In the early period of the Qing Dynasty, due to the unification of the country and the prosperity of the economy, exchanges between the people of all ethnic groups in the border areas and inland areas were facilitated, the development of the border areas and the progress of ethnic minority societies were promoted, and the living standards of the people were improved.
1. The development of border areas in the early Qing Dynasty
The northeast region is an area where the Manchus and Han and Mongolian ethnic groups are mixed, and the war in the late Ming Dynasty led to a sharp decline in the population of eastern Liaoning. In the second year of the Apocalypse (1622), Guangning fell, and the Ming Dynasty soldiers and civilians fled to Guannei in large numbers. "The gate of Shanhaiguan was closed day and night, and the army and civilians collapsed and 2.8 million people collapsed."
In the sixth year (1626), the whole of Liao fell, the retreat route to the customs was cut off, the Ming Dynasty subjects were "hundreds of thousands" before and after the Korean people, and the population of Liaodong was almost empty. After the Qing army entered the customs, the Manchurian tribes "entered the customs from the dragon" one after another, making the area more sparsely populated.
Faced with the dispersion of the population and the desolation of the fields, the Qing Dynasty had to take active measures to recruit displaced people and resume production.
In the tenth year of Shunzhi (1653), the Liaodong Zhengmin Reclamation Decree was promulgated, rewarding the Han people in the Guan to come to the Guan for reclamation. However, in the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, under the pretext of protecting the so-called "Longxing" important land, he brazenly designated the northeast as a forbidden area, restricted the Han people from leaving the customs, and forbade the Han people to reclaim an extra mu and increase their household outside the customs.
Later, the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties also implemented a policy of blockade, "clearing the household registration every three years, and expelling all non-indigenous people."
On the other hand, it also increased the taxes paid by the displaced people, "according to the inland areas, and increased them as appropriate", "to eliminate the disadvantages of the displaced people's possession."
Although the ban is strict, Han people still have an endless stream of customs exits. Poor peasant households in Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and other places, forced by their livelihoods, broke through the obstructions of the Qing government, foraged for food outside the country, and braved the ban on reclamation.
Although the Han people owned a large area of land, they "never learned to cultivate" and "hired long-term workers to help them make a living." Most of these long-term workers are Han Chinese from Kannai.
In order to increase their own income from exploitation, local officials were not enthusiastic about the ban, and "always put the displaced people on the pretext that they had already gathered together and were suddenly expelled, but they were still placed on the register."
In the eleventh year of Qianlong (1746), he issued an edict accusing Yin Huobei of Fengtian Prefecture of "not prohibiting it, causing the number of people to leave the customs to increase to tens of thousands, which is still unknown."
This phenomenon is by no means unique. Han Chinese went in large groups to engage in reclamation, helping, and trade activities outside the customs. According to statistics, in the sixth year of Qianlong (1741), the newly organized population of each subordinate of Mukden was only more than 13,800, and by the forty-sixth year (1781), it had increased to more than 390,000.
In the early years of the Yongzheng Dynasty, there were more than 85,300 hectares of banner land and people's land in Mukden, which increased to more than 156,700 hectares in the forty-fifth year of Qianlong (1780).
Other places such as Jilin, Heilongjiang and other places have also increased significantly in population and the number of reclaimed land, with the reclamation of land, economic development, population growth, Changchun, Jilin, Ningguta and other towns gradually formed, of which Jilin used to be a shipyard, "building wood for the city, relying on the river to live".
At the time of the Kangxi Dynasty, "Middle-earth flowed into more than a thousand homes, Xiguan Department Store gathered, Qiting Theater, all of them".
Mongolia was also closed for a long time due to the Qing Dynasty's policy of ethnic segregation, but a large number of Han working people, forced by life, still crossed the border from the interior to earn a living.
North of the Rehe River, no Han people settled in the early Qing Dynasty, and more than 500,000 people had gathered in the last years of Qianlong. The migration of Han people from the interior to the outside of the country is an irresistible historical trend.
By the time of Jiaqing, the Qing Dynasty had to admit this fait accompli, and all parts of Mongolia "allowed it to recruit people (referring to the Han people) for reclamation."
Mongolia has always been dominated by animal husbandry, and agricultural production is very backward.
In the area of the Rehe River, the Mongolian people "not only sow seeds, but then go out to nomadic hunting, and the autumn harvest is returned, and the art of cultivation is not mentioned, it is said to rely on the heavenly field."
With the influx of Han people in large numbers, advanced production technologies and tools from the interior were brought with them, gradually changing the backward appearance of local agriculture, greatly improving production and expanding the cultivated land area. The development of agriculture has played a good role in adjusting and promoting the livestock economy, and herders no longer need to exchange various agricultural products from the Central Plains through mutual markets and other channels as in the past, but can get food, fodder and other agricultural products supplies in the nearest area.
At the same time, trade exchanges between the Han and Mongolian peoples also developed, and towns such as Naturalization, Zhangjiakou, and Duolunnuoer all arose during this period.
The naturalized city was already densely populated during the Kangxi Dynasty, with merchants and merchants, and by the time of Qianlong, a new city was built and became a major metropolis outside Cyprus. Zhangjiakou, "where the cattle and horses in the hinterland are taken from here, and the people on the right side of Jia Duo Mountain, the export rate is exchanged for tea and cloth", and it has also become an important town.
In the vast area north and south of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang, for a long time, the Uyghurs and the Han, Mongolian and Manchu ethnic groups have jointly reclaimed the country, bringing about the development of production and economic prosperity.
2. Development of border areas
In order to solve the problem of military food for border garrisons, the Qing Dynasty set up military camps in Kebudo, Ulan Gumu and other places in Inner Mongolia as early as the last year of the Kangxi Dynasty. Since then, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang and other places have been prosperous, of which Xinjiang has the largest scale and the most significant economic benefits.
Xinjiang's tuntian takes various forms: military tung, the purpose of which is to provide military food. Each soldier had 100 soldiers, each of whom cultivated 20 acres of land, and officials were given seeds and cattle tools.
The tun soldiers are all Yongtun with their families, and the vast majority of them are green camp soldiers. According to Qianlong's 40th year (1775), there were 13,900 soldiers in Xinjiang.
In the forty-second year (1777), more than 60,000 mu of land was reclaimed on the South Tianshan Road, and more than 227,000 mu on the North Road. Mintun (Hutun), recruiting Han Chinese from the interior to come to Xinjiang for reclamation and collect rent.
Each household is given 30 acres of land, and it has its own seeds and cattle tools, and collects five cents of silver or eight liters of tenant grain per year. According to Qianlong's statistics over the past 40 years, more than 700,000 mu of land has been reclaimed in various parts of Xinjiang. Hutun is limited to Tianshan North Road.
Shangtun, investment to reclaim land, one side of reclamation, the other side of business. Huitun is concentrated in the Ili area, and the tunhu are all Hui from Wush, Yarkand, Hetian, Hami, Turpan and other places.
According to the statistics of the thirty-third year of Qianlong (1768), there were 6,383 households. Prisoners from the interior were exiled to Xinjiang Tuntian, where each person was given 20 acres of land, and officials were given seeds and cattle tools, and each year received six stone of grain. The number of prisoners sent to the cantonment is about 2,500 stone per year.
Qitun is composed of eight banner soldiers garrisoned in the cities of Ili Huiyuan and Huining, including Man, Meng, Xibe, Solun, Chahar, and Erut, and one soldier cultivates 34 acres of land, forever for the world, self-cultivation and self-food, and does not pay grain rent.
The reclamation of Xinjiang in the Qing Dynasty was an important measure to consolidate the frontier. Military deployment is combined with the establishment of reclamation, and military cantonments are set up in all military garrisons, as long as natural conditions are possible.
In particular, the method of allowing the garrison to bring their families and allocating cultivated land can not only encourage the soldiers to guard the frontiers with peace of mind, but also solve the employment of their families, which is conducive to the development of agricultural production.
Another characteristic of Xinjiang's tuntian is that military and civilian settlements develop at the same time, and among the civilian settlements, the people of all ethnic groups are intertwined with each other.
The close ties between the peoples of all ethnic groups in agricultural production and commodity exchange are conducive to the integration of ethnic groups. The stationing of border troops to resist foreign aggression and the solidarity and cooperation of the people of all ethnic groups as its backing is of great strategic significance for consolidating the northwestern frontier.
Xinjiang's reclamation has achieved very good results, first of all, it has ensured the supply of military grain; since the establishment of Xinjiang, the rations of the Xinjiang garrison have basically been guaranteed, and the army has achieved self-sufficiency in grain, saved labor costs for long-distance transportation, and lightened the people's burden.
Secondly, reclamation brought about the development and prosperity of the frontier. Reclamation has promoted local water conservancy construction, and under the organization of military reclamation, the collective labor force can play a role in water conservancy construction, far from the same number of scattered individual laborers.
Since the military tun and the civilian tun are intertwined, the water conservancy built for the military tun also brings benefits to the civilian tun. In addition, production tools and production technology were imported for the needs of reclamation.
The large number of immigrants from the interior not only supplemented the shortage of local labor, but more importantly, brought advanced agricultural technology from the Central Plains, which played an important role in rapidly changing the backward appearance of local agriculture.
The development of agriculture has brought economic prosperity, and the rise of villages, shops, towns and stations has sprung up in the territory.
Many famous towns in Xinjiang, such as Urumqi, Zhenxi, Balikun, Gongning, Huiyuan, Aksu, etc., developed during this period.
In the 37th year of Qianlong (1772), Wen Shou, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, said after inspecting all parts of Xinjiang: "Balikun, inside and outside the Zhenxicheng Pass, merchants and Jia Bijia. "Urumqi merchants are more prosperous than Balikun City."
New commercial cities are taking shape, and Urumqi and nearby Dihua and Gongning, "the city is close to each other, shoulder to shoulder, compared to the wind of Wuhui."
"The nine cities of Ili, Huiyuan is the largest, the five tracks of the vast Ququ, the Brut people drive 100,000 cattle and sheep and Kara Mingjing and other things into the city and mutual market, easy brick tea, cloth to return. Those who travel in the West are easy to eat, and the people are prosperous."
Others, such as Aksu, Chinese and foreign businessmen gather stars, "every time the gathering period, people rub shoulders, cars hit the hub, goods are like clouds, and the days are noisy", presenting a prosperous scene that has never been seen in the past.
After the Qing Dynasty unified Taiwan, it further strengthened the ties between Taiwan and the mainland, and the Han people on the mainland continued to move into Taiwan, bringing advanced production tools and living technology, which greatly promoted the development of local agriculture.
The mountain people "also know that the importance of crops is the priority, and all the old land in the society is cultivated with grass and grass, and the countryside is cultivated. Those who were concerned about its drought and flood also learned from the Han people to build Zhen, digging from the inner mountains and diverting streams for irrigation. Every inch of soil is a piece of ointment."
Some areas "cultivated such as ox carts, ploughs, and rakes, with the Han people."
Commercial trade between Taiwan and the mainland also developed greatly during the Qing Dynasty. The mountain people often "traded iron and gunpowder with the Han for deer hunting." ”
The Han people exchanged items such as "beads, rice, wuqing cloth, and iron" for the native products of the mountain people, "deer breast, deer tendon, deer skin, and zhuogo pattern".
The natives "are good at weaving blankets, dyeing the bark of five-colored dog hair and miscellaneous trees, and the land is as intricate as brocade, and the quality is also delicate, and people from all over the world want to buy it, but they often can't get it."
There was also a new atmosphere in culture and education, and the Qing Dynasty set up many schools in Taiwan to encourage the children of the mountain tribe to enroll. "Fantong, who recite the scriptures and read, and practice the arts, should have a scientific examination for the elderly, and be in the land of etiquette and religion."
It is not difficult to see that the spread of Han culture has played a positive role in changing the backward cultural appearance of the local people.
In the course of jointly developing Taiwan for a long time, the Gaoshan and Han people have established a fraternal friendship, such as "the half-line community has formed a vice retreat with the Han people, and the vice recliner alliance brothers are also."
There are also many intermarriages between the two peoples. "Naturalized fannu also have those who are wives and rooms with Han people, and their contacts are very close."