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‘Controlling from Afar’ Open Communications and the Tao-Kuang Emperor's Control of Grand Canal-Grain Transport Management, 1824–1826

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Jane Kate Leonard
Jane Kate Leonard
Affiliation:
The University of Akron
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Extract

During the period from late 1824 to 1826, a crisis in the Grand Canal system led to intense and sustained imperial involvement in chiangsu regional government. The collapse of the Yen-hsu retaining embankments on Hung-tse Lake in northern Chiangsu sparked the crisis and caused serious flooding in the Huai-yang region east of the Canal, which destroyed sections of the Canal at the critical Huai—Yellow River junction, and dissipated the lake's unsilted water reserves that were crucial to the crossing of government grain boats at the Huai—Yellow River junction on their annual northward journey to Pei-ching. As a result, the transport of strategic grain supplies destined for the capital was brought to a virtual standstill, precipitating a major government crisis that challenged the newly established Tao-kuang Emperor and indeed cast a shadow on the dynasty itself because of the intense

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Articles
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Modern Asian Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , October 1988 , pp. 665 - 699
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 The author wishes to acknowledge with thanks the grant support for this project received from the History Department, University of Melbourne and the American Philosophical Society.

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17 Ayao, Hoshi, ‘Shin matsu kaun yori kaiun eno tenkai’ (The shift from Canal shipment of imperial rice tax to the sea route at the end of the Ch'ing dynasty) in Toyoshi ronso (Tokyo, Kodansha, 1960). pp. 807–18.Google Scholar Aspects of the crisis, particularly the planning initiatives of those officials who were a part of the ‘Statecraft’ group around Chiang Yu-hsien, are discussed in Polachek, ‘Literate Groups,’ pt I, ch. 4.

18 Hinton, Harold C., The Grain Tribute System of China, 1845–1911 (Cambridge, Harvard University, East Asian Research Center, 1970), pp. 16–96.Google Scholar

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20 Examples of the handling of routine matters: SYTFP.P, 4.1.27; 4.4.4A; 4.4.4B.

21 SYTFP.P, 4.1.13.

22 SYTFP.P., 4.3.7.

23 Wu, ‘Memorial Systems’, pp. 25–33, 61–2.Google Scholar

24 During the 1824–26 crisis, Canal-transport matters bearing on the Canal in Che-chiang province seem in practice to have been managed by governor of Che-chiang.

25 Brunnert, H. S. and Hagelstrom, V. V., Present Day Political Organization of China, translated by Beltchenko, A. and Moran, E. E. (Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1912), pp. 399–400.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., p. 834.

27 Ibid., 414–25.

28 Ibid., p. 422.

29 This weakness stemmed primarily from the effects of population pressure on local institutions. T'ung-tsu, Ch'ü, Local Government in China under the Ch'ing (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1962), pp. 1–9;Google ScholarWatt, John R., The District Magistrate in Late Imperial China (New York, Columbia University Press, 1972), pp. 71–6, 29, 61–5.Google Scholar

30 SYTFP, 4.4.4B. See also 5.11.24A.

31 SYTFP. P, 4.3.7; supervision of local officials is also noted in SYTFP, 5.7.3B; 5.7.6; 5.11.24; 6.3.3.

32 SYTFP.P 4.4.4A.

33 SYTFP.P, 4.1.13; 4.10.25B; 4.10.25C.

34 The reporting of these conditions began in the K'ang-hsi reign. See Wu, Communication.

35 SYTFP, 5.10.IA (progress of grain boats); 5.11.14 (corruption connected with mixing poor quality grain and water with good in the grain boats); 6.1.20 (increasing level of silt in the Yellow River); 6.3.8 (progress of dike work and dredging); TCT, 4.12.18.

36 TCT, 4.12.9; 5.2.20; 5.2.5; SYTFP, 4.12.18; 5.1.23A; 5.1.29B.

37 TCT, 5.2.5; 5.4.2A; 5.5.2; 5.5.10A; 5.5.19A; 5.5.25A; SYTFP.P, 5.4.10.

38 TCT, 5.4. 15A.

39 TCT, 5.4.18.

40 TCT, 5.5.19B.

41 TCT, 5.5.2.

42 TCT, 4.9.29.

43 SYTFP.P, 4.11.15; TCT, 4.9.29.

44 TCT, 4.9.29.

45 SYTFP, 4.10.12.

46 SYTFP, 4.10. 16A.

47 SYTFP, 4. 10.25A.

48 Ibid.

49 SYTFP.P, 4.11.15; see also.4.11.19.

50 SYTFP.P, 4.1.13.

51 Aspects of reconstruction policy are described in Polachek, ‘Literate Groups,’ Pt 1, ch. 4.

52 SYTFP, 4.10.12; TCT. 4.1 I.26A.

53 SYTFP.P, 4.11.23.

54 TCT, 4.11.24A; 4.11.26A.

55 TCT, 4.12.3.

56 TCT, 4.11.26B; 4.12.3.

57 4.12.3; 4.11.26B.

58 Polachek, ‘Literate Groups,’ Pt I, ch.4.

59 TCT, 5.1.12A

60 TCT, 4.12.21; 5.4.27; SYTFP, 5.2.5; 5.4.2B.

61 See references in notes 37, 38, 39.

62 SYTFP, 5.2.5; 5.4.27; 5.6.6A.

63 SYTFP, 5.2.5; 5.4.2B; 5.4.10A; TCT, 5.5.22; SYTFP, 5.6.6A.

64 TCT, 5.4.27 SYTFP, 5.2.5; 5.4.2B.

65 TCT, 5.5.22.

66 SYTFP, 5.4.10A.

67 SYTFP. 5.6.6A.

68 TCT, 4.11.24B; 4.10.16B.

69 Pei, Huang, ‘Aspects of Ch'ing Autocracy: An Institutional Study, 1644–1735,’ Tsing-hua Journal of Chinese Studies, New Series VI, nos 1–2: 105–48 (12 1967).Google Scholar This is also seen in Fairbank, John K., Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast. The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842–1854 (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1953; 1964), pp. 3–53;Google ScholarPao-chao, Hsieh, The Government of China (1644–1911), 1925 (New York, Octagon, 1966), pp. 1–44.Google Scholar

70 SYTFP, 4.10.12; 4.12.24; 5.1.29A; TCT, 4.10.26A; 4.12.9; 4.12.27; 4.12.21.

71 TCT, 4.10.16B; 4.11.26A; 4.12.5; 4.12.15.

72 SYTFP, 4.10.16B.