Under the resistance of craftsmen from all over the Ming Dynasty, in the 21st year of Chenghua (1485), the Ming government changed the way of exploiting shift craftsmen, allowing them to "contract with silver (hire with cash)". After the Qing Dynasty, the craftsman registration system gradually loosened and eventually collapsed.

However, the shadow of the craftsman registration system always existed in the late feudal society of China, which restricted and influenced the formation of the free manual working class. Although by the late Ming Dynasty, it was possible to replace the labor force with silver, the essence of the craftsman registration system has not changed, and craftsmen are still exploited for free.

It is also not worthy of the name that the Qing Dynasty announced the abolition of the craftsman registration system and instead served and used craftsmen in various forms. Then, after "one body and two wars", the abolition of the craftsman registration system really had practical significance until it spread to the earth.

Extended data:

The life of a craftsman

Craftsmen "never come early every day" when they are on duty (going out early and returning late every day), and trying to "leave at dusk" under the supervision of officials (not leaving until dark), the work is very hard. Some of them are influenced by the whole family.

Most of them were originally captured craftsmen or were forcibly captured by craftsmen. They have no other income except salt and food and occasional clothes issued by the government, so their life is very difficult, they have no food and clothes, and their children are often mortgaged.

The other part is that craftsmen themselves join the service in the hospital and get a salt and a grain. After work, they can go home to work with their families and buy and sell themselves. Most of them are craftsmen distributed by the people, and their situation is better than the former. However, officials at all levels of administrative hospitals often find excuses to "catch shadows and eat away at craftsmen". Therefore, no matter which part of craftsmen are exploited and oppressed, they are all very heavy, but the degree is somewhat different.

Like civilian households, military households and station households, there are also some well-off households among craftsmen, and the Yuan government selects bureau officials from them, and the treatment is different from that of ordinary craftsmen.

Artisans belong to the Ministry of Industry and are divided into shift craftsmen and life craftsmen.

In the early Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that shift craftsmen had to work in the official manual workshop once a year or five years, with an average of three months per shift, while residential craftsmen worked in the official manual workshop for ten days every month. If they don't go to work, they must pay a sum of money every month to be employed by the official government.

These two types of craftsmen work freely outside their duties, and to some extent get rid of the shackles of being imprisoned in official workshops all the year round. But the craftsman is still the father's death and the son's successor, and the service is always full. The children of craftsmen were recruited into the "young craftsmen" of the Neifu Needle and Thread Bureau. Except for some miscellaneous taxes, craftsmen can't be exempted from official taxes and food.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Craftsman System