what does "law of avoidance"mean?
If the Ch'ing Dynasty ignored its own law of avoidance and named scholar-officials as militia leaders, the upper gentry might transform their t'uan-lien into the constituents of a provincial military ma¬chine. Remembering the three feudatories' revolt in 1673, the Manchus easily conceived of such a situation encouraging regional secession from the empire, or even the birth of a rival dynasty headed by some prestigious Chinese official.