Conflict, Community, and the State in Late Imperial Sichuan: Making Local Justice

173 Pages·2019·5.575 MB·English

by  Quinn Javers

Conflict, Community, and the State
in Late Imperial Sichuan
Exploring local practices of dispute resolution and laying bare the routine
role of violence in the late-Qing dynasty, Conflict, Community, and the State
in Late Imperial Sichuan demonstrates the significance of everyday violence
in ordering, disciplining, and building communities.
The book examines over 350 legal cases that comprise the “cases of un-
natural death” archival file from 1890 to 1900 in Ba County, Sichuan prov-
ince. The archive presents an untidy array of death, including homicides,
suicides, and found bodies. An analysis of the muddled and often petty dis-
putes found in these records reveals the existence of a local system of author-
ity that disciplined and maintained daily life. Often relying on violence, this
local justice system occasionally intersected with the state’s justice system,
but was not dependent on it. This study demonstrates the importance of in-
formal, local authority to our understanding of justice in the late Qing era.
Providing a non-elite perspective on Qing power, law, justice, and the role
of the state, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of
Chinese and Asian history, as well as legal history and comparative studies
of violence.
Quinn Javers is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California,
Davis.
Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia
134 The Colonisation and Settlement of Taiwan, 1684–1945
Land Tenure, Law and Qing and Japanese Policies
Ruiping Ye
135 Newspapers and the Journalistic Public in Republican China
1917 as a Significant Year of Journalism
Qiliang He
136 The United States and Southeast Asian Regionalism
Collective Security and Economic Development, 1945–75
Sue Thompson
137 Japan’s ‘New Deal’ for China
Propaganda Aimed at Americans before Pearl Harbor
June Grasso
138 Voices of the Korean Minority in Postwar Japan
Histories Against the Grain
Erik Ropers
139 Germany's Colony in China
Colonialism, Protection and Economic Development in Qingdao and
Shandong, 1898–1914
Fion Wai Ling So
140 Conflict, Community, and the State in Late Imperial Sichuan
Making Local Justice
Quinn Javers
For a full list of available titles, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-the-Modern-History-of-Asia/book-series/
MODHISTASIA
Conflict, Community, and the
State in Late Imperial Sichuan
Making Local Justice
Quinn Javers
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2019 Quinn Javers
The right of Quinn Javers to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-14080-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-03006-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
For Sophie, of course

Contents
List of maps and figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on conversions and conventions xiii
Introduction 1
PART I
Practices of conflict 21
1 False accusation and vernacular maps: local tools for
shaping justice 23
2 Local violence: kidnapping, sexual impropriety, and
community discipline 51
PART II
Webs of power 79
3 Family conflict: contesting and constructing local authority 81
4 Economic disputes: social meanings and market-based
exchange 106
5 Conclusion: life beyond the state 131
Appendix 139
Character list 145
References 147
Index 155

List of maps and figures
Maps
0.1 Sichuan province in the Qing dynasty 7
1.1 Vernacular map from local dispute (BXDA 7782) 36
1.2 Vernacular map one from land dispute (BXDA 7704) 38
1.3 Vernacular map two from land dispute (BXDA 7704) 39
1.4 Detail of vernacular map two from land dispute (BXDA 7704) 41
1.5 Vernacular map four from land dispute (BXDA 7704) 43
1.6 Vernacular map from homicide case (BXDA 7711) 44
Figures
2.1 List of items appended to Zhu Qingsan’s Plaint [BXDA 7666] 69
3.1 The many marriages of Zuo Chen Shi 98