Chapter 40 Section 3 Policies in line with the historical trend consolidated China's territory

Before the Qing Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty also owned areas including agricultural areas and pastoral areas, and ruled over a nation composed of Han and other ethnic groups.But their territories are often not durable and more difficult to consolidate.Most of the Central Plains dynasties established by Han rulers could not effectively control the border areas. A powerful empire like the Tang Dynasty could not last a few years in its heyday.Rather than the Han entering the Central Plains by force, it will cause great damage to the agricultural economy. For example, the process of the Yuan Dynasty's conquest of the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin was a tragedy of massacre and destruction, so that the entire Yuan Dynasty could hardly pay the heavy price of unification .

However, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty adopted some policies in line with the historical trend, which greatly reduced the negative effects of the unification process and consolidated the unified territory. First of all, the Qing Dynasty adjusted its policies towards the Han nationality in time, enabling itself to successfully rule the developed agricultural areas, and also rapidly restore and develop the main part of China's territory, which became the basis for expanding the scope of unification.The Qing Dynasty abolished the exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes in the late Ming Dynasty and reformed the taxation system, which to a certain extent reduced the burden on farmers.A series of measures to win the loyalty of the Han gentry led to its acceptance by most intellectuals as the legitimate successor of the Ming Dynasty.After the establishment of the Qing regime, except for the greatly improved status of the Manchus and the expansion of the influence of the Manchu culture, China's traditional system and culture continued almost intact.Social stability and economic development enabled the Qing Dynasty to have a reliable rear and strong strength in the long-term war with Junggar.

Secondly, the Qing Dynasty implemented practical and feasible policies for ethnic minorities.This is of course related to the fact that the rulers of the Qing Dynasty were from ethnic minorities, so they had a personal experience of the discriminatory policies of the Han rulers in the past, but more importantly, they were the result of learning lessons from history.Before the Qing Dynasty, various dynasties ruled the frontiers and areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. First, they expanded the scope of formal administrative regions, that is, set up prefectures, counties, prefectures, and prefectures like the inland Han areas; Detention unit.However, the former is not suitable for nomads and sparsely populated areas. Forcible installation will not only arouse the dissatisfaction of the local people, but also put a heavy financial burden on the court, making it difficult to maintain for a long time; the latter relies too much on military power, and most of the administrative system is useless. Once the army retreats or the superiority is lost, control is lost.As mentioned earlier, the Qing Dynasty set up different forms of administrative regions in the Northeast, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Tibet, which relatively successfully solved this problem.Taking Mongolia as an example, the alliance flag system established by the Qing Dynasty is a representative innovation.It is not only suitable for the Mongolian people who are mainly nomadic, highly mobile, and sparsely populated, but also strengthens the imperial court's control over the alliance and banner levels.Since Mongolia was included in the territory of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongolian region has maintained stability and provided the Qing Dynasty with an elite army. The implementation of this system is an important reason.Although fundamentally speaking, the rule of the Qing Dynasty could not get rid of ethnic oppression and ethnic discrimination, the Qing Dynasty's preferential treatment of ethnic minorities, especially the preferential treatment of the upper class of various ethnic minorities, played a great role in the consolidation and stability of the territory.

During the unification process of the Qing Dynasty, although military conquest and force suppression were unavoidable, they did not use military as the only means, but often adopted other more effective measures.For example, in Tibet, the Qing Dynasty gave full play to the power of religion.Continue to support the Yellow Sect and establish a system of theocracy.By canonizing the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama and supervising and confirming their succession process, the Qing Dynasty actually obtained the supreme sovereignty of Tibet.In the process of pacifying the frontier areas, try to adopt the method of "accommodating" to avoid the loss of life and property of both parties, and create favorable conditions for the stability and governance after reunification.In determining the boundary, we do not blindly pursue territorial expansion, but seek a reasonable solution based on history and the current situation.After the troops of the Qing Dynasty pacified the Tianshan South Road, the Badak Mountains, Huohan (Haohan), and Brutt in Central Asia all asked for surrender, but the Qing Dynasty refused to accept it, and set up a monument on the border to define the border line.When negotiating the northern border with Russia during the Kangxi period, they did not raise territorial claims because of military victory, but made appropriate concessions. With the Ergun River as the boundary, Nerchinsk (now Nerchensk, Russia) and Shile The land between the Ka River and the Ergun River entered Russia.The same was true when Yongzheng demarcated the border between Outer Mongolia and Russia.