Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-tsvsl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T03:31:03.302Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The last guardian of the throne: the regional army in the late Qing dynasty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2020

Linan Peng*
Affiliation:
Free Market Institute, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX79409, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: linan.peng@ttu.edu

Abstract

This paper investigates the organizational structure of the Xiang Army, one of the best-known regional armies in the late Qing dynasty. The army developed an organizational form to overcome problems that plagued the imperial army of the central government, namely, the poor recruitment and training of soldiers, the lack of incentives to fight in battles, and the coordination failure. This organizational structure, I argue, played a central role in the rise of the Xiang Army in the Qing dynasty.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, D. (1998), ‘Compatible Incentives and the Purchase of Military Commissions’, The Journal of Legal Studies, 27(1): 4566.Google Scholar
Allen, D. (2002), ‘The British Navy Rules: Monitoring and Incompatible Incentives in the Age of Fighting Sail’, Explorations in Economic History, 39(2): 204231.Google Scholar
Allen, D. (2017), ‘“The Lesser of Two Weevils”: British Victualling Organization in the Long Eighteenth Century’, European Review of Economic History, 22(2): 233259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, R. C., Bassino, J.-P., Ma, D., Moll-Murata, C. and van Zanden, J. L. (2011), ‘Wages, Prices, and Living Standards in China, 1738–1925: in Comparison with Europe, Japan, and India’, Economic History Review, 64(s1): 838.Google Scholar
Brennan, G. and Tullock, G. (1982), ‘An Economic Theory of Military tactics’, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 3(2–3): 225242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadberry, S. and Gupta, B. (2006), ‘The Early Modern Great Divergence: Wages, Prices and Economic Development in Europe and Asia, 1500–1800’, The Economic History Review, 59(1): 231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chinese Military History Compilation Group (2003), Catalog of Historical Wars, Beijing: People's Liberation Army Press.Google Scholar
Hu, L. (2008), The Collection of Hu Linyi, Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House.Google Scholar
Ichiko, C. (1980), ‘Political and Institutional Reform, 1901–11’, in Fairbank, J. and Twitchett, D. (eds.), The Cambridge History of China (Vol. 11, 1st edn), New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 202273.Google Scholar
Jones, S. and Kuhn, P. (1978), ‘Dynastic Decline and the Roots of Rebellion’, in Fairbank, J., and Twitchett, D. (eds), The Cambridge History of China (Vol. 10, 1st edn), New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 107162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, P. (1970), Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, P. (1978), ‘The Taiping Rebellion’, in Fairbank, J. and Twitchett, D. (eds.), The Cambridge History of China (Vol. 10, 1st edn), New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 264317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, K. (1978), ‘The Ch'ing Restoration’, in Fairbank, J. and Twitchett, D. (eds.), The Cambridge History of China (Vol. 10, 1st edn), New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 409490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, K. and Smith, R. (1980), ‘The Military Challenge: The North-West and the Coast’, in Fairbank, J. and Twitchett, D. (eds.), The Cambridge History of China (Vol. 11, 1st edn), New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 202273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luo, E. (1984a), A Treatise on the Xiang Army, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar
Luo, E. (1984b), A Treatise on the Green Standard Army, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar
Ma, D. (2014), ‘State Capacity and Great Divergence, the Case of Qing China (1644–1911)’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 54(5–6): 484499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ma, D. and Rubin, J. (2019), ‘The Paradox of Power: Principal-Agent Problems and Administrative Capacity in Imperial China (and Other Absolutist Regimes)’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 47(2): 277294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michael, F. (1949), ‘Military Organization and Power Structure of China During the Taiping Rebellion’, Pacific Historical Review, 18(4): 469483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moll-Murata, C. and Theobald, U. (2013), Military Employment in Qing Dynasty China. In Zürcher, E. (ed.), Fighting for a Living: A Comparative Study of Military Labour 1500–2000 (1st edn), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 353391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piano, E. and Rouanet, L. (2019), ‘Desertion As Theft’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 16(2): 169183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomeranz, K. (2000), The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rouanet, L. and Piano, E. (Forthcoming), ‘Filling the Ranks: The Remplacement Militaire in Post-Revolutionary France’, European Review of Economic History.Google Scholar
Sng, T. (2014), ‘Size and Dynastic Decline: The Principal-Agent Problem in Late Imperial China, 1700–1850’, Explorations in Economic History, 54: 107127.Google Scholar
Von Glahn, R. (1996), Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000–1700, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wang, K. (1983), The Annals of the Xiang Army, Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House.Google Scholar
Wang, D. (2014), The History of the Xiang Army, Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House.Google Scholar
Wood, G. (2019), ‘Crowdfunding Defense’, Public Choice, 180(3–4): 451467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiang, X. (2009), The History of Science and Technology in Hunan, Changsha: Hunan Science & Technology Press.Google Scholar
Xu, L. and Yang, L. (2018), The Lasting Impact Of The Taiping Rebellion. [online] VOX, CEPR Policy Portal. Available at: https://voxeu.org/article/lasting-impact-taiping-rebellion (accessed 3 September 2020).Google Scholar
Xue, X. and Wu, X. (2013), Research on the Militaristic Thought of Hu Linyi, Changsha: Hunan University Press.Google Scholar
Zeng, G. (2011a), The Collection of Marquis Zeng (Vol. 1), Beijing: China Bookstore Publishing House.Google Scholar
Zeng, G. (2011b), The Collection of Marquis Zeng (Vol. 3), Beijing: China Bookstore Publishing House.Google Scholar
Zeng, G. (2011c), The Collection of Marquis Zeng (Vol. 7), Beijing: China Bookstore Publishing House.Google Scholar
Zeng, G. (2011d), The Collection of Marquis Zeng (Vol. 10), Beijing: China Bookstore Publishing House.Google Scholar
Zeng, G. (2011e), The Collection of Marquis Zeng (Vol. 11), Beijing: China Bookstore Publishing House.Google Scholar
Zhao, L. (2013), The Diaries of Magistrate Zhao, Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House.Google Scholar
Zuo, Z. (2009), The Collection of Zuo Zongtang (Vol. 3), Changsha: Yuelu Publishing House.Google Scholar