| Refugees exist in traditional Chinese society continually. And in the Ming dynasty,refugee problem is more serious. The central areas are always the important political and economic dominance in ancient Chinese history because of its unique geographical location.In the Ming dynasty, the government’s various military and economical constructions depend on the people in the central areas deeply. Farmers paid various taxes and provided more corvee. People in the central areas made the contribution to the political and economic construction. At the same time, people’s burden also increased greatly. Moreover, the change of ecological climate brought natural disasters frequently. So the farmers’ harvest decreased in the years of famine. When farmers didn’t get the relief in time, they had to choose a vagrant life and become refugee.For alive, refugee choose to stream to some place where not been exploited, so the mountainous area become the better temporary living locality. In this process, the refugees group divided gradually. Some continue to engage in agricultural labor, others choose to steal.Refugees’ activities are not good to the social order local, and the gather of refugees also affect the normal state tax revenue. Refugees’ resistance to the government is certain a threaten to the national government system. Refugees’ overflow caused the government vigilance, so many measures were been taken, such as military strikes, pacify. The measures had some effect. Some refugees settled and got the household registration in the local. And others returned home because of the preferential policies.However, the policy has itself contradiction because of the Ming government’s optimistic finances. On the one hand, the emperor ordered officials not to assign extra tax, on the other hand, the emperor thought tax transferred to Beijing was too little. And local government officials assigned much extra. So the refugees’ life is not ideal. So they often chose a vagrant life and become refugee again. To the late Ming, the knave phenomenon is serious again.Large numbers of refugees chose to go into the mountains. Refugees in the activities not only promote the development in the mountainous area but also caused the destruction of forest vegetation and the ecological environment problems, such as soil and water loss. Moreseriously, refugees’ knave resistance to the government caused the social order disorder,affected the social environment of stability, and hindered the development of agriculture in Ming dynasty. In the late Ming dynasty, the status of agricultural production nearly stalled. |
