The full text totals 1737 words | It takes 6 minutes to read
Seeing that Jiangnan Province was inconvenient to manage, the Qing court had the idea of dividing Jiangnan Province.
Jiangnan Province was once the Nanjing region of the Ming Dynasty, also known as "Nanzhili". After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, in the second year of Qing Shunzhi (1645), the Qing court established the Jiangnan Chengzheng Envoy Department according to the Ming Dynasty system, and Nanjing lost its status as the capital of the country. Later, the Qing court changed the name of the Chengcheng Envoy Department to Xing Province, so later generations called the Jiangnan Chengcheng Envoy Department Jiangnan Province.
Map of South Zhili
The area of Jiangnan Province roughly corresponded to present-day Jiangsu Province, Anhui Province, and Shanghai Municipality, as well as Wuyuan County in Jiangxi Province and Yingshan County in Hubei Province. In the eighteenth year of the Shunzhi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Jiangnan Province was divided into "Jiangnan Right" and "Jiangnan Left". A year later, "Jiangnan Right" took the first characters of Jiangning Province and Suzhou Province, and changed its name to Jiangsu Province. The "Jiangnan Left" takes the first character of Anqing Province and Huizhou Prefecture and is renamed Anhui Province.
The huge Jiangnan Province was thus divided into two, becoming Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province, and the reason for the change began with Jiangnan Province itself.
The status of Gangnam Province
Gangnam Province was known as "Nanzhili", which meant being subordinate to the central government, and the imperial court directly administered it, somewhat like today's special administrative regions. Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, was also in Jiangnan Province, so the development of Jiangnan Province was better than that of other regions in the country.
Jiangnan Province, which accounts for one-third of the Total Ming Dynasty's taxes in a year, is the wealthiest region in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the economy, half of the talents who participate in the scientific expedition every year in the country are from Jiangnan Province.
Because of its vast territory and economic prosperity, the Qing Dynasty government specially set up the Governor of Liangjiang to administer Jiangnan Province. However, because of the many affairs, the Governor of Liangjiang can be described as lacking in skill. The imperial court had no choice but to send more officials such as the governor of Huaiyang and the inspector of Anhui to carry out coordinated management, but it was still unable to manage it.
Liangjiang Governor's Palace
Seeing that Jiangnan Province was inconvenient to manage, the Qing court had the idea of dividing Jiangnan Province, which was one of the reasons why Jiangnan Province was divided into two. But the real reason for the division of Jiangnan Province was caused by the situation of the Qing Dynasty at that time.
Tranquility is everything
In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the Shunzhi Emperor had to face many challenges, including internal worries and external troubles.
Internal worries were mainly the serious Manchu-Han contradictions, as well as anti-Qing forces large and small. The Shunzhi Emperor issued a "shaving order" requiring all han chinese in the territory to shave their foreheads and leave braids on their backs. However, the "shaving order" violates the traditional ethics of the Han people, who pay attention to the "parents of the body hair and skin" and cannot damage them. As a result, many Han Chinese chose not to shave their hair, and the Shunzhi Emperor adopted a high-pressure policy to force the Han people to submit by coercive means. The contradictions of the Manchus are like a mess that cannot be solved in a short time.
Han Chinese shaving their hair
In terms of anti-Qing forces, it is necessary to mention two important figures, one is Chen Jinnan, and the other is Zheng Chenggong. The Tiandihui founded by Chen Jinnan gathered a large number of believers under the banner of "anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty." They fought against the Qing court everywhere, and the Qing court encircled and suppressed them several times, but it was difficult to clean them up. Zheng Chenggong used Taiwan as his base camp and led the old Ming Dynasty to negotiate with the Qing army along the southeast coast.
Zheng Chenggong
The Qing court, which was constantly worried about internal troubles, also had to face external troubles around it. The southern Ming court has always been eyeing the tiger, many small countries in the southwest are waiting for an opportunity to act, and the Mongols in the north are shaking their fists. Once the Qing Dynasty was slightly careless, it would be subject to the fall of many forces.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, for the Qing Dynasty, which was troubled by internal and external troubles, stability was everything, and Jiangnan Province was unstable for the Qing court.
Divide for stability
During the Shunzhi period, the administrative center of the Qing court was in Beijing, and the farther away from Beijing, the more difficult it was to manage. Jiangnan Province was far away from the Capital Division, and the Qing court sent many officials to effectively manage Jiangnan Province. The tax in Jiangnan Province accounted for more than half of the total tax in the Qing Dynasty. If Jiangnan Province could not be effectively managed, it would directly affect the financial revenue of the Qing court, and the Qing Dynasty, which had recently entered the Central Plains, was in great need of funds.
On the other hand, the rich Jiangnan Province is easy to make a person or a party of power bigger and stronger, and if there is a rebellion in Jiangnan Province, the Qing Dynasty will be difficult to deal with. Therefore, for the stability and development of the Qing Dynasty, Jiangnan Province could only be divided into two, so that the Qing court could carry out effective management.
Administrative divisions of the Qing Dynasty
Although it was originally born from the same root, there is a relatively large difference between the development of Jiangsu and Anhui. Since the Qing Dynasty, Jiangsu's economic development level has always been above Anhui, and today's Jiangsu has left Anhui far behind. If Gangnam Province had not been divided, would the situation have been different?
Of course, there will never be an answer to this question.
(This article only represents the views of the author and does not represent the position of this number)