Chuang Guandong

Crashing into Guandong
English name	Chuang Guandong
Type	human migration
Cause	poverty
Outcome	Han Chinese overtake Manchu as majority ethnic group in Guandong

Chuang Guandong (simplified Chinese: 闯关东; traditional Chinese: 闖關東; pinyin: Chuǎng Guāndōng, literally "Crashing into Guandong" with Guandong being an older name for Manchuria), is descriptive of the rush into Manchuria of the Han Chinese population, especially from the Shandong Peninsula and Zhili, during the hundred-year period starting at the last half of the 19th century. Previously, this region was outside China proper, but was sometimes under direct control and/or indirect influence, of the ruling Chinese dynasty. During the first two centuries of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, this part of China, the traditional homeland of the ruling Manchus, was, with few exceptions, closed to settlement by Han Chinese civilians, with only certain Manchu Bannermen, Mongol Bannermen, and Chinese Bannermen allowed in. The region, now known as Northeast China, has an overwhelmingly Han population.

Historical background

Migrants and other travelers on a kang in a one-room inn in a then-wild area east of Tonghua, Jilin, as seen by Henry E.M. James in 1887

Inner Manchuria, also called Guandong (literally, "east of the pass" referring to Shanhai Pass at the east end of the Great Wall of China) or Guānwài (關外; "outside of the pass"), used to be a land of sparse population, inhabited mainly by the Tungusic peoples. In 1668 during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, the Qing government further decreed a prohibition of non-Eight Banner people getting into this area of their origin.

However, Qing rule saw a massively increasing amount of Han Chinese both illegally and legally streaming into Manchuria and settling down to cultivate land as Manchu landlords desired Han Chinese peasants to rent on their land and grow grain; most Han Chinese migrants were not evicted as they went over the Great Wall and Willow Palisade. During the eighteenth century Han Chinese farmed 500,000 hectares of privately owned land in Manchuria and 203,583 hectares of lands which were part of courier stations, noble estates, and Banner lands, in garrisons and towns in Manchuria Han Chinese made up 80% of the population.^[1]

Han Chinese farmers were resettled from north China by the Qing to the area along the Liao River to restore the land to cultivation.^[2] Wasteland was reclaimed by Han Chinese squatters in addition to other Han who rented land from Manchu landlords.^[3] Despite officially prohibiting Han Chinese settlement on the Manchu and Mongol lands, by the 18th century the Qing decided to settle Han refugees from northern China who were suffering from famine, floods, and drought into Manchuria and Inner Mongolia so that Han Chinese farmed 500,000 hectares in Manchuria and tens of thousands of hectares in Inner Mongolia by the 1780s.^[4] The Qianlong Emperor allowed Han Chinese peasants suffering from drought to move into Manchuria despite him issuing edicts in favor of banning them from 1740-1776.^[5] Chinese tenant farmers rented or even claimed title to land from the "imperial estates" and Manchu Bannerlands in the area.^[6] Besides moving into the Liao area in southern Manchuria, the path linking Jinzhou, Fengtian, Tieling, Changchun, Hulun, and Ningguta was settled by Han Chinese during the Qianlong Emperor's rule, and Han Chinese were the majority in urban areas of Manchuria by 1800.^[7] To increase the Imperial Treasury's revenue, the Qing sold formerly Manchu only lands along the Sungari to Han Chinese at the beginning of the Daoguang Emperor's reign, and Han Chinese filled up most of Manchuria's towns by the 1840s according to Abbe Huc.^[8]

The sparse population of the Qing Empire's northeastern borderlands facilitated the annexation of the so-called "Outer Manchuria" (the regions north of the Amur and east of the Ussuri) by the Russian Empire, finalized by the Treaty of Aigun (1858), and the Convention of Peking (1860). In response, the Qing officials such as Tepuqin (特普欽), the Military Governor (jiangjun) of Heilongjiang in 1859-1867, made proposals (1860) to open parts of Guandong for Chinese civilian farmer settlers in order to oppose the conquest of Russia.^[9] The Qing government subsequently changed its policy, encouraging poor farmers from the nearby Zhili Province (the present-day Hebei) and Shandong to move to and live in Manchuria, where one district after another became officially opened for settlement.

The exact numbers of migrants cannot be counted, because of the variety of ways of travel (some walked), and the underdeveloped government statistics apparatus. Nonetheless, based on the reports of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and, later, the South Manchurian Railway, modern historians Thomas Gottschang and Diana Lary estimate that, during the period 1891-1942, some 25.4 million migrants arrived to Manchuria from China south of the Great Wall, and 16.7 million went back. This gives the total positive migration balance of 8.7 million people over this half a century period.^[10] This makes the scale of the migration comparable to the westward expansion in United States, the advance to Siberia in Russia, or, on a smaller scale, the move to Hokkaido in Japan.

Present-day significance

Those who moved to Manchuria were poor farmers mainly from Shandong who traveled through the land of Shanhai Pass or by sea, using the Yantai-Lushun ferry that was in service due to the Beiyang Fleet who were stationed in Weihaiwei in Shandong Peninsula and Lushun in Liaodong Peninsula.

In popular arts and literature

A television drama series, Chuang Guandong, made by Dalian TV Station, using the scenarios written by Gao Mantang, was broadcast in Dalian, China, in January and February, 2008, and was later broadcast throughout China by China Central Television.

Notes

References

A brief Study of the "Ch'uang Kuantung" Immigration Wave (in Chinese)
Migration of Ethnic Hans to NE China (the bottom of this page)
Reardon-Anderson, James (Oct 2000). "Land Use and Society in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia during the Qing Dynasty". Environmental History. Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental History. 5 (No. 4): 503–530. JSTOR 3985584.
Reardon-Anderson, James (2005), Reluctant Pioneers: China's Expansion Northward, 1644-1937, Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0804751676
Lee, Robert H. G. (1970), The Manchurian frontier in Chʼing history, Volume 43 of Harvard East Asian series, Center for East Asian Studies, Harvard University, ISBN 978-0-674-54775-9
Edmonds, Richard Louis (1985), Northern Frontiers of Qing China and Tokugawa Japan: A Comparative Study of Frontier Policy, University of Chicago, Department of Geography; Research Paper No. 213, ISBN 0-89065-118-3
Edmonds, Richard L. (December 1979), "The Willow Palisade", Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 69 (4): 599–621, JSTOR 2563132, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1979.tb01285.x — the material in this article was mostly incorporated into Edmonds' 1985 book
James, Sir Henry Evan Murchison (1888), The Long White Mountain, or, A journey in Manchuria: with some account of the history, people, administration and religion of that country, Longmans, Green, and Co.
Scharping, Thomas (1998). "Minorities, Majorities and National Expansion: The History and Politics of Population Development in Manchuria 1610-1993" (PDF). Cologne China Studies Online – Working Papers on Chinese Politics, Economy and Society (Kölner China-Studien Online – Arbeitspapiere zu Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Chinas). Modern China Studies, Chair for Politics, Economy and Society of Modern China, at the University of Cologne (1). Retrieved 14 August 2014.

External links

TV Drama Series "Chuang Guandong" by CCTV (in Chinese)

Qing dynasty topics
History	Seven Grievances First Manchu invasion of Korea Second Manchu invasion of Korea Qing conquest of the Ming Battle of Shanhai Pass Great Clearance Revolt of the Three Feudatories Sino-Russian border conflicts Dzungar–Qing War Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720) Chinese Rites controversy Ten Great Campaigns Miao Rebellion (1735–36) Lhasa riot of 1750 Sino-Burmese War (1765–69) Battle of Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa Sino-Nepalese War Miao Rebellion (1795–1806) White Lotus Rebellion First Opium War Sino-Sikh War Taiping Rebellion Nian Rebellion Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856) Miao Rebellion (1854–73) Nepalese–Tibetan War Panthay Rebellion Second Opium War Amur Acquisition Self-Strengthening Movement Dungan Revolt (1862–77) Mudan Incident (1871) Tianjin Massacre Margary Affair Northern Chinese Famine Qing reconquest of Xinjiang Sino-French War Sikkim Expedition Jindandao Incident First Sino-Japanese War Gongche Shangshu movement Dungan Revolt (1895–96) Hundred Days' Reform Boxer Rebellion Red Lanterns Eight-Nation Alliance New Policies British expedition to Tibet 1905 Tibetan Rebellion 1909 Provincial Assembly elections Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910) Railway Protection Movement Xinhai Revolution Wuchang Uprising Xinhai Lhasa turmoil Mongolian Revolution of 1911 Xinhai Revolution in Xinjiang Manchu Restoration
Government	Emperor List Family tree Amban Cup of Solid Gold Deliberative Council Flag of the Qing dynasty Grand Council Great Qing Legal Code Imperial Clan Court Imperial Commissioner Imperial Household Department Lifan Yuan Ministry of Posts and Communications Nine Gates Infantry Commander Provincial governor Provincial military commander Qinding Xianfa Dagang Royal and noble ranks of the Qing dynasty Viceroys Zhili Shaan-Gan Liangjiang Huguang Sichuan Min-Zhe Liangguang Yun-Gui Three Northeast Provinces Zongli Yamen
Military	Military of the Qing dynasty Beiyang Army Chu Army Eight Banners Ever Victorious Army Green Standard Army Huai Army Hushenying Imperial Guards Brigade New Army Peking Field Force Shuishiying Wuwei Corps Xiang Army Manchuria under Qing rule Mongolia under Qing rule Administrative divisions Qing dynasty in Inner Asia Taiwan under Qing rule Provincial Administration Hall Tibet under Qing rule Golden Urn List of imperial residents Xinjiang under Qing rule General of Ili
Palaces & mausoleums	Chengde Mountain Resort Forbidden City Mukden Palace Old Summer Palace Summer Palace Eastern Qing tombs Fuling Mausoleum Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties Western Qing tombs
Society & culture	Booi Aha Changzhou School of Thought Dibao Four Wangs Gujin Tushu Jicheng History of Ming Islam during the Qing dynasty Kangxi Dictionary Kaozheng Literary Inquisition Manchu Han Imperial Feast Peiwen Yunfu Pentaglot Dictionary Qing official headwear Qing poetry Quan Tangshi Queue Researches on Manchu Origins Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor Shamanism in the Qing dynasty Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao
Treaties	Treaty of Kyakhta (1727) Treaty of Nerchinsk Unequal treaty Boxer Protocol Burlingame Treaty Chefoo Convention Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting Tibet Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory Convention of Peking Convention of Tientsin Li–Lobanov Treaty Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking Treaty of Aigun Treaty of the Bogue Treaty of Canton Treaty of Kulja Treaty of Nanking Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881) Treaty of Shimonoseki Treaty of Tarbagatai Treaty of Tientsin Treaty of Wanghia Treaty of Whampoa
Other topics	Aisin Gioro Anti-Qing sentiment Canton System Chuang Guandong Draft History of Qing Imperial hunt of the Qing dynasty Manchu people Names of the Qing dynasty New Qing History Qing dynasty coinage Qing conquest theory Timeline of late anti-Qing rebellions Treaty ports Willow Palisade
Xia → Shang → Zhou → Qin → Han → 3 Kingdoms → Jìn / 16 Kingdoms → N. & S. Dynasties → Sui → Tang → 5 Dynasties & 10 Kingdoms → Liao / Song / W. Xia / Jīn → Yuan → Ming → Qing → Modern China: (ROC/PRC)

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.