The Flow of Wood - Markets, Power, and Society in the Lower Qingshui River Region during the Qing Dynasty

Author: Zhang Yingqiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: In the towering mountains of southeastern Guizhou, a clear river quietly flows—this is the upper reaches of the Qing River, a major tributary of the Yuan River. The most exciting chapters of the Qing River's flowing story may be the hustle and bustle brought by the floating timber trade since the Qing Dynasty. Sparse records and stories still today all depict a regional social and historical landscape formed around the movement of timber. This book attempts to capture the main fragments and roughly outline the process of timber movement in the lower reaches of the Qing River during the Qing Dynasty. The movement of timber in the Qing River is, in fact, a series of different stories played out by different groups in the entire basin across different times and spaces. As a regional history study, this book hopes to gradually unfold these stories. By placing the specific regional society of the lower reaches of the Qing River during the Qing Dynasty within the historical context of the empire, state, political, economic, and social development, this book examines the basic processes of regional social history centered on timber collection and transportation. It explores how the state power of traditional China interacted with the corresponding local society through the development of a regional market network, thereby providing a localized understanding and historical interpretation of the complex interplay of multiple factors and intertwined relationships in regional social change.