Cultivating Wilderness, Guarding The Frontier Of Hezhe Nationality And Its Social Change During Qing Dynasty

Hezhe nationality, with a long history, has been living in Heilongjiang, Songhua River and Wusuli River area. Northeast region was"the area of royal rise"for dominators of Qing Dynasty. After manchu's invasion of the Shanhai pass, the government took various measures to control the people there to ensure stability and development of this region. The measures are the followings: conquering and appeasing Hezhe nationality, establishing Sanxing and setting up Qi and Hu, marriage connection and contributing marten, Shangwulin (the central government granted reward things to the minorities). Through the preceding measures, Hezhe nationality was conquered completly and administration of Hezhe community and the relationship between Hezhe nationality and the central government was strengthened.In the middle of Qing Dynasty, a large number of refugees, who thronged into the Northeast and formed villages gradually, cultivated the official wilderness without permission. Qing government adjusted the administration system of Northeast frontier area constantly. In Guangxu the 6th year (1880), Qing government decided to set up a new Yamen: Fukejin Xieling, which is the subordinated institution of the assistant manager, at Fukejin near the converging point of Songhua River and Heilongjiang to strengthen the control of the frontier area and people. Qing government also conducted the policy of"Migration to support the frontier", so a large quantity of Han people came to the frontier. As a result, the population here increased rapidly and Fukejin Yamen was replaced by Fukejin County in Xuantong the 1st year (1909).In the late Qing Dynasty, because of the constant aggression of Russia, Qing government organized Hezhe nationality into Qi and Hu to accomplish cultivating wilderness and guarding the frontier. Hezhe in Datun, Gaerdang and Susutun kept in close contact with other nationalities and due to their influence on one another, social and economical institution and relation of production changed a lot in Hezhe region.First, the social and economical institution of Hezhe nationality changed. Besides the traditional economy of fishing and hunting, agriculture began to develop in Hezhe region, in which Han refugees and exiled prisoners played an important role. With the development of economy, rapid increase of population and commercialization of fishing and hunting products, Hezhe people realized the importance of merchandise exchange that accelerated goods exchange between the frontier and the interior, encouraged production of Hezhe nationality and improved people's lives. So Hezhe nationality moved closer towards commodity economy. Secondly, the relation of production of Hezhe nationality changed. In the early Qing Dynasty (including late Jin), Nuerhachi and Huangtaiji spent half a century going on a punitive expedition against Hezhe community for 17 times and finally putting Hezhe under their domination. In the middle of 17th century, Hezhe people were organized into villages by Hala and Mokun, which is called Bianhu. So"Halamokun"was both clan organization and local administration unit. Xing heads and village heads were the administrators of local affairs and conductors of Qing government policy. In this way, Domination of Qing government on this region was strengthened. With the formation and development of private ownership of land accelerating the polarization of classes, the relation of production changed unpredictably—feudal relation of production appeared. With gradual strengthening domination of Qing Dynasty on Hezhe region, the feudal spirits and the idea of grading were accepted by Hezhe people gradually.Cultivating wilderness and guarding the frontier in Hezhe region during Qing Dynasty promoted cultural communication between Man, Han, etc. and Hezhe, so that a strong impact was made on living styles and conventions of Hezhe. As Han people brought traditional education ideas, contents and advanced teaching methods to Hezhe school education, culture and education in Hezhe region developed rapidly.