example ensured that a forage crisis would inevitably include an identity
crisis. The ultimate unit of account for northeastern forage was not sable
pelts, much less an equivalent in storks or raccoon dogs, but Manchus,
who were in critically short supply by the nineteenth century. By this
characteristically Qing measure, imperial foraging had become
unsustainable.
This destabilization presented a serious adaptational challenge for the
Qing Manchurian borderland and its attendant hunter-soldier identity.
Nevertheless, such change emerged as part of the very process of con-
struction, a dynamic also visible in another Qing borderland defined by
distinctive environmental ties, Inner Mongolia.
Notes
1 Yang and Xu,“Biodiversity Conservation in Changbai,” 885 , 896 ; Tang
et al.,“Landscape-Level Forest Ecosystem Conservation,” 171 – 73.
2 Important works on New Manchus include Yang Xulian“Jianlun Qingdai
Kangxi shiqi de xin Manzhou,” 192 – 96 ; Liu Jingxian et al.,“Qing Taizu
shiqi dexin Manzhou wenti,” 102 – 07 , 116 ;ZhangJie,“Qing chu zhaofu
xin Manzhou shulue,” 23 – 30 ; Zhang Jie and Zhang Danhui,Qingdai
dongbei bianjiang de Manzu, 59 – 93.
3 “Frontier people”(bianmin) is a term often applied to unregimented
groups mainly inhabiting the lower SAH River and Sakhalin Island,
especially to those 2 , 398 households officially registered as pelt tributar-
ies by 1750. These multiethnic groups included Fiyaka, Hejen and Ainu.
For administrative studies see, Yang Xulian et al.,Qingdai dongbei shi,
140 – 47 ; Matsuura,Shinchōno Amūru, 222 – 79.
4 In 1791 , for example, Han merchants were seeking to transport 16 , 567 pelts
they had purchased for sale in China proper; Wang Peihuan and Zhao Degui,
“Qingdai Sanxing,” 199. For related studies, see Guan Jialu and Tong Yong-
gong,“Qingchao gong diao shang wu-lin zhidu,” 93 – 98 ; Wang Dehou,
“Qingdai Sanxing difang maoyi shulun,” 177 – 83.
5 Zhou Xifeng,Qingchao qianqi Heilongjiang, 113 – 16 ; Lee,The Manchurian
Frontier, 52 – 53 ;QSL,YZ 10 / 4 / 21 , 8 : 556 b– 57 a,YZ 10 / 3 / 10 , 8 : 543 a MWLF
QL 7 / 3 / 19 [ 03 - 0172 - 0610 - 005 ]. For a study of the Hunting Eight Banners, see
Han Di,Qingdai Baqi Suo-lon.
6 (Qingding)Baqi tongzhiYZ 5 / 4 / 13 , 1 : 194.
7 (Qingding)Baqi tongzhi,YZ 2 / 3 / 28 , 1 : 174.
8 (Qingding)Baqi tongzhi,YZ 5 / 4 / 13 , 1 : 194 – 95. For further examples of Han
contamination, seeibid.,YZ 4 / 12 / 27 , 1 : 190 ;QL 58 / 4 / 19 , 1 : 278 ,QSLQL 48 /
4 / 3 , 23 : 790 b.
9 Bhaba,The Location of Culture, 4 , 193 , 219 ; Moore-Gilbert,Postcolonial
Theory, 129 – 30 , 181 - 82 , 192 – 95 ; Gladney,Dislocating China.
10 For official comments on the spatial dimensions of Han Manchurian migra-
tion, see, for example,QSL,QL 42 / 6 / 21 , 21 : 868 a–b, JQ 9 / 2 / 11 , 29 : 700 b–