差役 (chā yì) — (historical) forced labor or service demanded by the state, corvée; (historical) a low-level government messenger or servant
Definition
Historical term with two related senses: the unpaid labor peasants owed the state (corvée), and the low-ranking servants or messengers who ran errands in a yamen.
noun
(historical) forced labor or service demanded by the statecorvée(historical) a low-level government messenger or servant
Measure word · 个
Examples
- 差役。Gǔ dài nóng mín měi nián dōu yào fú chā yì.Ancient peasants had to perform corvée every year.
- 衙。Tā nián qīng shí céng zài xiàn yá dāng chā yì.When he was young, he worked as a runner in the county yamen.
- 差役。Nà xiē chā yì měi tiān fù zé zài yá men lǐ pǎo tuǐ.Those runners were responsible for running errands in the yamen every day.
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