Qianjie
- Chinese: 遷界 (qiānjiè)
In 1657, the Qing Court ordered that all coastal activities be halted, and residents be moved further inland. This was in response to the threat of coastal raids by Ming loyalists such as those led by Zheng Chenggong. The policy was called qianjie, literally "moving boundaries."
Coastal industries and maritime trade alike were suspended, spurring considerable discussion among Court bureaucrats and officials as to economic policy and the possible impacts. One such impact was a severe decline in the influx of Japanese silver into China, which had been traded for Chinese silk and other goods, largely on ships controlled by the Ming loyalists, who relied heavily on this trade to support their resistance against the Qing.[1]
The policy was lifted in 1681, as the defeat of the last of the Ming loyalists on Taiwan proceeded (the last resistance would be finally suppressed in 1683).[2]
References
- Schottenhammer, Angela. "The East Asian maritime world, 1400-1800: Its fabrics of power and dynamics of exchanges - China and her neighbors." in Schottenhammer (ed.) The East Asian maritime world, 1400-1800: Its fabrics of power and dynamics of exchanges. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2007. pp1-83.
- ↑ Marius Jansen, China in the Tokugawa World, Harvard University Press (1992), 28.
- ↑ Tomiyama Kazuyuki, Ryûkyû ôkoku no gaikô to ôken, Yoshikawa Kôbunkan (2004), 81.
