| Since the Pre-Qin Period, ancient people bordering ancient China (known as Hua Xia nation) were named as Dongyi(东夷) "Eastern Barbarians", Xirong (西戎) "Western Barbarians", Nanman (南蛮) "Southern Barbarians and Beidi (北敌) "Northern Barbarians" according to their level of civilization. In which, Nanman mainly referred to the nations to the south of the Yangtse river. Along with the national integration, Hua Xia nation and the Han nation has gradually merged with the so-called "barbarians" in politics, economics and cultural exchange. And barbarians’ mode of production, sense of value and cultural life gradually become identical during frequent communication with the Han people. The so-called "barbarians’" have gradually gained the same recognition as Hua Xia in the ruling dynasties in the Central Plains, becoming one part of the Hua Xia and the ruling dynasty. Therefore, "barbarians" is a historical concept, and the geographic scope was changing all the time. In general, the specific scope of barbarians was shrinking gradually with the effort of ruling dynasty of the central plains and the naturalisation of the barbarians.In the Spring and Autumn Period, JinWenhou started to govern the place of barbarians; in Qin dynasty, Guilin, Nanhai and Xiang County and developed the south of the Five Ridges, gradually strengthening the control of barbarians. From the Warring States to Qin and Han dynasties, although the control over barbarians has been strengthened, the economic development along the Yangtse River was still slow; a lot of places to the south of the Yangtse River were in the hands of the barbarians. Since Wei and Jin dynasties, the development of Jiangnan (regions south of the Yangtze River) speeded up along with the unrest of the central plains and the migration of the Han people, which opened up the progress of transferring the economic and cultural center from north to south. After the Song Dynasty moved its capital to south, Jiangnan’s status as the economic& cultural center was established. The economic and cultural activities developed very fast in Jiangnan, and Fujian which belonged to Barbarian region has gained the name of "seaside cultural mecca" because of its prosperous cultural activities. Therefore, the area of barbarians became smaller. In Ming and Qing dynasties, the barbarian region mainly referred to the border area and remote districts of Yunnan and Guangxi and other southwest provinces.Due to the difference between barbarians and the ruling dynasty of the central plains in culture, sense of value and development, the ruling dynasties often adopted the control& pacification policy towards the barbarians, namely, the governing and defense against barbarians. The "defense against barbarians" (hereinafter referred to as defense) is an objective phenomenon in specific historic background. In the TianXi (everywhere) concept of the ruling dynasty, barbarians not only referred to the southwest national minorities but also dependent states like Burma and Vietnam. Therefore, defense means defense against barbarians within and outside China, mainly including inner defense and frontier defense. In which, frontier defense mainly referred to sino-vietnamese frontier defense and sino-Burmese frontier defense.Inner defense:in order to control the barbarian area, Han and Tang dynasties as well as Ming and Qing dynasties carried out border county system, Jimizhou (national minorities’state) system and Weisuo (military defense) system. Although the control of barbarians has been strengthened all the time, but the control& pacification policy remained the same. In order to strengthen the control of barbarian area, the Qing government sent a lot of troops to defend Guangxi and Yunnan, and spread the basic administrative system and control mode in the barbarian area. After the unrest of three towns, the governing of the barbarian area has become gradually steady. In the early years of Yongzheng, the emperor supported Eretai (the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou) to carry forward the policy of naturalisation in barbarian area. Compared with the Weisuo system of Ming dynasty, there were fewer but wider-distributed Xuntang (outposts), which had a more powerful control over the barbarian area. The policy of naturalisation has reached a new level in governing the barbarian area, a positive interactive mechanism has been established on defense against barbarians, control and development of the barbarian area. From then on, people from the middle and lower reaches of Yangtse River came to live in the barbarian area and developed its economy greatly. In some area, the level of economy and civilization even matched that of the inland.After 1840, the Qing government fell in double crisis of domestic trouble and foreign invasion and its ability to control barbarian area has weakened. Meanwhile, in order to develop sources of raw material and sales market, Britain and France planned to invade the barbarian area of China. After Britain invaded Burma, Britain wanted to invade the Yangtse river basin from Yunnan province; after France Invaded Vietnam, France planned to build a railway from Vietnam to Yunnan or Guangxi. In this context, Britain and France began to strengthen the aggregation of the barbarian area of China. And the old mechanism that used to control this area before 1840 has gradually changed. Because of this, internal defense crisis erupted frequently. In 1856, national minorities uprising erupted in Yunnan. Meanwhile, the troops of the Qing dynasty in Yunan have been greatly reduced. Although the uprising had finally been suppressed by the government, but the control of the Qing government over Yuanan had been weakened greatly. After the opium war, the soldiers reduced from the Guangdong troops by the government went into Guangxi where natural disasters happened constantly, thus banditry was rampant in this area. After Emperor Xianfeng ascended the throne, numberless bandits in Guangxi caused his attention. After one year’s suppression of the bandits by the government, the Congregation of the Worshippers led by Hong Xiuquan gradually developed into a farmer political power which stood as equals up to the Qing government. Even after the demise of the Qing dynasty, bandits in Guangxi were not completed eliminated. After the Sino-France war, the Qing government cut a lot of troops and a lot of dismissed soldiers that were not properly relocated became bandits. Compared with deteriorating barbarian border security situation and the defense crisis, although the inner crisis of defense against barbarians became worse, it was still not a life-and-death problem for the Qing government. After 1840, the main crisis in defense against barbarians was the invasion of Britain and France to China’s neighbors like Vietnam and Burma and the border crisis thereinafter.Before 1840, the Qing government considered neighboring countries like Vietnam and Burma in barbarian area as part of its border defense system. The Qing government may send troops to the dependent state to help suppress the unrest there upon request. And the dependent states (like Vietnam and Burma) presented tributes to the Qing government. In general, the Qing government did not intervene in the domestic affairs of Vietnam and Burma. And the border dispute can be properly resolved between Qing and its dependent states. There were distinct border lines between China and its dependent states, like Vietnam and Burma; the Qing government built a military frontier defense line along the border line. The frontier defense was mainly used to prohibit people from crossing boundaiy illegally instead of defending the invasion by dependent sates.After 1840, along with the invasion of Vietnam and Burma by Britain and France, China’s frontier security situation was greatly changed. After the Sino-France war, Vietnam became the dependent state of France. Afterwards, Britain announced the occupancy of Burma. The suzerain-vassal relationship between China and Vietnam finished, so did the relationship between China and Burma. The frontier defense system of the Qing dynasty totally collapsed. In 1885 or so, the Yunnan& Guizhou governor and Guangxi commander-in-chief were appointed by the Qing government to reform the army, purchase new weapon and open military school, thus to strengthen the frontier defense of the barbarian area. Besides, at the end of the Qing dynasty, the government also promoted new policy in the barbarian area, such as immigration, revitalization of business, modern education, etc., raising the development of the barbarian area to a whole new level.The defense against barbarian should be built on the basis of the positive interaction between frontier construction, border control and development. After 1840, the defense security mechanism of the Qing government was damaged by the domestic trouble and foreign invasion. After 1885, a brand new but difficult reconstruction progress started in the barbarian area, which made a great contribution to the security and stabilization of the barbarian area. |
PDF Full Text Request