Transporting Jade

Abstract

This chapter examines jade shipments relating to the Gao-pu case to reconstruct the complex process of transporting from Xinjiang to Beijing in the late eighteenth century. The relay stations in Xinjiang and post stations in northern China served the palace as crucial links to this new territory. Focusing on the route within Xinjiang, this chapter argues that Xinjiang officials’ management of jade delivery was developed closely around local ecology: they worked with animal and human resources of the local communities which were familiar with the landscape and knowledgeable about various ecological and environmental elements. Constructing transport infrastructure, therefore, provided a mechanism through which court officials localized and inculcated Qing ruling power into the material and natural world of Xinjiang.