Research On The History Of Mining Development Of Guangxi From The Song To Qing Dynasty

As a frontier and ethnic area from time immemorial,Guangxi,where located in remote south China,presented a backward imagine with the underdeveloped productive level,economic and technology.But in the meanwhile,Guangxi was also one of the important production places of metal ores,with a long exploitation history of gold,silver,copper,iron,lead,tin,zinc and mercury.Mineral exploitation received a leaping growth from the Song dynasty as Song’s political and economic centre moved southward and the transition of the reigning idea.From the Song to Qing dynasty,the central dynasties mined in rich deposits and a large part of the minerals were re-distribution in the realm by taxing,tribute,and trading in addition to supplying to the local need,which contributed a lot to the politics and economics of the dynasties.However,the existing researches which focus on the mining history of Guangxi are rare,and lack of comprehensive and deep discussions.This article focuses on the relationship between technological development and society during the mining development of metal ores in Guangxi from the Song to Qing dynasty,and discusses the profound impacts made by mining development on national fusion,the relation between frontier and central dynasties,frontier economics and living,as well as social contradictions,by the methods of literature investigation and fieldwork.It is found that one of the characteristics of the mineral development in Guangxi from the Song to Qing Dynasty is that the dominant minerals have formed the "origin brand",such as "He tin"(tin ore from Hezhou),"Gui powder"(lead powder from Guangxi),and so on.The direct reason for the popularity of the superior minerals is the long-term and continuous mining of the traditional mining areas,and on this basis,the enduring famous mines of the past dynasties have been formed.In addition,new materials were also found in the process of literature collation,which provides valuable materials for the relevant research of the history of mining and metallurgy in Guangxi.Through field investigation,several new mining and metallurgy sites in the northwest of Guangxi,Danchi mining area,were found,such as old working for silver mining at Nandan Mengyingshan,lead-zinc ore mining sites at Nandan Longxianggai,tin mining sites at Nandan Nalao village,and so on.Combined with historical literature,the local characteristics of ancient mining in this region during the Ming and Qing dynasties were easily to be figured out,which are represented by the natural support method and elutriation by water.This article reproduced the inspection route of Xu Xiake to the silver-tin mine in Nandan,which made up for the deficiency of the literature records to a certain extent,and obtained new first-hand data.The large tomb group of miners of the Qing Dynasty found during the field investigation also provides a new observation perspective for understanding the scale of mineral development,population movement,and the living conditions of miners in contemporary Nandan.By sorting out the distribution,minerals and output from the Song to Qing Dynasty,the scale and law of mining development and metallurgy industry of Guangxi in this historical period are comprehensively presented and systematically displayed,which is the basis for in-depth analysis.This article also analyzes the mineral mining and smelting technology,finds out the representative technologies with local characteristics,and discusses their application conditions and technical routes.Through collating the mining management institutions and mining policies,we summarized the different attitudes towards mining industry in the Song and Qing Dynasty,and found that management policies actually implemented in Guangxi,such a minority and frontier area,were usually different from the interior.This paper explored the deep social and historical reasons behind mineral development,reveals its’ unique role in the social and historical process,such as promoting national integration,strengthening the relationship between the border area and central dynasties,promoting the development of frontier economy and culture,as well as to discuss the relationship between mineral development and social contradictions.It concluded that the development of mining industry often reflects the profound social changes.This paper aims to discuss the unique role of mining and metallurgy technology on scientific development and social progress,to explore its’ influence on contemporary social and economic life and the process of civilization,by taking the metal mining development in Guangxi from the Song to Qing Dynasty as the research perspective.