Salt Wells And Local Society In Yunlong Area Of ​​Western Yunnan In The Early Qing Dynasty

This paper focuses on society and salt-wells in Yunlong, West Yunnan, during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. The salt-industry operates as our vantage point from which we conduct an investigation of local society combining written-records and materials from local surveys. From the perspective of the society of salt-production in the Yunlong region and its similarities and differences with local society throughout China, the uniqueness of Yunlong’s border ethnic-group culture, environment, economic-life, culture and belief and certain changes in local society are all shown emerge alongside the deepening of Imperial control in the region. Our research divides into the following three areas:1. A discussion on the influence of Yunlong’s particular geographic environment on the creation of a’salt-well’society and the effect of migration on local development. Not only did the Yunlong region differ from traditional agricultural society, it also exhibited certain special characteristics vis-a-vis salt-well societies along the Qing coastline and elsewhere in Yunnan. The construction of various economic structures at the base of Yunlong society was connected throughout with the production and circulation of salt. Special characteristics of other sections of Yunlong society may also be explained through the running of the salt-enterprise.2. An investigation into management and production at the Yunlong salt-wells. Methods of producing sait in Yunlong differed from those along the coast, and the scope of circulation and sale for Yunlong salt was limited to Yunnan province, allowing for relative simplicity in administrative models. At the same time, the actors behind the circulation and sale of Yunlong changed frequently, as in response differences in the profits and losses to be had by officials and merchant gave rise to extremely violent opposition between the two groups. A significant question remains to be solved in the institution of contraband salt. On the one hand I investigate how Yunlong society was able to integrate itself into the national economy through the production and circulation of salt, and on the other hand I analyze the particularities of the transport and sale of salt in Yunlong society.3. The influence of Yunlong salt-wells on the construction of local society. This section takes surveys of Yunlong villages and stele-inscriptions as its focal point, revealing the interactions between the salt-enterprise and village-settlements, local society and economy, the culture of the Civil Service Examinations and folk-belief. This section explains how local society itself was formed around the core of the salt-well enterprise, that the development of production at the Yunlong salt-wells and concurrent rise in the economic strengths of the region brought an increase in numbers participating in the Civil Service Examinations, and that literary activities grew day-by-day more prosperous on the back of salt. And not only these; the beliefs of Bai residents in Yunlong bore deep connections with the salt-enterprise not only in the objects of belief but in activities of the faith.