Stone tablet in the Ming Dynasty found in Jiangqiao
By Li Ning and Xu Fang |
October 31, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A stone tablet that shows the land management system in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) has been uncovered in Jiangqiao.
On October 7, three amateur relic collectors in Jiangqiao found a 100-centimeter-long and 25-centimeter-wide stone tablet in a bridge at Tunqiao group of Huoxian Village. Twelve Chinese characters were engraved on the tablet. They are "guang hao shi wu tu wen zi xu shen shan yin xiang." It is the first stone tablet of its kind to be found in Jiangqiao.
According to historical records, the national population and lands were recorded in a yellow book after the Ming Dynasty was set up. The records included family names, birth places, family members, ages, lands and houses and were updated every 10 years. A scale atlas was directly related to the yellow book. The government identified lands like pieces of fish scales on the map. Thus, the map was called scale atlas.
In the scale atlas, the lands were divided into qu. Each qu should hand in 10,000 dans (an ancient Chinese measuring unit of weight, each dan equals to 62.5 kilograms) of grain as taxes.
Under qu, the lands were subdivided into zheng shan and fu shan. Under shan, it was hao. Under hao, it was tu and under tu, it was xu. Properties and grades of the lands were clarified in the atlas and farm rent and taxes were levied according to the properties and grades.
According to these twelve Chinese characters, the land boundary fixed by the stone tablet was near Tunqiao. Since the stone tablet is built in the bridge, it can only be seen on the one side, the other side is expected to be examined by the cultural heritage department to see whether there are more engraved characters.
On October 7, three amateur relic collectors in Jiangqiao found a 100-centimeter-long and 25-centimeter-wide stone tablet in a bridge at Tunqiao group of Huoxian Village. Twelve Chinese characters were engraved on the tablet. They are "guang hao shi wu tu wen zi xu shen shan yin xiang." It is the first stone tablet of its kind to be found in Jiangqiao.
According to historical records, the national population and lands were recorded in a yellow book after the Ming Dynasty was set up. The records included family names, birth places, family members, ages, lands and houses and were updated every 10 years. A scale atlas was directly related to the yellow book. The government identified lands like pieces of fish scales on the map. Thus, the map was called scale atlas.
In the scale atlas, the lands were divided into qu. Each qu should hand in 10,000 dans (an ancient Chinese measuring unit of weight, each dan equals to 62.5 kilograms) of grain as taxes.
Under qu, the lands were subdivided into zheng shan and fu shan. Under shan, it was hao. Under hao, it was tu and under tu, it was xu. Properties and grades of the lands were clarified in the atlas and farm rent and taxes were levied according to the properties and grades.
According to these twelve Chinese characters, the land boundary fixed by the stone tablet was near Tunqiao. Since the stone tablet is built in the bridge, it can only be seen on the one side, the other side is expected to be examined by the cultural heritage department to see whether there are more engraved characters.
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