After the entry of the Qing troops into the Pass of Shanhaiguan, they flocked to enclose the fields of the Han people and confiscated the homesteads of the Ming royal families and the merited royal relatives, hence the name of enclosing the fields. As the folksay put it, it was to take up the appropriation of the land by riding a horse at one sitting. This enclosure came to an end gradually in 1669 AD (the eighth year of the reign of Kangxi). The fields pocketed in this way, which were referred to as "the fields belonging to the banners", fell under three categories according to their different status: the royal manor, the vassal manor and the banner's manor. They all were still of the feudal system of tenancy, though the ownership of the land had been transferred.
Along with the development of the social economy, the merchandising of the Banner's lands came forth. At the very beginning, the government did not permit frimly but later found it gradually out of control and had to shift its ground and permitted it to come to the market in the same banner. Then the government also prescribed that the Han people be allowed to purchase the land only in the name of a man belonging to a banner. As a result, the merchandising of the banner's lands thrived.
The agrarian production in the neighborhood of the capital gave priority to the paddy. So excellent the quality of the paddy harvested in the west of the capital that as early as the first years of the Qing Dynasty they were capable of being the selected rice provided specially for the royal cooking. The reasons for the good quality of the rice were the clear and sweet irrigation water from the River of Yuquanshan. The rice was of excellent quality, being plump in the grain and rich in the protein content. In addition to the paddy, in the fields of the nearby-capital area, corns, kaoliang, wheat and other crops were planted. The majority of the best fields on the outskirts of the capital as the royal manors were teemed with the plants such as the vegetables, fruit and melons, cotton, flowers and dye plants, etc. The Beijing people had the habit of planting and loving flowers and thus promoted the enterprise of flower-planting. At the same time, the occupation of flower-selling began to flourish. In the middle years of the Qing Dynasty the flower market in the street of Xiaxie was extremely prosperous and did not decline gradually until the last years of the Qing Dynasty. |
