ann
(Ann)
#1
blended with more cultural influences, disparagingly generalized as
“Han contamination,”to produce distinctions between borderland and
diasporic Manchus.
Like smallpox, malaria could certainly act as an obstacle to human
settlement, as it did in much of Lingnan mainly before the Ming, to inhibit
Han settlement of the region. Although different from epidemic diseases
such as smallpox in terms of vectors and other characteristics, malaria
and its disease environment could also reinforce or even help create
spatial and ethnic distinctions, as it apparently did in the subtropical
foothills of the Nepali Tarai. The Tarai,“virtually synonymous with
malaria,” was inhabited by the Tharu, “popularly believed to be
immune”to this disease environment. Immunity partly conferred ethnic
distinction, especially from more susceptible Indian settlersfleeing various
natural disasters, on the Tharu.^26
A broadly similar dynamic seems to have structured relations between
Yunnan areas of indigenous and Han residence. In the process, an
intraethnic distinction between peoples in and beyond chieftainships
formed, based in part on differential resistance. The imperative for the
imposition of chieftainship identity on some indigenous peoples was
largely rooted in the susceptibility of Han populations to malaria. This
precluded the dynasty’s normaljunxianincorporation of southwestern
space and so required relatively immune and cooperative intermediaries.
The resulting native chieftainships were not wholly imperial cultural
constructs, but rather imperial adaptations to preexisting regional envir-
onmental relations informed by both nature and culture. This network of
imperial indigenism did not integrate well with an emerging imperial
arablism.
cultivating borderland
When Cai Yurong took up his post as Yun(nan)-Gui(zhou) governor-
general in 1682 , he was faced with the task of restoring order to a distant
province that had been in revolt against the central government since
1673. There were fugitives and bandits to be caught, weapons to be
confiscated, infrastructure to be repaired and administrative expenses to
be met. Yunnan’s real problem, however, was organic. In his memorial
proposing“Ten Measures for Providing for Yunnan”in the wake of the
Three Feudatories Rebellion, Cai located the fundamental problem within
“the empire’s natural order.”Yunnan was saddled with“an abundance
of mountains”and hobbled with“a scarcity offields.”Its food supply
178 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
