Class Notes, Thursday

• Big Trends of the 18th Century
• 150 mil. -> 300 mil.: population doubled.
• What about the Qing empire allowed this level of population growth?
• Little Ice Age in Decline: good weather, more crops, etc.
• Rural Industry: Merchants, Tile Makers, Military, Household-sized enterprises. Sideline ("proto-industrial employments") occupations that allowed greater income per capita. More commercialization.
• Expansion & Land Reclamation
  
• North-West: subsidized farming in new areas. encouraged spread of population
• South-East: taking over Taiwan and farming intensively, at the expense of the natives.
• Lowland Reclamation: poulders. taking over lakes, rivers and other wetlands. Problems stemmed from the lack of water; people competed for a resource that had become more scarce because of their occupation of its space.
  
• Highland Reclamation: learned how to use steep mountains and hills to grow crops. Rice was not an option. Potatoes & Corn were grown on the hillsides. They were the "miracle crops". However, potatoes especially, depleted the minerals in the land rapidly, and erosion occurred.
  
• In the mid 18th century, people became so desperate for land that they reclaimed land that should not have been claimed for agriculture. Problems grew.
• Who recognized and attempted to deal with the mounting environmental issues from the mid 18th century levels of land reclamation?
• Qing Officials and other educated members of society attempted to deal with the issues that were overwhelming the people.
• Dunstan's viewpoint seems to be that there was potential for the officials to get things done and protect the environment. However, it fell upon the shoulders of the farmers to actually get things done.
• Crop Cycling, Natural Fertilizers (manure)
• Official's main goal was to prevent social unrest rather than trying to protect the environment. Some officials pushed for environmentalism, but most did not. Their jobs were not about helping the people, rather, it was about ensuring proper tax collection for the government, etc.
• Do we believe that the officials of 17th and 18th century China had an awareness of conservation?
• No. They worried about what they were forced to worry about due to social issues, but the environmental issues were so long-term in nature that it would not effect them during their lifetimes, so it was not their issue.
• The environment was seen as something to be exploited.
• Does Dunstan seem to believe that Chen actually cared about the environment? No.
• Dunstan is very cynical about the intentions of the Qing officials as far as the environment. She makes fun of them, and doesn't think that any of them have environmental issues in mind. It's disorganized, simplistic, unsystematic, etc. She implies that occasionally there was some environmental awareness, but it was usually an accidental sidenote.
• What does Dunstan seem to believe the officials worried about, if not the environment?
• Money, Order, Stability, Taxability, etc. Social problems. Human problems.
• Confucian trained officials were worried about human society, not the environment. The environment only mattered when it impinged upon or related to human concerns. On its own it was unimportant.
• Schoppa is of the mindset that the 18th century officials pushed for environmentally sound policies. Dunstan, by contrast, believes that any environmental care came as an accidental sidenote to other policies.
  
• Dunstan's sources are essays and things on state-craft. She reads them very carefully and looks for the concerns that motivated those writings.
• Were officials aware? What could they have done about it? If they weren't aware, why weren't they? Is there something between the idealistic and cynical viewpoints?
  

Source:
Dunstan, Helen. "Critical Thinking on Environmental Issues ant the State's Environmental Roles in Eighteenth-Century China." Sediments of Time: Environment And Society in Chinese History. Ed. Mark Elvin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Save The Environment: Eat Less Meat

I'm not really sure where they were coming from when they declared that people should eat less meat. I suppose it makes sense, to a degree, but a single cow isn't as bad as a car all around. Cows don't use fossil fuels to move, nor do their emissions go on for the duration of a car's 'lifespan' (in as much as a car is alive), and, well, no.

Yes, it is probably healthier to eat less meat. But I'm not sure if they actually believe they'll reach the masses by saying this in a conference.

But... kudos for trying.

Restoring the Lake

Schoppa, Chapter 5

Now we move on to Chapter 5: "Restoring the Lake: Of Mud-Dredgers, Leeches, and Worm Officers, 1758-1809", in which things fall apart and are vaguely pieced back together.

"In many ways the eighteenth century- known generally as the height of traditional Chinese power and splendor- seems a watershed in the history of Xiang Lake." (120) Now, I'm not sure what a "watershed in the history" would be, but it sounds fascinating. Riveting image, unclear meaning. Perfect. Seems more like Elvin than Schoppa though.

"The preceding six centuries acquire the aura of a morality play; men seem almost larger than life: incarnations of vice who plotted maliciously, killed, and sized for self and models of virtue who worked tirelessly, preserved, and saved for others. Xiang Lake became the stage for grand battles between filiality and betrayal, obligation and irresponsibility, loyalty and surrender, chastity and impurity, and civic virtue and private greed." (120) I don't have commentary really, I just thought this was really cool. And "filiality" didn't come up in my firefox dictionary, so when I checked it was "bestiality" or "triviality", then firefox wasn't in my firefox dictionary, but fire fox was. Hrm. Oh firefox. Oh off-topic ramblings.

"In the decade 1759-1768, a number of leading figures from around the lake, led by Huang Yun... instigated action in the name of the public interest to protect the area from private nonagricultural threats." (121) But not agricultural threats, apparently. Brilliant, guys.

"The opposition's primary objection was that Ding "sought private interests with a black heart"; "not knowing the difference between life and death," Ding's activity "profits one household and harms ten thousand". This pointed stipulation of the clash between the public interest and private greed recalls Mao Qiling's dictum seventy years earlier that private interests (in that case, those of Sun Kaichen) could not serve as the standard for actions around the lake." (121-122) It's interesting that it's always one person leading the protests, while others sit back and watch, or blindly follow. Nobody has the drive or initiative to stand up for themselves... or maybe the few that do end up the leaders. It's a little odd, and a little confusing, but it seems like nobody cares but the occasional official.

"Though the issue of lake encroachment had always been basically an issue of public versus private interests..." (122) Gee, ya think?

"In 1768, continuing his efforts to restore the environment of and around the lake, Haung Yun, joined by unnamed petitioners, asked that the original dividing line between lake and mountain land be restored and that those living inside the lake land be cleared out. The prefect and magistrate, with the help of local leaders, began investigations. The survey of "lake-dwellers," completed in 1770, showed that 308 households were living in the lake land, an increase from the 210 households living there in the early sixteenth century. The inhabitants had increased almost 50 percent over a period of nearly 270 years." (123) The trouble is that they let anyone get away with living in the lake; it falls into the "give an inch, they'll take a mile" proverb, parable, whatever it's called. You can't let some people get away with it, or others will demand or assume that they can as well, and then it's like a snowball, it becomes a bigger and bigger problem. Well, vaguely like a snowball. Sorta. Not really.

"Encroaching on the lake was a risky business. If rains came, they might quickly inundate the developed land, destroying crops and flooding homes." (124) There were more issues than just these, but apparently the benefits for the individual outweighed the risks. Or else nobody thought about the risks until their home had been destroyed by a flood. It's not really clear, and we can't jump into the minds of eighteenth-century Chinese people yet.

"While Huang had asked that all encroachers and their property be removed, in effect calling for the absolute exclusion of all private claims on the lakeland, the decision of the local officials (ultimately corroborated by the emperor) carefully balanced public and private interests. The prefect indicated that many of the people had lived all their lives on the lake land and depended on it for their livelihood. If they were suddenly dispossessed, how would they live? And if, on the contrary, the land were recognized as private and the householders were required to pay back taxes, how could they produce the money? Either decision, the officials feared, might lead to social unrest, with the households joining together to fight for their interests." (125) because, of course, the inactive and essentially lazy Chinese people would suddenly bond together and get off their asses to protest something? I doubt it. I suppose I can see, vaguely, where they're coming from, but History says they'll just accept the governmental orders, or they'll kill themselves.

"Mao Qiling wrote the history of Xiang Lake primarily as a cautionary tale about encroachment on the lake; it praised the preservers and blamed the usurpers." (128) it's a pity not everyone believed that.

"The wretched state of the lake dikes and the continuing proliferation of illegal private outlets prompted Yu's concern. Both problems had been addressed earlier in the century, the latter, as we have seen, in 1719. Rectifying the state of lake dikes and openings had become the project of Zhao Yuziang and his son, Zhao Wijin..." (128-129) This issue was hardly new, and once again, only one person stepped up to do something. The actual citizens of the lake didn't care enough about their continued livelihood to actually do anything about their problems.

This is becoming yet another ridiculously long blog post. But it'll help with the paper to actually have my notes concentrated in one area rather than scribbled in the margins throughout the book. Plus, it gives me a chance to exercise my sarcasm. It needs to be taken out and used occasionally or it gets antsy and I become unnecessarily mean.

There's some more talk about the technicalities of the dikes vs. the sluicegates, and the fact that "worm" officials failed to do their jobs, etc, etc. It's a bit repetitive, and just says what the rest of the chapter already says.

I guess it's especially irritating to read this because it proves time and again that it takes an official working their arse off to get anything done. The people don't give a damn about their own livelihood; they'll live IN the lake if they damned well please and think they can get away with it be content to live in the lake and get rid of the water. It's moronic, and annoying, and I don't see any proof that the Chinese peasants weren't complete idiots.

Image & Remembrance

Schoppa Chapter 4

I suppose it's high time for me to actually catch up with the Schoppa blogs, especially because this is going to help me get my thoughts together for the paper, so, here we go. Some very far back-logged blogging. (Because you know you wanted more! BWAHAHAH!... no, really. xD)

Chapter 4 of Schoppa's book, "Image and Remembrance. 1644-1705" represents the transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty.

"Xiang Lake was a reservoir, storing water to pour forth in drought-destroying streams. Xiang Lake was a source of food, of fish and plants pulled from the depths. Xiang Lake was a transporter to gravesites, tree-shrouded pavilions, and crumbling shrines. Xiang Lake was a source of pleasure, intensifying the giddiness of a wine-induced reverie." (89) The lake was a source of life for those around it; it offered many things to fulfill the needs of the townships that surrounded it.

"The lake, the river, the well became agents of death for the horror- and panic-stricken, to escape the fury of the Manchu army. The depths of the lake became the apartments of the dead, the corpses mingling with the tangle of water plants, then floating to the sunlit surface, where their stench, like nature's fury itself, destroyed every possible image of fragrance, leaving only the nauseating smell of death." (92) With the invasion of the Manchu, the lake was no longer a source of life, but rather a place of death; the view of nature shifted. It was a place to escape forever the rampaging armies of the fallen Ming and the ascending Qing.

"For most, escape meant traumatic flight, leaving home and most possessions to venture into an area less likely to experience the ravages of war. Becoming a refugee, however, was not easy... [(Sidenote: DUH. Thanks for stating the obvious, Schoppa.)] Away from home, how would one live? Away from home, how would one speak to villagers whose dialect (so different it might as well be a foreign tongue) might differ from village to village? Away from home in a culture in which outsiders were considered as threats or as nonpeople to be ignored, how would one cope? Only staring into the face of the specter of rape, pillage, and murder could the choice of flight become feasible." (94) This was not a fun time to be from Xiang lake, obviously.

"Many stayed to farm, fish, dig mud, carry on trade, and live as though the world around them were peaceful, ignoring the turmoil if it did not affect their own personal interests." (94). I'd like to point out that this is probably the key to the issue of environmental problems and everything that plagues China today. Nobody gives a damn, they stick their heads in the sand and pretend it's okay, because that's what Mao would want. Well, maybe not... but still. If people would stop ignoring the problems around them, in China and elsewhere, things could be better worldwide.

"Most important, however, was the growing disaffection [for the "administrator of the realm"] of the populace. The military had become omnipresent. The people were continually expected to provide more soldiers and send more provisions. Assaulted by the seemingly inevitable military plundering- some of the worst of which occurred around Xiang Lake and Long River near Fang Guo'an's garrison- the populace saw the confiscation of the wealth first of those who had thrown in their lot with the Manchus, then of the very wealthy Ming supporters, and finally of the commoners themselves." (96). The fringe group of Qing that were trying to hold their power just kept screwing up with the populace. They were doomed to failure and merely needed to get their acts together and accept it themselves. Things weren't going to turn around, and their constant failures and demands all but guaranteed that people would turn to the Ming.

Then the Qing fall, and the Ming take over. Yes, this was inevitable. It's also history, so we knew it was coming. No huge plot-twist here.

So, then we've got a bit about the poets that Schoppa is so enamored of, followed by the climax of the chapter: the Sun lineage's encroachment on the Lake. (OMG! Encroachers! With money! What do we do?!)

"The climactic attempt of the Sun lineage leaders to turn a public reservoir into a private preserve came in the early fall of 1689." (105) The Sun family continued to be self-serving and went so far as to slice the already-ruined Lower Xiang Lake in two via a dike that allowed them to reach the "county seat" with greater ease. Lazy bums. Mao Qiling took action, thankfully.

"Disgusted with the deciet of the Sun clique, he called for an immediate meeting of officials and people to discuss the problem. But even now, with this special emissary from the governor, there was only silence: no one would discuss the case. Mao returned briefly to Hangzhou for medical treatment but tried a few days later to sponsor a meeting; again no one came. A second attempt brought people together, but they simply sat and stared: those who knew about lake matters dared not set forth formal legal complaints. Even though the Sun's actions were endangering the livelihood of those irrigating from Lower Xiang Lake and ultimately would affect all irrigators, area people feared immediate retaliation by the overreaching Sun clique, whose arrogance before the community and officialdom apparently knew no limits." (106-107) Nobody would help Mao deal with the Sun. They were cowards who were terrified of confrontation and ultimately had nobody to blame for the ruination of the lake but themselves.

"The passivity of the Chinese around Xiang Lake may be charged to intimidation and fear, but it points even more to the immobility that stemmed from submission to authority, the trait inculcated in family training and through the various government ethical-political strategies that promoted officially prescribed virtue." (108).

I was going to put chapter 5 in here as well, but this is actually a very long response, so I think it may be more appropriate to put it into its own post.

Class Notes, Thursday

• Taiwan was controlled by the Dutch for a very short amount of time. But not the whole island.
• Ming Loyalists who fled to coastal regions during Qing invasion.
• Zheng Chenggong - one of the people who sought to take advantage of the Qing invasion and “Ming Loyalists” to forward his own political agenda. Qing forced people to move off the coast in the areas near Taiwan in order to fuck up his economy. Zhang had nobody to trade with.
• Qing conquest of Taiwan took place in the 1680s. Controversy is over whether people from mainland China were allowed to (or supposed to) go to Taiwan. As population exploded, mainlanders immigrated to Taiwan.
• Aborigines = “Mountain People” – considered not PC, it stemmed from them “taking to the hills” in order to avoid the people who encroached on their island. They originate from Polynesia. They resemble Filipino people more than Chinese. However, due to several generations together, the appearances aren’t so separate anymore.
• Initially the Han were not supposed to go to Taiwan. The Qing government actually tried to protect Taiwanese Aboriginal land rights. The Han “leased” land from aborigines, then they sublet it. This gave de facto ownership to the Han settlers.
• What kind of place did the Han encounter when they came to Taiwan?
• Disease-ridden; miasma of tropical disease, etc.
• It’s a tropical island; it was very overgrown.
• The land wasn’t agricultural.
• Deer and other animal populations declined sharply as the Han moved into the area. (Poor Elephants). There was a market for deer skins, the Dutch East India Company sold them to Japan. Since the Japanese were willing to pay exorbitant prices, the profits caused deer massacres. There was also trade in deer products between Taiwan and the coast of China. Deer Products traded to Han Chinese for Iron, Salt, and other things. Deer = Common Resource. This pillaging of the Deer causes the deer population to decline, and the Deer Products also disappear, making people unhappy. This trade was a huge source of profit to the Han, but was actually fairly damaging to the aborigines. Once there were no more deer to hunt, Commercial Agriculture rose as an important economy.
• Aborigines had two choices: assimilate or retreat. “Raw Aborigines” retreated into the hills to avoid assimilation into commercial agricultural system of the Han. “Cooked Aborigines” adopted the Han system of intensive agriculture. {This can be used to tie common resource issues into longer term social and economic issues}

Class Notes, Tuesday

• Period we’re talking about was during Qing Empire.
• Qing is Manchu, they took over new regions such as Tibet, Shinjian, and other empiric extremities.
• Geographical extent of Chinese empire doubled during the Qing. (150 mil->300 mil) The geographical expanse of China grew to the extent that China actually was not overpopulated.
• Chinese expansion was Militaristic, not settlers moving individually. They charged forward with the intent of building a great empire.
• Manchu were definitely different from the Han Chinese. But they were so influenced by the Chinese emperors of old that they became ‘sinified’, like the Chinese. But the new theory of sinification is that it never actually took place for the Manchu. The Qing empire was an amalgamation of ruling styles; they used ideas from everyone, from the Han to other multi-ethnic groups that influenced them.
• “How does Nationalism effect the environment in China?”
• Created national identity. Big theme of book: construction of national identity.
• Where did the national identity come in?
• Forcing people to identify with the national government/ethnicity will lead them to follow the group.
• They integrated the Muslims; they let them keep their religion, but they favored certain groups over others.
• “Beg”: Muslim term, Qing gave “Beg” title to key Muslims.
• “Jasak”: Mongol term, Qing gave “Jasak” title to key ____.
• Imperial system trying to tie in huge variety of ethnic groups.
• Qing did not enforce assimilation into the Qing ethnic group. They just required that the outer groups look to the Qing gov’t for leadership. This allowed them to manipulate identity and maintain control at the local levels.
• "Does Chinese History (or any history) mirror its environment?”
• Cultural shifts stemming from climate change.
• Would he say that climate change is the most important socioeconomic factor of China?
• No. Claiming it’s merely climate change eliminates other social changes.
• Geographical Determinism; could play a role in nationalism. People identified strongly with the location of their birth.
• Environmental Determinism; cold play a role in nationalism. Peoples livelihoods were determined entirely by the environmental.
• Determinism is a theory that explains everything in monocausal terms. This lacks the complexity required to actually explain anything. Leaves certain people/things out of history. Takes out the ability of people to make their own history, deprives people of Agency.
• Manifest Destiny; parallels between China’s Qing history and North America within this time period.
• The Turner Hypothesis: The Frontier is the shaping force of American History. European expansion is the key. Very euro-centric.
• Expansion of an empire westward was just as much a part of Chinese history during the 1700s as in America during roughly the same period.
• GLOBAL EXPANSION during the 1700’s. Russia, US, China, etc.
• Frontierland Colonies designed to milk resources from the frontier and support the motherland. (wohoo). Military Agrarian Societies.
• These colonies were meant to be both self-sufficient and to be a place to get resources and send them back to the capital. Soldiers who farm. Cheaper for the government to support their troops that way.
• Agricultural Colonies, in practice, were a place to exile their criminals to, a place where soldiers were sent for a bit until they deserted, and whichever common people they could convince or force to go out there. Merchants went to get and make money, etc. Expanded trade routes. Deserting soldiers would rent/lease their land, rather than giving up their land rights.
• Government setups for soldiers often attracted Civilians who would come in and fill the gap left by the soldiers
• Still required huge investments from the gov’t in order to create the areas where an agrarian society was possible. They had to pay to clear land and set up the (water system). Public Good & Free Rider issues. Nobody but the Gov’t was willing to pony up the money to pay for this. In the 19^th century, the Qing government had other priorities, so they stopped investing in the inland region and the area fell apart.
• “Overall, what did the Qing expansion do to the environment of Central Asia?”
• Deforestation (“But there weren’t a lot of trees in this part of Asia”)
• Overgrazing (“there might not have been a lot of trees, but there was a lot of grass”) - huge flocks of sheep and goats would wander through an area and devour the grass. Overgrazing was a huge problem in central Asia during this time.
• Disease (“the contact between central Asian populations- like Mongols- and Chinese populations led to the introduction of things like smallpox.”) the spread of diseases decimated the groups that had not acquired an immunity to the disease.
• The type of farming that they were doing required a huge amount of governmental support, and when the gov’t withdrew their support, the system fell apart.

This Endangered Planet: A Chinese View

I was getting paid to tag videos on this site, and I noticed this title. I haven't watched it all yet, so I don't have any commentary, but it seemed interesting.

Stripping at Funerals, a new trend?

So, this has nothing to do with the environment, but it's really funny.

Apparently a Taiwanese guy hired a stripper for his dad's funeral. I'd say more, but that's about all the article says. It's got absolutely nothing to do with the environment, but I stumbled across it, and decided it was giggle worthy.

Of course, that article led me to this article. Apparently there was a spree of strippers at funerals to boost attendance? This is pretty amazing. My night just got a lot funnier.