● UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLICATIONS ON ASIA ● SPONSORED BY THE FAR EASTERN AND RUSSIAN INSTITUTE
萧公 中國郎村 素 THIS BOOK IS A PRODUCT OF THE MODERN CHINESE HISTORY PROJECT RURAL CHINA CARRIED ON BY THE FAR EASTERN AND RUSSIAN INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY Imperial Control in the OF WASHINGTON.MEMBERS OF THE GROUP REPRESENT VARIOUS DISCI- Nineteenth Century BY PLINES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES.THE WORK OF THE PROJ- KUNG-CHUAN HSIAO ECT IS OF A COOPERATIVE NATURE WITH EACH MEMBER ASSISTING THE OTHERS 140CT19613 THROUGH CRITICAL DISCUSSION AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF IDEAS AND MA H6AP0RE◆ 1960 TERIAL.THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR EACH UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS STUDY RESTS WITH THE AUTHOR Seattle
PREFACE tstudy of the ratonale and effect of the ment during the nineteenth century.Owing to the limited availability of relevant information and my desire to bring this study to a close w时ithin a reasona toft均 as well as the rural inhabitants of its outlying regions are not con sidered.I hope,however,that despite the lacunae that remain,the esnltepresn ed here wi Iconvey a tolerably clear impression of m the e pe opulation.No discussion of Chinese his- tory or society can be adequate without taking into account the im pact of the government upon the millions that lived in the villages and he people exhi cularl A eb udy of rural China during this eriod veoof the forces and factor that contributed tthe cline of the imperial system and will perhaps also furnish useful clues ng t 118 opments ter ames rura e eteent centu d th ena observed: e contain a vartety of miscon tions and misin terpretations.The unresolved divergencies in interpretation that abound in some of th ese writings often prove be wildering to the read- er.There is a need for a m e syst日aC,re matter 1960 by the University of Washington Press present stud P Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:50-15803 Printed in the United States of America tem f the
vi Preface Preface inese hi lowest ad [mmore fortate than the his erial system has thus been neglected Ctrothe mhaitan t the that the writers of Chinese documents had anticipated some of our reacted to thatc of con problems and needs.Writers of the n cteenceryoteg iodthempteesofantaliainglnformtiontgoppeg torlcal environment infhu those that came under its sway,I have at- he matt trol and the behav e or less adequate view of the matter but comparable or matching records for aeohidesorperiodsareunavminblcanwther8 Owing partly to an actual dearth of material and partly to the amount of reco even at othe reader with only in this way can the plcture be are not rds towhich Ihad ac the with better defi. p focus to give an acc urate impress ails at laces hut with gans or areas of hazi ch has channeled my efforts into a historical 一amg实 ess at other To eo nsate for this defect and to guard against the following expedtients were sometimes na pro pts or inclusive to.Whenever possible,the localty and time of reality at a given time rather thar with ave tried to scrutinize each tion is indicat the 08 apprais of thee per set of facts fferent angles and in as many different uantity of data mit.And as the full significance of any insti ailing before or after the nineteenth cen was used to help fill some of the inevitable historical and social context,I have ofter Allowance for possible bia with matters that transcend eern or to allude to situatons that extend beyon riod under consideration. unt o officlals in SOURCES to to tone down or to white- esc8r e nineteenth century are rea tigation is not to be dispatched with as little thy.Bow to treat such materi- ments that involved matters of grav ae concerned might ,1he1 ater resr onsibilities than they had to conditions and doings did not as a rule es which furnished a good deal of indispensable in- Officials and scholars who ma iormaion,erewitenofteanthueerebiecri也ri8Co6y likely to repeat generalities these rec and sutrerings o of rural life.More dition pera than to portra over,the s of contributors.The loca abl ster from diverse Chinese the local officials who dictated the actual ectly serve my purpose.It has been said th ually be content w served only in fragments and written by men w ew nothing of the
Preface Preface as too ace to merit re ot their own.They were often inclined to interpret Chinese ways and points to the possibility of om institutions in terms of their own societal background;few of them on was escaped entirely the distorting effects of what may be called "cul. thaoold not be en tural appercept sbe dealing with geographical and re lated matters.Even there the data are too often inadequate and inac Westernitng than io ustng Chineseate curate.In many instances later ecitions of a gazetteer I used information relative to conditions prevailing later than the entries from editions compil nineteenth century when I felt that such information would shed light making nec nd without the reader of the ent to conncompe allor remote localities.a dearth of reliable g. sly there in rural life during the nineteenth century and in the derades of the twentieth do not appear to have been extensive or basic,any Private writings pos longed to the li egment of the t th e error that may result from inferring earler conditions from accounts e therefore similar to of later situations ld not materially affect the accuracy of the pic use of such accounts sparingly rnment documents and compiled and in Writing in a private capacity,they may well have only a few instances titers of pemmert doeu ACKNOWLEDGMENTS necessarily free agues in the Far Eastern and Russian In- the Ur ok part T have avoided using any writing that appears to be +v tybutadto do came my initial hesitanc using doubtful information and having no informati to undertake a challenging task and thus gave me an opportunity to the lesser of the two evils. The ta acquint myself witha field into which I had hitherto hadno more than checking such ma a casual glimpse.They offered me encouragement and advice at all for blases or distortions where these examine the c单s and as a result was often able to nk, were in China to witness happenings and co present the evidence in a more suitable way or formulate the conclu- bave furnished ey cm sions in a more careful manner.I alone,of course,am responsible lands with m the intimate for the shortcomings that still remain I am rge t nd ents with some hm re,being in a strange land where even items and to Giadys of everyday life demanded reflection,they were likely to discern sig- nificant facts that easily escaped the notice of native writers. to Mercedes MacDonald,who udertook the laborious task of checking stance the vivid descriptio the references,quotations,notes,and biblography and prepared the some Western writings would have been regar