Institutional reform and social changes in Northeast China during the late Qing: a case study of appeal trials

• Author: Hai Dan
• Position: Ph.D. in Legal History of the East Asian, Law School, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan; Resident Scholar, Institute for the Study of Lingnan Culture, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China. Contact: agathak79@gmail.com
• Pages: 38-58

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 15 MARCH 2020 NO. 1

DOI 10.3868/s050-009-020-0004-2

FOCUS

TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION: LAW I N LATE IMPERIAL AND

MODERN CHINA

INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND SOCIAL CHANGES IN NORTHEAST CHINA DURING

THE LATE QING: A CASE STUDY OF APPEAL TRIALS

HAI Dan*

Abstract Institutional reform and social changes in northeast China during the late

Qing period are usually attributed to the Qing dynasty changing its policy on

immigration to northeast China. However, institutional reform because of debt appeals

between civilian creditors and the Mongolian princes is often overlooked. Using

administrative cases from Fengtian Governor Archives and Kirin Prefecture Archives,

this study identifies how the governor officers of northeast China changed Mongolian

land rights and official finance institutions through appeal judgments in the late Qing

dynasty. Appeals were related to Mongolian land rights reform and promoted the

financial institutional reform in northeast China. This study concludes by arguing that

the judgments affected the profits of the litigants and changed the local society.

Keywords institutional reform and social changes, land rights, finance, appeals, northeast

China, the late Qing dynasty

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 39

I. APPEALS AND MONGOLIAN LAND OWNERSHIP REFORM .......................................... 41

A. Why the Qing Dynasty Decided to Change Its Policy......................................... 41

B. How the Local Officers Established Land Rights................................................ 45

C. How the Buyers Farmed Mongolian Land and Their Financial Needs.............. 45

II. APPEALS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONAL REFORM................................................. 46

A. The Function of the Yong Heng Official Banknote Bureau before the

Financial Institutional Reform............................................................................ 47

B. The Reform of the Yong Heng Official Banknote Bureau.................................... 48

C. The Background to the Institutional Reform of the Yong Heng Official Banknote

* HAI Dan (海丹), Ph.D. in Legal History of the East Asian, Law School, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan;

Resident Scholar, Institute for the Study of Lingnan Culture, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275,

China. Contact: agathak79@gmail.com

This paper benefited from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Project No.

1709068-11200-31610148).

2020] INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND SOCIAL CHANGES IN NORTHEAST CHINA DURING THE LATE QING 39

Bureau................................................................................................................. 49

D. Summary .............................................................................................................51

III. SOCIAL CHANGES IN NORTHEAST CHINA IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY..... 52

A. The Case of Front Gorlos Banner....................................................................... 52

B. The Case of Darhan Banner................................................................................ 53

C. Summary ............................................................................................................. 56

CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 57

INTRODUCTION

During the Qing period, there were many differences in system between northeast

China and other provinces.1 Studies exist on the legal practices and juridical system

reform in northeast China during the Qing period. Mongo Lkhuu (2014) presented how

the judgment of cases by generals of northeast China with regard to Mongolians changed

in the early Qing period, and then concluded that the legal system of Qalqa also affected

the Qing dynasty.2 Khohchahar E. Chuluu (2017) described the legal practices in

Mongolian banners.3 LI Qicheng (2004) and ZHANG Qin (2006) examined the juridical

system reform and the legal practice of the local courts in northeast China during the late

Qing dynasty. 4 However, previous studies have examined county-level trials but

neglected appeals, especially those which led to the Mongolian land rights reform in the

early twentieth century.

Previous studies on the institutional reform and social changes in northeast China

during the late Qing period are divided on the influences of the institutional reform in

northeast China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, they

usually attribute the land rights reform (放垦) to the Qing dynasty changing its

immigration policy because of the situation on the frontier zone and conflicts between

agriculture and nomad sedentarization, the expansion of the modern country, and the

1 Northeast China included Fengtian, Kirin, Heilongjiang, Rehe, and east Mongolia. See CHEN Yue, 清

代东北地区生态环境变迁研究 (A Study on the Change of Ecological Environment in Northeast China in the

Qing Dynasty), China Social Sciences Press (Beijing), at 1–2, 14 (2017).

2 Mongo Lkhuu, 「ハルハ=ジロム」における乾隆 11 年法の再検討: 蒙古例の乾隆 12 年法を手がかりとし

て (The 1746 Law of Qalq-a jirum : Through the Analysis of the 1747 Law Enacted by the Qing Government),

29 内陸アジア史研究 (Inner Asian Studies), 65–84 (2014).

3 Khohchahar E. Chuluu, 役所と「地方」の間: 清代モンゴルのオトグ旗における社会構造と裁判実態

(Between the Banner Government Office and the Countryside: Social Structure and Judicial Practices in the

Otog Banner of Qing Mongolia), 67 法制史研究: 法制史學會年報 (Legal History Studies: Legal Academic

Conference Annual), 103–159 (2017).

4 LI Qicheng, 晚清各级审判厅研究 (A Study on the Court in the Late Qing Dynasty), Peking University

Press (Beijing), at Ch. 3 (2004). ZHANG Qin, 清末民初奉天省的司法变革 (On the Judicial Reform of

Fengtian Province at the Turn of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China), 34(4) 辽宁大学学报 (哲学社

会科学版) (Journal of Liaoning University (Philosophy and Social Sciences)), 131–138 (2006).