Abstract: The impacts on social structure of the Late Imperial China were catastrophic during Taiping Rebellion. In addition to mutations in fiscal system, population and ownership of land, a major change made to the Imperial was the morality and mores, which predicated a new social condition. This change was mainly reflected in the violence in the local resistance to Taiping Rebellion, and was a result of the spread of “XiaQi” (chivalry), the ethical principle of the local military mobilization. “XiaQi” is a key conception to better our understandings of the ethical principle of the civil societies in Chinese history. At the end of Ming Dynasty, “XiaQi” transformed to an abstract spirit which could be discovered in any social stratum. Based on an exploration of local militarization in Wenzhou province in the mid 19th century, this research also discovers that “XiaQi” not only played a role as organization mechanism in local militarization, it also provided an inner foundation for the shape of a new society. “XiaQi” was a law of individual power leading to countless rebellions against the Imperial because of its opposition to the traditional orders in patriarchal system, rates in villages, the authority of Confucians and dependant relationships in the Imperial China. As a result, the law of power in “XiaQi” destroyed the hierarchical structure of the Imperial and produced a social equalization which rendered the traditional governance in crises. This also caused the coming of modern revolution which resulted in a series of social and political transformations and the collapse of the traditional governance. The constitutional reform in the late Imperial on the one hand meant a new power relationship between the central and the local governments, on the other showed a reconstruction of morality. 

Key words: Xia-Qi ,  , mores ,  , militarization , anomie and violence , equalization