In the ancient Chinese official Feng Lu system, "stone" is a very special existence, it has always been used as the ancient official Feng Lu unit of measurement, just like today's "Yuan". In addition to "stone", "household" is also a unit of measurement closely related to officials, especially in the Han Dynasty, when the emperor rewarded meritorious ministers, it was calculated according to households. So, what do the "stones" and "households" here mean, and why can they become the units of measurement for the rewards of officials?
First of all, "stone", which was divided into feng lu in ancient China, is related to the ancient taxation and official system. In fact, during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, officials' feng lu was not divided by stone. Since the official system at that time was the Shiqing Shilu system, officials basically had titles, and the two were linked, so the officials in the DPRK and China all had fiefs, and their income came from the fiefdoms, not from the imperial court.
By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, countries were seeking talents, changing the law to become stronger, the foundation of aristocratic politics was shaken, and many talents from humble origins were reused and held high positions. These people may have official positions, but they may not have fiefs, so the imperial court needs to give them a fenglu.
The division of Qilu by "stone" was originally the system of the Qin State, because the Qin State used stone as the largest measuring instrument. At that time, money had already appeared, but the monetary system was not yet perfect, whether it was the taxes of various countries or the salaries of officials, they were mainly in kind, and the physical goods were mainly grain.
After the Qin state swept through the six kingdoms, established the Qin Dynasty, and unified the world, it would promote the "rank stone system" of dividing the stones into feng lu to the whole country, and in this way, the ancient Chinese officials Feng Lu used stone as a unit of measurement. After the Han and Tang Dynasties, the economy developed, the monetary system was constantly improved, and the imperial court also began to pay officials in money for part of the Feng Lu, but until the Qing Dynasty, the payment method of the qi lu mainly in kind still occupied a major position. Therefore, the ancient standard of measurement was still based on "stone". Sometimes, the number of "stones" even represents the position and status of official positions, for example, the Han Dynasty used "two thousand stones" as a measure of heavy subjects.
Then let's talk about "household", which is used as a unit of measurement for rewards, which is related to the ancient way of rewarding. In ancient China, the emperor's greatest reward for meritorious service was the fiefdom. After the Qin Dynasty unified the whole country, officials were not directly linked to titles, and there were even fewer officials with fiefdoms. Therefore, the emperor's reward of the land and the households in the food estate to the ministers was the greatest reward for them.
However, from the Qin and Han dynasties onwards, officials did not have jurisdiction over the people of the fiefdom, and they could only collect taxes from the households in the food estate. This made the emperor reward the land of the ministers, not on the basis of the land area as a measure, but on the households in the fief as the unit of measurement. The more households there are, the higher the taxes that officials can collect.
Of course, the emperors did not really reward officials with a large number of fiefs and household taxes, and they often adopted the method of fictitious sealing. The so-called false seal is that the emperor nominally rewards a large number of households to a meritorious person, but the number of households in the food is far less than the number of nominal households.
In fact, whether it is "stone" or "household", it is closely related to the political, economic and cultural systems of ancient China, and they can last for thousands of years, which is also the embodiment of the highly developed bureaucracy in ancient China.