What is an account?

Hukou is a legal concept with a history of more than 2,000 years in China. In Cihai (version 1989), there are six explanations for the meaning of hukou, two of which are the generalization and abstraction of the concept of hukou in household registration management. In China's current household registration management, those who establish households, that is, those who have "consanguineous marriage or adoption relationship", are called family households, while those who establish households, that is, those who live in government agencies, organizations, schools, enterprises and institutions or public dormitories with industrial ties, are called collective households. Family household is the most important form of household registration management.

Hukou is also a legal concept. Hukou book began in Historical Records written by Sima Qian in Han Dynasty, and it has been used ever since. In Cihai (version 1989), the word hukou is interpreted as "the general name of households and mouths, each household has its head, and every member (i.e. person) in the household is called a mouthful". Hukou refers to the number of families and the population in the family. Family is a social group composed of people. Only one person in the family can be called a family. Man is the life entity of the family, and man takes his mouth as the unit of measurement. What we usually call hukou includes both family hukou and collective hukou. However, household registration must have a specific address. Only when the person and address are merged and registered by the household registration authority can they be legally recognized as household registration.