ABSTRACT
The Yangzi delta had been the most commercialized area of the country since the Ming (1368-1644). Long-term commercialization of the regional economy brought a series of profound social changes to this area which made the Yangzi delta a highly stratified society characterized by spatial segregation between urban absentee landlords and rural dwelling tenantpeasants. Due to this social structural change, rent collection became increasingly difficult and contentious. Conflicts between these two classes revolving around rent collection dominated the local political scene after the mid-Qing. Disputes and conflicts over rent continued and intensified during the Republican period, and the Yangzi delta became the site of the most intense forms of class struggle between landlords and tenant peasants in the country.
