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Tuntian (屯田) or tunken (屯墾) was a form of frontier "military-agricultural colonies" or settler colony in the history of China. Troops were sent to takeover strategic under- or uncultivated land and convert them into self-sustained, agrarian colony. In other words, the soldiers doubled as farmers. The system was also adopted by other regimes throughout the Chinese cultural sphere.

Han dynasty

The tuntian (literally "garrisoning (on) farms") system evolved during the victorious campaign of 61–60 BC by Zhao Chongguo against the Qiang people.

While the tuntian system was made famous by Cao Cao's administration (c. 196–220 CE), Cao Cao's writings show that the system had been instituted as early as the Western Han dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu (r.  141–87 BCE), where soldiers on distant expeditions were set to work converting and farming the conquered land, both to provide food for the army and to convert the conquered land into agricultural land. After the death of Emperor Wu, however, the system was only used sporadically and therefore less effectively.

The final years of the Eastern Han dynasty (c. 189–220 CE) witnessed great economic disruption and widespread devastation, particularly through the Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184 CE; agricultural production in particular was severely disrupted, and population movements from war-ravaged areas led to massive flows of refugees. It was under these circumstances that Cao Cao's use of the tuntian system made its impact on the economic revival of China after the damage suffered previously.

Method

The mechanism of the 'civilian tuntian' system as implemented by Cao Cao had its basis in government organisation, encouragement and, to some extent, coercion. Peasants without land, refugees and soldiers were assigned to plots of land which they were to farm, while the implements required (such as ploughs and oxen) were provided by the government at a low price. In exchange for this, the peasant was to give over half of his harvest to the government.

The tuntian system had its origins in the military, and for much of the Han dynasty the land in question was farmed by soldiers on orders of the military authorities; in this case all of the crop harvested was to be kept by the military for supply uses, following the example set by Emperor Wu. Cao Cao's innovation was the introduction of the 'civilian tuntian' on a large scale both for common people and for soldiers during peacetime, whereby he successfully solved two great economic problems facing his administration: the large number of unemployed refugees, and the great tracts of land abandoned by big proprietors in the preceding chaos.

Impact

The tuntian system was to have far-reaching effects, both for Cao Cao himself and for the overall economy of China. Once the scheme had proven successful initially, Cao Cao wasted no time in extending the scheme to all areas under his control; as a result the positive effects of this organised farming was soon felt all over northern China, which he reunified.

In the short-term, meanwhile, the tuntian system was also instrumental to the success of Cao Cao's campaigns, many of which were long-range offensives across the plains of northern China; with a massive and efficient agriculture to support his army, he was able to sustain these offensives and gain victory. Overall, the tuntian system, along with the repair of irrigation works, were among the foremost contributions of Cao Cao to the economy of the Han dynasty, and contributed to the enduring strength of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period.

Ming dynasty

The tuntian in Ming dynasty had two variants, known as tunpu (屯堡) and weisuo (衛所制).

Qing dynasty

Tuntian was widely practiced to fight the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877).

People's Republic of China

The sites of tuntian were known as tuanchang (团场, literally "Regiment farms"), bingtuan (兵团) or kenqü (垦区) in the PRC. From 1953 as of reforms in 1981, tuanchang, like its predecessors in Qing dynasty, could be characterized as military-agricultural colonies. After the Korean War in 1953, tuanchang were established and resided by demobilized soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and their family, who formed the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC).

A series of tuanchang were created along the border after the Yi–Ta incident in 1962, which 61,313 Chinese Kazakhs at the Chinese border defected to Soviet Union in the backdrop of Sino-Soviet split. These border tuanchang are known as frontier farms (边疆农场).

Other government-owned agricultural developments in the PRC not under the jurisdiction of XPCC were generally known as nóngkěn (农垦), under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Nongken [zh] (1956–1970, 1979–1982).

Natural and manmade hazards

Locations of bingtuan are strategic but often face life-threatening natural and manmade hazards, including floods, and fire.

The deadliest and costliest flood affecting bingtuan was the July 1996 North Xinjiang floods, which led to several poorly designed Great Leap Forward-era dams, managed by bingtuan and civilian, collapsed or manually breached. The deadliest fire in PRC history was at a bingtuan site, the Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire at 1977 Chinese New Year. The fire killed 37% (597/1600) of all school-aged children at the farm and destroyed the demographic structure.

Elsewhere

The term tuntian was adopted by other regimes in the Sinosphere, forming their own readings, some of which are Sino-Xenic.

Taiwan

The Han-led Kingdom of Tungning practiced a variant of the Ming-era tuntian system. The system was established by Koxinga immediately after landing in 1661 to supply his troops. Many places in southwest Taiwan retain their tuntian names.

Vietnam

The Sino-Vietnamese reading is đồn điền in Vietnamese. During the Nam tiến (March to the South), Khmer and Cham territory was seized and militarily colonised by the Vietnamese. The Nguyen Lords established đồn điền after 1790.

The South Vietnamese and Communist Vietnamese colonisation of the Central Highlands have been compared to the historic Nam tiến of previous Vietnamese rulers. The South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem sponsored colonisation of Northern Vietnamese Catholic refugees on Montagnard land. The now Communist Vietnamese government introduced to the Central Highlands of "New Economic Zones".

Japan

Tuntian is pronounced tonden as a Sino-Japanese word. It was most notably practiced during the Meiji Restoration in frontier Hokkaido under the name tondenhei ("tonden-soldiers").

Korea

The Sino-Korean reading of tuntian is dunjeon (or tunjŏn in the North Korean Romanization). Dunjeon was a core part of the Korean military supply and was notable in the following instances:

• During the Qing invasion of Joseon, at Namhansanseong. This system supported a population of 25,000, 10,000 of which were combatants.
• During the Imjin War, under Yi Sun-sin. He managed dunjeon both as part of his repeated demotion (due to court politics) and on his naval base of Hansando.

Place names

Places with a history of tuntian cultivation may be named after the practice.

• Tonden, Kita-ku, Sapporo [ja], Japan
• Higashi-Tondendori Station [ja], Chūō-ku, Sapporo, Japan
• Dunjeon station, Yongin, South Korea
• Tunjon station, South Hamgyong Province, North Korea

The following areas contain place names derived from a systematic tuntian designation:

• Various place names in Taiwan, under Koxinga's rule, commonly ending with 營 or 庄.
• Various place names in China, especially Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Heilongjiang.

See also

• Agriculture in China
• Economic history of China
• Theme (Byzantine district)

References

1. ^ Cliff, Thomas (2009). "Neo Oasis: The Xinjiang Bingtuan in the Twenty-first Century" (PDF). Asian Studies Review. 33: 84-87. a case study on the bingtuan showcase city of Shihezi. No other administrative area of the bingtuan represents so clearly the distinction between military-agricultural colonies prior to the Reform era and the ideal form of frontier settlement in the twenty-first century
2. ^ Moseley, George (1966). A Sino-Soviet Cultural Frontier: The Ili Kazakh Autonomous Chou (Harvard East Asian Monographs (PDF). East Asian Research Center. p. 8. strikingly similar to that of the Manchus for, as we shall see, its key element was agricultural colonization, with this difference, that now the colonists were mainly Han Chinese.
3. Kim, Kwangmin (2016). Borderland capitalism: Turkestan produce, Qing silver, and the birth of an eastern market. Stanford University Press. p. 127, 149. The agrarian colonies were state farms that the Qing local administration operated using the combined labor of Chinese soldiers, civilian migrants, as well as convicts. Since its conquest in the 1750s, the Qing state had been utilizing on a large scale the tuntian in the northern part of Xinjiang (p.127)... Chinese agrarian colonists may well have seen the privilege to own and occupy this kind of coveted land as rightfully theirs.(p.149)
4. Cai, Yuan (2012). "The Chinese Legionaries at the Western Frontier: The Military Role of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, 1960-1975". Journal of Chinese Military History. 1 (1): 64. doi:10.1163/221274512X651651. a permanent military settlement society capable of sustaining itself. Initially, the settled soldiers formed the backbone of the settlement colonies
5. L. Dreyer, Edward (2008). "Zhao Chongguo: A Professional Soldier of China's Former Han Dynasty". The Journal of Military History. Society for Military History. 72 (3): 665–725. doi:10.1353/jmh.0.0028. ISSN 1543-7795. S2CID 159687819. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
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23. Ivings, Steven (7 May 2020). "Settling the Frontier, Defending the North: "Farmer-Soldiers" in Hokkaido's Colonial Development and National Reconciliation". The Meiji Restoration. pp. 191–211. doi:10.1017/9781108775762.010. S2CID 218799685.
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Bibliography

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• Chen, Shou. Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi).
• Pei, Songzhi. Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi zhu).
• Sima, Guang. Zizhi Tongjian.

• History of agriculture in China
• Han dynasty
• Veterans' settlement schemes