The Rise of Steppe Agriculture The Social and Natural Environment Changes in Hetao (1840s-1940s) Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i. Br. vorgelegt von Yifu Wang aus Taiyuan, V. R. China WS 2017/18 Erstgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Sabine Dabringhaus Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz-Josef Brüggemeier Vorsitzender des Promotionsausschusses der Gemeinsamen Kommission der Philologischen und der Philosophischen Fakultät: Prof. Dr. Joachim Grage Datum der Disputation: 01. 08. 2018 Table of Contents List of Figures 5 Acknowledgments 1 1. Prologue 3 1.1 Hetao and its modern environmental crisis 3 1.1.1 Geographical and historical context 4 1.1.2 Natural characteristics 6 1.1.3 Beacons of nature: Recent natural disasters in Hetao 11 1.2 Aims and current state of research 18 1.3 Sources and secondary materials 27 2. From Mongol to Manchu: the initial development of steppe agriculture (1300s-1700s) 32 2.1 The Mongolian steppe during the post-Mongol empire era (1300s-1500s) 33 2.1.1 Tuntian and steppe cities in the fourteenth century 33 2.1.2 The political impact on the steppe environment during the North-South confrontation 41 2.2 Manchu-Mongolia relations in the early seventeenth century 48 2.2.1 From a military alliance to an unequal relationship 48 2.2.2 A new management system for Mongolia 51 2.2.3 Divide in order to rule: religion and the Mongolian Policy 59 2.3 The natural environmental impact of the Qing Dynasty's Mongolian policy 65 2.3.1 Agricultural production 67 2.3.2 Wild animals 68 2.3.3 Wild plants of economic value 70 1 2.3.4 Mining 72 2.4 Summary 74 3. The people-dominated agricultural society and its development in Hetao 76 3.1 Crossing the Great Wall: the expansion of Han Chinese living space in Ordos during the Kangxi period 77 3.1.1 The demographic pressure in northern China 77 3.1.2 Food supply for the Qing-Dzungar war 80 3.1.3 The appearance of Han Chinese seasonal agricultural workers 86 3.2 The formation of the Mongol-Han Chinese mixed community during the Yongzheng-Qianlong period 91 3.2.1 The economic press from Mongolian society 91 3.2.2 The establishment of new administrative systems along the Great Wall 96 3.2.3 Farming in the steppe: the initial formation of the Mongol-Han Chinese mixed community in Ordos 98 3.3 The rise of the land-renting merchant 105 3.3.1 The origin of the land-renting merchant 105 3.3.2 The connection between merchants and irrigation 109 3.3.3 Merchants and their own land 114 3.4 A merchant-dominated agricultural society 126 3.4.1 Construction of the irrigation system 127 3.4.2 The social control exercised by the land-renting merchants 131 3.5 Summary 141 4. The Rise of Nationalism: Hetao's agricultural development in the name of a modern state 144 4.1 The financial crisis of the Qing court and its self-salvation 145 2 4.2 Land reform in Hetao 149 4.2.1 The nobles' submission and the re-concentration of land use rights 150 4.2.2 The merchants' yielding and the redistribution of land and water rights 157 4.3 The government-run land and canals 164 4.3.1 The government-run land business 164 4.3.2 The government-run canal business 174 4.4 The government-led "de-Mongolization" and "modernization" in Hetao: changes in the local administrative system and in grassroots society 181 4.4.1 Changes in the political situation 182 4.4.2 Anti-Mongolian activities in the administrative and economic fields in the Hetao Plain 186 4.5 The rise of Chinese nationalism and its impact on Hetao's social and natural environment 193 4.5.1 Changes in the attitude towards nature under Chinese nationalism 195 4.5.2 The impact of nationalism on Hetao: official-led blind agricultural expansion 204 4.5.3 The impact of radical civil attitude: the example of the New Village Movement 210 4.5.4 The soil crisis and the official response in the nationalist atmosphere 219 4.6 Summary 227 5. Résumé 230 5.1 The specific environmental impacts of the Chinese agricultural activities 230 5.2 The influence of Chinese environmental awareness on Hetao during the early twentieth century 238 5.3 Conquering nature in contemporary Chinese society 244 3 6. The Maps of Hetao in the First Half of 1920s 246 7. Bibliography 252 Summary in German 274 4 List of Figures Figure 1.1 Map of the Yellow River and the Hetao Area 6 Figure 1.2 Map of Distribution of Desertification in China (2009) 17 Figure 2.1 The Distribution of Mongolian Tribes in the 1600s 43 Figure 2.2 Root system of the liquorice plant 71 Figure 3.1 Distribution of the new Han Chinese settlements (1719) 84 Figure 3.2 Mongolian map of the seven banners of Ordos (1740) 87 Figure 3.3 Distribution of the new Han-Chinese settlements (1743) 101 Figure 3.4 Conventional diagram of jiegao 111 Figure 3.5 Sample of a land lease contract 117 Figure 3.6 Conventional diagram of the entrance of a canal 129 Figure 3.7 Conventional diagram of the west-east main canals 131 Figure 4.1 Uya Yigu 156 Figure 4.2 Diagram of the distribution of the main canals in Hetao 168 Figure 4.3 Stock of the Xilu Reclamation Corporation 172 Figure 4.4 Map of the newly established agriculture-based agencies in Hetao 188 Figure 4.5 Map of Hebei New Village 216 Figure 4.6 Schematic diagram of the Han Chinese villages in Hetao 217 Figure 4.7 Saline land in the Hetao Plain 222 Figure 4.8 Sandy land in the Hetao Plain 222 Figure 4.9 Section of saline soil in the Hetao Plain 222 5 Figure 6.1 Map of Yihequ Canal and Tongjiqu Canal 246 Figure 6.1 Map of Suiyuan Province in 1930 247 Figure 6.3 Map of Wuyuan County in 1930 248 Figure 6.4 Map of Linhe County in 1930 249 Figure 6.5 Map of Anbei Shezhiju in 1930 250 Figure 6.6 Map of Ih Ju League in 1930 251 6 Acknowledgments As a Chinese born in a populous and noisy city, I never imagined I would end up living in a shady German town for a few years and finish my doctoral dissertation there. After work, walking through the forest next to the small town has probably been the most important exercise for me in recent years. This activity, of course, cannot be regarded as a typical sport, but it has been a very remarkable achievement for me. These days of walking in the woods gave me more inspiration to think about the relationship between human and nature, which is one of the ideas presented in this dissertation. The completion of this dissertation would not have been possible without the help of many scholars. My most immediate debts are to Prof. Dr. Sabine Dabringhaus, who witnessed the whole completion of my doctoral work. With her profound knowledge, patience, and kindness, she supported me a great deal in writing and modifying the thesis. I prefer considering her as my laoshi rather than as just a supervisor. According to Chinese tradition, the term laoshi is able to better express a student’s respect and gratitude for his mentor. I also owe my thanks to Prof. Cheng Chongde (成崇德) of the National Qing Dynasty History Compilation Committee (国家清史编纂委员会) for providing me with opportunities to view the relevant archives and original information, which laid the most solid foundation for the completion of my work. I am extremely grateful for the financial support from the German Research Foundations (DFG). The successful completion of a dissertation cannot be separated from its financial support. Apart from the funding, my project colleague Dr. Cilia Neumann helped me a lot in both academic and life issues. In 2013, Cilia and I conducted our fieldwork and data collection in Hetao. During that time, Prof. Sudebilige (苏德毕力格) and Dr. Li Zhiguo (李治国) of Inner Mongolia 1 University and Prof. Lv Wenli of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (中国社科 院) greatly helped us to successfully conduct our investigation activities. I am also very grateful to the Hui Chinese driver in Dengkou town (磴口). Without him and his motor tricycle, it would have been impossible for us, two outsiders, to see the real Yellow River and the artificial canals mentioned in this dissertation. In addition to the people mentioned above, I have always been supported by many people, who not only gave me academic advice but also helped me to overcome various difficulties in my daily life; in particular, Dr. Wang Shuo, Jannes Jaeger, Liao Yining, Susannah Brooks, Wu Xinhui, and others. Also worth mentioning is my enthusiastic landlady, Ms. Herrmann, who gave me a lot of help in my daily life in Gundelfingen, a small town near Freiburg. I also need to thank Ms. Sonnhild Namingha for improving my written English. I must admit that this was very challenging work. I also want to thank my parents for their understanding and for supporting my studies and my academic work. For many Chinese, PhD work is not a topic of interest. Although my parents are not typical intellectuals, they unswervingly supported me in completing my doctoral dissertation and helped me financially as much as possible. Without my wife Hu Liqun, I would never have been able to finish this work.