ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the Qing tribute grain system from the perspective of the military households and lineages on whom the actual operation of the system relied. The term “tribute grain system” refers to the set of mechanisms or institutions through which tax grain was collected in the provinces and transported to the imperial capital. The importance of the tribute grain system to the Qing state is already well established in the historical literature. In 1812 Xie Shijin was dispatched to the Jiangxi capital of Nanchang to transport tribute grain to the capital region. Scholars generally hold that the tribute grain system in the Qing largely continued the Ming system. The Gannan region lies in southern Jiangxi, on the upper reaches of the Ganjiang River, bordering Fujian, Guangdong, and Hunan. In the early years of the Qing, the new state dissolved most of the Ming garrisons that were not involved in the tribute grain system.
