Livelihoods and Institutions: Social Order in Coastal Fujian and Guangdong During the Ming and Qing Dynasties

This book understands the changes in rural society in Guangdong and Fujian in the Ming and Qing dynasties from the perspective of marine economy, emphasizing that the sea-based production and survival mode has unique rhythms and characteristics; at the same time, coastal areas cannot simply be regarded as a zone dividing the sea and land, but should be regarded as an activity area containing various people with different livelihoods. It advocates re-examining the relationship between people, sea and land from the perspective of water-land interaction. The book attempts to explore how the local people living at the junction of water and land, and the boundary between Fujian and Guangdong, created their living space and social order under the dynasty's military, political, and economic and social policies from the early Ming to the early Qing Dynasty, from the aspects of household registration status, economic production, social organization, and even ideological concepts of the people in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It also explains the relationship between the transformation of the dynastic system and the changes in the production and living patterns and social organization of the people in the coastal areas.