Overview

This book centers on the history of polders and investigates the complex hydro-social relationships of the Jianghan Plain in late imperial China. Once a hydraulic frontier where local communities managed the polders, the Jianghan Plain had become a state-led hydro-electric powerhouse by the mid-twentieth century. Through in-depth historical analysis, this book shows how water politics, cultural practice, and ecology interplayed and transformed the landscape and waterscape of the plain from a long-term perspective. By touching on topics such as religious practice, ethnic tensions and local militarization, the author reveals a plain forever caught between land and water, and nature and culture.

Full Product Details

Author:   Yan Gao
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   44
Weight:   0.610kg
ISBN:  

9789004505278

ISBN 10:   900450527
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   06 January 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments List of Figures and Tables Introduction Water, Society and Politics  1 Theorizing Water and Politics  2 Revisiting the Relationship between Water and Society  3 The Yuan  4 What Are Yuan?  5 A Long-term View of the Yuan  6 The Jianghan Plain 1 Water-based Disasters and a Cultured Nature  1 The Amphibious Nature of the Jianghan Plain  1.1 A Flood-prone Environment  1.2 Wet-rice Cultivation and Its Significance  1.3 Amphibious Living  2 Networks, Lineages, and the Creation of Yuan  3 Temple-Yuan Relations: Seeing a Cultured Nature  4 Conclusion 2 Disordering Nature Wetlands and Empire Reconstruction (1600s–Early 1700s)  1 The Early History of the Wetlands in the Jianghan Plain  2 Crisis and Restoration  3 Migration and Opening the Plain  4 Amphibious Living: Fluidity of the Jianghan Lifestyle  5 Complexities in Administration  6 The Early Qing State and Its Laissez-faire Policy in Central China  7 Hydraulic Communities: Official and People’s Yuan  8 Enforcement on Collaboration: The Formation of Yuan Zones  9 Customs in Common: Various Solutions for Collaborations  10 Turn Sea to Land: Population Growth and Dike Proliferation  11 Conclusion 3 The Retreat of the Horse The Manchus, Pasturelands, and Water Management on the Jianghan Plain (ca. 1700s–mid-1800s)  1 Manchus and Horses  2 The Jingzhou Garrison  3 Population Growth and Land Reclamation in the Eighteenth-Century Jianghan Plain  4 The Debate over Land versus Water  5 The Dilemma for Statecraft Officials  6 The Manchus and the Local Ecology of Central China  7 Efforts to Reinforce Manchu Cultural Identity  8 The Retreat of Horses in the Jianghan Plain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries  9 Conclusion 4 Militarizing Water Forts, Polders, and Landscape in an Era of Crisis (1796–1860s)  1 The Rebels and the Jianghan Plain  2 Jianbi Qingye: The Qing State’s Counterinsurgency Agenda  3 Fort Building in the Hubei Highlands  4 Local Militarization and the Lowland Communities  5 Yuan and Tuanlian: Qianjiang County as a Case Study  6 Disruptions in the Hydraulic System with Local Militarization  7 The Rural Famine in the Jianghan Plain from the Late 1850s to the 1860s  8 Conclusion 5 Coping with Environmental Crisis in the Post-Taiping Era  1 Post-Taiping Social Distress and Environmental Crisis  2 Managing the Waters  2.1 Flood Control: Restoring, Diking, or Diverting  2.2 Sedimentation: Ban the Reclamation on Mountains  2.3 Sacrificing the South for the North  3 The Changing Nature of Conflicts over Water  3.1 First, Greater Frequency and on a Larger Scale  3.2 Second, Diversifying Stakeholders  3.3 Third, a “Plebeian Culture” in Popular Action  3.4 Case Study: The Conflicts over the Big and Small Zekou Outlets from the 1840s to the 1910s  4 Changes in Hydrotopography of the Jianghan Plain  5 Conclusion 6 Centering the Plain  1 The Jinshui Reclamation Project  2 The Social, Economic, and Hydraulic Conditions of the Plain  3 Reorganizing the Yuan System in the Early Republic  4 The Nationalist Government’s Scheme of Unifying Watersheds  5 A Divided Central Yangzi Watershed  6 Hydropower: Centering the Yangzi  7 Conclusion Conclusion  1 An Autonomous Water Regime  2 An Amphibious Water Regime  3 The Role of the State  4 Environmental Changes in the Longue Durée  4.1 Hydrogeographic Changes  4.2 Loss of Biodiversity  5 Hopes and Challenges in the Jianghan Plain Appendix: Glossary of Chinese Measurement Terms Works Cited Index

Reviews

"""As a historial monograph Yangzi Waters is firmly based on a combination of clearly explained theory and well-picked, original material from local sources. This interesting study should not only be read by China specialists but should also appeal to historians interested in a comparative approach of water management within a global setting."" -Leonard Blussé, Leiden University, International Journal of Maritime History, 35(1)"

Author Information

Yan Gao, Ph.D., teaches in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at the University of Memphis. She specializes in social and environmental history of the central Yangzi valley, water history, and Asian environmental humanities.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions