356 Boundaries and Beyond
imperial examinations, for surveillance and social control. Therefore the
local gentry served as mediators between the local district authorities
and the rural people, and played the participatory role of assisting the
formal administration in the management of local society. The local
ofβicials and the rural leaders were interdependent and both had a stake
in maintaining social stability.^23 As commented by Zheng Zhenman,
the governing institution of traditional China was made up of a two-
track system consisting of the “public” and the “private”. It was a dual
administrative structure composed of the state and rural lineages. To
some extent, the governing institution created a condition of indirect rule
and rural autonomy.^24 He goes on to observe:
The development of lineage organization in Ming-Qing times had
gone beyond the barrier of traditional lineage relationships and
added the [complementary] principles of lineage organization
that could adapt adequately to other social relationships. Lineage
organization had, therefore, become more inclusive and βlexible. It
created more possibilities for traditional society to develop. ... The
lineage organization during the Ming-Qing periods can be said to
have encompassed kin, locality and interest-driven relationships.
Characteristically it embodied the plurality of traditional social
structure in China.^25In short, the political ecology of rural society bred elastic cultural traits in
social and political relationships.
Owing to the shortages of production resources, rural society was
also a highly competitive living environment that contributed to violent
clashes between lineages. It was not uncommon for small lineages to be
bullied by the larger, more powerful lineages. For self-protection, the
small lineages would adopt a strategy of forming alliances in their rela-
tions with the larger lineages. In Fujian and Guangdong, to strengthen
their bargaining power, small lineages sharing the same surname could
form themselves into a large lineage by βictitiously declaring that they
shared common ancestry.^26 As reported in some contemporary sources,
- Regarding the roles of local gentry, refer to T’ung-tsu Ch’u, Local Government
in China Under the Ch’ing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962),
ch. 10. - Zheng Zhenman 郑振满, Ming-Qing Fujian jiazu zuzhi yu shehui bianqian 明清
福建家族组织与社会变迁 [Lineage Structure and Social Change in Ming-Qing
Fujian] (Beijing: Sanlian shuju, 2009), p. 4. - Ibid., pp. 208‒9.
- Hu Hsien-chin, The Common Descent Group in China and Its Functions (New
York: Viking Fund, Inc., 1948), p. 10.
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