Shirnuut Sodbilig

Inner Mongolia University/Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

1. The process of immigration and reclamation

Chahar is the name of a Mongol tribe settled in the southern part of central Inner Mongolia. After the Chahar's resistance was suppressed by the Qing dynasty in 1675, this tribe was moved from East Inner Mongolia to the outside of Xuanhua and Datong beyond the Great Wall. The Qing rulers abolished their former nobility system and divided the Chahar tribe into eight banners, imitating the Eight Banner system of the Manchu. The eight banners were separated into two wings (gar/yi). The left (i.e. east) wing consisted of the Bordered Yellow, Plain White, Bordered White, and Plain Blue banners, and the right (west) wing included the Plain Yellow, Plain Red, Bordered Red, and Bordered Blue Banners. After being enlisted into the eight banner system, the Chahar tribe lost its autonomy and was put under the direct control of the Manchu commander-in-chief of Chahar who was appointed by the Qing Court. Besides the eight banners, the Qing government also established four "herds" (sureg or imperial pasture) in Chahar, including the Livestock Herd, the Shangdu Herd, the Right-wing Herd and the Left-wing Herd. These herds were responsible for supplying various kinds of dairy products and military horses for the Qing court. In addition, there were also private pastures for members of the imperial lineage and other Manchu nobilities.

During the first half century of the Qing period, i.e. from the mid seventeenth to the eighteenth century, Chahar had remained the Mongolian banner grazing land and imperial pastures, where there were very few Han cultivators. The Qing laws prohibited the Han people from freely entering the Chahar territory and reclaiming the land, in order to protect the pastureland. As a result, the livestock husbandry was flourishing during that period. According to the Kangxi Emperor's edict in 1697,"During the Song and Ming periods, there lacked effective policies on raising the horses. The best grazing land lies beyond the Great Wall. Now the pasture has been well developed and the number of the livestock has increased to one hundred thousand of horses, sixty thousand of cattle and two hundred thousand of sheep. If driven to the inland, it would cost enormous money daily to feed these animals. But outside the Great Wall, the fertile grassland would sustain them naturally at no extra cost. Hereafter the number of the livestock should be limited to one hundred thousand of horses, sixty thousand of cattle and two hundred thousand of sheep." This number may only indicate the livestock of the four herds, not including that of the eight banners. It is estimated that during the Kangxi period, the number of horses, camels, cows and sheep in Chahar exceeded three million in total. (Koubei santing zhi)

(1) The immigration and reclamation from the 18lh to 19th century

After the eighteenth century, the number of Han farmers settling down in Chahar has increased. According to an official land survey in Chahar in 1724, there were 4,752 acres of cultivated land in the right wing of Chahar alone, and over ten thousand Han Chinese had settled down in the area between Zhangjiakou and the western boundary of Bordered Blue Banner. In order to manage these Han immigrants, the Qing government established three prefectural departments (ting) in the left wing of Chahar, namely, Zhanyiakou, Doloonnuur, and Dushikou, which were under the supervision of the Zhili province, and two in the right wing, i.e., Fengzheng and Ningyuan, which were administrated by the Shanxi province. From then on, the number of Han immigrant expanded steadily. According to rough statistics, the acreage of reclaimed land mounted to 18,800 acres in 1755. And by 1758, there had been 513 villages in Zhangjiakou and Dushikou, and Han immigrants totaled 8,133 households.

The mid nineteenth century witnessed great unrest in inland China, where the rural economy was on the brink of bankruptcy, and peasants from the northern provinces rushed into the Mongolian territories. In 1854, the Qing government had to start opening up the pastures in Chahar to the Han settlers. Since then, the number of immigrants multiplied. By 1881, in Fengzhen alone the Han population had soared up to 21,819 households and 145,830 in total. Under such circumstances, the Qing government set up the Fengning Reclamation Bureau in the right wing of Chahar in 1882, so as to manage land reclamation and land prices. A similar institution was established in the left wing in the previous year, and by 1889, the reclaimed pastures had mounted to 43,600 acres. These official moves indicate the de facto renouncement of the ban against reclamation of Mongolian pastureland by the Han farmers. As a result, by the end of the nineteenth century, over 80% of the cultivatable lands in Chahar had been reclaimed, and there was literally no land left uncultivated other than the grazing lands of the banners and herds.

(2) Rapid expansion of immigration and reclamation in the first half of the 20th century

In 1901, Qing government under the New Policies (xin zheng) changed its traditional policies toward the Mongols by abolishing the age-old prohibition against trespass and cultivation by the Han Chinese, and opened up the pastureland for reclamation in both eastern and western Inner Mongolia. By 1905, the Minister of Reclamation appointed by the Qing government managed to open up approximately 99,200 acres of land in the four right-wing banners, and 80,000 acres in the four left-wing banners in Chahar for reclamation. Consequently, the pastureland of the Chahar banners shrank considerably, and the Chahar Mongols were forced to move from the southern area near the Great Wall to the northern highland, which brought about great changes in the territorial redistribution of the Chahar banners in the Qing Dynasty.

In 1912, following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China, the Beijing regime changed the administrative units in Chahar from the previous prefectural departments (ting) into counties (xian), same as those in inland China, so as to reinforce its political control. In 1914, the Chahar Special Region was established to supervise the banners and counties in Chahar, as well as the Shilingol League. In order to elevate this special region to the provincial status, the Beijing government actively carried out policies of immigration and reclamation. It promulgated the "Regulations in Rewarding Reclamation of Mongol Past Lire land" to encourage the Mongol banners to open up their pastures and the Man farmers to cultivate these lands. The new Special Region government reorganized the previous reclamation agencies to establish the Chahar General Supervision Bureau of Reclamation and formulate specific reclamation plans. It also set up a new bureau to promote immigration, reclamation, and administrative establishment. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Economy of the Beijing government, the reclaimed pastureland in Chahar had soared from 263,949 acres in 1914 to 452,866 acres in 1920. Along with the steady growth of immigrants and expansion of reclaimed areas, from 1918 to 1925, four more counties were established in northern Chahar that is, Shangdu, Jining, Baochang, and Kangbao. By 1928, the reclaimed area of the six counties (excluding Jining) in northern Chahar had almost doubled and totaled 795,270 acres.

In 1928, soon after the unification of China and founding of the Nanjing National Government, the Chahar special region was promoted to a province, and policies of immigration and reclamation were further implemented. The Chahar provincial Department of Industry formulated the "Six Regulations Concerning Reclamation in the Mongol Banners" in 1929, followed by the "Measures in Rewarding the Mongols for Cultivation in Chahar Province" in 1930, so as to promote cultivation among the Han settlers, and encourage the Mongols to shift from animal to crop husbandry. Thus the reclamation accelerated in Chahar. According to a survey of peasant households and land possession conducted by the Chahar provincial Department of Construction in 1934, the situation of reclaimed land in the five counties to the north of the Great Wall was shown in the following table (the unit of area is mu. 1 mu =0.16 acre):

Table 1.

We can see from the above table that Zhangbei County was leading by possessing approximately 51,000 acres of cultivated land, followed by Shangdu and Kangbao. Besides, according to a survey of Ministry of Domestic Affairs, there were also 31,334 acres of cultivated land in Duolun County, which was excluded in the earlier survey due to the Japanese occupation. The total area of cultivated land in 1934 was about 1,287,678 acres, almost doubling that in 1928. From the above numbers, we can see the rapid expansion of land reclamation in Chahar, so rapid that additional administrative establishment soon became necessary. In 1934, three new immigration agencies were found: Huade, Shangyi and Chongli, which were elevated to county level in 1936 and 1937 successively. These counties were all established on the territories of the left-wing banners, where the increase of cultivated lands means the decrease of pasturelands. As the majority of the grazing lands were reclaimed, those herdsmen who were unable to get accustomed to farming life were forced to move to the northern area.

Table 2. Counties established in Chahar during the Republication period

 (3) The reclamation of pastureland in the latter half of the 20th century

By 1949 when People's Republic of China was found, not only all cultivatable lands had been reclaimed, but also over half of the pasturelands in Chahar had become farmlands. The remnant pastures and semi-pastoral areas became the last habitation left for the Chahar Mongols. The government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region had briefly prohibited reclamation to protect the pastures after its founding in 1947. But starting from the late 1950s, new waves of reclamation spread through Inner Mongolia under the "principle of grains."

The first climax arrived during the period of 1958-1959, when agriculture was highlighted as the lifeline of economy, and the pastures was reclaimed blindly. The second peak came in 1961, when the national economy reached its nadir, and a number of bases of crops and non-staple food were built in the semi-pastoral and even pure pastoral areas. The third wave came during the height of the Cultural Revolution in 1966-1976, when the government organized military construction corps and state-run farms to reclaim large amount of pastures Dozens of state-operated pasture farms and military horse farms were also established in the Chahar banners.

In this way, even the main part of the northern Chahar pastures, where the Mongols had sustained their traditional nomadic lifestyle, were destroyed. By the end of the 1970s, grazing land in Chahar had shrunk substantially so that no single Chahar banner was able to remain purely pastoral in character. At the same time, all counties in Chahar became purely agricultural areas, and the grasslands were unlimitedly reclaimed; after the grasslands on the plains were wiped out, even those on the mountain slopes were cultivated.

Starling from the late 1980s the government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region decided to curb reclamation again. In 1984, the "Regulations of Pasture Land Management in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region" was promulgated as the legal protection of the grassland. Since then the unlimited reclamation of pastureland was checked. However, due to the significant loss of pastureland, the herdsmen had no choice but to settle down in one place to raise their livestock. It marks the final demise of the traditional nomadic life of the Chahar Mongols.

2. Reclamation and the changes of the environment

Two centuries of immigration and reclamation have incurred significant changes in the cultural and natural landscapes in the Chahar region.

First, the pure pastureland was divided into three distinct forms: agricultural, semi-agricultural, and herding area. By the early twentieth century, due to the establishment of counties, the southern part of Chahar had already become the haven of Han immigrants, with very few Mongols left as either farmers or half herdsmen. With the expansion of the reclaimed area from the edge of the Great Wall toward the northern highland area, over half of the Chahar grazing lands had been turned into agricultural or semi-agricultural areas in the 1940s. By the 1970s, croplands have dominated even the northern edge of the Chahar region. Compared with the early Qing period, less than one third of the Chahar pasturelands were left, and seven out of the eight banners remained. The four herds, which had been incorporated into either the banners or the counties, were no longer existent. The remnant seven banners are all part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. These are the Front, Middle and Rear Banners of the right-wing Chahar, and Bordered Yellow, Plain White, Plain Blue, and Taipusi Banners of the left wing. Among them all three right-wing banners, except part of the Rear Banner, had become largely farming area. Among the four left-wing banners, the majority of the Taipusi Banner and a large part of the Plain White Banner had turned agricultural. It is notable that despite the waves of reclamation during the past two centuries, most Chahar Mongols had chosen to move to the north rather than giving away their pastoral life to farming. Although the environment has become increasingly harsh for leading a herding life, most of them showed indomitable will in sustaining their ethnic lifestyle and culture.

Second, the flows of Han immigrants and reclamation policies of the government have resulted in the continuous swelling of Han population in Chahar which led to the great change of population ratio. In southern Chahar, early in the beginning of the 20th century, the number of Han Chinese had exceeded that of the native Mongols, who counted for only a tiny percentage of the entire population, and lived dispersedly. As mentioned earlier, by 1881 the Han population in Fengzhen alone had reached 145,830, which exceeded the total number of Mongols in both wings of Chahar. Since the 1930s, the population of Han Chinese multiplied and the ratio of Mongol population in all counties dropped dramatically. For instance, in Fengzhen, Jining, Taolin, Xinghe and Liangcheng counties, Mongols counted for a mere 1% of the total population in 1935.

By the latter half of the twentieth century, even the original monoethnic Mongol inhabitations in the northern Chahar banners had become mixed areas of Han and Mongols, where the Man population again counted for the majority, as seen in the following Table:

Table 3. Ratio of Mongols and Han population in counties and cities on former Chahar territory in 1992

Table 4. Ratio of Mongols and Han population in existent Chahar banners in 1992

Third, as a result of the loss of a communal living environment, the traditional lifestyle of the Chahar Mongols had been changed significantly, and a large number of Lhcm have lost their native language.

Since the thirteenth century, as one of the distinguished Mongol tribes, the Chahar Mongols had galloped across the Mongolian plateau, while maintaining their tribal identity. In the long span of time since the seventeenth century, in spite of their subordination to the Qing rulers and relocation to the north of the Great Wall beyond Xuanhua and Datong, the Chahar Mongols had managed to preserve their integrity and traditional lifestyle. But starting from the end of the nineteenth century, along with the flows of Han immigration into the region, the common living area of the Mongols had been gradually separated by the agricultural regions, and communications across the banners had become increasingly difficult. Especially after 1928, when the left and right wings of the Chahar eight banners were divided and incorporated into the two provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan respectively, the connections between them had diminished. Today, although both belong to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, they are still divided by different administrative units. The three right-wing banners are part of the Ulanchabu League, while the four left-wing banners have joined the Shilingol League. In the three right-wing banners that are mixed with the Han counties, the Mongols not only count for the extreme minority but also live dispersedly. Therefore they have begun to adopt a way of living and production that is similar to the Han Chinese. Very few of them are able to preserve their traditional lifestyle and native language. In the four left-wing banners that joined the Shiiingol League where Mongols remain the majority group, thanks to the continual bonds and exchanges, most of them have managed to sustain their traditional culture and custom. But due to the shrinking pastureland, they had to give up the nomadic life for settled livestock husbandry, or to engage in small-scaled agricultural production. As a result they also began to resemble the Han Chinese in daily lifestyle.

As far as the natural environment is concerned, first of all, the soaring population during a very short time has largely destroyed the balance between human and the nature. Before the settlement of the Han Chinese, the Chahar region was the haven for the herding Mongols as well as wild animals who shared a harmonized natural environment. Since the nineteenth century, great number of Han immigrants had poured into the region. Their unrestrained land reclamation was accompanied by devastating felling of trees, destruction of forests and plants, misuse of water resources, which have strained the natural resources such as soils, rivers, animals and plants, and damaged the ecological balance. Along with the cultivation of lands, many animals and plants have become extinct. Typically, the countless Mongolian gazelles that used to dominate the landscape of the Chahar grasslands have entirely vanished. Now apart from the mice, it is hard to find any rare wild animals in the Chahar region. The species of plants have also decreased, and in particular, the rapid diminishing in kind and yield of forage grass has become one of the major problems endangering the development of animal husbandry.

Further, excessive land cultivation has speeded up desertification. As mentioned above, the government-initiated reclaiming movement in Chahar had begun in the early twentieth century. Out of considerations of national defense and frontier development, the various regimes in China have advocated and supported the land reclamation. Ordinary Farmers, who were keen to boost yields by expansion of field area, paid no attention whatsoever to the improvement of method and technology of production, not to mention the protection of vegetation and consciousness of maintaining the ecological balance. As noted by a witness in the 1930s, "Beyond the Great Wall there are abundant lands and few people, and the crops are mainly coarse grains. Farmers rarely use fertilizers in cultivation, but rather depend on the nature. Once the soil becomes barren they would abandon the field and shift to another." Such phenomenon is extremely common in all the counties outside the Great Wall. Until the 1980s, people had paid no heed to the severe consequences of the exploitation of pastureland, and excessive reclamation continued. Take the example of the Huade County in the Chahar region. During the three decades from 1950 to 1980, the farming area in Huade has rocketed from 33,300ha. to 113,700ha., which resulted in desertification of 50% of the farming land, and degeneration of more than 70% of the grassland. The environmental devastation has caused natural disasters to occur frequently; desertification has not only deprived many people of their homeland, but also threatened their survival as farmers. This is but a typical sketch of the somber reality facing the southern Chahar region, now the bordering region between Inner Mongolia and Hebei Province.

Table 5. Desertification in the bordering region between Hebei Province and Inner Mongolia

Third, excessive herding has caused the degeneration of the grassland. As the front of reclamation was pushed north during the early half of the twentieth century, many nomadic Mongols emigrated from the southern Chahar near the Great Wall to the northern area hundreds of miles away, and hence increased the population density of the northern grassland. After the mid twentieth century, new flows of settlers pouring into the northern area have caused the pastoral area to reduce rapidly. The rising population density, combined with the shrinking grassland, has resulted in the ever-increasing excessive herding and degeneration of the grassland. It is worth noting that immigrants often occupied the best pastures for cultivation, and only the poor grazing land was left to raise livestock. While the number of the domestic animals increased, the vegetation became degenerated rapidly. Thus the immigration and reclamation has triggered the chain reaction of dual desertification as a result of excessively farming and grazing: the more the farming area is expanded, the more the pasture faces the danger of desertification. Throughout the twentieth century, excessive herding in the Chahar region has been closely related to the limitless immigration and reclamation. As the example of the Shilingol League shows, degeneration and desertification of the grassland have been greatly alarming. In 2001, it was reported that over 72% of the grassland has been de.sertificd, which causes the decrease and even extinction of fine forage grass that results in further loss of herbage and drop of husbandry production.

Forth, excessive reclamation and misuse of land have led to the frequent natural disasters. Since the 1950s droughts and sandstorms in the Chahar region have considerably multiplied. After the 1980s, frequent severe sandstorms that have broken out in Inner Mongolia at springtime have not only greatly jeopardized the living condition of local people, but have also affected large cities such as Beijing and Tianjin. The desertification has led to the soil degeneration by damaging the soil structure and causing the loss of soil nutrients, which endangered the survival of human beings themselves. In today's Inner Mongolia, people are forced to reduce the farming area. However, the recovery of vegetation requires several decades at the least, or even several centuries. If measures are to be taken to recover the desertified land, the investment needed might be beyond calculation.

Finally, excessive reclamation and consequent damages to the ecology environment have greatly restricted the economic development of the Chahar region. Rather than wealth and profit, two centuries of reclamation have brought poverty and natural disasters to the Han immigrants and native Mongol herdsmen. As early as in 1935, a survey of the Zhangbei County had pointed out that "this county locating beyond the Great Wall is inapt for agriculture because of its barren soil, cold weather, and lack of water, which is why the poor farmers there could barely make a living."

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the living standard of the Chahar people has been improved a great deal, and the local economy has been developed to a certain extent. However, compared with other inland areas, its economy remains underdeveloped, and its people are still battling against poverty. Southern Chahar counties such as Zhangbei, Guyuan, Kangbao, Chongli and Shangyi that had switched from grazing to farming, are now classified as the "state-acknowledged destitute counties" of Hebei Province, which refer to those in which the average income per capita per year is below 625 yuan (approximately 80 US dollars). To the same category also belong the counties of Inner Mongolia such as Huade, Shangdu, Duolun.

Seeing from the history of reclamation in Chahar, we might say that to maintain the balance between human and nature is the critical element if the economic and social development of the Mongolian plateau is ever to be accomplished. The rapid growth of population necessarily strains the contradiction between men and the land, which restricts not only the development of agriculture, but also that of animal husbandry. It might be concluded that reclamation at the cost of ecological environment leads to nowhere but permanent poverty. This is the lesson we have learned from the two centuries of reclaiming pastureland in the Chahar region.

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