ann
(Ann)
#1
the Qing empire in environmental historical practice as Mongol horsemen
were deployed to save Hanfields south of the Great Wall from northern
swarms of various regional species ofLocusta migratoria. The relation
between humans and horses mobilized to preserve that between humans
and plants was the central component of this cooperation. As one of
Ciriktai’s fellow Chakhar officers noted, Inner Asian–inflected mounted
hunting practices were required to stop the locusts. Cavalryfirst“formed
up in battue-style”(Ma:adame jergilefi) to encircle and drive the swarm
into a central space. Then they werefinally trampled under the horses’
hooves to accomplish what “human strength could not overcome”
(Ma:niyalma i hūsun eterakū).^2
Chiriktai’s 1765 operation also affords a glimpse of the interde-
pendency between the Qing empire’s two main divisions of environ-
mental relations that were constitutive of ethnic Han Chinese and
Manchu-Mongol identities. The empire fostered both relations to
create a space of distinctively Qingfields where imperial versions of
hunting and farming would nurture human embodiments of state
authority across Inner Asian steppe and China proper’s alluvial plains.
This chapter will examine these two main divisions to provide a
general context in which to consider the more regionally nuanced case
studies that follow.
Mounted bow hunting and its related skills, which enabled Ciriktai’s
Mongols to crush the locusts, centered on the pursuit of wild animals
across uncultivated areas north of the Great Wall. Human military prow-
ess was developed through animal “resistance” as preyfled and hid
within a similarly tempering terrain and climate. This“venery”process
was necessary for the formation of the empire’s paradigmatic Inner Asian
identity.
A very different process constructed the corresponding identity
embodying the empire’s mastery of its other great domain, China proper.
Here humans intensively cultivated domesticated cereal grasses. Mainly
wheat, millet, and rice were grown on land that had been terraformed for
centuries to maximize yields under challenging dynamic conditions
of climate, soil quality, and incursions from animals such asLocusta
migratoria. Simultaneously a particular Han human identity was also
cultivated. Theseliangmin(“law-abiding people”) were also raised in this
process of“arablism”from which the state drew most of its revenue,
many of its officials, and nearly all its population, rural and urban.
Although certainly different in many ways, both venery and arablism
were integral components the empire required to reconcile considerable
22 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
