The Rebellion Of Deng Maoqi In History And Historiography: A Verification Of Sources And Related Events

In the Zhengtong period (1436-1449) of the Ming Dynasty, the Rebellion of Deng Maoqi broke out in Fujian province. It was the largest popular uprising since the founding of the Ming. Ming and Qing historical records and historiography have left us vivid impressions and extensive accounts of this event from beginning to end. However, on scrutinizing these records we soon discover that they not only differ but even contradict one another. This confusion of the sources cannot help but arouse doubts in the minds of readers. Historian Xia Xie of the Qing Dynasty, for one, suspected the credibility of some of the records, but owing to the limitations of his time he was unable to thoroughly dissect and amend the matter. Japanese scholar Tanaka Masatoshi has discovered three sets of systematic records prevailing amongst the historical sources on the Rebellion of Deng Maoqi, but he too has been unable to fully illuminate how and why these strands—and especially their errors—were produced, circulated, and evolved over time. On the basis of more materials and analysis, I have uncovered the reasons behind the conflicting accounts of the Deng Maoqi Rebellion and trace the origin of the contradictions to Zhang Kai's Jianjun lilue (Account of a military inspector), which contains pieces of fabricated data. At the same time, I have combed through and identified more reliable historical evidence so as to alert readers not to be deceived by errors from the past. I also discuss the relationship between this rebellion and the historical events surrounding it, finding that in addition to economic factors, the rebellion was intimately related to the peculiarities of the regional national environment. Despite the fact that the Ming government adopted measures like remitting taxes, constructing county administrations and fortifications, promoting education, and banning settlement in mountain regions, the results of these efforts were not apparent, and this region remained a source of perennial unrest. But on the other hand, the Ming government learned from the reconstruction measures and drew lessons from this experience to handle similar events in later years.