The Making of a Frontier Landscape: The “Ten Views of Dongchuan” in Eighteenth-Century Southwest China

Abstract

Introduction Located far away at “Heaven’s end” (tianmo), Dongchuan is one of many remote places in the hinterland of Southwest China (Fig. 1). Dongchuan has deep, river-carved gorges and rugged mountains, with significant local variation in climate like most of Southwest China. Mainly because of this rough topography, Dongchuan and other parts of present-day northeastern Yunnan continued to be occupied primarily by indigenous groups for many centuries. Between 1726 and 1730, the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) took away the power of indigenous chieftains and started to pursue effective control over this area by means of institutional and military force. After the Qing conquered this area by repressing so-called rebellious indigenous powers, the government gained easy access to Dongchuan’s rich copper deposits, an important resource because copper coin was one of the main currencies used in market exchange during the Qing. Meanwhile, drawn by the flourishing mining business, increasing numbers of Han Chinese migrants from other parts of China hurried here to find work and settle. In the first half of the eighteenth century Dongchuan became very important to the Qing economy. Along with this economic boom and political change, Dongchuan’s local landscape also experienced a transformation. Local officials proudly claimed that Dongchuan had been converted from a “nasty den of