Paper for the International Conference on HISTORY OF MASS VIOLENCE IN RUSSIA AND CHINA
Helsinki, May 17-18, 2012

The crimes committed by guang gun, or hoodlums, was one of the social issues in both Ming and Qing dynasties. Ever since the Ming dynasty, there were already provisions on guang gun’s crimes in the legislation; though in the year of 1656，the Qing government formulated an ordinance in particular to punish the guang guns. This ordinance was the predecessor of the so called Guang Gun Li, or “the sub-statute for hoodlums”, which was modified many times until it reached its final form in Qianlong period(1736-95). The promulgation of Guang Gun Li not only enhanced the penalties for Guang Gun but also gave new legal meanings to the term Guang Gun, which created a new crime title – the Crime of Guang Gun. This article endeavored to trace to the origin of Guang Gun Li and its evolvement through textual research. The paper also attempted to evaluate and analyze the new crime title adopted in Qing dynasty towards guang guns from the angle of the legislative technology.

Communication presented at the 4th International Conference on Sinology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 20-22 June 2012

In the English-speaking world, it is widely known that during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, China’s Ming dynasty (1368-1644) (Fig. 1) intensified its efforts to the construction of the Great Wall (“changcheng” 長城, aka “bianqiang” 邊牆 [frontier wall] in Chinese documents) along its northern frontiers, which handed down the legacy of the Great Wall of China.[1]  It is little known, however, that during the same time period the government of Huguang Province of the Ming also built a “frontier wall” (bianqiang 邊牆) along the “Miao territory” (Miaojiang 苗疆) in the southern part of the empire, especially at the present-day Fenghuang County鳳凰縣, Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture of Tujia Nationality and Miao Nationality 湘西土家族苗族自治州, Hunan Province (Figs. 2, 3).  Compared to the world-renowned Great Wall in the north, the frontier wall in the south, or the “Southern Great Wall” (nan[fang] changcheng 南[方]長城) as promoted in China today, has attracted little scholarly attention in the English literature.  Yet, the less impressive undertaking is no less significant in revealing the enduring process of identity building in China during both imperial times and the People’s Republic.  In recent years, with the assistance of local residents, I visited the sites of the “Southern Great Wall” and a number of Miao communities along and outside the wall, including the areas in both Fenghuang in west Hunan and Songtao Autonomous County of Miao Nationality松桃苗族自治縣 in east Guizhou.  It is my intension that this fieldwork report regarding the discovery and restoration of the frontier wall in Fenghuang County and its surrounding areas will bring a wider scholarly attention to this cultural site for a richer study of the identity building and cultural experience in this Miao community.[2]