Domestic Law and Slavery in Late Imperial China: Glimpses from Lineage Registers

Over the past century, the late imperial Chinese nubi system has been the subject of numerous studies. Depicted as a highly exploitative mode of labor coercion, it has nonetheless been radically differentiated from slavery. In this article, I explore how nubi were conceptualized in late imperial China through the lens of lineages’ domestic regulations and admonitions. Nubi bondage was first and foremost a living experience of strong asymmetric dependency. However, as a de jure institution, its conceptual and normative dimensions do matter as they justified the enslavement of human beings and contributed to shaping household practices. Domestic regulations reveal a process that transformed outsiders into absolute inferiors. This consideration alone is an incentive to reconsider the alleged disqualification of nubi as a form of “slavery” and to engage broader comparisons with slavery in a more global perspective.

摘要:

本文旨在提出重新評價明清時期奴婢現象的必要性。依照學界較少使用的 家訓和族規,作者闡明了通常所說的奴婢制度不僅僅是一種家庭服役的形式。認 識到明清中國社會存在奴隸的這一現象將無疑使歷史學家們能更好地分析近代中 國與全球人口買賣之間的複雜關係。