"Presenting a new approach to the history of Chinese kinship, this book attempts to bridge the gap between anthropological and historical scholarship on the Chinese lineage by considering its development in terms of individual and collective strategies. Based on a wide range of newly available sources such as lineage genealogies and stone inscriptions, as well as oral history and extensive observation of contemporary ritual practice in the field, this work explores the historical development of kinship in villages of the Fuzhou region of southeastern Fujian province.
In the late imperial period (1368-1911), the people of Fuzhou compiled lengthy genealogies, constructed splendid ancestral halls, and performed elaborate collective rituals of ancestral sacrifice, testimony to the importance they attached to organized patrilineal kinship. In their writings on the lineage, members of late imperial elites presented such local behavior as the straightforward expression of universal and eternal principles. In this book, the author shows that kinship in the Fuzhou region was a form of strategic practice that was always flexible and negotiable. In using the concepts and institutions of kinship, individuals and groups redefined them to serve their own purposes, which included dealing with ethnic differentiation, competing for power and status, and formulating effective responses to state policies. Official efforts to promote a neo-Confucian agenda, to register land and population, and to control popular religion drove people to organize themselves on kinship principles and to institutionalize their kinship relationships. Local efforts to turn compliance with official policies, or at least claims of compliance, to local advantage meant that policymakers were continually frustrated. Because kinship was constituted in a complex of representations, it was never stable or fixed, but fluid and multiple. In offering this new perspective on this history of Chinese lineage practices, the author also provides new insights into the nature of cultural integration and state control in traditional Chinese society."

The art of being governed :  everyday politics in late imperial China /  Michael Szonyi.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-290) and index.

Introduction. A Father Loses Three Sons to the Army : Everyday Politics in Ming China --  Part I.  In the Village.  A Younger Brother Inherits a Windfall : Conscription, Military Service, and Family Strategies --  A Family Reunion Silences a Bully : New Social Relations between Soldiers and Their Kin --  Part II.  In the Guard.  An Officer in Cahoots with Pirates : Coastal Garrisons and Maritime Smuggling --  An Officer Founds a School : New Social Relations in the Guards --  Part III.  In the Military Colony.  A Soldier Curses a Clerk : Regulatory Arbitrage Strategies in the Military Colonies --  A Temple with Two Gods : Managing Social Relations between Soldier-Farmers and Local Civilians --  Part IV. After the Ming.  A God Becomes an Ancestor : Post-Ming Legacies of the Military System --  Conclusion.

An innovative look at how families in Ming dynasty China negotiated military and political obligations to the state. How 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.

Read Introduction

Local access dig.pdf. [Szonyi-Art of being governed.pdf]