환경변화로 본 중국의 明淸時代 - 長江 中流 지역을 중심으로 -

Abstract

This paper aims to study the reasons for environmental crises in Ming-Qing period. It might be completely unsatisfactory to ascribe all environmental changes to the blunt agency of population increase and economic development. But the environmental degradation in this period was mainly due to the unprecedented demographic rise and economic boom. One of the results of these economic and social changes was that many the poverty-stricken people poured into the mountainous areas of the middle Yangzi in search of new means of living, which included cultivation of corn, and openings of small industries producing iron, timber, paper and salt. The mobility and liaison of small industry with cultivation were main characteristics of these economic activities in mountainous areas. Altitude of mountains permitted farmers to cultivate multiple plants, and they were consequently ready to move up and down in search of new cultivable land. In another way, the supply of foods for workers was indispensable to the prosperity of small industries. All these economic activities resulted in serious deforestation, which accounted for the extermination of many animals and forestry products. We can find other evidences of environmental changes in Jianghan Plain, where many rivers run and accordingly dikes needed to be constructed in Ming-Qing period. River system in this region was so complex that the reckless construction of dikes threatened the flow system, which worsened after the mid-Qing times. As Mark Elvin remarked, the Jianghan Plain was confronted with hydraulic technical lock-in due to these environmental crises. Truly, the exploitation of mountainous areas and the construction of dikes in plain stimulated the social and economic growth in this period. But we need to evaluate carefully other sides of those positive effects, as the environmental problems were so critical that the contemporaries had been pointing out ecological degradation which we currently experience.