Water Development And Environmental Change In Ningxia Plain During The Qing Dynasty And The Republic Of China

This dissertation mainly focuses on development and management of water conservancy in Ningxia Plain, and the time scale includs Qing Dynasty and Republic of China(1644-1949). This dissertation strives to re-appear the evolution history of water conservancy in the period, and analyze the background factors which influence its development and evolution. Meanwhile, this paper does exploration focused on the management and features of water conservancy and thereby to response the related theories on the relationship between nation and water conservancy.The water conservancy development in the Ningxia Plain from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) to the Republic of China (1912-1949) was mainly influenced by factors referring to local army and political environment, natural disasters, local turbulence and warlord fragmenting. From the early and medium term of the Qing Dynasty, as the wasteland in the northwestern China was opened up by the state, the water conservancy in the Ningxia Plain reached its most prosperous period. During that time, the state distributed state treasury free to conduct water conservancy and encourage the population settlement and social development. In the Emperor Qianlong period, earthquakes destroyed the canal system, then the state distributed state treasury free to reconstruct the water conservancy and recover the agricultural production. In the medium term of the Qing Dynasty, the state frequently distributed the state treasure with compensation to undertake water conservancy projects and then maintain the economy function of local water conservancy. In the Hui people uprising period(in the Emperor Tongzhi period), the army of the Huis conducted military operations with the Qing army by irrigation canals, which destroyed the water facilities seriously. As the local economy and environment declined in the post war period, water conservancy saw its hardest times. In the new policy period at the end of the Qing Dynasty, land reclamation policy and natural disasters impelled the government to reconstruct the water conservancy. And then the water conservancy embraced its tendency of recovery. As the transformation of water conservancy technologies in modern times, the development of water conservancy in this period presented new characteristic. In the middle of Qing dynasty, the country set water associate administrator at Ningxia to be responsible for the local water conservancy, and supplemented by assistant magistrates, etc. After Hui nationality uprising in TongZhi period, the country dissolved water associate administrator, and handed over the water conservancy to the local prefecture and county magistrates to manage. Magistrate of Ningxia prefecture in Gansu Province concurrent the water management in early Republic of China. In1927, the Water Conservancy Administration Departments of Ningxia area in Gansu province specialized managed the local water conservancy. In1929, the Ningxia Province Construction Department management it. In Qing dynasty, the water management in Ningxia plain showed spatial heterogeneity. The country payed great attention to the water channels building as:Tanglai, Hanyan, Huinong, Daqing,etc at Ningxia province. The channel in Ling and Zhongwei county relative to the local officials to managed, especially the area of Zhongwei county which more dependent on the civil organizations.During the period of the republic of China, the civil water conservancy organization in Ningxia played a positive role in the water affairs, and gradually became into the modern Water Conservancy Bureau, Water Resources Commission and other civil autonomous organization. Due to the administrative intervention and supervision by the Ningxia province construction department, it had the characteristics of the semi-official.According to the comprehensive research, and combined with the case study of irrigation canal system and channel system, it shows that:first of all, during Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the development trend of Ningxia Plain water conservancy was not necessarily associated with the rise and fall of a dynasty, and the proposition of’cycle of water conservancy’and’dynasty period’, is not symmetry, at least, during the development process of Ningxia water conservancy from Qing dynasty to the Republic of China. Second, there was no official "comprehensive" intervention stage for Ningxia water conservancy during Qing Dynasty, and after the surrender of Qing Dynasty, Ningxia local water conservancy organizations gradually began to play more important role in the water conservancy, but not completely out of the official supervision and restriction, even they needed the official power to guarantee the rationality of the organizations. So, also it could not effectively explain that there was folk transformation process in Ningxia water conservancy.