Study On The Contract Documents In Dingxi Archives Of Gansu Province In The Qing Dynasty

Most of the Qing Dynasty contracts in the Dingxi City Archives are derived from longxi county,Tongwei county,Minzhou and other places under the jurisdiction of Gongchang Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty,which can be divided into four categories:sales contracts,pawn contracts,loan contracts,and family seperation contracts,most of which are about private land sales and pawns.In land sales and pawn deeds,the middleman plays an extremely important role,because of the different roles they play in civil transaction activities,the middleman often have a variety of names.The existence of groups such as guarantors and Surrogate further ensures the social effect of contract formation.Family’s relatives reflect the family relationship factor at the time of civil transactions.In these Qing Dynasty contracts,we can see the participation of women in civil economic activities,and they will play a corresponding role in rural society as the outliers,inheritors,and middleman of land transactions.The Qing Dynasty contract also reflects the traditional civil customs of "repricing","painting money","tomb-related land circulation" and other traditional civil customs at the time of civil land transactions,although the Qing government made corresponding provisions in the laws,but in the specific practice process of the people,it is more based on local customs,reflecting the operation mode of self-management in traditional civil society.From the stamp on the contract,we can see the problem of the sub-counties of Gansu in the Qing Dynasty,the measurement problem of the private land transaction in the Qing Dynasty from the recorded land dimensions and the length and width of the recorded land,and the phenomenon of folding acres in gansu province in the Qing Dynasty from the record of "folding the land" in the contract.The study of these issues will further promote the reconstruction of the economic life of civil society in Gansu in the Qing Dynasty.