The past few weeks, I was fascinated by the unknown craftsmen and potters that created the widely praised and appreciated items. I was excited to dive into the study of convict and unfree laborers and artisans in Artisans in Early Imperial China and their varying “degree[s] of control over work, restriction of movement, restriction of life choices (212).” Ultimately, using unfree workers typically depended on the skill level required for the given task, the potential physical harm of completing the task, and the expected decreased financial loss of commissioners (213).
As I was reading, I was surprised by how the notion of involuntary labor also counted because its inclusion points to the inclusion of many more “unfree artisans,” like the conscripted artisan (zu) (213). In early China, peasants were drafted into civilian and military labor services (214). The government tried to show fairness in terms of length of conscription and number of conscripted artisans, especially during planting periods (218). It was illegal “to conscript more than one registered adult from the same household at the same time” (217). Further evidence indicates that the officials were ordered “to exhaust all other sources of labor (especially convicts) for tasks such as transport duty before mobilizing any peasants” (217). There is clearly a hierarchy among the different kinds of involuntary artisans.
Bibliographic Reference
Barbieri-Low, Anthony J. Artisans in Early Imperial China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007.
