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Identifying Realities and Setting Priorities: State Control in Imperial China
Organizer: Jennifer Rudolph, University at Albany, SUNY
Chair: Cong Zhang, University of Virginia
Discussant: Evelyn S. Rawski, University of Pittsburgh
Social theorists and philosophers from Voltaire to Weber to Mao and beyond have portrayed the Chinese State during the imperial period as authoritarian, yet scholars have recognized that the size of imperial China worked against strong centralized control. This panel argues that the long-term success of the Chinese Imperial State had much to do with its ability to adopt effective strategies in coping with areas of flux. By adjusting its priorities and staying responsive to societal realities, the state was able to foster legitimacy and maintain control over a vast and diversified empire. In the first paper, Liu Guanglin demonstrates Song strategies in generating revenue by creating indirect taxes against movable property to support constant war efforts. Zhang Cong then looks at generous governmental policies toward traveling officials during the Song, indicating a state that indulged its political and educated elite in order to retain them. Du Yongtao explores the emergence of zuji (ancestral place) identity in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing as resulting from the interaction between the household registration system of the State and the sojourning practices of society. Finally, Jennifer Rudolph analyzes late Qing Self-Strengthening policies and techniques for integrating Taiwan more fully into the empire due to changing geopolitical realities and the desire to imprint Taiwan with a stronger Chinese identity. Together, the papers demonstrate that the Chinese imperial state effectively, though selectively, countered forces working against central control while responding to societal realities.
The Road to a Sound Fiscal State: Warfare, Taxes and Power in a Period of Turmoil, 900-1000
Guanglin Liu, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong
This paper explores the evolution of state tax administration in tenth-century China, focusing especially on how the state coped with movable property like merchandise in long-distance trade and consumer goods in urban communities. Song (960-1127) fiscal success was the first and most notable instance of state fiscal success in imperial China until the late nineteenth century. However, current research, emphasizing state achievements during the New Policies era (1068-1120) while ignoring the continuity in fiscal policies between the Song and the preceding dynasties, can hardly explain why the Chinese state in the post-Song era failed to increase its tax revenues in relation to an expanding market economy. The formation of Song tax mechanism, which laid the foundation of fiscal success for the Song regime, should be attributed to the interplay between the way the state raised money to wage wars and the expansion of the market economy. Therefore, this paper examines this interplay in historical context and focuses on the early stage of the tax mechanism before and shortly after the Song reunification. It demonstrates how the Chinese state during a period of turmoil was forced to learn how to tax movable property and to negotiate with merchants in order to secure a large amount of indirect taxes, which was then used to maintain mercenary troops.
Smooth and Comfortable Transitions: Song Regulations Governing Official Travelers
Cong Zhang, University of Virginia
Scholars of imperial China have paid much attention to various strategies used by the elite to maintain their dominance in society, ranging from acquiring examination degrees and government positions to consolidating kinship organizations and gaining leadership in local affairs. This paper examines the dynamics of state-elite relations during the Song (960-1279) from the perspective of the state. Through a discussion of strict government statutes for and explicit financial and logistic assistance to official travelers, the paper reveals a state that was exceptionally attentive to the needs of its political and educated elite. Compared to other major dynasties, the Song was more generous in providing material support for its official travelers. The many privileges granted served as a status marker, distinguishing the group from others in transience. The central government also showed flexibility and leniency in policing violations of travel rules. This disjunction between state policies and the realities of official travel does not necessarily signify a state that was unable to enforce its rule. Ample evidence suggests that the regime willingly and deliberately indulged its scholar-officials in return for their support. This phenomenon was especially significant at a time when status was becoming increasingly mobile and the composition and orientation of the elite were undergoing dramatic changes. Along with government-financed lodging facilities, means of transport, and the porters and guards distributed across the empire, the travelers themselves came to symbolize and promote the omni-presence of the imperial state to the general population.
The Rise of zuji Identity: Translocal practice and the State in Ming and Qing China
Yongtao Du, Washburn University
This paper investigates the emergence and popularization of “zuji” (ancestral place) identity in Ming and Qing China. As a term referring to one’s place of origin, “zuji” started to appear in literati writings since the late Ming, and became popularized during the Qing. This process was profoundly shaped by the interaction between the household registration system of the state on the one hand, and the frequent travel and sojourning practices in society on the other. The strict and effective household registration system in the early Ming assigned almost everyone a permanent place identity, which was tied with tax burden, service levy, and participation in the examinations. However, in the midst of increasing travel and sojourning in society that started in the mid-Ming, the state gradually adjusted its household registration system, and issued policies allowing sojourners to re-register in their host places. Late Ming sojourners thus had more than one place of affiliation, referring to their original place of registration as zuji. The early Qing state started to systematically address the problems brought about by the multiplication of place identities in terms of practicing the Rule of Avoidance and administering the civil service examination, and it adopted “zuji” as a formal term in statutes. This adoption normalized the use of the term during the Qing, and greatly contributed to its popularity. The rise of zuji identity illustrates the mutual influences between state control and social practices of travel and sojourning in the formation of place identity in Ming and Qing China.
Claiming the Maritime Border: Qing integration of Taiwan
Jennifer Rudolph, University at Albany, SUNY
Politicians and scholars have debated Taiwan’s identity in terms of place and relationship to the Chinese mainland for far longer than the current arguments over Taiwan’s status as a de facto nation-state or province. During various periods of the Qing dynasty, officials worked to integrate Taiwan more fully into the empire in order to achieve national as well as regional political and economic goals. In the late 1870s and 1880s, during the Self-Strengthening Movement, Qing policies toward integration of Taiwan became more aggressive, as the pressures of Western and Japanese imperialism and the changing geo-political realities surrounding the island became more apparent. By assessing the techniques and policies used by the central and local governments during this period to solidify Taiwan’s place in the Qing Empire and legitimate Qing claims on Taiwan in an age of growing imperialism, this paper determines the scope of the tools and techniques available to the Chinese government in extending the reach of the State to Taiwan. In addition, the paper analyzes the level of success the State had in creating a Chinese place identity and fostering Chinese political legitimacy on the island, allowing for an assessment of Qing state control and power in this transitional border region during the late 19th century, when the Qing government struggled to re-assert its position in the world and the empire.