ABSTRACT
Prior to the establishment of the present dynasty in China the inhabitants of Manchuria were, as stated in the last chapter, warriors, fishermen and hunters, who devoted but little attention to the cultivation of the soil. They were content to produce enough to supply their own immediate wants, and to graze their flocks and herds on the succulent grasses of the steppes. More especially was this the case in the two northern provinces, for during the Ming dynasty (1868-1643) the greater part of the southern province of Feng-t’ien was already under Chinese jurisdiction, and, under the name of Liao-chou-wei, constituted a Chinese possession, which was marked off from the Tartar tribes to the north and east by a palisade, whose position to the north of ITai-yüan and east of Hsing-king and Fêng-huang-ch’êng may still be found traced on modern maps, although it has now all but disappeared. In the seventeenth century, therefore, Southern Manchuria was on the same footing, in regard to cultivation, as China Proper, and since the accession of the Manchu dynasty Chinese colonists have pushed northwards and settled on the fine rich loam, so admirably suited to purposes of tillage, where they have been amply rewarded for their enterprise and labour. Emigration to the far north has been systematically discouraged by the Government, for fear, it is supposed, of trouble with the Colossus of the North, and much of the east of Kirin and Fêng-tten was reserved as an Imperial hunting ground; but of late these restrictions 173and reservations have been relaxed, with the result that even Hei-lung-chiang is gradually being reclaimed, while the Imperial hunting ground is, by permission of the Throne, fast becoming a busy centre of agricultural life.
