Peasant Wars in Feudal Society

This book offers a wide-ranging, comparative study of peasant uprisings and wars in feudal societies, with a focus on China and Western and Eastern Europe from antiquity to the early modern period.

Organized around five core themes — background, causes, course, programs, and historical role — the book asks why peasants rebelled, how they organized themselves, what political aims they pursued and the effect their struggles had on feudal societies. Drawing on examples such as the German Peasants' War (1525), the English Rising (1381), the French Jacquerie, the Russian uprisings led by Bolotnikov, Razin and Pugachev, and the Li Zicheng rebellion and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in China, the analysis contextualizes each event within its unique historical setting: China’s centralized empire with a legally free peasantry; Western Europe’s fragmented lordship and serfdom; and Eastern Europe’s Cossack frontier and intensifying enserfment. Integrating Chinese historiography with international scholarship, the book revisits debates over whether peasant wars advanced or disrupted historical development. Its Eurasian framework reveals the shared pressures of feudal exploitation and regional variations in rebellion, ideology, and reform.

This book will be essential reading for historians, students of world history and general readers interested in peasant uprisings and wars, comparative Eurasian history, and social revolt across civilizations.

Ma Keyao (b. 1932) is Senior Professor of History at Peking University and served as Chair of the Department of History (1986–1992). His research focuses on comparative studies of feudal societies across Eurasia, particularly in Western Europe, China, and Eastern Europe.