Everything about China Proper totally explained
China proper (also known as
Inner China) refers to the historical lands of
China where the
Han Chinese are the majority
ethnic group, in contrast with other regions that form parts of the former
Chinese empires and the current
People's Republic of China. Territories generally considered to be
outside China proper (also known as
Outer China) include
Xinjiang (
East Turkestan),
Tibet,
Dongbei (Manchuria), and
Inner Mongolia.
Origin of the concept
It isn't clear when the concept of "China proper" in the
Western world was created, although the entity of a China proper dated back to the existence of the
Han Chinese. According to
Harry Harding, it can date back to 1827 (
see Harding 1993). But as early as in 1795,
William Winterbotham adopted this concept in his book (see Winterbotham, 1795, pp.35-37). When describing the Chinese Empire under the
Qing Dynasty, Winterbotham divided it into three parts: China proper, Chinese
Tartary, and the
States Tributary to China. He adopted the opinions of
Du Halde and Grosier and suspected that the name of "China" came from
Qin Dynasty. He then said: "China, properly so called,... comprehends from north to south eighteen degrees; its extent from east to west being somewhat less..."
However, to introduce China proper, Winterbotham still used the outdated 15-province system of the Ming Dynasty, which the Qing Dynasty used until 1662. Although
Ming Dynasty also had 15 basic local divisions, Winterbotham uses the name of Kiang-nan (江南, Jiāngnán) province, which had been called Nan-Zhili (南直隶, Nán-Zhílì) in Ming Dynasty and was renamed to Kiang-nan (for example, Jiangnan) in 1645, the second year after
Manchu overthrew the
Ming Dynasty. This 15-province system was gradually replaced by the 18-province system between 1662 to 1667. Use of 15-province system and the name of Kiang-nan Province indicates that the concept of China Proper probably had appeared between 1645 and 1662.
The concept of "China proper" also appeared before this 1795 book. It can be found in
The Gentleman's Magazine, published in 1790, and
The Monthly Review, published in 1749.
In the nineteenth century, the term "China proper" was sometimes used by Chinese officials when they were communicating in foreign languages. For instance, the Qing ambassador to Britain
Zeng Jize used it in an English language article, which he published in 1887.
Controversy
Today, China proper is a controversial concept in China itself, since the current official paradigm doesn't contrast the core and the periphery of China. There is no single widely used term corresponding to it in the
Chinese language.
In the People's Republic of China, the official policy is that territories such as
Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet are an integral part of China. The concept of China proper is avoided since it may be used to justify
separatism. On the other hand, proponents of
Taiwanese,
Tibetan,
Uyghur, or Inner Mongolian separatism would support such a distinction, as they want to make clear the difference between the concept of "China proper", a culturally-based nation, and "China", a political entity. China proper is regarded as "China", and other regions are regarded as
colonial acquisitions of China rather than a part of China itself.
The term "China proper" is less controversial if interpreted as the historical and
cultural-
anthropological center of the
Chinese people. Generally speaking, the idea of China proper is quite malleable and its definition often changes depending on the context. Territories that are incorporated or ceded can affect the contemporary interpretation of China proper. In this light, the government of the
Republic of China (
Taiwan) has never formally rescinded its claim that the territory now forming
Outer Mongolia, the
Republic of Mongolia, an independent nation, is rightfully a part of China. It also had claims of some other territories that the PRC ceded.
Extent of China proper
There is no fixed extent for China proper, as it's used to express the contrast between the core and frontier regions of China from multiple perspectives: historical, administrative, cultural, and linguistic.
China proper from a historical perspective
One way of thinking about China proper is to refer to ancient
Han Chinese dynasties. Chinese civilization developed from a core region in the
North China Plain, and expanded outwards over several millennia, conquering and assimilating surrounding peoples, or being conquered and influenced in turn. Some dynasties, such as the
Han and
Tang dynasties, were particularly expansionist, extending far into Central Asia, while others, such as the
Jin and
Song dynasties, were forced to relinquish the North China Plain itself to rivals from Northeastern and Central Asia.
The
Ming Dynasty was the last
Han Chinese dynasty and second-last imperial dynasty to rule China. It governed fifteen administrative entities, which included thirteen provinces (
Chinese: 布政使司;
Pinyin: Bùzhèngshǐ Sī) and two "directly-governed" areas. After the Manchu
Qing Dynasty conquered the Ming Dynasty, the Manchus decided to continue to use the Ming administrative system to rule over former Ming lands, without applying it to other domains within the Qing Empire, namely Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. The 15 administrative units of the Ming Dynasty underwent minor reforms to become the
Eighteen Provinces (一十八行省 Pinyin:
Yishiba Xingsheng, or 十八省
Shiba Sheng) of China Proper under the Qing Dynasty. It was these eighteen provinces that early Western sources referred to as China proper.
There are some minor differences between the extent of Ming China and the extent of the eighteen provinces of Qing China: for example, Manchuria was a Ming possession and part of the Ming province of
Shandong; however, the Manchus conquered it before the rest of the Ming Dynasty, and didn't put the region back into the provinces of China proper. On the other hand, Taiwan was a new acquisition of the Qing Empire, and it was put into
Fujian, one of the provinces of China proper. Eastern
Kham in Greater Tibet was added to
Sichuan, while much of what now constitutes northern Burma was added to
Yunnan.
Near the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu court began to feel the acute pressure of foreign expansionism, such as Japanese ambitions upon Manchuria and Taiwan and Russian ambitions upon the entire northern frontier. As a result, there was an effort to extend the province system of China proper to the rest of the empire. Taiwan was made into a separate province in
1885; however it was ceded to Japan in 1895. Xinjiang was made into a province in
1884. Manchuria was made into the three provinces of Fengtian, Jilin and Heilongjiang in
1907. There was discussion to do the same in Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Outer Mongolia, but these proposals were not put to practice, and these areas were outside the province system of China Proper when the Qing Dynasty fell in
1912.
The Provinces of the Qing Dynasty were:
Some of the revolutionaries who sought to overthrow Manchu rule desired to establish a state independent of the Manchu Empire within the bounds of the Eighteen Provinces, as evinced by the Eighteen-Star Flag they used; others favoured the replacement of the entire Manchu Empire by a new republic, as evinced by the Five-Striped Flag they used. When the Qing Dynasty fell however, the abdication decree of the Qing Emperor bequeathed the entire Empire to the newborn
Republic of China, and the latter idea was therefore adopted by the new republic as the principle of
Five Races Under One Union, with Five Races referring to the Han Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Muslims (Uyghurs etc.) and Tibetans. The Five-Striped Flag was adopted as the national flag, and the Republic of China viewed itself as a single state encompassing all five regions handed down by the Qing Dynasty. The People's Republic of China, which was founded in
1949 and replaced the Republic of China on the mainland, has continued to claim essentially the same borders, with the only major exception being the recognition of independent
Mongolia. As a result, the concept of China Proper fell out of favour in China.
The Eighteen Provinces of the Qing Dynasty still exist, but their boundaries have changed.
Beijing and
Tianjin were eventually split from Hebei (renamed from Zhili),
Shanghai from Jiangsu,
Chongqing from
Sichuan,
Ningxia autonomous region from
Gansu, and
Hainan from Guangdong. Guangxi is now an
autonomous region. The provinces that the late Qing Dynasty set up have also been kept:
Xinjiang became an autonomous region under the People's Republic of China, while the three provinces of Manchuria now have somewhat different borders, with Fengtian renamed as Liaoning.
When the Qing Dynasty fell, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia were outside the administrative structure of China Proper, and it's possible to argue that after the fall of the Empire, Tibet and Outer Mongolia exited the
de facto borders of China altogether. (See
Mongolia and
Tibet for more information.) The subsequent PRC and ROC governments have sought to eliminate this separation in order to consolidate their territory. The Republic of China reorganized Inner Mongolia into provinces like those of China Proper, then the People's Republic of China joined them into a single autonomous region. Amdo and northern Kham in Greater Tibet was reorganized into Qinghai province by the Republic of China, an arrangement the People's Republic of China hasn't changed. Finally, U-Tsang and eastern Kham in Greater Tibet, governed by the Dalai Lama throughout the ROC period, was reconstituted by the PRC as
Tibet Autonomous Region in 1965 after the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959. Outer Mongolia, on the other hand, became independent with the aid of the Soviet Union, a change that the PRC recognized at its founding due to Mongolia's status as a fellow Soviet bloc member.
China proper from an ethnic perspective
China proper is often associated with the
Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group of China. Indeed Han Chinese originated from China proper, and for most of the Qing Dynasty were discouraged or barred from emigrating into the other parts of the Empire. China proper is also associated with the extent of the
Chinese language(s), an important unifying element of the Han Chinese ethnicity.
However, Han Chinese areas today don't correspond well to the Eighteen Provinces of the Qing Dynasty. Much of southwestern China, such as areas in the provinces of
Yunnan,
Guangxi, and
Guizhou, was part of successive Han Chinese dynasties, including the Ming Dynasty and the Eighteen Provinces of the Qing Dynasty. However, these areas were and continue to be populated by various non-
Han Chinese minority groups, such as the
Zhuang, the
Miao, and the
Bouyei. Conversely, Han Chinese are the majority in most of Manchuria, much of Inner Mongolia, many areas in Xinjiang and scattered parts of Tibet, not least due to the expansion of Han Chinese settlement encouraged by the late Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China.
Ethnic
Han Chinese isn't synonymous with speakers of the
Chinese language. Many non-Han Chinese ethnicities, such as the
Hui and
Manchu, are essentially monolingual in Chinese, but don't identify as Han Chinese. The Chinese language itself is also a complex entity, and should be described as a family of related languages rather than a single language if the criterion of
mutual intelligibility is used to classify its subdivisions.
Notably, 98% of
Taiwan's population is Han Chinese, but the inclusion of Taiwan in China, let alone China proper, is itself a controversial subject. This is due to the
Chinese Civil War, which resulted in two separate governments governing mainland China and Taiwan since 1949. See
Political status of Taiwan for more on the dispute over Taiwan's status.
Further Information
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