動亂、義民及其敘獎，相生又相剋，是清代臺灣的獨特現象，可作為理解國家與社會互動發展的關鍵線索。本文將具體說明，當時被中央官員視為史無前例的義民議敘之政治過程、實質意涵，及其對地方控制與社會發展的意義。本文澄清，清朝官府發給臺灣義民的文件，並非一般所聲稱係為證明其擁有王朝認可之義民身分的「義民劄付」，而是具有把總、千總等基層武職任用資格的證明書。因此，關鍵在於，經由相關法律程序獲得官方文件之後，義民就有機會從「民」轉換為「官」，擁有鄉紳身分，開啟仕宦之途，特別是自清領伊始即因閩籍漢民之積極抵制，而在地權、科考等方面受到嚴重阻礙的粵籍移民。
清朝官府獎敘臺灣義民，源於康熙六十年（1721）朱一貴（1690- 1722）等動亂勢力幾已控制全臺，官府為了有效分化反叛勢力，奪回臺灣的統治權而來。清廷藉由義民旌表與議敘而展現的社會控制極具成效。一旦動亂發生，地方往往迅速相應出現組織義民的風潮，他們試圖和叛亂團體區分開來，甚至積極動員人力、物力與之對抗。即使臺灣整體的社會經濟規模到了十九世紀中葉已經有顯著的成長，但駐臺官兵數量依然維持清初的水平。由此推知，義民行為的表彰與其自我認同，應是僻處邊疆、軍事力量與社會控制相對薄弱的臺灣，能長期維持穩定的重要基礎之一。

History of Qingperiod Taiwan was rife with cycles of disturbances, yimin pacification and government bestowal. Clarifying this cycle will provide a clue to understand the interactive relationship between the state and the society. This paper elaborates on the political process of awarding yimin status, which was regarded unprecedented by Qing’s central officials, to castlight on its nature and impact on local control and social development. This paper argues that Qing’s official document bestowed upon yimin was not the “yimin directive” (yiminzhafu) which have been pervasively recognized by scholars as to show their state-recognized status. Rather, the documents were in reality certificates of low-level military position’s qualification. The impact of the yimin bestowment, therefore, was that the official documents accredited via legal procedures turned yimin from “civilians” into “official,” thereby opening the yimin’s way to become gentry or petty officials. This channel was particularly important for the Guangdong immigrants who were seriously impeded in their rights to land and civil examinations by the more powerful Fujian immigrants and neighbors.
The awarding of yimin in Taiwan can be traced to the Zhu Yiqui Uprising in 1721 when, on the one hand, a massive Qing force was dispatched to Taiwan to pacify the situation and, on the other hand, the Qing government also differentiated the rebel forces through their commission to yimin groups. The social control exercised by the Qing government via yimin’s “public commendation” (jingbiao) and “honors and awards” (jiangxu) was very successful. Once local disturbances broke out, the local society soon assembled yimin groups in distinction from the rebel groups. Even when Taiwan’s population and economy gradually expended in the mid-Nineteenth Century, the number of Qing troops stationed in Taiwan had remained at roughly the same level as in early Qing. Indeed, the recommendation and bestowment of yimin actions were the foundation for the government to maintain social stability in a geographically marginal and socio- and militarily-weak Qing Taiwan.