West Anhui Society Under The Impact Of Wars During The Reign Of Xianfeng And Tongzhi

West Anhui is located between the Yangtze River and Huai River with superior natural environment and abundant products.It has both important economic status and important military status.Before the reign of emperor Xianfeng of Qing Dynasty,business and trade here were prosperous,market towns,guild halls and other places for commercial activities were widely distributed,cultural facilities such as schools,academies,temples were basically perfect,and local social economy and culture were running smoothly.However,during the reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi,due to its unique geographical location,West Anhui has long been the target of the Taiping Army,the Nian Army,Qing Army,Miao-Lian and other forces,there have been nearly 30 wars on different scales in the six prefectures and counties of the territory,important towns have repeatedly fallen and been repeatedly occupied between the warring parties,causing serious impact on the local society.The disaster during the reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi directly destroyed a large number of infrastructure facilities in the West Anhui.Many houses and ancestral temples were demolished and burned,and the warring parties looted the villagers to supplement the grain and military supplies,the water conservancy project represented by Shaopi was severely damaged artificially,which endangered the normal operation of local agricultural production.Education places such as schools,academies and examination sheds,religious activities places such as temples,and public infrastructures such as roads and bridges were severely damaged,which not only led to the sharp decline of culture and education of West Anhui,but also paralyzed the spiritual and cultural life of the local people.The long-term chaos of war even damaged the government infrastructure such as city walls,government offices and warehouses of prefectures and counties in the West Anhui severely,weakened the ruling power of local governments and aggravated the social unrest.The disaster during the reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi caused a great impact on the population in West Anhui.The people either died or fled in the region,which directly led to a sharp decline in the population of six prefectures and counties,andthe range of population decline of some prefectures and counties even reached 50%after the war.The local education was obviously affected by the war during the reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi period.The number of Jinshi,Juren and Gongsheng decreased significantly during the war period,but recovered after the war,the curve of the number of talents was the shape of “concave” as a whole,among which the Jinshi group was obviously affected by the war,followed by the Juren Group,and the Gongsheng group had the least influence.During this period,the changes in different prefectures and counties were slightly different.At the same time,influenced by the war,the talents structure presented the characteristics of civil flourish and martial decadence.During the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reign time,the whole Anhui economy suffered great damage,and the West Anhui region could not be spared.The disaster of the war led to the desolation of a large number of local farmland,the reduction of the cultivated land area,the limited cultivated land was always merged by the bully,and the gradual decrease of the amount of mu per capita.In addition,with the continuous increase of the total amount of land tax collection,local agricultural taxes are greatly affected.After the war,the total amount of monetary taxes and physical taxes in West Anhui decreased significantly,while the unit amount of monetary collection(the amount of money per mu)and the unit amount of physical collection(the amount of grain production per mu)increased obviously,seriously restricting the development of local agricultural economy.The long-term war made the number of market towns in West Anhui decrease by more than 50% compared with those before the war;The guild halls built here in various places were seriously destroyed,and Guanque represented by Zhengyangguan was occupied by local forces for a long time,the commercial economy of the whole western Anhui region was severely impacted.