The Little Wall: a Study on Prohibition and Opening of Manchuria to the Chinese in the early-to-mid Qing era

Agostino Sepe

doi:10.6093/978-88-6719-294-6

The Little Wall: a Study on Prohibition and Opening of Manchuria to the Chinese in the early-to-mid Qing era

Authors

Agostino Sepe

University of Naples L'Orientale

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/978-88-6719-294-6

Synopsis

Publisher: UniorPress

Series: Series Minor

ISSN: 1824-6109

Pages: 408

Language: English

NBN: http://nbn.depositolegale.it/urn:nbn:it:unina-30136

Abstract: The volume studies the evolving attitude of the last rulers of Imperial China (the Manchu Qing) towards Chinese immigration into their motherland (Manchuria, roughly corresponding to today's northeast China). Based on in-depth analyses of demographic data, imperial decrees, legislative codes of the time, private accounts by travellers, and numerous other sources, the work investigates the complex and often changing policies with which the rulers sought to manage the social fabric of Manchuria. These policies deeply influenced the socio-institutional structure of the region. The study proposes an innovative interpretation, compared to previous research on the subject, suggesting that due to the changing orientations of different rulers and the needs of the central government, periods of greater or lesser openness and interdiction of the territory towards Chinese migrants alternated for about 150 years, which is more than a half of the duration of Manchu power over China. Furthermore, the work analyses the significant differences between the historical trajectories of southern Manchuria (present day Liaoning) and northern Manchuria (Jilin and Heilongjiang), two sub-regions that at the time were divided by a special structure, consisting of an embankment planted with willows, extending for about 1000 km: a “little wall”.

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Author Biography

Agostino Sepe, University of Naples L'Orientale

Agostino Sepe obtained his PhD in 2018 from the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, specializing in Chinese History. From 2009 up to now, he has studied and conducted research in China at the Archives of Liaoning Province, the First Historical Archives of China (Beijing), the Museum of the Imperial Palace of Shenyang, the University of Liaoning and the Shenyang Normal University. His research mainly focuses on the social and institutional history of Manchuria in the Qing era, and in particular on the evolution of the policies addressing the region, its administrative system, the structure of the local society, cultural contamination and perception of identities. He is currently a researcher at the University for Foreigners of Siena.