Ancient identity cards: signs, letters and household registration systems

The picture shows the wooden waist plate of the Qing Dynasty Ministry of Internal Affairs, collected by the National Museum of China.

□ Jiang Yinlong

In Chinese history, the ID card is a young and ancient thing. It is said that he is young because the identity card system was not formally established in China until the Republic of China period; after the founding of New China, this system was not established until 1984 legislation. In the face of China's thousands of years of history, the ID card is as young as a child.

In ancient China, there was no identity card, but there were two kinds of documents similar to the identity card, that is, the symbol plate and the transmission of letters. In contrast, the sign focuses on identifying oneself, and the messenger focuses on access. From the functional level, it seems that the equation of "symbol card + messenger = id card" can be obtained, but from the perspective of connotation and origin, the symbol card, the letter and the ID card are only similar in form, but the essence is very different.

Let's start with the rune cards. The runes were originally a symbol of military power and monarchy. The most ancient rune in the history books is the Xuanyuan clan recorded in the "History of the Five Emperors Benji", which is "the northern meat porridge, the fit of Busan, and the Yiyu Zhuolu No'a", where the rune is actually a soldier's rune. Of course, the history of the Five Emperors period is not a history of faith, compared with the record of the Zhou Li is clearer and more convincing: "Zhen Gui, to conquer and defend, to sympathize with the fierce wilderness." Yazhang, with the army brigade, to govern the army to defend. "Zhen Gui and Ya Zhang are both a kind of rune card. Zhen Gui represents the power of the monarch, and Yazhang represents the power of the military, and its connotation is the materialization and extension of some kind of power.

As the years passed, the runes gradually intersected with the identity of officials. During the Tang Dynasty, in order to "be called upon to be noble and lowly", the imperial court issued gold, silver, and bronze fish charms according to the different grades of officials, of which officials with more than five products also wore special fish bags. The fish symbol is divided into left and right, the left symbol is placed in the inner court, and the right symbol is carried by the holder, and when necessary, the identity of the holder can be determined. During the Song Dynasty, the fish charm was abolished, but the fish bag was retained, and the wenhao Su Dongpo was given a silver fish bag, representing his honorable status as an official of the imperial court.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, this kind of charm card gradually faded the ancient rhyme of the Tang and Song dynasties, and eventually evolved into a tooth card and a waist card. In addition to the names and official positions of courtiers, the Ming Dynasty tooth plates are sometimes engraved with the scope of use and prohibitions; the Qing Dynasty waist cards are more complete, and the number, age, appearance characteristics, and age of the card are added, and the ID cards in the form and later generations have been much the same.

Even so, tooth and waist cards should not be regarded as ancient Chinese identity cards. These cards prove not the identity of an individual, but the power of a certain class. In this sense, the tooth and waist cards, like the courtiers' supplementary clothes, first represent the hierarchical status of the official, and the anti-counterfeiting function is only a natural extension of this hierarchical status. The person holding the sign is not a "person with an ID card", but a "person with an identity".

Let's talk about sending letters. As a traditional agricultural power, the population movement in ancient China was not very frequent, but it was inevitable. In order to ensure the normal progress of this flow, the transmission of letters came into being.

The transmission here does not mean "Hongyan Chuanshu", but the ancient voucher for passing through Guanjin, suing the station, and riding the stagecoach and horse. Unlike the rune plaque, the messenger is generally a one-time certificate used by ordinary officials, which contains more information and usually indicates the detailed application and issuance process. In the "Han Feizi Say Lin Shang", it is narrated: "Tian Chengzi went to Qi, walked to Yan, and Yizi Pi passed on from it." "The transmission here is the transmission of letters, some of which are like a mixture of ID cards, introduction letters, and prepaid cards, and their anti-counterfeiting methods are the same as the symbols, which are "two compatible".

In addition to the above-mentioned transmission, there is also a relatively special form of communication. In addition to its passing effect, it is also a symbol of status, which can only be used by relatives of the emperor and high-ranking officials, so it pays more attention to the sense of ceremony than ordinary messengers. It is divided into letters and halberds. Letters are silk letters that can be hung as emblems; oars are made of wood, and officials can be used as honor guards when traveling, which is naturally unblessed by ordinary people.

Can the above various transmissions be regarded as the abuse of identity cards? Of course not. The focus of the message is on the event of "entry and exit" rather than the user himself, and if there is no population movement, the transmission has no need to exist, which is fundamentally different from the personal attributes of the identity card.

Why did ancient China give birth to documents similar to id cards, such as symbol plates and messengers, but did not give birth to the id card system? This question can be found in the development process of the ancient household registration system.

In the eyes of ancient monarchs, population was only the "property" of activity, and the rulers did not want this "property" to be more mobile, but wanted it to be as easy to calculate, manage and use as land. In this view, the hukou system was only a tool for the imperial court to control the population and had nothing to do with civil rights. After the Qin Dynasty changed the law from the Shang Martingale, the household registration system became more and more stringent, and everyone's household registration information was even accompanied by a "body sticker" drawn by the painter. The story between population migration without "re-registration" is "death", and the "catcher" has a reward - the story between the American bounty hunters and fugitive slaves in the Age of Discovery is somewhat similar.

In the first year of Xuanun (1909), the Qing Dynasty promulgated the "Regulations on Nationality of the Great Qing Dynasty"; later, it formulated the "Household Registration Law" on the grounds that "the constitutional government is carried out on the basis of household registration" and "refers to the good regulations of eastern and western countries". At that time, China had been reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the status of foreigners was higher than that of the Chinese, and some Chinese merchants joined foreigners to seek asylum in order to avoid the extortion and oppression of the government. Behind this "Household Registration Law", it is really full of the blood and tears of a declining dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty was soon extinct, and the "Household Registration Law" would be implemented in the future, but its place in the history of China's legal system could not be ignored: before that, the household registration system of all Chinese dynasties was only a tool for the imperial court to control the population; after that, the household registration system gradually became a symbol of citizenship rights, and finally gave birth to a real identity card system during the Republic of China period. Of course, the history of the Republic of China is almost a history of war, and its household registration system and identity card system are inevitably marked with obvious wartime marks.

The establishment of any system is not an overnight achievement. Although the ID card is lightweight, it carries the history of China's household registration development for thousands of years, as well as the dappled and broken history of the collision of Eastern and Western cultures.

(Excerpt from Jiang Yinlong's Law Museum: Legal Stories in Cultural Relics (Zhonghua Pavilion), published by China Legal Publishing House)

【Source: Rule of Law Daily】