A Study On Grass-roots Social Crime In The South Of Yangtze River In The Middle And Late Period Of Ming Dynasty

In the Mid and Late Period of Ming Dynasty,the development of commodity economy and the liberation of people's thinking brought about many moral issues and criminal actions,which concentrated in the towns and cities of the South of Yangzi River.In this case,research in Grass-roots social crime of this period in this area will show great significance in futher understanding of the history of the Ming Dynasty.Crime is the result of social reality and is also a social phenomenon which is reflected throuth the individual's specific criminal conduct.So we can learn a lot about social reality and development through social Grass-roots social crime from a fresh viewpoint.In the essay,social Grass-roots social crime are divided into five types:property infringement,economic crime,opposition and rebellion,hindering social management and order,infringing upon persons and the related crime.Among these.Firstly,most criminal actions all take seeking wealth as their ultimate goal.Secondly,the ordinary people became the main body of crime.Thirdly,the criminal actions were not under control.These are the three major characteristics of the social crime,which made the damage caused by social crime more serious,such as robbing wealth,doing harm to people,making fake money,seeking exorbitant profits and hastening evil.At the same time,the harms made the Grass-roots social crime more and uncontrollable.All of these were related to the social environment,the increase of vagabonds,the prosperment of downs and cities and the activation of the social structure.The root reason was that social changes caused by economy happend,but nothing happened in politics.No doubt,being difficult to avoid and eliminate crimes is doomed,and the times can not lead China into the modern society.