ABSTRACT
State administration in Ming China extended downward in an organizational pyramid whose apex was the court and whose base was all households. The connecting middle level was the county, where the state appointed a magistrate to administer local affairs on its behalf. 1 The household—county relationship was not unmediated, however, for between these levels the early Ming state elaborated a complex structure of administrative units. This structure consisted of four distinct but interrelated systems, based on earlier precedents but compounded with new elements that the Ming brought into use. The first of these systems subdivided the territorial space of the county into a hierarchy of cantons, townships, and wards. The second system mapped the social terrain by grouping households for census and fiscal purposes into the lijia or hundred-and-tithing system. The third was the baojia or neighbourhood mutual-watch program. Some areas had a fourth system, the xiangyue or rural covenants. These hierarchies stood in parallel with each other and often overlapped, the boundaries of one set of units replicating those of the others. This replication contributed to making these units into a robust and integrated structure of civil administration. The structure continued, with modifications, into the twentieth century, and not all the old boundaries have been lost, even today. Together, these subcounty systems constituted a pyramid of stepped jurisdictions that funnelled resources to the centre and maintained security and surveillance over the people. These systems not only made local administration possible, but endowed the state with a measure of access and efficiency earlier dynasties could not match. Keeping these subcounty units in order was recognized to be a component of good administration, 2 not least because they provided the spatial template for tax collection.
