What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
The corruption and incompetence of the late Qing government made modern China suffer from foreign invasions, once reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, as the last dynasty of China's historical feudal society, the Qing Dynasty seems to have been harshly criticized, and it was set on the column of historical shame, almost the worst dynasty in the wind evaluation, for many people, the Qing Dynasty itself seems to be a fault.
In fact, the Qing Dynasty in 267 was actually the dynasty that contributed the most to the territory of modern China (the northeast dowry that came with entering the Central Plains, Kang Qianyong's use of troops in Xinjiang for three consecutive generations, the elimination of the Dzungar Khanate in the Qing Dynasty War, and the large-scale use of troops against Tibet twice), although in the Treaty of Yaohun with Tsarist Russia, the Qing Dynasty ceded nearly one million square kilometers of land successively.
However, even in the environment of the Qing Dynasty surrounded by great powers and internal contradictions, it still firmly controlled the territory of modern China, and under the internal and external troubles, the last wealth left by the late Qing government to modern China was the western Sichuan and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau areas protected by the "land reform and return to the stream" vigorously promoted in the southwest frontier at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
One. Both military and political administration, the Qing court made efforts to consolidate the southwest and northwest frontiers
1. Three consecutive generations of emperors used troops in the southwest and northwest to stabilize the rule of Qinghai-Tibet
From a historical point of view, the three provinces of Qinghai-Tibet were separated from the control of the Central Plains Dynasty for most of the time, and the Xinjiang region only set up the capital protectorate in the unprecedentedly powerful Han and Tang dynasties, and the regional sovereignty was included in the Central Plains Dynasty, while the political and military sovereignty still belonged to the local political power, and this way of governance buried great hidden dangers.
After the Qing army entered the customs and entered the Central Plains, it has been working to solve the problem of the southwest and northwest borders, at this time the northern Xinjiang region is surrounded by strong enemies, most of the territory is occupied by the Dzungar Khanate and the Yarkand Khanate, Kang Qianyong's ancestors and grandsons of three generations of emperors, in the face of the Dzungar Khanate at its peak with a land area of more than 7 million square kilometers, the Dzungar Khanate has been successfully destroyed for more than 100 years, and Xinjiang has been included in the territory, Qianlong was overjoyed, thinking that it was "the homeland returned to the new" Xinjiang Hence the name.
In Tibet, due to the long-term lack of effective management of the Central Plains Dynasty, in the face of dynastic changes, it is even more undercurrents, the forces of all sides are intertwined, Kangxi Twenty-first Year (1682) Dalai Lama V died, large-scale civil unrest broke out in Tibet, Kangxi directly from Xining after the killing of the Tibetan Khan, the occupation and looting of Tibet by the Dzungars, directly from Xining, to Tibet to quell the chaos, in the nearly half century after that, riots broke out in Tibet, and the two emperors of Kangqian repeatedly sent troops to stabilize the situation in Tibet and maintain their rule.
2. Establish a minister stationed in Tibet and carry out the reform of land and return it to the stream
In the face of repeated rebellions in Tibet, the Kangxi government proposed a series of solutions, early canonization of khans and religious leaders; later abolished the khanate system, and then abolished the Dalai Lama's tiba system of stewardship and administrative affairs, and set up the collective leadership of the Various Kalons, then implemented the chief Kalon Belt County kingship system during the patral and paternal periods, and finally set up a Kashag supporting strengthened minister stationed in Tibet, and through the "Statute of the Aftermath of the Qingding Tibet" promulgated by Qianlong, constantly strengthened and enhanced the actual jurisdiction of the ministers stationed in Tibet, weakening the relationship between lords.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, due to the large differences in the level of productivity in various regions, coupled with the inconvenience of transportation and cultural differences in ethnic minority areas, the toast system in the Yunguichuan region was very popular, coupled with the Ming Dynasty's inability to govern the southwest frontier, the development of the military and government autonomy of the toast regime reached its peak. There were often armed struggles and even wars between tusi, and the management of the Qing court was also rebellious.
During the Shunzhi period, in the face of continuous attacks between toasts and the situation that a large area of arable land in the Yunnan-Guizhou region was uncultivated, the Shunzhi Emperor tried to assimilate the local cultural customs through immigration to weaken the strength of toast, and this policy was strongly hindered by some toasts.
In the fourth year of Yongzheng (1726), the Governor of Yunnan, Ortai, made this very clear, and his advice was to change the flow of clouds: "The clouds are in great trouble, nothing is like Miao Man, if you want to pacify the people, you must first control the yi, and if you want to control the yi, you must change the land and return to the stream." At this point, it is imperative to change the land and return to the stream. The return of land to the stream is not only to abolish the backward toast system, but more importantly, the central government appoints the exile officials to directly carry out the same ruling system as in the Central Plains. The land reform began during the Kangxi Dynasty and continued throughout the reign of the Qing Dynasty.
After absorbing the experience of the Yuan and Ming dynasties in governing the western frontier, the Qing court greatly strengthened its control over the northwestern and southwestern regions with both military and political efforts; first, it solved the major problem in the northwestern region, the Jungar Khanate, and in the face of the complicated situation in the southwestern Yunguichuan region, it constantly reformed and carried out land reform and return to the stream, which not only greatly strengthened the centralization of power and the rule over minority areas, but also enabled the originally backward minority areas to be greatly developed and enhanced social productive forces, which is of very positive significance.
Two. Internal and external troubles, the rule of the western region is in jeopardy, and the land is changed and returned to the stream and then consolidated the social order
1. The great powers are around, and the new policy of the rulers of the late Qing Dynasty is trying to save the survival
In the middle of the nineteenth century, after the Western powers completed the industrial revolution and knocked on the Qing government to close the door, the Qing government fell into a situation of great powers, and in 1851, the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement made the Qing government fall into an embarrassing situation of internal and external troubles, at the same time, the Xinjiang border was in a hurry, and the Qing court realized that it had gradually lost control of the western region.
In 1900, the Guangxu Emperor, who had fled to the front, deeply felt that "the country's strength is so strong that it is not enough to save the bad luck" So he made up his mind, and the edict "each of them should be in the present situation, consult the political leaders of China and the West, and take all the rules and regulations of the country, the democracy of the officials, the examination of schools, and the military finances, and the revolution" thus opened the prelude to the New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty. In the border areas, the Qing Wei New Deal was mainly carried out in the aspects of preparing for the border reform system and developing and strengthening the border areas. The main measure for planning for border restructuring is to set up prefectures and counties throughout the border ethnic minority areas and reorganize provinces; The development of strong is to attract border land.
It is necessary to set up industrial and mining, post and telecommunications, transportation, culture and education as the mainstay, develop the frontier economy and various social undertakings, and implement the policy of implementing the border areas. In the face of the British East India Company's successive completion of the invasion of India, Bhutan, Nepal, and other countries, and the situation of the tiger eyeing the Tibet region, the Qing court realized the importance of Tibet, as the southwest gateway, Tibet is the barrier of Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, and is the key to stabilizing the rear of the western region.
In 1903, the British army directly sent troops to Tibet, forcing the upper echelons of Tibet to sign the "Anglo-Tibetan Lhasa Treaty", which almost negated the actual rule and territorial sovereignty of the Qing court over Tibet, coupled with the British Empire's cultivation of pro-British forces in Tibet, the relationship between the Tibetan regime and the Qing Dynasty became increasingly tense, and the departure of the Dala Lama released a dangerous signal to the Qing court: the centrifugal force of tibet against the central government was rapidly increasing. Chuandu Lu Chuanlin said, "If Britain and Russia fight for Tibet, then the soldiers will be in trouble, and there will be no time." "It is imperative to change the land and return to the stream and strengthen the rule.
2. The internal causes and fuses of the return of land to the land
The toast system, its predecessor is the Tang and Song Dynasties to implement the policy of slavery, China's southwest region has always been a mixed area of ethnic minorities, the customs and culture between various ethnic groups are huge, management is very inconvenient, in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the toast system came into being on the basis of the policy of bondage, the toast system in line with the principle of "yi to control yi" in the early stage of the creation, indeed greatly improved the stability of the southwest ethnic areas, indirectly strengthened the central plains dynasty control over ethnic minority areas.
However, due to the fact that in essence, compared with the provincial system in the interior, there are many drawbacks, with the passage of time of "divide and rule", the Tusi division regime began to appear, resisting the orders of the dprk, which seriously affected the complete consent of the multi-ethnic state and became an obstacle to the division of administrative regions.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Qing government began to implement the strategy of "Guchuan Preservation" in the Sichuan-Tibet region and the New Deal in the Kham region. In 1905, the new minister stationed in Tibet, Feng Quan, and his entourage of more than 50 people were all killed in Batang for forcibly pushing the New Deal, causing shocks in the government and the public.
After this incident, the Qing government put the strategy of "Guchuan Preservation" in the first priority, and began to vigorously promote the implementation of the New Deal in the Kham area, in order to achieve the purpose of "operating the Riverside and supporting Tibet" through the New Deal and the land reform. This policy effectively controlled the contradiction between the pro-British Tibetans and the central government, appeased the already precarious Tibetan region, and indirectly protected national sovereignty.
The Qing government is indeed not a commendable dynasty, and the suffering and humiliation brought by the corruption and incompetence of the late Qing government to modern China cannot be erased, but its control and management of the southwest and northwestern frontiers has preserved the integrity of China's territory to the greatest extent, and unlike the last years of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the Qing government did not abandon the Yunnan-Guizhou Qingjiang region because it had no time to take care of the frontier.
Whether it is Zuo Zongtang's efforts to retake Xinjiang against public opinion, or the New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the vigorous promotion of the return of land to the Tibetan region of Kham, it has made great contributions to consolidating the rule of china's western region, protecting china's southwest region from the invasion of the British Empire, and is of great significance to safeguarding national territorial sovereignty.
Judging from the historical trajectory, the return of land reform not only eliminated most of the stubborn forces of the toastmasters and maintained the national stability and national unity, but also provided experience for the subsequent land reform policy in Tibet and the handling of ethnic minority affairs, which was the last effort made by the Qing government to bring about the integrity and stability of modern China.