A Political Ecology of the Qin Empire
Colloquium | September 28 | 4-6 p.m. | 180 Doe Library
<http://www.berkeley.edu/map/googlemap/?doe>
Featured Speaker: Brian Lander, Ziff Environmental Fellow 2015-2017,
Harvard University Center for the Environment
Panelist/Discussant: Mark Csikszentmihalyi, East Asian Languages and
Cultures, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) <http://ieas.berkeley.edu/ccs/>
The state-strengthening reforms of the Warring States period (481-221 BCE)
gave the Qin government direct control over the exploitation of land and
labor, allowing it for the first time to affect the ecology of large
regions. This paper uses newly excavated administrative documents to
analyze the Qin state during the reign of the first emperor (246-210 BCE)
in order to understand the ecological consequences of this new political
system. Qin reorganized the agrarian landscape into standardized plots,
established state management of forests and wetlands, and encouraged both
the expansion and the intensification of agriculture. In addition to
funding large-scale wars and imperial vanity projects like the terracotta
army, it employed the surplus food and labor of the population to build
roads, canals and dikes. Although Qin’s sudden collapse revealed the flaws
in its system, its centralized bureaucratic model of governance has
survived for over two millennia, playing a central role in the almost
complete replacement of China’s natural ecosystems with anthropogenic ones.
Part of the Environmental China series.
Event Contact: ccs@xxxxxxxxxxxx, 510-643-6321
