4 - The interregnum: society and economics

Summary

The reader should have a sense from the preceding chapter of the complexity of the interregnum period. Because of the unusual politics of the era, Quannan, like most areas of the South, was forced to rely on its own resources in ways that were unknown during times of integration under a centralizing empire. For the first time in its short history, Quannan could not depend on the talents of men from elsewhere to administer its affairs. As we have seen, the warlords of the late interregnum relied heavily – perhaps entirely – on natives of Quannan to staff their administrative structures, thus initiating a tradition that was to make Quannan a major political center of the succeeding Song. To pay for the dual burdens of self-administration and local defense, local government initiated new taxes similar to those found elsewhere in south China but significantly different from those of earlier eras. Inevitably this interplay of events and policies influenced local society and the economy. In this chapter I shall explore its impact on demography, patterns of landholding, and the growing importance of commerce.

Demographic change

The late ninth and early tenth centuries were an era of great unrest and demographic upheaval across China. Just as the combined rebellions of An Lushan and Shi Siming in the mid-eighth century had led to a great wave of migration from North to South, so the late-ninth-century turmoil surrounding the rebellion of Huang Chao and the subsequent chaos of the North that accompanied the collapse of Tang legitimacy prompted a massive relocation toward the more stable South.