Abstract
As a comprehensive record of provincial taxation data, the Fuyi quanshu 賦役全書 (The complete book on taxes and corvée labour) of the Qing dynasty serves not only as a crucial fiscal reference but also as a significant source for studying state governance and social structures. However, the revision and reduction process of the Fuyi quanshu has received limited scholarly attention due to scattered versions and dispersed archival materials. This study adopts a two-level approach. Methodologically, it draws upon four categories of sources to build a database of revisions and trace changes across different editions. Zhejiang 浙江 is taken as a case study. Comparing the Liangzhe Caijian quanshu 兩 浙裁減全書 (The complete book of deletions and reductions in Liangzhe) with the Kangxi 康熙 (1661-1722) edition of the Zhejiang Fuyi quanshu, thereby revealing mechanisms of revision. The findings show that, at the national level, revisions increasingly followed a “decennial cycle” after the mid-Qianlong 乾隆 (1735-1795) reigns, reflecting the institutionalization of numerical fiscal governance. At the local level, revisions in Zhejiang focused on reducing allowances, stipends, and in-kind materials, consolidating them into silver payments, which illustrates both the early Qing policy of “strengthening counties over prefectures” and later trends toward fiscal simplification. The study concludes that revisions of the Fuyi quanshu were not merely technical updates but indicators of the institutionalization of fiscal management and the strengthening of state capacity. This article highlights the new historical value of the Fuyi quanshu for research in fiscal, legal, and social history.
Keywords
Fuyi quanshu (The complete book on taxes and corvée labour), tax and corvée system of the Qing dynasty, financial database
Cite
Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.
