Research On Social Issues In Yunnan And Guizhou Area In The Early Period Of Qing Dynasty

Based on historical research methods,using social control theory as a reference and sociological perspective,this paper aims to explore the social issues in Yunnan and Guizhou areas in the early Qing Dynasty,including land issues,Tusi problems,migrants problems,recession of mining industry,human trafficking and illegal salt trafficking.Moreover,the process of guidance,regulation,restriction and blocking conducted by Qing government and the experience gained towards the above issues are analyzed and summarized.This paper argues that the existence of frontier society highly relies on social problems.It is,therefore,necessary to adopt "problem consciousness" and "problem oriented" methods,which revive and analyze frontier society and its history by putting forward,analyzing and solving social problems,while researching on their emergence,development,evolution,eruption,control and elimination,to summarize the historical experience and lessons.Land is one of the most important natural resources for human survival and development.Land issues in the early Qing Dynasty in Yunnan and Guizhou wereextraordinarily acute.After the autocracy of Guizhou by Wu Sangui,Mu's old village has been converted into Wu's "Fan" village.Arces of land were occupied by Tusi,while low caste possessed less or no land.Social crisis evoked by increasing conflicts of land possession could be triggered at any moment.In this context,the Qing government carried out effective social control on land issues,including large-scale reclamation operated from the beginning of Shunzhi period,abolishment of manor land,reform on Tun-tian and promotion of military tillage in Kangxi period,and continuous control of land issues after "bureaucratization of native officers" in Yongzheng period.The Yun-Gui area(Yunnan and Guizhou)is located in the southwest frontier,a habitation of wide range of ethnic minorities with important geographical significance.Thus,Tusi problems accounted for a nonnegligible role while dealing with ethnic and social problems of Yunnan and Guizhou.In the early-middle period of Qing Dynasty the increasingly serious illegitimacy of Tusi and its social harms became the main reason of"bureaucratization of native officers".To solve Tusi problems in certain areas,Qing government conducted comprehensive management approaches which achieved good treatment effect under the control of feedforward,pressure,regulation and cultivation aspects.Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasty,especially Qing Dynasty,a large nonnative population immigrated to areas of Yunnan and Guizhou.The immigration types included military,reclamation,mining,promotion,relegation and spontaneous immigration,etc.In addition to the positive impacts on local economic growth,the immigration largely aggravated the conflicts between the aborigines and migrants,and the complexity of local ethnic issues,which exerted significant negative effect on the social stability of Yunnan and Guizhou.The Qing government adopted tough means,including case accordingly punishment,partition governance,Bao-jia system control,injunction setting,military readiness and repression with military force,and soft approaches,for instance,marriage between the natives and migrants,trading,moralization to carry on the effective control.Illegal salt trafficking in Yunnan and human trafficking in Guizhou were crimes in Qing Dynasty.After several rounds of salt administration replacement,illegal salt trafficking with long-standing record developed from alienation of "official superintend and merchant selling" in the early period of Qing Dynasty to "official transporting and selling" in the late Kangxi period.By early period of Jiaqing,salt administration in Yunnan converted to " private transporting and selling" mode.In this period,since illegal salt trafficking was rampant,the Qing government established policies and laws to control it.Human trafficking is also rampant in Guizhou in the Qing Dynasty.Despite adopting diverse measures,including fortification,severe striking,rewards and punishments to officials,and law punishment to prohibit,the governors of the Qing Dynasty failed to eliminate human trafficking.The slavery in Qing Dynasty and locally high levels of kidnapping,robbery and murder incidents retarded the extinction of human trafficking.Both the copper mining industry of Yunnan and the lead mining industry of Guizhou in Qing Dynasty experienced from zenith to decline,which was called the"Reversal".Due to the increasing cost of mining and smelting,energy crisis,transportation difficulties,expense beyond income,and serious scalping behavior,Yunnan Copper of Qing Dynasty was on the wane.Therefore,the Qing government took measures,such as controlling the cost,widely searching for subsidiary factories,raising the price of copper,improving transportation and exempting debts,to save the declining tendency of Yunnan Copper.Although these measures did work in a short term,they were unable to reverse the decline of Yunnan Cooper.In the middle-late stages of Qing Dynasty,the lead mining industry of Guizhou also showed a declining trend.The primary reasons are the increasing cost of mining production,the undervalued official price,the impact of official corruption,the abuse of private mining and selling,natural disasters,over-exploitation and closing of the mines.The Qing government took measures,such as controlling the cost,censoring and cleaning private mines,raising the lead price,and reducing the mining tax,to save this decline,but all is over.Then the former workers in the mining and related industry gradually lost their jobs,and these unemployed workers thus became an important force to rebel against the government.After integrating with the uprising civil commotion in the late Qing Dynasty,this unemployment problem further exacerbated the ruling crisis of the late Qing Dynasty government.On the basis of the research results,this paper draws the following conclusion.First,the Qing government's awareness of social problems and its capability of social control in the southwest frontier deserves further studies.Second,chronicity,regionality,complexity and acuteness are characteristic of the social problems of Yunnan and Guizhou in the Qing Dynasty.Third,Qing government has taken a variety of means to control the social issues in the Yunnan and Guizhou areas.Fourth,the Qing government has implemented flexible social control strategies to handle the social problems of Yunnan and Guizhou.Fifth,the control and governance of theQing government on social problems in Yunnan and Guizhou has exposed certain level of historical limitations.Sixth,the understanding of social problems and social control of Qing government in Yunnan and Guizhou has important significance to the contemporary China.