The Times of Xu Qian-xue 徐乾學 and his Two Brothers : A Case of Regional Control Exercised by Xiangshen 鄕紳 in the Jiangnan 江南

During the tenth month of the twenty-ninth year of the Kangxi 康煕 period (1690), Fulata 傅拉塔, then governor-general of the Liangjiang 兩江 initiated the censure and dismissal of ranking officials, including the chancellor of the Hanlin Academy Xu Yuan-wen 徐元文, and the President of the Board of Punishments, Xu Qian-xue. With the chancellor and president using their authority over the entire Jiangsu 江蘇 region to cover certain unethical acts, the Xu clan had extended their influence beyond their native Kunshan 崑山 district of Jiangsu province. During the Ming dynasty, the Kunshan Xu family members had belonged to the middle and lower ranks of officialdom. But after having survived the period of the Ming-Qing 明清 transition--the time of the three Xu brothers, Qian-xue, Bing-yi秉義, and Yuan-wen--they rose to the highest positions in the government, advancing from official status in the Hanlin Academy upon winning the eminent jinshi 進士 degree, to appointment as a Chinese chancellor and president within a Manchu court. The decade of the 1680s, following the pacification of the Sanfan 三藩 rebellion, marks the period during which the structure of the Qing court was fixed. And yet several revolutions occurred within the government during this period. During the second month of the twenty-seventh year of the Kangxi period (1688), the faction around the chancellor Mingzhu 明珠 was criticized by the censor Guo Xiu 郭琇 and overthrown from power. During the ninth month of the next year (1639), Gao Shi-qi 高士奇 and his followers were censured and dismissed. The case of the Xu brothers represents the last of this series of official dismissals. By the authoritative command of the Kangxi emperor the Xu family was not finally indicted. But shortly thereafter, censure and criticism of the Xu family continued (from the ninth month of the twenty-ninth year of the Kangxi period (1690) through the eleventh month of the thirty first year (1692)), this time based both on reports of injury submitted by lower ranking xiangshen (includins jiansheng 監生 and shengyuan 生員) in the region of Kunshan and neighboring districts in Jiangsu, as well as reports submitted by commoners. These reports now survive as dang'an 檔案 included within the fourth and fifth volumes of Wenxian congbian 文獻叢編 (1930), and the fifth volume oi Qingdai dang'an shiliao congbian 清代檔案史料叢編 (1980). This essay traces the history of the Kunshan Xu family from the Ming dynasty and relates the specific experience of the "Three Xu" under the Qing government. At the same time, in analyzing the historical sources of the dang'an, in addition to such records as the Donghualu 東華録, the actual circumstances of the regional control, or territorial control, exercised by the xiangshen Xu family was discovered