The Study Of Jilin Province Immigration Of The Late Qing Dynasty (1905-1911)

Northeast China is a region of immigrants who have a profound and far-reaching influence on the history and development of this region.In the 1940s,Mr.Wu Xiyong pointed out,“Unless we understand thoroughly the history of immigration in Northeast China,we will never be able to understand the whole history of this region,especially the social and economic history"The study on immigration in Northeast China has always been an issue of theoretical and practical importance,which is crucial to the understanding of the history,culture,customs,society,economy and other issues in Northeast China.Based on the objective historical facts obtained from archives,documents and historical materials in related works,this study explores the immigration in Jilin from 1905 to 1911 and systematizes the archives and documents related to the immigration in Jilin during the late Qing Dynasty.And this study also elaborates the general survey of population of Jilin during the late Qing Dynasty,the Jilin's immigration policies during the late Qing Dynasty,the general survey of immigration and its influence on Jilin,and then roughly demonstrates the immigration in Jilin during the late Qing Dynasty and unfolds the true history of that.Since the Qing Dynasty,faced with domestic strife and foreign invasion,fully opened up the Northeast China and applied active immigration policies which attract immigrants to Northeast China to secure the border from 1906 to 1911,the population of Jilin increased by nearly 1.4 million.The natural population growth went by an average of 50,000 to 60,000 per year.According to the statistics above,the number of immigrants was 1 million strong at least,which meant that the wave of immigration reached a high point throughout this time.There were two main reasons for this.Initially,due to the end of the Japan-Russia War,the impact of Japan's annexation of Korea,the frequent natural disasters in China proper and the Korean Peninsula,immigrants had been pouring into Jilin.Additionally,what attracted legions of immigrants to Jilin were a favorable natural environment,abundant natural resources,a smaller population,much more arable land per capita than basic survival needs,and the lower farmland rental rate,tax and food prices.And the railway transportation network which had initially been built up was also an attraction.During the late Qing Dynasty,the immigrants in Jilin could be divided into the immigrants from China proper and the international immigrants by their origins.Due to the changes of the Qing government's policies,it was legitimate for the immigrants from China proper to settle in Northeast China,so a lot of those immigrants settled in Jilin.During the late Qing Dynasty,it was estimated that the Northeast China population growth mainly concentrated in Jilin and Heilongjiang,which proved that the number of immigrants in Jilin was more than 1 million.Most of the immigrants from China proper were engaged in agriculture,and the others were in other industries.Those immigrants were mainly distributed in some newly founded and developed regions such as Ningan,Emu,Huachuan and Fujin.The International immigrants were mainly from Russia,Japan and Korea.The reasons why the number of the Russian immigrants grew were the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the convenience of that.The reason why the number of the Japanese immigrants grew was that the Japanese imperialists increased the number of immigrants year by year in order to occupy Northeast China.And the Japanese immigrants who settled in Jilin during this period were not many and grew slightly because they were not recruited by the Japanese government but volunteered to settle in Jilin.Those Japanese immigrants were mainly engaged in industry,commerce,transportation,agriculture and aquaculture.The reason why the number of the Korean immigrants grew was that the Qing government relaxed the restrictions on the Korean immigration.As a result,more and more Korean immigrants came to Northeast China.And with the Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910,the wave of the Koran immigration reached a high point.Those Korean immigrants in Jilin were mainly distributed in Yanbian Region and Mengjiang County.In conclusion,millions of people immigrated to Jilin from 1906 to 1911,which had a significant influence on Jilin since then,paved the way for the present administrative division of Jilin,promoted the development of industry and commerce in Jilin and affirmed the core position of agriculture in Jilin.