{"product_id":"yangzi-waters-transforming-the-water-regime-of-the-jianghan-plain-in-late-imperial-china-9789004505278","title":"Yangzi Waters: Transforming the Water Regime of the Jianghan Plain in Late Imperial China","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book centers on the history of polders and investigates the complex hydro-social relationships of the Jianghan Plain in late imperial China. Once a hydraulic frontier where local communities managed the polders, the Jianghan Plain had become a state-led hydro-electric powerhouse by the mid-twentieth century. Through in-depth historical analysis, this book shows how water politics, cultural practice, and ecology interplayed and transformed the landscape and waterscape of the plain from a long-term perspective. By touching on topics such as religious practice, ethnic tensions and local militarization, the author reveals a plain forever caught between land and water, and nature and culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"As a historial monograph Yangzi Waters is firmly based on a combination of clearly explained theory and well-picked, original material from local sources. This interesting study should not only be read by China specialists but should also appeal to historians interested in a comparative approach of water management within a global setting.\"  -Leonard Blussé, Leiden University, International Journal of Maritime History, 35(1)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments   List of Figures and Tables   Introduction Water, Society and Politics   1 Theorizing Water and Politics    2 Revisiting the Relationship between Water and Society    3 The Yuan    4 What Are Yuan?    5 A Long-term View of the Yuan    6 The Jianghan Plain     1 Water-based Disasters and a Cultured Nature   1 The Amphibious Nature of the Jianghan Plain   1.1 A Flood-prone Environment    1.2 Wet-rice Cultivation and Its Significance    1.3 Amphibious Living      2 Networks, Lineages, and the Creation of Yuan    3 Temple-Yuan Relations: Seeing a Cultured Nature    4 Conclusion     2 Disordering Nature Wetlands and Empire Reconstruction (1600s–Early 1700s)   1 The Early History of the Wetlands in the Jianghan Plain    2 Crisis and Restoration    3 Migration and Opening the Plain    4 Amphibious Living: Fluidity of the Jianghan Lifestyle    5 Complexities in Administration    6 The Early Qing State and Its Laissez-faire Policy in Central China    7 Hydraulic Communities: Official and People’s Yuan    8 Enforcement on Collaboration: The Formation of Yuan Zones    9 Customs in Common: Various Solutions for Collaborations    10 Turn Sea to Land: Population Growth and Dike Proliferation    11 Conclusion     3 The Retreat of the Horse The Manchus, Pasturelands, and Water Management on the Jianghan Plain (ca. 1700s–mid-1800s)   1 Manchus and Horses    2 The Jingzhou Garrison    3 Population Growth and Land Reclamation in the Eighteenth-Century Jianghan Plain    4 The Debate over Land versus Water    5 The Dilemma for Statecraft Officials    6 The Manchus and the Local Ecology of Central China    7 Efforts to Reinforce Manchu Cultural Identity    8 The Retreat of Horses in the Jianghan Plain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries    9 Conclusion     4 Militarizing Water Forts, Polders, and Landscape in an Era of Crisis (1796–1860s)   1 The Rebels and the Jianghan Plain    2 Jianbi Qingye: The Qing State’s Counterinsurgency Agenda    3 Fort Building in the Hubei Highlands    4 Local Militarization and the Lowland Communities    5 Yuan and Tuanlian: Qianjiang County as a Case Study    6 Disruptions in the Hydraulic System with Local Militarization    7 The Rural Famine in the Jianghan Plain from the Late 1850s to the 1860s    8 Conclusion     5 Coping with Environmental Crisis in the Post-Taiping Era   1 Post-Taiping Social Distress and Environmental Crisis    2 Managing the Waters   2.1 Flood Control: Restoring, Diking, or Diverting    2.2 Sedimentation: Ban the Reclamation on Mountains    2.3 Sacrificing the South for the North      3 The Changing Nature of Conflicts over Water   3.1 First, Greater Frequency and on a Larger Scale    3.2 Second, Diversifying Stakeholders    3.3 Third, a “Plebeian Culture” in Popular Action    3.4 Case Study: The Conflicts over the Big and Small Zekou Outlets from the 1840s to the 1910s      4 Changes in Hydrotopography of the Jianghan Plain    5 Conclusion     6 Centering the Plain   1 The Jinshui Reclamation Project    2 The Social, Economic, and Hydraulic Conditions of the Plain    3 Reorganizing the Yuan System in the Early Republic    4 The Nationalist Government’s Scheme of Unifying Watersheds    5 A Divided Central Yangzi Watershed    6 Hydropower: Centering the Yangzi    7 Conclusion     Conclusion   1 An Autonomous Water Regime    2 An Amphibious Water Regime    3 The Role of the State    4 Environmental Changes in the Longue Durée   4.1 Hydrogeographic Changes    4.2 Loss of Biodiversity      5 Hopes and Challenges in the Jianghan Plain     Appendix: Glossary of Chinese Measurement Terms   Works Cited   Index","brand":"Brill","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53210836599127,"sku":"9789004505278","price":116.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/yangzi-waters-transforming-the-water-regime-of-the-jianghan-plain-in-late-imperial-china-9789004505278","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}