Slavery, or involuntary subjection to another or others, existed in every
ancient civilization, such as Sumer, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, parts of the
Roman Empire, and so on. People were enslaved for various reasons, including
slave raiding, sale of insolvent debtors and capture in war; slaves commonly
were recognized as property, assets that could be bought and sold. In the
Chinese empire (c. 211 BCE - 1912 CE), slavery existed throughout all dynasties,
although numerous aspects of slavery did not remain the same. The word "slave"
itself changed many times, nubi () in the Han
period, yinke () in Jin, booi aha () under Manchu rule, and so on. The function and position of
slaves in Chinese economy shifted several times as well.
This
paper will briefly describe the initiation of slavery before Imperial China, and
proceed to analyze several aspects about slavery in each dynasty of the Chinese
Empire; I will discuss the changing definition of a slave, how slaves became
slaves, abolition of slavery and ways to gain freedom, and the degree of
dependence or power slaves held in society. The paper is organized in
chronological order, but details of slavery in several dynasties existing before
Ming and Qing can be scarce due to the lack of attention slaves received prior
to Manchu rule.