| This dissertation explores the background to the Lin Shuangwen uprising of 1787, the first Tiandihui uprising in Chinese history, chiefly through archival evidence. This background consisted of the development, in Southeast China, of two forms of communal violence: the feud (xiedou), and the secret society (hui). Although both of these forms had pre-Qing antecedents, population explosion during the eighteenth century outpaced economic development and produced large numbers of young, marginally employed men who engaged in violence as a kind of entrepreneurship.;Rebellion occurred largely as a result of state intervention in ongoing "entrepreneurship". In the Lin Shuangwen uprising, social relations had been militarized by a tradition of ethnic feuds. Secret societies appeared in this environment, catering to the needs of marginal, young men, often engaged in petty crime. The state, sensitive to the potential power of unigenerational groups, attempted to suppress the Tiandihui, and violence erupted, which spread along ethnic lines. Close reading of the events surrounding the rebellion indicates that the Tiandihui was largely incidental to the rebellion, suggesting that no teleology necessitated confrontation between the state and secret societies.;In the mainland feud, junior members of lineages used the pretext of inter-lineage enmity to encourage violence and militarization, which redistributed wealth and prestige toward strongmen within the lineage and away from traditional leaders. The same process occurred on Taiwan, although community formation followed lines of ethnicity rather than lineage. In the secret society, younger members of existing communities banded together for activities which crossed community lines. These secret societies grew out of blood-oath brotherhoods, and originally offered an opportunity for marginal elements to copy the corporate behavior of their elders and betters by pooling their limited funds to achieve a common purpose. Such cross-community organizations provided a convenient organizational vehicle for violence entrepreneurs, and in the course of the eighteenth century we note a clear evolution toward Mafia-like criminal activities. In both feuds and secret societies, violence was absorbed by existing social structures rather than channeled outward. |
