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for purchase of livestock and grain and even obtained wives for those who
had lost them.^70 Other refugee groups, such as the Torghut subjects of
Beile Lubsang Darja, were even allowed to stable their livestock within
the passes in winter, when agriculture was suspended. In summer they
could go out beyond them again to graze. This“temporary”expedient
dragged on for eight years until 1740 was made possible only by the
relatively small number of two hundred households involved.^71
Balancing the interests of various groups of humans, livestock, and
plants within the larger context of the region’s various ecosystems
required extensive coordination on a challenging scale. Military conflict,
of course, further complicated state management. Inner Mongolian pas-
tures were duly opened as a critical, if precarious, haven for refugee
northern and western banners, who, like the Torghuts, needed a great
deal of assistance to integrate into the existing set of local relations with
minimal disruption. Assembling resources that even a relatively small
group of two hundred households required under these conditions to
maintain a proper identity is just what made the construction of an
imperial steppe borderland so complex and difficult to sustain.
Extreme weather and livestock dependency fundamentally structured
these stressful conditions. When initially left to themselves in the wake of
their 1739 livestock losses, desperate Urad families sold off 371 men,
women, and children to neighboring Khalkha and Kharachin Mongol
troopers in exchange for livestock, grain, tea, cloth, or money. Asking
prices were as low as 0. 2 taels per person around the same time that
livestock repurchases cost between 0. 5 tofive taels per head. Qing relief
officers obtained permission to use some of thefive thousand taels in
livestock replacement silver to redeem the new slaves from their new
masters. The Uradjasagwere also dressed down for permitting their
banner people“to roam scattered about and even be sold off.”^72
The Qing state’s capacity for the sustainable complexity necessary to
dominate such vast and diverse areas was quite high in the 1730 s, much
higher than their Zunghar opponents, and was a critical factor in the
dynasty’sfinal victory.^73 Forging a working relation between Mongols,
Manchus, and Han was certainly one important dimension of this cap-
acity. However, based as it was on other relations between these human
groups and their interpenetrating environments, the resulting system was
subject to internal conflicts over resources critical for maintaining a stable
banner Mongol identity. These conflicts arose from the intricate and
intimate relations between humans and livestock that enabled both to
survive in large numbers on the steppe.
The Nature of Imperial Pastoralism in Southern Inner Mongolia 139
