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Tuanlian shiyi 團練事宜

Mar 4, 2016 © Ulrich Theobald

Tuanlian shiyi 團練事宜 "Regulations for military training", also called Guangxi tuanlian shiyi 廣西團練事宜, is a set of regulations for the training of village militia created in the mid-19th century. The text was compiled by Zhu Sunyi 朱孫詒 (d. 1879, courtesy name Shiqiao 石樵 or Shiyao 石翹), who was, together with Liu Rong 劉蓉 (1816-1873), responsible for the recruitment of militia in the province of Hunan (Xiangyong 湘勇) to resist the armies of the Taiping rebels 太平.

Zhu set up a recruitment bureau (Xiangxiang tuanfang zongju 湘鄉團防總局) whose operation was so successful that it served as a paradigm for similar recruitment systems. Zhu Sunyi had the recruitment supervised by a staff of persons sent out to the individual districts of the province. The Tuanlian shiyi was compiled in 1858 and copies distributed to other provinces. It describes the composition of militia units, their training, logistics management, military law, signals, and payment.

An edition from 1873 includes an appendix of related memorials and a brief history of the Hunan militia and their role in the suppression of the Taiping rebellion.

Source:
Zhongguo fanglüe congshu 中國方略叢書 (Chengwen Publishing), www.chengwen.com.tw/tc/cat/str/guo20.htm.