—————"""--:-~-~S- TT “Thin sto bas en, made wih he operation of the Scere AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY he a ia Rah Sees Ravan eae No 3 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA ay OWEN LATTIMORE Digetor of ‘The Water Hines Page Scho of ternational Relations "The Jobes Hopkins Univerty CAPITOL PUBLISHING CO, Ixe. AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 1951at S706 Latt 19st scone ssinom corvicer 1551 ‘My Farner DAVID LATTIMOREPART I, THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE GREAT WALL Chapter I. China and Its Marginal Territories... Continental and Maritime Periods of History. Eects of Land and Sea Power on Chinese History ‘The Westernizing of Chinese Civilisation. Areas and Populations... : Chinese Frontier Espansionism.s.. 01...) Historical Problems of the Inner Asisa Froatier Chapter II. ‘The Framework of the Great Wall Frontier... Mand Chapter II]. The Loess Region and the Origins of Chinese Society. a Beginnings of Chinese Culture in the Loess Region Relation of Early Chinese Culture to Soll and Climate of the Loess Region..vse.svesvess Early Expansion {fom the Loess Region Wealmess of Northward Expansion. ‘The Style of Chinese History... Commeres, Mining, and the Miandarins,. Recurrent Cycles in Chinese History. 000.0. ‘The Nineteenth Centary: Westera Intrution into the Chinese Cydle.-sssssscvsnisssroserons (Chapter IV. The Steppes of Mongolia and the Char acteristics of Steppe Nomadism. Barly Cultural Difterentiation between North (China and Mongolia. 7 ‘ 27 27 at 3 7 2 45 46vit CONTENTS Rise of Pastoral Nomadism in the Steppes... Fein planation ofthe Rise of Steppe So- Wea versus Mobily. ‘Mongol Unity under Chingghis Khan ‘and Tes Tater Decay... Reintroduction of Lemaism (Sixteenth Century) ‘Lamalsm and the Rise of Manchu Power in Mon= ola (Seventeenth end Eighteenth Centuries) Moagelia under the Manchus: Bstablishment of ‘Fixed Territorial Boundaries... ‘Mongolia under the Manchus: Increase of Trade ‘and Is Elects, Mongolia tthe Hod of the Ninetcih Canty ‘Mongolia in the Twentieth Century... Chapter, Ariz, Pores, and Steppein Man- cua ‘The Historical Disunity of Mancha Lower Manchuria in Relation to Chins ‘Manchurian Politics at the End of the Sixteenth Century. ‘Administrative Decay ia China ia Relation to the Dynasty itary ted Pisa Organ ote Mancha Congest. eevee 103 103 108 5 4 ca 10 CONTENTS Chinese Influences in Manchuria During the Barly ‘Period of the Manchu Dynasty.....-..+-- Bifect on the Steppe and Forest Peoples, ‘Manchuria in the Nineteenth Contury. ‘The Influence of Railways... [Jepaa’s Position in Relation to’ Manchuria ‘end China. Chapter VI. Oases and Deserts of Central Asia ‘The Wide Range of Terrain in Central Asia. . Oasis Geography and Agriculture. . ‘The Sedentary Origins of Nomadism. <1 .:. ‘The Sub-Oasis Geography Intermediate between China and Central Asia... ‘Chinese Penetration into Central Asia, Caravan Routes and Trade. Social and Political Iniuence of Religions Ilam in Chinese Turkistan. ‘The Manchus and the Moslems of Central Asia, Political and Economic Conditions in. Chinese “Turkistan, 1911-1928... ‘The High Point of Chinese Frontier Bxpsnsionism Recent Influence of the Soviet Union...... eae tetany Barly Tibetan Contacts with China Political Unification of Tibet. Political Function of Lama- Bud ‘Tibetan Conquests in Western Chine ‘stan (Eighth Century)... acy Ascendaney of the Lama Church (So°iico 133, 135 138 oi 148 15¢ 15 154 138 163 169 mm 176 119 ar 187 12 17 206 206 an 215 28 28x CONTENTS Period of Mongol Influence (1206-ca. 1700 4.0.) Postion of the Dalsi and Panchan Lamas Under ‘che Manchu Modern Confit of Chineso ard British Tnterests in Tibet... Chepter VI, The “Reserve” td the Meszinat DistintionBeween Pros aad Bada. Prontier Conditions and Police as Iustrated by ‘the Northwest Frontier of India... ‘The Inner Asian "Reservoir" of Teibal Invasions PART II. THB LEGENDARY AND EARLIEST HISTORICAL AGES Chapter IX, Differentiation of Chinese and Bar- Darian General Character of Neolithic Culture in China ‘Two Zones of Neolithic Culture... ‘The Problem of the Tntroduc Culture ‘Social and Boonomie Bifects ‘of Bronze. of Bronze-Age Geographical Evidence in the Barly Legends. Scoblogial and Cultural Bvidence inthe Legends ‘The Hsia and Shang Periods. ‘The Choa Period... 27 230 233 238 238 22 27 255 256 259 262 267 a5 CONTENTS Early Differentiation Between the Peoples of the "Loess Highlands and of the Great Plain... ‘Beginnings of Irigation in Relation to Galtural Development... Fint Enlargement of Chinese Horizon Toward Both Bast and West... Rise of a Socond Focal Area in South China...” Obetacies to Westward and Northwestward Spread of Chinese Culture... (Origins of Pastoral Nomadism. | Relations of Nomadio to Setled Populations... PART Ill, THE AGE OF ‘NATIONAL STATES (Chapter XI. Northern and Southern Chinese Hise tory - Set ‘The Chief Kingdoms of the Chou Period... ‘The Traditional View of Barbarian Tavasion in ‘the Chou Period ‘Character of Chinese Expansion in Relation to Bavironment...-.. Changing Coiss of Bower Baas the Chou Patol Nasadia ‘aad’ the eof the Chinese Society and State... Crowth ofIndependcat Sates the’ Goa erie. Chapter XII. Kingdom and “anole jn Ancient China. . (Chinese and Buropean Feudalism, -CONTENTS ‘The Growth Out of Feudalism Clerks, Eumuchs, and Seholar- Gentry... Steppe Tribalism in Relation to Feudal ‘The Warring Kingdoms (453-361 8.¢). Barbarian Ware and Wall Building (End of Fourth Ceatury 8c). (Chinese Peudalisn and City'and Country “Calle (Confacianiam in Relation to Feudalism, (Chin and the Beginnings of an Imperial Order. ‘The Transition from Feudalism to an Tempera (Chapter XIE. The Beginnings ofa “Frontier Style in Chinese History........ Assocation ofthe Frontier Style with the Mare ‘inal Tersitories... cere (Chin, Chao, and Yes. ‘The Rise of Chi... ‘The Frontier Terrtorse Acquire a Political Ime portance of Their Own PART IV. THE IMPERIAL AGE (Chapter XIV. Unified Empire and Unified Pron- tier: The Great Wall of China Pre loperal Wall Building... ‘The Frontier Characteristics of Ch'in «1. Social Importance of the Labor Employed in the Building of the Barly Walle. Exceie Miitary Development of eng Why the Civin Saccested in Unifying the Frontier ‘but Failed in Establishing a Lasting State... Fall of the Ch'in and Foundation of the Han Dynasty (nc. 206). Souma Chen's Account of the Frontier a2 49 conTeNTS ‘The Hsiungnu and the Appearance of a New Type of Ruler inthe Steppe. ‘The Change from Marginal Nomadism to Fuil ‘Nomsadism.. A Mentatie Lingus ices ofthe Frontier Peoples. ‘The Career of Tue ‘Modin's Career as Itstrative of the Rise of a ‘New Type of Steppe Society. (Chapter XV. The Factor of Range: Oasis History ‘and Great Wall History. Contrast Betneen Chinese Expansion to the South snd on the Inner Asian Frontiers. Inppossibilty of a Rigid Frontier. oe China and the Steppe Reach Poli sity Early Han Frontier Policy Aimed to Prevent De- fection of Chinese Leaders Along the Border. Purpose of Frontier Statecraft to Hold Frontier ‘Popalations Withia the Chinese Orbit.......- ‘The Han and the Hefungus... Beginnings of Chinese Penetration of Central Aci Underlying Motives of Chinese Penetration of ‘Central Asia. Fictstons ia the Balance of Power on the Frontier (Chapter XVI. Marginal Societies: Conquest and Migration. i a Site Cicn ad teSape Merge... . Variations of Nomad su st 33a ‘CONTENTS ‘The Cycle of Nomad Rule. The Helangma Mitery aah Bangi o & Com ‘plete Nomad Cycle. Later Cycles... 0.25 Chapter XVI. ‘The Cys of yas and Tribal History ‘Tho Periodicity of Chines History. CW'ao-ting Chi's Theory of Dynastic Cycles, Repetition of Dynastie Cycles... Dynasties Origitating Beyond the Great Wall. Function of the Marginal Zone of the Steppe in ‘the Dynastic Changes... Pease Lack of Iteration Between China and ‘the Steppe. Bibliography. Index s3t sar 536 555 ss LIST OF MAPS (China and neighbor ‘pansion; the Proper China, Manchuria, Korea, and southeastern ea: rainay and frontier areas opened by railways ose een. provinces of China ‘The Great Wall Frontier as a zone of differen- ‘ation between environments - ae) ‘Foci and expansion of the northern and south- ‘em Chinese in the third and second millennia Steppe and forest tribes and economy in elation ‘to China and the Great Wall Frontier 8 Early Manchuria: historical reference map... 104 (Chinese Central Asia: locational map sss... 150 ‘Tite, Cringhai, and Hsit’ang: locational map 150 Centers of Chinese culture in the Yellow River and Yangtze River valleys, 3rd millenniam 3c. to 700 ne. Feudal states in the Yellow River and Yangtze ‘River valleys and walls constructed at differ= nt periods ‘The Great Wall and other wall to the north .. 530INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION OF INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA. It is now eleven years since this book was frst published. ‘The continued demand fart, especialy from younger schol ars working in the same field, justifies a new edition—even though itis naturally, after eleven years, no longer the book that I should like to publish if T could assemble all the ‘material afresh and rewrite it from the beginning, For one thing, the resources that can be drawn on now are much richer than those available to me cleven years age Even so, however, and even without the revision of faults and the filing in of gaps, the republication of Inner Ain Frontiers of China at this time may be of help especialy to the younger scholars whose systema training is far si perior to mine but who, owing to the conditions of the time, are unable to travel widely and freely as I did when fathering 2o much of the material that went to the making Of this book. The late Elis H. Minns, speaking of Seythiont and Greeks (Cambridge, 1913), his great pioneer study of a frontier between an urban and agricultural society and its fringing steppe tribes, once said "Yes, that was a good booke—hadly out of date now, which proves that it was a ood book.” He meant that he did not regret not having ten the last word on his subject, but was content instead that by what he had written he had helped others to make his own work out of date. Tis my hope thatthe republication of Inner Asian Fron- tiers of China, with all its imperfections, may sil be useful in some such way as this. The time has perhaps not yetil INTRODUCTION ‘come to attempt a new book on Taner Asia as a whole. On ‘the other hand, there isa preset need to survey some of the directions in whieh new work could profitably be pushed, FFor more than 2 deeade of war and cold war, communica: tion between scholars in diferent countries hasbeen slowed down and at times almest completely suspended. Even in ‘Western countries there is often a delay of some years before scholars beg to make free use of each others mate- Tals and the lag in Westera countries, in making use of materials published in Chinese, Japanese, and Russian Is ‘much greater, ‘This unevenness in the pushing forward of Inner Asian sts wil be largely overcome in the next few years. On the one hand, there has been a very rapid increase—es- pecially in the United States—in the number of echolars ‘qualified to work with Chinese, Japanese, and Russian mate- Pals though unfortunately there has not been similarly rapid inerease in Mongol, Turkish, and Iranian studies, or inthe study of the Inner Asian frontiers of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. On the other hand, the politieal conse” ‘quences of the Second World War have enlarged and Sharply defined the geographical frame within which Inner Asia should te studied, making clear both the problems that shouldbe taken up and the manner in which research in the diferent sectors of the geographical area should be coordinated Tn first publishing this book T emphasized an alteration between periods of continental and maritime development in the world history of the Old World (pages 4 and §). Prior tothe Age of Columbus the most important activities inthe long and siow evolution of civilized ran were within the great land masses of the Old Worl, Is tru that the ‘movement of people, the spread of trade, and the interaction ‘of cultures by sea began in very ancient times; but allthis as T then described it, was no more than a "fringe of mat time activity.” The main process of history was continental, INTRODUCTION we and its phases in Asia, Africa, and Europe were not 0 ‘Sarply dilferentated from each other as they have since ome to seem in retrospect. “The Age of Columbus was revolutionary in the changes that i brought about. The maritime activity of mankind began to deflect and even subordinate developments within the great land masses. Old World and New World were Combined in a manner overwhelmingly more sgnifcant than anything that had rented from primitive migrations from Asia into North and Soath America and Stone Age navigation in the Pacfe. Before Columbus, an Alexander could thrust from the Mediterranean into Tndia; an Atta Could fight his way from the South Russian steppe into France the Mongol armies could range from China to Poland and the Adriatic but while these itary activities could change the role of kingdoms, the scope of economic tivity was uch more consrited. There was no form of ancient conquest that could truly integrate Asia and Europe. ‘Aer Columbus, the reach of economie integration began to rival and even exceed that of military integration, Even 2 sll sling ship could in one voyage carry from Canton to London more cargo, in a shorter time and at higher profit, than could be moved by a secession of caravans Pldding from ancient oF medieval China to the markets of the Mediterranean, Caravan trade, moreover, dealt in treasures and rarities which contributed tothe ostentation ‘of courts but did not alter the character of societies. With seeanc navigation there began the bull transportation of raw materials, the processing of which transformed the conomie activities and the soil and politcal structure of whole nations, ‘This tansformati the bling of “ac by oexans ro= INTRODUCTION within the same land mass, of which the Tsarist Russian ‘Enpire was the major exemplar? andthe rise of new states, “especially in North and South America, characterized by large. territory, surplus food-producing capacity, wide margin for population growth, and varied raw materials for industrial development. ‘By the opening of the twentith century these post- (Columbian developments had gone so far that they provided the conditions for anew period of world history. One way of describing the new conditions isto say that the ability Of a few states in the nineteenth century to dominate the ‘word in power polities bythe exploitation of steanr-riven ‘oceanic shipping, backed up by navies representing an im- rmense investment of eaptal (subject, moreover, to rapid ‘obsalescence), but ony & small commitment of manpower, twas beginning to be Balanced by the growth of vast con tinental states. There were differences among the great con- ‘nena states, but also resemblances, The United States, to take one exaziple, was 2 great continental state with a great navy; Rossa, to take another, was a comparable continental state, bt witha mavy of enly minor importance; but the ‘wo types resembled each other in that they were both immune tothe type of naval coercion, backed up by only small land fores, that had dominated the power cy, in the Far East asin the rest ofthe world, over every kind of geegraphical, national, and eultural perticularism. ConmntenrAt ano MAsrrne Pesioos oF History Within Himits—but only within limits—this new phase inthe relations between China and its Toner Asian frontier Zones and between Greater Chins and the rst ofthe world, ‘an be made clearer by reference tothe alternating “con: tinental” and “maritime” periods in the world's history. From immemorial times until only about four centuries ‘ago the major movements that went to form the Chinese pation, culture, and civilisation originated on the landward, Inner Asian side of China, Maritime factors in Chinese history, acting often over remarkably great distances, are recognizable from a very early period and there is no need to discount their importance, but itis clear that this im portance was of a secondary order. This holds true not ‘nly forthe movement of peoples but for the early growth ‘of politcal states andthe evotion ofthe economic sytem land socal strcture that formed the core of the dynastic Chinese Empire, the “Center of the World.” Tn the Old World of Europe, and in the Near and Mid~ ‘le East also, “continental” modes of history were domi rant, The fringe of maritime activity off the Auantic ‘Coast in the Red Sea and Indian Oceaa, and expecially in ‘the Mediterranean, was deeper than off the coast of China tnd contributed more to the interaction of peoples and cul- tures, Nevertheless, it was true of both West and Fast thatthe forces generated within human society could act CHINA AND ITS MARGINAL TERRITORIES ata greater range by land than by sea, while even by land fo socal effort was yet capable of universal application. "the Age of Columbus was therefore as revolutionary {for Eusope as it was for Asia and the Americas. Ie is not ‘cough to say that with tbe opening of the sixteenth cen- fury a marine age of sea power succeeded the continental ge of land power, making it possible for Europe to reach ‘ut bath east and west, The significant historical phenome- fon lies deeper: the alder processes of society had accuma- fated a momentum that caried them to a higher level of development, one of the manifestations of which was a Sarding increase in range of action and force of impact. Twas a new society which opened the new age of geog- raphy. ‘The reasons that accouat for the Western European rlgin of the new age of maritime power cannot be dis- Socated from the origins, rise, and triumph of modern Capitalism. Social evolution in Western Europe had Srached a point that opened up certain new potentialities talenown tothe feal past, and when it reached this point the material resources necessary to animate fist mercantile ‘ptalism, and then industrial and finance capitalism, were Svallable within the geographical environment of Western ‘Europe itself! “The new forces at work in society at once identified themselves with the expansion of sea power—partly be- fause the older social structure above which they were ‘Sfrugeing to rise was fortified with vested interests idem tifed with the older standards of land power. This, and the paliial rise of England through its control of sea power, long tended to obscure the fact that there was no herent reason for identifying the new standard of sea power with the new categories of commercial, industrial, End financial power. Palitlly, these new kinds of power ould be based as effectively on control of land routes a8 cone Cae 4 Sana in eee6 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA ‘on sea routes; they were, in their own nature, universally applicable. The advantages of an early start and accumu lation of resources made Western Europe the center of ‘gravity of the new age and kept England, in particular, at the controlling point of balance, until the twentieth cen- tury. The maturing of North America andthe evident pos- sibility of rising to the same or even higher levels of de- velopment huge regions like South America, Africa, Rus- sia, and Asia, which hitherto have lagged at diferent stages of backwardness, now promises frst to displace the center Of gravity and then to do away with it altogether, making possible an evenly spread world balance Exrecrs or LaNp axp Sea Powsn ox Cunese Hsroay Its not hard to apply these considerations to the history ‘of China, where the truly effective impact of the West began quite early in the age inaugurated by Columbus, Until then the “foreign affaiee” of China had been con cerned primary withthe Great Wall Frontier, Overseas foreign relations had been of minor importance, ‘Then, ‘under the last imperial dynasty of Chinese origin—that of the Ming, (1368-1643)—began the penetration of Jesuit aissionaries and of Portuguese and other traders, Ero- pean guns and gunnery even held tack, for a litle, the ‘Manchu conquest Sea power for the first time challenged land power i th control of China was not et cee at already European trade was more important than ‘tad been when Marco Polo was rated liar inthe thie teenth century, or when Pegolett in the fourteenth cen tury listed the Central Asian trade routes and the mer= chandise to be earried along them* ‘The Manchu conquest of China in the seventeenth cen oh Sint te ata 9 ph Bane lk Pb hE Re CHINA AND ITS MARGINAL TERRITORIES 7 tary was the last rush of the tide whose eb and flow long {he Grea Wal Frenier tad been ao important in working the mechanism of Chines history ever since the reno centuries in which that mechani tad been setup dn ts fet crue forms, By the nineteenth entry the momen fm othe powers hat were breaking thir way ito China fora the sea had become fresiatble. ‘The strength ofthe land beyond the Crest Wal, frm whieh Manchu, Mon Gols and Turia fad once fsue, scene o have withered fy. te der nd ase nn than he chose Strength of Inperal Rusia died sway in vogue peimiary fesvigecin te overuntng of an inet Central Asia, a shugtlsh acrustve interest in Outer Mone ols in eng the Russian Far East (the most empty) forthe th Aimar and est ofthe Usar andi founder Ing defeat in MancurIn the Fat Ea 2 wl the Fetamount serpower nations of Wester Europe an ‘nein impoocd their own mandads st tee own cre tion. Te the war of 19418 this period reached it apex, and tong. Great Brain, the United Sats and Jape were JeE deadlocked in an uneasy naval balance; bot at the fame tie from under the fet ofthe Wester word and Japan there came the rombling of an earthquake, a3 he Soviet Uno shook elf oot ofthe rns of the Ressan Enite. Ave rent ofthat lndalp the enter of gravity Of te land mass lying between the Atlante snd Pace Shifted from somewhere near the Rhine t) somewhere fear the Urale: Fascist aly and Naz! Germany bave thrust and threatened savagely to make an opening for Danubian conquest in order to prevent the shift from tring nade permanent, and-Besh poy bas wavered Teteen fear of Traian and Japanese creroathments on Ks power at sta and in the Far East and reluctance to alandon to Cernany its contol ofthe bance of power Sn'Eorope, bot withthe growth of the Chinese Revoir8 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA tion the new distribution of weight between Europe and ‘Asia appears to be settling int place. Tt is true that the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and attemgted conquest of China has in some ways the appear- ance of a head-on collision between land power and sea power. It is unmistakably an attempt to subject the Inner ‘Asian land frontier of China to control from the sea, To this extent i i true that the issue which failed to come toa head in the nineteenth century—the issue as between ‘onteol of China from the Great Wall Frontier and Inner ‘Asia, and contol from the sea—has now come toa head, ‘The “Open Door” policy, which John Hay’s friend, Henry Adams, conceived as a device for holding Imperial Russia in check and guarding access to China from theses, was in large part responsible’ ‘Tae Wesremniansc or Cunerse Civiuazarion At their best, however, these concepts of land power and sea power make possible an analysis of “power politics” only. The real roots of history lie deeper. The new age of Columbus is now old and a stil newer age is taking ‘shape. Such new ages grow up from within their predeces" ‘075, not to one side of them and independently of them. In part they destroy and in part they merely reshape and ‘eanimate the forms that they supersede; they must breale ‘up old vested interests in order to establish new paramount interests. The Age of Columbus was not inberently mari- time” in its characteristics, but from the beginning took fon a maritime appearance partly because of ite reaction against vested interests based on a “continental” distribu- tion and structure of power. Th the same way, the new age in which we live assumes a “continental” aspect fai reaction against vested interests that icherted the nine- Alana The Elvin of Hear Ada i tm tn. Cour Essen Op Boers WH AERA he ona ny tpn tat onde ne Ds of Yas on (CHINA AND ITS MARGINAL TERRITORIES 9 teenth century empires established and linked together so largely by naval power. The determining consideration, however, is not the political factor alone but the working ‘out in combination of all the complex potentialities of the few age, A erude isolation of politcal arguments is un- tenable; the next chapter of China's history wil have more in it than a record of struggle for geographical ‘expansion Between automata marked “Russian commu nism” and “Japanese imperialism.” Itis the Westernizing_ fof China's own ancient civilization that_ wil in. “deGawe, Can Wat be done more eifecuvaly by Japanese ‘Tongues or by European and American loans to a China that is also able to draw on the resources already accu mulated by the Russian Revolution? How much of the Ancient fabric will have to be destroyed? How stable a modem structore ean be set up on the ancient foun- ations? Tn order to answer these questions itis necessary to examine the geography of the whole ofthis feld of his- tory, determining the differences between the areas into ‘which it can be divided. The relation of primitive society to geographical environment in each of these regions must tlso be considered in order to distinguish any early difler- tence of bias toward alternative lines of socal and political tvolution in each region. The gradual gathering of mo- ‘mentum of the different contributory forces of Chinese and Great Wall history can then be assessed, ‘Assas Axo Porovariox ‘An attempt to estimate the geographical balance of the areas and populations of China within the Great Wall and the frontir regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, nd Chinese ‘Turkistan reveals at once the uncertainty and inadequacy of the figures available, bt che following make possible a ‘comparison of relative orders of magnitude:10 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA ‘Anzas mr Sqvane Muss (China within the Grst Wall. sesseeve hs iin o assea9s ‘Maschoria (Liacaing or Fen Hetaneshare) 8.208 se “TanmecToe Peles Repti esi aaah HRs logelogla Ptr rcs Gabar San, Sagat s Gee aia ico erase iconing ES ‘Bie poe ‘Tana Cain i se hg ie te) aad Hakungherresccnn ee fst Poreuanox Sransncs (Ching within the Great Wall. Mancsssed ‘Thethree Manchu province: mai Iy Chiesa but incladng 679 Kee ‘sos and an indetorminable aero ‘Mngas Jepsen, Ransannan ober fovea tated aes of the erer of 4309e0.000 26osara (CHINA AND ITS MARGINAL TERRITORIES 1 CCingce Tueisan: incu, in epprosinate order of ‘pombe, Cental Aun Ts (ed ant roma, Modem’ Canes, oa-Mldem Chicae, Monge Manche cther laser misorises\-of te orders” 3.300000 ‘Bet propery a eee Ygpooo ‘Theta Chinon Fair peovises (Ching! or Kako ‘er ang)..n0 alee; rough simse 300,000 SEYLER PAS oareeae rere Sree Pa Sarai sat mae 1 Ge Yo Bk | Rea ESS Syren aa wie oe, td Tb oho tO te at Sse Bnd le eae ee ha elon garasy Cate st aggre Sats" QY. AL Com, gh oe Be stl ea Ge a ae12 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA From these figures it appears that Chinn within the Great’ Wall, or China proper, comprising the Eighteen Provinces? of the last imperil period under the Mancha dynasty, hasan area of about one and balf milion square niles with a population of between 400 and 500 millions, while the regions beyond the Great Wall, together with bet, have an area of something like three million square niles and 2 population of the order of 45 millions. ‘That is to say, they have an area of twice but a population of the order of only one tenth of that of China within the Great Wall. Furthermore, well over two thirds ofthe pop- tation beyond the Great Wall (approximately thisty fil lions ia Manchuria alone) is Chinese. The various tribes tnd peoples in this immense region who do not speak Chinese and are conspicuously ditferent from the Chinese in their ways of living cannct possibly number more than five or she millions—very litle more than ene per cent of the total number of the Chinese people ‘The historical questions raised by these Ggures are startling. Toe population of China 2go0 or even 2000 ‘ins of he Noo praia of Tse Manin (CHINA AND ITS MARGINAL TERRITORIES 13 years ago mst have been relatively sal A i inresed Killed up the Velow Rive and Yangte ales, atsning rental an average density of thir fo the aque mie (Cakng the sppvontate Res of one sod af ion square miles and 4g0 millon people). "A better idea of ihe ral conitions i nen by such gress sgt tothe fauare mle ina el ree growing fegon of Be lower angtee valley? ant 183 to the square mile In a ‘ypc North China region growing wit, alle (inciting lang), and cotton’ In apt o this croméing within fn ates roughly comparable o that ofthe United States fast of the Micinpyi, and fn spite of ret acces by find fo territories rather larger than that ofthe United States west of the Missing, the Chinese never etab- lished themosines permanently and efectvely beyond the Grest Wall Why? CCavese Faosrien Exrawsrontsu Within ving memory, ii tru, there ave ben phe- somenal migrations of the Chines fto Inner Mongo Eat cpetaly into Manchuria, where the poplaen in Greased rom a eit en illinsta 91% 0 Sfprocinacy thir millions i 3t the yer of Spans invasion. "Po miximam ae of popuaan move: Trent was inthe years 1927, 1988 and Toa, ia each of IMich move than lion pope entered Mancha. The4 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA sverage net settlement figure for each of these years, after the return to China of seasonal migrants (harvest workers and to forth), was more than 600,000 persons Ie is im= portant to note these figures in order to make it clea that they are not typical of the older processes of Clinesehis- tory. They belong exclusively to the modern period of railway stilted migration, American history here offers a useful comparison. Westward expansion was a factor in American life even before the Revolution. Land-grant policies designed to increase the rate of expansion became s part ofthe federal and state organization from the time independence wae achieved, and private enterprise was also bound up with the advance westward. Heavy inmigration from Europe hhad something to do with the speed with which the Par cific coast was reached and linked organically with the Atlantic. “Even without this immigration, however, it ie Clear that the process of filing up the American continent ‘would have been essentially the same and the speed with which it was accomplished only relatively slower. ‘The resulting society would also have been generically of the same structure and temperament. The original colonies fon the Atlantic coast had acquired the escentials of the industrial revolution before the opening of the nineteenth century, and it was the industrial revolution rather then ‘any patticlar stream of migration, that fuflled ite in the peopling of America in the course of the nineteenth century, ‘This comparison makes it clear that the special prob- lems and characteristics that have to be sought out and studied in Chinese history belong to the period before ‘Western industrialization, and the politcal, action that ‘went with it, Began to tale effect in China. Tn the older processes of Chinese history the trend of migration and also the trend of conquest (expressing the politcal mo- Fi Reet Pog Mandar 9 at CHINA AND ITS MARGINAL TERRITORIES 15 bility of power but not necessarily of whole populations) was predominantly from north to south and from west to feast. No “population pressure” generated by the thick peopting of China ever produced a drive outward for per= ‘manent occupation ofthe forests of Manchuria, the steppes of Mongolia the oases of Central Asia, comparable to the nineteenth century drive through the forests and across the prairies of America ‘China's modern Frontier expansionism has infact meant 8 considerable defction of the Fines of movement of beth people and power established during earlier history. The Tost important factor in causing this defection has been the foree of industralization, introduced from abroad and exerted by the industrial, commercial, financial, and at times the political and military activity of the Western nations and Japan, beating down on China from the sea and working’ from the coat inland. By the time forces of this Kind had reached as far asthe ancient lie ofthe Chi- nese inland Frontier (partly through their own momentum and partly because of being taken up and passed on by Chinese hands), they had been considerably modified. To 4 certain extent they destroyed or weakened old Chinese institutions and modes of action, but to a certain extent they were also themselves tempered and changed by the CChinese and Frontier environment in wich they had been Set to work, For this reason the Western influence slong the inland Frontier may be ealed secondary es compared with the primary influences at work along the coast ‘As a result of all this itis now impossible to estimate the character of contemporary history in any zone of Chinese colonization, from Manchuria to Tibet, without discriminating between the relative degree of energy of “old” and “new” factors. Railways and modern arma- tation Ci andthe, Bruin age a he ath ne este Se tei peta tS a agaMar 2—China, Manchars, Korea, and souteasern Seria railway ao fre ates opened by Talay (CHINA AND ITS MARGINAL TERRITORIES 17 ments are among the most potent of the “new” factors. ‘The functional importance of each ralway opening up a zone of colonization varies according to the degree of Greet or indirect allen pressure exerted through it, Tn ‘Manchuria before 1931 the power of Japan radiated from ‘a corridor of direct contrl in the Kusntung Leased Terti- tory and along the South Manchuria Railway into a mech larger “sphere of influence” held tributary by indirect control, Beyond this there was a further maggin within Which operated both “modern” Chinese agencies—rail- trays, modem banks, and so forth—and such “old” forms ‘of activity a8 agricultural settlement; but the range of ‘Spread of the apparently old-tyle colonization was in fact ireatly extended by the new railways and other new ‘Agencies. And both old and new Chinese agencies extended the scope of the agencies introduced by Japan while atthe same time reacting agsinst and competing withthe expan- ‘Son of Jepan's interests. By undertaking the outright ‘conquest of Manchuria in 1931, Japan attempted to en- large the area ofits control and to convert all of its activi ties to a higher pitch of intensity but it has never yet ‘suceeded in overcoming the resistance that springs both from the newer elements implanted in Chinese life and from the old, pre-Westera, unmodified society. ‘By going back to the years immediately preceding the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, when the Chinese were Gooding to the north of the Great Wall, it ean be seen that the interactions between pre-Western and post-Western factors were highly complex. Tn certain aspects this Chi nese colonization, although unprecedented in scale, ap- ‘peared to exhibit the operation of “natural” “inevitable” forces which had been extant or latent in the relationship between China and Manchuria for centuries. Yet it was clear thatthe effective range of these “inevitable” forees ‘had been expanded by something new; for in all the fore= going centuries during which China and Manchuria had i \ f18 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA interacted on each other, Chinese population pressure, Statesmanship, economic power, and military action had never been able to waster Manchuria and make it Chinese beyond certain recognizable zones in the extreme south, Te was the use of railways, modern arms, and new finan- ial, industrial, and commercial enterprises, diferent from those evolved in the previous history of China, that lifted the Chinese apparently once and forall out of the lower igo valley and into the ancient Tungus forests of North ‘Manchuria and the Mongol plains of West Manchuria, ther to the west the Great Wall had fronted against Inner Mongolia for centuries, Here the processes of re- cent history reflect the Manchurian scene; but the refle- tion is alittle dim, ‘The proceses have been of the same ‘kind but less intense in degree. ‘This ean immediately be referred to the fact that railway activity along this edge of the Frontier zone was far less vigorous than in Man- chur Moreover, the only rsilway was Chinese, there was no direct foreign enterprise, and the degree of promise between the introduced Western-style activites and the older style of dealing between Chinese and non- Chinese was much greater. Stil farther tothe west, where there are no railways, this fading intensity becomes even more noticeable. ‘There has been a certain degree of pene- tration by motor routes, a certain livening of communica: tion by post and telegraph, a certain stirring of new educa ional influences, and a yeasty working of new trade activites, inspite of weak financial and industrial develop- ‘ment; but on the whole, in the Moslem Northwest (parts of Ningtsia and Kansa), in Chinese Turkistan (Sin- Kiang), and in Tibet itcan be said that Chinese Frontier selationships have remained closer tothe style ofthe T'ang dynasty (618-906) than to that of the twentieth century. Husronicat Paonteus or tue Inwue Astax Frowren To understand the obvious as well as the more subtle CHINA AND ITS MARGINAL TERRITORIES 19 aspects of what is now taking place along the Great Wall Frontier, itis necessary to return to the older history of the Chinese and their barbarian frontagers. Inthe society ‘of China and the societies ofits inland Frontier region, ‘which characteristics and peculiarities ate of major impor- fance and which ate subordinate? Which of them are Alestroyed when the modern world breaks in on them and overrides them? Which of them are able t survive? Tn order to survive must they compromise and modify them felves, and, if s0, in what way? Which, again, of the characteristics of what we call “modern civilization” are primary snd indispensable and which are secondary or hnessentil? Which of them, as the twentieth century invades the older civilization of China, are shed or mui- tilted; through which of them does “modern civilization” cstabligh its ascendance; and do they, even in triumph, have to concede and compromise and cubmit to modifi- cation? All of these questions must be answered if our judgment ‘of the issues that are being worked out on the continent ‘of Asia in our own time is to penetrate below the surface and cope with the real processes of history. In order to answer them it is necessary to go back to the most remote accesible origins of these historical processes. Unless the ‘origins have been identified and the processes of develop- ‘ment analyzed, itis impossible to deseribe accurately the ‘behavior of the mature organisms of Chinese and Inner Asian society in the arena of contemporary history. Ex- amination of the typeof behavior reveals at once innumer- ‘able overlapping phases, for the relative importance of Which it is necessary to establish standards, My purpose in the study here undertaken is to cover only certain sectors of the historical field and only the tatier span of the total time range in order to establish, 1f possible, first principles whose later development and pplication ean be followed out in future work. The major2) INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA ose eee ale ster te vg: Win. fee ee aan eomitee Se mete im earl in Sees As coer ame So he sd es te See Sey me hie earl oracle ie a fale cee Tot ager eee re aoa ge i ee ‘Frontier and the Frontier as a whole? ant nearest en hag eg oer fp on moe acer ten ge fe ent ay eter eo oh ace pa Soreness te out i pate ere et more rch and thon re Srey abscore "ht me Seem ace deere et gs ei ote oa EG APR ae See reen ancient origins and later accretions. It is for this ‘reason that T have tried, in the foregoing remarks, ‘oat STALLS oi enema here estectarty ah nt Sint eeroeen nl mick enti scrutiny of the present, oe a CHAPTER IL ‘THE FRAMEWORK OF THE GREAT WALL FRONTIER etre atempting to dics the orgs of Gret Wall sisry Taal et dws, ne by oo, 4 inary chr {ersten ofthe maj posta hve tb comer: Sin *Stonia, Manca, Chinese Tessa 30d ‘Fhe Taal yt describe the mdse in exch of Sse eps he soley tnt ns evened nach anscapeand Bias tat pote lady and T shal ve comeing 55) shou the Fs hon fram wich te pet soley 12) Saved and show then probit the pope tr sory ace our on tinea fn he meat fete, Tus il show, hope, bow each ron of the Great Wall Frontier ifr fom al he obey, and bow Gln the sane tines tl re fied wth ech ther 51 ein oak ee he speach sno lan by roidng pots of reference from wich fo Swork back foto the pot and’ horizon to work towards Trem te gat Tne apr thin is pone to stow ow the dierencestetwons he popes ofthe Get Wall edt have enphused ach ee by i tow importa. Yi ene of contly sepie eetoce ihe general line ofthe Great Wall of China farts one of the most absolute fronders in the Sei, "Tothe south of om Tit to the se nme Tie ties ow tote great ater of the Yelow River 285 fe Tange Eves tose drage neon Hat are fou Sect Stary to te teri reste obtary tele A water bre reaches he tun Tote north of fhe at he Yrs weaken and mot of then a berae $—The Gres Wall Fronier ar & sone of Siferntaton between environments. FRAMEWORK OF GREAT WALL FRONTIER 23, ‘vanishing in their shallow valleys or discharging into lakes and marshes with no outlets, many of them saline, Water haere does not reach the sea! Tn China regular rains feed the rivers; the climate is related tothe monsoons of South- faster Asia, but this relationship weakens as the rain- bearing winds move from south to north? At the edge ‘of the steppe the rain begins to fal, and in the heart of ‘Mongolia and Chinese Central Asia there is an “outlaw” climate, not ruled either by the weather system of China for that of Siberia, though in the north of both Mongolia, ‘and Chinese Turkistan there are rich pastures at altitudes well above the central dererts, and forests on the northern slopes of the mountains, that acknowledge the moisture of Siberia ‘Agriculture teems in China, and mankind swarms. Be- yond the Great Wall men are fewer and more widely scat- tered, Tt is true that water can be found in sulfiient ‘quantity in some places, especially along the skirts of certain mountains, to offet the lack of regular rain and ‘make possible an cass agriculture that is quite a intensive as the farming of the Chinese; but cuch oases are isolated from each other by deserts and vast reaches of arid and subvarid steppe® Over thousands of miles of teritory ‘men neglect agriculture altogether; they donot live directly off the vegetation of the earth but interpose special mech- anism between it and themselves. The secret of the no- ‘adie life is the control of animals by men: sheep, came! cows, horses, and wild animals eat the vegetation, and44 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA thus by managing domestic herds and hunting wild ani tals ey pve themes With fos ling ees ade feed woo, nd dry dong for fe ‘Many other diferences—ociing race, nationality, lan- sage religion, and form of poital ogeizaon can fe elered to the Creat Wall Ine of ceavage. In China, for instance, inspite of wide varations of dialect (which reach an exreme on the southeastern cast), all men Speak the Chinese language. There ate still non-Chinese sorigines with aboriginal languages, but they are not ttrong enough to change the stractre of society, though they tnodily its sppeatsace. ‘They are the survivors of cleat peoey met of wom have been absorbed by the Gineses a they are themselves peoples who ate not yet Gincee rather than rivals of the Chinese. North ofthe Wal such languages as Manchu, Mongol, and Central ‘Asian Turkish (al of which ate related to ach otber) remot “diets of Chinese they Belong to am etrely Scpartenguitie fry. Tall such diferences the working of» powerful indu- ace can be detested the est on the iia of the sray in which the group lve The wider the divergence ofthe way of life, the sharper the dflerences of res fn fuage religios, politcal loyal, and so fort. Yet infact {Be psi! appearance of a cameksiding nomad fn the Inost arid part of Mongolia, the language he speaks, the Feligon he honor, are ll covered to 8 very portant extent bythe fact that he fe camel rider and ot farmer inthe Yengtre dla sternly draining snd foding vee Fadi, Even *rac” the absoite orginal diferences of Thich ite imposible to oat, modided by dit ant Trery other practise ofthe ordinary routine of tvng, and ‘tonal characteris ofall nds are even more pls tly subject to soi infloeces. The focal appearence ff "pure" Manchos has considerbly changed fn the last thiny years and become more "Chinese Secure Macht FRAMEWORK OF GREAT WALL FRONTIER 25 children now grow up as Chinese children do; they are no longer strapped in cradles when small, with a hard pillow stulfed with grain, which flattens the back of the head— an artificial moulding of the head shape contributing to the facial cast that sed to be considered “typically” Mancha ‘The Great Wall only approximates to an absolute fron- tier, It is the product of ocial emphasis continuously pplied along a line of cleavage between environments ‘The difference of environment is not equally sharp along every sector of the Great Wall, and this corresponds his torically to the fact that there are many loops and varia: tons and alternative lines of “the” Great Wall Indeed, Chin Shit-huang-ti, who “bull” the wall in the third century 2c, did s0°by linking together different sectors that ad already teen built by several Chinese border states before his time, Tt ie necessary therefore to di riminate between the natural environment and the social ‘eraphasis added tothe environment in the course of history. ‘Tn early phases the influence of enviconment on eociety ie relatively powerful; but as the society matures it begins to assert control over the environment and choice between altermative uses of the environment. Stidy of the his- torical geography of the Great Wall of China therefore demands aeute appreciation of the influence of environ- ‘ment on society, the adjustment of society to the ene vironment, and the way in which different forms of Society, as they mature, function and develop within their ‘environments and attempt to control them, aie The Gad Tee, raeMar 4~Fost and expansion of the northern and soathern Chie nese te hed ua second millenia CHAPTER IIT THE LOESS REGION AND THE ORIGINS OF ‘CHINESE SOCIETY Becunwanes oF Covese CuLtune 1v raz Loess Reston When we approach the problems of the most ancient history of China the first thing that Becomes obvious isa severe narrowing of the geegraphical area, The history Of the Chinese did not begia at a number of points widely scattered over what is now China, spreading from these ‘points until the inital areas merged with each other and a ‘eneral culture became possible which represented the sum of many contributions. ‘There are only two focal forthe origin of Chinese history a primary focus in the middle Yellow River valley and a secondary focus in the middle Yangtze valley.” In time the processes of dif from each of these foci began to overlap and interact ‘This raised the question whether the North or the South was to be dominant, Ta the upshot the North prevailed, parlly because it had certain inherent advantages at the carly’ Ievel of development and partly because, as the ‘general interplay of historical forces became more com- pilex, it developed into the area in which equilibrium was to be sought between the history of agricultural China and the history of the Taner Asian steppes, with thei ‘marginal oasis, mountain, and forest zones, ‘When the stm of the forces at work had once taken this bias the geographical spread of the Chinese became un even, Toward the south their expansion was immense, The ancient South China, lying between the middle ‘Yangtze and the Huai and lower Han basins, became mid- SEPT EL RANG A No at Soh ny ae a Te48 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA, China, as one primitive barbarian tract after another was ‘ocupied and incorporated beyond the Yangtze to form the few South China. On the north expansion was not only ttnequal but irregular and fluctuating. Periods of advance alternated with periods of retreat. ‘The line of the Great Wall came to represent the mean of these fluctuations Analysis of the reasons for this unequal development ‘makes it possible fo define the patter of Chinese history land the typeof historieal movement animating the patter. ‘Neolithic man probably was widely, though thinly, scat- tered overall the geographical and climatic regions of what fs now China, Neolithie “history,” however, was almost Satie, Weakness of social organization made it possible fo transmit acquired knowledge and improved ways of do- fing things ony clumsily and with much waste, This weak tess lingered even after the slowly accumulating, know!- ‘edge of how to do things, and how to make things for ‘Sing things, and how to take advantage of things done by. ‘others, had made possible a slightly greater assertion of, ‘human initiative. Te was because of this wealmess that the relatively sudden acceleration of human history toward the tnd ofthe neolithic period, and the leap forward from the tse of stone and wood to the use of metals, was possible only in certain kinds of environment. "The lower Yellow River, flowing across the Great Plin ‘of northern and middle China, frequently flooded and ‘changed its course, creating wide marshes. The cleasing, (raining, and protective dking of such country required. level of organized socal effort altogether beyond primi- tive mankind, The region very likely had a neolithic popu: lation of fen people, who hunted, fished, and gathered ‘wild fruits and plants; ut it eannot have been the home- ind of “the” original Chinese, maintained by Mas- pero? As for the middle Yangtze, its heavier rainfall apr, an tie ‘THE LOESS REGION » meant not only marshes but rank jungle. Tt was an elab- orate technique of irrigated rice-growing that eventually made setled agriculture possible and profitable for large populations along the middle and lower Yangtze To as- fume the working out of such a technique atthe earliest stages of cultural and socal development implies the ability o take a second major step forward ata time when thefts tentative step had barely become possible. "Therefore it was the loess region that became the pri- ‘mary focus of Chinese history. So far as T know, itis always taken for granted in the older scholarship of the CChinese thatthe heart of the most ancient Chinese culture was in the general region of the great bend. where the ‘Yellow River, after running from north to south between what are now the provinces of Shansi and Shensi turns to the east and enters the Great Plain. Modern Chinese commentators of major importance, like the late V. K, ‘Ting, definitely hold this opinion* Europeans like che reat Richthofen® and Legge and more recently Con- ady,? have tried to specify more exactly the Wei basin in Shersi or the southernmost part of Shansi andthe part of ‘Honan adjacent to it, across the Yellow River—near the ‘edge, that is, of the Great Plain, but still within the loess highlands. ‘Wittfogel, however, has clearly established standards for determining the geographical area of the earliest Chi nese history. The proto-Chinese mast have made their first significant advances in the loess terrain of the Yellowgo INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA River bend not becuse it was the richest land within their reach, but because it was the easiest land to work, The Toess ‘oil never carried a primeval forest of heavy timber Alfie to clear away, and it was a scl in which a poor and ‘rude agriculture could be started with the inefficient tools ‘and weak social organization of a neclithie people, This ‘mattered more than the fact that millet (of several vari- ties) and wheat, the major crops of the loess region, have never been 0 rich as the crops of the alluvial soils of the Great Plain, and not nearly 2 rich as the rie harvests of mid-China end the South ‘A numberof tributary streams discharge into the Yellow ‘River both above and below its final fur to the east. In their valleys water was avalable, but parts at least of the valley floors were not ordinarily subject to Hood. Here the crucial transition could be made from the gatheriag of ‘wild erope to a tentative agriculture, while the ld wild Crops stil remained accesible. ‘There was also an 30% ilary supply of food, skin clothing, and bone utensils from the trapping or hunting of deer, pheasants, and partridges. ‘Even the tiger still survives in North Shens?; and leop- lads and wild boar, together with deer and almost wnbe- Tievable numbers of pheasants and gartridges, are to be found in both Shensi and Shansi, Wilderness tracts in beth provinces, covered with brush and small trees but without heavy timber (except where no thick deposit of Joss hides the core of the underlying mountain structure), still preserve something of what must have been the ap” pearance of the most anclent Ching. att ee a em at eee of Bere et ‘THE LOESS REGION * Recastox op Eanty Cuuxese Couruas 10 Son ax Cuneate oF tHe Lorss Reciow Th net an cate a hein were of mints or Se ng Cotes ate Tuk one Spee ee gf os tat cay weed wil pine sess These Ea Saag a he les ey low ope tres ate ht witha col 2 sae a ey isp warm in wine Walyeey excel el ‘a eager tnd ad spe tines ‘Slip ofl eae ape lng eee te bc pert “evel ory of oes els tw aus wot apy Be nate tn dee ae ‘uno oat of pn he tensed ee ee wie te {1's scans heh aes Rn fel eden the ase w Ban seccly ify ars bree fet li eda dy gh et oro. Wet te aa si eahig & Say Ht oF iain wate a fae Be nd ano he Stn ees wi isha pt ft {een ef aural Cal tr” Cote {eyo ns neve ented ce hes er Meni unre f eny hee eagh wae Sie dunce fst imps when he cin ace cottaed" Wins he wise pane tegral hin it wey vpn ak ee ttn si fatal, Bol eae see Sie cmagh hi a we so ran aa reo bores sks oej@ INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA itive people that was beginning to develop agriculture End stil flied in part on hunting and the collection of Derres, fruits, roots, and so forth, would not be driven away. On the contrary, it would be encouraged to apply ‘water from the streams to its erude, smal fields wherever the water was available. The soft scl was so easy to work that there fs no reason fo auppose that irrigation on a small, ‘scale, by means of channels {rom one point on a steam to fields a few hundred yards below on the floor of the same valley, could nat have been practiced in neolithic times— though it is hardly Tkely that this can ever be proved, ‘Some of the simplest irrigation channels in Shansi and Shensi today, though actually dug with iron implements, could with very litle extra dificlty be scratched with tools of bone, wood, or stone. "The society, however primitive, that first attempted such enterprises was predestined toa certain evolutionary bias. ‘Thie Fret affected the way in which it was diferentiated from other primitive forms of society that could have survived in the tame landscape, and later influenced its ‘whole course of growth-—the tendencies it avoided, the tendencies it found congenial, and the mature form eventually attained, The initial problems of differentiation fare all-important, ‘The question of the ethnic identity of the early Chinese and the barbarian tribes with which they were in contact need not yet be discussed. Tt would be Interesting to know whether two oF more race, ora x= ture of peoples, tool part in the founding of China; but the matter is not of decisive importance, because the major Interest at this level of history is not the blood that ran in ‘people's veing but rather the question of the way of life nd the flexibility of that way of life—its eapacity for Claboration within the eriginal landscape and its adapta- bility to a wider range of teritory. ‘Conclusions drawn from the geological, geographical, and climatic data all converge on one point: farming could ‘THE LOESS REGION a not he made secure, capable of supporting a larger number of people and of releasing them from dependence on such surliary practices as hunting and the guthering of wild plant food, without control over water. The first clumsy ‘forts toward bringing water to the sil that needed it could be made by one man and his woman and children, Beyond that, the control of soil and water in combination lay only within the reach of groupe of people, helping each other to dig larger channels and perhaps to build embanke- ments that would keep flood water out of the bottom lands. Communal labor probably required, at this primitive level, ‘communal ownership, ‘Whatever the original form of landownership—family ‘or clan or “publie”—progress in land wilization made collective action unavoidable Tt is thus convincingly evi- dent that within the original landseape the power of socal institutions, irrespective of such clasifcatons a8 “chef,” “elan council,” “king,” or “state,” could be applied more irectly and emphatically through the control of collective labor than it could even through the ownership of land. Ifa man or group was able to decide how many people should go to 2 given point to bring new land and water ‘under control, that man or group held the essential power to rule the community. Eanty Expansion roa ri Lovss Rectow Expansion into new territory, moreover, followed water rather than land, The technique of building embankments is not essentially diferent from that of digging channels ‘The Great Plain of North Chisa, therefore, lay open to settlement as soon as it had become possible 19 marshal really large numbers of men and to diret their operations. ‘This is the chief point to be considered when inquiring io the historicity of the semi-mythial labors ‘of Yue according to legend the founder of the Hsia dynasty (at about the beginning of the second millennium nc) and34 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA the first ruler to undertake conservancy works on a lrge sue Te soureu that deal with Ye bve ben examined {Sete whether pce, persons, and dates am be dete Imined what pots of Chew are concerned, weer umber of legs ave been gathered into one, whether & tray Historical period is snested. Yet the most impos tant inference is reative: the whole accout tends to show fiat when the Chinese passed rem the prtve working tut of thet aviltarel technique to the wider testo Ssaton off “history” beeame neesary, Aero wae Hated and legends gravitated fo is sare “Wen they began to exgand nto the Great Plan the chins four te ler Yew River formal 0 ent,_After its Tong, straight run fom north fo Efren the highlands cf Seton the west and the moun tus of Stans onthe est, the river discharges an enor fous volume of water ito the Tow plan Tn_pessng {Ero the soft oes nds i socmslates a heary charge STi Checked by the abrupt eastward turn the water Sidkens, runnig acrowe the piste Te st is dropped Si the'bed of the ver bile up. The highly variable Fenfall over the whole ofthe rivers uper extchiet rea ‘ena than sume geste volume of water comin into the plan is marh greater than normal cr average, When ttibappens after years of it aceulaton, the fiver sly fod ts low bans nd the ow psn, fering reat ‘fares and fequertly changing it mein chanel Per arene agriatore wav theretore possible ony when the primitive oily of China fad become mare enough f0 Feiss cnberkovnt and daiage work on arly ge tale resuyreta Babee uae en se pee Weg ni et Sot ie EE eee ‘THE LOESS REGION 3s (Once this was possible, there was nothing to prevent the incorporation of the Great Plain into “China” ‘The fen people who already Lived there may have been ethnically fhe same as the Chinese of Shansi and Shensl, or eth- ically different but organization of the fret forms of ‘the Chinese agriculture was impossible for them because Of the dificalty of the environment. When the Chinese forms tad become workable on a larger scale, however, both the land and its tribes could be browght within the scope ofthe expanding Chinese culture and made Chinese. “Transition was equally possible by a route across from Shensi to the enclosed bain of Ssuch'san, on the upper Yangtze, and by a quite separate route from the Great Plain to the middle Yangtze, the lower Yangtze and Inter the barbarian wilderness beyond the Yangtze. tt may be ‘granted thatthe rice culture of mid-China (then the South, the modern South China being a distant, barbarian, jungle wilderness) originated separately from the millet and ‘wheat culture of the North. Apparently the easier phys- ‘cal conditions in the more open North made posible an ceatlier advance to a relatively large scale of economic en- terprise, social integration, and political unity. Tt is prob- able that some of the methods of the North—methods ‘which the peoples of the Yangtze were advanced enough to adopt thowgh they Bad not been advanced enough (0 originate them—reached the South before the “true Chi- nese” were able to integrate the Yangtze politically with the North. Te is quite possible that the spread was accom plished party by small war bands of Northerners who fstablished themselves as rulers in the South, carrying ‘with them their superior technical ability but becoming detached socially and politieally from their old homes (Certainly itis clear that the South became and for a long "aaah98 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA time remained a separate cultural focus. Tt was even doubt- ful for time, when in each focus the social and political ability to organize larger units and operate at longer range had become important, which would prove to be the pri- ‘mary and which the secondary focus. I believe tha certain characteristics developed along the steppe frontier of the North eventually determined this decision, but this aspect ‘of Chinese history may be left until later. In any case, the Northern and Southern streams of Chi- nese history eventually converged. ‘The result was an agri cultural society of manifold activities. Tts wide range of local variation was offset by one dominant characteristic it wat everywhere an intensive agriculture. Witfogel, surveying the relevant material, makes the point that there hhave been considerable misconceptions, especially among ‘Western observers and students, regarding a supposedly amore intensive Southern agriclture and mare extensive Northern agriculture. There are undoubtedly differences in the degree of intensiveness as between the rice paddies ‘of the South and mid-China and the millet and wheat and beans of the North, In kind, however, they are not dif tent. The agricultural economy of the North i as intensive ‘the social organization of the Chinese can make it ‘Where irrigation channels to take water {rom the streams to the plains are not practicable, North China isa land of wells, snd the Timited amount of water from each well uppors in the aggregate avast agricultural activity which is so intensive that it resembles gardening: ‘Even onthe terraced hillsides ofthe North and those of the Toess highlands to which water cannot be brought, “dey farming” is only marginal tothe intensive cultivation that forms the core of the economy, dictates the social Structure and the classification of landownership, and isin turn so exclusively the object ofall organized activity as Sama WSL Seip tent ee SS ‘THE LOESS REGION y to hamper forms of development that a different balance fof society and economy might make profitable. In the North, a8 in the South, the determining consideration is ‘the farming of the best land, the concentration of the most people on the most productive land, and multiple ropping In order to keep the land and the people busy. ‘This has created in both the North and the South a farming landscape strongly marked by large and frequent walled cites. On the edges ofthese areas of concentration the people and the farming thn out rapidly.*¥ Good farm= ing has its fringe of poor farming, but beyond the poor ferming there is practically no significant activity at all. ‘The exploitation of mowntainows eountry by methods alter- native to agriculture is astonishingly weal in comparison ‘with the mature development of specialized agriculture in ‘the areas of concentration Weaxwsss of NoxrnwAno EXPAxsion (On turning tothe northern, steppe margins of the Chi- nese field of history a strikingly different aspect becomes ‘evident. Nort ofthe main line of what eventually became the Great Wall the geography of Asia changes more rap- idly than ite climate, There are no rivers witha volume of ‘water sufficient for irrigation. Over a large part of Inner Mongolia agriculture is possible, it is true, but only if a change is made from intensive to markedly extensive forms fof cultivation and preferably to “mixed farming,” with considerable dependence on livestock. In the modern phase this has already been dane on a lange scale, and colonira- tion is still going forward; but this is only because ral- reais have totally changed the ancient balance of social and ‘conomic factors, From the earliest begianings of Chinese history until the end of the nineteenth century there was never any such decisive spread, either by colonization or by the assimilation of the steppe people The Chinese ‘Tar, Cah fhe Sf Cin 038 rm. no38 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA. did advance beyond the Grest Wall repeatedly, itis trues ‘ot haltingly and indecisively. Periods of expansion were followed by periods of retreat, Tn the same way the tribes ‘of the steppe invaded China time and again; but south of the Great Wall they never established permanently the steppe economy and the society of pastoral nomadism. ‘This contrast between a margin of difereniation and limitation on the north and a margin of indefinite exper sion on the south makes it posible to determine which of the processes of Chinese history, within China proper, were of decisive importance. Stated briefy, the main linkage appears to be as follows. Any one ofthe major regions of China is capable of supporting an advanced civilization. ‘The region in which the first sigufcant growth can be traced was not the richest of these, but the one that offered the least impediment tothe weak inital stages of eultral roth and at the same time the powerfl stimulus of rich Fewards for even the erudest attempts at irrigation, The bias toward intensive agriculture thus imparted atthe very beginning continued to develop because the regions into which the Chinese expanded, though somewhat diferent in geography and climate, and some of them naturally tore fertile than the original center of diffusion at the Yellow River bend, also responded favorably to an inten- sive agriculture based on irrigation. Scie of them might hhave developed successfully under a different economic and social order, Dut the special Chinese trend had the advantage of being the first to ascet ite, and thereafter it was easier to develop toward sniformity than toward rmultiformity. Only in the north did sharp diferentiation take the place of convergent evcltion toward uniformity. This was because the early Chinese were already committed to ‘THE LOESS REGION » agriculture. Tt was impossible for them to evolve toward fn increasingly elaborate intensive agriculture and st the same time to devolve toward extensive and mixed agricul ture In fact, there appeared inthis region an altogether different order, that of the nomadic pastoralism of the steppe. Out of this there developed a perpetual antago- nism, which demanded a decisive choice of every people and state that inthe course of history overlapped the Great ‘Wall Frontier, whether its founders were Chinese or non- Chinese—the choice between agriculture ofa notably inten- sive form and nomadism of an especially dispersed form OF the repeated attempts to create societies or states that could integrate both orders not one succeeded, ‘Tux Srvte oF Cunvese Histoay Ags ie ts pe ode realy the ase ot Cina try wins fr te eae fe as tel pian eon of a ey ca ‘pate or WY a soured alone ie ied mp eis a fo Ine unger of Cita th ned le were he th St" Sonera wore ce fo Sa [leg and maining ean wee too Pret he Festa of nt hot newts Se nan as enue doe Ge ait ilar et of tea of ee was fore mating of jl pve an comets Belin uci Phe hae ld ingest ‘Sa dines we ud ory ed Te wee Of gsc Geode sn ene a Shall ated vad Cyr Aas wade fore fl sete of cts” ae ath aed Sar etna aan ieee4 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA city and enough adjacent farmland to make a convenient ‘unt of local tade, exchange, and administration, Part of the grain surplus of each “compartment” was concentrated in granaries at a smaller number of metropoktan points atthe disposal ofthe government for feding the garrisons ‘which represented the extension of the central, dynastic power into the provinces! “Accumulated grain meant more than wealth, In time of war granaries made it possible to support garrisons; for invigeted lands, much more than the farms of extensive agriclture, predicate a slow, positional warfare of garti- toned cities ind siege operations. More important still, in the normal activities ofthe state and its people stored grain made it posible to assemble large numbers of men t carry fon further work, either inthe maintenance of existing it gation systems or in new enterprises. A surplus of grain and a surplus of manpower were in fact complementary; ach made it possible to produce the other. ‘ "This was especially important because intensive agri- culture demands intensive lor. Although landlords might town very big holdings, the working unit of land farmed by a tenant or hired laborer was very small. In order t0 keep rental up and wages down the social system de- smanded not merely enough people but too many people, 4 demand that was met by family and social institutions favoring rapid population increase. This in turn must have contributed to the low development of machinery in China? those whose vested interest lay in the control of ‘manpower discouraged the development of alternatives to ‘manpower. Since it was these interests that were also most closely bound up with agriculture, they discouraged atthe same time the development of mining, industry (except local handicraft industry), and all other activites that ‘might threaten the supremacy ofthe irrigation-controling, land-contrlling, manpower-controliing classes who were SOvamteg Ol Rey Heels At fn Cine Hato, 136 psi ‘THE LOESS REGION « the real rulers of China at each succssve stage of it ite tory. “The same considerations explain the Chinese inability to spread permanently beyond the Great Wall, except it limited zones nd usualy for short periods, Change fom Intensive agriculture meant a relatively wie dispersal of the population and a loseniny ofthe methods of adminis: tratlon tat had become standard. ‘Moreover, the lack of Irrigation activity meant the dropping out of what carly be- came and slays remained sn esentil Kk inthe chain of conomis, soil, and polteal conrl. “he fing of China by the Chinese was therefore ac complished hy the adding togeter of fanumeraie unis, ‘which inspite of local dierences were esenially homo encous, cach consisting of rural landscape watched over y's walled ckynever, ia the more fete parts of the country, more distant than a days walk from the next cy. Yet in Sie of this hemogencty China 383 wale rarely acted in unison, because eath “eompartment” was a pearly as posible selfcontalned, ‘The grouping together of series ft these units reauted fst inthe formation of Separate ingdoms and then a unified imperial state. Political saglomeratin of this ked had litle eect on the cle of grculture, but i dd icreace the scope of stateadmin- ‘Bored water-conservancy enterprise. I also made neces: sty the concentration at metropolitan point of part of the local gran surpls of each urban rural unit This was accomplished by the tse of rivers snd canals, which were tnade to serve as cheap transport routes and atthe sme time as arterial irrigation conduits. "The extraordinary way in which all socal forces com- verge on a ore and more elaborate devlopsent of this line of evolution a strated ina git peelar and state Ting way by the Grand Carl, which runs from north #042 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA touth, roughly parallel to the seacoast. So long as the dynastic state power was vigorous enough to maintsin the ‘pleep of the Grand Canal (which was not simple, because it'ran at sight angles to the flow of the rivers), the ship ment of goods along it altogether overshadowed in impor- tance any shipments along the coast. This can only have ten becuse the society of China asa whole favored the manpower standard of barges towed slong canals and ‘discouraged the centrifugal tendency of sta-borne trade ‘Moreover, canal traffic passed through the cultivated area, ‘and could be organized in such a way that 8 interlocked with the rural administration, Sea trafic was an independ ‘ent and therefore to some extent competitive activity. ‘Probably navigation was also affected by the way in which the montoon winds, as described by Cochiag Chu, blow to ‘and from the southern coast but along the northern coast >> “The Grand Canal was alo an “artifical Nile" the con trol of which brought to its most mature form the balance ‘of key economic area and key political aea which has been cutely expounded by Ch'socting Chi. The control of ‘China by the dynastic imperial state came to mean the simmltaneous contol of a political and miltary capital in the North, watching the unassinlable Frontier, and a re- tglon of optimum surplus agricultural production to feed the capital, ‘The postion of both capital and key economic area varied in different historical periods Counercs, Mains, Axo re MaNDaRs Until the time when China was invaded from the sea in the nineteenth century, most of its people and most ofits trade did not have to move far between urban market and rural market. Only special commodities and special people circulated more widely. Salt iron, tea, and sik SR anlar aa, ‘THE LOESS REGION “ were not everywhere produced but were widely distributed, ‘Tea and sill, being special commodity products ofthe main food-supplying agricultural activity, could be handed on from local trader to local trader; but salt and all metals, ‘especially ion, invited special regulation beeause the agri- cultural society of China could not get on withoat them and did not produce them a8 part of its normal farming enterprise. Therefore from very early times it was profit: able fo limit the refining and distribution of salt and the rining of metals under monopolistic licenses granted by the state, ‘The results were curious. It is a commonplace in China thatthe worst salt is sold in the immediate vicinity in which itis produced and at relatively high price, because of ‘monopolistic contral. ‘The better sal, being more concen= trated, can stand the price of transport. It is despatched to more distant markets—but itcan be adulterated again before being sold to increase the profit. The public ie forced to pay the price because the peasants, who consume the greatest quantity, live almost entirely on grain and vege fables and sal is chemically necessary to their diet. A con- temporary example of the importance of salt is the fact ‘that lac of sal which had been denied them by blockade and was having’a debilitating effect on the peopl, slowly ‘became as important asthe military campaign of the Naa king Government in forcing the Chinese Communists to abandon in 1936 the areas south of the Yangtze that they had held since 1928" ‘As for mining, it has always been crippled by methods ‘of taxation that approximate to blackmail. The major sp- paratus of the state in China was occupied with the closely Aleveloped areas of cultivation. Mining was an activity44 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA Betas eh ceierone Se ah oe ot Sa en eee pe eg abn ol ay ee cee at i epee ene sr te ea a ey sear an eaons ea nme cron eet oe She pa on ino rat Te ae tt a een we eta py fet dee ne isa ie ats Sle grate Sa ae et i oie eee et ecg ey a i cae a ee aot pa Be ae aa sete oe i i pt oly oe ct ce et cn om te met ie he cet St cd le un aed a hasreeetrereeta reer firs ofthe nation ata whole, ‘Thee poston inthis r- spect being a Kind of monopoly, they were naturally in- lined to preserve i by favoring Fepetiton and routine and ‘iscouraging variation and experiment of every kind. THE LOESS REGION “s Recumnenr Crets 1N Ciwese History Repetition, accordingly, role the course of events in hing, with evolution ceed in evry dation except that of farther secatstion of the aca amiant per tularies, The tie and fl of dyoasty afer dyoary fo 2 calender of resrrnt phases. Fist neresingveorns fs the rel of eoncetatng people fn favorable areas in der to organize them for matercoservncy works en a lange sale and forthe pave of agrcure, Seconds apparent stability a8 production reached tsps by means Gt these activin, and those who controled the ocd of the state sted down to maintain te morkng ofthe order tuto discourage al inate that tended Say from “hic, diminishing retrn, becuse the gta jem em ssid large fais, wile the econemie sytem reed few kinds of activity to employ the spe manpower, ‘Bn oversppy of haan labor was ond of the prow perity of thoze who lived by the control of lw, ender and Frain. Oct of thin was bred agrarian depression’ aad tollape, a more and more ltelerabe contrast tween the few who were literate, sopisteated,welto-o, and or sed to rule en the iterate many wo were eraioed to ive by thee muscle but who were dened fhe ight fo work and fei the market was overuplied with muscle Fourth sprrian ssings wit destroye he sate ut i ok open apa way to bd anew Kind of sate ™ “The time andthe people were then ready for a new strongman dynasty. Order cold be restored by fore, bat notte fw of faxes. “Thecfore the stong mathe Ns power had been acinowiedge, protected ose who o> fired the walereonervancy works and called cut the Esrivors of the shear bureaucrats fo nganze the ine Finite acts of Tsing and checking the men at work tnd fling the retire of grain tango and grin tute comes Cage VT, bow46 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA With a new margin of profit to be eaten up, after the famines and depopulation that were characteristic of such rebellions and wars, the new dynasty began the ascendent phase of the new cycle, Dut either in the tearing down Of the structure nor in the rebuilding of it was the founda- tion touched. ‘The society as a whole remained centripetal tnd the old way of life the only one that was understood. No large bodies broke away to found a new order in the steppes that were contiguous fo China bat had never been fonsidered proper t0 the landscape of China. ‘Tue Nuvereenrat Cexrvey: Westen Intausion Tiv70 Tite CHINESE CyceE ‘From these points of reference it is possible to draw cout the lines that make a diagram of China at any phase fof the repeated historical cyele. Tn the beginning of the rineteenth cencury, for instance, the Manchu dynasty, founded by barbarian conquerors but long since ruling in the Chineve manner, had outived ite vigor- ‘The society as ‘whole was mellow, bat rotten patches were begining to pread. The terrible devastation of the T'sipfing Rebel- or (1850-65), though predictable, had not yet begun. ‘What was the appearance of China then to a stranger 9 roaching fom the sea, and who were the typical Chinese? "The ports slong the coast were busy with trade; a sig nificant foreign trade was developing, but this was chiefly at the instance of the foreign merchants. Although a new ‘las of Chinese merchants rose and flourished with the foreign trade, the interchange of commodities essential $0 the carrying on of the Chinese way of life was not depend- tent on what could be sold overseas or brought in from bother euuntries. The Chinese trade of the Chinese ports ‘was, infact, with other parts of China coastal trade was ‘only an alternative to inland trade by read, river, and canal. Each coastal port had its own hinterland of agriultoral production and its exchange at short range with this hinter- THE LOESS REGION @ land and at fong range with ether parts of China, which Aidt difer in kind or function from the short-range nd long-range trade of far inland cites ike Sian in Shen and Geng in Sohn land; he geographical setting of the working machine ry of Chinese ie as pinto see. Each expan of feisvelyeutvated land was broken op ito sal tots trarked by walled ees, Where this kindof land ran ito ores latd or hily country there was a rapid fang ot Gf agrcultre and Population, nat adssatlyeompensied for even where compensation was posible by the devlop- ment of iting, Industrial manafactre for wide disebas tion, or even mixed farming. In the southern provinces of Wannan, Kuechow, and Kusngsh its tr, there was mixed economy of livesto and farming; but the Gd fot represent 4 frend way fom the previing Chinese tnages ‘The Chinese bad spreat to tte reins only comparatively recent centures® and were etl engaged sssintig the aborigines and the local practices t their own sanders, "The great and profitable activity of trade, expecially at short range, andthe ditrbtin of conmrediies made on a bandirat scale in every city were the business ofa mere han clave who were eset iddemen and agents: I wea diffe to free capital for independent invests in Production and dition, ‘The general rue was that the longer the range at which trade was carried on the tore i was Tinted to hares and tended to exclude Decssitien. Beease essentials were dealt in short ange thre ran ps piso ped een dice af communication excep for cllecting the grin supa, fox which purpose the Cron Coal utened hea Petal have in impor. ain accumulated and stored, was beyond question the standard of reat wealth in essen ‘The development ofINNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA money wealth n an easily invested, transferable, circulating form wat weak. Money had never been freed, in China, from the erude custom of storing bullion and jewels. This meant that the merchant, however wealthy, could not easily rise above the status of an agent. ‘The landlords were the class for which he acted and the landlord, accordingly, hhad more power in the state than the merchant. yen in money lending the capital of the landlord had better access than that of the merchant to the borrowing peasant, and had better security, beeause the landlord actualy’ con- trolled agriculture while the merchant did not. ‘The landlords were none other than the mandarns, the “special people” who have already been mentioned—the “‘cholar-gentry.” ® ‘The landlord, as mandarin, was his ‘own rival, for there was a constant struggle between the Authority ‘of the state and the power of the ruling class. ‘The state held the upper hand in so far as it could enforce the rule that no mandarin could hold office in his native province, where his family might be strong. The gentry held the upper hand in so far a8 they dealt in matters of state, only with “their own class of people-” ‘Consequently, tax demands were pressed more lightly against the gentry and the deficiency was made up by exactions from the peasantry and from trade. ‘The wealthy merchant, it i ‘THE LOESS REGION o true, could make a place for himself among the elect by his. wealth to convert himself into’ a combined landlord-rader, which meant a disereet subordination of hs trade enterprises to his landed interests. ‘Literacy was the link that made the scholar-gentry— landlord mandarins a ruling class of Siamese twins: a recondite literacy, which fostered dificulty and mystery in the written language and consciously resisted ‘ation and wide dissemination among the people. Tt “sepa- rated social classes but united regions." "Tt required Tong apprenticeship, which could only be afforded by fam- ilies of leisure, x0 that the nominal equality of all men in the public examination halls was in fact an equality of op- portunity only for those who already monopolized the power of the state. Only those who had passed the tests ould appreach the mysteries of measuring and taxing land, attesting gran tribute, apportioning water from the ‘main irigaion systems, and levying and organising forced labor for the maintenance of canals. Tt was easy for them to insure that they and their families should own the best lands and have access to the most water, They did not ‘even need to organize themselves ag military caste, for ‘no soldier, however able in the field, could make the ap- paratus of production and revenue work unless he com ‘manded the highly codified written language and a corps of ferites to manipulate it for him. Even alien conquer therefore, could not destroy the Chinese literati for 10 ‘matter who ruled in name, they ruled in practice. ‘The “typical” Chinese, therefore, was two quite differ- ‘ent people—a peasant whose functions were little higher than those of a draught animal, anda scholar whoee long fingernails were the proof that he did no hard work. “Cul- ture” was the monopoly of a class that combined the gross ‘ext corruption (above all inthe peculation of state revenue) ‘with the most delicate artiste refinement and the mostg_ INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA subtle training Of the inelect (though only in certain dic rections). The peasants also had their traditions; for though their world was cramped, centuries of work in highly specialized agricultural practices and codrdination of the muscular effort of large numbers of men working together to accomplish what would otherwise have been impossible without machinery had developed in them also ‘heritable social instinct. They bad the abil theory to the essentials of practic, to work in combination with litle apparent leadership, and to climb rapidly from lower to higher levels of organisation and the use of re- sources when free of pressure from above Tt can be seen that as the mounting insistence of the Western nations foreed China open in the nineteenth cen- tury, specially after dynastie stability had been weakened by the T'sip'ing Rebellion, a new process began which ‘meant the destruction rather than the conversion of the ‘old Chinese way of life. The West introduced many new kinds of wealth and power but these were welcomed least by those who already had the most power and the most wealth under the old order, The mandarnate, accord ingly, turned the whole country against the West as long as it could. The frst signs of conversion came not from them, but from the middlemen-merchant, who were able to serve the foreigners as brokers if that offered them more profit than ther old function asthe agents of the scholar- entry. Since, however, some of these merchants also had 2 foot- ing among the schola-gentry, the process of conversion spread in time among the families that for centuries had provided China's landlords and mandarins, ‘The solidity ‘Of the old form of rule was undermined. Some fails ‘and individuals rose, in proportion as they mastered the new ways of doing things, while others began to snk, ‘proportion as they chung exclusively to the old ways Tp the contemporary phase, China has been dominated ‘THE LOESS REGION * by the families that have diversified their activities they continue to hold large landed properties, but atthe same time are active in trade, industry, and barking ** The ati san cassis being rapidly converted into an industrial pro- letariat, divorced from the villages and the peasant fam- ly standard. The last to be affected have been the pease ants. This makes the fate of the peasant decisive for the sation. If he is to be held down to the old way of life hile the rest of the nation changes, then Chisa will be: ‘ome a vast Japan, with an industrial development high in certain activites but uneven as a whole, and with a dis- astrous and widening gap, as in Japan, between the me- chanical progress of the factories and the human labor standard of the farm! Either the peasant must be liber= ated and granted equal rights to progress with the rest of the nation or ese the overproduction of human labor on the farm, under ser-like conditions, wil drag down the wages and standards of factory labor and undermine the hole national econony—again, asin Japan Tae Seon Pet of Cen aeChina and the Great Wall Frontie ‘War Seppe and fret bes and cone CHAPTER IV ‘THE STEPPES OF MONGOLIA AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF STEPPE NOMADISM. Rather than undertake the survey of the Great Wall Frontier in arbitrary geographical order, from Manchuria fon the east through Mongolia and Chinese Turkistan to ‘Tibet on the west, tis better to examine at once the steppe ‘region of Mongolia. This is the fous clasicus ofall Prot tier history. From the mixed geography of Manchuria on the east and from the oases and deserts of Chinese Turkis- tan and the high, cold plains of Tibet on the west, there originated societies whose historical cat is best regarded 28 a series of variations on the history of the Mongolian steppe. ‘These variant forms were powerfully modied by what happened in Mongolia and aleo by the influence of China, an influence difering locally in each region but of the same general order. ‘There is evidence thatthe neolithic people of Inner Mon sgolia tended to concentrate around marshy areas, that they ‘were hunters who also had stone implements with which they may have grubbed up edible rots, and that they may ls have practiced a "hoe agriculture" Stone implements and fragments of pottery are expecially frequent in wide, Shallow depressions now filled with sand dunes, some of them bare and some covered with vegetation’ In such areas the subsoil water is tually very near the surface. ‘ial pal eh aN4 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA While there may have been a general increase of aridity all over Mongolia since neolithe tines, there is no reason to suppose that desiccation was drastic or sudden enough to give a sharp bias to the course of evolation from the inolthic ie to the later steppe nomadism. Its clear that it was not a change from moist to arid climate that pre- vented the evolution of an agriculture comparable to that fof China, On the contrary, dunes of sand came right up to the edges of some of these ancient marshes, and even at that time there was no network of streams that would have encouraged intensive agriculture over large steas. East Cotroaat, Disvexewriarion Berweexe Nosrit Casa axo Moxcotia ‘The decisive difference between China and the steppes of Mongolia is this: the nelithie hoe culture ofthe steppe id not develop even into an “extensive” farming of the ‘open plains or into a mixed economy of farming combined with livestock breeding. Tt was pastoral nomadism that eventually became the ruling order, Uhough not the sole forder. There isa range of economic variation to be con- idered here, Irvgated agriculture makes possible the maximum (in pre-industrial societies) of intensive econ- ‘omy and conomtrated population. Unirigated farming, ‘expecially when the rainfall ig light or iregular, and the combination of agriculture with pastured livestock predi- ‘ate more extensive economy and a thinner concentration fof people, Pastoral nomadism is notably an extensive ‘economy, freing a wide dispersal of society. Tn the north ‘of Mongolia and Manchuria, where the steppe gives way to the Siberian forests, there must be taken ito account a still more extensive economy and still wider seatering of humanity among the forest hunting tribes, some of which are also breeders of reindeer or drivers of dogs. Beyond these tribes theultimate transition i to the ub-Arctic and Arctic societies, Within the posible scale of variation, it ‘THE STEPPES OF MONGOLIA s fs to be noted thatthe steppe did not come to be ruled by “dry” or mixed farming, which would have been one degree removed from the intensive agrieulture of China, but by am emphatic pastoral nomadism which was two degrees removed from the economy of China and in the ‘upshot proved to be irreconcilable with it, ntl the rise of indastili, ‘Working back from this, it seems probable that what took place during the later neolithic and the Bronze ‘Age, from pethaps 3000 m1. to about 500 B.C. was a ‘broad hut very slowly accelerating process of differentia tion. This went on over an extremely wide and vague area, overlapping both the steppe, in which it was too dif- feult to advance beyond hoe agriculture even in favored spots, and the loess regions, where experiment was rela- Lively easy and wag repaid with immediate prof. In the Ineat of the loess region, at the Yellow River bend, the rate of change became eonspiewous in the second millen- sium 2.c. Near the edge of the steppe, it was oaly ia the fecond half of the first millennium mc, that it became rapid enough to force a sharp increase in the social impor- tance of geographical and climatic differences between regions. In the much longer antecedent period the same Kinds of men could live at much the same cultural Ievel in all Kinds of regions that were potentially, but act ia actual tee, mach richer oF poorer dan each ether, The impor- tance of the process of economic diferentition here sug- gested supports I thnk, Maspero's theory thatthe “north- ‘em barbarians” were ethnically of the same general stock 1s the northern Chines, being descended from groups that hnad deen “left behind” by the proto-Chinese who devel coped a higher agriculture in North China.* ‘On the whole, however, it does not greatly mater whether the savages scatered from the Yangtze valley to Mongolia were of the same general ethnie tock or be- ‘taper Ls Cine aa 00,56 INNER ASIAN FRONTIERS OF CHINA Tonge to dierent “races” Nor does it matter a great fied wheter bands of them dete from one region #9 Stoter or wheter changes inelinate poured ile more fain over the Vangie wey ov die up a few marshes in Mongolia, Geographical contrast, cultural borowing, foci erctang, td migration were til fotos con Serations that tad m0 creative vale unt mach ster, fer the prose of evo had began inspec = ons, ‘The decdng impete resided in the improved {Sages that men begun to practice, probably haphazard in ie regions where the natural falance of Uimitng and fvontie factors made posible the momentous change {om the repetition of primitive acts tothe development of sghly Ise primitive habits Once this kindof change fad tegun advances could be made cther through Toc Aiscovery of a4 the result Of importation, migration, or taltural borowing. ‘Wheter or not the poto-Chinese had rigizally ic grated inward tothe reat bend ofthe Yellow Rive, te Fnportant store phenomenon was their advance near this point beyond the crude stage of hoe agrcutere ‘Ther followed a spread outward from this core tO the lees rion as a mole and the Great Pian of North China" ae tet proses of sition and fergence in which the Chinewe encountered “barbarians” Gn every front On the whole these barbarians are not scribed even alter period diferent “races,” but a5 fer nd not yt aed the campo of erie ices and socal organization that the Chinese, were ren ith then? “Tp any can the environment sf, xcoen the steppe Fronts, permited the Chinese t0 ‘THE STEPPES OF MONGOLIA s take over each terrain and absorb each people they ene countered, and the question of “barbarism” thereupon became of secondary importance and tended to disappear. ‘As they approached the steppe, however, the environ- ment increasingly retarded the Chinese. It enabled the “barbarians,” whoever they were, to resist with increasing effectiveness; and therefore the “barbarism” of these bar: barians, instead of being overcome, was increasingly em phasized. ‘The decision between nascent culture and feral cGtrant barbarism had, moreover, to be separately fought ‘out over each foot of terrain, because the change from loess to steppe, although eelatively rapid, is nowhere deter~ ined by a hard and fast line of cleavage, The gradation is from irigable land through les irrigable land to n00- lreigabl land; andthe land thats inthe category of being not nom-irigable but less irrigable is unmistakably col> tivable, This in turn shades off into land that, though not non-cultivable, ie less cultivable. In all euch territory, especially ata time when the Chinese way of life, though fon the way to becoming highly specialized, had’ not yet become set in its peculiarities, the relative balance of the factors that favored the Chinese and those that opposed them could only be determined by experiment.* ‘tis no surprise, therefore, to find in the early Chinese chronicles thatthe peoples of the northwest and north, and later the northeast, though apparently considered bar- brian and hostile, are not described in any way that makes ‘their un-Chineseness decisively apparent. A clear dif- ferentiation between Chinese eultivators and barbarian herdsmen had yet to be established. ‘The Chinese them- selves were still hunters on a large scale, and also herders of cattle, and therefore all that ean prndently be said of their northwestern tribal contemporaries is thatthe tribes- men did more herding and less farming while the Chinese ‘Compte Chaps XI a HIT