「土賊」李青山の乱について：明末華北農民反乱の一形態

Chief factor which finally caused the fall of the Ming dynasty was the rebellions caused by big farmers such as Li Tsŭcheng 李自成, chiefly took place in the north of Chan-kiang 長江 River. As the background of these rebellions, which was called by the officials as liu-tsei 流賊, were local peasants’ rebellions called t’u-tsei 土賊 or t’u-k’ou 土寇. Although the revolt of Li Ch’ing-shan 李青山 did not have any direct contact with the revolt of Li Tsŭ-cheng it was certainly a revolt of such t’u-tsei type, and spread in and around the big canal area with its centre in Liang-shan 梁山 of Shan-tung State, which is well known stage of the novel Shui-hsü-ch’uan 水滸傳, between Chung-chên 崇禎 14th to 15th (1641-42). Furthermore, this revolt, while it essentially had the characteristics of liu-tsei, partly had a character to settle in villages according to the historical and social conditions of the relevant area. The chief conditions as such can be summed up in the following four points. (1) The rebels did not destroy the reproduction of the farmers as the direct producers of the relevant society, and enjoyed the co-existence on the condition that they were to equally share the wheat harvest. Further, the rebels formed tsei-mai 賊麦areas in certain parts of the region to protect the local peasants’ means of production from the destruction by the Ming army. (2) The leading body of the revolt was consisted of Li Ch’ing-shan (a slaughterer), Ai Shuang 艾雙 (a craftsman), both originated from petty manager’s class, and Wang Lin-ch’ên 王隣臣 who took the role of the strategist, originating from a lower intelligent class. (3) Periodical bazaars in villages were firmly seized by them. (4) Canal transportations around the canal were attacked and flood-gate or cha 閘 was practically managed by them.Stagnation of water transportation thus caused by a t’u-tsei Li Ch’ing-shan really gave a deep financial blow to the Ming dynasty which was at that time to face with the peasant rebellions as well as with invasion of the Ch’ing army, and the practical negation of the institutions concerning landownership under the Ming sovereignty by formations of tsei-mai areas seriously threatened, besides the central Ming government, the ruling class consisted of local government officials, landlords and merchants of the relevant region.Although the revolt of Li Ch’ing-shan shows us a number of weak points such as that they had a hostile relationship with other t’u-tsei, but still we can find a bit progressed figure of a revolt which was based on the farmers as the direct producers in the farming areas of northern China. It seems that the similar growing t’u-tsei could have also joined in rebellions caused by such big farmers as Li Tsŭ-cheng and Chang Hsien-chung 張献忠.