A Study On Yunnan Water Conservancy In Qing Dynasty

Based on the understanding that there were almost mountains, nearly no water transport in Yunnan, so water conservancy specially should be considered, the Qing central and Yunnan local government attached much importance to Yunnan’s water conservancy and achieved remarkable successes in building scope and degree of water conservancy. The progresses in Yunnan’s water conservancy which surpassed the previous dynasties not only promoted the social and economic developments in Yunnan, but also accelerated the social stabilization and consolidated the Qing central ruling in south-west bordering areas. Therefore, the systematic and deep-going research on Yunnan’ s water conservancy in Qing dynasty will facilitate to broaden and deepen the study on the history of south-west bordering areas in China and the local history of Yunnan. The Chinese existing researches on water conservancy focused on the Yellow River, the Huaihe River, the Haihe River, the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and coastal regions. Considering the academic background, the study on the development of water conservancy in Yunnan where water conservancy resources were rich but complicated, and there were many nationalities, will change the unbalanced situation in research regions of Chinese water conservancy history, and also will develop the new study room and types of the Chinese water conservancy history. Meanwhile, the drought and floods in some districts were still the major constraints of the ethnic groups’livelihood and production in Yunnan, from my subjective intentions, I hope the thesis will provide an useful reference to Yunnan’s water conservancy building.Although modern Yunnan’s water conservancy research already began in the twentieth century thirties, but the study results were not abundant. The researches in negligible quantity mainly centralized on the dredging Dianchi Lake conservancy and channels of Jinsha River guided by the local officials as E ertai and Zhang yunsui during the reign of Yongzheng and Qianlong. The complete and clear cognition of Yunnan’s water conservancy development in Qing dynasty has not been achieved, and the necessary researches have not been carried out such as the developing process and space distribution of Yunnan’s water conservancy in Qing dynasty, the intention of the regulations about water conservancy building and management, the principles and regulations of utilizing water. In view of this, basing on the existing study achievements and literature collection as possible as I can, the thesis made an exploratory research in Yunnan’s water conservancy history from the year of1659(Shunzhi16th year) when Qing dynasty controlled Yunnan to the year of1911(Xuantong3rd year) when Qing dynasty was destroyed.The thesis included five parts. In the five chapters, the thesis discussed and explained the following questions, including the natural conditions and social historical basis of Yunnan’s water conservancy development, the central and Yunnan local governors’cognition about Yunnan’s water conservancy, relative policies, officeholder institution and time-space distribution of Yunnan’s water conservancy, some typical water conservancy projects according to the regions, fund sources and fund-raising of Yunnan’s water conservancy building, some special types of water conservancy, the regulations and methods of the distribution and utilization of the water resources.Through the above efforts, the thesis made some new progresses in the study of the Yunnan’s water conservancy.Firstly, the developing situation of Yunnan’s water conservancy in Qing dynasty was showed systematically and completely in the thesis. In accordance with five Annals of Yunnan which were drew up respectively in the reign of the Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng, Daoguang, Guangxu and in the period of Republic of China, the Yunnan Water Conservancy Engineering Statistics form of Qing dynasty counted the quantity of Yunnan’s water conservancy in the five above mentioned periods according to the different prefectures and counties, and concretely revealed the time and space changes of Yunnan’s water conservancy in Qing dynasty based on the above data.Secondly, the development of water conservancy and the typical irrigation works in Yunnan different regions were researched according to the four large Management agencies set by Qing dynasty, the grain Management agency, the East Management agency, the West Management agency and the South Management agency. So the understanding about the development of Yunnan’s water conservancy was deepened greatly.Thirdly, the implementation of the part-title institution in Yunnan which was the distinguishing feature and the key problem of the water conservancy managing institution in Qing dynasty was studied thoroughly and systematically. The part-title institution of water conservancy management has been mentioned in the existing researches, but it has not been studied specialized. The backgrounds of the emergence and the implementation of the institution, the time, the official-holder, the scope and the mechanism were studied initially, and the implementation of the institution in Yunnan also was investigated in the thesis. In order to cast a brick to attract jade, the above discussion will promote the further researches on the important problem.Finally, based on the whole province, the special water conservancy facilities such as earthworm irrigation and soap tank irrigation, the special method of water resource utilization and management as distributing water and irrigating in turn, and also the fund raising and using methods of water conservancy building were discussed and concluded in the thesis.