Local activism and state society relationship in northwest china

Introduction This is a study of state-society relations in a place in northwest China in the late imperial period. In the historical studies done on imperial China, one paramount issue that has captured the attention of historians for decades is the relationship between the state and the society. Early studies dealing with the roles of “gentry” tried to understand how the imperial state connected and maintained a stranglehold of the local society via a group of degree holding elites, whose identities made them both members of the state bureaucratic system, and leaders of the local communities1. Building upon the findings done on these works, Philip Kuhn examined the militarization of the Chinese society in the 19th century and argued that the drastic changes in the relationship between the state and the local society after the Taiping Rebellion eventually led to the decline and downfall of Qing empire2. Despite having varied concerns, all these early western scholarships focused a lot of attention to the issue of state-society relationship. However, most of the approaches in these studies looked at the relations from the “national” perspective, and generally did not give too much attention to the variations that could exist between different localities. This situation changed after Hilary Beattie published her study on Tongcheng County in Anhui, where she tried to convince the earlier scholars who were more concerned with degree holdings that land and lineages were equally important in the 1 T'ung-tsu Ch'ü, Local Government in China under the Ch’ing (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962); Chung-li Chang, The Chinese Gentry: Studies in their Role in Nineteenth Century Chinese society (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1970); Ping-ti Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China; Aspects of Social Mobility 1868-1911 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1962). 2 Philip Kuhn, Rebellion and its Enemies in Late Imperial China: Militarization and Social Structure, 1796-1864 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970). 1 maintenance of gentry’s dominance3. In this study, Beattie clearly highlighted the importance of the examination of a particular place over a lengthy period of time so as to avoid “the perils of generalizing broadly from a wider range of scattered and somewhat unsystematically collected evidence”4. Although Beattie realized the significance of using a particular locality as a case study, her study was still an attempt to understand the class of “gentry”. Scholars only began to understand the significance of studying local history after Robert Hymes published his groundbreaking research on Fuzhou in an attempt to support Robert Hartwell’s nationally-focused research. Hartwell contended for a fundamental shift towards localism in the Southern Song based on the disintegration of “professional elite” into the more locally orientated “gentry”5. With a similar hypothesis in mind, Hymes conducted an in-depth analysis of the family strategies of Fuzhou elites in the Song dynasty, and realized that there was a distinctive change in their focus from the national level to the local level during the Northern-Southern Song transition. This change in focus in their strategies was what Hymes labeled as the rise of elite localism, and it was basically a result of a transformation in state-society relations brought about by the dynastic change6. Hymes’ effort not only highlighted the importance of examining state-society relationship from a “local” perspective, but also demonstrated how the methodological approach of using a sample locality to study state-society relationship can reveal a different insight to the issue. After the publication of this work, scholars began to take interest in the study of local history as they sought to 3 Hilary Beattie, Land and Lineage in China: A Study of T’ung-Ch’eng County, Anhwei, in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties (New York: Cambridge University Press 1979). 4 Beattie, Land and Lineage in China, p.1. 5 Robert M. Hartwell, “Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations of China, 750-1550,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies Vol.42 no.2, 1982, pp.365-442.bridge: Harvard University Press, 1970). 6 Robert Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen: The Elite of Fu-chou, Chiang-his, in Northern and Southern Sung (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). 2 comprehend the relationship between the imperial state and the local societies in different localities. The differences among localities were also specifically highlighted as the paradigmatic concept of understanding China as a whole gradually became obsolete. As the research on local history developed further in the last decade of the previous century, two inter-related lines of enquiry branched out from the study of state-society relations. The first is the study of social space, specifically the availability of an autonomous space at local level for out-of-office elites to operate in. The emergence of this space is usually the result of a shift in the balance of state-society relationship, as a withdrawal of state influence at the local level is bound to create vacuums in need of filling up. The out-of-office elites, who were acting as the social leaders of local communities, stepped into these vacuums during the various dynastic periods and acquire this relatively autonomous space which allowed them to make various contributions to the community at local levels. Hymes and Schirokauer called this space the “middle level” that existed between the family and the state, where Southern Song Neo-Confucianist thinkers designed bottom up schemes and proposed local institutions like private academies and community granaries as alternatives to the governmental institutions initiated by the centralized government of the Northern Song7. Similarity, another group of scholars, inspired by the theories of Jurgen Habermas, argued for the expansion of an extra-bureaucratic “public sphere” between the “state” and “private” during the post Taiping Rebellion8. Mary Rankin, in her study of Zhejiang Province, demonstrated the decisive shift in the balance between the state and the elite society, which gave rise to a public sphere in which elites at the 7 Robert Hymes and Conrad Schirokauer, Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp.24-27. 8 William T. Rowe, “The Public Sphere in Modern China,” Modern China Vol.16 no.3, July 1990, pp. 309-329. 3 top of the structures outside the bureaucracy sought to manage areas of community interests in their capacities as social leaders9. William Rowe made a similar tripartite division in his study of Hankow City, as he looked into public involvements of gentries and merchants in areas such as water conservancy, urban street repairs and philanthropic activities10. Despite the use of different terminologies to describe these spaces, all these studies acknowledged their existence in different periods in Chinese history, and also contributed to enhancing our understanding of the actual activities which the local elites engaged in when there is a shift in balance of state-society relationships. The second line of enquiry that extended from early studies of state-society relationship is the study of local identity. Scholarships dealing with this issue are generally interested in looking out for a collective consciousness that existed among groups of local men that saw them identifying themselves with a particular locality. The formations, transformations, and variations of local identities in different historical periods were given much attention as researchers sought to understand the ideological basis behind the social phenomenon of elite localism observed in earlier studies. Initially, scholars were rather dubious that local identities were highly valued by most of the elites in imperial China. In his study of Taihe County, John Dardess made an attempt to undermine the study of local history when he highlighted the connections between the appeal for a local identity and the benefits it could bring at the national level. He contrasted the attitudes of the Taihe literati towards their hometown between the early Ming and late Ming, and noted that the local identity 9 Mary Rankin, Elite Activism and Political Transformation in China: Zhejiang Province, 18651911(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986). 10 William T. Rowe, Hankow: Commerce and Society in a Chinese City, 1796-1889(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984). 4 discourse was seen emphasized in the fifteen century simply because it was accompanied with bureaucratic success, which in turn brought benefits to the local man aiming for national success. Dardess observed that identification to the locality gradually disappeared as Taihe men ceased to be successful in the national scenes and this observation prompted him to conclude that the local could only be meaningful when considered in relation to the national.11 In one of the most representative works dealing with local identity, Peter Bol convincingly countered this argument by making a claim that the local identity discourse did not disappear from Taihe towards the end of the Ming dynasty, but instead underwent a change in the scope of discourse. With his own research on Jinhua Prefecture, Bol revealed the importance of local identity to local elites. He argued that local identity discourses were not only important in the local level as means to transform local society, but were also equally important as they functioned to increase the locale’s participation in national life12. Bol also demonstrated the variations between the local identities formed in the same locality but different time period as he contrasted the Song and the Ming’s variation of local identity among Jinhua men. This no doubt serves to remind us of the intimate connection between state-society relationships and the formation of local identities. After the publication of these works, scholars began to conduct more studies to examine the local identity discourses in various places. Some of the more representative works dealing with this issue include the studies done on the Ji’an Prefecture by Anne Gerritsen13, Yangzhou by Antonia Finnane14, and Guangzhou by 11 John W, Dardess, A Ming society: T'ai-ho County, Kiangsi, fourteenth to seventeenth centuries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). 12 Peter Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and ‘Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China,” Late Imperial China Vol.24 no.2, 2003, pp.1-50. 13 Anne Gerritsen, Ji'an Literati and the Local in Song-Yuan-Ming China (Leiden: Brill, 2007). 14 Antonia Finnane, Speaking of Yangzhou: A Chinese City, 1550-1850 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Asia Center, 2004). 5 Steven Miles15. All these works put much emphasis into the examination of collective consciousness formed among elites of their respective localities, and contribute to improve our understanding of state-society relationship in a different perspective. From the series of work reviewed, the three paramount issues in the study of local history in late imperial China were thoroughly discussed by various scholars since the last decade of previous century. However, it is not hard to observe that most of the localities examined in these studies are concentrated in south China. This resulted in a severe North-South imbalance in the field of local history, with an apparent lack of local history research on the northern half of the country. Some exceptions to the trend include studies done on the rural regions of north China by Prasenjit Duara16, a region defined as Huang-Yun by Kenneth Pomeranz17, the northeastern regions of the Henan province by Roger Des Forges18, and more recently Guanzhong region in the Shaanxi province by Chang Woei Ong19. These academic works provide us with important insights about state-society relationships in different time periods in north China. However, it is clear that the subjects studied in these works are dealing with localities either at the provincial or at the prefecture level; there is still an apparent lack in research studying the lower level localities in the north China. Although treating these regional areas with a certain degree of uniformity proves beneficial for the sake of analytical purposes, it runs the risk of concealing a lot of variations that could exist between different arenas at the lower 15 Steven Miles, The Sea of Learning: Mobility and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Guangzhou (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006). 16 Duara, Prasenjit. Culture, power, and the state: rural North China, 1900-1942 (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988). 17 Kenneth Pomeranz, The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society, and Economy in Inland North China, 1853-1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). 18 Roger Des Forges, Cultural Centrality and Political Change in Chinese History: Northeast Henan in the Fall of the Ming (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2003). 19 Chang Woei Ong, Men of Letters Within the Passes: Guanzhong Literati in Chinese History, 9071911 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Asia Center, 2008). 6 levels. As demonstrated in the conference volume studying the activities of local elites in their local spaces, the local arenas in which the majority of the elites could operate in were only limited to the county level or below, which include market towns and villages20. Their studies no doubt alert us to the importance of returning to “lower level” locals after the researches at the higher level have been completed. As such, this thesis seeks to address the issue of the lack in local history studies conducted on north China by looking at the state-society relationship in a small county located in 涇陽縣. We will also take a look at a market town in the county—Luqiao zhen 魯橋鎮—at some point in the the central part of Shaanxi province—Jingyang County studies, and attempt to understand the tripartite relationships between the elites residing in this town, the local elites who were dominating at the county level, and the state representatives assigned to this town. The question that arises next: why select Jingyang among all the counties available in north China? There are a couple of reasons: first, it is our intention to choose a locality within a region which had already been previously studied. In this manner, we will have a general understanding of the situation in the region prior to our study, and can also have the opportunity to make comparisons between the county and the region whenever applicable. Therefore, we decided to make our selection in the central Shaanxi province, where the state-society relationships in the Guanzhong region during the late imperial periods had recently been thoroughly studied21. The risk of an overlap is, however, hugely reduced because Ong was more concerned with the larger region that stretched across the central area of the Shaanxi province and generally did not pay much attention to the individual counties in this region, much 20 Joseph Esherick and Mary Backus Rankin, Chinese local elites and patterns of dominance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), p10. 21 Ong, Men of Letters Within the Passes. 7 like the other studies on north China. The second reason for selecting Jingyang County as the subject of our study is the county’s resemblance to a “typical” county in the northwestern region of China. Although we had previously stressed on the importance of examining the variations that could exist between the “lower level” localities, it is also in our intention to select a locality that was relatively typical of the other localities in the same region. This is in contrary to the practices seen in many local history studies conducted previously, whereby scholars were particularly concerned with localities which were renowned for having prominent high-ranking officials or literati with national fame, strong localized scholarship traditions or exceptionally large number of metropolitan degree holders22. However, as the aim of this study is to understand the relationships between the state and the local society in a “common” north China county, precautions were taken to avoid picking a locality which was exceptionally outstanding in producing national figures and therefore differed significantly from the typical situation in the region in focus. Jingyang was selected due to its lack of remarkable characteristics displayed from the initial screening conducted on the county gazetteers. The sources led us to believe that it was a prototype of a “typical county” in the region as the county was neither able to boast of a high level of metropolitan examination success rate, nor produce many prominent scholars, thinkers, high-ranking officials or even religious leaders that became nationally renowned across the span of the Ming and the Qing. Yet, among all the “typical counties” in the region, Jingyang caught our attention because of the rich amounts of well-preserved primary sources that are still available to us today. These 22 For example, Robert Hymes’ selection of Fuzhou was partly because it was the hometown of Wang Anshi and Lu Jiuyuan during the two Song dynasties, see Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen, p10; John Dardess’ selection of Taihe county was primary due to the large number of high ranking Taihe men who dominated the early ‘s court, see Dardess, A Ming society; Peter Bol’s selection of Jinhua Prefecture boils down to the strong localised Daoxue tradition that was prominent in the locality, see Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and ‘Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China”. 8 sources include several editions of county gazetteer, one market town gazetteer, and a whole series of literati’s writings. The availability of these local writings made this place a suitable and valuable locality for an in-depth local historical study. Therefore, taking all these factors into consideration, Jingyang County became the obvious choice for this study. In order to understand this county in northwestern China, this thesis will be divided into four chapters to trace the changes of state-society relations across four different historical periods. As the title suggest, this study will concentrate on the Ming and the Qing dynasties. The main reason to do so is because most of the primary sources that are still available today were written during this period; we can hardly locate any writings from the place that are dated prior to the Ming. Despite only dealing with the two dynasties, there is still a need to break down this long period of more than 500 years into shorter ones during the course of our analysis. Peter Bol had reminded us with his discussion of “localist turn” that the relationship between state and society is highly fluid and basically changes throughout different stages of a dynasty. He saw distinct patterns whereby early state building and centralizing efforts of the state in the early period of the dynasty was bound to follow eventually by an era of government withdrawal, giving way to a rise of localism23. Keeping this framework in mind, the four chapters of this study will each deal with a specific period of historical importance, selected in order to emphasize the transition of localism that took place within the Ming and the Qing. The first chapter will deal with the “localist turn” that took place in the Ming dynasty, roughly from the 1480s to the end of the dynasty. In this period, there was a graduate shift in balance of power away from the state, giving rise to an expansion of the sphere in which the local elites 23 Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and ‘Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China”, p.4. 9 could operate in. However, we will also argue in this chapter that despite being given more freedom in public scenes, the Jingyang elites were never given unrestricted access to handle all the local projects in the county. They were required to work closely with the state representatives assigned to the county in order to accomplished most of the projects. For the second chapter, the attention will turn to the early Qing period where an apparent decrease in the intensity of elite’s activism was observed. The change in ruling house was accompanied by revitalized vigor among their representatives, as most of the public projects in this period were accomplished by the local officials. We will also look into some of the projects initiated by Jingyang men during this period, and argue that the loss of financial ability due to the poor economic climate might have contributed to the regression of local activism. The third chapter deals with the Qianlong period, where a resurgence of local elite activism in the county took place as the economic situation of the region improved. However, with the state and its local representatives still very much active and in control, a new type of relationship between the state representatives and the local men were formed. Although local men were given more opportunities to contribute in the local scenes, our study will reveal that the newly formed cooperative relationship was simply one which functioned to enable local officials to tap into the local resources available. Yet, eager to regain their roles in local scenes, Jingyang men gladly took up these supplementary roles, which laid down the foundation to a new rise of localism in the late Qing period. The last chapter will review the “localist turn” that took place from the 18th century to the end of the Qing dynasty. As the state power of the Qing empire began to decline, we can expect a growing number of local projects being taken over by the increasingly active local elites. This ultimately led to a new height of localism in the county, whereby an unprecedented large numbers of local projects were 10 accompanied by local men. Our study will also reveal that the local officials did not retreat entirely from the local scene, as they were seen almost equally as active as local men in the participation of local projects. However, the actual roles that they played in these projects had changed drastically, and this reflected the change in the balance of state-society relationships in the time of a state withdrawal. To sum up, it should be clear by now that our chapters deal with the changes of state-society relations in a locality across different periods in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Although studies on local history had always placed emphasis on the fluidity of state-society relationships, not many studies up to date have made conscious efforts to look at the intricate changes that occur in a locality over relatively shorter time periods. For example, Peter Bol was more concerned with the different nature of local identity that was formed among Jinhua men between the Song and the Ming24, while Ong emphasized the changes of state and society relationships in Guanzhong across three periods from the Song to Qing, without making detailed division and differentiation to the Ming-Qing dynasties in his discussion25. Our study hopes to highlight that even within a period of less than a hundred years, the statesociety relationships could change drastically in a locality. The different historical circumstances in the different time periods will result in different sets of state-society relationships. At the local level, the interactions and collaborations between the state representatives and local men changed; the social space available for elites to operate in altered; the level of local activism fluctuated; the types of local projects local men engaged in varied. These intricate changes should not be overlooked, and our study on the local projects accomplished in the various periods should alert us to the 24 25 Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and ‘Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China. Ong, Men of Letters Within the Passes, pp. 132-202. 11 significance of investigating the transition of state-society relations over relatively shorter historical periods. There is a second point to this study: the investigation of the roles played by local officials assigned to this county in different periods. The interactions between the state and the local societies involved two parties: local officials and local elites. However, in most of the recent local history studies, the spotlight was shone on the local elites. Scholars were eager to understand the formation of their local identities or research on their activism at the local level, exploring the strategies that they employed to maintain their dominance on the local scenes. On the other hand, the roles played by local officials in these localities had been largely neglected and relegated to secondary importance in most studies. This lack of scholarship attention cannot be rightfully justified, and by looking closely at how the local officials interacted with Jingyang men in different periods, we hope to bring awareness that local officials in fact played significant roles in local societies, at least in the region of our concern. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to study state-society relationships and local activism in isolation of these state representatives, and we hope that this study can bring more attention to this aspect in the field of local history. 12 Chapter 1: The “Localist Turn” in Jingyang County during the Ming Period In his study of Guanzhong, Chang Woei Ong argued convincingly that Guanzhong literati grew concerned about forming their own localized tradition of Daoxue after the 16th century, signifying a gradual formation of a unique local identity among the elites in the area. 26 This phenomenon no doubt coincides with the trend coined by Peter Bol, known as the “localist turn”, whereby the corrosion of the statist enterprise of the Ming founding led to a rise of localism after the 1480s27 – a development similar in nature but different in form to what Robert Hymes described as the rise of localism in the Southern Song. 28 Ong’s work not only confirmed such a trend in northwest China, but also systemized the study of localism, by proposing the usage of two sets of binaries—official/unofficial and national/local. These binaries clearly differentiate the two notions of localism, with the former referring to the availability of a space for nonofficial elites to operate with a certain degree of autonomy, and the latter referring to the presence of a consciousness that sees elites identifying themselves with a particular locality. However, as he was demonstrating the localist turn in Mid-Ming Guanzhong with the discussion of local identity and the formation of Guanxue, he seemed to focus on the intellectual sphere, concentrating more on the discussion of consciousness than on the notion of space. The question that deserves further consideration here is if this formation of local consciousness was accompanied by the appearance of an autonomous social space, giving more 26 Ong, Men of Letters Within the Passes, pp. 132-202. Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and ‘Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China”, pp.15-25. 28 Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen. 27 13 opportunities for the elites to operate at the local level. Did the elites capitalize this space and increase their participations in local matters? Can an intensification of local activism be observed during this period? Using Ong’s framework, a literati with a strong “local” identity does not automatically pair up with his preference for a space for unofficial initiatives.29 Hence, in order to fully analyze the relationship between the state and the local society during the latter half of the Ming dynasty, there is a need to look deeper into the social sphere. This is the main aim of this chapter, and keeping in mind that the Guanzhong identity was already in the formative stage during this period, we will scrutinize Jingyang County to show that there was a clear intensification of elites’ participation in local public matters after Mid-Ming. The nature of elite’s activities will also be analyzed to reveal that not all public matters were accessible to local elites, demonstrating the restriction of this revitalization of elite activism, a restriction that lasted until the Qianlong period in the Qing dynasty, which will be discussed further in Chapter 3. In order to detect the change in the intensity of local activism, two types of sources will be used: local gazetteers and the writings of local elites. The records found in the county gazetteer can be particularly valuable as we began our study by examining the distribution of elite’s participation in public matters throughout Ming dynasty. A comparison will then be made to demonstrate the difference in the nature of public work sponsored by the local officials and the Jingyang nonofficial elites, once again utilizing the rich resources found in the gazetteers. Lastly, two case studies will be carried out on Li Jin 李錦 (jinshi 1446) and Wang Zheng 王徵 (1571-1644, js 1622), with the aim of showcasing the local contributions they made, as well as 29 Ong, Men of Letters Within the Passes, p.210. 14 revealing some of the restrictions that these Jingyang figures might have possibly faced in their efforts to leave a mark in their hometown. The Distribution and Nature of Jingyang Elite’s Local Activities throughout the Ming Dynasty To analyze the autonomous social space that appeared during the mid-Ming period, we will need to look at the expansion of the elite’s role in the society. As demonstrated by Robert Hymes in his groundbreaking work done on Fuzhou, areas such as marriage network, temple building, bridge building, local defense, charitable estates and benevolent societies can be examined to reveal the changes in family strategy adopted by the local elites30. In the case of Jingyang County, we can extract these information from two editions of County gazetteers compiled. The first was written by Jingyang scholar Li Jin in the Hongzhi era (1488-1505), with the records updated to 1493. However, this edition was only published in 1547 by Jingyang magistrate Lian Yingkui 連應魁 (selected student 1532), updated with new prefaces and two new chapters.31 The subsequent gazetteer compiled was by Jingyang scholar Wei Xuezeng 魏學曾 (1525-1596, js 1553) during the Wanli era (1573-1620), but this version was lost during the Qing dynasty and is no longer available to us today. What we have is the edition compiled by Jingyang magistrate Wang Jiyou 王際有 (jinshi 1647) in 1670, which was an update based on the work done by Wei Xuezeng.32 Through this gazetteer, we can in fact get a very clear picture of the local elite’s activities that took place in Ming Jingyang, although the strong statist view of Wang 30 Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen, pp. 136-209. 1547Jiajing Jingyang xianzhi (Beijing: Quanguo tushu guan weisuo wenxian fuzhi zhongxin , 1992). 32 1670 Jingyang xianzhi (Kangxi jiu nian keben ). 31 嘉靖涇陽县志 全國圖書館微縮文獻複製中心 涇陽县志 康熙九年刻本 15 might have caused him to omit certain information, an issue for which we will come back again later on in the chapter. With these two gazetteers, we can gain insights to the local public works which the Jingyang elites had participated in. To see the general trend, all the records on public works involving the leadership, participation or sponsoring by local elites in the Ming dynasty were noted and summarized according to the date of events into Table 1. Public works such as famine relief, organization of local defense, restoration of dams, compilation of local gazetteers, building of temples, as well as founding of charitable estates, schools and benevolent societies are all accounted for in this table. We can see at a glance that a vast majority of the events took place after the 1480s. Keeping in mind that the Ming dynasty was founded in 1368, it is especially striking that in the first hundred year of the Ming dynasty, the local elites in Jingyang County were seemingly not engaging themselves in any local contributions. Take the first entry in Table 1 for example, the entry in the gazetteer did not explicitly state the time period where Zhao Jing 趙敬 (n.d.) made donations of grains, medicine and coffins in a year where there was a drought. What was mentioned was that Zhao, was a 散官) due to his contributions in times of commoner, was given a prestige title ( adverse situations. It was also remarked that his grandson received a provincial degree in 1414, firmly confirming that Zhao was a Jingyang figure in the early Ming33. What we might be seeing here is a relatively well-to-do commoner, who tried to climb up the social ladder by making monetary contributions in times of natural disasters. He would be deemed to be fairly successful as his descendent did become a degree holder and entered the ranks of literati. The cases of Cao Yan 曹儼 (n.d.) and Cao Ke 曹恪 (n.d.) in the 1430s were pretty much similar to that of Zhao; the brothers from 33 1670 Jingyang xianzhi , juan 7 renwu, p. 50b. 16 [Table 1: List of Local Public Matters involving Jingyang Elites in the Ming Dynasty] Date Nature of Local contribution Name of contributor Social status Description Remarks Pre-1414 Famine Relief Zhao Jing Commoner Donation of Grains, Medicine and Coffins Grandson received Juren in 1414 1436-42 Famine Relief Cao Yan Commoner Donation of Grains (1000shi ) Received insignia of merit in1442 1436-42 Famine Relief Cao Que Commoner Donation of Grains (1000shi ) Received insignia of merit in1442 1460-80 Restoration of School Feng Guan Official Proposed and led the reconstruction of local academy 1490 Water Works Li Jin Metropolitan Graduate Led proposal for opening of dam in County Chang Gong Dam 1493 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Li Jin Metropolitan Graduate Wrote and Compiled County Gazetteer Records updated to 1493 1557 Restoration of Shrine Various Village Leaders Various Restoration of Shrine after Earthquake 1565-90 Education Luo Zun Metropolitan Graduate Donation of Books and Funds to County academy Son received Jinshi in 1583 1578 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Wei Xuezeng Metropolitan Graduate Wrote and Compiled County Gazetteer Lost after Kang Xi era 1598-? Construction of Ancestral Shrine Wu Wenda Metropolitan Graduate Building and Maintance of Ancestral Shrine 1598-? Setting up of Charitable Estate Wu Wenda Metropolitan Graduate Building and Maintance of Charitable Estate 1615-20 Famine Relief Yao Yuxi Military Selectee Donation of Grains and Coffins 1618-40 Local Defense/Famine Relief Zhao Siqi Metropolitan Graduate Fortification of Town/Training of Local Yong 1621-27 Famine Relief Ren Shaozeng Government student Donation of Gold and Grains 1629 Local Defense Wang Zheng Metropolitan Graduate Leader of Local Militia 1629 Local Defense Cheng Jitai Metropolitan Graduate Organisation of Local Militia 1628-44 Local Defense Zhao Youwu Tribute Student Leader of defense in Yun Yang Town 1634 Founding of Charitable Organisation Wang Zheng Metropolitan Graduate Setting uo ofBenevolent Society 1644 Local Defense Wang Zuo Government student Leader of Local Militia against rebellion ? Temple Restoration Zhu E Official Sponsored temple restoration Guan Yin Hall ? Temple Restoration Xue Xiang Unknown Sponsored temple restoration Hall of the Stone Buddha ? Temple Restoration Various Village Leaders Nil Sponsored temple restoration Guan Yin Hall Reference 义行 制诰 制诰 传 记 志序 记 墓志 志序 宦业 宦业 义行 义行 义行 墓志 义行 义行 墓志 义行 建置 建置 建置 17 Jingyang County were rich commoners who each donated 1000 shi of grains during a period of drought. Both of them were rewarded with insignia of merit in 144234. Cao Yan’s son, Cao Ben 曹本 (n.d.) was also rewarded with a stone plaque by the local official when he responded to an edict and donated 500 shi of grains to the government35. These were the only three cases of local contributions by Jingyang figures during the first half of Ming dynasty, and as we had seen, they cannot exactly be interpreted as local elites trying to expand their roles in the society, but rather commoners trying to enter the ranks of local elites. Even more striking is that the edition of county gazetteer that provided us with these information was compiled by Li Jin during a period when the localist turn was gradually taking place in both Guanzhong and Jingyang (1480-1500s). Being an active local man himself, Li should be well informed about the local contributions which his predecessors had made, if there had been any. Yet, the apparent lack of such records portrayed in his gazetteers suggests that the lack of activities among local men during the first half of the dynasty was more of a historical phenomenon rather than a case of preclusion in historical records. As we look further down Table 1, we can clearly see the intensification of elite’s participation in the public realm at the turn of the 16th century. Not only did the frequency of activities sharply increased, the nature of local projects that the elites instigated increased in varieties too. Famine relief was no longer the only form of contribution that the elites made in their home town; projects involving water works, religious and educational institutions, as well as the organization of local defense all became their concern. This increase in the scope of public affairs involving the elites 34 35 1547Jiajing Jingyang xianzhi, juan 7 zhigao, pp. 147-8a. Ibid, juan 3 renwu, p. 57b. 18 signifies the expansion of elite’s role in the society, which in turn points us to the growing social space available for these nonofficial elites to operate in after the midMing. The devolution of several public functions to the elites, most significantly in the field of local defense, suggest the declining state power as well as the degeneration of state’s local agencies towards the end of the dynasty. In the case of Jingyang, the second and third decade of the 17th century was very much plagued by natural disasters and peasant revolts. As the central and local government could no longer handle the massive demands from the various problems, these functions naturally fell into the hands of the out-of-official elites who were residing in their hometown during this period. Hence, we can see from the table that most of the eliteinitiated projects recorded during this period revolved around the organization of local defense and the founding of benevolent societies, with the aim of helping the various villages tide over the time of distress. Therefore, we can no doubt see a trend in the case of Jingyang County, where there was an expansion of “unofficial” space after the 16th century: a space where local elites could participate in to improve their leadership position in the locale. When read together with the formation of local identity among Guanzhong literati after mid-Ming, we can no doubt conclude that a major shift in the state-society relationship occurred in this region of China approximately around the 16th century, a change that affected both the intellectual and the social sphere. The Restriction on Local Elite’s Activism in Ming Dynasty Although we can see the formation and expansion of the “unofficial space” through the second half of the Ming dynasty, the existence of such a space did not 19 imply that the state allowed for unlimited and unchecked participation of local elites in all the various public affairs. There seemed to be some sort of unwritten restrictions, at least in the Ming dynasty, that precluded the nonofficial elites from sponsoring and initiating certain public projects. To uncover this restriction, a detailed study on the nature of local works done by local official needs to be carried out. Table 2 summaries all records found in the two editions of gazetteers relating to the local public affairs initiated and sponsored by local officials, starting from 1450s. Regional officials such as the Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi and Concurrent Censor-in-chief 巡抚陕西都御史) are also considered in this table as a large portion of cross- ( counties water work projects involving Jingyang County were initiated by them. Other than water works, we can see from Table 2 that the nature of local works accomplished by Jingyang officials ranged from the restoration of various facilities in the county seat, to the restoration of the city walls, to organization of local defense. For the purpose of interpretation, I propose that we separate these officials’ contributions into two categories: the first being the building and restoration of government institutions and the second one being the contributions in all other local matters. As we can see from Table 2, the local officials in Jingyang seemed to busy themselves mostly with the maintenance and construction of governmental buildings. These institutions include the county seat offices, the city wall, the Temple to Confucius as well as the county poorhouse. As these institutions were critical to the functioning of the local government, the officials assigned to the locale often paid great attention to these facilities, splashing the majority of their available budget on the maintenance and upgrading of them. If we compare the works accomplished by local officials in this category of public affairs to those accomplished by local elites 20 [Table 2: List of Local Public Works Accomplished by Local Official after 1450] Date Nature of Local contribution Name of Local Official Position Held Re marks 1450 Restoration of City Wall Zeng Yu Magistrate Repaired the East and West Gates 1450-57 Restoration of Dikes Pan Min Registrar 1450-57 Setting up of academy Pan Min Registrar 1465-? Opening of new dam Xiang Zhong Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi 1477 Restoration of City Wall Yu Zijun Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi Added North and South Gates 1481 Restoration of Dam Ruan Qin Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi Utilized resources from 5 counties 1489-92 Guang Hui Dam Founding of County Beadhouse Chang Heng Magistrate 1490 Building of Dike Chang Heng Magistrate Chang Gong Dam 1490-1492 Restoration of Government School Liu Shihe Magistrate Refurnished both interior and exterior 1492-1505 Restoration of County Seat Song Jian Magistrate Refurnished whole building Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi 1506-21 Restoration of Dike Xiao ? 1547 Publishing of Local Gazetteer Lian Yingkui Magistrate Updated previous version 1547-66 Restoration of County Seat Qu Jian Magistrate Upgraded Front Door 1550-66 Restoration of Grainery Zhong Dai Magistrate 1550-66 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Zhong Dai Magistrate 1567-72 Upgrading of Grainery ? Ting Nan Magistrate 1573-? Restoration of Government School Fu Haoli Magistrate 1576 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Fu Haoli Magistrate Added a pond 1629 Local Defence Lu Zhenfei Magistrate Planned Defence Strategy with local elites 1631 Restoration of City Wall Liang Shichun Magistrate Repaired fallen walls 1632 Restoration of Government School Liang Shichun Magistrate Refurnished whole building 1632 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Liang Shichun Magistrate 1635 Local Defense Wang Cheng Magistrate Rebuilt after earthquake Expanded Library Personally led Local Militia against rebels Reference 建置 官师志 官师志 水利 建置 水利 建置 记 官师志 建置 水利 官师志 建置 建置 建置 建置 建置 建置 官师志 建置 建置 建置 官师志 21 listed in Table 1, it is not hard to observe that the Jingyang elites in Ming dynasty were not noted to have contributed in these constructions. As such, the sources lead us to believe that this category of public works involving the various forms of governmental institutions was restricted only to local officials; no matter how rich or locally active the Jingyang elites were, they did not have the privilege of sponsoring these public works. Even during the last twenty years of the dynasty, when state power was in serious decline, Jingyang magistrates still managed to make improvements to the county seat as well as the city wall without engaging the help of the local elites. This clearly signifies the restriction of this category of public work, convincing us that the Jingyang elites, despite enjoying a revitalization of local activism, were never granted unlimited participation in all public matters. Moving away from the construction of governmental institution, what other public works did the local officials accomplish in Jingyang? From Table 2, we can see that local officials were also involved in public works such as water works, compilation of local gazetteers, setting up of granaries, as well as organization of local defense. The issue worth highlighting here is that these public works were also initiated by the local elites, a topic we had discussed in the previous section. The matter that leaves us pondering is the nature of cooperation in these projects, where both the local officials and the local elites were involved. How did the two groups cooperate or even compete as they got involved in the same project? Who assumed the leadership roles in the event where both parties were present? What were their relationships and how were the responsibilities distributed? The answers to these questions can reveal the nature of this category of local works, and we will look into some of these projects in order to get them. For the rest of this chapter, two Jingyang figures and their local contributions will be examined, with the aim of revealing the 22 restrictions local elites might have encountered as they tried to participate in local activities which also involved the participation of local officials. Gazetteer Compilations and Water Works in Jingyang: Case of Li Jin’s Involvements The selection of Li Jin as a figure of case study is a difficult one as we do not have much information about him, and records of his participation in various projects are either lost or incomplete. The records of this figure in the gazetteer on the “renwu” section consisted of only 43 characters36, accompanied by a relatively short tomb 墓表) written by a local named Yang Guozhu 楊国柱 (n.d.) inscription ( 37 . As for Li’s writings, what we possess is one edition of Jingyang gazetteer without his own preface, two pieces of record (ji), one regarding the building of a dam in his hometown38, the other a record of restoration of a temple that did not involve his participation39, and one poem40. However, a couple of reasons can justify his selection: the first is that his involvement in local affairs took place around the 1490s, a period just when the rise of localism was taking place in Jingyang, and the second is that his involvements happened to be of the same category of public work where the local officials also participated actively in. Hence, a closer look at the compilation of local gazetteers and water works in Jingyang County might in fact reveal the relations between local officials and local elites in the field of public works. 36 1670 Jingyang xianzhi, juan 7 renwu, p. 20a. Ibid, juan 8 yiwen, pp. 92b-93b. 38 1547Jiajing Jingyang xianzhi, juan 5 shuili, pp. 130-133a. 39 Ibid, juan 11 wen, pp. 258-260a 40 Ibid, juan 13 shi, p.273b. 37 23 As revealed to us based on the limited information available, Li Jin was born in the Hongzhi era in Changjie Village of Jingyang County, receiving his metropolitan degree in 1466. He went on with his official duties and was promoted to 南福建道监察御 the position of Investigating Censor of the Southern Fujian Circuit ( 史). However, he was eventually removed from office due to rumors spread by his political opponents, and returned to his hometown where he spent his time “among the mountains and rivers, drinking wine and reciting poems”. To the best of our knowledge, his time back in his hometown was not spent entirely on leisure, as much of his effort was actually put into local public works, most significantly on the compilation of the earliest edition of Jingyang Gazetteer available to us. As mentioned earlier, Li Jin’s version of Jingyang Gazetteer did not survive intact through time. But fortunately, it was republished in 1547 by Jingyang Magistrate Lian Yingkui, with a new preface written by Jingyang scholar Lü Yingxiang 呂應祥 (jinshi 1532). According to Lü, Li Jin’s version of gazetteer was updated to 1493 and all the printing blocks were lost. As Lian Yingkui reported to office in Jingyang, he felt the need to keep local history updated, and set out to gather the remaining few sets of Li Jin’s gazetteer around the county. With these, he republished Li Jin’s work, adding two independent chapters at the end of the gazetteer to update the records to 1547.41 This is the set of gazetteer we see today, but unfortunately the two chapters added in 1547 were lost. Hence, what we see today is in fact solely Li Jin’s 1493 work, paired together with Lü Yingxiang’s 1547 preface. Although such a source may seem incomplete, it is still possible to discuss and dissect several issues regarding the local gazetteer compilation in Jingyang. Firstly, we shall take a look at the roles that the various magistrates played in the county 41 1547Jiajing Jingyang xianzhi, see preface. 24 gazetteer’s compilation. As we do not have any sort of preface or introduction from the 1493 version of Li Jin’s work, we cannot get any clear indication about the involvement of the magistrates who were in office during the period of compilation. However, in his ji regarding the construction of Chang Gong Dam, Li Jin mentioned that he was familiar with at least two of the magistrates in office during the period, Chang Heng 暢亨 (n.d.) and Song Jian 宋鑑 (n.d.). If we take a glance at the records of these two magistrates in the Biographies to the Famous Officials collected in the gazetteer, it is not difficult to conclude that both officials were very active during their time in Jingyang. While Chang carried out a project to open a new dam, Song oversaw the completion of this project after Chang left. Aside from that, Chang founded the first poorhouse in Jingyang while Song oversaw the refurbishment of the county seat office building. Between the periods when they were in office, there was another magistrate on duty by the name of Liu Shi He 劉湜河 (n.d.), who actively destroyed many temples of inappropriate worship. His contributions also include the refurbishment of the interior and exterior of the government school. The reason for stating the achievements of the three magistrates in office during the period when Li Jin was compiling the gazetteer is to suggest a possible influence or initiation on the part of these active local officials. This speculation does not seem to be a conclusive one, as we can find no evidence to back up such a claim. However, if we read this scenario together with the later gazetteer compilation projects in Jingyang, we may be more incline to accept such a hypothesis. The only other time in Jingyang when local elites won the rights to compile the county gazetteer was in the Wanli era, by Jingyang scholar Wei Xuezeng. Wei was arguably the most successful Jingyang figure in the Ming dynasty. He attained his metropolitan degree in 1553, had a successful military career in the central 25 兵部尚书) and Right government, was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War ( Censor-in-chief of the Censorate Concurrent Supreme Commander of the Military （都察院右副都御史总督陕西三边军务）, and received the honorable position of Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent（太子少保） later on in Affairs of Shaanxi, his career. While he had a successful career, he was eventually removed from office due to the unflattering rumors spread by his political opponents about his poor performance in the battlefield. He eventually returned to Jingyang, and made a series of local contributions during his time back in his hometown, most notably the compilation of the gazetteer42. According to the preface written by his associate Ma Ziqiang 馬自強 (jinshi 1553), it was the magistrate in office Fu Haoli 傅好禮(n.d.) who first felt the serious need to compile and update the gazetteer, and subsequently invited Wei to do so43. It is rather peculiar here that this preface intentionally mentioned the involvement of the local magistrate, as Wei’s political achievements as well as social status was definitely far superior to that of Fu. Why was there a need to do so? Couldn’t the locally active Wei have completed the task at his own will during his time in retirement? We can probably read the mentioning of the magistrate in this preface as giving the completed gazetteer a form of legitimacy; we can further argue that the practice of gazetteer compilation in Ming dynasty Jingyang County seems to fall under the responsibility of the local officials, much like the category of local works that involved the construction of governmental institutions. Although Fu was himself an active local official, completing the restoration of government school and temple to Confucius during his time in Jingyang, his social status was overshadowed by that of Wei’s. Hence, when the time was ripe to update the county’s history, Wei, 42 43 1670 Jingyang xianzhi, juan 7 renwu, pp. 25-27b. Ibid, xu, pp4-8a. 26 as a retired official residing in his hometown eager to make some contributions to his county, seemed to get the advantage to do so. Therefore, Fu’s only contribution was to endorse the gazetteer with an “official” approval, while the entire project was completed by Wei. As the case study of the 1578 project revealed the official influence in the gazetteer compilation in Jingyang, we can in fact return to the case of Li Jin’s project, and speculate about the influence of the Jingyang magistrate had on this project. While Li Jin got the ultimate rights to complete the task, there should have been some local official’s initiation or sponsorship involved. The active magistrates in the likes of Chang Heng and Song Jian would probably have roles to play in the endorsement of the gazetteer, if not greater roles like that of sponsorship or involvement. To further support this argument, we can see that the two persons helping Li Jin were in fact the Instructor and the Assistant Instructor of the county, both of whom were nonJingyang figures. Why did Li Jin not select his follow countymen in Jingyang to aid him in this project? We can safely claim at this point that it was probably due to the fact that the practice of gazetteer compilation required a certain degree of “official” involvement in it. Hence, even if the magistrates gave away their rights of compilation to Li Jin, his freedom was also partially checked and restricted by the involvement of other minor local officials. In sum, although both the 1493 and the 1578 cases of Jingyang Gazetteers compilation were recorded as completed by Jingyang’s local elite, what we have seen is that there were varying degree of influence demonstrated by the local officials. When interpreted together with the publication of the 1547 version which was handled jointly by the magistrate, deputy magistrate and the registrar, we can come to the conclusion that the compilation of County gazetteer as a local project did not fall 27 into the category where elites could assume full control. Their participation can be said to be limited to a certain extent, facing restrictions such as the inability to involve other Jingyang men while they were working on the project. If the cooperative relationship displayed by the elites and officials during the compilation of gazetteers suggests an unspoken rule about the endorsement rights which the local officials possessed in these projects, a detailed study into the water work projects in Jingyang can in fact expose the supplementary position played by the elites. If we look closely at Table 1 and 2, singling out all the water work projects carried out in Jingyang during the Ming dynasty, we can see that all but one project involved the leadership of Jingyang elite, which is the case involving Li Jin. The details from the gazetteer tell us that most of the cross-counties projects were initiated and supervised by the Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi, and certain county- scale projects were overseen by either the Magistrate or the Registrar. Other than Li Jin, no other locals were ever mentioned in the various sections of the gazetteer: no local constables, dam administrators or on-the-spot managers were ever recorded, even though they most probably should have been involved. With all the credits going to the local officials, what roles did the local elites actually play in these water work projects? We are fortunate to have a record (ji) written by Li Jin, revealing the elites’ involvement in these projects.44 Li started off by stating his ambition to accomplish the restoration of the broken dam in his home town, but regrettably postponed his ideals as he went away for official duties. He continued by telling us about the serious drought in Guanzhong in the year of 1484, and villagers from places with proper water system managed to survive the disaster. As he returned to his hometown in 1488, he was devastated after 44 1547Jiajing Jingyang xianzhi, juan 6 shuili, pp.119-121b. 28 being updated by his fellow villagers about the disastrous situations in that year of drought. Li decided to propose to the incoming magistrate, Chang Heng, in 1489 about the building of a dam, which Li and his nephew followed up by submitting a written proposal signed by 300 households from the area. Chang received the proposal and directed it to the Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi Concurrent Right 巡抚陕西都察院右副御史) Xiao Zhen 蕭禎 (n.d.), Censor-in-chief of the Censorate ( who applauded the notion of mobilizing people’s resource to bring benefits to the people. Upon his approval, magistrate Chang started work and delegated the various duties to the minor officials in the county and the work on the new dam began in April that year. However, before the dam was completed, Chang was promoted and left his post as Jingyang Magistrate, to be replaced eventually by Song Jian, who, according to Li, oversaw the completion of the whole project. The dam was eventually known as Chang Gong Dam, named after Chang Heng by his successor. Li concluded the record by singing praises about the water work achievements in Jingyang and claiming how this dam benefited the people after its completion. From this recap, we can actually see that the role Li Jin played was the presentation of the verbal proposal of the construction of the dam to the new magistrate in office. Li provided the crucial link here, as his identity as a local enabled him to gain insider knowledge to the needs of the villagers, while his identity as scholar literati ensured his access to the local officials. The other clear contribution he made was to gather the signatures of 300 households supporting the cause. It was mentioned that he engaged the help of his nephew, who was probably also a literati. Other than these two appearances, neither Li nor his kinsmen, nor any other local elites, appeared in any of the remaining phase of the construction. Keeping in mind that the author of this piece of record was Li himself, there does not seem to be any 29 logical reasons for him to downplay the contributions, if any, by himself or his kinsmen. On the other hand, it was portrayed that the magistrate as well as the minor officials played the most crucial roles in the construction of this dam. We can interpret that as the locals, represented by Li Jin, were sincerely thankful to the officials for their sponsorship and help in this project. However, this is highly dubious because, as mentioned by the Grand Coordinator, this project utilized the people’s resources, not governmental funding. How can we explain this peculiar situation here? Why did Li Jin sing praises of the local officials in this record, when their contributions were only signing the approvals and delegating of the jobs from their offices? If the governmental funding was not utilized, where did the actual funding come from? Why did Li downplay the contributions of the local elites, which include himself and his kinsmen, in this record? And most importantly, why was the dam named after Chang Heng, giving him the biggest credit for this project? If we take the practice of gazetteer compilation studied above into consideration, we can probably argue that water works was under the responsibility of local officials, giving them unspoken legitimacy in these projects. This is the reason why Li Jin had to give the credits to the officials who approved the projects, when the works and funding might have been provided by the elites and the villagers. By ultimately naming it after the magistrate who approved the project and not the local elite who initiated it, a form of legitimacy was provided to the project, leading readers to firmly believe in the official influence involved. This was probably the same with the various water work projects conducted in Ming dynasty Jingyang, as we can only see the participations and sponsorships of the local officials from the records in the gazetteer. What is more striking is the fact that in the next edition of Jingyang gazetteer available to us, which was compiled in the Kangxi era (1662-1722), this 30 piece of record by Li Jin was omitted. Why did the Qing magistrate, Wang Jiyou, who compiled this version intentionally leave it out? As we will further demonstrate in the subsequent chapter, Wang was a state orientated official, who was eager to perform and made many contributions in Jingyang. We believe that to this statist magistrate, the acceptable roles that elite could play in these water works was to carry out the behind-the-scene works, hence he decided to eliminate this record as he would have deemed the role played Li Jin as being overboard. All these point us to one conclusion: much like the compilation of local gazetteer, water work projects was still ultimately deemed to be under the responsibility of the local officials, despite involving the participations of the growingly active local elites. The officials possessed an unspoken legitimacy which allowed them to accomplish these local projects; the involvement of local elites in these fields can at most be supplementary in nature. In the event where the officials’ involvements were overshadowed by that of the local elites, careful amendments were needed to emphasize the endorsement by the officials in order to provide these projects with the much needed legitimacy. From these, we can conclude that at least in these two types of local projects, the growingly active Jingyang elites were never granted full unlimited participation. If this was the case in the field of local works during the mid-Ming era, how was it like towards the end of the dynasty? Can the state with declining power maintain its superiority over the elites? With this, we turn our attention to the case of Wang Zheng, who involved himself in the local defense, a local project in the category which also involved the participation of local officials. 31 Local Defense in Jingyang: Case of Wang Zheng’s Involvements Wang Zheng, a highly respected Ming loyalist, was probably one of the most well known figures in Jingyang. Wang attained his provincial degree in1594 at the age of 24, but only managed to attain his metropolitan degree in 1622, at the age of 52.45 He gained fame for his knowledge in the field of mechanics, and more importantly for his devotion in Christianity, publishing many books and essays in his lifetime. While he was more noted for his contributions in the spread of Christianity in the Shaanxi area, he was relatively less well known for his participation in the field of local defense back in his hometown. To study his contributions, we can catch a glimpse of the nature of local accomplishments by Jingyang men in the time of dynastic decline, taking note of the relationships between the local officials and the local elites in the process. But before engaging in the case study, it is important to note that Wang’s hometown Luqiao zhen, was situated along the borders of Jingyang 三原縣) County and Sanyuan County ( 46 . During Wang’s time, the town was under the jurisdiction of Jingyang, but there was a mixed sense of identification among the people residing in this town. Hence, we will frequently encounter the mentioning of “both the counties” （两縣）when we read Wang Zheng’s literary collection, especially essays written on the topic of local defense. Wang Zheng’s records in the biography section of Jingyang gazetteer claimed that Wang returned to his hometown after his official duty ended in the year of 1629. Shaanxi was plagued by a serious drought that year, resulting in numerous bandits 45 陳垣 涇陽王徵傳 Chen Yuan , “Jingyang Wang Zheng Zhuan ,” in idem, Ming Jingyang Wang Zheng xiansheng nianpu , (Xi’an: Shaanxi Shifan Daxue chuban she , 2004), pp. 224-227. 46 1670 Jingyang xianzhi, juan 1 dili p. 2b. 大學出版社 明泾阳王征先生年谱 陝西 師範 32 harassing the villagers. Wang “trained the local braves and made plans for defense, while he gave out grains as relief”.47 Other than this short description relating his involvements in local defense, his tomb inscription, written by Zhang Jinyan 張縉彥 (n.d.), also mentioned his contributions. Zhang was in fact the magistrate of Sanyuan County in the year of 1629, and he mentioned in this inscription that, “During my time in office as the magistrate of Sanyuan, Wang Zheng was residing at home. At that time, the county was swamped with bandits. I often learned military tactics from him, and discussed the defense strategies with him. He also showed me several weapons invented by him, including the automatic repeating crossbow, the movable bridges, the automatic chariots as well as the self-release catapult, and demonstrated how they work with pictures. When the bandits saw that Sanyuan was so well-defended, they retreated in awe. Wang Zheng’s contribution made all these possible.”48 These praises sung by Zhang are very informative: Wang Zheng used his expertise on military warfare and mechanics to help the magistrate in the organization of defense. This revealed the cooperative relations that the local officials and the local elites shared in the field of local defense. When in the face of serious threat to the security of the county, it is not surprising that both the parties seemed inclined to cooperate. However, did Wang Zheng only act as an advisor, and watch the magistrate Zhang crush the bandits with his standing army? 47 1670 Jingyang xianzhi, juan 7 renwu, p. 42b. 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi , in Zhongguo Difang zhi jicheng (Nanjing: Fenghuang Chubanshe , 2007), juan 10 yiwen, pp. 29a-31a. 48 乾隆涇陽县志 鳳凰出版社 中國地方志集成 33 We are fortunate to possess a compact, ‘xiang bing yue’, written by Wang Zheng, compiled in his literary collections.49 This article consisted of two separate parts: the first addressing to the villagers in his xiang, regarding the formation of a militia pact, where the second probably addressed the elites in the town, stating clearly how this militia should be run. In his address to the villagers, he warned them about leaving their hometown in fear of bandits, emphasizing the negative consequences of seeking refuge in the city center. He suggested strongly that everyone should work together to drive away the bandits, just like what the Lu Qiaozhen’s villagers had done, and not show fear to the bandits. To boost their confidence and morale, he calculated their chances of victory based on their numbers and gave numerous convincing reasons as to why the various villages should work together. A point which concerns us most is the role local officials played in this militia organization. Wang mentioned that, “It has been a common practice for sons and younger brothers to protect their fathers and elder brothers, for limbs to protect the head, for fences to protect walls. Now that we, the villages of the four xiang, are the fences which can protect the walls; the limbs which can protect the head; and the sons and younger brothers who can protect our fathers and elder brothers. Today, the officials from the Bureau and the Circuit, as well as the Magistrates of the two counties are working very hard for our locale, requesting and hiring soldiers, as well as protecting the city from invasions. They have released a circular, encouraging the formation of militia. It is announced that in every county, 49 王徵 鄉兵約,” in idem, Wang Zheng Yizhu 王徵遺著, (Xi’an: 陝西人民出版社, 1987), pp. 178-189. Wang Zheng , “Xiang Bing Yue Shaanxi Renmin chuban she 34 regardless of whether the militia or the standing army, whoever manages to kill or capture a bandit will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver.”50 Wang went on to state the importance of the xiang as strategic points of defense for the city, and remarked that the magistrates of the two counties will be pleased to hear the heroic acts of the villagers. He concluded the article by stating that “the two magistrates of both counties would have unpredictable brilliant use of all the authority of rewards and punishments, persuades and reprimands, and encouragements.”51 We can see from this that the relationship that governed the elites and the officials here seemed like a cooperative one. Wang, playing the role of local elite here, spoke positively of the magistrates, and tried to convince the villages of the need to protect the city center as well as the officials. On the other hand, it was also mentioned that the officials promised to distribute silver as rewards for every bandits killed or captured, signifying the officials’ support or reliance on this civilian military for local defense. The tone that Wang Zheng used definitely sounded like he was being sent by the magistrate to relay this message, hinting the influence that the local officials might have had on them. Yet, can we accept this as the whole picture of the story? We will now turn to the second part of this compact, the portion whereby Wang Zheng addressed the participating elites about the discipline and training issues of the organization. He started off by stating the differences between the militia and the standing army: one is an autonomous organization set up to protect a xiang, while the other is primarily used to defend a city. He went on to say that, 50 51 Wang Zheng, “Xiang Bing Yue”, p.180. Ibid, p.181. 35 “While the four xiang are far from the city center, the villages there are the first to get harassed by the bandits whenever they came. Even if the standing army comes to assist, they can never stay for an extended period of time. Furthermore, there are only limited soldiers in the standing army; they can only defend the city center and not the four xiang concurrently. Considering the starvation faced by the people today, there are bandits creating havoc everywhere. If we do not protect our own villages but rely on the standing army to protect us, I fear that we will be robbed and killed before their help arrives.”52 After such an introduction, Wang Zheng then began to list out the operational details of their organization. What can this introduction tells us about how Wang Zheng felt? It seems that this part of the essay paints a very different picture compared to the first one: now, the city center and the officials are no longer what they wanted to protect; it is their own lives and properties that mattered most. The armies that were promised to arrive soon were deemed to be useless and unreliable. The magistrate was not even mentioned in the second portion, and he definitely did not appear to be someone they would sacrifice their lives defending for. How can we interpret such a contrasting attitudes in the two portion of the essay written by Wang Zheng? The different addressees of these essay are the key to the question. In the first part of the essay, Wang Zhang was speaking to the villagers in general and the usage of the official’s authority seems justifiable. Although the local elites were the leaders on the ground level, the local officials to the commoners still possess the much awed authority. Hence, by emphasizing the official endorsement of such defense projects, it would not only help to convince the public, but also add a 52 Wang Zheng, “Xiang Bing Yue”, p.182. 36 form of legitimacy to this military organization. Therefore, we see Wang repeatedly drawing connections to the officials and the county center, as well as bring attention to the official rewards that was proposed to be distributed, giving the whole project a strong official flavor. In comparison, the second part of the article was targeted at Wang’s fellow elites, whose statuses were probably equivalent to that of the magistrate. Therefore, using the official’s authority would not be a wise choice. Instead, he revealed the incompetency of the official’s solution to the banditry problem, stressing the need to protect their own life and properties as a source of motivation. We can in fact interpret this scenario as a loss of faith by the elites in the local officials’ ability to handle the local defense, although they clearly understood the legitimacy that the local officials possessed in the field of organizing local defense. Hence, while they desperately engaged in the training of the militia in their hometown to face the marauding bandits, they (represented by Wang Zheng) still reluctantly gave the magistrates in county seats the major credits for their involvement in the local organization, at least on paper. By acknowledging their involvement, the xiang army will receive the much needed legitimacy, but in practice, the army was set up precisely because the contributions by the local officials were insufficient, if not ineffective, during this time of serious crisis. Therefore, we see that in the time of dynastic decline, the state was no longer able to provide the local government with sufficient resources to handle the needs of governing the locals. The insufficiency was exposed when Guanzhong met with the serious drought that hit the area hard during 1629. The Jingyang government, though still managing to allocate a part of the available budget on the construction of governmental institutions, failed to effectively stamp out the banditry problems. Worried for their properties and securities, the Jingyang elites took over the function 37 of providing the local defense by organizing militias in their respective xiang, filling up the vacuum left by the state. In these organizations, we can see that the local elites took full control of the militias, and even extended their effort to help the magistrate protect the city center. Wang Zheng played such a role, and his contributions both in his hometown and the county seats were well acknowledge by his associates. Although it seemed like the devolution of local defense to the elites allowed them to have a large degree of freedom in their participation, we still need to take note of the legitimacy which the local government still possessed in this local project. The legitimacy issue probably caused Wang to repeatedly emphasize the endorsement of the magistrates while he initiated the projects among his people. With this, we can conclude that although the growingly active Jingyang elites seem to have enjoyed more freedom as the state power began to decline rapidly towards the end of Ming dynasty, their activism can still be considered to be restrictive. The elites still had to give credits to the local officials in order to justify their defense project, when it was the failure of these state agents that gave rise to a need of such projects. Conclusion In sum, two main points can be drawn from the case study done on Ming dynasty Jingyang County. The information we gathered from the two editions of gazetteers revealed that after the 1500s, there was an emergence of a distinct social space in Jingyang County, which led to an increase in elite participation in the social scenes. The intensification of elite activism, when understand jointly with the formation of local identity among Guanzhong literati, reveal a distinct change in state38 society relationship in the northwest region of China the latter half of the Ming dynasty. However, this intensification of local activism did not give the local elites rights of unlimited participation in local affairs. As we have seen, a category of public work involving the construction of governmental institutions was totally out of bound to the elites, while in other local projects the elites faced different kinds of restriction. In the case of gazetteer compilations, even as the local men could assume the role of chief author, they still had to give credits to the local officials in order to get their work endorsed. This was also true in the case of water works, where we had seen elites playing supplementary roles and tried to emphasize the participation of local officials simply because they were the legitimate party who were suppose to responsible for this work. As the state power began to decline rapidly towards the end of the dynasty, the restrictive nature of these local projects seemed to dissolve away slowly. We have demonstrated with the case study of Wang Zheng that the local elites played a large role in the organization of local defense in times of widespread banditry. However, despite being given more freedom, the elites still consciously brought in the authority of the local officials at appropriate situations, revealing that the legitimacy which the local officials possessed in these projects was still very much respected by the local men. This trend was interrupted as the Ming dynasty was replaced by the Qing in 1644.What happened to these active Jingyang elites in the beginning of the Qing dynasty? How was their relationship with the local officials? These are some questions that we will look into in the next chapter. 39 Chapter 2: The Regression of Local Elite Activism in Jingyang County during the Early Qing Period As demonstrated in the previous chapter, Jingyang County in the second half of the Ming dynasty was marked with an intensification of local elite activism, signifying an unprecedented rise in localism within the county. However, as argued, this expansion of the locals’ role in the social scene was not accompanied with the right for them to contribute in all local public matters. In fact, there seemed to be many unwritten restrictions imposed indirectly by local officials, which denied or limited the involvement of local elites in many projects. With the decline of state power in the final years of the dynasty, these restrictions quickly eroded, giving the local elites fresh opportunities to dominate various aspects in local matters. As the Qing replaced the Ming in 1644, what happened to this localist tendency that was formed among the Jingyang literati towards the end Ming? Was the change in rulership of the empire a mere background to these Jingyang elites as they strived to increase their grasp of their hometown, or did the political rupture in fact hinder the development of localism in the county—similar to the pattern of dynastic development which Peter Bol had observed53? How then was the relationship between the local officials and the local elites altered? These are the main concerns of this chapter. We will look at the state-society relationship in Jingyang County for the first 92 years of the Qing dynasty (up to the end of Yongzheng era) and demonstrate the regression of local elite activism in this early period. Local activities involving the local elites and the local officials will be compared and analyzed, presenting a picture of Jingyang which seemingly no longer involved the local elites. Sources used will 53 Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and ‘Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China,”, p.4. 40 come primarily from two editions of the county gazetteers, as well as various writings from the local literati. Next, two case studies will be carried out on Wang Jiyou and Liu Hao 劉灝(1662-1712, jinshi 1688), with the aim of exposing the lack of ability as well as the deprivation of opportunities experienced by Jingyang men in this period. Lastly, this chapter will round up with a short discussion of the gradual recovery of local elite activism towards the end of the Yongzheng era, laying down a foundation for a detail analysis of the “localist turn” in subsequent chapters. The Local Contributions by Jingyang Elites in the Early Qing Period As local public matters gradually became the responsibility of local men towards the end of Ming dynasty, a growing number of local projects depended on their participation and contributions. One would be tempted to predict that this reliance, coupled with the newly developed localism among the elites, would result in a continuation of this trend in the Qing dynasty. However, a quick browse through the two editions of county gazetteer compiled in this period defies such anticipation. Table 3 summarizes all the records on public works involving the leadership, participation or sponsorship by local elites in the early Qing period. It is important to provide a quick background of the two gazetteers prior to the analysis of this table. The first gazetteer is the edition compiled by Wang Jiyou in 167054 and the other is 54 1670 Jingyang xianzhi. 41 the edition compiled by Tu Kai 屠楷 (n.d.) in 1732 55 . Wang, a native of Jiangsu province, was the magistrate of Jingyang County when he compiled and edited the first Qing dynasty copy of Jingyang gazetteer. Unlike previous gazetteer compilations in Jingyang, this 1670 edition was the first occasion whereby a non-Jingyang man assumes the position of the chief compiler. Tu Kai, like Wang, was also the magistrate of the county when he compiled the Yongzheng edition of the county’s gazetteer. The implications of local officials assuming the authorship of Jingyang gazetteers are of great significance, and we will return to this topic later on in the chapter. As mentioned, the most glaring observation one would make upon looking at Table 3 is the relatively few records in the table. If we compare it to Table 1, we can observe a decrease of about 35% in elite’s activities from the last century of Ming visà-vis the first century of Qing. This numerical inferiority points us to a diminishing local’s participation in public matters at the dawn of the new dynasty. Another observation one can make from looking at the table is the lack of variety in the nature of public works Jingyang men engaged in. These early Qing elites were concerned most with the provision of reliefs in their respective hometown during times of need. Following which their next concern was with the restoration of temples and buildings. Lastly, there is a single record involving a Jingyang man’s contributions in the leadership of local defense. Other than these three types of public work, the elites seemed to have discontinued with other contributions in local scenes, notably in areas such as gazetteer compilation (as chief editor), water works, and construction of public facilities like schools, bridges and roads. This reduction in the 1732 Yongzheng Jingyang xianzhi 雍正涇陽县志, in Shaanxi tushu guancang xijian fangzhi congkan 陝西圖書館藏稀見方志叢刊 (Beijing: Beijing tushu guan chuban she 北京圖書館出版社, 2006). 55 42 [Table 3: List of Local Public Matters involving Jingyang Elites in the Early Qing period] Date Nature of Local contribution Name of contributor Social status Description Remarks Re fe re nce 1663 Local Defence Wang Xiangshi Military Selectee Leader of Local Yong against bandits 1678-? Building of Local Charitable Organisations Zhang Shiqi Tribute student 　Provide aids to fellow villagers 云阳镇 棣鄂堂, 乐无间 1691-2 Famine Relief Liu Xiangqi Unstated Donation of Grain to villagers in xiang 1692 Famine Relief Li Yuheng Student of National University Donation of Grain 1692 Famine Relief Yao Wei Government Student Donation of Grain to Kins 义侠 义侠 义侠 义侠 义侠 义侠 艺文 义侠 节烈 建置 建置 1692 Famine Relief Wang Biao Unstated Donation of Grain and Coffins 1662-1712 Restoration of Temple Liu Hao Metropolitan Graduate Responsible for donation drive 1721 Famine Relief Pu Zhoubi Unstated Personal Donation of 160 gold as tax for li Unstated Donation of Grain 1721 Famine Relief Gao Fanghui 1725 Restoration of Kuixing Pavilion Various Local Elites 1728 Restoration of Yucai Fang Various Local Elites 海角寺 Grandson of Government Student 魁星楼 育才坊 43 variety of public works signifies a contraction of roles played in local society by Jingyang elites over the period of dynastic change. The third and last observation that we can make concerns that of the social status of these Jingyang men who contributed to the county. Apart from those who were left unmentioned in their respective records, it is rather striking that only one of the contributions was made by a metropolitan degree holder. This is a stark contrast to the Ming dynasty situation, whereby many of the public works towards the end of the dynasty were completed by jinshi or juren. Considering that there were at least 31 Jingyang men who achieved the metropolitan degree in the early Qing period56, it is rather puzzling as to why these men in the upper stratum of the society did not bother themselves with contributing in their hometown. Even in the case of the contributions by Liu Hao, it was mentioned in the inscription that Liu merely requested donations from fellow local men, but he did not contribute monetarily to the project. We will return to this project later on in the chapter, but at this point it is sufficient to note that a vast majority of public works involving local men were accomplished by elites of relatively lower status. The upper tier elites were portrayed in the records as more involved in serving other places as officials, showing their hometown much less interest as compared to their Ming counterparts. To sum up the three observations made from Table 3, what we see is a picture of Jingyang County that varies greatly from end of Ming to early Qing. The local elite activism among elites seemed to have subsided and the upper elites were no longer occupied with staking a claim in local projects in their hometowns. Projects like famine reliefs and temple restorations were the only contributions Jingyang men made in early Qing. If this was the situation, what happened to the local projects that used to 56 1732 Yongzheng Jingyang xianzhi, juan 6 xuan ju, pp. 11a-14b. 44 be initiated and sponsored by the local elites? Were they left undone, or did the local officials take over the initiative? The next section will attempt to answer these questions by demonstrating the intensification of local officials’ participation in local projects through an analysis of contributions by them during the early Qing period. The Emergence of Local Officials’ Activism in Early Qing Many officials holding office in Jingyang County during the first century of the Qing dynasty were in fact very active in the local scenes. Table 4 summarizes all records found in the two editions of gazetteers relating to the local public affairs initiated and sponsored by local officials during the first 92 years of the dynasty. If we compare the number of entries to those tabulated in Table 2, the total number of local projects accomplished by officials in Qing was almost twice as much as what their counterpart achieved in the last 100 years of the Ming dynasty. This quantitative increase itself points up to a general rise of interest in local projects on the part of the local officials. To further analyze the nature of this change, we will have to observe the nature of these projects which they had contributed in. At a glance, we can see that much like their predecessor in Ming dynasty, these Jingyang officials were very concerned with the construction and maintenance of governmental institutions, for example the county academy, city wall and county poorhouse. As argued in the previous chapter, this category of public works had always been exclusive to the local officials, and the exclusive rights to accomplish them seemed to remain firmly in the officials’ hands during the early Qing period. Looking at the other category of public works which included projects like water works, compilation of local gazetteers and setting up of granaries, we do see a continuation of involvements by the local officials. 45 [Table 4: List of Local Public Works Accomplished by Local Official in the Early Qing period] Date Nature of Local Contribution Name of Local Official Position Held 1648 Restoration of Government School Zhang Yingzhao Magistrate 1648 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Zhang Yingzhao Magistrate Magistrate Remarks 1650-5 Restoration of Dike Jin Handing 1664-1670 Restoration of Qisheng Shrine Gong Woyue Instructor 1669 Restoration of Dike Wang Jiyou Magistrate Collaboration project with assistant magistrate 1669 Restoration of Dike Zhang Kengu Assistant Magistrate Collaboration project with magistrate 1670 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Wang Jiyou Magistrate Guang Hui Dike 1670 Restoration of City Wall Wang Jiyou Magistrate 1665-70 Restoration of County Beadhouse Wang Jiyou Magistrate Repaired the Southern Gate 1665-70 Restoration of Kuixing Pavilion Wang Jiyou Magistrate 1665-70 Restoration of Wenchang Pavilion Wang Jiyou Magistrate 1701 Founding of Free School Zhang Yu Magistrate 1701 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Zhang Yu Magistrate Collaboration project with assistant instructor 1701 Restoration of Temple to Confucius An Qiwei Assistant instructor Collaboration project with magistrate 1725 Restoration of Dikes Yue Zhongqi Governor-general of Chuan Shaan 总督川陕部院, Request funds for project 1728 Restoration of Dike Tu Kai Magistrate Hong Yan Dike 1729 Founding of Free School for Muslim Local officials Local officials Orders from Central Government 1729 Restoration of Dike Wang Shaowen Prefect of Xi'an Donated and Supervise works on Hong Yan Dike 1730 Founding of Communal Granary Local officials Local officials Orders from Central Government 1731 Restoration of City Wall Tu Kai Magistrate Donated and Repaired Fallen Walls 1732 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Tu Kai Magistrate Reference 建置 建置 艺文 建置 水利 水利 序 建置 建置 建置/艺文 建置 建置 建置 建置 水利/官师 水利 建置 水利/官师 建置 建置 序 46 This category of works was one whereby both the Ming dynasty Jingyang men and local officials were involved. Although the Jingyang men did not assume full control of these projects, they seemed to play very important roles in most of them. Comparing it to the situation in early Qing, the records in Table 4 tell us that the officials were still much involved in these projects. Yet, an examination of Table 3 will reveal that the local elites in Jingyang were no longer involved in these projects. This signifies that the local officials had assumed full responsibility in this category of projects, completing them without the direct involvement of Jingyang men. These two observations leave us with one conclusion: the expansion of the local officials’ role in Jingyang County during the early Qing. Not only did the officials in Jingyang County become more active, completing far more projects than their Late Ming counterparts, they were also able to monopolize the category of local works in which their predecessors had to share with Ming elites from Jingyang. The emergence of this situation in Qing presents us with a new set of questions worthy of consideration: why was there a regression of local activism in the early period of Qing? What caused the Jingyang elites to cease their participation in local public matters? How could their new found localist tendency from the mid-Ming have simply disappeared with the founding of a new dynasty? Lastly, what was their perception towards having the local officials take over the initiative in the local projects which were once their responsible? The answers to these questions should help us understand the nature of the regression of local activism in the early Qing period, and to get them, we must step beyond the statistical analysis of the local projects completed in this period. The rest of the chapter will focus on two case studies to investigate the detail mechanics in some of the local projects, with the aim of answering the series of questions posted above. 47 Wang Jiyou and Gazetteer Compilation Jingyang during the early Qing The reason to select the 1670 compilation of Jingyang gazetteer as a project for case study was a simple one: it was the first occasion whereby a local official undertook the role of chief editor in the compilation. Moreover, there are quite a number of primary records found in the gazetteer which can provide us with information about the details of this project. Of these sources, the most important one is the preface to the gazetteer written by Chief Editor Wang Jiyou himself, informing us how and why he decided to undertake this project. Aside from this, we also possess three more prefaces, two of which were written by Jingyang men and the other by Wang’s associate, exposing the perception of the local elites on this project. If the richness of these sources still does not warrant us with sufficient reasons to choose this project as a case study, we were fortunate to come into possession of one more related record— a postscript written by the Instructor of the county school. This postscript provided us with rich information about the actual participation of five local tribute students who participated in much of the behind-the-scenes work during the compilation stage of the gazetteers. Hence these sources give us a good insight into the compilation project of 1670, revealing to us the reactions of both the local elites and the official in charge of the project, giving us plenty of information to analyze the project. As mentioned earlier, the official involved was the magistrate in office at the time of compilation, Wang Jiyou. It was mentioned in his biographical records in Jingyang gazetteer that Wang was a native of Dantu County in Jiangnan, and that he 48 was assigned to Jingyang as magistrate after getting his metropolitan degree in 164757. Although the information about his life was not very detailed, there are ample records accounting for his contributions in Jingyang County. Other than the gazetteer compilation project which was without doubt the most well documented one, Wang also initiated the restoration of a dam, the city wall, the county poorhouse, and even sponsored the restoration of a local temple. These information no doubt portrayed a picture of an active magistrate, eager to contribute to the public community of the county. So, what was it that prompted him to compile the first edition of the county’s gazetteer in the Qing dynasty? Wang did provide us with some explanations in his preface to the gazetteer. He began the preface by telling us why Jingyang was a geographically important area in Shaanxi, and then summarized the past editions of Jingyang gazetteers, mentioning that it had been a hundred years since there was a fresh update. Wang then mentioned that he was assigned by the emperor to govern this place and went on to talk about the lack of updated history in the county and the negative effects it caused. He went on to claim that he felt responsible for the update as the local official, and finished the rest of the preface by talking about the changes he made to the previous edition. There is a point worthy of mentioning here: his acknowledgements to the editors of the previous editions. Although Wang seemingly credited Wei Xuezeng with the authorship of the 1578 edition of the Jingyang gazetteer, his first mention of the project in the preface was that “magistrate Fu invited local scholar Wei Gongxiang (Xuezeng) to compile the gazetteer”58. We argued that Wei probably engineered the whole project on his own will, and the mentioning of magistrate Fu’s name was in fact only to provide the gazetteer with the needed official legitimacy. Wang Jiyou, disregarding whether he 57 58 1732 Yongzheng Jingyang xianzhi, juan 5 guanshi, p. 13b. 1670 Jingyang xianzhi, zhixu, p.25b. 49 was aware of this fact, felt that there was a need to mention Fu’s involvement in the project. This act of acknowledgement can be read as an act to show his predecessor respect, but if we read it against how the Jingyang men saw the historical development of their county history in the other two prefaces, a stark contrast in attitude can be observed. The other two prefaces that were published together with Wang’s were written by two well-known Jingyang men of the time. The first of them was written by Han 韓望 (jinshi 1652) who achieved the position of Director in the Ministry of revenue, Shandong office (户部山东司郎中). The other was written by Zhang Chongling 張重齡 (juren 1648), who although did not achieve the metropolitan Wang 59 degree, held the position of Secretary of water work department in the Ministry of 工部都水司主事) 60 Works ( . Zhang was the son Zhang Bingxuan 張炳璿 (n.d.), an active Jingyang elite in late Ming, who incidentally was the cousin of Ming loyalist Wang Zheng, a character whom we dealt with in the previous chapter. Wang Jiyou sent them the manuscript of the newly compiled gazetteer prior to publication, and requested these two Jingyang men to contribute a preface each. What these Jingyang men wrote in their respective prefaces reveal much about how the elites felt in having an outsider compiling the gazetteer of their hometown. If we observe how the Jingyang men traced and credited the past versions of the county gazetteer, we can see a difference in emphasis as compared to Wang’s preface. Han Wang’s preface credited the past version to Wei Xuezeng, stating that “at the start of the Wanli era, local man Wei Xuezeng compiled the gazetteer, fellow 州 Department ( ) man Ma Wenzhuang 59 60 馬文莊 (n.d.) wrote a preface for it, and it had 1732 Yongzheng Jingyang xianzhi, juan 6 xuan jue, p. 10b. Ibid, p. 11b. 50 been ninety odd years until Mr. Wang rose and edited it”. Notice that Han Wang did not mention about the involvement of magistrate Fu, giving local man Wei Xuezeng the full credit of the authorship. When read against Wang Jiyou’s preface, it seemed that Han was more concerned about the involvement of fellow Guanzhong men with the mentioning of Ma Wenzhuang, despite the fact that he only contributed a preface. The omission of magistrate Fu might be a case of genuine ignorance of his involvement in the project, but the inclusion of Feng certainly led us to believe that Han Wang felt that the Ming compilation was a non-official project, one managed by local man. The emphasis of Zhang Chongling revealed in his preface seems to be similar to that of Han. Like Han, Zhang did not mention anything about the involvement of magistrate Fu. Zhang even traced one step further to the 1547 edition of the gazetteer, giving local man Li Jin the credit of its authorship. These two prefaces revealed that both these local men did not recall the involvement of the magistrate in the previous edition of the county gazetteer. Yet, as we have seen, Wang Jiyou felt the need to draw the reader’s attentions to the involvement of the Ming magistrate. This is probably his way of informing the readers that the compilation of county gazetteers had always been the responsibility of the local officials. Fu merely exercise his rights, and gave the local man Wei the privilege of compilation. If we follow Wang Jiyou’s logic, the rights of compilation lies firmly in the hand of the local official, and his effort in the 1670 compilation in place of local men was fully justifiable. Hence, from the comparison of this aspect of the prefaces, we can clearly see a sharp difference between the local officials’ and the elites’ understanding of the compilation project. The problem that arises next is how the Jingyang men responded to Wang’s role as the chief editor, when he was clearly an outsider trying to accomplish the local 51 project? The preface written by Zhang Chongling is especially beneficial in understanding the local’s response. Zhang seemed to be rather concerned with the fact that Wang Jiyou was an outsider, posing the question that “the past editors of the county gazetteer were all local men, and Mr. Wang was only a sojourning official who came to this land. If a story can have many different versions to it, how can he differentiate their authenticities”? Zhang rejected this notion, saying that “local authors might have the tendency to be biased. Mr. Wang, however is a famous literatus from Jiangzuo (south of the lower reaches of the Changjiang River), and is an example for our county. He has no reason to be overtly friendly with anyone or bear private grudges against anyone. All his judgments on people and events were well founded” Zhang went on to defend Wang Jiyou, highlighting his highly unbiased method of material collections during the compilation phase of the gazetteers. Zhang’s discussion suggests that there was a debate at the time over whether the compilation should be done by an outsider, and he felt the need to address to this issue in his preface. By highlighting Wang Jiyou’s worthiness rather than his role as a local official, Zhang provided his reader with reasons to justify the authorship which Wang assumed. Furthermore, he exclaimed towards the end of the preface saying “we, Jingyang people are ignorant and ill-informed, hence unable to come out with writings like Li Shiyu (Jin) and Wei Gongxiang (Xuezeng). Mr. (Wang) was not put off by the troubles and completed the great deed”. The shows that Zhang understood, or intended his reader to understand, that this outsider can be the chief author on the basis that he was more capable than any other Jingyang men of that time, not because he was assigned official. To sum up the discussion thus far, the local elites and the local official seemed to have different ideas about who should have the rights to accomplish the project of 52 gazetteer compilation in the county. Magistrate Wang felt that his official status gave him the right and responsibility to update the county’s history. Although the local men thought otherwise, there were some like Zhang Chongling who accepted the magistrate’s authorship, but only on the basis that he was a worthy and capable man who was most suitable for the job. The different understanding in the nature of the project seemed to have stirred some debates over the issue, yet magistrate Wang did not find that there was the need for him to explain why he took over the job of compilation from the elites as he was doing so. This case study demonstrates an expanding role of the local official in the county. The increasing active local officials took over the initiatives to accomplished many local projects in the county, denying the elites of the spaces required to serve the county as nonofficials. This caused the Jingyang men during the early Qing period to be unable to contribute as much in the society as their Ming counterparts. It is clear that the change in state-society relationship during this period had resulted in a diminishing space for the local elites to operate in. Yet, one will start to ponder, why couldn’t the local elites compete with the officials and win the rights to be involved in these projects? Why couldn’t they, like their predecessors in Ming, simply carry out the various activities prior to seeking acknowledgements from the officials? Were the officials really able to stop the elites from making contributions in the society, and dominate all aspect of public works? If not, the activism of local officials which limited the opportunities for locals to participate in public projects seems to only be able to explain half the story. We will need to examine the local men’s point of view to seek further explanations as to why their activism seems to have subsided in the early Qing period. 53 Liu Hao and the restoration of Haijiao Monastery Out of the limited number of local public affairs that the early Qing Jingyang elites were involved in, the most well documented one was the restoration of Haijiao Monastery 海角寺 by Liu Hao. There is an inscription written by Liu himself, informing us the geographical location and the background of the monastery as well as Liu’s involvement in the restoration project61. What makes this an interesting project for a case study is that Liu came from a powerful family in Jingyang County. 劉儀恕 (juren 1645), who held the position of Vice Prefect of Lu’an (潞安同知) and Prefect of Pingyang (平陽知府) during his days as Liu Hao was the son of Liu Yishu an official. He was also well known to have sponsored the restoration of a Jinshan academy during his time in office62. What is more impressive is that three of his sons, including Liu Hao, all managed to achieve the metropolitan degree, and enjoyed good official careers. Liu Hao in particular, was assigned with the job of Regional Salt 巡按长芦盐政), and was eventually given the position of Censor of the Henan circuit (河南道御史). He was also involved in the compilation supervisor in Changlu ( work “Guanqun Fangpu” and “Kangxi Zhidian”. Liu Hao was so impressive that the emperor had to personally pin point Liu Hao’s brother, Liu Han 劉涵 (jinshi 1685), to escort Liu Hao’s coffin back to his hometown from the capital after his passing63. Liu Han himself got to a position as high as the Salt Distribution Commissioner of Fujian 福建鹽運使) ( 64 . This brief summary of the Liu family’s background reveals that they were a bureaucratically successful family, at least in the early period of the Kangxi 61 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi, juan 9 yiwen, p. 33a-b. Ibid, juan 7 renwu, p. 31b. 63 Ibid, juan 7 renwu, p. 33b. 64 Ibid. 62 54 era. Yet, if we were to proceed with the investigation of the inscription, it seemed that this elite family was not as financially stable as one would have expected. Turning our attention to the piece of inscription which recorded Liu’s involvement in the restoration work of the monastery, it starts off informing us the geographical location of the monastery, which was in Beigu li of Jingyang County. Liu went on to tell us that each of the forty four li has their own monastery, and that Haijiao monastery was the biggest and grandest among others in the county during its peak in Ming. He felt distressed by the current state of the temple, and feared that it would fall into ruins in a few decades’ time if no restoration works are carried out. We were then told that the monk of the monastery also shared Liu’s sentiments, and begged him to ask for donations. Liu replied “I think that the people today are stranded in many difficulties (facing poverty). If they do not have the ability to restore our ancestors’ enterprises, how can they restore a monastery? Although I can do nothing about us being incapable, if we combine our efforts, it will make the restoration job possible, be it we can only restore the monastery to a glimmer of its glory days.” There was no date indicated in this inscription written by Liu Hao, but judging from Liu’s birth and death dates, it must have been written between 1670s and 1710s. What this inscription reveals to us is that the people in Jingyang, at least those from Beigu li, were generally very poor. The dynastic change seemed to have left the county in a very pitiful state, nothing like the glory days of Ming. It was mentioned in preface that this monastery was so glamorous in Ming because donations from the believers were numerous as compared to the temples in the other li. So why did the donations stop coming in? Liu’s speech about the people’s inability to restore their ancestors’ enterprises seemed to suggest that most people in the county lost their 55 properties during the period of political rupture, and that the economy was badly affected, not fully recovered by the time this inscription was composed. Hence, this was probably the reason why the donations ceased in the first place, and eventually resulted in a situation whereby Liu felt it will be harsh to ask people for donations, given the conditions they were living in. Chinese scholars working on Shaanxi Province have made similar observations about the situation of the province at the dawn of the dynasty. They observed that the change of dynasty brought serious damage to the region and its economics.65 The situation only managed to recover approximately by the Qianlong period, after of a series of rebuilding efforts and implementation of post war recovery policies by the central and regional government.66 If the common people in Jingyang County during the early Qing period were in such a pitiful state, what conditions were the local elites in? As mentioned at the beginning of this section, the Liu family was a successful family which produced several high ranking officials. Yet, if we read this inscription closely, we would have realized that Liu Hao’s role in this project was only to seek donations from his fellow county men. Other than the request for money, we do not see from the sources that Liu made any significant donations to the project. Coming from one of the biggest and most influential family in the county, why didn’t Liu Hao, like many of his elite counterparts from Ming, offer to sponsor the project upon the request of the abbot? He could have taken the chance to make a local contribution in this public project, especially since he felt that this particular monastery was of great importance to the locality. It is highly possible that the lack of financial ability might have forbidden 65 田培棟 陝西通史經濟卷 陝西師範大學出版社 秦暉 韓敏 陝西通史明清卷 陝西師範大學出版社 Tian Peidong , Shaanxi Tongshi Jingji juan , (Xi’an: Shaanxi Shifan Daxue chuban she , 1997), pp. 218-220, 286-287. 66 Qin Hui and Han Min , , Shaanxi Tongshi Ming Qing juan , (Xi’an: Shaanxi Shifan Daxue chuban she , 1997), pp. 212-221. 56 him to do so, and this lack of financial ability was apparently caused by the poor economic climate experienced by the county during this early Qing period. This case study of Haijiao monastery shows that even families as successful as the Liu were affected by the economic downturn, and further suggests that the Jingyang elites were probably too poor to handle bigger projects like that of a temple restoration. This is a stark contrast to the situation in Ming, whereby we see several cases of elites’ sponsored temple restoration projects (see table 1). This contrast suggests that Jingyang elites in the Ming dynasty, no matter their actual social status, might probably be wealthier than their early Qing counterpart. Yet, this is not to say that the Liu family was living in poverty, but to say that the economy in Jingyang was in such a bad condition that the upper stratum of the elites found it difficult to fork out the money to sponsor a local temple’s restoration project. If we turn our attention momentarily back to the contributions made by the local officials during the early Qing period listed in table 4, we can highlight a line recording that magistrate Wang Jiyou did in fact sponsor a project of the Kuixing Pavilion during his time in Jingyang. Although we have an inscription written by Wang himself reporting the incident, how much Wang donated was not mentioned. We also do not know whether Wang utilized his personal fortune, or if he used the governmental budget allocated to him. Yet, if we read these two projects together, what we see is a picture of early Qing Jingyang County, whereby the local elites were too poor to handle most of the local projects available, leaving the growingly active local officials a space to expand the role in the society. Therefore, if the activism of early Qing officials cannot fully explain the nature of the regression of elite activism in Jingyang County, the lack of ability—specifically financial ability— should account for it. 57 Conclusion: A road to recovery? In conclusion, we can see a regression of local elite activism in Jingyang County during the early period of Qing dynasty. The localist tendency formed among the elites since mid-Ming seemed to have disappeared, only to be replaced by an emerging local official’s activism. As we have seen in magistrate Wang Jiyou’s case, it seemed that the officials assigned to Jingyang were eager to perform, thus they engaged in various aspects of public work. The officials expanded their role in the local society at the expense of the local elites, taking over the rights to projects which were previously collaborations with the local elites. This resulted in a contraction of the social space available for the local elites to operate in. The compilation of the county gazetteer is the best example of such scenario, whereby the Jingyang men lost their rights to write the history of their county to an active official. Yet, the limitation of opportunities caused by the emergence of local official’s activism cannot fully explain the nature of localist regression, as there were still plenty of local public projects available to the interested parties. Looking at our second case study, we demonstrated that the elites’ loss of financial ability was the reason behind their reduction of public contributions in the early Qing period. Even families as powerful as the Liu could not sponsor the restoration of a community-scale monastery, thus revealing the pitiful state the elites found themselves in. Therefore, these two factors—the lack of ability as well as the reduced opportunities caused by the expanding officials’ role in the society— help to contribute to the regression of the local elite activism in early Qing Jingyang. 58 However, it would be a matter of time before the economy of a place recovers after a political rupture. In fact, looking at the records of the Kuixing Pavilion in the Yongzheng edition of Jingyang gazetteer, it was stated that after magistrate Wang Jiyou restored the pavilion (in the 1670), it collapsed due to deterioration and was restored by a combined effort from the various local gentlemen in 172567. This record signifies that the economical condition of the local elites seemed to be recovering by this time, although the lack of actual names suggested that quite a number of men might have put their money together to make this project happen. Regardless how many of them there were, their abilities to splash money out on such a project hints that the general economy of the place was recovering. What proved more significant is that the temple that they worked on, was previously an effort by a local official. Does this replacement signify the recovery of the elites towards the end of the Yongzheng era (1723-1735)? Can we expect a re-emergence of local elite activism in Jingyang, since the elites appeared to have recovered some of their abilities? These questions will be answered in the next chapter, where we will take a closer look at the condition of Jingyang County in the Qianlong era. 67 1732 Yongzheng Jingyang xianzhi, juan 2 jianzhi, p. 7a. 59 Chapter 3: The Resurgence of Local Elite Activism in Jingyang County during the Qianlong Era The discussion in the preceding chapter revealed a situation in early Qing dynasty Jingyang County whereby the local elites conceded most of their roles in the local society. This was mainly due to their loss of financial ability brought about by the political rupture. Replacing their positions in the various public affairs were the active local officials assigned to Jingyang, eager to perform and impress. The result was a regression of local elite activism in the county during the early years of the dynasty, as most of the public works we surveyed were initiated or sponsored by local officials. However, as we advance beyond the first 92 years of the Qing dynasty, the elites from Jingyang County seemed to have recovered from their economic slump. Regaining the ability to play a part in local projects, we would anticipate them to resume their activism in local scenes, reclaiming their leadership among the locals. Yet, how could such a resurgence of localism take place with a strong government, both central and local, still firmly in place? How did the Jingyang elites attempt to ease back into the local scenes which were dominated by the local officials? What were the reactions of the Jingyang officials to the revitalized efforts of the local man? How then were the relations between these two players in the field altered? In attempt to answer these questions, this chapter will pick up from the previous chapter and focus on the Qianlong period(1736-1795). As in the previous chapters, the local activities involving the local elites and the local officials will be surveyed, demonstrating the resurgence of local activism among Jingyang men, as well as showing the continuity of activism among local officials in this period. Next, a case 60 study involving Jingyang magistrate Tang Binggang 唐秉剛 (n.d.) will be carried out to dissect the cooperative nature of local projects, with the aim of revealing the supplementary roles of local elites in these official prerogative projects. Lastly, we will designate a space for discussing the nature of this localist resurgence, making headways to the analysis of intensified of local activism in the Daoguang period. The Local Contributions by Jingyang Elites in the Qianlong Period The previous chapter concluded with a case study on the restoration projects of the Kuixing Pavilion, accomplished first by the local magistrate in 1670, and subsequently by the local elites in 1725. The change of sponsorship in such a project towards the end of Yongzheng era signified a recovery of the local elites’ abilities to engage in local matters, and might even further suggest that the balance of power between the officials and the elites was undergoing a transformation. Such initiatives by the locals did not cease after the Yongzheng era, and the records found in gazetteers compiled in the Qianlong period indicated that the Jingyang elites were much more active in local scenes as compared to their predecessors in the first 92 years of the dynasty. Table 5 summarizes all the records on public works involving the leadership, participation or sponsorship by local elites in the Qianlong period. The records tabulated came from two editions of gazetteers compiled in the Qianlong period, the first by magistrate Tang Binggang in 174768, and second by magistrate Ge 68 1747 Jingyang xianhouzhi 涇陽縣后志 (Qianlong shier nian keben 乾隆十二年刻本). 61 [Table 5: List of Local Public Matters involving Jingyang Elites in the Qianlong Period] Date Nature of Local contribution Name of contributor Social status Description Remarks 1738 Building of Mountain Trails * Various local elites Various local elites Collaboration project with Magistrate 1742 Restoration of Drum Tower * Various local elites Various local elites Collaboration project with Magistrate 1743 Founding of School 1746 瀛洲書院 * Founding of Charitable School and Graveyard Jia Xiance National University Student Li Zhongxin unstated Donated 400 tael Collaboration project with magistrate 1747 Restoration of Zhu Yi Pavilion * Various local elites Various local elites Collaboration project with Magistrate 1747 Restoration of County Beadhouse * Various local elites Various local elites Collaboration project with Magistrate 1748-60 Famine Relief and setting up of Charitable School Meng Shikong National University Student 1750 Founding of Jingyang Association Kang Nengjing National University Student 1750 Restoration of Charitable Granary Madam Ren Wife of Wang Tiangui 1753 Founding of Charitable School Kang Nengjing National University Student 1753 Founding of Jingyang Association Kang Nengjing National University Student 1753 Restoration of Village Walls Madam Ren Wife of Wang Tiangui 1757 Famine Relief Wu Liandi unstated 1758 Building of Bridge Li Yangui unstated 1760 Restoration of Dike Wang Xun National University Student 1762 Famine Relief Yong Tai National University Student 1764 Restoration of Temple to Confucius * Various local elites Various local elites 1770 Restoration of Guandi Temple * Various local elites Various local elites 1771 Famine Relief Nie Xianwu unstated 1774 Restoration of City God Temple * Various local elites Various local elites 1775 Restoration of Dike * Meng Shengrui Government Student 1775 Restoration of Dike * Cheng Jixian et al. unstated/various local elites 1781 Famine Relief Han Yi National University Student ? Founding of Charitable Graveyard, Restoration of Roads Zhang Siwei National University Student ? Founding of Charitable School He Zhen National University Student ? Founding of Charitable School Zhang Congli unstated located in capital located in Xi'an Prefecture Help kinsmen 廣利渠 also involved in famine relief endorsed by magistrate Collaboration project with Magistrate Collaboration project with Magistrate Donated 300 tael Collaboration project with Magistrate Donated 5000 tael 龍洞渠 Collaboration project with magistrate Collaboration project with magistrate Saved over 30 families Reference 建置/記 記 義行 義行 建置 建置 義行 義行 節烈 義行 義行 節烈 義行 義行 義行 義行 建置 建置 義行 建置 水利 水利 孝友 義行 義行 義行 62 Chen 葛晨 (n.d.) in 1778 69 . Tang’s edition was an update based on Wang Jiyou’s 1670 edition, and both were eventually published together, with Tang’s update known independently as Jingyang xian hou zhi. When Ge Chen was later assigned to Jingyang as the Magistrate, he made an attempt to merge these two works and update the records to the date of publication. It is important to note here that these two editions of the Jingyang gazetteer were both credited solely to local officials. As we have already seen, both the chief editors of these editions were the county magistrate, much like the previous two editions in the Kangxi and Yongzheng era. However, the roles of the co-editors in the Qianlong versions were taken up by local officials such as the vice magistrates and the instructors, which leave the local men with no positions in the official compilation committee of these gazetteers. The lack of local men in the documentation of the county’s history can be interpreted as a domination of these projects by the officials, but as we will see later, the increase in representations of local elites in these editions also suggested that the elites must be important enough for the officials to emphasize and celebrate their achievements. With the official nature of these compilations noted, we can begin our survey of the local contributions by the Jingyang men in the Qianlong period. The first impression one would get from a quick glance at table 5 is the large number of projects that the local elites were involved in. If we compare the number of entries to those tabulated in table 3, we will notice that the number of entries skyrocketed by about 136% (from 11 to 26). This escalation signifies that local men in Jingyang were much more involved in local projects during the Qianlong era as compared to their predecessors from the early Qing period. An examination of the nature of projects accomplished can further validate the resurgence of local activism 69 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi.i 63 among elites during this period. Using table 3 as a comparison, we observe that the Jingyang elites in Qianlong times went beyond famine reliefs and temple restorations in their sponsorship of local projects. Firstly, we see that there were 5 cases whereby Jingyang men were involved in the establishment of charity schools. This is the first time any records were found in the Jingyang gazetteers of which local men were credited with the founding of educational institutions. Other than schools, we also see that these elites contributed in the construction of bridges, roads, graveyards, charitable granaries, and even village walls. Interestingly, we also see a case whereby a national university student by the name of Kang Nengjing founded Jingyang Associations both in the Beijing capital as well as in Xi’an Prefecture. Although the establishment of an association cannot be technically classified as a local project in a strict definition, the intention of defining a Jingyang identity among his county men in a foreign place does seem to suggest that the forging of local identity was becoming an important concern to the Jingyang elites. Hence, in view of his localist intentions, his contributions were considered in the process of the tabulating table 5. Other than the local projects mentioned above, it is also noticeable that the local elites managed to win the rights of sponsorship in the category of public works that used to be exclusive to the officials. These works include the restoration of the drum tower, county poorhouse, Temple to Confucian, Guandi temple, and the City God temple. As mentioned in previous chapters, these institutions were vital to the functioning of the local government, and thus their maintenance had always been the responsibility of the officials in office. A detailed analysis of the new roles played by local elites in this category of local works will be carried out later on in this chapter, but as of this point, all the evidences point to an expansion of the local elites’ role in the local scenes. Their greater involvements in the various aspects of local matters 64 during the Qianlong period as compared to that by their predecessors in early Qing signifies a resurgence of local activism among Jingyang men in this period, probably brought about by the recovery of their financial ability. However, did the elites, with their newly found activism in local scenes, replace the local officials in the initiatives and sponsorship of local matters? Did the officials assigned to Jingyang simply surrender their rights to engineer local projects, giving way for these locals to replace them? Returning to table 5, we can see that about 38% of the records are marked with * to indicate the projects which were a collaboration between the officials and the local men. This no doubt hints that the local officials were pretty much still within the local picture, despite facing an intensification of local elites’ participation. What roles were the officials playing in this period? We shall turn to a survey of the local officials’ role in Jingyang during the Qianlong era in the next section. The Transformation of Officials’ Roles in Jingyang during the Qianlong Period Local officials assigned to Jingyang County during the Qianlong Period did not retreat from the local scenes in face of the intensification of elite’s participation in public matters. Scrutinizing our primary sources, one would find that there is plenty of evidence to back up such a claim. Table 6 summarizes all records found relating to local public affairs initiated and sponsored by local officials during this period. Numerically, we can see that the total number of projects accomplished by the officials in the Qianlong era is about the same as the number of projects completed by their predecessors in the early Qing period (table 4). This observation clearly implies that local officials were as involved in local scenes as their predecessors, and the resurgence of localism among the local men did not result in a diminution of their 65 [Table 6: List of Local Public Works Accomplished by Local Official in the Qianlong Period] Date Nature of Local Contribution 1738 Building of Mountain Trails * 1739 Restoraion of Dike 1739-40 Upgading of Charitable Granary Local officials Local officials governmental funds 1742 Restoration of Drum Tower * Tang Binggang Magistrate Collaboration project with various local elites 1742 Upgrading of County Seat Tang Binggang Magistrate Personal Donations made, added a guesthouse Collaboration project with various local elites 1743 瀛洲書院 * Position Held Remarks Tang Binggang Magistrate Collaboration project with various local elites Tang Binggang Magistrate Collaboration project with Chunhua County Tang Binggang Magistrate Restoration of City Wall Tang Binggang Magistrate 1746-47 Upgrading of Waterway Tang Binggang Magistrate 1747 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Tang Binggang Magistrate Collaboration project with vice magistrate 1747 Establishment of Zhuyi Pavilion * Tang Binggang Magistrate Collaboration project with various local elites 1747 Restoration of County Beadhouse * Shen Yuanhui Magistrate Collaboration project with various local elites 1744 Founding of School Name of Local Official 1751 Restoration of Dike Yang Biming Magistrate 1763 Restoration of City Wall Luo Chongde Magistrate 1764 Restoration of Temple to Confucius * Zhang Bingkun Magistrate Collaboration project with various local elites 1770 Restoration of Guandi Temple * Zhang Bingkun Magistrate Collaboration project with various local elites 1770 Restoration of the Office of Irrigation and Waterway Zhang Yugu Irrigation Assistant Prefect 1771 Restoration of County Jailor's Office Wang Qinian County Jailor 水利廰署 典史公署 1774 Restoration of City God Temple * Fang Chengbao Magistrate Collaboration project with various local elites 1775 Restoration of Dike * Ge Chen Magistrate Collaboration project with various local elites 1778 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Ge Chen Magistrate Refe rence 建置/記 水利 建置 記 建置 建置/記 建置 建置 序 建置 建置 水利 建置 建置 建置 建置 建置 建置 水利 序 66 roles in the society. Yet, one would hardly consider a situation realistic if we hypothesize that the role of the local officials remained unchanged in wake of the emergence of local activism among the Jingyang men. Upon looking at the nature of the projects that these officials had initiated, we notice that the scope of establishments which they sponsored were very much the same as what their predecessors were doing. They were concerned primary with the category of institutions that were crucial to the functioning of the local government, such as the county seat office, city walls, drum tower, City God temple and Temple to Confucius. Other than those, the officials were also involved in projects such as the restorations of pavilions, mountain trails and even water ways. However, as mentioned in the previous section, the fact that requires our attention is that for the first time, the officials allowed the elites to engage in the category of projects which involved governmental institutions. Referring to table 6, it is striking that a large number of the projects on these institutions were accomplished by collaborations between the officials and the local men. As the tables do not reveal sufficient evidence for an examination of the nature of their collaborations, we will need to use a case study later on in the chapter to analyze the cooperative relationship between both the parties. But as of this point, it is sufficient to note that despite the local officials in Jingyang during the Qianlong era seeming to be as active as their predecessors in the earlier period of Qing, the resurgence of local activism among the local men in fact changed the practice among the officials which had persisted since the mid-Ming. Although we cannot speak of a diminution of the officials’ role in Jingyang at this point, evidences point to the alteration of officials’ role in the society, brought about by the expanding role played by the active elites in this period. 67 If the resurgence of local activism among Jingyang men did have such an impact on the society, one would wonder why an important project like the compilation of the County gazetteer was left entirely to the local officials. A quick recap to the past Jingyang gazetteer compilations remind us that the projects became the officials’ responsibility only in the early Qing period, just as the Jingyang elites lost their ability to get involved in most local matters. Even at that period of localist regression, there were still secondary places of co-editors in the compilation committee available for the local men. Why was there a total domination of local officials in the committee of the gazetteer compilations during the Qianlong period? Why did the elites, despite being more active in the Qianlong period, unable to nominate any representatives into the committee? Scholarship on the production of local histories during the mid Qing period remind us that the Qianlong emperor successfully imposed a strict policy of control over the publication of local history70, which can probably explain why the publication of Jingyang gazetteer remained a pure official prerogative project. We can suspect that the local elites were very much involved during the compilation phase, but did not claim credits for their efforts, as their publications will be more easily acknowledge by the state if they were portrayed as works accomplished by the local officials. It is a pity that the involvements of the elites in such an important project can only be understood based on speculations, but we can still study the newly-formed cooperative relationship between the local officials and the local elites from the rich records of projects which they had accomplished together. In the next section, we will turn to a case study on Jingyang magistrate Tang Binggang, with the aim of revealing the relationship between local officials and local elites during the Qianlong period. 70 Han, Seunghyun. Re-Inventing Local Tradition: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Early 19th Century Suzhou. Ph. D Dissertation, Harvard University, 2005. p.106. 68 Tang Binggang and his involvements in Public Projects The following case study we are about to engage in involves Tang Binggang, the Jingyang magistrate in office between 1736 and 1747. In his 12 years as the magistrate, Tang made many contributions in the public affairs of the County. He was involved in projects such as the restorations of the drum tower and the city walls, the establishment of charity school, the compilation of county gazetteer, as well as projects involving the upgrading of the transportation systems in the county. Among these projects, we have selected two for further discussion in this section: the 冶峪山) and the establishment of the construction of trails in the Yeyu Mountain ( 瀛洲書院). One reason for selecting these two projects is due to Yingzhou Academy ( the relatively rich amount of information available to us. Besides the concern of primary sources, the fact that both these projects involved the participations of local men can draw our attention to the nature of the newly-formed cooperative relationship between the local officials and the local elites during this period. The discussion below aims to reveal the supplementary roles played by the local man during their involvements in both projects. We begin our discussion with the construction of trails in the Yeyu Mountain, which commenced in the spring of 1738 and was completed in the winter of 1739. We have two main primary sources pertaining to this project, a piece of record (ji) written by Tang Binggang71, which was also engraved onto a stone tablet placed along the trail, and a relatively shorter summary of the event in the jianzhi section of the 71 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi, juan 9 yiwen, pp. 24b-26a. 69 gazetteer72, written by Tang himself during the compilation of the county gazetteer. This project came about due to the problem of transportation faced by the people in Yeyu town, a town in the north western end of the county. There was only a single route linking the people of this town to their neighbors located in their north: a few towns under the jurisdiction of Chunhua County. This road, located in a valley, was narrow and winding, and situated close to a ditch. The poor condition of the road made it impassable to carts and chariots, and goods could only be imported to the town by camels. This additional cost of transportation due to the poor road conditions resulted in an inflation of goods and commodities imported into Yeyu town, making life tougher than it should for people in this town. Hence, the project was carried out first to re-direct the water into a newly dug ditch, and second to reclaim the original ditch into a flat land, widening the existing road. The upgraded road eventually allowed the advancement of carts, chariots and horses with ease, and brought many benefits to the people in the town. It was also mentioned that the project was done in collaboration with Chunhua County, with the inhabitants of each county working on the portion of the road in their jurisdiction. So, what can we draw from a project like this in the Qianlong period? We can gather, from the piece of inscription, that magistrate Tang played a very major role in this project. After giving us a summary of the problems, Tang claimed that he was beginning to orchestrate a plan to widen the existing road, and coincidentally, he received an order from the prefecture, instructing him to look into the condition of the road. He was also commanded to submit an estimate of the labor cost required for this project. Tang went on to comment on how he felt that a good local official should report the construction projects of roads and bridges to their superiors in order to 72 1747 Jingyang xianhouzhi, juan 1 jianzhi, pp.23a-b. Also in 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi, juan 2 jianzhi, p.18 a. 70 receive governmental funds to accomplish them. What was portrayed up to this point was an active magistrate, who was very concerned with the problem in his jurisdiction, and “coincidentally” obtained a chance to propose for official funding to complete this project. It seems that to Tang, such construction ought to be an official project, and hence should technically be accomplished by governmental funding. After stating his views about the project, Tang went on to describe how he met 紳衿耆舊) of the county to discuss the up with the local gentlemen and elders ( required funds needed for the project. Interestingly, Tang mentioned that the local elites claimed “the people in this county had long wanted to do something about the road, and since the people possessed the ability to do so, why should we bother the prefecture for money?” Tang portrayed that the locals were eager to participate and sponsor the project, coinciding with the trend of the localist resurgence in this period, identified earlier in this chapter. Tang’s reaction following the quotation is critical to our understanding of the relationship between the official and locals in this period: Tang claimed that he was happy (with the elites’ reply), and made a donation to encourage the effort. The mass actively came to aide this project, and the commencement of the project began immediately. It appears that although Tang Binggang felt that the project should be an official one, he did not have an issue with the local men participating in the project. By letting them participate in the project, Tang can save on the paper work required if he had chosen to request an allocation of funds from his superiors. This reveals the willingness of local officials to utilize local resources to accomplish projects during this period. With the local elites now in the picture, Tang Binggang did not relinquish the entire project to them. It was mentioned previously that he made a donation to 71 encourage the effort, but the inscription did not specify the details of the donations. However, the records in the jianzhi section do provide us with some figures: it was mentioned that magistrate Tang made a donation of 50 taels of silver as an encouragement. The local gentlemen and elders also made charitable contributions, and a final count of 420 taels of silver was collected. What we can verify with this record is that magistrate Tang donated 50 out of the 420 taels of silver, approximately 12% of the total donations. The remaining 370 taels of silver were anonymously donated. Based on these information that Tang Binggang provided, we get a strong impression that he assumed the role of major sponsor in this project. Yet, by percentage of the total contributions, the collective contributions by local men made up 88%, indicating that the locals played a much larger part in this project. Why was the locals’ contributions not clearly acknowledged and fully documented in this record, despite their huge contributions to the project? Keeping in mind that the author of this record was Magistrate Tang, the maintenance of anonymity of the local donors’ identities created an image to the readers that the 50 taels Tang donated was the chief contribution in this project. Hence, the factual omission of the information implied that Tang was rather concerned about projecting himself as the chief sponsor of this project. Despite his willingness to engage in local assistance, it was still his primary concern to maintain a distinct leadership position in local projects. On the other hand, despite their large donations, the lack of documentation of the locals’ contributions signifies that although the elites could persuade the magistrate to allow them participation in the project, they lacked the ability to pressure him into giving them due recognitions in the records. If they were influential enough, why did they not compose the inscription and emphasize their participations in this project? In fact, according to what Tang mentioned in the inscription, the locals pleaded with him to 72 compose this inscription which was to be instilled by the trail, and after much deliberation did Tang give in to their request. All this evidence suggests that, although the Jingyang elites were much more active during the Qianlong period, they were unable to play the key role in their collaborations with the local officials. Their rights of participation depended on the approval of the officials; their involvements were deemed supplementary; their contributions did not gain the same sort of recognitions as compared to the officials’. This highlights the state-society relation of this period, where there was a concurrent existence of a strong government and growingly active elite, an existence that resulted in a mutually beneficial, yet uneasy collaboration relationship between the state representatives and the local elites. This case study leads us to believe that nature of the collaboration between the elites and the local officials was an unbalanced one, with the local official assuming the leadership position and the elites playing the supplementary roles. Even though the reality might have been otherwise, the exclusive primary sources available, written by the official, are intended to convince us of this. Was this case on the construction of the Yeyu Mountain trail an exclusive one? Can we see the same sort of collaborative relationship in other local projects? We will now turn to a case study on the establishment of Yingzhou Academy, also initiated by Tang Binggang, in the year 1743. Regarding this project, we have three primary sources which directly make mention to it: the first is the record of the event in the jianzhi section of the gazetteer73, the second a piece of inscription74 written by Tang Binggang himself, and lastly, a poem about the completion of the academy75, also by Tang. As the poem mainly describes the surrounding and interior of the academy and do not provide us with 73 1747 Jingyang xianhouzhi, juan 1 jianzhi, pp.16b-17a. Also in 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi, juan 2 jianzhi, pp.7b-8a. 74 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi, juan 9 yiwen, pp. 27-8b. 75 Ibid, juan 10 yiwen, pp. 67b-68a. 73 details about the project, we will leave it out of our discussion. The inscription, on the other hand, does provide us with plenty of information regarding the establishment of the academy, and we shall proceed with our discussion first by examining it. In this inscription, Tang Binggang began by stating the importance of schools to the governing of a country, and mentioned that he had considered building one ever since his appointment in Jingyang. However after 5 years, his wish was still unfulfilled, and so he decided to discuss the issue with the local gentlemen, selecting the old archery ground by the west of the county academy (as a site to erect the new academy). Tang proceeded to provide us with the dimensions of the land as well as the detailed planning of the construction. After relating the plans to the readers, Tang went on to describe the preparation phase of the project, which gives us an idea of the contributions made by the different parties. Tang Binggang claimed that he donated the building materials while those interested local gentlemen and elders made donations to hire workers to complete the construction. As we can see from the summary of the inscription above, there is no doubt that the magistrate played a major part in this project. He came out with the idea of establishing the school; his contributions in the building materials would probably cost as much as the funds needed to hire workers, and the authorization of the use of the archery ground beside the county academy was most probably granted by him. The local elites on the other hand, were shown to be involved in the planning phase, and the contribution of the funds. As in the previous inscription, which we had seen regarding the construction of the Yeyu Mountain trail, Tang once again did not provide us with any figures regarding the donations, nor did he provide us with any actual names of the local men involved. The resulting message conveyed to a reader is one which Tang Binggang 74 was indeed the chief initiator and major sponsor of the whole project, while the local men only played supplementary roles. It appears that Tang had once again successfully avoided the documentation of the contributions by local men, and managed to position himself as the leading participant in this local project. The absence of identifiable local men in this record, much like the one analyzed previously, indicates that the local elites were not influential enough to pressure the magistrate into giving them due recognitions, thus placing them in the supplementary position in the collaborative relationship. Returning to our primary sources, the inscription finished off with a description of the completion of the academy, as well as some comments made by Tang regarding the name, utilities, as well as the scale of the academy building, of which none can be utilized in our current discussion. Hence, we will move to the records in the jianzhi section of the gazetteer, whereby more descriptions of the academy can be found. Basically, the records inform us in great detail the location of the academy, as well as the interior set up of the academy. Apart from this information, we do also see a sentence indicating that “magistrate Tang donated and led the local gentlemen from the whole county to seek for donations to establish (the academy)”76. This no doubt coincides with the analysis about the collaborative relationship between the elites and the officials as presented earlier. However, the next piece of information on this record should probably deserve more of our attention: it tells us how the expenses required to run the academy were acquired. It was mentioned in the record in Tang’s edition of the gazetteer that the “savings of 400 taels of silver were handed over by the officials to the pawnshop to generate interests, which will be used to pay the teachers’ salary”. It was also added in the subsequent 76 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi, juan 2 jianzhi, p.7b. 75 edition of the county gazetteer by Ge Chen that in 1766 and 1769, magistrate Yang and magistrate Du sought donations of 1617 taels of silver, sending them to the pawnshop, and the interests generated of 3416.3 taels of silver every year were used to pay the teachers’ salary and student’s stipends77. From these records, we can get a clear picture that the expenses of the academy were acquired from the interests generated from the savings deposited into the pawnshop. However, Tang Binggang did not tell us how the initial deposit of 400 taels of silver was acquired, which would be an interesting piece of information for our analysis. A search for relevant donations among the biography of locals in the Jingyang gazetteer did yield us some positive results. In the biographies to the Righteous in Ge Chen’s edition of the gazetteer, we 賈獻策 (n.d.), who donated 400 taels of silver to the Yingzhou Academy as stipend fee (膏火 銀) . We do not find other details about this local man other than the fact that he was also involved in famine relief in 1748. His brother Jia Zhice 賈治策 (n.d.), a National find a record of a local National University Student by the name of Jia Xiance 78 University Student, was also praised for his charitable acts in the Righteous section of the gazetteer79. Another brother of his, Jia Lüece 賈略策 (n.d.) was commended for his act of filial piety in the gazetteer80. This is the only information we can find about the Jia family, but the point to note here is that the initial donations of the 400 taels of silver deposited seemed to have come from Jia Xiance. Oddly, if we return to the Tang Binggang’s edition of the Jingyang gazetteer, we are unable to locate the records of Jia in it. This suggests that the biography of Jia was only added during the compilation of the Ge Chen’s edition, and that Tang Binggang could have overlooked 77 1778 Qianlong Jingyang xianzhi, juan 2 jianzhi, pp.7b-8a. Ibid, juan 8 yixing, p. 10a. 79 Ibid, juan 8 yixing, p. 10a-b. 80 Ibid, p. 45a. 78 76 his contributions. However, as we have seen, Tang was the primary initiator and chief sponsor of the establishment of the academy, how could he not have known the identity of the donor who contributed the 400 taels of silver required for the sustenance the academy? Thus, the omission of the donor’s identity in Tang’s edition of the county gazetteer, suggests that the magistrate could have intentionally do so to maintain his position as the main sponsor in this project. The revelation of an elite’s contributions of such scale and importance would steal the limelight from him, and relegate him into a position of secondary importance in terms of contribution made. To round up this section, the analyses of the two case studies provide us with insights to the collaborative relationship between the local officials and the local elites, newly formed in the Qianlong period. The nature of collaboration was one with the local officials assuming the leadership position, and the elites taking up the supplementary ones. Hence, what we see is that despite the local government’s eagerness to utilize local resources for the accomplishment of projects, they still put in their best efforts to play a major part during the different phases of the projects. In the event where their contributions were overshadowed by the elites, they exploited their rights to the composition of history, to either downplaying the contributions by the local men, or to emphasize their own. In this manner, their leadership positions in the various projects can be securely maintained, at least on paper, so that the accepted mode of collaboration would not be violated. From the elites’ point of view, the willingness of the officials to engage in local help opened a channel for the increasingly active elites to participate in much more varieties of local projects. Yet they are seen to be restricted into supplementary roles, unable to play the anchor roles in most of these collaborations. The lack of ability to lobby for greater representations in the historical records documenting these projects sealed their fate of being the 77 supporting casts in these collaborations. A look at the rest of the collaborations found in the two editions of Qianlong Jingyang gazetteer coincide with this general pattern, resulting in a distinct characteristic in the nature of local activism formed during this period. Conclusion The discussion in the previous sections revealed an intensification of activism among the local elites in many areas of the local scenes in Jingyang, particularly making a breakthrough in their involvements in the category of public works which involved local governmental institutions. Despite their expanding roles in the society, they were not granted unrestricted access to initiate or sponsor these projects. The elites were required to go into collaboration with the local officials, playing second fiddle to them in most of these projects. Studies carried out on the policies of the Qianlong emperor revealed that although he appreciated the local elite’s contribution for local public matters, he firmly maintained the principle that set the supremacy of state over civilian initiatives81. The clear division between civilian and officialdom in Qianlong’s ideology and policy seems to have a major impact in local scenes, and the case studies we carried out in Jingyang revealed a situation whereby the local officials were working closely within this policy. With the approval of the emperor in engaging local assistances, the officials seemed more willing than their predecessor to tap into the local resources for the accomplishment of local projects, but paid careful attention not to violate the principle of maintaining an official supremacy over these 81 Han, Re-Inventing Local Tradition, pp.74-5. 78 projects. In the case of Tang Binggang, we could see that he tried to portray an anchor role on his part even though the majority of works were accomplished by the locals. This no doubt signifies that he working well within the policy, claiming majority of the credits as he described these projects as official-led ones in the records. Hence, much of these participations observed in Jingyang County during this period were not a result arising from the need to fill up the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the state, but rather a result from the effort of a strong central and local government, trying to tap into the local resources. The change in the ideology of the central government, coupled with a resurgence in local activism due to economic recovery led to a new set of state-society relationship developed in this period. What happened when the state power began to decline after the Qianlong period? Were the officials still able to play major roles in Jingyang, or did the local men take over the initiatives in most of the local projects? In the next chapter, we will look the situation of this north China county at the latter half of the Qing to answer these questions. 79 Chapter 4: The Height of Local Activism in Jingyang County during the Latter Half of Qing Dynasty In the previous chapter, we see clear signs in Jingyang County that the local elites were expanding their roles in the social scenes during the Qianlong period. As compared to Jingyang men in the early Qing period, they were much more involved in sponsoring and initiating local projects, making crucial contributions to the county. However, we did not see any indications of a retreat of state influence, as the local officials assigned to Jingyang played major parts in many of the local projects initiated during this period. As such, the conclusion drawn was that the local elites had to cooperate with the officials to gain access to these projects, while settling for supplementary roles in most of the cases surveyed. As we progress beyond the Qianlong period, what happened to this mode of collaboration between the local elites and officials? Scholars have suggested that the weakening and decline of the Qing imperial power began approximately in the early 19th century82. With the decline of state strength, what changes can we see in Jingyang County for the rest of dynasty? Can we expect to see an expansion of a social space allowing for greater local participation as the incapability of the state began to surface and affect the ability of local officials to perform their duties in the county? Will new modes of collaborations between officials and elites be formulated, as the local government find themselves in situations where they desperately require the assistance of local resources? This chapter will attempt to answer these questions, and we will first survey the local projects accomplished respectively by the locals and the officials from the post Jiaqing period to the year 1911. As the time period covered in this chapter is relatively 82 Han, Re-Inventing Local Tradition, pp.1-2, Qin and Han, Shaanxi Tongshi Ming Qing juan, pp224231. 80 longer than the previous chapters, we will select three case studies in our attempt to understand the relationship between the local elites and the officials. The first will be an analysis of the compilation projects of county gazetteers during this period. The next case study we will look at involves the compilation of a market town gazetteer and the restoration of the town’s Local Worthy Shrines by the elites in Luqiao town. Lastly, we will turn our attention to the Wu family of the County, who singlehandedly sponsored the restoration of Temple of Confucius and other crucial buildings after they were destroyed during the Muslims’ rebellion in 1862. With these, we hope to show that local activism hit a new height during this period, and that the locals were no longer restricted to supplementary roles in their cooperative relationship with the officials. Local projects Accomplished during the Second Half of the Qing Dynasty This section of the chapter will be a survey of all the local projects accomplished during the second half of the Qing dynasty by both the local men and the officials respectively. To achieve this task, we will tap into the rich sources of information available from this period—primarily from two editions of county gazetteer, one market town gazetteer, and also from the corpuses of literati writings compiled in the Compendium of Jingyang Literature83. The first of the county 知州銜涇陽縣知縣) gazetteers was compiled in 1842 by the County Magistrate ( 83 1925 Jingyang wenxian congshu Hu 涇陽文獻叢書(Minguo shisi nian ban 民囯十四年版). 81 胡元英 (n.d.), assisted by a number of local literati . The second gazetteer, compiled in 1911, was initiated by magistrate （同知銜涇陽縣知縣） Liu Maoguan 劉懋官 (n.d.), and was credited to local man Zhou Siyi 周斯億 (juren 1879) . The gazetteer of market town Luqiao zhen 魯橋鎮, was compiled by townsman Wang Jie 王介 (n.d.) in 1821, as an effort to commemorate the achievements of the local 84 Yuanying 85 worthies who resided in the town86. With the background of these primary sources noted, we can proceed with our survey, starting with the projects accomplished by Jingyang men back in their hometown. Table 7 summarizes all the local projects initiated or sponsored by Jingyang men in the county from the Jiaqing era to the end of the dynasty. The first impression one gets from looking at the table will be the large number of entries recorded in this table. As compared to Table 5 which portrayed a picture of active elites’ participations in the Qianlong era, we see that the total number of projects completed skyrocketed by about 80% (26- 47). This quantitative increase clearly indicates an intensification of elites’ participation in the public realm. There is an external factor which contributed to this numerical increase—the province-wide Muslim revolution in 1862 which destroyed a large number of buildings in the county. The large number of restoration works needed to rebuild the county gave rise to contribution opportunities for the local elites, especially since the local government was greatly weakened during this period of turmoil. This in turn contributed to the unprecedented number of local projects accomplished by the locals. 84 道光涇陽縣志, in Zhongguo Difang zhi jicheng 中國地方志集成 鳳凰出版社, 2007). 重修涇陽縣志, in Zhongguo Difang zhi jicheng 中國地方志集成 鳳凰出版社, 2007). 涇陽魯橋鎮志, in Zhongguo Difang zhi jicheng 中國地方志集成 江蘇古籍出版社, 1992). 1842 Daoguang Jingyang Xianzhi (Nanjing: Fenghuang Chubanshe 85 1911 Chongxiu Jingyang Xianzhi (Nanjing: Fenghuang Chubanshe 86 1821 Jingyang Luqiao Zhenzhi (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chuban she 82 [Table 7: List of Local Public Matters involving Jingyang Elites in the Latter Half of Qing Dynasty] Date Nature of Local contribution Name of contributor Social status De scription 1797 Famine Relief 1803 Founding of Charitable School Shao Shijie National University Student Donated Grains Nie Lian National University Student Also involved in other local contributions 1813/1829 Famine Relief Zhang Nan Tribute student Various local contributions 1820 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Meng Shenggui et al. Varied Donated 6000 taels each 1820 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Yao Lian unstated Donated 6000 taels 1821 Restoration of Luqiao Local Worthy Shrine Wang Jie unstated 1821 Compilation of Luqiao Market Town Gazetteer Wang Jie unstated 1828-40 Famine Relief Jiao Fuche unstated 1830 Famine Relief/Various Contributions Yao Jiuyu unstated Re marks Also sponsored a charitable school Collaboration project with townsmen Collaboration project with townsmen Various local contributions Also funded the repair of bridges Also sponsored a charitable school 1835 Famine Relief Xu Faji Metropolitan Graduate Donated 20000 taels 1841 Restoration of Siming Tower Liu Lianjie unstated Donated 3000 taels 1842 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Various local elites Varied Collaboration project with Local Official ?-1842 Famine Relief Feng Ou Tribute student by Purchase Also funded the repair of bridges 1847 Famine Relief MadamLiu Wife of Metropolitan Graduate 1862 LocalDefense Zhou Jinglian Government student 1865 Founding of Provincial Examine Association Wu Weiwen Provincial Administration Commissioner 鄉試會館/situated in province capital 1868 Upgrading of City Walls Yao De unstated full sponsorship of project Collaboration project with Magistrate 1868 Upgrading of City Walls Yi Lifang unstated Supervision of project Collaboration project with Magistrate 1869 Founding of Jingyu Academy Yao De and Yao Min unstated full sponsorship of project Donated land 1873/1885 Founding of Weijing Academy Wu Jianxun unstated 1875-1908 Beadhouse Hu Jizu unstated 1876 Upgrading of Weijing Academy Kou Shouxin unstated 1877 Famine Relief Wu Sicheng unstated 1877-8 Famine Relief Wu Jianxun unstated Donated 600 taels 1877-8 Famine Relief Jiang Yingjie Military Student Donated 3800 taels 1877-8 Famine Relief Yao Shuzhi Director Donated 5100 taels 1877-8 Famine Relief Yao Dongtai unstated Donated 4346 taels 1877-8 Famine Relief Yao Min Director Donated 25600 taels Refe re nce 孝友 義行 孝友 建置 義行 序 序 孝友 義行 耆舊 建置 孝友 賢孝 官師 學校 建置 建置 學校 學校 建置 學校 義行 義行 義行 義行 義行 義行 83 Date Nature of Local contribution Name of contributor Social status Description Sole Sponsorship of 40000 taels Remarks 1885 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Madam Zhou of Wu Family Wife of Director 1885 Restoration of Chongsheng Shrine Madam Zhou of Wu Family Wife of Director Her late husband Wu Pin was credited 1885 Restoration of Kuixing Pavilion Madam Zhou of Wu Family Wife of Director Her late husband Wu Pin was credited 1885 Restoration of Shrine of Worthy Official Wu Nianxi Circuit Intendant 1885 Restoration of Shrine of the Loyal and Filial Bo Shen unstated 1885 Restoration of the Cangsheng Shrine Bo Shen unstated Wu Nianxi Circuit Intendant 1885 Restoration of Provincial Examine Association Her Son Wu Nianxi was also credited 鄉試會館 1889 Upgrading of Weijing Academy Zhou Siyi unstated 1890 Restoration of Zhu Yi Pavilion Wu Nianxi Circuit Intendant Added a library 1891 Founding of publishing company Zhou Siyi unstated 1895 Founding of Tugong Shrine Various local elites unstated 1895 Famine Relief Zhou Dao Long Metropolitan Graduate 1896 Founding of Chongshi Academy Zhou Siyi unstated 1897 Restoration of City God Temple Elites from Seventh Society unstated 1910 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Zhou Siyi Provincial Graduate Editor Collaboration project with Local Official ? Restoration of City Gate Zhang Rui National University Student Individual effort North Eastern Gate ? Compilation of Genealogy Zhang Erzhao unstated ? Founding of Charitable School Xu Deng Gui Commoner ? Founding of County Examinee's lodging Zhao Cui unstated 縣考公寓 Converted into police station Contribution by various elites Situated beside Weijing Academy Collaboration with Provincial Education commissioner Reference 秩祀/記 秩祀 秩祀 秩祀 秩祀 秩祀 學校 學校 建置 學校 建置 官師 學校 建置 序 孝友 孝友 義行 學校 84 Looking at Table 7, we can observe from the nature of the projects that there were no longer restrictions to the type of projects in which the local men can contribute. They were able to contribute in different areas such as famine relief, restoration of roads and buildings, founding of academies, as well as compilation of gazetteer. In the case of the compilation of county gazetteer, we can see in this period that huge roles were played by the local elites, from the editorial to the sponsorship. This was unprecedented in the Qing dynasty, as the Jingyang gazetteer compilation had always been undertaken by local officials after Wei Xuezeng’s effort in 1578. We will dissect and analyze these projects later in the chapter. Similar to their predecessor in Qianlong time, the local elites were also able to contribute in the category of public work which involves governmental institution—once out of bound to the local men. These institutions included buildings like the Temple to Confucius, the Local Worthy Shrines, the city walls, as well as the City God temple. Yet unlike their predecessor, the local men no longer need to play supplementary roles in collaborations during the post Qianlong period in order to gain access to these projects. In fact, some of them were able to assume full sponsorship of the restoration projects of these buildings. For example, the restoration of Temple to Confucius in 1820 was accomplished by 3 local men, Meng Shenggui and Yao Lian 孟生桂 (n.d.), his paternal cousin Meng Shenge 孟生萼 (n.d.), 姚濂 (n.d.), with these men donating 6000 taels of silver each 87 . As we had seen in the preceding chapter, the previous effort to restore this temple was in 1764, and it was noted as a collaboration effort with the magistrate taking the lead. This change no doubt signifies that the local elites could operate in the county more freely than ever, as they could contribute in projects regarding the governmental institutions without even getting the officials involved. As such, we can see from the 87 1842 Daoguang Jingyang Xianzhi juan 4 xuegong tu, p.5b. 85 table that there were fewer collaboration projects between the local elites and officials during this period. In these few collaboration projects available, the relationship between the elites and the officials had also changed drastically, and we will use the case studies to help us see that the local elites no longer needed to play supplementary roles in these collaborations. As of now, evidences from the table points us to a new height in localism in Jingyang, with the local elites getting involved more than ever in various aspects of the public scene. The next question that arises is whether the local officials retreated from the local scene during this period. Table 8 puts together all the local projects in Jingyang that involved the officials assigned to this county. It is obvious from this table that the local officials were still very involved in local projects. They were involved in most of the projects that their predecessors engaged in, like the restoration of dams, county office, city walls, temples and compilation of gazetteer. This no doubt signifies that the local officials, despite not being as financially powerful as their predecessor, still have a big role in local scene. However, the data compiled in Table 9 reveal that the local officials in fact played a diminishing role in this period. This table tabulates all the projects accomplished in Jingyang by the locals and the officials over the four period of this study. The ratio of works accomplished by the officials over the works done by the elites was also calculated in order to demonstrate the proportion of works done by both parties. These ratios tell us that in the Qianlong period, the local elites managed for the first time to participate in more local projects than the local officials in the county. As we turn our attention to the last period, it is clear that for every project that the officials participated in, the local elites accomplished about 42% more. This is high compared to the Qianlong period, when the elites only accomplished 30% more than the officials. The difference 86 [Table 8: List of Local Public Works Accomplished by Local Official in the latter Half of Qing Dynasty] Date Nature of Local Contribution Name of Local Official Position Held 1806 Restoration of Dike Wang Gongxiu Magistrate Donations from locals/Long Dong Dike 1816 Restoration of Dike Qin Mei Magistrate Governmental Fundings/Long Dong Dike E Gong New Dike 1821 Opening of Dike Zhu Xun Provincial governor 1821-50 Restoration of City Walls Guo Xiongfei Magistrate 1823 Restoration of Dike Heng Liang Magistrate 1832 Restoration of Examination Hall Mao Youyou Magistrate 1835 Restoration of Bell Tower Jiang Rong County Jailor 1836 Restoration of County Jailor's Office Cai Tianxi County Jailor 1838-41 Restoration of City God Temple Zhou Yingzu Magistrate 1840 Upgrading of County Seat Hu YuanYing Magistrate 1842 CompilaƟon of Local GazeƩeer Hu YuanYing Magistrate 1865 Restoration of City Walls Huang Chuanshen Magistrate 1865 Restoration of Temple to Confucius Huang Chuanshen Magistrate 1865 Restoration of City God Temple Huang Chuanshen Magistrate 1865 Reconstruction of Yingzhou Academy Huang Chuanshen Magistrate 1868 Upgrading of City Walls Shen Gan Magistrate 1869 Reconstruction of County Seat Shen Gan Magistrate 1869 Reconstruction of Yingzhou Academy Ma Lundu Magistrate 1869 RestoraƟon of County Beadhouse Yan Eng Magistrate 1871 Reconstruction of County Academy Zhang Ximing Assistant Instructor 1873 Founding of Weijing Academy Xu Gongzhen Provincial Education commissioner 1889 Reconstruction of County Academy Li Yune Instructor Remarks E Gong New Dike 典史公署 Collaboration project with various local elites Collaboration project with local--Yao De Collaboration project with various local elites Reference 水利 水利 水利 建置 水利 學校 建置 建置 建置 建置 建置 建置 秩祀 學校 建置 建置 學校 建置 建置 學校 建置 87 Date Nature of Local Contribution Name of Local Official Position Held 1890 Reconstruction of Yingzhou Academy Tu Guanjun Magistrate 1893 Reconstruction of County Seat Tu Guanjun Magistrate 1896 Founding of Chongshi Academy Zhao Weixi Provincial Education commissioner 1897 Reconstruction of County Seat Zhang Fengqi Magistrate 1897 Restoration of Bell Tower Zhang Fengqi Magistrate 1899 Restoration of City Walls Zhang Fengqi Magistrate 1900 Restoration of Dike Lei Tianyu Magistrate 1907 Restoration of Si Ming Tower Lei Tianyu Magistrate 1908 Restoration of Dike Yang Yihan Magistrate 1910 Restoration of Dike Liu Maoguan Magistrate 1910 Compilation of Local Gazetteer Liu Maoguan Magistrate Remarks Collaboration project with various local elites Seek donations from local merchants Collaboration project with various local elites Refe re nce 建置 建置 學校 建置 建置 建置 水利 建置 水利 水利 序 88 [Table 9: Breakdown of public projects in Jingyang County for the Ming and Qing Dynasty] Ming Dynasty Qing Dynasty Chenghua to Chongzhen Period Shunzhi to Yongzheng Period Qianlong Period Jiaqing to Xuantong Period Number of Offcial Works (A) 23 21 20 33 Number of Local Elite Works (B) 19 11 26 47 Ratio of A: B 1: 0.82 1: 0.52 1: 1.30 1: 1.42 89 signifies that numerical growth of projects accomplished by the elites and the officials between the two periods was not a proportionate one. The officials might have accomplished more projects than their predecessors, but this growth was not as significant as the growth accounted for in the elites’ participations. All these analyses point us to one conclusion: the new height of local activism achieved by the local elites of Jingyang County in the second half of the dynasty. The increase in number of projects accomplished by the local men was unprecedented; they played bigger roles in the society; they were able to contribute in all the social works available in the county. In contrast, the local officials’ roles in the public realm seemed to have diminished over the period. For the rest of the chapter, we will take a look at several case studies to support this initial impression that we have gotten from this quantitative evaluation of the records tabulated from the primary sources. Jingyang County Gazetteer Compilations in the Latter Half of Qing Dynasty It has been mentioned in the previous chapters that all the gazetteer compilation projects in Jingyang during the Qing dynasty prior to the Jiaqing era was completed by and credited to local officials. Local men could at most get involved in the projects as data collectors, while the two projects during the Qianlong period became purely official prerogative projects. This was a result of the successful imposition of a strict control over the compilation of local gazetteers by the central government, and hence the locals could not even obtain representation in the compilation committee despite being more active in other aspects of the social scene. 90 As we progress into the 19th century, scholarship has identified that there was a retreat of state power from the cultural realm, and the relaxation of the strict policies resulted in an influx of local histories and private writings composed by local elites88. In the case of Jingyang County, the changes in policies did affect the gazetteer compilation projects in the county for the latter half of the dynasty. Local men, for the first time in the dynasty, managed to get themselves involved in the compilation committee of the 縂纂) of this gazetteer was credited Hu 1842 project. As mentioned, the authorship ( Yuanying, who was the magistrate of the County during that year. Other than the magistrate, we can see many Jingyang men in the list of contributors. For examples, 孫念祖 (jinshi 1829) was credited for being the editor (參訂), Meng Shenge, Nie Yun 聶澐 (juren 1837) and Xu Shi 許旹 (n.d.) were noted as coauthors (同修), while nine other local men were commended for their efforts in the collection of data(採輯). What is interesting about this edition of the gazetteer is that local man Sun Nianzu the author decided to make major changes in the style of the compilation as compared 凡例) to the previous editions. It was stated in the general statements of the gazetteer ( why each change was made, exposing along the way the errors made by previous editions in their compilation styles. The author even made an attack on the magistrate Ge Chen as he composed Ge’s biography by saying that the edition of gazetteer which 不合史例) Ge composed did not satisfy the rules of historiography ( 89 . Although the author tried to sound forgiving after the attack, the inclusion of such disrespectful remarks in his biography is revealing. The author was very unsatisfied with the effort by the previous compiler, who in this case was the magistrate. Now, the next question we should ask is: which of the authors from the compilation committee of the 1842 88 89 Han, Re-Inventing Local Tradition, pp.127-154. 1842 Daoguang Jingyang Xianzhi juan 19 minghuan zhuan, p.7b. 91 edition were unsatisfied with the editorial style of the previous versions? Was it magistrate Hu who was discontented with his predecessor’s effort, or was it the local men who could not appreciate the work done by the past official? To answer this question, one would naturally look into the prefaces or postscripts for clues, but strangely, this edition of the Jingyang gazetteer did not include either. This is rather peculiar as the authors of local gazetteer would usually include at least one selfwritten preface to give his readers an overview of the project, especially since such major revamps were made in this edition. The speculation of the absence of the preface is out of the scope of this paper, but we are still stuck with the question of the authorship of this gazetteer. Who dictated the writing process of this gazetteer? What kind of roles did the local men and the official played in this compilation project? In order to get clues to that question, we will have to venture deeper into this edition of the gazetteer by looking at the various biography sections. If we scrutinize the biographies of the Local Worthy, the Filial, and the Righteous and compare them to those recorded in the previous edition of the gazetteer, we will realize that the newly updated biographies in the 1842 versions were dominated by a few surnames. It is not by coincidence that these Jingyang men who got recorded in the county history book were all family members of the local elites who were involved in the compilation of the gazetteer. In fact, we can almost trace the family trees of the Jingyang compilers simply by looking at the biographies in the gazetteer. For example, the editor Sun Nianzu had both his grandfather Sun Jingmi Sun Wei 孫景榓 (n.d.) and father 孫瑋 (n.d.) recorded as righteous men in the biography section 90 . Looking closely at their biographies, there seem to be a lack of justification for their selection. Sun Jingmi was described as an approachable and kind man, who loved to do good 90 1842 Daoguang Jingyang Xianzhi juan 26 yixing zhuan, p.8a. 92 deeds. He was also known to be sincere with others, and taught his descendents to do good deeds and pursue the path of academic. Sun Wei on the other hand was described as an upright person who helped people solve problems enthusiastically. Their biographies were rounded up with the author citing an ongoing discourse which claimed that “the Sun family had many hidden virtues; hence their descendents will surely prosper”. After the quotation, the author noted that Sun Nianzu received a metropolitan degree and this proved that the critics were spot on. From their biographies, we would have realized that the Suns were neither involved in famine relief nor contributing to local projects. No specific contributions were mentioned, unlike the other records of Righteous Locals from the earlier periods. The main concern of the author was simply to include these two persons in the history book and credit them for Sun Nianzu’s success in the civil examination. This sets one to ponder how the biographies would have been composed had Sun Nianzu not managed to gain a degree, or would the two elders even be worth mentioning in the gazetteer if their grandson had not been so successful. Furthermore, if we look at the biography of the Neglected Talents, we do find an entry of a local man by the name of Sun Zhou 孫洲 (n.d.), who was the in fact the son of Sun Nianzu 91. The author of the biography praised Sun Zhou for all his talents and his diligence in studies, and mentioned that the young man passed away before he could make any major achievements. The inclusion of a man who basically had no achievements to his résumé before his passing was rather peculiar, but much like Sun Jingmi and Sun Wei whose contributions were mediocre as compared to other Jingyang Righteous, their inclusions were results of a successful local elite who managed to get into the compilation committee of the gazetteer. Therefore, it is not hard to see that assuming 91 1842 Daoguang Jingyang Xianzhi juan 27 yicai zhuan, p.2a. 93 the role of the editor did allow Sun Nianzu to insert his family history into the county history, indicating that the local elites played significant roles in this compilation of this gazetteer. Other than the editor, the co-authors were similarly able insert the biographies of their ancestors and family members into the various sections of biographies to local men. Much like the case of Sun, we can find co-author Nie Yun’s father, Nie Shaozu 聶紹祖 (n.d.), recorded in the Local Worthy section of the biography 92 . His grandfather, Nie Lian 聶璉 (n.d.) was also praised for his various contributions in the restoration of charity schools and city walls, earning him a place in the records of Righteous man in the gazetteer93. Apart from the editors, the local Jingyang who were involved as data collectors too had representatives of their kinsmen appearing in the biographies. For example Zhang Kui 張葵 (n.d.) had his father Zhang Wusong 張五 松 (n.d.) recorded in the filial section of the biographies, while another eight of his kinsmen had their own biographies included in the various sections of the gazetteer. These are just some of the hard evidences showing how the various members of the gazetteer compilation committee managed to get their ancestors and kinsmen represented in the local history. They in turn suggest that the local elites played major roles in the 1842 compilation of the Jingyang gazetteer. Despite having magistrate Hu named as the chief author, we cannot be exactly sure of the roles he actually played due to the absence of a preface. Therefore, we can only understand this project as a collaboration project between the local official and the local elites, with the local men playing major roles that cannot be deemed as supplementary. To comprehend the actual cooperative relationship between the Jingyang official and Jingyang men in a 92 93 1842 Daoguang Jingyang Xianzhi, juan 21 qilao zhuan, p.7a. Ibid, juan 26 yixing zhuan, pp.7a-b. 94 collaboration project, we can look at the 1911 compilation of the county gazetteer for a better insight. In the credits of the 1911 edition of Jingyang gazetteer, the chief author was noted to be Liu Maoguang, the magistrate in office at Jingyang during that year. 宋伯魯 (1854-1932) was listed as the chief reviewer (總閲 ). Song was a native of Liquan County (醴泉縣 ), the Besides the author, a man by the name of Song Bolu neighboring county of Jingyang. Other than these two outsiders, the rest of the committee was made up of Jingyang men, notably Zhou Siyi, who played a starring role in this compilation. How exactly was the job distributed between the various participants in this compilation project? We can get a clearer idea of it by looking at the two prefaces included at the opening pages of the gazetteer. The first of the two was written by Song Bolu, while the second piece was written by Zhou Siyi. Song’s preface informs us that magistrate Liu was assigned to the county on 1911, and upon arriving, planned and initiated the compilation of the county gazetteer. Liu assigned 編輯) and Jia Yaoxun 賈兆勳 (n.d.) as his assistant, while Zhou Siyi as the editor ( Song himself was invited to compose the guidelines of the gazetteer due to his experiences as a Junior Compiler in the Hanlin Academy. If we turn to Zhou’s preface, we can see in much greater detail the job division between each contributor. Zhou told us that for the fifty years after the 1862 Muslim’s rebellion, the local gentlemen and officials had always wanted to compile a new gazetteer, but the project was never completed due to a lack of funds. When Liu was assigned to Jingyang in 1911, he immediately tasked Zhou with the editorial role for the gazetteer upon his arrival. He also gathered ten other local gentlemen and elders to discuss the issue, and all of them agreed to assist. Zhou went on to inform us that Song Bolu was invited to compose the essential guidelines for the gazetteer, while local men Jia Yaoxun and Zhang 95 張元熙 (n.d.) were assigned to come up with ideas for the gazetteer. Zhou also mentioned that Yao Jinyuan 姚金元 (n.d.) and other Jingyang men were involved as data collectors, while Liu Wencai 劉文彩 (n.d.) and Zhu Hanzhang 褚漢章 (n.d.) Yuanxi were entrusted with the donations which were to be spent on the gazetteer. There is also a list of donors included on the final page of the gazetteer, and a quick look at it reveals that all the donations came from individuals, families, and even merchant guilds from Jingyang. None of the funds came from the government budget. From all these information, it is not hard to see that the compilation of the 1911 gazetteer was basically completed by the local men. The only role that the magistrate played was to initiate the project and assign the various elites to their respective tasks. Even Song Bolu from the neighboring county played a bigger part in the project than the magistrate. Furthermore, it is puzzling why there was no preface written by the magistrate if he was indeed the chief author of the project. Did he not want to catch the readers’ attention to the contributions he had made in the compilation project? Hence, all the evidences suggest that the project was initiated, sponsored, and completed by the local elites. The credit of the authorship went to the magistrate either out of respect for the authority or simply as a way to gain official recognition for elites’ work. The cooperative relationship between the local elites and the local officials had therefore evolved to one whereby the local official was included functionally to provide the project with an official endorsement and recognition. This situation was pretty similar to the gazetteer compilation project in Jingyang County during the late Ming period (see chapter 1), whereby local elite Wei Xuezeng had to credit magistrate Fu for inviting him to compile the county gazetteer. The only difference in the late Qing project was that instead of seeing one local man taking all the credits for the project, we can observe that many powerful and 96 successful families in the county were well-represented in the compilation committee. The various positions in the committee in turn allowed them to get their kinsmen well-represented in the local history. This no doubt indicates that the Jingyang families, by the end of the Qing dynasty, were relatively more locally orientated, seeking to enlarge their roles in the local scenes and boast their achievements in the local history. If there indeed was a case whereby there were many locally orientated families and elites rising in this period, what happened to the relatively less powerful ones? The limited positions in the committee as well as the limited space in the gazetteer could not have accommodated all of their desires to exhibit their family histories in the county gazetteer. How did these lesser families in Jingyang County strategize to gain recognition locally? We will move on to a discussion of the compilation of a town gazetteer by the elites from Lu Qiao town, with the aim of demonstrating how the other elites in the county tried to compose their own version of local history which greatly amplified their lineages. Their collaborations with local officials will also be analyzed as we continue with our understanding of the working relationships between the local officials and the local elites in local projects accomplished during this period. Wang Jie and the Compilation of Luqiao Town Gazetteer Luqiao town is located in the Northeastern corner of Jingyang, inhibited by three major families by the surnames of Wang, Zhang and Zhao. The Wang families residing in the town during the 19th century were the descendents of Ming loyalist, Wang Zheng, a character whom we had looked at in chapter 1. On the other hand, the 97 Zhang families were descendents of Zhang Bingxuan 張炳璿 (n.d.), who was the maternal cousin of Wang Zheng. As for the Zhao families, they were the descendent of Zhao Siqi 趙思齊 (juren 1618), a man who worked closely with Wang Zheng in the organization of local defense to solve the banditry problems in the county during the late Ming period. This basically means that the three families in the town were all descendents of well-known Jingyang elites, and that these three families were closely related. The series of local projects that we will look into was initiated by Wang Jie in 1810 and completed in 1821. Wang was a Government Student but did not succeed academically. However, as a local literatus, Wang was very active in the local scenes, accomplishing a series of projects which also included the compilation of his family genealogy. The project in 1810 sparked off when Wang decided to restore the Local Worthy shrines of Luqiao town, which had been converted into a local temple for the 聖母/真人). Wang mentioned in his worship of “Holy Mother” and “Perfected One” ( self-written inscriptions that he was very dissatisfied with the conversion of the shrines into a temple of “excessive worship”, and felt strongly that the locals could only benefit if the temple was restored to the proper worship of local ancestors. He then gathered the local gentlemen, planned and began to seek for donations for the project, with Wang making a big donation to instate himself as the major sponsor of the project. Eventually, it was decided that the various shrines were to be placed together with the two deities, with the Local Worthy and the Famous Official shrines to be placed alongside “Perfected One” in the Eastern Hall; the Chaste as well as the Filial and Virtuous shrines to be placed alongside “Holy Mother” on the Western Hall94. Wang mentioned that the conversion of the shrines into the worship of the two deities had a long history, and that the temple attracted a great number of local 94 1821 Jingyang Luqiao Zhenzhi yiwen zhi, pp.3a-10a. 98 worshippers. The popularity of the local deities seemed to be the reason why Wang Jie decided not to replace them with the Local Worthy shrines, as it would surely incur the wrath of the townsmen had he done so. Upon the completion of the restoration project, Wang Jie, with the help of a few local gentlemen, decided to compile a Luqiao town gazetteer, which could also function as a record for documenting the names and identities of local worthies who were being worshipped in the newly completed shrines. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the compilation committee were made up of men with surnames Wang, Zhang or Zhao, with one exception of a man by the name of Yang Peiji 楊培基 (jinshi 1818). Yang, a native of Luqiao town, was the first of his family to have major achievements in the examinations, and was the man with the highest qualification at the time of the gazetteer compilation. Yang, together with two other Provincial Graduates from the Wang and Zhao families, led the petition for official endorsement of the gazetteer upon completion, an event which we will return to shortly. We will first take a look at the name list of the local worthies in order to get a clearer picture of the nature of these two projects. According to the Luqiao town gazetteer, there were 50 persons honored in the temple. Of the 50, 6 were categorized as Famous Officials ( 名宦 ), 24 were （鄉賢）, while another 20 females were commended for being either chaste (節烈) or being virtuous and filial (賢孝). Scrutinizing the categorized as Local Worthies biography entries for each of these honored townsmen, it is not hard to observe that a vast majority of them are members of the three major lineages of the town. Putting the officials who were outsiders aside, a massive 16 out of the 24 local worthies were from these lineages, with nine of them being the ancestors of the Wang family, three 99 from the Zhao family, and four from the Zhang family. As for the female ancestors being honored, a total of 13 out of the 20 were from the three lineages. These figures revealed that the construction of the shrine was part of the three lineages’ efforts to get their ancestors recognized and honored locally. If they could not do so at a county level, they switched their attentions to the sub-county level, where they could utilize their resources to promote their family histories on the local scenes. As mentioned previously, the fact that Wang Jie had initially wanted to abolish the local deities but eventually opted not to do so, suggests that local worshippers might not have welcomed this project. Their pressures successfully altered the elites’ decisions but could not stop the elites from setting their ancestors up for worship alongside the deities. The Luqiao town gazetteer played a similar function to the shrines in the sense that it allowed a space for the members of the three lineages to honor their ancestors’ achievements, and superscribe their family histories onto the town’s history. This is comparable to the compilation of the two editions of Jingyang gazetteer which we had looked at in the previous section, whereby the elites from the various major lineages were able to send representatives into the compilation committee and enable their ancestors to get recognition in the history of the county. The efforts of Wang Jie and the elites from Jingyang County reveal two phenomenons in the 19th century Jingyang County. Firstly, there were relatively more elites and families who were concerned with their positions in the local scenes as they seek to strategize locally in the face of a state retreat from the social and cultural realm. Secondly, as the number of families who chose to strategize locally expanded rapidly, the lesser families who could not compete with the more powerful ones, could turn and concentrate on a sub-county level, where they could engaged in projects which could achieve similar functions on a smaller scale. However, were these sub-county level projects recognized by the state? 100 What roles did the local officials played in these projects? The Luqiao town gazetteer left us with some evidences which can help us understand the officials’ involvements in these series of projects. First of all, there is a joint letter written by the town elites to request an official inscription for their newly completed shrines. The authors included a metropolitan 王肯构 (juren 1804) and Zhao Shitong 赵士桐 (juren 1819), tribute student Wang Kenbou 王肯播 (n.d.) and government students Wang Zhebi 王者苾 (n.d.) and Zhao Yidai 赵翼戴 degree holder Yang Peiji, provincial degree holders Wang Kengou (n.d.). This letter basically tells us about the origins of the project, and how the shrines were restored under the leadership of Wang Jie. It also reported all the names and deeds of the worthies included in the shrines and formally requested for an inscription to get their shrines endorsed officially. The approvals were also included at the end of the letter, which reported that the Provincial Education Commissioner 覺儸德 (n.d.) approved this request on the twenty fifth day of the tenth month in 1820, and that the Jingyang county magistrate Qin Mei 秦梅 (n.d.) also Jueluo De approved it on the twentieth day of the twelfth month in the same year. It was a law during the Qianlong period that newly compiled gazetteer required the review and approval from the Provincial Education Commissioner prior to publication 95 . Although this rule was not strictly abided after the relaxation of the policy in Jiaqing period, compilations can still obtain official reorganization through this channel. After giving the approval, Jueluo De personally composed the inscription for the shrines, and it was included in the town gazetteer. Jueluo first noted the importance of praising moral behaviors, and that it was his duty as a provincial education commissioner to do 95 Han, Re-Inventing Local Tradition, pp.99-101. 101 so. He followed on by giving us an overview of the restoration project, and claimed that he was impressed by the large number of worthies in which this small locality could produce. He finished off by saying that he hoped that the people of Luqiao town could upkeep these shrines forever to educate their descendents about the importance of morally upright behaviors and that people from the province could follow their examples to remove the excessive worship and worship the uprights. Other than the inscription, we can also see a preface written by magistrate Qin for the gazetteer, which basically also praised the efforts of the Luqiao townsmen for being able to honor their past worthies and educate their descendents. The impression a reader gets from these sources is one whereby the elites from Luqiao town were eager to work with the officials in order to get acknowledgements and endorsements from them. The elites understood the importance of getting endorsements for these projects, as these projects functioned to define and differentiate a set of local identities apart from the officially accepted ones, which originally existed on a county level. On the other hand, the regional and local officials were seen to have welcomed the townsmen’s’ effort as they believed that these projects were able to inculcate morally upright behaviors among the mass. We would have realized by now that the roles in which the officials played were minimal. There was not even a formal request put forward by the Luqiao elites prior to the commencement of the project. We also saw that all the funding for both the gazetteer and the shrines were contributed by the elites, revealing that no governmental funds were utilized. All this points us to the marginal role which the officials played: a role which required them simply to endorse the projects. Using this case study as a cross-reference to the compilation of county gazetteers analyzed in the previous section, we can be much more confident to conclude that the roles the magistrates played were simply to give the Jingyang gazetteer the much needed 102 official endorsements. This situation was a stark contrast to the situation in the Qianlong period, where the officials played major roles in most of the projects that took place in the county. If we move beyond the gazetteer compilation projects, can we see the same trend in the other local projects that commenced in the county during the latter half of the Qing dynasty? We will turn our attention to the efforts of the Wu family in 1885, where the family successfully sponsored the restoration of several key institutions which were destroyed in the rebellion in 1862. The Wu family and the Restoration of Temple to Confucius The first member of the Wu family recorded in the gazetteer was Wu Weiwen 吳蔚文 (n.d.). He was rewarded with the rank of Provincial Administration Commissioner ( 議敍布政使銜 ) for his donations made to the government in the Xianfeng period (1851-1862). When he returned to his hometown, he was known to have contributed in the founding of charity schools and the Jingyang Examinee 涇陽鄉試會館), which was situated in the provincial capital, as well as provided reliefs in time of famine. His son, Wu Pin 吳聘 (n.d.) was also known to be rewarded with the rank of Director (議敍郎中) after making a donation of 22,000 Association ( taels of silver in 1877 for famine relief96. However, it was mentioned in Wu Pin’s wife, Madam Zhou’s biography that Wu Pin passed away at a young age, 10 days after his wedding with Zhou. The family adopted Wu Pin’s nephew, Wu Nianxi 吳念昔 (n.d.) to carry on his family line, and it was Wu Nianxi and Madam Zhou who 96 1911 Chongxiu Jingyang Xianzhi juan 12 guanshi, pp. 5.7a. 103 accomplished the series of restorations projects as an act of fulfilling Wu Pin’s wishes. For their contributions, Madam Zhou was eventually honored as first class dame- 一品夫人), while Wu Nianxi was rewarded with the position of Circuit Intendant (道員) . consort ( 97 So, what contributions were made by the Wus? It was mentioned in the gazetteer that the Temple to Confucius was destroyed in the 1862 Muslim’s rebellion, and it was only in 1885 that it was fully restored. The restoration was credited to Madam Wu, who came up with 40,000 taels of silver, and it was also mentioned that the Jingyang magistrate, Tu Guanjun 凃官俊 (n.d.) wrote an inscription to commemorate this project 98 . Aside from the Temple to Confucius, it was also mentioned that the Famous Official Shrine was restored by Wu Nianxi in the same 崇 year99. Other than these, the gazetteer also informs us that the Chongsheng Shrine ( 聖祠) and the Kuixing Pavilion (魁星樓) were also restored in 1885, both credited to Wu Pin. As mentioned previously, Wu Pin passed away 10 days after his marriage, and Wu Nianxi was actually his adopted son. Since Wu Nianxi was already active in the local scenes during 1885, it is not hard to imagine that these two buildings were only nominally sponsored by Wu Pin in order to honor him, with the cash coming from his family. If we could recall, the establishment of Chongsheng shrine had always been an official- sponsored project, while Kuixing pavilion was founded by magistrate Wang Jiyou. The fact that the restorations of these buildings were accomplished by the local elites during this period suggests that the local men were getting involved in local projects more than their predecessors were able to. 97 1911Chongxiu Jingyang Xianzhi, juan 15 xianxiao, pp.10a-b. Ibid, juan 5 zhisi, pp.1a-b. 99 Ibid, p3a. 98 104 The next question that arises is the involvement of local officials in these projects. As we had seen, the gazetteer mentioned that Magistrate Tu wrote an inscription to commemorate the restoration of the Temple to Confucius, but we cannot find this literature in the gazetteer. However, we are fortunate to locate this inscription in the Collection of Jingyang Literature compiled in 1925 100 . In the inscription, Magistrate Tu started off by telling the readers about the sorry state of the Temple to Confucius when he first arrived at the county. He felt that this was very inappropriate for a famous county like Jingyang, and visited the Jingyang people to propose a restoration project to the temple. However, he found out that the project would require a huge funding, and with the financial ability of the people still yet to be fully recovered, the plans was not carried out. Tu then reveal that Madam Zhou, together with her son, sought for audience, and volunteered to sponsor the project fully in order to fulfill the wishes of her father-in-law and late husband. Magistrate Tu also specially mentioned that no governmental funds were used. The project commenced in 1885, and was completed in 1890, using a grand total of 40,780 taels of silver. The inscription also highlighted that the Wus concurrently sponsored the restoration of the other buildings, which included the Chongsheng Shrine, Kuixing Pavilion and Famous Official Shrine. Finally, the inscription ended with the magistrate praising the Wu family, and stating the importance of their contributions, as he felt that the newly renovated Temple to Confucius would surely bring benefits to the locals. It is clear from Magistrate Tu’s inscription that the series of restoration projects were accomplished entirely by the Wu family. The main role that the magistrate played was his effort to initiate the project. However, the fact that Tu did not utilize government funds but went straight to the local men in search of sponsors 100 1925 Jingyang Wencun Waipian 33b. 涇陽文存外篇 in idem, Jingyang wenxian congshu, juan 4, pp. 32105 suggests that the local government was running on a limited budget. This lack of financial ability greatly handicapped the local official’s ability to accomplish local projects, hence giving us a clue as to why there were so more elites’ involvements in the category of projects which used to be official prerogative in this period. Yet, we have also seen from the inscription that the magistrate was portrayed as possessing the authority to approve the commencement of the restorations: even if Madam Zhou and Wu Nianxi had the financial ability, they had to seek audience to the magistrate and make a formal request before they can begin restoration work on the institutions. This indicates that the local officials were never excluded in these local projects despite playing only marginal roles, while the local elites on the other hand were also not guaranteed access to all the projects. Lastly, the existence of the inscription written by the magistrate signifies that official endorsements were deemed important during the period, as Wu Nianxi did not compose the inscription himself despite sponsoring the entire project. The need for official endorsement for these series of projects was similar to that of the compilation of Luqiao gazetteer and restoration of the various shrines in Luqiao, where elites were keen to invite and cite the involvements of local officials in order to demonstrate state recognition in their projects. In conclusion, although the Wu family could sponsor the entire restoration of the various institutions in the county, we could still see that the local official appeared to have played certain parts in projects. Yet, these parts, as we had seen, were mostly nominal involvements. Much like the other projects in Jingyang during these periods, the officials’ involvements were limited to initiation, granting of approvals and endorsement of projects. These marginal involvements no doubt signify a change of cooperative relationship between the local officials and local elites in local projects, a change 106 which could also reveal the new height of localism achieved by the Jingyang elites during the latter half of the Qing dynasty. Conclusion In sum, we can see that local activism hit a new height in Jingyang County during the second half of the Qing dynasty. In this period, we could not only see the withdrawal of state influences from the various aspects in local scenes, but could also see that the local officials were seriously handicapped by a lack of financial ability. Like in the case of the 1911 Jingyang gazetteer compilation and the case of the restoration of the Temple to Confucius, we saw that the officials had to approach the elites for assistance in the completion of these projects. On the other hand, we could see that the elites were much more active in local scenes during this period, accomplishing more local projects than any period before this. The localist tendency among Jingyang men was also reflected on the gazetteer compilation projects where we saw many locally orientated Jingyang elites tried to have their ancestors honored in the local history book. The competition for the limited space to superscribe their families’ histories onto the county history between an increasing numbers of locally orientated Jingyang families was bound to leave some of them disappointed. These lesser families, as we had seen in the case of the Wangs in Luqiao town, turned their attentions to a sub-county level where they could also fulfill their localist ambitions. Other than gazetteer compilations, we also saw that the elites were able to sponsor the restoration of some of the important institutions in the county, like the Temple to Confucius and Local Worthy Shrine. This category of projects was once out of bound 107 to the elites, and the local men were only given permission to participate in them as supplementary contributions in the Qianlong period. This changed in the latter half of the dynasty, where the elites could assume anchor roles in these projects, while the officials could only play nominal ones like the granting of permissions to commence projects and endorsing the completed ones. The evolution of the cooperative relationship between the elites and officials confirms the observations that local activism had hit a new height in Jingyang County during this period. 108 Conclusion From this study, one point that can be clearly observed is the fluidity of statesociety relationships. At the beginning of the thesis, we highlighted the importance of investigating the intricate changes of state-society relationships across relatively shorter periods of time. Our study differentiated four significant periods in the MingQing dynasties and each revealed a unique set of state-society relations, pattern of official-elite collaborations, and nature of local activism, all of which were highly distinguishable from each other. In the first chapter, we looked at the latter half of the Ming dynasty and saw an emergence of an autonomous social space in Jingyang County, which was a result of a decline in imperial power. This space allowed for an intensification of elite activism in the local scenes—local men were given more freedom to contribute to various local projects, and were seen to be much more active than their predecessors in the first half of the dynasty. However, as we looked into the details of the local projects which were accomplished during this period, it was apparent that the local elites were never granted unlimited participation in local affairs; the local officials assigned to this county never retreated from the local scenes. A category of public works involving the construction and restoration of governmental institutions could only be undertaken by the officials and was totally out of bound to the elites. Even towards the final days of the Ming dynasty, the Jingyang officials could still initiate and sponsor constructions on these institutions, completing these projects without the aid of local elites. In the other projects, the local elites faced different restrictions. They were either limited to supplementary roles, or often found themselves needing to credit the local officials in order to get their projects endorsed. This no doubt reveals that the legitimacy which the local officials possessed in these 109 projects was still very much respected by the local men. These discussions should also alert us to the dominant and important roles played by the Ming officials in the local societies of northwestern China. As the Qing replaced the Ming in 1644, the general situation changed drastically in the region, resulting in a shift in the balance of state-society relationship. We took a look at the local activities that took place during the early Qing period and observed that there was a sharp drop in the number of projects accomplished by the elites. Two reasons were suggested to account for this drop in the level of local activism. First, we looked at the intensification of local official’s activism, and argued that the drop was due to the expansion of officials’ role in the public scene, which resulted in the contraction of the space available for the local men. Eager to perform and impress the new government, the officials took over the initiative of many local projects, leaving lesser projects available for the local men. As this reason could not fully account for the sharp drop in local elite activism, we suggested that the poor economic climate resulting from the political rupture was the second reason behind this decrease in local activism. Some of the most powerful families were also seen to be seriously affected, limiting their financial ability to contribute in public matters. Hence, they were not able to participate actively in the social scenes, even if the space was provided for them to do so. The social space and the local elite activism that emerged during the mid-Ming had vanished altogether, giving rise to a situation whereby the public scenes were run almost entirely by the local officials. As the economic of the region recovered gradually, the local men regained their financial abilities and rekindled their interest in make local contributions. However, the active local officials assigned to this county, backed by a strong central government, had dominated the local scenes since the turn of the dynasty. In the third 110 chapter, we looked at how this situation unfolded under the specific historical circumstances of the Qianlong period. A look at the local projects accomplished during this period points us to a resurgence of local activism among Jingyang elite, and noticeably, they made a breakthrough and managed to engage in the category of public works which involved local governmental institutions. This change in the nature of projects engaged by local men was a major one, as the category of projects was deemed highly important by the local officials, and thus was strictly out of bound to the elites previously. As we looked closer into a series of projects accomplished during this period, we realized that the local men were given a place in these projects because the local government was keen to implement the Qianlong emperor’s policies, which encouraged the local officials to proactively tap into local resources. As demonstrated in the case study of Tang Binggang, the local official welcomed elite’s participation and was eager to collaborate with the local men. However, the nature of the collaboration was an unbalanced one, as the magistrate made conscious efforts to maintain his supremacy over the locals, projecting himself as the main sponsor and initiator of the projects. On the other hand, the elites could only play supplementary roles in these collaborations regardless of the actual amount of money and effort they contributed. These collaborations revealed that the local activism observed in Jingyang County during this period were not a result arising from the local elite filling up the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the state, but rather a result of the effort of a strong central and local government who tried to tap into the local resources. As the imperial power of the Qing empire began to decline after the Qianlong period, the situation took another drastic change. Looking at the second half of the Qing dynasty, we observed in the final chapter that local activism hit a new height in this period. Not only did the total number of local contributions by Jingyang men rise 111 to a new high, all the restrictions on the type of projects which they could contribute in had been lifted. This strongly suggested a withdrawal of the state. Although the number of projects accomplished by the local officials during this period remained relatively constant, our case studies however revealed that the local officials’ involvements in these projects were mostly collaborations with local men, and in most cases only played nominal roles in these projects. This is a stark contrast to the situation in the Qianlong period, where the balance of the collaborations was seen to tilt in the officials’ favor. The contraction of the officials’ role into a mainly nominal one in the latter half of the dynasty was brought about by their lack of financial ability, as we had seen them searching desperately for local assistance in the accomplishment of many local projects during this period. The decline of the Qing state clearly affected the officials’ ability to maintain dominance in the public scenes. From these four chapters, we saw that many changes occurred in Jingyang over the span of the two dynasties. Throughout the four periods, the intensity of local elites’ participation in public matters was always changing, the social space available for local men to operate in was always transforming, the types of local projects which the elites could engaged in was also changing, and the nature of their collaborations with officials was frequently altering. All these changes highlighted the fluidity of state-society relations, and it is this fluidity that makes the study of shorter historical periods essential. Hence, although it is important to observe changes from a broader perspective in the study of local history (for example the Song-Yuan-Ming transitions), we should always pay close attention to these intricate changes across shorter time periods which could greatly alter the state-society relationship at a particular locality. 112 This study also highlighted the different roles played by local officials assigned to this county in different periods. It should be apparent by now that Jingyang officials were key actors in the social scenes. In fact, in three of the four periods, we saw that the local officials were playing dominant roles. Even as the imperial era was coming to an end, the local officials who were financially incapable still commanded certain respect among the local elites; they never retreated from the local scenes in any of the periods treated in this study. Therefore, in no way should state representatives be neglected in any discussion regarding state-society relationships, and we hope that more attention can be put into examining the role of the local government in future historical studies of localities. Lastly, our case study on Jingyang had revealed the state society relationship in a county located in northwestern region of China during the late imperial period. Previous studies done on this region had neither provided us with detailed understanding on how the state-society relationships changed over the course of the Ming and Qing dynasties, nor allowed us to see the state’s relationship with the lower level localities in this area. With this investigation of a relatively typical county, the understanding on this region was enhanced. The outstanding feature observed was the dominant roles played by local officials in the various aspects of the social scenes. However, we will have to reserve our comment on the uniqueness of this characteristic until more studies focusing on local government in other localities are done. 113 Bibliography Beattie, Hilary J., Land and Lineage in China: A Study of T’ung-Ch’eng County, Anhwei, in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. 柏坤, Jingyang wenxian congshu xiangzhen zhi zhuanji 涇陽文獻叢書·鄉 鎮志專輯, Vol. 28. Minguo shisi nian ban 民囯十四年版. 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Nanjing 南京: Jiangsu guji chuban she 江蘇古籍 出版社, 1992. Wang, Jiyou 王際有, Jingyang xianzhi 涇陽县志 . Kangxi jiu nian keben 康熙九年 刻本. Wang, Zheng 王徵, and Zhiqin Li 李之勤, ed., Wang Zheng Yizhu 王徵遺著. Xi’an 西安: Shaanxi Renmin chuban she 陝西人民出版社, 1987. Song, Boyin nianpu 116 [...]... with Jingyang men in different periods, we hope to bring awareness that local officials in fact played significant roles in local societies, at least in the region of our concern Therefore, it would be inappropriate to study state- society relationships and local activism in isolation of these state representatives, and we hope that this study can bring more attention to this aspect in the field of local. .. of Letters Within the Passes, pp 132-202 Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China , pp.15-25 28 Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen 27 13 opportunities for the elites to operate at the local level Did the elites capitalize this space and increase their participations in local matters? Can an intensification of local activism be observed during this period? Using Ong’s framework,... local identity that was formed among Jinhua men between the Song and the Ming24, while Ong emphasized the changes of state and society relationships in Guanzhong across three periods from the Song to Qing, without making detailed division and differentiation to the Ming-Qing dynasties in his discussion25 Our study hopes to highlight that even within a period of less than a hundred years, the statesociety... fluctuated; the types of local projects local men engaged in varied These intricate changes should not be overlooked, and our study on the local projects accomplished in the various periods should alert us to the 24 25 Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China Ong, Men of Letters Within the Passes, pp 132-202 11 significance of investigating the transition of state- society relations... of localism was taking place in Jingyang, and the second is that his involvements happened to be of the same category of public work where the local officials also participated actively in Hence, a closer look at the compilation of local gazetteers and water works in Jingyang County might in fact reveal the relations between local officials and local elites in the field of public works 36 1670 Jingyang... the field of local works during the mid-Ming era, how was it like towards the end of the dynasty? Can the state with declining power maintain its superiority over the elites? With this, we turn our attention to the case of Wang Zheng, who involved himself in the local defense, a local project in the category which also involved the participation of local officials 31 Local Defense in Jingyang: Case... second point to this study: the investigation of the roles played by local officials assigned to this county in different periods The interactions between the state and the local societies involved two parties: local officials and local elites However, in most of the recent local history studies, the spotlight was shone on the local elites Scholars were eager to understand the formation of their local. .. strong local identity does not automatically pair up with his preference for a space for unofficial initiatives.29 Hence, in order to fully analyze the relationship between the state and the local society during the latter half of the Ming dynasty, there is a need to look deeper into the social sphere This is the main aim of this chapter, and keeping in mind that the Guanzhong identity was already in. .. period in the Qing dynasty, which will be discussed further in Chapter 3 In order to detect the change in the intensity of local activism, two types of sources will be used: local gazetteers and the writings of local elites The records found in the county gazetteer can be particularly valuable as we began our study by examining the distribution of elite’s participation in public matters throughout Ming... charitable estates, schools and benevolent societies are all accounted for in this table We can see at a glance that a vast majority of the events took place after the 1480s Keeping in mind that the Ming dynasty was founded in 1368, it is especially striking that in the first hundred year of the Ming dynasty, the local elites in Jingyang County were seemingly not engaging themselves in any local contributions ... Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China, ” Late Imperial China Vol.24 no.2, 2003, pp.1-50 13 Anne Gerritsen, Ji'an Literati and the Local in Song-Yuan-Ming China (Leiden:... understand the relationships between the state and the local society in a “common” north China county, precautions were taken to avoid picking a locality which was exceptionally outstanding in producing... a distinct change in state3 8 society relationship in the northwest region of China the latter half of the Ming dynasty However, this intensification of local activism did not give the local elites