imperial power, to symbolise the central
government and its historically long-lived
role as arbiter of land use and environmen-
tal management at macro-regional, region-
al, and to some degree local levels. I adopt-
ed the pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), a
scaly anteater still common in the region
that is both highly prized for its medicinal
value and feared for its magical powers, as
a representative of local agency - the every-
day resource management practices and
long-term interests of villagers who have
shaped mountain landscapes for centuries.
The Tiger: Political Economy and
the Rise and Fall ofP.t. amoyensis
Four historical periods have shaped relations
between people and tigers in southern
China. First, in pre-modern times Han peo-
ples conquered and settled the southern
frontier regions, converting them into places
associated with the Chinese cultural realm;
second, in the period of Western incursion,
colonial domination led to the diffusion of
certain cultural values and practices to
China, with profound impacts on the rela-
tionship between humans and wildlife; third,
in the period of geopolitical isolation, the
Chinese Communist Party led the country in
a war against nature in the name of indus-
trialisation, modernisation, and the survival
of the motherland; and fourth, during the
current post-reform period unregulated cap-
italist production, state-run nature conser-
vation, and the rise of private NGOs have
given rise to new and sometimes con-
tentious claims about the goals and meth-
ods of nature conservation.
The first period began in the early centuries
of the common era with a series of migra-
tions into the mountains, hills, and basins
south of the Changjiang (Yangzi River), first
from North China in the early centuries of
the common era, and later from the crowd-
ed southeast coast. Gradually the south
became the richest grain producing region
in the empire; urban centers developed on
river plains and coastal lowlands, and
increased exploitation of mountain
resources caused environmental distur-
bances that put humans in greater conflict
with tigers. This is documented in
gazetteers of local history (difangzhi), which
I employed to analyze the historical geogra-
phy of human - tiger encounters. Five hun-
dred and eleven records of tiger problems
in four southeastern provinces (Fujian,
Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangdong) provide
what may be the longest written chronology
of human-wildlife interactions for any region
of comparable size in the world. During the
roughly 1,900 year period under examina-
tion, county and municipal records show
that over 10,000 people were killed or
injured by tigers.^5 Encounters occurred in
146 of 362 present-day counties and admin-
istrative cities (a total of 40%) from across
the region, and span from the year 48 C.E.
to 1953 (Figs. 2 and 3). The government
took tiger incidents seriously; even a sight-
ing, if it occurred in or near a town, count-
ed as history. This annalistic concern
stemmed largely from the fact that the
state and nature were linked through a tra-
ditional cosmo-magical concept known as
the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), accord-
ing to which disharmonies in the natural
order, or Heaven (Tian), signaled political
disorder and misrule. Tigers were also seen
as having conscious volition and free
agency and as emissaries of Heaven - the
cosmos - they were held in awe. As with all
inauspicious events not fully attributed to
human agency, management of tiger
attacks often fell within the purview of local
officials, literate men of high social standing
who could mediate with heaven to bring an
end to nature’s vengeance through acts of
ritual expiation. As a nexus between heaven
and earth in the Chinese state religion and
a representative of the emperor, the county
or prefectural magistrate was expected to
uphold the Mandate of Heaven. Good gov-
ernment meant a harmonious and prosper-
ous peace between people and nature. The