¹ Kuo-chen, Hsieh, “Ming-chi nu-pien k'ao” (A study of bondservant uprisings in the Ming), CHHP 1 (1932): 1–25. (See list of abbreviations for journal titles.)Google Scholar

² Kazuo, Kojima, “Minmatsu chōkō deruta ni okeru jinushi keiei—Shin shi Nōsho no ichi kōsatsu” (Landlord management in the lower Yangtze Delta—A look at The Book of Agriculture by Mr. Shen), RSGKK 148 (1950): 11–23.Google Scholar

³ Masaaki, Oyama, “Minmatsu Shinsho no daitochi shoyū, toku ni Kōnan deruta chitai o chūshin ni shite” (Large landownership in the late Ming and early Ch'ing, especially in the lower Yangtze Delta area), SGZS 66, 12 (1957): 1–35 (henceforth Oyama I); 67, 1 (1958): 50–72 (henceforth Oyama II).Google Scholar

⁴ Masaaki, Oyama, “Mindai no daitochi shoyū to doboku” (Large landownership and bondservants in the Ming period), TYBKKKJKY 62 (1974): 77–131 (henceforth Oyama III).Google Scholar

⁵ Noboru, Niida, Chūgoku hōseishi kenkyū, dorei nōdo ho kazoku sonrakuhō (Studies of Chinese legal history; laws on slaves and serfs and laws on the family and village) (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1962), pp. 150–68 (henceforth Niida I).Google Scholar

⁶ I-ling, Fu, Ming Ch'ing nung-ts'un she-hui ching-chi (Peasant society and economy in the Ming and Ch'ing) (Peking: San-lien shu-tien, 1961), pp. 68–153.Google Scholar

⁷ Elvin, Mark, The Pattern of the Chinese Past (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973), pp. 69–83, 235–67.Google Scholar

⁸ Chin-yü, Wei, “Ming Ch'ing shih-tai tien- nung ti nung-nu ti-wei” (On the position of tenant- like serfs in the Ming and Ch'ing periods), LSYC 5 (1963): 109–134.Google Scholar

⁹ Elvin, p. 239.

¹⁰ Ma-ch'eng hsien-chih (Gazetteer of Ma-ch'eng county, 1877), 10.13b, quoting from an “old gazetteer.”

¹¹ Kojima, pp. 14–15.

¹² I, Niida, “Minmatsu Shinsho o hōkensei kakuritsuki to sum setsu ni tsuite” (On the theory that the late Ming and early Ch'ing was a period in which feudalism was established), pp. 217–26.Google Scholar

¹³ Fu, Ming Ch'ing, pp. 80–81, n. 3.

¹⁴ Yuichi, Saeki, “Minmatsu no Toshi no hen— iwayuru dohen no seikaku ni kanren shite” (The Tung family disturbance in the late Ming— concerning the character of the “bondservant disturbances”), TYSKK 16, 1 (1957): 26–57Google Scholar; and Masatoshi, Tanaka, “Minhen koso dohen” (Popular uprisings, rent resistance, and bondservant disturbances), Sekai no rekishi (History of the world) (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1961) 11: 41–80.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Atsushi, Shigeta, Shindai shakai keizaishi kenkyū (Studies on the social and economic history of the Ch'ing period) (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1975), pp. 189–95.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Kazuyo, Nishimura, “Mindai no doboku” (Bondservants in the Ming period), TYSKK 38, 1 (1979): 24–50Google Scholar. Her important article came to my attention after an earlier draft of this article had been completed with similar views on the increasing power and influence of bondservants in the late Ming. At different points in this article I have drawn upon some of her extensive references to Ming sources.

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.

¹⁹ Finley, Moses I., “Slavery,” ed. David L. Sills, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, (New York: Macmillan, 1968) 14: 307.Google Scholar

²⁰ See nn. 129–59.

²¹ See nn. 88–102.

²² Saeki, p. 52.

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.

²⁴ Ming-lü chi-chieh fu-li (The Ming code, with collected commentaries and accompanying precedents), period, Wan-li ed. (Taipei: Ch'eng-wen, 1969), 20.23a.Google Scholar

²⁵ Yen-wu, Ku, Jih-chih lu (A record of daily knowledge) (Taipei: Shih chieh shu-chü, 1972) (henceforthyCL) 13: 325Google Scholar; Oyama, “Min Shin jidai no kokōjin ritsu ni tsuite” (On the laws on hired laborers in the Ming and Ch'ing periods), Hoshi hakushi taikan ktnen Chūgokushi ronshū (Studies in Chinese history dedicated to Hoshi Ayao on his retirement from Yamagata University) (Yamagata, Japan: Hoshi Ayao sensei taikan kinen jigyokai, 1978), pp. 249–73 (henceforth Oyama IV); and Yüan-sheng, Weng et al. , eds., Min-ch'ao Tung-huan shih-shihGoogle Scholar (The facts about Minister Tung, as written by the people) in Chung-kuo nei-luan wai-huo li-shih ts'ung-shu (Collecteana of domestic disturbances and foreign disasters in Chinese history) eds. Yin-sheng, Ch'eng et al. (Shanghai: Shenchou kuo-kuang-she, 1936) 7: 249.Google Scholar

²⁶ Anon., Yen-t'ang chien-wen tsa-chi (Miscellany of things heard and seen by Yen-t'ang) (Taipei county, Yung-ho chen: Wen-hai, 1971), in Ming Ch'ing shih-liao hui-pien, 7th ser., 3: 30; Fu, Ming Ch'ing, pp. 95–99; and An-fu hsien-chih (Gazetteer of An-fu county, 1872), 2.40a–b, for bondservant efforts to attack the master's house and seize contracts attesting to their bondservitude. For Ming date of the An-fu county source on the universal usage there of contracts, see ibid., 18.107b. For information on earlier dynasties' similar legal treatment of nu-p'u, see Noboru, Niida, Tō Sō hōritsu monjo no kenkyū (Studies of T'ang and Sung legal documents) (Tokyo: Tōhō bunka gakuin Tōkyō kenkyūjo, 1937), pp. 738–44 (henceforth Niid a II)Google Scholar; Zehaku, Tamai, Shina shaken keizaishi kenkyū (Studies of the social and economic history of China) (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1942), pp. 174–80Google Scholar; and Yoshiji, Okamoto, “Gendai no doreisei ni tsuite—kenkyū josetsu” (On slavery in the Yüan period—introductory research), SGKK 66 (1968): 7–10Google Scholar. Two important studies of nu-p'u as a legal status group in earlier periods of Chinese history are Nishijima Sadao, “Chūgoku kodai dohisei no sai kōsatsu—sono kaikyūteki seikaku to mibunteki seikaku” (A reexamination of slavery in ancient China—its character as a class and as a legal status), Kodaishi kōza (Lectures on ancient history), ed. Shō, Ishimoda (Tokyo: Gakuseisha, 1963) 7: 142–73Google Scholar; and Yasushi, Kusano, “Tōritsu ni mieru shisenmin nuh i bukyoku ni tsuite no ichi kosatsu” (A look at the base people, slaves and retainers, as seen in the T'ang Code), Shigematsu sensei koki kinen Kyushu daigaku tōyōshi ronsō (Oriental studies presented to Shigematsu Shunsho, emeritus professor of Kyushu University, in celebration of his seventieth birthday by his pupils and members of the seminar of Far Eastern History, Kyūshū University), ed. Kaisaburō, Hino (Fukuoka: Far Eastern Seminar, Dept. of History, Kyushu University. 1957), pp. 167–204.Google Scholar

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.