Disasters And Frontier Governance: Research On Disasters In Tibet During The Middle And Late Qing Dynasty (1736-1911

Disasters are always interspersed in the history of human life.It seem to reflect an abnormal society,while in fact the sudden emergence of social problems and social contradictions.Disasters also a test of the local coordination and governance capabilities of the central government.Disaster history research has become increasingly mature in China,however,study of Tibetan area is always absent.Although many disaster archives about Tibet have been published in the early stage,there are not a few papers on the archives,but most of them are analysis of disaster types or archives,there is still little on more in-depth research.In addition,the political and religious system formed by historical reasons in Tibet,and the scattered historical archives have also increased the difficulty of disaster research in the region.Tibet is located in the southwest of China,and the nature of disasters was more mixed with the characteristics of the borderland,so it was particularly important to study the disaster management in the borderland under the unstable external factors in the Qing Dynasty.This paper aims to further improve the study of disasters,including drought and epidemic disasters.In terms of time period,this paper focuses on the middle and late Qing Dynasty,from the Qianlong(乾隆朝,1736)to the late Qing Dynasty(1911).It is mainly divided into two parts:the first part consists of two chapters:Geographical and ecological environment,Disaster historical documents of Tibet.The second part consists of three chapters:the relationship between disasters and borderland governance from three aspects:disaster response,local knowledge and governance power maintenance.The following are the topics of the major chapters:The first chapter is an overview of Tibet’s geography and ecological environment.It is roughly divided into four major plates according to the type of ecological environment: alpine canyon in the East,Ali Naqu plateau in the north,Himalayan Mountains in the South and inter-montane basins,valleys and lakes in the middle.Analysis of the region’s environment can clarify the eco-geographical reasons for local livelihood types and high incidence of disasters.The second chapter is to sort out the historical documents of Tibetan disasters.Combining various types of historical materials,collect the historical data of various types of disasters in the middle and late Qing Dynasty,and sort out the disasters in the region according to the types of disasters and periods of Qianlong(乾隆朝),Jiaqing(嘉庆朝),Daoguang(道光朝),Xianfeng(咸丰朝),Tongzhi(同治朝)and Guangxu Xuantong(光绪宣统朝).This chapter also conducts statistical analysis according to the types of disasters,using data to compare the frequency of disasters,the relationship between the disaster relief feedback from officials stationed in Tibet.The third chapter is the disaster response system in Tibet.This paper analyzes the central and local disaster response mechanisms from local disaster reporting system,storage system and tax system.There are a lot of research achievements on the regional tax system,but few scholars are interested in agricultural reporting and storage system.Therefore,the latter two are the focus of this chapter,combined with the post-disaster tax system,to show the general situation of the central government and the local disaster relief in Tibet,to analyze the resistance that Tibet’s complicated tax system may cause in disaster relief.The fourth chapter,the local knowledge of disaster.What cannot be ignored in the study of disasters is the disaster relief function of traditional Tibetan Buddhism and local knowledge.Religion even account for a large proportion of the disaster response in this area.This chapter analyzes the local knowledge from the perspective of the people,including the four dimensions of the disaster concept formed by Tibetan Buddhism,the image construction of Tibetan gods,Aba lamas(阿巴喇嘛)in special positions and disaster proverbs,so as to show the society and daily life of the Tibetan people during the disaster.The fifth chapter,disasters and borderland governance.This chapter analyzes the practice of the central government’s concept of nourishing people in the Qing Dynasty to consolidating the borderlands.This section combining statistics reported the damage of the frequency in the historical documents,as well as the performances of different relief practice in Tibetan officials,analysis the local power,as well as the borderland in the disaster governance reflects the practical experience in Tibetan officials,etc.,so as to deduce frontier disasters the dual characteristics of governance,the disaster management experience reflects the popular support.In short,the core of disasters is always attached with many humanistic and social characteristics.Compared with disasters themselves,the social functions caused by disasters are more worthy of discussion.To sum up,this paper briefly discusses the history of disasters in Tibet in the middle and late Qing Dynasty,aiming to achieve two goals: one is hope more scholars to join the research team;the other one is taking "disasters and the frontier" as the research theme,it explores the historical practical experience of Tibetan officials and local governments and religions in jointly responding to disasters and epidemics,and clarifies the disaster response mechanisms and measures in the border areas of Tibet,so as to provide success or failure experience for summarizing the disaster management in the border areas,in order to obtain historical lessons.