Militarization, Bureaucracy, and Formation of the Local Elite in Zhejiang during the Song–Yuan–Ming Transition, 1000–1450

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive description and explanation of the role of militarization in shaping the relationship between state power and local society during the Song-Yuan-Ming transition in coastal Zhejiang. First, I describe the recruitment and organization of troops during the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) based on quantitative evidence. I focus on the discussion of military recruitment on a theoretical framework, namely the capital-intensive mode that prevailed in military mobilization in the Southern Song Dynasty of China, with regard to the state’s capacity to wage war. Specifically, in addition to a general description of the Song military establishment, I devote much attention to state employment and military expenditures in the costal prefectures, especially Wenzhou and Taizhou, during the twelfth century. Second, I describe how the Mongols introduced the hereditary system to replace the market means (or the capital-intensive mode) in military and civil administrations at Wenzhou and Taizhou. I then explain how this mode, which comprised labor services, registration of hereditary households, military farms, prevailed in Southeast coastal China. I explore how Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty, successfully established a non-monetary mechanism as an alternative to meet the needs of the state power.