ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book suggests the deep realm of local community that dominated existence in the Qing. The relationships and the violence that could be found there mattered, and matters. The local order and authority outlived the Qing, although they would be severely tested and stained by successive waves of war and mass violence, as well as their attendant miseries such as famine, disease, and displacement. Without the information or interest to consistently intervene in local affairs, the Qing left things to the locals to sort out, and they largely did so. Local forms of authority in Ba County churned on despite the Qing’s apparent deterioration. The Qing empire’s population swelled over time, more than tripling the Ming’s population and exceeding 400 million by the mid-nineteenth century, yet the number of local government officials remained basically static.
