西魏計帳戸籍における課と税の意義(上)

Abstract

There appears the name of a household headed by a man called Liu Wen-ch'eng in the document No. 613 discovered at T'un-huang by Sir Aurel Stein. This household is classified as a k'o-hu (課戶), a technical term in the contemporaneous taxation terminology, while each member of the household is registered as pu-k'o-k'ou (不課口). The document tells us that Liu Wen-ch'eng and his wife were a t'ai-tzu (臺資) and a t'ai-tzu-ch'i (臺資妻), respectively; these names indicate that the Liu household was a pu-k'o-hu which was to pay a special kind of tax called t'ai-tzu-ting-ch'uang-shui-tzu (臺資丁床稅租). However, in fact the Lius paid the full amount of shui (pu-ma-tsu (布麻租)) like a k'o-k'ou but not shui-tsu, and, consequently, their household was called a h'o-hu. Why? Liu, a t'ai-tzu, who was to be employed for tsa-jen-i (雜任役), a sort of clerical work, was still free from the job at the time of making of the tax register. It seems that at that time he paid four shih (石) of tsu instead of one; he must have paid the excess three shih as his tzu-k'o (資課) in place of being employed in the tsa-jen-i service.