The Flow of Wood: Markets, Power, and Society in the Lower Qingshui River Region during the Qing Dynasty 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 captivating chapters of the Qing River's flowing story may be the hustle and bustle brought by the floating timber trade since the Qing Dynasty. Scattered records and stories still passed down today also depict a regional social and historical landscape centered 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 along the Qing River is, in fact, a series of different stories played out by different groups in different times and spaces within the entire basin. As a regional history study, this book aims to unfold these stories gradually 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, the state, political, economic, and social development. Through the organization and description of the basic processes of the regional social and historical history centered around timber collection and transportation activities, it explores how the state power of traditional China interacted with the corresponding local society through the development of a regional market network. This approach seeks to provide a localized understanding and historical interpretation of the complex interplay of multiple factors and intertwined relationships in regional social change.