XIKANG: HAN CHINESE IN SICHUAN’S WESTERN FRONTIER, 1905-1949. by Joe Lawson A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chinese Victoria University of Wellington 2011 Abstract This thesis is about Han Chinese engagement with the ethnically diverse highlands west and south-west of the Sichuan basin in the first half of the twentieth century. This territory, which includes much of the Tibetan Kham region as well as the mostly Yi- and Han-settled Liangshan, constituted Xikang province between 1939 and 1955. The thesis begins with an analysis of the settlement policy of the late Qing governor Zhao Erfeng, as well as the key sources of influence on it. Han authority suffered setbacks in the late 1910s, but recovered from the mid-1920s under the leadership of General Liu Wenhui, and the thesis highlights areas of similarity and difference between the Zhao and Liu periods. Although contemporaries and later historians have often dismissed the attempts to build Han Chinese- dominated local governments in the highlands as failures, this endeavour was relatively successful in a limited number of places. Such success, however, did not entail the incorporation of territory into an undifferentiated Chinese whole. Throughout the highlands, pre-twentieth century local institutions, such as the wula corvée labour tax in Kham, continued to exercise a powerful influence on the development and nature of local and regional government. The thesis also considers the long-term life (and death) of ideas regarding social transformation as developed by leaders and historians of the highlands. Xikang: Han Chinese in Sichuan’s Western Frontier, 1905-1949. Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………………………….. i Maps……………………………….……………………………..……… ii Abbreviations used in this thesis ……………..…….……………..……. v Measures and currencies ………………………….…………….…....…. vi Romanization ………………….……………………………….….…… viii Introduction ………………..………………………………….….……… 1 Chapter One: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Chinese Authority in the Sichuan frontier, 1905-1949 …………………………………….………. 23 Chapter Two: Development Visions and Policy, 1905-1911 ……………. 5 Chapter Three: Continuity and Change in the Republican Period ………. 88 Chapter Four: Corvée Labour and the Development of the Regional and Local Chinese Authority in Kham …...………………………………… 123 Chapter Five: Conflict, Security and Ethnicity in Liangshan…….……. 163 Chapter Six: Han Migrants in the Frontier, 1905-1949……………….. 194 Chapter Seven: Visions of Transformation: Culture and Politics on the Frontier, 1905-2010 ……………...………............................................... 228 Conclusion ……………………….…………………………………….. 265 Glossary of names for places and ethnic groups ………….……………. 280 Bibliography …………………………………….……………………… 284 i Acknowledgements First and foremost, I am indebted to Brian Moloughney, who introduced me to Chinese history, and has guided my work on this project as a mentor and a friend. I was lucky to have the help of someone so astute, meticulous, unassuming and generous with his time. I am very grateful to the following people, who have also made very significant contributions toward this project, either by reading and commenting on sections of it, or by assisting me in the hunt for sources or with coming to grips with Qing official-ese: James Leibold, James Belich, Duncan Campbell, Richard Phillips, 王川, 张学君, 柯伟明 and 邹立波. In addition, I have benefited greatly from conversations with and encouragement from people who are too numerous to name in their entirety. I am particularly grateful to Lewis Mayo, Pauline Keating, James Beattie, Alexander Maxwell, Justin Tighe, Geremie Barmé, 曹润青, Limin Bai and Lize. Institutionally, funding from Victoria University of Wellington and the New Zealand Asian Studies Society enabled me to undertake this research. Finally, I wish to thank my students, teachers, and friends in China, who made my years in their country so great. And my parents, who always supported me with everything I wanted to do. ii Map 1: Sketch map with main places referred to in this thesis. Map 2: Ren Naiqiang’s sketch map of Xikang, showing territory controlled by Liu Wenhui’s regional government in 1933, as well as “lost” territory and territory Liu planned to include. (With labels translated by Lawson). Source: Ren Naiqiang 任乃強, Xikang tujing: jingyu pian 西康 圖經：境域篇, (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1933), 82-83. Map 3: Topographical Map of China Source: Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy eds., The Cambridge History of Ancient China, volume 1, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999). v Abbreviations used in this thesis AJH: An juan hao 案卷号 (folder reference number in Sichuan Provincial Archives catalogue system). CKSB: Guomin canzheng hui. Chuan kang jianshe shicha tuan 國民參政會. 川康建設視察團, ed. Guomin canzhenghui Chuan-Kang jianshe shichatuan baogao shu 國民參政會川康建設視察團報告書. Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe youxian gongsi, 1971 [1939]. JKDZ: Sichuan sheng dang'an guan 四川省档案馆, and Sichuan minzu yanjiu suo 四川民族研究所, eds. Jindai Kang qu dang'an ziliao xuanbian 近代康区档案资料选编. Chengdu: Sichuan daxue chubanshe, 1990. SCDAG: Sichuan sheng dang’an guan 四川省档案馆 (Sichuan Provincial Archives). SYSD: Zhongguo shaoshu minzu shehui lishi diaocha ziliao congkan' xiuding bianji weiyuanhui 《中国少数民族社会历史调查资料丛 刊》修订编辑委员会, ed. Sichuan sheng Liangshan Yizu shehui lishi diaocha (zonghe baogao) 四川省凉山彝族社会历史调查（综合报 告）. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 2009. QCBD: Sichuan minzu yanjiu suo 四川民族研究所, ed. Qing mo Chuan Dian bianwu dang'an shi liao 清末川滇边务档案史料. 3 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989. QZH: Quan zong hao 全宗号: (organization reference number in Sichuan Provincial Archives catalogue system). ZYDZ: Chongqing Zhongguo yinhang diaocha zuzhi 重慶中國銀行調查組 織 (Chongqing Bank of China Research Group) vi Measures and Currencies Money At least five different units are used in the sources for this thesis. -Copper cash, (wen 文): The small unit of currency in imperial China. -Tael, (liang 兩): A weight of silver; a unit of account rather than a currency. The exchange rate between copper cash and taels of silver varied significantly over time and space. 1,000 copper cash per tael is a hypothetical average. -Dayang yuan (大洋元): Often translated as “silver dollar”, but more literally “foreign coins”. These coins in circulation in many parts of China. In Sichuan the normal silver content was .72 taels, so one dayang yuan was worth 2.25 Tibetan yuan.1 -Tibetan yuan, (Zang yang yuan 藏洋元): A currency produced by the late Qing government in an attempt to prevent the circulation of Indian rupees in Tibet, circulation appears to have been confined to Kham.2 The Tibetan yuan normally had a silver content of .32 taels. So one Tibetan yuan was worth .45 dayang yuan. -Fabi 法幣: Literally “legal tender”, this was the currency issued by the Guomindang. According to the China Agricultural Bank, Han local authorities in Xikang tended to use Tibetan yuan rather than fabi.3 In 1935, one dayang yuan was worth .8 fabi, but the fabi underwent hyperinflation after 1939. 1 Yang Jianwu 杨健吾, "Minguo shiqi kangqu de jinrong caizheng 民国时期康区的金融 财政," Xizang yanjiu 西藏研究 no. 3 (2006), 103. 2 Ibid. 3 Zhong Mu 钟穆, "Minguo shiqi de Zangyang zhuzao 民国时期的藏洋铸造," In Ganzi Zhou wenshi ziliao, no. 14 甘孜州文史资料，第十四辑, ed., Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi Ganzi Zangzu zizhizhou weiyuanhui 中国人民政治协商会议甘孜藏族自 治州委员会, (Kangding: Kangding xian yinshua chang, 1996), 83. vii Volume measures Grain volumes are measured in shi 石, which contain 10 dou 斗. In imperial and republican China, the size of these units was not standard throughout the country. An eastern Chinese shi of grain weighed approximately 75 kg, while in Sichuan a shi was usually double this size. Zhao Erfeng’s Kham administration and those of the Republican period until 1939 used the larger Sichuanese shi, which they called a guan 官 (“official”) shi. Several documents explicitly state that a guan shi of barley weighed around 300 jin 斤 (roughly 150 kg)4. In 1939, the Xikang administration began using the Guomindang “market” (shi 市) shi, which was based on the eastern Chinese shi, and was thus half the size of the guan shi.5 Distance The distance measure used in this thesis is a li 里, about half a kilometer. Weight The measure of weight used in the sources quoted by this thesis is a jin 斤. The weight of a jin was usually around 600 grams, though like the shi, it varied in late imperial China. Under Guomindang rule weights were metric- ized, and the weight of a jin was fixed at 500 grams. 4 Zhao Erfeng 赵尔丰, and Wu Fengpei 吴丰培, Zhao Erfeng Chuan bian zou du 赵尔丰川 边奏牍, (Chengdu: Sichuan minzu chubanshe, 1984), 72. 5 Sichuan sheng dang'an guan 四川省档案馆, and Sichuan minzu yanjiu suo 四川民族研 究所, eds. Jindai Kang qu dang'an ziliao xuanbian 近代康区档案资料选编, (Chengdu: Sichuan daxue chubanshe, 1990), 84. viii Romanization and names used in this thesis. Chinese names are romanized using the pinyin system. The only standard system for romanizing Tibetan names is the Wylie system, which reproduces the spelling of written Tibetan, with the result that it offers non- specialists little guide to how a name should be pronounced. For this reason, most scholars who write for a non-Tibetological readership do not use it. I have endeavoured to use the names and orthographies that are most commonly used in scholarly literature written for non-Tibet specialists. A full glossary of names for places and ethnic groups, including alternative versions and spellings is included at the end of this thesis. A few basic