What is the most important thing in modern society? Probably a lot of people will say: money. Of course, money is certainly important, but shouldn't the most important thing in modern society be an ID card? Think about it, you need an ID card to take the train, and you also need an ID card to use WeChat and Alipay.
It can be said that we can't do anything without an ID card. This palm-sized thing records our important identity information as citizens of the People's Republic of China, it allows us to enjoy legitimate rights, if there is no IDENTITY card, it is difficult to walk in life, after all, there is no other powerful means of verification, you really have to prove "I am me".
So in ancient China, was there also an identity card? If not, how do the ancients prove their identity? Strictly speaking, the ancient people did not have an id card at all, and they did not need to have an ID card.
Because of the scary low flow of people in ancient times, after all, there are still some people in and out of large cities, ordinary towns rarely see faces all year round, and many people have never been far away in their lives, not to mention the state capital, and even the county town has not been to the exaggerated point.
Secondly, in ancient times, the management of population flows was also very strict, after all, the population was directly related to the country's military, economic and other comprehensive factors, and only with the population did they have servitude, taxation and soldiers, so the people had a different kind of identity card: household registration, that is, to register your details, and the imperial court would find you to collect taxes.
However, the household registration is all registered by the government, which only proves that there is this person in this place, and the people do not have a certificate similar to an ID card to prove themselves. Moreover, the household registration system restricts the freedom of the people, and due to limited technology and insufficient financial resources, it takes a long time to complete each household registration.
If the ancient people were allowed to move at will like we do today, there would be a local household registration record but no personnel could tax and conscript, and the people who moved to other places could not tax them because the local household registration information did not have them, and they could not tax them. Therefore, the imperial court also stipulated that people registered on the registered place were prohibited from moving at will.
However, to say that the ancients did not have identity cards, this conclusion is very incorrect, in fact, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period of the Qin State, the people used identity cards - "body stickers". This "body-to-body" comes from the Martingale Transformation Method. And this "body sticker" is a piece of bamboo polished by craftsmen, and the name of the holder, occupation, portrait and government seal are engraved on it, which is very similar to the ID card we use today.
The later Han Dynasty and Sui Dynasty both followed the system of the Qin Dynasty to use the body. In the Tang Dynasty Li Yuan period, he carried out reforms against his body and invented the "fish charm". It is worth mentioning here that the fish charm is a kind of identification item issued by the imperial court to officials, and only the court officials are eligible to use it.
Depending on the size of the official position, the fish charms are made of different materials. For example, for princes and officials with more than three pins, the fish charm is made of gold; for officials with more than five pins, the fish charm is made of silver; for officials with less than six pins, the fish charm is made of brass; and for those officials with lower status, the fish charm is made of wood.
When it came to the Ming Dynasty, in order to reflect the new atmosphere of changing the dynasty, the rulers also replaced the old charms in the hands of officials with tooth tags because the fish charms were too heavy to carry, and the fish bags were too light and easy to lose. Like the fish charm, the tooth card also has a small hole in the waist, which is used to mark the waist, so it is also called the waist card.
These are the evolution of ancient identity cards, although the identity card is only a thin card, but it carries thousands of years of historical changes and social progress. What do you think about that?