Accepting reality: re-opening Manchuria to Chinese commoners (minren) in the Yongzheng era

Abstract For most of the period of Manchu domination of China prior to the nineteenth century, the rulers’ attitude toward Han civilians settling in the motherland was negative. In the Kangxi period, immigration was tolerated but strictly controlled, and most of the resources were assigned to local Eight Banners members, because the court planned to base the region’s development on the bannermen. In the fifth year of Qianlong’s reign (1740), an imperial order officially prohibited Chinese civilians from migrating to Manchuria – this was the well-known fengjin zhengce 封禁政策. The only exceptions to this trend were two brief periods: the first between Shunzhi’s reign and the early years of Kangxi’s reign, and the second roughly corresponding to Yongzheng’s reign (1723–1735). During the former period (1653–1668), immigration was encouraged, settlers were free to reclaim uncultivated lands, and a civil administration system was established. This phase has been widely discussed in the academic community for over a century, whereas research on the latter period – during which six new civil jurisdictions were established and the land policies, which had previously strongly favored bannermen, changed significantly in an effort to meet the needs of the growing civilian population – has been insufficient. Based on both institutional and private sources, this article will offer a detailed outline of the features of this peculiar stage and compare it with both the above-mentioned phase in which the province was opened to migration (1653–1668) and the restrictive policies of the Kangxi and Qianlong periods. In this way, the article will show how important Yongzheng’s change of direction was, despite the fact that it did not last long.