ann
(Ann)
#1
was expressed in the Anhui common saw“looking to heaven for a
harvest”(wang tian shou). Like Mongols, Anhui peasants did nothing
between sowing and harvest, although, significantly, this was attributed
to“fooling around”(xiyou) rather than herding or hunting.^79 The perva-
sive arablist hierarchy is nevertheless operative even in this instance.
Mongols“naturally”have trouble with environmental practices not trad-
itionally theirs, and Han have inexcusable problems with their own native
usages.
The essential Mongol character is thus constructed as unsuited to
intensive agriculture by nurture and nature, inherent climate, and inborn
laziness, and is also predisposed to herding and hunting. Interaction with
Han can effect a progressive agrarian assimilation rendering the two
groups indistinguishable. Yet the Qianlong emperor’sconflicted reaction
to this outcome mirrors broader state contradictions in the formation and
implementation of agrarian and pastoral policies north of the Great Wall,
where relations different from those of imperial arablism had originated.
venery
Fields beyond the Great Wall were constructed differently from those in
China proper. Ecological conditions of this vast area, dominated by com-
paratively dry and cold forest and steppe, precluded agriculture as the
primary means of environmental interaction. This had a commensurate
effect on cultural expressions. In contrast, more direct links with animals,
rather than with plants, formed core elements of the Mongols and
Manchus, the two major categories of northern ethnic identity in the Qing.
Of course, plants were certainly a part of these northern networks as
animals were a component of those to the south. The focus of human
intervention in the northern ecology, however, was not converting
“wasteland”into cropland, but managing animal populations, specific-
ally in the form of herding and hunting. This focus was a response to
ecological conditions that tended to favor diversification centered on
some form of foraging or herding rather than agricultural specialization.
As one 1736 report from Heilongjiang explained, groups relying on
herding and hunting could endure harsh winter conditions, a regular
phenomenon north of the passes, far more effectively than those exclu-
sively dependent on grainfields.^80
Subsequent chapters will divide practices along ethnic lines to examine
how herding constructed banner Mongol identity and foraging border-
land Manchu identity. However, this is a somewhat artificial distinction
48 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
