19세기 압록강 유역의 환경과 개발

Abstract

The Qing court imposed restrictions on Manchuria and the Yalu River region for the purpose of monopolizing profits from natural resources -ginseng, sable, and pearls- and protecting Manchu privileges from the Han Chinese majority. By the nineteenth century, however, ginseng, sable, and pearls became scarce due to centuries of “imperial foraging.” The depletion of natural resources in Manchuria corresponded with the influx of Han Chinese farmers in the restricted margins of the empire. From the nineteenth century onward, the Qing prohibition on civilian settlements in the northeast gradually broke down; the growing number of Chinese immigrants effectively invalidated the state’s restrictions. By the late nineteenth century when illegal land clearance and timber logging became widespread in the Yalu River region, the Qing court decided to lift the nominal principle of restrictions and legalize the presence of the immigrants. Concurrent to the Qing court’s authorization of settlements and development north of the Yalu River, the Chosŏn court was also forced to address the issue of increasing numbers of settlers in the Four Closed Counties. For the Chosŏn court, urgent development of the southern side of the Yalu River was necessary to defend Korean residents against increasing numbers of Chinese settlers on the opposite side of the river. Under strong pressure from both sides of the Yalu River, the Qing and the Chosŏn governments came to legalize settlements and development on both sides of the Yalu River. This paper explains the ways in which settlements and development in the Yalu River in the late nineteenth century led to intense competition for natural resources among local residents. Timber loggers, in particular, militarized themselves to protect their paths to mountain forests and resisted local Qing and Chosŏn authorities who attempted to rein in their illegal activities. Most notably, Korean immigrants north of the river joined these armed Chinese timber loggers and raided local Chosŏn offices when their encroachment on mountain forests in Chosŏn territory was stopped. By pointing out these violent incidents caused by timber logging in the Yalu River region in the 1870s, this paper explains the interactions between nature and culture which took place across the Qing and Chosŏn boundaries in the late nineteenth century.