2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Status System and Social Order in Late Imperial China
| Project/Area Number |
14510383
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Asian history
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
KISHIMOTO Mio The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Dept. of East Asian History and Society, Professor, 大学院人文社会系研究科, 教授 (80126135)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2003
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| Keywords | status system / mean people |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this study was to illuminate the status system of late imperial China from the viewpoint of "the sense of status," which penetrates the various aspects of social life in the Ming-Qing period. The focus of the research was the problem of the distinction between "good people (liang)" and "mean people (jian)". Based on the analyses of various kinds of materials such as memorials, statutes, regulations, local gazetteers, essays, dramas and novels, I argued as follows : (1) The common feature of the people regarded as "mean" (for example, bondservants, entertainers government runners and so on) was that they engaged in service occupations under the firm control of others. (2) The early Ming government tried to confine legal "mean" status to narrow and distinct social groups. (3) In the late Ming period, the increase in the social mobility caused a rapid growth of population engaging in service occupations. (4) The governments of late Ming and early Qing tried to reform status system in order to adapt to this new situation. The status reforms urged by the Yongzheng emperor were aimed at promoting the social mobility as well as monitoring and ordering the social competition by clarifying the line between "good people" and "mean people". (5) The intensification of social competition caused an increase in conflicts between "good people" and "mean people" around the distinction between these two categories. (6) The frequency and seriousness of these conflicts drove Qing officials to make more and more detailed regulations on the distinction between "good" and "mean" peoples.
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