Demarcation, Set-Stocking And Nation-State Building

There are lots of grazing-related disputes and tribal troubles in the history of Gannan Tibetan Areas. Since contracting herds quotas to each household in the nineteen eighties, there have been an increasing number of group fights linked with grazing and Grass hills, which brought severe challenges to the local government’s governing capacity. However, since the implementation of contracting grazing quotas to each household in2000, the grazing border dispute has been decreasing rapidly, And serious grazing border dispute is extremely rare in some place. What does the sharp decrease of grazing-related disputes mean? What is the root cause of this decrease? This issue,apparently, is of great academic value and profound realistic significance. Outwardly, the sharp decrease of grazing-related disputes is due to the local government’s measures of border demarcation and comprehensive governing. However, it is, substantively, an unexpected results of the effective implementation of contracting grazing quotas to each household, which implies that the state power has been deeply embedded in the Tibetan grass-roots society. Which is an author’s great discovery after undertaking fieldwork many times. Under the awareness of this problem, From the basic perspective of Interaction and mutual construction between grazing right and state power, the author, combing history and reality, logic and positivism, analyses the microscopic mechanism of this significant reformation, and preliminarily proposes the framework or conclusion:nation-state has been being built via demarcation and Set-Stocking.(Nation-State has been, and is being built via demarcation and Set-Stocking.)In the first part of this paper, the author introduces the basic historical background——the Gannan Tibetan areas’geopolitical environment. The Gannan Tibetan areas was beyond the reach of the Beijing central regime’s power and the Lhasa local government’s power, and was the mutual border between Beijing and Lhasa. Adding to dotted plateau and valley, open pasture and the nomadic lifeway, there frequently occurred livestock crossing、serious fight for resource, and tribal separatist force rose one after another. Coping with the church and state power’s absence, the Lama temples and religious leaders emerged to weld the tribes together. The result of which is the integration of religion and politics was the distinctive local governance pattern. Open pasture、the nomadic lifeway、the political tribalism and the monastery authority are isomorphic. As this political pattern has strong historical inertia, Gannan Tibetan areas retains the inner border in modern and contemporary China’s nation-state building.In the second part of this paper, the author, taking Sangke village, Xiahe county of Gannan Tibetan areas as the example, expounds and demonstrates the historical background、the type of organization、 the specific process and the operation scheme of2000or so when the grazing was contracted to each household. It was herds that was contracted to each household in Gannan Tibetan areas in the1980s, not including grazing, the main reason of which is that the system cost and the cost of fencing the grazing is too high. When the state gave subside to fence the grazing under the stimulus policy, and the grazing involution drove factors price up meanwhile, the grazing was contracted to each household initially. The implementation of contracting grazing quotas to each household, namely the grazing was fenced by iron wire, is an unprecedented transformation in the history of Tibetan’s animal husbandry. Moreover, it is the other turning-point in Tibetan history, besides the unity of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by the Tubo-Dynasty, namely the Tibetan Buddhism.The third part of this paper is the comprehensive comparative analysis of the first and second part. The implementation of contracting grazing quotas to each household brings a serious of unexpected results:it prevents frequently-occurring livestock’s crossing and group conflict., which weakens the authority of Lama and tribal chief who is the charismatic and traditional arbitrator. Thereby the state power can be deeply embedded in the Tibetan grass-roots society indirectly and peacefully. It is the minimization of the cost to define property rights, not a comprehensive and thorough plan, that brings the transformation from relief system by the charismatic and traditional authority to prior control system by the legal authority. The implementation of contracting grazing quotas to each household accompanies with set stocking and settle down, which fulfills successive central plains dynasties’ dream of governing the northwest frontier nomads that lets herdsman have real estate so that they can not migrate. It also facilitate unconsciously the fist check of Gannan’s land and resources and the depoliticization of Cuowa, which provides an opportunity to reconstruct the grassroots society.The author proposes conclusion in the last part of this paper,and expounds and examines the conclusion. The framework or conclusion that nation-state has been being built via demarcation and Set-Stocking(nation-state has been, and is being built via demarcation and Set-Stocking.)implies essentially that nation-state has been being built via network space from the perspective of China’s nation-state building’s history. The law of Chinese nation-state building is that the central network space continues to expand to smooth space of the marginal periphery. Specifically, network space implies a process from sedentary cultivation and defining property-rights to demarcation and set-stocking, from central plains to marginal periphery, which is, substantively, China’s nation-state building’ historical experience and realistic logic. The initiation of northwestern China’s network space is facilitated by the evolving social economic surplus of southeastern China(the central plains of China). This is a process that national territory changes from the frontier to the mainland, and the frontier extends beyond the boarder. Obviously, it is completely different from modern European’ nation-state building. The distinctive characteristics of China’s nation-state building is to have market and property rights, but not war. However, as the coming information age、marine times、and space age, the theory that nation-state has been being built via network space is rough and limited in physical sense. There is an urgent need for marginal innovation, which demands further research on this issue in the future.