Why was it difficult to carry out the northeast ban in Qing Dynasty?

Northeast China was regarded as the land of Longxing of Manchu in Qing Dynasty. Since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court has imposed many restrictions on the settlement, reclamation, ginseng picking and mink hunting of the Han people in Northeast China, in order to protect the interests of the banners outside the customs and prevent the Manchu people in Northeast China from being assimilated by the Han people.

Figure 1: Blackwater in Northeast Baishan

In the seventh year of Kangxi, the abolition of "recruiting officials in Liaodong" and the invitation of Shuhe, the minister of Qianlong for five years were regarded as the beginning of the official closure of the Northeast by the Qing court.

However, the northeast blockade has not been completely implemented in history. Even the ban imposed by the Qing government itself was not long-term. Banned? With what? Open the ban? It is always implemented alternately according to actual needs. Therefore, in the more than 300 years of the Qing Dynasty, the general trend in Northeast China was the continuous influx of immigrants and the continuous development of resources.

Figure 2: Northeast territory of Qing Dynasty

One of the primary reasons why the ban is difficult to enforce is that there are too few people in Northeast China. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there were frequent wars in Liaodong area, people were displaced and the fields were barren. After entering the customs, a large number of Manchu people moved into the customs, abruptly reducing the sparsely populated northeast by hundreds of thousands.

The direct result of the vast land and sparse population is the serious shortage of agricultural population, which makes the economic development in Northeast China slow or even stagnant. So in the Qing dynasty, the court also revoked it from time to time? Banned? Encourage mainland farmers to move to the northeast to reclaim wasteland, so as to increase the tax revenue of the imperial court. For example, in the tenth year of Shunzhi (1653), the court promulgated it? Liaodong reclamation order? Encourage immigrants to reclaim land, and increase the ranks and titles of local officials in Northeast China depending on the number of recruits.

The more serious result caused by the sparse population is the shortage of border defense forces in Northeast China, which can only shrink the defense lines and weaken the border defense forces, creating favorable conditions for Russia and Japan to invade Northeast China. Therefore, the Qing court also realized the importance of increasing the population in Northeast China, especially after the Russian invasion of Heilongjiang during the Kangxi period. A ban? Relax gradually. In the end, it was also the crisis in the modern northeast frontier that prompted the late Qing government to completely open the northeast. The TV series "Going East" also reflects the immigration upsurge after the opening of the northeast port in the late Qing Dynasty.

In addition to the internal needs of the Northeast, there are also some external reasons. The population of the Qing Dynasty grew rapidly, and by the sixty years of Qianlong, the population had reached more than 300 million, ten times that of the early years of Kangxi. With more people, food is naturally tight. In case of floods, droughts and natural disasters, there will be a large number of refugees. When life in the mainland became increasingly difficult, the vast and sparsely populated Northeast naturally became an ideal migration place for refugees, and the Northeast also became a place for Qing rulers to resettle refugees and prevent chaos. For example, writing a letter in Jiaqing eight years? After the disaster in the south of Beijing, Emperor Gao Zongchun was very kind, allowing the unemployed poor to export (to the northeast) in exchange for food. ?

Figure 3: Emperor Qianlong in his later years.

Another reason worth mentioning is the low administrative efficiency of local bureaucrats in the Qing Dynasty, which is the inevitable administrative inertia of any huge bureaucratic system. The central court executed it? Banned? Policy, but the following officials may not fully implement it. There have been many policy loopholes in population migration and resource exploitation in Northeast China.

In a word, the Qing government formulated it to protect the interests of flag-bearers? Banned broadcasting in Northeast China? However, this ban is relative and cannot be strictly enforced due to various practical reasons.