A frontier minority in the Chinese world: The Li people of Hainan Island from the Han through the high Qing.

摘要

This dissertation examines the relationships among the original inhabitants of Hainan Island, immigrants from the mainland who gradually took over its shores, and central states that mediated between the two groups.; Chapter one describes the geographical features of the island, and introduces the indigenous peoples who became known as the Li. Chapter two discusses the ebb and flow of central control over the island from the Han (206 BCE-220 CE) through Yuan (1279-1368). Chapter three focuses on the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when the Han immigrants came into increasingly close relations with the Li, who were forced back into the hills despite determined resistance. While the Ming tended to favor the Han settlers who relieved population pressures on the mainland and opened up uncultivated lands, it also mediated between Han and Li to maintain peace on the frontier.; Chapter four takes up the early Qing period (1644-1700) during which Hainan was afflicted by conflict resulting from general political instability throughout China. After 1700, Hainan, like most of the rest of the polity, entered into a long period of peace and prosperity, the subject of chapter five. Qing reports during this period also mention the growing tensions in Han-Li relations, the subject of chapter six. Hainan attracted new immigrants in the form of "guest merchants" from Fujian and Guangdong whose commercial practices antagonized the Li and led to open conflict in the 1760s.; In the conclusion, I argue that geographical, cultural, political, social and economic realities and trends resulted in the gradual incorporation of the Li people into the Chinese polity without destroying Li culture and a certain degree of political autonomy.