Hu Bu

Hu Bu
Traditional Chinese	戶部
Simplified Chinese	户部
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hù Bù Wade–Giles Hu4 Pu4
Min Bu
Chinese	民部
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mín Bù Wade–Giles Min2 Pu4

Hu Bu, usually translated as the Ministry of Revenue, was one of the Six Ministries under the Department of State Affairs in imperial China. It existed from the Tang dynasty to the Qing dynasty, although the office also existed during the Sui dynasty as Min Bu.

Administrative level

• Tang dynasty & Song dynasty: subordinate to the Department of State Affairs
• Yuan dynasty: subordinate to the Secretariat
• Ming dynasty: originally subordinate to the Secretariat, relatively autonomous after 1380, coordinated by the Grand Secretariat after the mid-1400s

Functions

Charles O. Hucker wrote that the Ministry of Revenue was "in general charge of population and land censuses, assessment and collection of taxes, and storage and distribution of government revenues." The ministry was usually divided into specialized bureaus:

• Census Bureau (戶部司)
• General Accounts Bureau (度支司)
• Treasury Bureau (金部司)
• Granaries Bureau (倉部司)

Each bureau was headed by a director (郎中). The ministry was headed by a minister (尚書).

See also

• Duzhi (度支), equivalent before the Sui dynasty