Using available data, and in collaboration with scholars of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the official research arm of the Chinese government, this study analyzes collective violence events in over a thousand counties and in around a millenium of China from the Three Kingdoms period to the Southern Song Dynasty (220-1,279). When completed, the project will generate the first machine-readable, continuous, county-level historical statistical series for over a millenium in China, not only on collective violence events but also 15 socio-economic explanatory variables like natural calamities, famine relief, local constructions, level of taxation, number of academic degree holders, and proximity to administrative capitols. As the first descriptive task, the study will analyze the level of magnitude, socio-economic profile, spatial-temporal distribution, as well as forms and repertoires of collective violence events. To account for the above pattern, the researchers will relate levels of violence to ecological and socio-economic conditions such as the intensity of calamities, the availability of famine relief, the location and size of government troops, as well as the proximity of mountain refuge, in order to determine their effects on the motive and opportunity for participation in rebellions and banditry. Beyond its intrinsic scientific merit, this first collaborative project between the Institute of History of CASS and an American scholar will also enhance CASS' readiness to collaborate with other U.S. social scientists.
