Abstract: During the regimes of Tongzhi and Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty, the dispute of the ownership of lake field between the indigenous inhabitants at Tongpei in northern Jiangsu and the immigrants from southwest Shandong could be traced to the root of a conflict between the exclusive concept of private land ownership and the legal principle of state property rights. In the context of such unavoidable contradiction, Zeng Kuo-fan, who was appointed by the Emperor to mediate the case, decided to rebuild the order of authority and to make the arbitration of demarcation according to the national standard of being law-abiding: “Regardless of native or immigrant, judging only by good or bad”. In practice, Zeng took the protection of property rights and right to exist of each side as a precondition, strengthened the supremacy of the national legal status and conformed to the local private customs and common habit as far as possible, successfully resolved the contradiction between national interests and civil interests by confirming the legal property rights and redistribution rights, and finally achieved a win-win situation.

Key words: conflict of natives and immigrants; the concept of land ownership; authoritarian order; the case of “Lake Group”