Some of China's earliest household registers have recently been deciphered from a bunch of Qin Dynasty (221 BC-207 BC) bamboo slips excavated from Liye, central China's Hunan Province.

"According to the household registers, slaves and maids were registered as their masters' household members under the population management system in China's first united empire of Qin," said Yun Chae Sok, a Korean scholar, who specializes in reading Qin bamboo manuscripts.

Some 37,000 bamboo slips were excavated from Liye, an ancient city on the border of the present-day Hunan and Sichuan provinces, along with other burial accessories in 2002.

The study of these bamboo-slip manuscripts, dubbed an encyclopedia of the Qin Dynasty, wooed experts from around the world. A total of 80 experts from China, America, Japan and the Republic of Korea gathered in Liye last week to exchange their latest research at the first international forum held after the discovery of the relics.

The experts verified 24 bamboo slips were household registers, with ten well-preserved ones and 14 fragmentary ones.

"This are the first evidence ever discovered to testify to the household registration system of Qin Dynasty," said Yun with the Kyungpook National University, the Republic of Korea.

His view was shared by Lai Ming Chiu, a professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"We knew from historical books and records that the Qin empire set up a rigorous household registration system, but no archaeological evidence could support that assumption before the deciphering of these bamboo manuscripts," Lai said.

The experts explained that the registers carry such information as the address, class, birth place, official position and name of the male housemaster, which is followed by male adult members in his family, female family members and children, close relatives living with the family, and then concubines and private slaves and maids.

They did not give specific examples of the registers, but said by adding servants to the household registration, the empire held tighter control of its people, especially the transient population.

Yun Chae Sok believes that the ancient household registers were written by the township level government, which was affiliated to the Qianling County of the Qin empire.

Experts have not been able to give a comprehensive explanation of the management of the Qin Dynasty's household registration system, since the reading of the ancient characters written on the bamboo slips has progressed slowly. So far, less than one percent of the bamboo slips excavated in Liye have been studied.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2007)