Xinjiang Agricultural Research In The Qing Dynasty

This paper takes agriculture of Xinjiang in Qing dynasty as the research subject,focuses on some blank areas and the weak points existing in the current research,discusses irrigation water resources,agricultural industries,regional relations in agricultural development and relations between human and environment.In Xinjiang,where lacks of rainfall,available irrigation water resources is the core of the agricultural development.There were three ways to use irrigation water in Xinjiang in the Qing dynasty:canal irrigation,well irrigation and Karez,and mainly in canal way.All water demanding units had staffs who were responsible for allocating water and solving disputes.The water distributing principles under the military government system included using different wellheads,the former user had priority,dividing water according to farmland quantity.Distributing measures were more detailed under the provincial system,divided water averagely among taxing farmlands,by which the management and control of society was to realize.The beginning time of planting rice in Xinjiang should be from the end of fourth Century A.D.to the middle of sixth Century A.D.All current viewpoints about this issue have their own defects.Before the Qing dynasty unified Xinjiang,rice planting areas were mainly located in the oasis of the Tarim Basin,and had been extended to the Western part of Mt.Tianshan.After the Qing dynasty unified Xinjiang,the rice planting industry developed unprecedentedly,and the planting areas gradually expanded.The hinterland immigrants not only increased the producing and consuming population of rice,but also brought in advanced farming techniques.Although planting scale widened,this relatively high yield crop did not become a major food subject to water conditions,labor resources and traditional ideas.Melon and fruit cultivation in Xinjiang has a long history,the Uighur people universally put all kinds of melons and fruits instead of food grain in Qing dynasty,their growing popularity could be compared with the field crops.The commercialization degree of melon and fruit was higher than food grain,sold not only in the local place and province,but also in other provinces even foreign states.Flower planting was also common,and many external varieties were introduced in.But the commercialization degree was very low,had not yet formed an independent industry.The producing techniques in horticulture was advancer than field crops.The forest resources of Xinjiang in Qing dynasty is relatively abundant.Mountain wild woods mainly distributed in the northern and southern piedmont of Mt.Tianshan,mountains in Tacheng,northern piedmont of Mt.Kunlun and eastern mountains of Pamirs.Plain wild woods mainly distributed in river banks of Junggar Basin and Tarim Basin.Man-made forests mainly located around villages,roads and canals.The form of consuming forest included engineering construction,mineral smelting,domestic fuel and vehicles making.Both wild and planted forests were exploited and utilized.More forest was cutting down compared with that was planted.The government imposed charcoal corves on people,and levied real tax on wood consumption.Aboriginal people in Xinjiang almost didn't eat fish.The fishery developed unprecedentedly after the massive immigration of inland people,and formed five production areas:Ili,Tacheng,Junggar,Hami and Tarim.Junggar District(taking Urumqi as its consuming center),Ili District(with Huiyuan castle as the consuming center)and Tarim(with Lop Nor and Bachu as its consuming centers)were three major consumption area.The fishes of Xinjiang also had the function of enjoyment,feeding fowl and decoration,except eating.Firelight seducement,scattering poison and digging artificial lake to siege were three fishing techniques developed by Xinjiang people according to local conditions,which had strong local features.There were extensive agricultural exchanges not only in inner Xinjiang,but also between Xinjiang and adjacent regions in Qing dynasty.Cooperation performanced on human migration,agricultural material allocation,technology exchange,crop introduction,industrial complement and so on.Conflicts included struggles of irrigation water in farming areas,crossing border grazes in pasturing areas and contentions of water and land between farming and stockbreeding.The cooperation in inner Xinjiang was beneficial to develop farming and stockbreeding harmoniously.It was also beneficial to develop northern Xinjiang and southern Xinjiang harmoniously.The cooperation between Xinjiang and other domestic provinces intensified the ties linking hinterland and the border areas,was an interaction which had centripetal forces.The competition and conflicts in agriculture was a consequence of rare resources,at the same time,it was affected by mode of production,structure of resource distribution,ethnic relations,national relations and so on.Relations between human and environment in agriculture developing includes two aspects:the influence of environment on agricultural development and the effect of agricultural development on the environment.The impact of environment on agriculture basically behaved in agricultural technology selection and the influence of environment change on people's producing mode.Xinjiang agricultural technology in general belonged to the coarse type in the Qing dynasty.due to its scarcely populated territory,but primitive type and elaborate type also existed.The dry farming conducted by nomads belonged to the primitive type,the regions located at outskirts and Bazaar where produced melon,fruit,vegetable and rice belonged to the elaborate type.Lop Nor was formerly an giant lake in western region,but its area was gradually reduced in the historical period.People reclaimed extensively in the upstream and midstream of Tarim River in Qing dynasty,which caused the water reduction,forcing Lop people lived nearby to move away.Their fishing and hunting economy gradually changed to agriculture and husbandry.Agriculture development caused profound influence on soil,native forest resources and wild animals.The long-term development of irrigated agriculture formed three kinds of artificial soil:irrigation-silting soil,irrigated desert soil and paddy soil,they were the carrier of oasis agriculture.Meanwhile some unreasonable reclamation also caused salinization of soil.Destroying forest,intercepting irrigation water,mineral smelting and fuel demanding were main reasons for the predatory exploitation of forest resources,some drought and desertification in Xinjiang were associated with it.Hunting and reclamation activities reduced the number of wild animals and their habitats,which had a huge impact on the large herbivorous animals and carnivorous animal at the top of the food chain,such as wild camel and Xinjiang tiger.