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Abstract
In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party established a new province called Pingyuan among the borders of Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces, then abolished it in 1952. Since then, Pingyuan has been forgotten in history. This article brings to our attention the failed Pingyuan province and examines the region in a longer span of time. The fate of the Pingyuan region was intertwined with factors such the Yellow River floods, railways, and the modern governments’ ever-mounting capacity, or the illusional capacity, to utilize nature. As a case study this article illuminates how the ecological changes had impacted the development of local politics and economy in the transitioning age from pre-modern to modern China.
Acknowledgements
The article is supported by the San Jose State University Faculty RSCA Assigned Time Program. I am grateful to Shakhar Rahav, Bruce Reynolds and Lexi Xu for reading the article closely and providing insightful suggestions. I also thank the anonymous reviewers and editor of the Chinese Historical Review for their constructive comments.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
5 Pingyuan zhengbao (Political Reports of Pingyuan), no. 1 (1949), 1.
1 “Pingyuan sheng de jiben qingkuang yu jianshe renwu” (The Basic Conditions and Construction Tasks in Pingyuan), in Research Office of Party History of Henan Province ed., Zhonggong Pingyuan sheng jianshi (A Short History of Pingyuan Province under the CCP), (Henan: Henan Remin Chubanshe, 1995), 410–22.
2 William Skinner, “Regional Urbanization in Nineteenth-Century China,” in William Skinner ed., The City in Late Imperial China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1977), 216–17. William Skinner, “The Strucuture of Chinese History,” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 44, no. 2 (February 1985), 271–92.
3 Barbara Sands and Ramon Myers, “The Spatial Approach to Chinese History: A Test,” The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 45, no. 4 (August 1986), 721–43.
4 Kenneth Pomeranz, The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society and Economy in Inland North China, 1853–1937 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), 11.
6 Sherman Cochran, Chinese Medicine Men (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).
7 Kenneth Pomeranz, The Making of a Hinterland, 277.
8 G William Skinner, “Regional Urbanization in Nineteenth-Century China,” 218.
10 Wang Yun, Mingqing Shandong yunhe quyu shehui bianqian (Social Changes of the Grand Canal Region in Ming and Qing Dynasties) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2006), 91–94.
9 The background map is from G William Skinner, “Regional Urbanization in Nineteenth-Century China,” 216–17.
11 Wang Yun, Mingqing Shandong yunhe quyu shehui bianqian, 78–121.
12 Linda Grove, A Chinese Economic Revolution: Rural Entrepreneurship in the Twentieth Century (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006), 101.
17 Kenneth Pomeranz, The Making of a Hinterland, 6.
13 Randall Dodgen, Controlling the Dragon: Confucian Engineers and the Yellow River in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Harvai’I Press, 2001), 13.
14 Randall Dodgen, Controlling the Dragon, 21.
15 Randall Dodgen, Controlling the Dragon, 143–44.
16 David Pietz, The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 65.
18 Ling Zhang, “Changing with the Yellow River: An Environmental History of Hebei, 1048-1128,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 69, no. 1 (June 2009): 1–36.
19 For the debate, see Yan Yuanliang, “Huanghe Tongwaxiang juekou hou gai xindao yu fu fudao de zhenglun” (Debate on Whether let the Yellow River to Change to its New Course or Return to its old Course after the Breach in Tongwaxiang), in Huanghe shizhi ziliao (Historical Documents on the Yellow River), no. 3 (1988).
20 Dong Longkai, “1855∼1874 nian huanghe manliu yu Shandong renkou qianyi” (The Roaming of the Yellow River and Emigration in Shandong 1855–1874), Journal of Chinese humanities, no. 3 (1998): 61–69.
21 David Pietz, The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China, 68.
22 Kenneth Pomeranz, The Making of A Hinterland, 213.
23 Kenneth Pomeranz, The Making of A Hinterland, 158–67.
24 For how the Yellow River ravaged the new regions it flew through in the late 1930s and early 1940s, see Micah S. Muscolino, The Ecology of War in China: Henan Province, the Yellow River, and Beyond, 1938–1950 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
25 Huang Zhenglin, Shehui bianqian yu quyu jingji shi yanjiu (Research on Social Changes and Regional Economic History) (Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe, 2012), 404.
26 1 mu = 1/6 English acre.
27 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun (Villages in Ji, Lu and Yu in Modern time) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1995), 263–70.
28 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 278.
29 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 277.
30 Linda Grove, A Chinese Economic Revolution: Rural Entrepreneurship in the Twentieth Century, 18.
31 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 402.
32 Kenneth Pomeranz, The Making of a Hinterland, 72–74.
33 Dan is the basic unit of weight used in pre-modern China. The value of 1 dan varied widely according to the locations, ranging from 80 catties, 100 catties, 120 catties or 150 catties. 1 catty = 1.10 pound.
34 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 146–50.
35 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 349.
36 Linda Grove, A Chinese Economic Revolution: Rural Entrepreneurship in the Twentieth Century, 18.
37 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 355–78.
38 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 348–53.
39 Cong Hanxiang ed., Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 371.
40 Wang Shousong, “The Foreign Trade and the Modern Market in Tianjin 152-162,” Chengshi Shi Yanjiu vol. 21–22 (2002): 152–162.
41 For studies on the CCP’s base areas in north China, please see Kathleen Hartford, Step by Step: Reform, Resistance and Revolution in China’s Chin-Ch’a-Chi Border Region, 1937-45. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1980; Chen Yung-fa, Making Revolution – the Communist Movement in Eastern and Central China, 1937–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986); David Goodman, Social and Political Change in Revolutionary China: The Taihang Base Area in the War of Resistance to Japan, 1937–1945 (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000); Huang Zhenglin, Shaan-Gan-Ning bianqu shehui jingji shi (1937-1945) (Social and Economic History in Shaan-Gan-Ning Area) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2006).
42 “Guanyu muqian duidi jingji douzheng zhong de jige wenti de taolun zongjie” (Summary on the Discussions on a Few Questions Related to the Current Economic Struggles against the Enemy), in Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian (Selection of Documents on the Financial History of the Base Areas in North China) (Beijing: Zhongguo caizheng jingji chubanshe, 1996), 600–04.
43 “Linqing shi 1946 nian 9 yue zhi 1947 nian 6 yue churu kou maoyi chubu zongjie,” (Preliminary Summary of Import and Export of Linqing City from September 1946 to June 1947), in Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, 626.
44 Ji Lu Yu bianqu gongshang gongzuo shiliao xuanbian (Selection of Documents on the Commercial History in the Ji Lu Yu Base Area) (Beijing: Xinhua Yinshu Chuang, 1995).
45 Ji Lu Yu bianqu gongshang gongzuo shiliao xuanbian.
46 “Linqing shi 1946 nian 9 yue zhi 1947 nian 6 yue churu kou maoyi chubu zongjie.”
47 “Ji Lu Yu qu gongshang ju guanyu 1949 nian shangdian jingying zhuangkuang” (The Report from the Bureau for Industry and Commerce of the Ji Lu Yu Area on the Store Managements in 1949), in Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, 648–50.
48 “Linqing shi 1946 nian 9 yue zhi 1947 nian 6 yue churu kou maoyi chubu zongjie,” 628.
49 “Zhonggong Ji Lu Yu qu dangwei gei Zhonggong Jin Ji Lu Yu Zhongyang ju de gongzuo baogao” (Work Report from the Party Branch in the Ji Lu Yu Area to the Central Bureau in Jin Ji Lu Yu), in Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, 205.
50 Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian.
51 “Jin Ji Lu Yu bianan 1947 nian wujia biandong gaishu” (Brief Summary of the Price Changes in the Jin Ji Lu Yu area in 1947), in Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, 651–69.
52 Ji Lu Yu bianqu gongshang gongzuo shiliao xuanbian, 109.
53 Ji Lu Yu bianqu gongshang gongzuo shiliao xuanbian, 99.
54 “Zhonggong Ji Lu Yu qu dangwei gei Zhonggong Jin Ji Lu Yu zhongyang ju de gongzuo baogao.”
55 This investigation covers all of the CCP’s base areas in north China and the information did not specify JI Lu Yu base area. But it shows the trend of changes across all the CCP base areas.
57 “Huabei jiefangqu jingji gaikuang” (Eonomic Overview of the Liberated Areas in North China), in Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, 603–35.
58 “Huabei jiefangqu jingji gaikuang.”
56 “Ji Lu Yu shengchan huiyi” (The conference on production in Ji Lu Yu), Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, 1023–26.
59 “Bo Yibo tongzhi guanyu gongshang ye wenti gei Mao zhuxi de baogao” (Comrade Bo Yibo’s report to Chairman Mao on commerce), Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian.
60 “Yao buzhang zai qushi jingli huiyi shang de baogao” (Minister Yao’s Report on the Meeting of Managers of City and District Levels), in Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, 868–70.
61 Cong Hanxiang ed, Jindai Ji Lu Yu xiangcun, 225–35.
62 “Zhang fu buzhang zai Huabei nonglin huiyi shang de baogao” (Vice Minister Zhang’s Report in the Agriculture and Forestry Conference in North China” in Huabei jiefangqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, 1013–22.
63 “Huabei ju guanyu pingyuan sheng qunzhong dangqian zui jiben de yaoqiu yu dang de lingdao wenti xiang zhongyang de baogao” (The North China Bureau’s report to the central CCP on the people’s basic demands and the party’s leadership in Pingyuan province,” in Zhonggong zhongyao lishi wenxian ziliao huibian (Collection of CCP’s important historic records), Internal Circulation, vol. 24.
64 “Pingyuan sheng renmin zhengfu di san ci jiuzhai jianbao” (The Third Relief Report of Pingyuan Government), Pingyuan zhengbao (April, 1950).
65 “Guanyu jiansheng yilai zhengfu gongzuo ji jinhou gongzuo fangzhen renwu de baogao” (Report on the Government’s Work since the Establishment of the Province and the Agendas and Tasks in the future), Pingyuan zhengbao (January, 1951), 1951.
66 Zhonggong pingyuan sheng jianshi, 89–249.
67 “1949 nian zhihuang gongzuo zongjie” (Work Summary of 1949 on Controlling the Yellow River), in Zhongguo Ji Lu Yu bianqu dangshi ziliao (Documents on the Party History of the Ji Lu Yu base area) (Shandong: Shandong Daxue Chubanshe, 1989), 485–97.
68 Zhonggong pingyuan sheng jianshi, 99.
69 Pingyuan zhengbao (April, 1950).
70 “Huabei ju guanyu tiaozheng gongshangye he gaishan gongsi guanxi de zhengce wenti xiang Mao zhuxi, zhongyang de baogao” (The North China Bureau’s Report to Chairman Mao and the central CCP on the Policies to Amend Commerce and Improve the Relationship between Public and Private Sectors), Zhonggong zhongyao lishi wenxian ziliao huibian, vol. 24.
71 “Huabei ju guanyu tiaozheng gongshangye he gaishan gongsi guanxi de zhengce wenti xiang mao zhuxi, zhongyang de baogao.”
72 Ji Lu Yu bianqu gongshang gongzuo shiliao xuanbian, 129.
73 Ji Lu Yu bianqu gongshang gongzuo shiliao xuanbian, 141.
74 Zhonggong Pingyuan sheng jianshi, 55–66.
76 Pingyuan sheng jichu shuzi tongji (Statistics on the Basic Numbers of Pingyuan Province), internal circulation.
75 “Guanyu Puyang zhuanshu yunliang shijian jiancha ji dui shizhi ganbu chuli de baogao” (Report on the inspection of crop shipping ancident in Puyang district and the punishment of dereliction of duty), People’s Daily, March 24, 1950.
77 Pingyuan sheng jichu shuzi tongji, 39.
78 “Huabei ju guanyu pingyuan sheng qunzhong dangqian zui jiben de yaoqiu yu dang de lingdao wenti xiang zhongyang de baogao.”
79 “Huabei ju guanyu pingyuan sheng qunzhong dangqian zui jiben de yaoqiu yu dang de lingdao wenti xiang zhongyang de baogao.”
80 “Huabei ju guanyu pingyuan sheng qunzhong dangqian zui jiben de yaoqiu yu dang de lingdao wenti xiang zhongyang de baogao.”
81 Xu Dashen ed., Zhonghua renmin gongheguo shilu (Chronicle of People’s Republic of China) (Changchun: Jilin renmin chubanshe, 1994), vol. 1, 915.
82 “Huabei Ju guanyu yonghu zhongyang jiaqiang zhongyang jigou, suoxia daqu zhiquan de zhishang xiang zhongyang de baogao,” in Zhonggong zhongyao lishi wenxian ziliao huibian, vol. 24.
83 Zhonggong pingyuan sheng jianshi, 539.
84 Changyuan, Dongming, Puyang, Qingfeng and Nanyue were added to Henan province, because they were at the very southern corner of Hebei.
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Xiaojia Hou
Xiaojia Hou received her Ph.D. in history from Cornell University in 2008 with a specialization in modern Chinese history, and her undergraduate and master’s degrees in history from Peking University. Her research agenda centers on China’s socialist transformation in the 1950s and how politics interacted with environment in Mao’s era. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of History, San Jose State University.
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