Militia and Local Militarization in Late Qing and Early Republican China

One of the most striking features of Chinese local society in the early and middle nineteenth century was a process of increasing militarization. Since its publication in 1970, Philip Kuhn's Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China has remained the most important, and in fact the only, scholarly guide to this significant historical phenomenon. As described by Kuhn, the militarization of Chinese society at this time was manifested in a number of ways. First, the proliferation of local armed units, representing both the forces of order and of rebellion, spread out of mountainous border regions where violence was endemic even in the best of times, to central valleys and plains where it was not. Second, there was an increase in the size and complexity of these various armed forces. On the heterodox side, small secret society or bandit bands were joined by full-scale armies of rebellion or communities in arms such as the Taipings. On the orthodox side, militarization first entailed the combination of single-village militia into more broadly based joint militia, and eventually led to the formation of regional armies. Finally, accompanying the growing scale of military organization was an increased professionalism of the men drawn into military action.