| This study of local administration in Ming Peking and its surrounding rural area is based on Ming sources dealing with the capital, supplemented by other primary and secondary materials. While Ming local administration was designed with rural populations and rural problems in mind, paradoxically, it was always located in cities. The dissertation analyzes the systems devised for urban rule and compares urban and rural systems.; The short historical sketch of Peking in Chapter Two shows how Peking became the capital and how its history influenced its character. Chapter Three describes Peking as an urban system, compares its physical structure with Chinese and other models of cities, and shows how its military importance influenced its demographic characteristics and its relationship with its hinterland.; The capital presented special problems for the Ming rulers, for the institutions they devised for local rule were not appropriate for governing a city as large and varied as Peking. Chapter Four shows how the prefecture and counties were modified for the capital, how they and the special police and judicial agencies devised for the capital (the wardens' offices and the ward-inspecting censors) were coordinated, and who staffed them.; Local officials governed both the city and the surrounding hinterland, treating the entire area as a single system with parallel institutions and similar problems. Chapter Five examines the organization and fiscal structure of the rural portion of Metropolitan Peking. Chapter Six discusses urban organization at the precinct (fang) and neighborhood level, showing how the officials interacted with local society, how institutions evolved throughout the dynasty, and who provided leadership and urban services.; Local administration in the Ming capital was suriously awkward and improvisational. The Ming rulers did not design a government for the city as such partly because fragmenting local control shifted the locus of power up to the court and partly because they did not regard cities as distinctive units. Although in practice the wardens' offices and the ward-inspecting censors were more involved with and important to the people than the county governments, ward officials were never permitted completely to supplant county government, for it alone properly symbolized all facets of local rule. |
