Late Imperial China

WHAT MADE FOSHAN A TOWN? THE EVOLUTION OF RURAL-URBAN IDENTITIES IN MING-QING CHINA* David Faure Cities and towns appear in the current Chinese social and economic history literature in four non-exclusive, but recognizably discreet, contexts. First, as "central places," they are discussed as nodes in networks through which trade flowed, and the central question in that literature is how open or closed those networks were for the exchange of goods and information.1 Second, as urban centers, they are looked upon as spatial areas that, at least potentially, might give rise to particular lifestyles, and the question raised by this point of view is whether the Chinese city represented a contrast to or a continuum of rural life.2 Third, as foci of merchant activities, they are discussed as points of interaction between the market and the state. The essential question in this context is whether the merchants as a group were capable of standing up to official intervention in the regulation of commerce.3 Fourth, with reference to the rise of a bourgeoisie in the nineteenth and twentieth century, the question has to be asked also why despite a vigorous urban economy in earlier centuries, China did not produce a bourgeoisie of its own prior to the proliferation of Western ideas in its cities, a question that relates to political ideology and the self-image of the urban population.4 This paper deals primarily with the fourth question. It is not disputed here that towns acted as commercial centers, that town dwellers might develop new lifestyles, and that merchants might stand up to the bureaucracy. The question I am concerned with is how members of the town leadership might reflect upon the status of their town and themselves. It is my contention that in the Ming and Qing town, leaders realized that the prosperity of their towns was rooted in the economy, but 'This paper was first presented at the Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Washington D.C, March 17-19, 1989. The author is grateful to Helen Siu, Frederic Wakeman and Rubie Watson for their comments. 1G. William Skinner 1964-65, 1971. 2G. William Skinner 1977, F. W. Mote 1977, William T. Rowe 1989. 3Susan Mann 1987, William T. Rowe 1984. 4Marie-Claire Bergere 1989, especially p. 23 and Marianne Bastid-Bruguiere 1980, especially pp. 569-71. late Imperial China Vol. 11, No. 2 (December 1990): 1-31© by the Society for Qing Studies 1 2 David Faure they found it to their advantage, none the less, to wear the ready cloak of the literati. In other words, the bourgeoisie of the Chinese town, as a bourgeoisie, did not make an impact on the state's political ideology that might give itself recognition. Rather, it was the literati culture that stamped its identity on the commercialism that emerged in this period. In documenting the selfperception of the town leadership, one sees, therefore, the dissipation, rather than assertion, of mercantile influence on political ideology, even as merchants held jealously onto their local autonomy. Two views on Foshan This paper discusses the communal organization of Foshan, near Guangzhou , as it grew into one of the "Four Big Towns" of Ming and Qing China.5 The word "town" is used here as a ready translation for the character zhen, which was often employed for describing Foshan in late imperial times. As it was used in the Ming and the Qing, the character designated centers of population known for commerce and industry, the military connotations of the Tang and Song notwithstanding. The history of a town such as Foshan is of particular interest in the context of studies of urban change in China because of its obvious distinction from the cheng, the seat of official administration . In keeping with its nature as a town, rather than a county capital, Foshan was never walled, and throughout the Ming it was not the seat of any governmental yamen; the Wudoukou Police Office (si) that had charge of the town was located in nearby Pingzhou.6 One might expect that the relative autonomy and initiative for trade exhibited in towns such as Foshan could leave some marks upon the developing political...