Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain_ Environment, Identity, and Empire in Qing China\'s Borderlands

late Tang when“the ground [of the dynastic capital of Chang’an] became

unsteady and unstable, an indication of the exhaustion and unceasing

dispersal of itsqi.”The Qing dynasty was thus a historical result of a

natural process of one to two hundred years ofqiflow from the northwest

to the northeast. Over this period, a steady succession of Inner Asian

conquest dynastiesfirst gained“part”of China proper under the Liao,

then“half the empire”under the Jin, and then the whole territory under

the Mongols. The Qing alone, however, enjoyed the full political benefits

of consolidated sovereignty over China proper asqireached maximum

accumulation in the northeast. The Qing was now able to displace the

Ming, occupy China proper, and then expand control beyond it. Manchu

Qing legitimacy was thus“naturally”derived by an extrapolation of

traditional Hanspace dynamics into Inner Asian territory. China proper

nevertheless remained at the center of this process, the culmination ofqi

as imperial political authority.^28

Zhao’sqi, however, was distinctively Qing and not Ming. In contrast,

Ming Taizu could exult over his expulsion of the Mongols from China

proper as a natural occurrence of the same basic historical mechanics ofqi:

Since the overthrow of the Song throne, the Yuan used the barbarians of the north
to invade and rule China, and there was no one within or beyond the Four Seas
who was not subjugated. How could this be human strength; for it was actually
conferred by heaven...Now at this time celestial fate has revolved around, and
theqiof the central plainsflourishes. From amid the myriads, there is now a sage
incarnate [i.e., Ming Taizu, himself] to drive out the northern barbarians and
restore Han China [Zhonghua].^29

In a similar spirit Lü Liuliang, whose anti-Manchu thought resonated

beyond the grave in the Zeng Jing case, believed that the rise of a sage

occurred once everyfive hundred years in response to the waxing ofqi.^30

Such views formed the basis of a dissident Hanspace articulated during

the Qing in latent contest with public accommodationist expressions such

as Zhao Yi’s.

It is obvious from these contrasting views that Hanspace was partly a

state of mind and, so, subject to interpretation. Both sides, however,

concurred on many of the basic historical mechanics ofqias well as some

of its effects.^31 Hanspace remained the common intellectual property of

the empire’s Han constituency but also reflected the diverse responses of

that constituency to Inner Asian conquest. As a result, dissident and

accommodationist variants, all still based on the sameqimechanics,

could arise simultaneously in response to Khitan, Jurchen, Mongol, or

Manchu domination.

32 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain