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people nor plants alone, but a specific set of cultivation relations, which
could also involve agriculturally Sinified indigenous peoples, that pro-
duced either barren or wooded highlands. During the nineteenth century
a decisive shift toward a self-consuming Han style swiddening was evi-
dent throughout much of the province that probably resulted in an overall
contraction in arable land. More attention to such ethnic distinctions
would appropriately qualify overgeneralizations that“Qing dynasty...
ecological knowledge was deficient.”^50
Statecraft-minded officials like Bao Shichen understood sustainability
problems associated with Han highland swiddening and offered provi-
sions for“greener”modifications. Bao’s idea was to prevent irreversible
erosion, which casual practices, according to him, could effect in as few
as three years. In response, he proposed dividing mountainous terrain
into seven levels, of which the lower five would be burned off for
cultivation. Then, in rotations of two-year intervals, root vegetables
such as turnips would be initially planted to enhance the porosity of
the soil while providing a harvest. The leaves would serve as fodder for
pigs, which would, like the farmers, be accommodated in shacks. The
manure of both humans and pigs would then be used to enhance the
fertility of the soil until it could be planted with a wider variety of
cultivars, including corn, millet, and,if fertility was particularly high,
even cotton cash crops. The upper two intact fallow levels would act as
catchments and reservoirs. Water could be channeled, exploiting
existing slopes and gullies, invarious directions to maintain“inexhaust-
ibly” the fertility of thefield levels below as they were cultivated in
ascending order.^51
Bao’s provisions are, of course, provisional. The careful balance
required to make Han shack swiddening sustainable in highlands with
only“ 20 to 30 percent”soil cover hangs from a potentially destabilizing
scale. The upper reaches of these regions, were, moreover entirely depend-
ent on rainfall. Their designation,“fields that rely on heaven”(kao tian
tian), is a Yunnan term that, unlike its Mongol variant, emphasized such
plots’isolation from riverine irrigation.^52 Bao supplements this unprom-
ising arablist intervention by adding manure, of which is“there is no
lack”because there are“many shack people in the mountains”who
should also bring“numerous”pigs and chickens. This substitution of
excrement for wood nevertheless requires greater coordination between
more creatures higher on the food chain than the eradicated wild plants,
which needed no supervision to inhibit the erosion threatening to under-
mine the new efflorescent system.
Borderland Hanspace in the Nineteenth Century 243
