The County Boundary Demarcation Of Zhejiang Province During The Republic Of China:1927-1949

Before modern times,due to the relatively rare official demarcation activities,the boundaries of administrative regions at all levels in China basically existed in the form of customary lines.After its establishment,the Nanjing National Government promulgated the "Regulations on Provincial,Municipal,and County Demarcation" and "Outline of County Administrative Region Arrangement Measures".This means that the government plan to carry out the boundary demarcation of provincial,municipal and county and county administrative region arrangement throughout the country.Before the central decrees were promulgated,some counties and cities in Zhejiang Province had begun delimitation activities in land consolidation and autonomous area division.After the second half of 1930,this work developed into a provincial and county boundary division that was led by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Civil Affairs.The demarcation standards and drafting standards were gradually institutionalized and standardized.By 1937,the large-scale demarcation activities of Zhejiang Province had ended.After that,the demarcation work focused on dealing with specific border disputes.In this work,Zhejiang Province had dealt with a large number of border disputes and outstanding historical issues.Precise legal boundaries had begun to form between counties.Therefore,Zhejiang was regarded as a model province for the boundary demarcation work during the Republic of China.Based on the overall grasp of the historical background and development context of the demarcation work in Zhejiang Province,this article selects typical cases for special research according to the different types of focus issues and boundary disputes.The thematic studies from chapter 2 to chapter 6 discuss the demarcation process and dispute handling of cross-border market towns,Chahua areas and enclaves,disputes over land rights,water controversies and sea islands.The case studies show that realizing the transformation from market area into political region was the main demand of cross-border towns,and competition for market interests was an important reason for cross-border market disputes.The adjustment of Chahua areas and enclaves involved the dispute over the principle of the household register and the principle of the residential status.Local governments tried to reduce resistance by adapting administrative transfer procedures or delaying the delimitation,but this may caused new problems.The basic idea of Zhejiang Province in handling disputes over land rights and water conservancy in the process of demarcation was to distinguish dispute adjustment from demarcation work.This treatment strategy had different effects in different cases,reflecting the complex relationship between administrative boundaries and land property boundaries,as well as the border consciousness of the Water Conservancy Alliance.The dispute over the island jurisdiction was a major problem in the demarcation of sea areas.The demarcation of sea areas had objectively promoted the development of island areas.To sum up,the final conclusion is that the implementation of the country boundary demarcation in Zhejiang Province during the Nanjing National Government gave expression to the expansion and infiltration of state power,which was the reflection of the reform of local administrative system.The administrative boundary changed from the traditional customary line to the legal line recorded in the official archives,which not only clarified the jurisdiction of county-level administrative districts,but also made the basic administrative divisions into a unit of administrative boundaries and geographical boundaries.In the process,the Zhejiang Provincial Government’s demarcation laws were often challenged by "public opinion",and the county government often used "public opinion" as a means of dealing with superior government officials,grassroots people and local elites.Localism,narrow local consciousness and clan consciousness were the main obstacles to the implementation of the demarcation work,as unsolved problems in the governance of grass-roots society in the Republic of China.