The Commercial Town Upgrading To The County City And Local Society Vicissitudes

The commercial town upgrading to the county city was a common historical phenomenon in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.However,existing research has limited attention for this phenomenon and has not specially explored it's process and influence.The commercial town upgrading to the county city can be divided into two types.One is that the imperial court set up a new county and the new county city is located in the commercial town.The other is that the county city moves to the commercial town.The Yanshen Town this paper focuses on belongs to the former.In the Ming Dynasty,the town of Yanshen was located in Xiaofu Township,Yidu County,Qingzhou Prefecture,Shandong Province.In the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty,the imperial court upgraded Yanshen to the county city of Boshan County which was set up at the same time by ceding part of territories of Yidu County,Zichuan County and Laiwu County.From the townspeople calling for establishing a county to implementing it,the process went through more than 200 years in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.By careful examination of historical materials,this paper attempts to reconstruct the lengthy and complicated process in order to discuss the townspeople's attitude towards the national power reflected by their persistent desire for county,and analyze the significance and influence of the commercial town upgrading to the county city.Relying on rich mineral resources,Yanshen developed into a prosperous industrial and commercial town,a regional commercial center in the middle of Ming Dynasty.But the town was at the junction of two prefectures and four counties,too far from the county seat.Because the Yidu district magistrate was difficult to control the town from a very long distance,the townspeople suffered from the insurrection trouble caused by bad young men,and the exploitation of petty officials.From the middle of Ming Dynasty,the imperial court assigned the Assistant Surveillance Commissioner in Charge of a Military Defense Circuit to patrol the town for strengthening management.After that,the Assistant Prefect was stationed in the town.Despite the fact that the Assistant Prefect played an important role in exterminating banditry and spreading morals and values through education,the official could not hear a case and collect taxes.Besides,because of subjected to prefects,district magistrates and powerful local gentry,Assistant Prefect could not fully satisfy the demands of the townspeople.In order to solve their own plight thoroughly,the townspeople demanded the state power to be further stationed,and called on the court to set up a county with Yanshen Town as the county city.In the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty,the proposal of setting up a new county in Yanshen was submitted by Panzhen,the Shandong Surveillance Vice Commissioner.Subsequently,similar proposals were put forward in the second year,the ninth year and the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty.After the second year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing,townspeople took over from the officials as the major group for calling for a new county.In the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing,the programme proposed by Li Kaixian,a Zhangqiu gentry,reflected conflicts of territory and interest between Zichuan and Yidu,the reason why the official who grew up in Yidu opposed setting up a new county,and the psychology of the townspeople.Because of the strong opposition,the townspeople had to call for building a city wall.Eventually,in thirty-sixth year of the Emperor Jiajing's reign,Yanshen built its city wall with Wang Shizhen's efforts.However,the calling for a new county did not disappear.In the reign of Yongzheng during the Qing dynasty,Chen Shiguan,the Shandong Grand Coordinator,and Tian Wenjing,the Hedong Supreme Commander,failed to set up Zhi Li Zhou(???)in Yanshen successively.Finally,under the pressure of making an inventory of state revenue and grain,the proposal of establishing a new county submitted by Wang Shijun,the Hedong Supreme Commander,was approved.The long-term expectation of the townspeople for a county city reflected their strong desire for official rule.This desire is not simply due the respect and worship of national power,but more out of rational knowledge.After the imperial court approving of setting up Boshan county,the first thing was to determine the plan of territory partition,and separate registered residence,district revenue and grain,salt administration and postal system from three counties,Yidu,Zichuan and Laiwu.At the same time,urban and rural space needed to be reconstructed.In term of county territory,Zhao Zhishen,a local gentry once put forward a suggestion according to the trends of mountains and rivers.But the actual county territory was in the shape of jagged and interlocked,which caused great inconvenience to the subsequent administration.In term of separating government affairs,registered residence,district revenue and grain were divided on the basis of the county territory,but the establishment of salt administration and postal system had been discussed repeatedly.In term of reconstructing urban and rural space,with the improvement of the administrative level of Yanshen Town,government offices,school and temples were rebuilt or newly built,to assume the political,economic and cultural functions of the county city.Meanwhile,the original township structure was broken and village community was properly reorganized to facilitate the issuance and implementation of decrees.The upgrade of Yanshen Town to county city had the following effects on local changes.Firstly,people around the county city no longer needed to travel a long distance for tax payments and lawsuits.And Boshan's tax amount was low,thus the county was rarely in arrears with tax payment.Secondly,the establishment of Boshan integrated the boundaries of four counties into one,and facilitate the infiltration of administrative power into the original zone which came within nobody's jurisdiction.The arrival of the district magistrate not only improved customs,promoted education,but also demonstrates stronger mobilization ability in resisting natural disasters and wars.Thirdly,by sponsoring construction of the new county and participating in public affairs,Jiang's family won the official award and achieved a rise in family status,replacing Zhao as the most influential family in Boshan.Lastly,although the exploitation of petty officials was inevitable,due to the protection policy of the local government,the Boshan area had gained more resources and support than other towns.It had promoted regional economic development for a long time.