Abstract

Highway banditry in Ming China's Capital Region during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries owed much to the strong state presence radiating outward from Beijing. The essay opens with a survey of general patterns of banditry in the Capital Region. It then analyzes the social, political, economic, military, ethnic, and geographic features that contributed the region's distinctive forms of violence. It concludes with a preliminary comparison of Capital Region banditry and coastal piracy.

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