The Art of Being Governed : Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China / Michael Szonyi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Szonyi, Michael, author.

Series:

Princeton scholarship online.

Princeton scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

China--Politics and government--1368-1644.

China.

China--History, Military--960-1644.

China--History--Ming dynasty, 1368-1644.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (305 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

An innovative look at how families in Ming dynasty China negotiated military and political obligations to the stateHow did ordinary people in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) deal with the demands of the state? In The Art of Being Governed, Michael Szonyi explores the myriad ways that families fulfilled their obligations to provide a soldier to the army. The complex strategies they developed to manage their responsibilities suggest a new interpretation of an important period in China's history as well as a broader theory of politics.Using previously untapped sources, including lineage genealogies and internal family documents, Szonyi examines how soldiers and their families living on China's southeast coast minimized the costs and maximized the benefits of meeting government demands for manpower. Families that had to provide a soldier for the army set up elaborate rules to ensure their obligation was fulfilled, and to provide incentives for the soldier not to desert his post. People in the system found ways to gain advantages for themselves and their families. For example, naval officers used the military's protection to engage in the very piracy and smuggling they were supposed to suppress. Szonyi demonstrates through firsthand accounts how subjects of the Ming state operated in a space between defiance and compliance, and how paying attention to this middle ground can help us better understand not only Ming China but also other periods and places.Combining traditional scholarship with innovative fieldwork in the villages where descendants of Ming subjects still live, The Art of Being Governed illustrates the ways that arrangements between communities and the state hundreds of years ago have consequences and relevance for how we look at diverse cultures and societies, even today.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Illustrations

Dramatis Familiae

INTRODUCTION: A Father Loses Three Sons to the Army: Everyday Politics in Ming China

PART I. IN THE VILLAGE

CHAPTER 1. A Younger Brother Inherits a Windfall: Conscription, Military Service, and Family Strategies

CHAPTER 2. A Family Reunion Silences a Bully: New Social Relations between Soldiers and Their Kin

PART II. IN THE GUARD

CHAPTER 3. An Officer in Cahoots with Pirates: Coastal Garrisons and Maritime Smuggling

CHAPTER 4. An Officer Founds a School: New Social Relations in the Guards

PART III. IN THE MILITARY COLONY

CHAPTER 5. A Soldier Curses a Clerk: Regulatory Arbitrage Strategies in the Military Colonies

CHAPTER 6. A Temple with Two Gods: Managing Social Relations between Soldier- Farmers and Local Civilians

PART IV. AFTER THE MING

CHAPTER 7. A God Becomes an Ancestor: Post- Ming Legacies of the Military System

CONCLUSION

Acknowledgments

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Illustration Sources

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9781400888887

1400888883

OCLC:

1132668907