Tracing the origin of accounting names
China's accounting was named in the Western Zhou Dynasty. During this period, the inscriptions on bronze inscriptions had already appeared the shapes of "Hui" and "Ji", and their meanings were basically stereotyped. The word "Hui" has "He" above it and "Zeng" below it, so it means to increase, aggregate and summarize. The word "Ji" means "Yan" and "X" on the left. In ancient times, it was difficult for you to say "words" directly, so the word "meter" contained the meaning of accuracy. The word "ten" consists of "one" representing east and west and "|" representing north and south; In ancient times, with tribes as the center, people went out to hunt separately along the east, west, north and south directions, and when they came back, they put their prey together in the center, and the convergence was aggravated and calculated. According to the specific situation of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the meaning of "accounting" at this time is both sporadic accounting and year-end total cost benefit.
The name accounting shows that accounting has gradually become an independent department from the subsidiary part of state functions. In fact, some bookkeeping habits established in the Western Zhou Dynasty had a far-reaching impact on the feudal society for thousands of years. For example, "Jin" and "Chu" as bookkeeping symbols were confirmed at this time and have been used ever since.
Third, the development of each period.
Accounting in prehistoric times.
The earliest accounting traces were found in Zhiyu, Shuoxian County, China Province during the Paleolithic period from 654.38 million to 300,000 years ago. Traces of description were found on many bone fragments, which historians believe are the remains measured and recorded by Homo sapiens. In the Neolithic Age about 6.5438 million years ago, the original bookkeeping methods became rich, including drawing notes and drawing notes. The way to draw notes is to draw the results of hunting in the form of murals, such as shooting a deer and drawing a deer; Shoot two rabbits and draw two rabbits. These figures are the ancestors of hieroglyphics. Drawing notes refers to recording important events with specific symbols.
At the end of primitive society about 5000 years ago, accounting methods took more forms, which were manifested in the appearance of "Huang Zhongsu" measurement unit, the application of knot counting method and the creation of "book deed counting".
Huang Zhong was originally a musical instrument made of bamboo, and was later used by the Yellow Emperor to measure length, weight and capacity. The length of the yellow bell is defined as the length of 90 medium-sized grains of rice, one grain is a little, one tenth is one inch, and the decimal system is adopted between inch, ruler and ruler. Although the actual length of these units of measurement has changed slightly, their names have been used to this day. In addition, through Huang Zhongshu, the trading volume measurement units such as closing, rising, bucket and welcoming were also determined. The appearance of these units of measurement makes accounting develop from physical statistics to quantitative statistics.
The number of book deeds is the so-called book deed, "Books are ordinary, and ordinary things are also remembered. He also said that Jane never goes out. " "Deed, engrave, engrave and know its number." Book deed counting is actually a combination of digital and physical measurement, which is an important turning point. When discussing the above accounting concepts, the content of accounting is not described in words. After the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, accounting began to use words to measure. From this perspective, accounting came into being before words, which shows the profound accounting history.
2. Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties
The Xia Dynasty established the system of levying tribute and tax, and speculated that there would be accounting phenomenon of managing fiscal revenue at this time. There are "hundred officials" in the summer, including "miser", and an official supervises slave agriculture. Perhaps the official who holds this position is the earliest accountant. One of the great contributions of Shang Dynasty to accounting is the creation of numbers, and the numbers from one to ten have been stereotyped in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty. The contents of hunting and harvesting are recorded on the Oracle bones of Shang Dynasty, and the records of things are relatively complete, with time, place, type and quantity. It is the embryonic form of accounting to use the words "gross" and "buried" to represent expenditure, and to use "ratio" and "income" to represent income. The hieroglyphics of the word "book" appeared more than 20 times in the unearthed Oracle Bone Inscriptions deed recording financial revenue and expenditure. It can be seen that these deeds are the embryonic state of China's "account book".
The development of accounting in the Western Zhou Dynasty made an indelible contribution to the formation of accounting system in China. During this period, accounting has been independent from its subordinate position, and accounting books, accounting subjects, accounting symbols and accounting reports have all appeared, but the form is relatively simple and needs future generations to develop. In the official system of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a post of "Four Meetings", which was in charge of the financial revenue and expenditure of the imperial court. At this time, more and more account books are used to record accounting contents, which are stored separately from other account books and are specially called "account books" (this is the source of account books). At the same time, the Western Zhou Dynasty also stipulated the source of national fiscal revenue, which was called "revenue", and there were nine items in total, which were called "nine taxes". The national fiscal expenditure is called "annual expenditure", and there are also nine items, namely "nine kinds". The "Nine Tributes", together with the tribute "Nine Tributes" offered by vassal states, consists of eighteen income items and nine expenditure items, which is the original form of accounting subjects today. The accounting report in the Western Zhou Dynasty is divided into three forms: annual meeting, monthly report and daily report. Ten-day newspaper is a kind of ten-day newspaper; If you record the situation for one month every month, compare it with the current monthly report; The annual meeting will correspond to today's annual report.
3. Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period Qin Dynasty
This period has made great contributions to financial theory and financial supervision. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were many financial celebrities. Confucius put forward that "politics is to save money" and "save money and love the people, so that the people can keep pace with the times". He advocated frugality in order to comfort the people and oppose excessive extravagance, and criticized Yan Ying for sacrificing ancestors with pigs, and it was detrimental to the gentleman's demeanor to wear out his cotton-padded jacket for 30 years. Mozi's frugality view is also very prominent, and he thinks that "frugality leads to life, and prostitution leads to death." The code of this period first tried to adjust economic behavior by legal means, among which; There is a provision in it: "Those who breach the contract and fail to pay their debts are more than one yuan, 10 day, 20 days, 20 days, plus the first-degree crime." The punishment for breach of contract is serious, from ancient times to the present.
Simple bookkeeping became mature in the Qin Dynasty. At this time, the main characteristics of single-entry bookkeeping are as follows: ① There is no corresponding relationship between single-entry bookkeeping and single-entry bookkeeping. (2) According to the date of economic events, recorded in running water, it is forbidden to record the date in the Qin Dynasty. (3) There is no correspondence between account books, so they cannot be mutually approved. The Qin Dynasty also promulgated the Qin Law and the Financial Chapter to legally manage economic activities. At this time, the laws were more detailed and clear than those in the Warring States period. If there is a regulation: "public funds and government money are misappropriated privately, which is the same as stealing." At this time, there have been clear regulations on the corruption of public officials.
4. Han dynasty
The Han Dynasty is a period of great unification in the history of China, and also a period of great economic development, which inevitably requires higher accounting. This is when the household registration system, accounting system and profit theory appeared, which laid the foundation for the development of accounting in China.
The household registration system is to write the head of the household, family members, names, ages and property on bamboo slips and compile them into a book, also known as "household registration". National tax collection and corvee collection are all distributed according to household registration, mainly including land tax, tax calculation (population tax), tax reform (instead of service tax) and household tax (levied by households). The household registration system is the blueprint of accounting in Tang Dynasty and Yellow Book in Ming Dynasty.
The so-called accounting system is to submit accounting statements-accounting books from bottom to top step by step every year. At the end of the year, all counties and countries brought their accounts to Beijing to report the changes in financial revenue and expenditure and the number of households in the past year. In ancient times, there was a censor who was in charge of the trial. Finally, the emperor personally measured, commented on the merits and decided to reward and punish.
The stable political situation and huge economic development in the Han Dynasty provided a good environment for the emergence of various economic theories. For example, Sima Qian's "don't sell firewood for a hundred miles, don't sell pheasants for a thousand miles". Firewood and grain are commodities with small unit value and heavy weight. From the point of view of sales cost and profit, they are not suitable for long-distance trafficking, and because of the difference in unit volume and weight, there are hundreds of miles and thousands of miles.
By the Eastern Han Dynasty, four items, namely, the balance of the previous period, the income of the current period, the payment of the current period and the balance of the current period, had been determined. This is a great breakthrough in the history of accounting development in China, and the four-column settlement method of later generations is closely related to this.
5. Three Kingdoms, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties
During this period, almost years of war led to the slow development of the whole economy and the slow development of accounting. However, at present, accounting has made some progress in some aspects, such as the establishment and use of household registration accounting system, and the change of writing tools from bamboo slips and wooden slips to paper. The household registration accounting law began in the Northern Zhou Dynasty and was formulated by Su Chuo, a senior official of the Taiwan Affairs Department, including accounting law and household registration law. The combination of the two has played a great role in enriching national wealth and funding military supplies. The household registration method in the Northern Zhou Dynasty was not only integrated by the later Sui Dynasty, but also the source of household registration in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
6. Tang and Song Dynasties
The Tang and Song Dynasties was the peak of the development of feudal society in China, and the prosperity of feudal economy created good conditions for the development of accounting. China accounting in this period was also at its peak.
The Tang dynasty continued to implement the household registration system of the previous generation. The so-called accounting is classified calculation according to the household registration data and income items stipulated by the state. It is a budget accounting subject and a basic means to check and implement fiscal and taxation services.
Another breakthrough of accounting in Tang Dynasty was the promulgation of long-term guide, which was the earliest budget system in China's financial history and the earliest national unified accounting subject in China's accounting history. The promulgation of the "Long Travel Guide" was aimed at unifying the financial revenue and expenditure items of various central departments, local counties and the military in view of the numerous financial budget items and confusing names at that time.
The famous "four-column settlement method" was also established in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. The "four pillars" here refer to: old management (balance in the previous period), new income (income in the current period), dismissal (expenditure in the current period) and reality (balance in the current period). The "four-column settlement method" is developed on the basis of the "three-column settlement method" (entry, exit and profit). Compared with the three-column settlement method, its advantage is to draw a clear line between the current income and the previous balance, and overcome the one-sidedness of the three-column settlement method.
The Book of Yuanhe Ji Guo, written by historian Li Jipu, is the first financial book in China to analyze the financial and economic situation in the Tang Dynasty. The book is divided into three parts: the first part is the household registration statistics classified by administrative divisions, which shows the source of national fiscal revenue and the budget of fiscal revenue; The second part is the fiscal revenue situation divided by the national fiscal revenue items, which is in contrast with the budget in the first part to explain the problem.
In the Song Dynasty, economic development was more prosperous. At this time, China's accounting is superior to the previous one in terms of organization setting, account book organization and settlement method.
In the Song Dynasty, the central government had "three divisions" to manage the state's financial power. In the seventh year of Zong Shenxi Ning's reign, he set up three divisions of accounting department, and always took an examination of the financial affairs of the world and the accounting affairs of the prime minister. The national bottom-up summary accounting is reported step by step, and the accounting department conducts unified cross-examination. The accounting department is the first time that our government agency is named after accounting, and it is also the first attempt that accounting exists as an independent department.
Accounting books in Song Dynasty have been divided into "draft account", running account and general ledger. Grass account is the basic account book for registering various economic matters according to time; A running account is an account book that registers various financial revenues and expenditures according to time, reflecting a certain aspect of economic business; General ledger is an account book classified and summarized according to the income and expenditure items stipulated by the state on the basis of various running accounts.
7. Yuan and Ming Dynasties
During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, accounting in China basically followed the accounting methods of the Tang and Song Dynasties, but at this time, people gradually realized the importance of accounting and expanded the scope of application. The compilation system of "Yellow Book" and "Fish Scale Book" in Ming Dynasty is very similar to the household registration system in Tang Dynasty, but it is higher than the latter in form and content. What is worth mentioning here is the appearance of "Longmen Account", which is a major breakthrough in accounting theory.
Longmen Account was founded in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties and was invented by Fu Shan. Longmen account books are divided into grass running account, running account and general settlement account. Grass flow plays the role of original vouchers, journal plays the role of accounting entries, and general ledger plays the role of general ledger. The ledger page is divided into two parts (payee and payer), so every transaction must be recorded in both parts at the same time, and the amount is equal. This is actually a double-entry bookkeeping method. The account page of general ledger settlement is also divided into collection and payment, with revenue and this kind of account at the top and deposit and payment at the bottom. The registration method is as follows: the income of the current period is transferred to the category account, and the expenditure is transferred to the category account; It is to transfer assets and creditor's rights to deposit accounts; It is to transfer capital and liabilities to these subjects. Since the entry and exit of the journal is equivalent, the entry and exit of the ledger must be equivalent. At the end of the period, in the general settlement, the formula "receipt-payment = deposit-capital" is used to verify whether there is any problem with the book. If the left and right sides of the equation are equal, it is called a closed rack, otherwise the rack disagrees. The principle of Longmen account is to make a square with any four numbers. If the sum of two numbers in one line is equal to the sum of two numbers in another line, then the diagonal differences of these four numbers are equal. The account page format of Longmen account is as follows:
8. Qing dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty in China's feudal era. At the same time, the feudal economy reached its peak, and China's accounting also developed to a fairly perfect level, manifested in the emergence of four-legged accounts. The accounting process of four-legged account is shown in the following figure:
Grass flow plays the role of original voucher. The trickle plays the role of accounting classification and is the basis for registering account books. Summary calculation is equivalent to the current general ledger. The silver book is equivalent to today's cash book. The closing book is equivalent to today's accounting statement, in which the "color item closing book" is similar to the current income statement; The balance sheet is similar to that of today. The format of these two books is the same as the general book account page, which is divided into two parts. The format of the "color project book" table is that the upper item (income) lists all the income incurred in the current period, and the lower item (income) lists all the expenses and profits (dividends) incurred in the current period.
Bonus = total from above-total from below.
The format of the "Save, Save, Close the Book" table is called Arabian Nights at the top and the location at the bottom. The above (Arabic) sub-item lists capital, liabilities and dividends (principal dividends transferred from the "color book"). The following (in place) lists all kinds of assets, creditor's rights and losses (losses transferred from the "color book"). If the total number of upper (Arabic) and lower (local) in this table is equal, it is called "harmony between heaven and earth", also called "harmony between heaven and earth". There must be a mistake in bookkeeping. Find out the reason.
abstract
Since then, the whole development process of accounting in China has been introduced. In the whole introduction process, the author deeply feels that the development of accounting is closely related to the development of the whole economy. During the period of great economic development, such as China, Tang and Song Dynasties after the unification of Qin Dynasty, accounting developed rapidly, while in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Five Dynasties and Ten Countries, the whole accounting development tended to stagnate. This can be achieved not only in the speed of development, but also in the stage of development. After entering the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the seeds of capitalism began to appear in China, and the commodity economy gradually developed greatly. At this time, the application scope of accounting in the private sector expanded, and complex accounting forms such as Longmen account and quadrupole account appeared.