A Study on the Forted Village System and Rural Social Order Rebuilding of Qinling-Dabashan Area in the Middle of Qing Dynasty

Abstract

Located in the border of Sichuan, Shanxi, and Hubei administrative regions, Qinling-Dabashan area(area between Moutain Qin and Mountain Daba) is generally considered hard to govern. As large numbers of immigrants flooded into this area in Kangxi and Qianlong period, social contradictions became increasingly irreconcilable, leading to the outbreak of the white lotus rebellion in early Jiaqing period, which not only posed a heavy blow to the ruling of the Qing government, but also collapsed the rural social order once in this area. Since Emperor Jiaqing took office, ways of dealing with the white lotus society had changed from simply suppress to nurturing local troops and building forted villages. Through the discussion on the building process, spatial construction, internal order, role and influence of the forted village, we can conclude that it had not only prevent the wars, but also strengthened the government’s ruling on this area, which thus became an important means for the Qing Government to preserve local ruling in turmoil periods.