Study On The Opium Problem In The Alxa Region During The Republican Period

Since the Opium War of 1840,opium cultivation,trafficking and smoking have been rampant,and the resulting disputes and harms of interest have run through the entire modern history of China.Until the Nanjing National Government during the Republic of China,the central government issued many laws prohibiting opium in order to eliminate the social harm caused by opium.The result was unsatisfactory.Even with the deepening of the smoking ban in the coast and the interior,opium cultivation has penetrated into remote and backward areas such as the northwest.So far,as one of the important issues in the history of modern Chinese society,the opium problem has been concerned and studied by many scholars.However,most of the research results only focus on the coastal and inland areas where population is concentrated.There is no in-depth study on the opium problem in the sparsely populated and remote arid western Inner Mongolia based on the use of local archives.Based on previous studies and related literature,this article collects and uses original files to the maximum extent,in order to fully explore the opium problem in the Alxa region during the Republic of China period.Based on the historical time sequence,the article analyzes and expounds the spread of opium poisoning in the area,a series of smoking ban policies implemented by the central government,and the local smoking ban policies and practices in the region.During the Republic of China,opium was rampant in the Alxa region,and opium cultivation,smoking,and trafficking became a common phenomenon in society.Many government documents at various levels contain a lot of opium cultivation and taxation.Since Alxa Banner was under the jurisdiction of Ningxia Province at that time,most of the contents of the archives related to the anti-smoking mentality and actions of officials at all levels in Ningxia Province.It also reflected the panic and the economic decline of the people in Alxa.Although the government has implemented various anti-smoking measures,the effects have always been unsatisfactory,and opium has been banned.This has a profound relationship with the huge profits brought by opium,the contradictory mentality of those in power,the special administrative system,the unique geographical environment,and the historical environment of warlord separatism in various parts of China.