“沧海桑田”:近代长江中游的沙洲变迁与滩地开垦

Environmental Changes and Land Reclamation in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River from Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China

长江水道是一个开放、动态的自然系统,既有水土流失、江水泛滥、沙洲涨等自然变迁,也有人类为了在滨水低地进行土地开垦而进行的大量人为改造。江心洲属于典型的滨水低地,系长江中上游来水带之泥沙遇阻减速淤积而成的土地,必仰赖于堤坝的捍卫。堤坝作为低地社会至关重要的水利设施,实际上是国家干预与地方社会自组织治理相结合的产物。滨水人群对生态环境的适应和改造,则主要围绕洲地的涨、开垦与治水展开,呈现“人与自然”动态制衡的演进过程。晚清以来,张家洲北汉逐渐发育为弯弓型河道,北岸受水流冲刷加速崩塌,南岸则逐渐淤积出水,形成“北崩南淤”的态势。原来居住长江北岸的各姓居民先后奔赴南岸垦荒,致使新淤洲地争垦纠纷不断。各群体通过组织超越村落和家族的垦团,并积极利用垦荒条例或土地法规来实现各自的占垦诉求。这表明,近代国家及其制度建设在新淤洲地的“确权”过程中扮演了比过去更为重要的角色。

The Yangtze River Basin has been an open and dynamic natural system.There are not only natural changes such as river flooding and sandbar rising and collapse,but also a large number of transformations stemmed from human activities.Sandbar in the river is a typical waterfront lowland.It is the land where the sediment carried by the inflow water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River meets the resistance and slows down and accumulates.It is more exposed to erosion than other types of land.The construction and maintenance of dams,key water conservancy events in the lowland society,was actualized thanks both to state intervention and autonomous governance of the local society.The adaptation of waterfront people to the ecological environment around them was manifested in the rise and collapse of sandbars,land reclamation and water control efforts.Since the late Qing Dynasty,the northern branch of the Yangtze River has gradually developed into a bow-shaped channel.Residents who originally lived on the north bank of the Yangtze River went to the south bank to reclaim wasteland in droves,resulting in constant disputes over the newly reclaimed land.In the past,local people generally resorted to family power or invoked the principles of"neighbor priority","first possession"and"tax registration"to resolve land disputes among them.When it came to disputes over the land on sandbars,however,various groups preferred to resort to relevant land reclamation regulations or land regulations to bolster their claims for land occupation.This phenomenon shows that the modern state and its institutions have played a more important role than in the past in the transformation of the new silt land from"ownerless"to"ownership".