The Hidden Land: The Garrison System and the Ming Dynasty PDF
Preview The Hidden Land: The Garrison System and the Ming Dynasty
The Hidden Land “The Hidden Land” means that a large amount of land in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) was “hidden” or unknown, since the land was managed by both the administrative and the military systems, and only the former was made public while the latter was being hidden due to confidentiality issues. This is one of the author’s creative findings as a result of his solid textual research and rigorous argumentation. Since the Ming state management system had a great impact on the land, the population, the taxes and corvée, the imperial examinations, the jus- tice, the grassroots organizations and the frontier ethnics during the 500 years from Ming to Qing (1636–1912), the views on the garrisons and guards (weisuo) in the military system are of great help to review the essential is- sues of the period, which were often misunderstood or neglected before. In addition, the author introduces the present situation, existing problems and basic historical materials in the Ming study which will be beneficial to the Ming researchers and enthusiasts. The late Professor Gu Cheng was an eminent expert in the Ming History Studies of China, at Beijing Normal University. His books include The His- tory of the Southern Ming and The History of Peasant War in the Late Ming and so forth. China Perspectives The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works by leading Chinese scholars, writing about both global topics and China- related themes. It covers humanities and social sciences, education, media and psychology, as well as many interdisciplinary themes. This is the first time any of these books have been published in English for international readers. The series aims to put forward a Chinese perspec- tive, give insights into cutting-edge academic thinking in China and inspire researchers globally. Titles in history currently include: John Leighton Stuart’s Political Career in China Hao Ping Merchants and Society in Modern China Rise of Merchant Groups Tang Lixing Merchants and Society in Modern China From Guild to Chamber of Commerce Tang Lixing The History of Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchange TENG Jun Chinese Buddhism and Traditional Culture FANG Litian The Hidden Land The Garrison System and the Ming Dynasty Gu Cheng For more information, please visit https://www.routledge.com/series/CPH The Hidden Land The Garrison System and the Ming Dynasty Gu Cheng This book is published with financial support from Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences. First published in English 2020 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 © 2020 Gu Cheng Translated by Ning Ping, Li Bingjun, Sun Simeng, Liu Lu The right of Gu Cheng 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. English Version by permission of Guangming Daily Press. 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: 978-0-367-37461-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-35465-6 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by codeMantra Contents List of tables vii Foreword ix Acknowledgments xiii 1 A new analysis of cultivated land in the early Ming 1 2 The transformation of the Ming garrison system in the Qing 40 3 Territorial administration in the Ming dynasty 61 4 The “Garrison” category of household registration in the Ming 93 5 Yongning Guard: a southeastern coastal fortress in the Ming: (on the urgent need for the preservation of ming garrison sites) 122 6 Military affairs of the late Ming 129 7 A guide to the study of the Ming history 150 8 Forty years of studies on the Ming history 222 Afterword 243 Bibliography 249 Index 261 Tables 1.1 The earliest records of the totals and the breakdowns of tuntian amounts in the Ming dynasty, found in the Collected Statutes of the Zhengde reign 28 1.2 The selected representative figures of the amounts of grain taxed from weisuo tuntian during years of Yongle through Xuande 32 Foreword Professor Gu Cheng’s excellent work on the history of the Ming and Qing first became known to me, as it did too much of the scholarly community in China and abroad, with the publication of his essay, titled “Doubts about Li Yan,” which appeared in one of the leading Chinese journals, Historical Research, in 1978. I was pleased to learn that he was arriving independently at a position close to my own, that is, that there were too many holes in the widely accepted story of the supposed wise advisor to the rebel leader Li Zicheng to accept it as what we might call straight history. In subsequent years, I drew heavily on Gu’s publications, as well as on those of Luan Xing and Qin Xinlin, to debunk the standard story of Li Yan included in the Ming history and celebrated in histories, novels and plays in China and around the world through the 20th century. In 1986, Professor Gu turned his attention to a different puzzle, the amount of land under cultivation and subject to taxation over the course of the Ming and well into the Qing. In an article titled “A New Analysis of the Amount of Cultivated Land in the Early Ming,” he argued that discrepan- cies arose in the records, including the standard Ming history, because the Ming administration of land, population and taxes consisted not only of a civil hierarchy, including provinces, prefectures, subprefectures and coun- ties, but also of a distinct military hierarchy consisting of garrisons, guards and battalions, populated by military families that farmed and guarded with an emphasis on cultivation in the interior and on military service on the frontier. In short, the Ming governed China by both civil and military means, both in the interior and on the frontiers. In the early Ming, the mil- itary administration was to some extent secret, leading some important commentators to ignore its existence. This military administration of both military and civil households persisted during the Ming, and its obscurity was only exacerbated as it was effectively civilianized and allowed to decline over time. Gu Cheng was in some ways a conventional historian, who, for exam- ple, published straightforward “old fashioned” narratives of the “peasant armies” that overthrew the Ming, and of the “Southern Ming” loyalists who resisted the Qing. Gu was also an extraordinary scholar, widely respected in
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