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every”new banner“to guard their own territory and attend annual court
audiences to offer tribute.”The prerequisite for carrying out these activ-
ities, however, was thefixing of banner pasture boundaries. In this
material sense, the league system itself was really an outcome of pasture
consolidation and not its agent.^12
The Lifanyuan oversaw pasture allocation, which substantially
reduced the frequency and scale of inter-banner strife. Regulations
expressed the basic principle of delineation in apparently simple and
natural terms:“Pastures near mountains and rivers can use them as
boundaries. Pastures without mountains and rivers can use cairns
(e-bo;Mo:obō) as boundaries.”Trespassers paidfines in livestock with
rates determined by social rank.^13 Modification was inevitable, espe-
cially to take account of human response to ecological change. From
1680 , for example,jasagterritories“without grass”would have to
apply to theLifanyuanfor permission to move to greener pastures in a
nearby banner, and only after both areas had been inspected to confirm
their conditions. Pasture space could also be reallocated and expanded
as a form of disaster relief.^14
Pasture control was an established principle of herder control. Ming
frontier officers had long exploited their Mongol and Jurchen opponents’
military dependency on grasslands by regularly“firing the wilderness”
(shaohuang) in autumn to deprive horses of the grass that fueled them
for raids on Ming territory. One Ming commander in 1442 held that
“nothing was better as a defense against”such raids than severing this
connection because Inner Asians“depend on horses, and horses depend
on grass.”^15
In definitive contrast, the Qing, as an Inner Asian dynasty, sought to
exploit these dependency networks through pastoral management. Nur-
haci made such arrangements, which included access to fodder and
grazing land, for a group of“newly subjected Mongols”in 1622. Bound-
ary disputes, such as the trespass by the newly subjected Aru Khorchin,
were being handled no later than 1634 , around the time that thefirstjasag
were being appointed among the Forty-nine Banners.^16 All banner and
league formation required grazing space and, therefore, large-scale delin-
eation of Qing banner Mongol grazing areas. This occurred that same
year when dynastic officials were sent to consult with subject Mongols on
banner boundaries. In addition to the eight Mongolgūsabanners, the
leaders of ten more banners met atŠongqor in the Khorchin Left Rear
Banner to work out boundaries for those bordering Jin territory, esti-
mated at more than 25 , 200 households.^17 The formative period of
120 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
