Table Of ContentDISORDER
UNDER
HEAVEN
Collective Violence
in the Ming Dynasty
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DISORDER
UNDER HEAVEN
Collective Violence
m tEe Ming Dynasty
JAMES W. TONG
STANFORD UNIVERSITY-
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
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Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 1991 by the Board of Trustees
of the Leland Stanford Junior University
Printed in the United States of America
CIP data are at the end of the book
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Acknowledgments
IF ACKNOWLEDGMENTS WERE NOT conventional in publishing, I
would have to invent them. As the manuscript evolved from a dis-
sertation draft to a Stanford University Press publication, the list of
my intellectual creditors grew longer. It began with members of my
dissertation committee, Michel Oksenberg, Albert Feuerwerker,
Kenneth Lieberthal, and Charles Tilly, who guided my dissertation
research, and David Singer, Philip Converse, and Robert Putnam,
who gave me the basic training in empirical social science research.
Along the way, Albert Chan, Tan Zhixiang, Xu Baling, Yan Geng-
wang, and the late Xie Guozhen offered valuable bibliographic ad-
vice. As the manuscript circulated for comments, Joseph Esherick,
Jack Goldstone, Joanna Hanlin Smith, Lynn Struve, Bin Wong, Fred-
eric Wakeman, and an anonymous reader read the entire draft and
offered several pages of cogent queries and suggestions. When it was
presented in various settings, Robert Axelrod, Jon Elster, Ted Gurr,
Craig Jenkins, James Rule, Michael Taylor, Tang Tsou, James Lee,
Samuel Popkin, Robert Gates, David Laitin, and other participants
of the Weingart Conference at the California Institute of Technol-
ogy, the International Conference on the History of Ming-Ch'ing Pe-
riods in Hong Kong, several conference panels, and faculty seminars
at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, the Uni-
versity of California, Los Angeles, Northwestern University, Michi-
gan State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and
Beijing University raised important questions and offered useful
comments.
At various stages of the project, the staffs of the Chinese collec-
tions at several major libraries provided indispensable assistance
with much professional forbearance. Almost without exception,
those at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago,
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Vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ohio State University, UCLA; Tokyo's Toyo Bunko, Toyo Bunka
Kenkyujo, Naikaku Library; Taibei's Academia Sinica, National Li-
brary, and Taiwan National University; Beijing University Library
and Beijing Library; Nanjing University Library and Nanjing Munic-
ipal Library did not frown on the numerous request slips, special
searches, and multivolume local gazetteers that had to be carted out
for the perusal of a stranger. Those at the Seikado Library even
served green tea and provided slippers, and those at the Shaanxi Nor-
mal University Library never told me it was twenty minutes after
closing.
In data management, I was assisted by a remarkable team of re-
search and technical staff. Only their professionalism can explain
their quality performance, willingness to work at late hours, and oc-
casional abstinence to meet deadlines. Ross Linehan and Au Bo-yee
managed my project when I was on a yearlong research trip to China
and Japan. Bridget Wu and Ye Tianf ang were matchless file managers
and impeccable programmers, just as Tom Buoye was a meticulous
cartographer. In data collection, I was fortunate to have the assis-
tance of Zhang Hua, Li Ying, Chen Yingqi, Liu Yanxian, Xu Jiaxi,
and Zhang Fengjia, who transcribed and coded classical texts from
local gazetteers and the Mingshilu, and that of Ding Yili, Chen
Xianjie, Chris Nee, and Kai De Graff, who tabulated other system-
atic data. Seva Chau, Robert Park, Cho Nyeong, and Ye Wei punched
in virtually error-free data. When the manuscript was in production
at the Stanford University Press, Richard Siao worked on the bibli-
ography and footnotes, Elizabeth Bowditch proofread the galleys,
and Marlene Cameron redrew the maps and figures. John Ziemer is
the rare copy editor equally adept in polishing prose, cross-checking
row totals in tables, and providing accurate translations of Ming offi-
cial titles, temple names of emperors, and weights and measures. As
senior editor, Muriel Bell not only secured the best readers and copy
editor but also successfully juggled the hectic time tables of outside
referees, editors, typists, production manager, the editorial board,
and the author.
Financial support for the project was provided by a Doctoral Dis-
sertation Research Improvement Grant of the National Science
Foundation, an International Area Dissertation Fellowship of the
Social Science Research Council, a research grant of the Pacific Cul-
tural Foundation, and a dissertation grant of the University of Michi-
gan. Michigan State University gave me the necessary release time.
The University of California, Los Angeles, provided a publication
subvention.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vll
My wife, Marita, suggested the title of the book, as well as some
better choices of words and phrases. The vocabulary of my children,
Olivia and Brian, made little direct intellectual contribution to the
project, though it provided much emotional upliftment and occa-
sional comic relief. To them I owe late dinners, postponed vacations,
and uncelebrated anniversaries.
J.W.T.
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^Contents
TABLES
FIGURES
NOTE ON MING MEASURES AND MONETARY UNITS xiv
MING DYNASTY EMPERORS AND REIGN PERIODS XVii
1 Introduction i
2 Theoretical and Methodological Issues 16
3 The Empirical Pattern 43
4 Motive and Choice: Rational Survival Strategy 76
5 Regime Capacity and the Opportunity to Rebel 96
6 Social Change and Collective Violence 133
7 Class Conflict and Collective Violence 169
8 Conclusion 192
REFERENCE MATTER
Notes 217
Bibliography 273
Chinese Characters 315
Index 319
A map of Ming China appears on p. 2
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i. i Rank-order of eight European states by level of internal
disturbances in the early and late Ming 11
2.1 Classification of qualified violent events in county ga-
zetteers by number of incidents 30
2.2 Rank-order of counties by descending level of violence
and by frequency of events and incidents 31
2.3 Availability of late Ming-early Qing county gazetteers
for Fujian 38
2.4 Availability of late Ming-early Qing county gazetteers
for Guangdong 39
2.5 Comparison of reporting of qualified violent events in
provincial/prefectural versus county gazetteers 40
2.6 Rank-order of counties by descending level of frequency
of violent events by data source 41
2.7 Comparison of reporting of all violent events in provin-
cial/prefectural versus county gazetteers 42
3.1 Distribution of rebellions and banditry in the first and
second halves of the Ming 46
3.2 Frequency of rebellions and banditry in n provinces in
the Ming 46
3.3 Number of counties affected by rebellions and banditry
in 11 provinces in the Ming 46
3.4 Rank-order of level of rebellions and banditry in n prov-
inces in the Ming 54
3.5 Level of rebellions and banditry per 100,000 population
and per 100 county-years in n provinces 55
3.6 Rank-order of six measures of levels of collective vio-
lence in the Ming 56
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TABLES Xi
3.7 Frequency of predator banditry in the first and second
halves of the Ming 5 8
3.8 Frequency of non-predator group violence in the first and
second halves of the Ming 59
3.9 Frequency of commoner-outlaws in the first half of the
Ming, 1368-1505 60
3.10 Frequency of commoner-outlaws in the second half of
the Ming, 1506-1644 61
3.11 Frequency of miscellaneous violent events in the first
and second halves of the Ming 62
3.12 Frequency of different types of violent events by region
and period in the Ming 63
3.13 Mean numbers of violent events and of Ming-Qing
county gazetteers in n provinces 69
3.14 Gazetteer availability and collective violence in 119
Ming prefectures 70
3.15 Levels of collective violence and source availability in
1,094 Ming counties 70
3.16 Distribution of mass action incidents in the Qing,
1796-1911 73
3.17 Rank-order of n provinces in violence-proneness in the
Ming and Qing 74
4.1 Scale of hardship levels 89
4.2 Scale of the likelihood of surviving hardships 90
4.3 Frequencies of rebellions per 100 county-years and by
likelihood of surviving hardship 92
4.4 Frequencies of rebellions by likelihood of surviving
hardship and survival as an outlaw 92
4.5 Number of county-years by likelihood of surviving hard-
ship and survival as an outlaw 92
5.1 Imperial administration 118
5.2 Grain deliveries from military farming in the Ming 120
5.3 Receipts, disbursements, and deficits in the Ming
treasury 123
5.4 Relief effort by decade in the Ming 126
5.5 Level of collective violence by reign 127
5.6 Age at enthronement and levels of policy output and col-
lective violence 128
5.7 Court attendance and levels of policy output and collec-
tive violence 128
5.8 Correlation matrix of fiscal and relief policies with vio-
lence level 129
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Xii TABLES
5.9 Correlation matrix of distance to imperial capital with
violence level 130
5.10 Mean distance to imperial capital and mean violent
events per county in n provinces 130
6.1 Rebellion events by level of commercialization 136
6.2 Per capita rebellion events by level of commercialization 137
6.3 Frequency of rebellions and banditry around abolition of
tax offices in 216 counties 139
7.1 Rebellions and princely estates in Shanxi Province, by
county 180
7.2 Rebellions and princely estates in n provinces 180
7.3 Violent and nonviolent tenant revolts in the Ming 186
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