5
Borderland Hanspace in the Nineteenth Century
When considering the quantity ofqicirculating in the cosmos, there was,
after the Ming Jiajing reign [ 1522 – 66 ], a decline in the virtue of relations
between ruler and subject, risings of bandits and rebels everywhere, great
sufferings among the populace, and unrest on the frontiers. Could it not be
said that there was a blockage in the [circulation of the] cosmos at this
time?...The great peace of the cosmos today and the favor enjoyed by all
surpass that of the Ming dynasty, as is commonly understood by even the
smallest child...The cosmos takes benevolence as its core and covering and
supporting all without partiality as its measure. Thus, if virtue is located
near and at the core, so the empire gathers round near and at the core; if it is
located afar and at the periphery, the empire gathers round afar and at the
periphery. As Confucius has said,“thus, those of great virtue must receive
the mandate,”and since there have been kings and emperors, this calculus
has been the same.^1
In this Qing version ofqimechanics penned by the Yongzheng emperor in
Dayi juemi lu, an ethnic Han dynasty falls victim to the same cosmic
process that brought the Mongol regime down in Ming Taizu’s version,
quoted inChapter 2. Both these royal expressions of accommodationist
and dissident Hanspace acknowledge the centrality ofqiin the dynastic
life cycle. The geographic location ofqi, however, remains, typically, in
ethnic dispute. For Ming Taizu,qiwanes or waxes in the Hanspace core.
For the Yongzheng emperorqi’s positional significance shifts between
Han center and non-Han periphery. Despite these genuine differences,
both the Han and Manchu regimes seek a steady state that will“virtu-
ously”impose human hierarchy on environmental heterarchy. Yet once
there is a substantial conviction that the resulting hierarchical constructs
are wholly organic, once its own mimesis of nature is accepted as natural,
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