Territorial-Lineage Organization and State

This collection presents sixteen seminal essays by Zheng Zhenman, one of China’s most influential historians. Zheng examines structural transformations in traditional Chinese society during the late imperial period by studying territorial-lineage organization and local politics in Fujian and Taiwan.

It explores Chinese household structures, lineage systems, popular religion, and local administration during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties as they were experienced in Fujian and Taiwan. Zheng’s work is characterized by his extraordinary, in-depth analysis of locally produced documents, such as genealogies, stone inscriptions, and ritual texts. He gathered these documents over the course of decades of fieldwork. From accounts of lineage-based feuding to histories of local cults that still influence social life today, the essays present a different narrative of Chinese history than received wisdom based on official and elite texts.

This book will appeal to scholars and students of Chinese history and historical anthropology, particularly those focused on the social history and local governance structures of late imperial China.