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Bondservants in the T'ai-hu Basin During the Late Ming: A Case of Mistaken Identities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Joseph P. McDermott
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Abstract

This paper attempts to redefine the nature and conditions of bondservants in the late Ming, particularly in the highly productive T'ai-hu basin. It proposes that the great economic and social differences among bondservants obliges us to treat bondservitude as a legal status, not as a class. It discusses the many causes of bondservitude and its highly varied conditions. Agricultural bondservants accounted for no more than one-fifth of the rural population and usually had to pay rent and perform specific manual duties for their master. Bondservant managers are seen to have acquired far more wealth and power than their legal status would suggest and, along with other “brazen servants,” participated in the bondservant uprisings in the T'ai-hu basin during the late Ming and early Ch'ing.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , August 1981 , pp. 675 - 701
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1981

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References

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17 Some of these synonyms can be found in the late Ming work Ku-chin lei-shu ts'uan-yao tseng-sban (Compilation of essentials, with supplement, from old and modern encyclopedias) (1634), 4.3Oa–31a; and Tanaka, p. 63.

18 E.g., Oyama III, p. 87.

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23 Many T'ang and Sung legal categories for dependents and base people are not found in Ming laws, while nu-p'u appears quite frequently in Ming statutes and other legal documents. Some of the T'ang and Sung legal categories were probably obsolete after the great changes in Chinese society in the late T'ang and early Sung. Yet one is tempted to wonder if by the Ming the nu-p'ucategory had encompassed many of these earlier legal categories and had come to represent a general expression for various type s of dependency.

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27 Ming-lü chi-chieh fu-li, 17.19b.

28 Ibid., 17.19a.

29 Tenants, it will be suggested, could also be bondservants, and as such they would not have retained their own household registers.

30 Yoshiyuki, Sutō, Chugokū tochi seidoshi kenkyū (Studies in the history of Chinese land tenure) (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1954), pp. 687–91.Google Scholar

31 Ming-shih lu (Veritable record of the Ming) (Kiangsu Provincial Library printing, 1940), Hung-wu, 73.11a. This same rule appears in a 1658 report by an early Ch'ing official in southern Honan to denounce the late Ming practice there of treating tenants as bondservants (Ju-ning fu-chih [Gazetteer of Juningfu, 1796], 33.81b–82a). In the Ta-Ch'ing lü-li an-yü (The Ch'ing Code and precedents with notes) (1847), 58.4 la, a Ch'ing compendium heavily dependent on Ming statutes, we find a succinct expression of the tenant's “in-between” legal status: “Although tenants and bondservants are not the same, there is a difference between master and tenant and also a gap (chien) between tenant and commoner (p'ing-min).”

32 Ming-lüchi-chiehfu-li, 20.25a–b, 27a; 21.3b.

33 Oyama IV, pp. 257–64. The great late Ch'ing scholar, Hsüeh Yün-sheng, has some very perceptive comments on such confusing points in the Ming statutes in his classic study, T'ang Ming lü ho-pien (A compendium of the T'ang and Ming codes) (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1937), esp. 26: 610–11.Google Scholar

34 Niida I, pp. 176–77, 220, mentions some of these misuses of tenants.

35 Saeki, pp. 39–40, 48, details the extensive property forcibly acquired at a cheap price by a bondservant, Tung Ch'un, partly if not entirely for himself. Also, see n. 126, for an account of some bondservants' extensive landholdings, far too great for them to have cultivated alone.

36 Fu, Ming Ch'ing, pp. 2–3, contract 1, shows how the Hu family as bondservants of the Hungs might contract themselves initially to a specific duty to the Hungs in return for a specific favor from them. Later on, when they had not kept their duty, the Hus were then obliged to assume another specific duty. Thus, for both parties the contract was critical in determining the extent of their obligation and duties.

37 I borrow here concepts found in Watson, James L., “Slavery as an Institution: Open and Closed Systems,” Asian and African Systems of Slavery, ed. Watson, James L. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 1–15Google Scholar. My views differ from Watson's, in part, I believe, because his study on slaves in China ignores the issue of “slavery” as a legal status and covers a much narrower range than my study. I am, however, greatly indebted to his seminal and invaluable studies of slavery and tenancy in the New Territories.

38 Tamai, p. 178; Ming-shih (Ming history) (Peking: Chung-hu a shu-chü, 1974) 297: 7615–16Google Scholar; and Ming-chou Wu-shih chia-chi (A family record of the Wu family in Ming-chou in Huichou) (1590), 7.28b.

39 McDermott, Joseph P., “Land Tenure and Rural Control in the Liangche Region During the Southern Sung” (Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge University, 1979), pp. 170–71, 182–83.Google Scholar

40 Shen-hsing, Yü. Ku-shan Yü Wen-ting kung pi-chi (Notes by Yü Wen-ting) (preface 1677; rpt. Taipei: Hsüeh-hai, 1969), 12.15bGoogle Scholar; and Li Lo, Chien-wen tsa-chi (Miscellany on things seen and heard) (preface 1598) 2: item 80; and 3: item 97.

41 E.g., Ju-ning fu-chih, 23–80b–81a; Oyama III, p. 89; An-fu hsien-chih, 2.40b; and Wei, p. 112.

42 An-fu hsien-chih, 2.40a–b.

43 Minghui-yao (Essentials of the collected edicts of the Ming), comp. Lun g Wen-pin (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1956) 52: 967–70Google Scholar; and Kuan Chih-tao, Ts'ung-hsien wei-su-i (Discussions on following one's predecessors and maintaining customs) (preface 1602, in T'ai-K'un hsien-che i-shu shou-chi 2.61b–62b.

44 Watson, p. 223.

45 Niida II, pp. 511–42, for a history of adoption in China. For the Ming, additional information is found in Koji, Hosono, “Minmatsu Shinsho Kōnan ni okeru jinushi doboku kankei” (Landlord-bondservant relations in the lower Yangtze Delta in the late Ming and early Ch'ing), TYGH 50, 3 (1967): 26–27; Oyama III, p. 100; and Kuan Chih-tao, 2.60b–61b. Bondservants, adopted or not, frequently assumed their master's surname regardless of his wishes (Hosono, pp. 24–28, and Tung Han, San-kang shih-lüeh [A sketch of information on the three relations] [preface 1739], 3.7b).Google Scholar

46 Noboru, Niida, “Min Shin jidai hitouri oyobi hitojichi monjo no kenkyū” (A study of documents concerned with the sale and mortgage of humans during the Ming and Ch'ing periods), SGZS 46, 5 (1935): 71–73 (henceforth Niid a III).Google Scholar

47 Niida II, p. 541.

48 Fu, Ming Ch'ing, pp. 6–7. The master often married off his younger bondservants (Hosono, p. 18; Oyama III, p. 90).

49 Shang-chih, Hsüeh, Ch'ang-shu shui-lun (On the waterworks of Ch'ang-shu county) Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'engd. (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1936), p. 11. He estimates that in this county there were over 10,000 hired laborers in the villages alone.Google Scholar

50 Oyama III, p. 88; and Hsüan, Chang, Hsi-yüan wen-chien lu (A record of what was heard and by the “Western Garden”) (Taipei: Hua-wen shu chü, 1968, rpt. of 1940 ed. by Harvard-Yenching Institute in Peking), 6.36a.Google Scholar

51 Oyama IV, passim; and I-ling, Fu, “Wo tui-yü Ming-tai chung-ch'i i-hou ku-yung lao-tung ti tsai jen-shih” (My reexamination of hired labor from the mid-Ming onward), LSYC 3 (1963): 67–69Google Scholar. K'o, Hsü, Ch'ing pat lei ch'ao (Notes on Ch'ing) (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1928), 83Google Scholar, nu-pi lei: 1, claimed that hired laborers were still regarded as bondservants (nu) at the start of century.

52 McDermott, pp. 175–83, describes this traditional form of debt bondage.

53 Niida III. For the case of a young boy sold off in the Ming who later left his master and independently acquired a great fortune, see Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'eng (Comprehensive collection of ancient and modern books) (rpt. Taipei: Ting-wen shu-chü, 1977), ming-lun hui-pien chia-fan tien, 116, nu-pi pu: 1208.

54 E.g., Motonosuke, Amano, “Mindai no nōgyo to nōmin” (The agriculture and peasantry of the Ming period), Min Shin jidai no kagaku gijutsushi (A history of the science and technology of the Ming and Ch'ing periods), eds. Kiyoshi, Yabuuchi and Mitsukuni, Yoshida (Kyoto: Kyōto daigaku jimbun kagaku kenkyūjo, 1960), p. 499.Google Scholar

55 Yü-ch'üan, Wang, “Ming-tai ti wang-fu chuang-t'ien” (Imperial household estates in the Ming period), LSLT 1 (1964): 276–77.Google Scholar

56 Niida III, pt. 3, pp. 89–91.

57 Chiang-nan t'ung-chih (A comprehensive gazetteer for Chiangnan, 1704), 65.51b–52b, in very early Ch'ing times says that forced seizure of others was the worst custom in the T'ai-hu basin.

58 Wu Yüan-ts'ui, Man-lu p'ing-cheng (Essays lightly written, with comments and corrections), Wan-li period ed., chi-chi, 1.10b–11a.

59 Ju-ningfu-chib, 23.81a–b.

60 The most informative studies of the Ming practice of commendation remain Shimizu Taiji, “Tōken kō” (A study of commendation), “Minchō tōken kinrei kō” (A study of commendation proscriptions in the Ming period), “Tōken to kiki no igi” (The significance of commendation and deceitful investiture of property), and “Mindai ni okeru denchi no kiki” (The deceitful investiture of fields and land in the Ming period), Mindai tochi seido kenkyū (Studies of land tenure in the Ming period) (Tokyo: Daian, 1968), pp. 385–458.Google Scholar

61 A judgment based on the frequency of references to commendation as the cause of bondservitude there (e.g., Ku JCL 13: 325; Ch'ang Chao ho-chih [A combined gazetteer for Ch'ang-shu and Chao-wen counties, 1904], 1.22a–b; Fu, Ming Ch'ing, pp. 79–80; and Ku Kung-hsieh, Hsiao-hsia hsien-chi che-ch'ao [A copy of records written at leisure, whiling away the summer] [1775], shang, 5b–6a).

62 Ku, Hsiao-hsia, shang, 6a–b.

63 Huang, Ray, Taxation and Governmental Finance in Sixteenth Century Ming China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), p. 157; and Min-ch'ao Tung-huan shih-shih, p. 249.Google Scholar

64 Huang Ming t'iao-fa shih-lei ts'uan (A collection of the regulations and laws of the Ming) (rpt. Tokyo: Koten kenkyukai, 1966) 1: 31.Google Scholar

65 A fine study of the li-chia system is Kaohiro's, Tsurumi “Mindai ni okeru gōsun shihai,” (Village control in the Ming period), Sekai rekishi (World history) (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1971) 12: 57–92.Google Scholar

66 Huang Hsing-tseng, Wu-feng lu (A record of the customs of the Wu area), Hsüeh-hai lei-pien ed., 5b; Ku Yen-wu, Ku T'ing-lin shih-wen chi (Collection of the prose and poetry of Ku Yen-wu) (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1976) 1: 17; and Liang-chün, Ho, Ssu-yu chai ts'ung-shuo (A collection of notes from the Four Friends Studio) (Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1959) 9: 111–12.Google Scholar

67 Chang Li-hsiang, Yang-yüan hsien-sheng ch'üan-chi (Complete writings of Mr. Chang Yang-yüan) (1871), 38.16b.

68 Shimizu, p. 410.

69 Shimizu, pp. 433–34; Chang Li-hsiang, 32.18b; and Hsü San-chung, Ming-shan ch'üan-pien (A complete text of bright goodness), chia-tse, in Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'eng, ming-lun hui-pien chia-fan tien, 113, nu-pi pu: 1179.

70 Hsü, ibid.

71 Ju-ningfu-chih, 23.81a.

72 Chang Hsüan, 6.36a.

73 Chao-che, Hsieh, Wu tsa tsu (Five assorted offerings) (Shanghai: Chung-yang shu-tien, 1935) 4: 166.Google Scholar

74 Li 5: item 50.

75 Shang-hai hsien-chih (Gazetteer of Shang-hai county) (1814), 19.27b, quoting an earlier source.

76 Nishimura, p. 40, gives several examples. Also, see T'ai-ts'ang fu-chih (Gazetteer of T'ai ts'angfu, 1802), 16.5a. In Hua-t'ing county landlords even vied with one another to extort protection fees from a rich bondservant (Shen Ping-sun, Ch'üan chat lao-jen pi-chi [Notes of the elder of the ch'uuml;an studio], Wu-hsing ts'ung-shu ed. [1916], 3.11b).

77 Ju-ning fu-chib, 23.81a.

78 This point is a major theme of Hosono's for the lower Yangtze Valley.

79 Li 2: item 80, and 3: item 97. Ku, JCL 13: 325, states that in the T'ai-hu basin official families had as many as 2,000 bondservants.

80 Huo T'ao, Huo Wei-ya chia-hsün (Family in structions of Huo Wei-ya) (preface 1528), 3b–4a; Nishimura, pp. 28–29; and Oyama I, p. 10.

81 Saeki, pp. 47–52; Fu, Ming Ch'ing, p.3; Oyama I, passim, and II, p. 52; Wei, pp. 113–14; and Tung, 3.7b.

82 Ku, JCL 13: 325.

83 Fu, Ming Ch'ing, pp. 1–8; and Wei, p.

84 Oyama I, pp. 7–9; Oyama III, pp. 85, 87; Chang, 19.25a–b.

85 Oyama I, pp. 7, 9–10.

86 Chang, 19.25a–b.

87 Chang, 19.26a–b.

88 McDermott, pp. 162–64, 221–28.

89 McDermott, pp. 123–26; I-ling, Fu, Ming-tai Chiang-nan shih-min ching-chi shih-t'an (Exploratory studies of the urban residents' economy in the lower Yangtze Delta in the Ming period) (Shanghai: Shanghai jen-min, 1963), pp. 30–50Google Scholar; Rawski, Evelyn, Agricultural Change and the Peasant Economy of South China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 142CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ping-ti, Ho, Studies the Population of China, 1368–1955 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), p. 139Google Scholar; Perkins, Dwight, Agricultural Development in China, 1368–1968 (Chicago: Aldine, 1969), p. 24Google Scholar; and, Dunstan, Helen, “The Late Ming Epidemics: A Preliminary Survey,” Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i 3, 3 (1975): 1–59Google Scholar. Ms Dunstan's model study shows the great impact of epidemics on rural and urban society in the T'ai-hu basin in the late Ming. Wiens, Mi Chu, “Lord and Peasant, The Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century,” Modern China 6, 1 (1980): 10–11Google Scholar, writes of drastic population decline in the late Ming for the T'ai-hu basin. Even if this does not exaggerate the population loss, there is no evidence that it caused a rural labor shortage at any time. In fact, the scourge of natural disasters in this region struck after the noticeable rise in the number of bond-servants there.

90 Noboru, Niida, “Gen Min jidai no mura kiyaku to kosaku shōsho” (Village pacts and tenancy contracts in the Yüan and Ming periods), TYBKKKJKY 8 (1956): 141, 143, 147, and 154.Google Scholar

91 Chin-lingfan-ch'a chih (Gazetteer of the Bud dhist temples of Chin-ling) (1607), 50.85b.

92 Ibid.; and Masao, Mori, “Min Shin Kōnan kanden ni tsuite, Soshū Shōkō nifu ni okeru sono gutaishō, ge” (On government-owned fields in the lower Yangtze Valley in the Ming and Ch'ing—their concrete image in the two prefec tures of Soochoufu and Sungchiangfu), TYSKK 19, 4 (1961): 8.Google Scholar

93 Tsung-i, T'ao, Cho-keng lu (A record of who has stopped tilling), chi-ch'eng, Ts'ung-shu ed., 13: 198–99Google Scholar; and Mi, Chou, Ch'i-tung yeh- yü (Rural talk from Ch'i-tung), chi-ch'eng, Ts'ung-shu ed., 17: 221.Google Scholar

94 Hiroshi, Fujii, “Sōmintō no ichiden ryōshusei” (The two-masters-on-one-field system on the Ch'ung-ming islands), THG 49 (1975): 59–60.Google Scholar

95 Chang, 50.19b.

96 Kuo-i, Yang, “Wan-Ming t'u-ti chan-yu kuan-hsi ti yen-pien” (Changes in land occupancy relations in the late Ming), LSCHWT 2 (1957): 32–33Google Scholar. The second of these contracts concerns a woman's sale of fields. Presumably, she had others, probably tenants, till them for her.

97 Wu-chiang hsien-chih (Gazetteer of Wu-chiang county) (1561), 13–10a-lla.

98 Ho Liang-chün 13: 111–12.

99 Chieh, Hsü, Shih-ching t'ang chi (A collection of writings from Shih-ching hall), period, Ch'ien-lung ed., 22.21a.Google Scholar

100 Ku Kung-hsieh, shang, 6a–b; Wang Shih-hsing, Kuang-chih i (A broad-ranging gazetteer) (preface 1597), 3.9b; T'ang Piao, Jen-sheng pi-tu shuo (Comments on what one must read during one's lifetime) (1714), 12.31a; and Li 5: item 50. As the final source relates, the success of these Huchou bondservants in winning their demands prompted other bondservants in the area to call for a similar payment, indicating that they too had made similar deals with their masters. Also, Chang Hsüan, 6.36a, states that in Huichou bondservants families were often pure, i.e., without service work, since after marriage they lived and ate apart from their master.

101 Fu, Ming Ch'ing, pp. 2–3, 5, 13–14.

102 Saeki, pp. 39–40, 48.

103 Oyama I and II, passim.

104 Ch'iu Chün, Ch'iu Wen-chuang uien-chi (Prose writings of Ch'iu Wen-chuang), Ch'ung-chen period ed., 2.10b–lla, in Huang-Ming ching-shih wen-pien (Ming texts on ruling the world), ed. Tzu-lung, Ch'en (Taipei: Kuo-lien t'u-shu, 1964), vol. 72.Google Scholar

105 Oyama I, II, and III.

106 Amano, p. 499.

107 Oyama III.

108 Oyama III, pp. 88–89; and Oyama I, p. 28, esp. n. 9, for the date of this important source.

109 R. Huang, pp. 156–62.

110 Ku Kung-hsieh, shang, 6b.

111 Oyama II, p. 53. The 1681 issue of the Ch'ung-ming hsien-chih (Gazetteer for Ch'ung-county) used by Oyama is unfortunately not available to me. However, in the 1727 issue of this county's gazetteer, the expression “Chiang-nan” is said to be the local designation for Soochoufu (Ch'ung-ming hsien-chih, 9.39b). It had the same meaning for T'aits'angchou residents as well (T'aits'ang chou-chih [Gazetteer for T'aits'angfu] [1802], 17.12a).

112 Fujii, THG, pp. 59–60.

113 Noboru, Niida, Chūgoku hōseishi kenkyū, tochihō-torikihō (Studies of Chinese legal land law and contract law) (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1962), pp. 183–86; p. 189, n. 1; and p. 190, n. 2.Google Scholar

114 Ho Liang-chüin 9: 111–12.

115 Yü Shen-hsing, 5.7a.

116 Shang-hai hsien-chih, 19.27b.

117 Saeki, pp. 47–56, is the source for all the information on bondservant managers, unless otherwise indicated.

118 Huo T'ao, 2b; Chang Li-hsiang, 47.5a, 50.19b; and Issei, Tanaka, “Jūgoroku seiki o chūhsin to sum Kōnan chihōgeki no henshitsu ni tsuite, iv” (On changes in the local drama of the lower Yangtze Valley, especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), TYBKKKJKY 71 (1977): 4–12.Google Scholar

119 Chang Li-hsiang, 50.19b.

120 Hiroshi, Fujii, “Shin'an no shōnin, iii” (Hsin-an merchants), TYGH 36, 3 (1953): 82–84.Google Scholar

121 Chang Li-hsiang, 19.16a–b.

122 Huang Tsung-hsi, Ming-i tai-fang lu (A plan for th e prince), Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'en g ed., p. 31.

123 Saeki, p. 51.

124 Min-ch'ao Tung-huan shih-shih, pp. 220, 229.

125 McDermott, pp. 144–49, 246–60.

126 Kuan Chih-tao, 5.41a.

127 Chia-ting hsien-chih (Gazetteer for Chia-ting county) (1673), 4.1b, quoting a 1605 gazetteer. It goes on to note that by 1673 the situation had almost worsened for the gentry.

128 Huang Hsing-tseng, 3b–4a. Also see T'aits'ang chou-chih, 59.14b.

129 Kuan Chih-tao, 2.60b.

130 Wang Shih-hsing, 4.1a.

131 Shang-hai hsien-chih, 1.40a, quoting the 1588 gazetteer.

132 Ch'eng Mu-heng (chin-shih, 1737), T'aits'ang, feng-su chi (A record of the customs of T'aits'ang), Ti-hsiang-chai ts'ung-shu ed., l.lb–2a.

133 Tadao, Sakai, Chūgoku zensho no kenkyū (Studies on Chinese morality books) (Tokyo: Kōyōsha, 1960), p. 108.Google Scholar

134 Hsieh Kuo-chen, p. 11.

135 Wu Yüuan-ts'ui, ch'ien-chi, 2.5a; lüeh-chi, 5.14a–15b. Bondservant entrance into the sheng yüan status was doubtless eased by the general relaxation of admission requirements and student quotas during the late Ming (Ping-ti, Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China [New York: Columbia University Press, 1962], pp. 175–79)Google Scholar. It remains to be seen if bondservants entered the private academies with similar ease and in similar numbers.

136 R. Huang, pp. 244–46.

137 Kuan Chih-tao, 2.61a–b.

138 Wu Yüan-ts'ui, ch'ien-chi, 2.5a.

139 Wu Yüan-ts'ui, lüeh-chi, 5.14a–b. Ku, JCL 13: 325, tells of two bondservants who had enough power to obtain bribes and to receive gentry guests at home.

140 Chang Hsüan, 6.36a.

141 T'an Ch'ien, Tsao-lin tsa-tsu (Miscellaneous offerings from Tsao-lin), Pi-chi hsiao-shuo ta-kuan series, sheng-chi, 30b.

142 Kuan Chih-tao, 2.60b.

143 Hsü K'o, nu-pi lei, p. 2. The same was true with the Yao, Chang, Tso, and Ma clans in T'ung-ch'eng county, Anhui, and doubtless helps to explain their persistent strength and high number of degree holders (ibid.; Beattie, Hilary J., Land and Lineage in China: A Study of T'ung-ch'eng County, Anhwei in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979], p. 51Google Scholar; and Ping-ti, Ho, The Ladder of Success, p. 138)Google Scholar. Hsieh Chao-che 15: 290, contains interesting information on the Huichou practice of allowing bondservants to study for and take the official examinations but not to marry into an eminent house despite the wealth and high position they might attain. He contrasts this custom with the practice in his own county of Ch'ang-lo, Fukien, whereby descendants of bondservants were strictly forbidden to study and take the exams; violators were beaten by mobs. Yet, bondservants there could acquire more wealth and power than their masters, many of whom saw their family's position fall in the late Ming.

144 Wu Yüan-ts'ui, pieh-chi, 6. la.

145 Yukio, Yamane, “Shori ketsu jōto monjo” (Documents transferring a vacant clerkship), MDSKK 3 (1975): 57–62; Huang Tsung-hsi, p. 31; and T'ai-ts'ang chou-chih, 16.4b, quoting a gazetteer compiled in 1629.Google Scholar

146 Hou Fang-yü, Chuang-hui-t'ang chi (Collected writings from the Chuang-hui hall), Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts'ung-shu ed, wen-chi, i-kao, p. 267; Shih-i, Lu, Fu-she chi-lüeh (A brief record of the Fu society) (Shanghai: Shen-chou kuo-kuang-she, 1936)Google Scholar in Chung-kuo nei-luan wai-huo li-shih ts'ung-shu 2: 218; and Ma Shih-ch'i, Tan-ning chü wen-chi (Collected writings of a Tanning resident, 1756), 9.8a, 16b–17a.

147 Ming-hui-yao 52: 969. These sixteen bond-servants all were attached to the households of government officials.

148 Li 3: item 122.

149 Chang Li-hsiang, 50.19b. Also see Huang Ang, 10. lb–2a.

150 Nishimura, p. 40, quoting the Chia-ting hsien-chih (Gazetteer of Chia-ting county) (1605).

151 Ku Yen-wu, T'ing-lin yü-chi (Remaining wtitings by T'ing-lin), Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ed., 19a.

152 Anon., Yen-t'ang chien-wen tsa-chi, p. 30.

153 Fu, Ming Ch'ing, p. 95; and Chia-ting hsien-chih, 4.3a.

154 Kuan Chih-tao, 2.60b, 62b.

155 Ibid.

156 Kuan Chih-tao, 2.60b; and Hsiao Chao-che 14: 262.

157 Hosono, p. 18; Fu, Ming Ch'ing, p. 95; and Pao-shan hsien-chih (Gazetteer of Pao-shan county, 1746), 1.45b.

158 Tung Han, 3.7b–8a.

159 Yu-kuang, Kuei, Kuei Yu-kuang ch'üan-chi (Complete writings of Kuei Yu-kuang) (Hong Kong: Kuang-chieh shu-chü, 1959) 25: 308.Google Scholar

160 Wang Shih-hsing, 4.5a. For Sungchiangfu, see Ho Liang-chün 34: 312.

161 Shao-wen, Li, Yün-chien tsa-chih (Miscellaneous information on Yün-chien) (Shanghai: Shang-hai-hsien hsiu-chih-chü, 1936)Google Scholar, 2.8b, tells how in an urban neighborhood of Sungchiangfu where only gentry resided, no family saw its sons succeed in the examinations until 1613. In Huat'ing county the number of gentry families, particularly those of gentry retired from public office (hsiang-kuan), increased considerably in the sixteenth century (Ho Liang-chün 34: 316). In Huchou certain families like the Chu, Sun, Li, and Ting may have succeeded in retaining their wealth and official careers over several generations; in fact, they and most other great gentry families in Huchou could trace their wealth and position back to their days of service as tax captains (Ting Yüan-chien, Hsi-shan jih-chi yüan-pen ch'ao [A copy of the original text of the daily record of “Western Mountain”] Han-fen-lou mi-chi ed., 1, jih-k'o, 11b).

162 Nishimura, p. 42. For the spread of the practice of absentee landlordism in the T'ai-hu basin, see Mamoru, Kawakatsu, “Mindai no kishōko ni tsuite” (On absentee estates in the Ming period), TYSKK 33, 3 (1974): 48–71.Google Scholar

163 Cheng-li chih-lüeh (A brief gazetteer of Cheng-li) (1910), 12.8a, quoting an earlier source. For the great increase in the urban population and trade in Sungchiangfu, see Li Shao-wen, 2. 10a–b, 20a.

164 Hsieh Chao-che 4: 165.

165 Huang Hsing-tseng, 5b–6a; and Ho Liang-chün 34: 312.

166 Mio, Nakayama, “Shindai zenki Kōnan no bukka dōkō” (Price fluctuations in the lower Yangtze Delta in the early Ch'ing), TYSKK 37, 4 (1979): 91–96Google Scholar, contains important information on the change in investment practices during the sixteenth century.

167 Chang Li-hsiang is the most noted example of the relatively small landlord who was sharply critical of unruly bondservants.

168 Tang Piao, 12.30b–31a. Also see Hosono, p. 14, and Yao Shun-mu, Yao-shih yao-yen Instructive words of Mr. Yao), Chih-chin chai ts'ung-shu ed., 11b. For a definition of the term hsiang-huan more detailed than that given in above translation, see Tanaka, p. 49.

169 Li 3: item 170.

170 Ku, JCL 13: 325. For a similar observation, see Lu Shih-i 2: 218.

171 E.g., the attack on Ch'en Ming, referred in n. 124.

172 Saeki, p. 54. Tanaka, pp. 64–65, dismisses such uprisings as nonessential; it is here that I would disagree with him in his frequently exciting and brilliant study of rural change.

173 We would then have brokers overturn their patrons in ways usually ignored by modern theories of patron-client relations (e.g., Scott, James, “Patronage or Exploitation,” Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean Societies, eds. Gellner, E. and Waterbury, J. [London: Duckworth, 1977], pp. 21–40).Google Scholar

174 Ying-k'ui, Wang, Liu-nan sui-pi (Notes from Liu-nan), chi-ch'eng, Ts'ung-shu ed., 5: 81–82Google Scholar. Han, Wu, Teng-hsia chi (Collection of essays written under a lamp) (Peking: San-lien shu-tien, 1961, 3rd printing), pp. 53–54Google Scholar, takes this passage, written by a resident of Chiangyin, to refer to other parts of the T'ai-hu basin as well.

175 Tadashi, Suzuki, “Mindai katei kō” (Private militia in the Ming period), SK 37 (1952): 23–40Google Scholar; and Hsieh Kuo-chen, p. 8. For an amusing tale of a loyal servant eventually made an army official by his well-connected master, see Hou Fang-yü 10: 232–34.

176 Tanaka, p. 44.

177 Hsü K'o, nu-pi lei, pp. 6–7.

178 E.g., Chia-ting hsien-chih, 4.6a.

179 Miyazaki, Ichisada, China's Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China, trans. Schirokauer, Conrad (Tokyo: John Weatherhill, 1976), pp. 118–19.Google Scholar

180 Tanaka, p. 50.

181 As seen in the frequent establishment of charitable estates (i-chuang) for clan members (Shimizu Morimitsu, Chūgoku zokusan seido kō [A study of the system of clan property in China] [Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1949], pp. 44–46).

182 Hsieh Kuo-chen, p. 21; Ch'ang-shu hsien-chih (Gazetteer of Ch'ang-shu county) (1687), 9.28a; Ch'eng Mu-heng, 1. lb–2a; and Huang Ang, Hsi-chin shih hsiao-lu (A brief record of information about Wu-hsi and Chin-k'uei counties), 1.14b–15a, 10.10b, which makes explicit the return of peace to the countryside after the gentry in the early Ch'ing took up residence there, in contrast to their custom of living in a town or city during the turbulent Ming.