Jilin Bannerman’s Livelihood During The Guangxu And Xuantong Period Of The Qing Dynasty

Jilin is the birthplace of Manchu, whose administrative jurisdiction was originally attributedto the "banner faction" system, locating the eight banner garrisons, led by the general andvice-dutong, and guarding Jilin. Jilin banners include bannerman such as Manchuria,Mongolia, Han Army of the Eight Banners, the new Manchuria who were made to form intothe banners, the Beijing bannerman who stationing troops for opening up wasteland in Jilinand so on, who lived mainly in Jilin, Ningguta, Alachuka and other garrison cities. Since thebeginning of modern times, Jilin had been in difficulties that Russia, Japan and other foreignpowers seized territories, while suffering the bandits looting, which went through a decade ofgreat turbulence and crises. In late Guangxu period, Jilin administrative system made a majoradjustment and finished the final completion from the transition to administrative divisionsystem.The advent of Jilin banners garrison’s livelihood was later than other provinces, obvious inTongzhi period, and worsening in Guangxu period. The bannerman enjoyed special privilegesas the Qing government regarding them as “pillars of the nation”. The court had taken a seriesof measures to ensure the living standards of the bannerman. For example, the court pushedtax allowances and sent aid to the famine victims to alleviate burdens on bannerman, andenlarged the size of bannerman’s conscription to make sure much more bannerman has theopportunity to become soldiers, and ran enterprises and exploited forest and mineral resourcesand expanded modern industry and commerce to increase employment opportunities, andexpanded educational undertakings to learn to earn their living.These measures had a large effect on making the bannerman’s life better, but could notsolve the problem completely. The reason was that the court regarded manchuria first as herbasic national policy, which could be demonstrated into two interrelated aspects, on one hand,the Qing government kept shackleson the whole bannerman, which prohibited thebannerman’s working; On the other hand, the Qing government payed maintenance tothe bannerman, which made them lazy and hate work. the court had to spend heavily on keepthe bannerman’s living standard, while didn’t achieve much good results. In a word, thebannermen’s livelihood result from “manchuria first” national policy.This paper regards the Guangxu and Xuantong periods as the time limits, and Jilin bannergarrisons’ livelihood as research subject. It’s trying to study the historical social environment,the show that Jilin banner garrisons’ livelihood worsened, and the Qing government’smeasures to resolve Jilin banner garrisons’ livelihood. At the same time, we’ll analyze thebasic reason why Jilin banner garrisons’ livelihood can’t be solved completely.