Abstract
Prior to the foundation of the People's Republic in 1949 the formal apparatus of the Chinese imperial state rarely extended below the hsien, or county level. There was, in effect, ‘local self government’ and in certain parts of China this meant rule by powerful, localized descent groups. While some Chinese patrilineages remained small and politically insignificant, others grew until they resembled petty states. These large lineage organizations, which I prefer to call ‘dominant lineages’, made dependents out of neighbours, controlled market centers, and maintained their own militias and local defence corps. In this paper the formation of one such dominant lineage is described in detail.
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