ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the following issues: the relationship between the garrison system and its political practices and community, status, and resources in local society, that is, the ways in which imperial institutions shaped local society; the Qing inheritance of Ming institutions from the perspective of local society and everyday life and the significance of the garrison system for understanding the history of the Ming and Qing empires. Skirmishes and invasions along the northern frontier were frequent in the mid-Ming, and large swaths of the region were said to have “never enjoyed a single year of peace.” A Community Pact was written in 1522 by Yin Geng of Yuzhou Guard, with a preface by Hao Ming from Yuzhou Subprefecture. Gentry efforts to organize local people to build fortifications changed the patterns of settlement and power structures in the villages. The Li were a military household lineage from Yuzhou Guard.
