Assigned-service law abolished in favour of hired service
The Song shi basic annals record that on the first day (renzi) of the tenth lunar month of Xining 4 (AD 1071) the law of assigned services (差役法) was abolished and the people were made to pay cash so that services could be hired.
What this does and does not establish
The Song shi is a Yuan-compiled (1343-45) official history drawing on Song court records; the English is an AI working translation. This is one step in a reform the annals enter over several months: under the twelfth lunar month of Xining 3 (January 1071 by the Academia Sinica table) they note that the service-exemption law (免役法) was first put into effect, and under the eighth month of Xining 4 that officials were sent to assess the new service law in Shaanxi (陝西差役新法) and its benefits and harms to the people. This entry gives no rates or regional details.
- Read through an AI working translation.
- Region
- East Asia
- Theme
- Economy and exchange
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- 熙寧 4 (熙寧四年 as numbered by the annals), lunar month 10
- How we use it
- Year assigned from the lunar month under which the annals enter the item; the sexagenary day was not converted to a Julian day.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
Lunar month 10 of 熙寧 4 = Julian 1071-10-26 to 1071-11-24, per Academia Sinica 兩千年中西曆轉換 year table(s) 熙寧4.html (sha256 b83c853ac2fb…); the whole month lies in AD 1071.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
Song shi (History of Song), basic annals
Toghto (脫脫) et al., Yuan court historiographers
The credit or link shown here was corrected after an audit of the retained source.
Quoted text (Classical Chinese)
冬十月壬子朔，罷差役法，使民出錢募役。AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
Winter, tenth month, renzi, the first day of the month: the law of assigned services was abolished, and the people were made to pay cash so that services could be hired.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Song shi, juan 15, zh.wikisource transcription (revision 2285105). English renderings are AI working translations, not published translations.
Exact source version
79f50c143bc92c8ce37a2e3bade7b45626b763ae8cea696b1cfdacf0b4c4c2e7Source 2 · Context for reading it
Song shi (History of Song), basic annals
Toghto (脫脫) et al., Yuan court historiographers
The credit or link shown here was corrected after an audit of the retained source.
Quoted text (Classical Chinese)
戊寅，初行免役法。AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
On the wuyin day, the service-exemption law was first put into effect.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Song shi, juan 15, zh.wikisource transcription (revision 2285105). English renderings are AI working translations, not published translations.
Exact source version
79f50c143bc92c8ce37a2e3bade7b45626b763ae8cea696b1cfdacf0b4c4c2e7Source 3 · Context for reading it
Song shi (History of Song), basic annals
Toghto (脫脫) et al., Yuan court historiographers
The credit or link shown here was corrected after an audit of the retained source.
Quoted text (Classical Chinese)
遣官體量陝西差役新法及民間利害。AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
Officials were sent to assess the new service law in Shaanxi and its benefits and harms among the people.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Song shi, juan 15, zh.wikisource transcription (revision 2285105). English renderings are AI working translations, not published translations.
Exact source version
79f50c143bc92c8ce37a2e3bade7b45626b763ae8cea696b1cfdacf0b4c4c2e7Checks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-04. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
This is a corrected version of this record. During research, before this release, an earlier version was withdrawn after independent review and replaced by this one.
Revision s1p_1071_song_2_r2
Exact revision fingerprint
45d6e4507be2b50b5392874f0d7114d9e741b3fc4a724478d0d302dcf8a27b37