Development and ecological management of flood lands in Western Hebei from the perspective of environmental history (1937-1949)

ABSTRACT

Previous studies of environmental history in North China have focused too much on ecological degradation and neglected human dynamism in response to environmental change. Since the fifth year of the Yongzheng era (1727), the government and the people created large-scale agrarian flood lands on both sides of the West Hebei River. However, since the mid-Qing era, the ecological degradation of the watershed has continued to hinder the development of the flood lands, and the flood lands continued to shrink due to frequent flooding. Between 1937 and 1949, initiated by all levels of the CCP-controlled regional governments, the people of western Hebei showed great initiative in managing the ecological environment of the watershed, and the flood lands in western Hebei were gradually restored and has therefore survived. It is thus clear that the regional population has not always been passive and helpless under the pressure of increasing ecological degradation in northern China since the Qing era. After 1937, the renewal of political forces and adjustments of socio-economic policies, as well as conceptual and practical environmental management and a governance of the watershed territories based on ecological principles, encouraged the regional population to adapt to the challenges posed by ecological degradation and to proactively maintain the land as a source of food and clothing.

KEYWORDS:

• Western Hebei
• development of flood lands
• ecological degradation
• environmental management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Glossary

Chen Fengtong 陈凤桐

fangyu 放淤

Jifu tongzhi 《畿辅通志》

shishui dihu 使水地户

shuili yingtian 水利营田

Song Shaowen 宋绍文

Zhang Chong 张冲

Zhu Kezhen 竺可桢

Notes

¹ Beinart, Environment and History, 3.

² Pomeranz, The Making of a Hinterland, 44, 244.

³ Li Mingzhu, Huabei de jihuang, 1, 27.

⁴ Wang Jiange, Ecology and Society in Northern China at the End of Traditional Society, 4.

⁵ Wanxian xizhi, vol. 2, 232.

⁶ Zhang Yuke, “Hutuo he shangyou shuidao,” 5–8.

⁷ Jifu tongzhi, vol. 47; and Yingyin wenyuan siku quanshu, vol. 505, 88–89.

⁸ “Shahe liang’an,” 324.

⁹ Liu Xitong, “Pingshan xian shuili shiye tiaocha baogao,” 72.

¹⁰ Lu Sheng, “Pingshan xian shuili shiye,” 4.

¹¹ Li Zhilin, and Sun Mai, “Shahe liang’an de renmen,” 2.

¹² Wanxian xinzhi, vol. 2, 232.

¹³ “Hebei sheng nongye diaocha baogao (II),” 11.

¹⁴ Zhu Kezhen, “Zhili dili de huanjing he shuizang,” 111, 114.

¹⁵ Pingshan xian zhiliao, vol. 2, 11.

¹⁶ “Hebei sheng fuping xian difang,” 123.

¹⁷ Zhou Diao, “Fuping tandi yingxiong Li Zhiqing,” December 30, 1945.

¹⁸ Huang Zongzhi, Huabei de xiaonong jingji, 60.

¹⁹ “Zhonggong tudi zhengce zai jinchaji,” 1.

²⁰ Li Gongpu, Hubei qihou, 102.

²¹ Song Shaowen, “Jinchiji bianqu de jingji jianshe,” January 1943, 261.

²² “Seventy-eight Thousand Acres of Drainage and Reclamation,” 2.

²³ “Jijin, Jicha liangqu yu kangzhan shengli,” 754.

²⁴ “Fangfeng fangshui yudi hudi,” Renmin ribao, August 13, 1948, 2.

²⁵ “Shengchan weiyuanhui zhishi,” March 10, 1946, 234–235.

²⁶ “Pingshan Hutuo he baozhang,” Jinchaji ribao, August 13, 1944, 2.

²⁷ “Cihe zhishu,” 1.

²⁸ “Dui jinnian fanghong fangyu,” 1.

²⁹ “Liyong dongxian xingjian shuili,” 1.

³⁰ Shen Tingxiu, and Guo Jiahe, “Fuping xian de chentan hezuo huzhu,” 21.

³¹ “Jinchaji bianqu kengxiu tanghuang banfa,” September 17, 1939, 249.

³² When barren flood lands were reclaimed, this was referred to as the formation of flood lands.

³³ “Fuping tandi de gengzhong fangshi,” 2.

³⁴ “Beiyuequ de huangtan fuyuan,” December 25, 1942.

³⁵ “Fuping xian yeling sigao bingcha,” 8.

³⁶ Li Xiaomin, “Fuping xian nongcun sumiao,” 89.

³⁷ “Zhuyi fanghong yimian pingpo liangguang,” 1.

³⁸ “Fuping zhunbei dajian shuili,” December 28, 1944.

³⁹ “Guangfan kaizhan zhishu zaoshu,” April 3, 1945.

⁴⁰ “Fuping zaoshou yanzhong shuizang,” September 30, 1945.

⁴¹ Chen Fengtong, “Zaolin fanghu shi fangzhi,” August 25, 1945.

⁴² “Zhang fu buzhang zai huabei,” 1022.

⁴³ Cheng Zihua, “Canjia qunyinghui de ganbu,” January 5, 1945.

⁴⁴ “Song Shaowen zai bianqu caijing huiyi,” 11.

⁴⁵ “Huangshan huangdi huangtan kenzhi,” March 7, 1946, 765.

⁴⁶ Xu Shiping, “Qingnian de zeren zai xuexi,” 30, 41.

⁴⁷ “Fuping xian zhengfu guanyu 1948 nian da shengchan de zongjie” (November 27, 1948), Fuping xian dang’anguan cang geming lishi dang’an [Revolutionary History Archives in the Fuping County Archives], file no. 60-1–27.

⁴⁸ “Fuping xianzhengfu guanyu 1949 nian dashengchan yundong de gongzuo buzhi” (February 1949), Fuping xian dang’anguan cang geming lishi dang’an [Revolutionary History Archives in the Fuping County Archives], file no. 60-1–63.

⁴⁹ Beinart, Environment and History, 66–67.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sen CHENG

CHENG Sen is professor at the Northwest Institute of Historical Environment and Socio-Economic Development, Shaanxi Normal University, with research interests focusing on the environmental history of modern China. His representative works include Ming Qing minguo shiqi zhiyulujin jiaojie diqu diyu hudong guanxi yanjiu [A Study of the Regional Interaction in the Junction Area of Hebei-Henan-Shanxi-Shandong during the Ming-Qing and Republican Periods] (Beijing: China Social Science Press, 2017); “Zhanzheng, dimao gaizao yu shehui dongyuan: Huabei pingyuan kang Ri genjudi junmin wa daogou yundong yanjiu” [War, Artificial Topographical Transformation, and Social Mobilization: Examining the Trench Digging Movement at the Base Area of the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in the North China Plain] (Jindaishi yanjiu [Modern Chinese History Studies], no. 6 (2021): 16–30); and “Feipang, dingchuang yu mazuiji, Hu Jingyi siyin de yiliao shi kaocha” [From Body to Soul: the Transformation of Late Qing Missionaries Therapy against Opium Addiction] (Yiliao shehui shi yanjiu [Studies in Medical Social History], no. 1 (2022): 223–241).