class. Slaves cannot be regarded as citizens of the Ming Dynasty. Slaves are the private property of the citizens of the Ming Dynasty, so they cannot be regarded as citizens.
"Slaves are considered human beings, and they should be managed. The number of slaves must be counted, and slave identity cards must also be issued. They are considered the lowest slaves after the fourth class."
After thinking about it, Liu Jin took out a pen and wrote down this point. In this era, what is important is the order of dignity and hierarchy, so Liu Jin feels that there is no problem in introducing such a policy.
This is not the future, where everyone is equal and there is no distinction between high and low.
In this era, whether it is the East or the West, or other places, people are very particular about honor and inferiority.
Of course, this is not the reason why Liu Jin proposed to implement the classification of merit levels. Liu Jin, who came from later generations, knew very well that such a division would most likely cause dissatisfaction among other tribes in the Ming Dynasty, and may even lead to many tribes revolting.
The rule of Ming Dynasty.
However, Liu Jin felt that it was still very necessary to introduce such a policy. The ultimate purpose of this policy was to promote the gradual integration of these tribes within the Ming Dynasty into the main Han people of the Ming Dynasty.
Because the main basis for classifying a person as to what level of citizen he is is whether he has changed his Chinese surname, adopted a Chinese name, and whether he has learned Ming Dynasty Mandarin and Chinese characters.
For example, if a Nanyang native is unwilling to change his surname and take a Chinese name, then he will be a fourth-class citizen. If he is willing to change his surname and take a Chinese name, and can speak some Ming dialect, he can immediately become a third-class citizen.
If you are a little more diligent, can speak a lot of Ming dialect, and can read Chinese characters at the same time, you can become a second-class citizen. As for becoming a first-class citizen.
"Well, it should be able to change and circulate between different levels."
"If these second-class citizens want to become first-class citizens, in addition to their parents needing to be second-class citizens, they should also have all the conditions that second-class citizens have. At the same time, they should also have tax records and pay more than fifty taels of silver.
, or he has made contributions to the country and obtained the title of scholar or above in the imperial examination."
After thinking about it, Liu Jin also wrote about the promotion of second-class citizens to first-class citizens.
It must give people hope. It is impossible to say that first class will always be first class, and second class will always be second class. There are elites in any civilization and race. If Ming wants to be strong, it will naturally absorb these elites.
Of course, the more important thing is to give them hope and a channel for advancement. They may not be Han Chinese by blood, but as long as they have cultural and ideological recognition, they can also be given the status and treatment of first-class citizens.
Ultimately, the purpose of the civil hierarchy is to promote ethnic integration and encourage these tribes to learn Han culture. As long as they learn Han culture, they will have a sense of cultural identity and belonging.
Over time, they will naturally become an inseparable part of China. Even if the Ming Dynasty continues to change and turmoil in the future, they will still be able to maintain the current territory and territory.
Rather than being like the Han and Tang Dynasties in history, when it was strong, it was dominated by all directions and its territory was vast. After its strength weakened, many places immediately lost their rule again.
This is the fundamental reason why Liu Jin formulated this system.
The territory of the Ming Dynasty is really too big, and there are too many tribes that rule it. If we don't adopt such methods and systems, and just manage it like previous dynasties, the final result may be to fall apart and split into countless large and small ones.
small country.
This is definitely not what Liu Jin wants to see, and it is also a phenomenon that Liu Jin has been guarding against.
"Well, level, level, naturally it has to match various rights to be attractive."
"If you want to take the imperial examination, you must first obtain the status of a second-class citizen to be eligible to take the imperial examination."
"A low-level person who marries a high-level person can be directly promoted to one level, and the children born to them will directly obtain the status of high-level citizens."
"If a high-class person marries a low-class person, he must be lowered by one level, and the children born to him will be low-class citizens."
Liu Jin picked up the pen again and continued writing.
"Well, if you marry a chicken, you will follow the chicken. If you marry a dog, you will follow the dog. This must be established!"
"As for completely restricting the freedom of marriage, this is obviously very inhumane."
“Fourth-class citizens can only move freely within the county where they are located and are not allowed to leave the jurisdiction of the county. Third-class citizens can only move within the scope of the state capital where they are located and are not allowed to move outside the scope of the state capital. Second-class citizens and first-class citizens
There are no limits.”
"As for slaves, all slaves' travel must be strictly restricted and must be accompanied by the slave master or with a written explanation issued by the slave master."
"Slave~ Well, slaves also need to establish a promotion channel."
"As long as a slave has worked conscientiously for his master for more than twenty years or has made significant contributions and has no bad records, after the master's application and the review of the local government, he can be separated from his slave status and obtain fourth-class citizenship."
Thinking of slaves, Liu Jin silently wrote this paragraph again.
Although slaves are the property of slave owners, they are still human beings after all. Since they are human beings, they cannot be treated like livestock. Some hope must be given. With hope, slaves will have fewer outbreaks.
