As
The Ming Dynasty attached great importance to fishery, the system of
fishery policy was very well-organized, and the fishery
facilities were fully sufficient, but there were noticeable changes during the earlier and the later periods. In the earlier period there were plenty of stations in charge of fishing near rivers and lakes all over the country, especially in Jiujiang District, Anqin District and the coastal areas of Guangdong Province and Fujian Province. Most of such stations had office buildings fourteen years after Hongwu was in power, and they shared basically unified standards. There was one government official and one government clerk working at each station, taking charge of such affairs as collecting fishery taxes, administering fisherman, and keeping their registrars, etc. The official was called River-and-Lake Official and the clerk Cuandian. The River-and-Lake officials were generally better cultured and educated. But the number of such officials decreased considerably during the middle and late periods of
the Ming Dynasty because rivers and lakes became silted and fishery decline.