SECT AND SOCIETY: THE EVOLUTION OF THE LUO SECT AMONG QING DYNASTY GRAIN TRIBUTE BOATMEN, 1700-1850 (GRAND CANAL, GRAIN TRIBUTE ADMINISTRATION).

摘要

During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) districts in eight provinces along the Grand Canal and Yangzi River were annually assessed levies of rice and other products in addition to the regular land tax. This "grain tribute" was transported to granaries around the capital and disbursed to military personnel, central government officials and the Imperial Household Department. Fleets of junks assigned to local anchorages in the tribute provinces carried these cargos north on the Grand Canal.; Many of the boatmen who crewed the junks were initiates in the folk-Buddhist Luo sect. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Luo sectarians built a number of temples in Hangzhou and Suzhou, the two major cities along the southernmost stretch of the canal. Local sect leaders were nearly all retired boatmen, and the temple communities were composed of active and retired boatmen. The workers in the fleets based in this region hailed from North China, and during the periods of unemployment between annual transports, they were stranded in the South far from home and kin. The Luo temple communities provided material and spiritual sustenance for these workers, havens for those too old or diabled to work, and a focus for group life that spread the sect among fleet workers and stimulated the development of a self-conscious corporate identity among them. From the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth, due to official suppression of their sect and to deteriorating conditions in their common livelihood, the boatmen's sect groups became based in the tribute fleets and increasingly devoted their corporate energies to pursuit of collective economic security, mainly through labor organizing.; Describing the organization of work in grain tribute transport, including the canal route and the Qing grain tribute administration, this study analyzes the changing nature of the boatmen's associations up to 1850. It argues that their dual nature--sectarian assemblies and common occupation associations--is the key to understanding their adaptability and survival. They drew on two institutional identities and sets of collective goals that could be integrated in various ways, allowing for flexible corporate response to changing circumstances. In the fleets, changes in the nature of the leadership and organization, as well as the criteria for membership, created greater capacity for mobilization and allowed these groups to compete more effectively for scarce resources.