Punishment, frontier, and ethnicity in the making of the Qing Empire (1636-1912)

This dissertation explores the dynamic between Qing empire-building and the transportation of convicts from the Qing heartlands to its Inner-Asian frontiers—one of the world’s largest and most complex networks of penal transportation by the early nineteenth century. I have charted the rise of a new penal regime engaged in categorizing, exploiting, and “rehabilitating” convicts, which grew out of Qing colonial practices in Northern Manchuria, Western Mongolia, and Xinjiang. I argue that convict transportation was a tool of the Qing empire that served both colonial and ideological ends. Under the convict labor regime in colonial frontiers, practices which were otherwise not seen in China Proper emerged, including the expansion of slavery and tattooing, the exploitation of convict labor, the settlement of former convicts among others. Ideologically, the differential treatments in convict transportation between the Manchus and the Han helped to further solidify the ascribed differences between them. This project contributes to a deep understanding of the contradictions within the early modern state: on the one hand, the formation of large territorial states led to the ascension of state power, administrative centralization, and pursuit for consistency; on the other hand, the imperial and colonial state used laws and punishment to mark differences across peoples and space. Drawing upon Qing official archives in both Chinese and Manchu, this project contributes to the conversation on colonialism and imperialism in scholarship on the Qing empire and other imperial formations. First, Qing colonial rules in Inner-Asian frontiers shaped the administration of justice at the center, altering the fates of hundreds of thousands ordinary convicts to face uncertain lives in distant penal colonies. Second, the exploitation of convict labor and inferior legal treatment of banished convicts were integral to Qing rule in colonial frontiers (Manchuria and Xinjiang) and the Qing imperial legal order. Lastly, the imperial state applied convict transportation to discipline a growing population of Eight Banners, aiming to address the rising misconduct within this community; however, banner convicts were not subject to the same convict labor regime as their Han Chinese counterparts.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Xiao

Contributors dc:contributor

• Chow, Kai-Wing
• Wilson, Roderick Ike
• Rabin, Dana
• Shao, Dan

• Qing Empire
• Manchu
• Early Modern State
• Punishment
• Law
• Empire Studies
• Ethnicity

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Xiao CHEN

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124688

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124688