Punishment, frontier, and ethnicity in the making of the Qing Empire (1636-1912)

Chen, Xiao

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124688 Copy

Description

Title

Punishment, frontier, and ethnicity in the making of the Qing Empire (1636-1912)

Author(s)

Chen, Xiao

Issue Date

2024-04-24

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Chow, Kai-Wing

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Chow, Kai-Wing

Committee Member(s)

• Wilson, Roderick Ike
• Rabin, Dana
• Shao, Dan

Department of Study

History

Discipline

History

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Qing Empire
• Manchu
• Early Modern State
• Punishment
• Law
• Empire Studies
• Ethnicity

Abstract

This dissertation explores the dynamic between Qing empire-building and the transportation of convicts from the Qing heartlands to its Inner-Asian frontiers—one of the world’s largest and most complex networks of penal transportation by the early nineteenth century. I have charted the rise of a new penal regime engaged in categorizing, exploiting, and “rehabilitating” convicts, which grew out of Qing colonial practices in Northern Manchuria, Western Mongolia, and Xinjiang. I argue that convict transportation was a tool of the Qing empire that served both colonial and ideological ends. Under the convict labor regime in colonial frontiers, practices which were otherwise not seen in China Proper emerged, including the expansion of slavery and tattooing, the exploitation of convict labor, the settlement of former convicts among others. Ideologically, the differential treatments in convict transportation between the Manchus and the Han helped to further solidify the ascribed differences between them. This project contributes to a deep understanding of the contradictions within the early modern state: on the one hand, the formation of large territorial states led to the ascension of state power, administrative centralization, and pursuit for consistency; on the other hand, the imperial and colonial state used laws and punishment to mark differences across peoples and space. Drawing upon Qing official archives in both Chinese and Manchu, this project contributes to the conversation on colonialism and imperialism in scholarship on the Qing empire and other imperial formations. First, Qing colonial rules in Inner-Asian frontiers shaped the administration of justice at the center, altering the fates of hundreds of thousands ordinary convicts to face uncertain lives in distant penal colonies. Second, the exploitation of convict labor and inferior legal treatment of banished convicts were integral to Qing rule in colonial frontiers (Manchuria and Xinjiang) and the Qing imperial legal order. Lastly, the imperial state applied convict transportation to discipline a growing population of Eight Banners, aiming to address the rising misconduct within this community; however, banner convicts were not subject to the same convict labor regime as their Han Chinese counterparts.

Graduation Semester

2024-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2024 Xiao CHEN

Owning Collections