From Great Green Walls to deadly mires: wetlands as military environments and ecosystems in Chinese history

Abstract

Chinese wetlands and marshes (Open image in new window ze, Open image in new window ju, Open image in new window pei) were not simply wastelands, but have served a variety of purposes, including leading roles in military literature and militarized landscapes. This paper, which focuses on classic Chinese military literature, the Zoige wetlands of Sichuan, and the Sanjiang wetlands of Heilongjiang, examines wetlands in the context of regional warfare, especially smaller-scale conflicts prior to the 1960s. The examples, the clashes and the contexts of armies in Chinese wetlands in classic literature, the northeast, and west serve to highlight the various roles and legacies that wetlands as militarized landscapes can serve in Chinese military literature. Rather than viewing these smaller scale conflicts and their wetlands as wastelands and strategic dead-zones, this paper seeks to highlight both the short-term impact of military conflict and the longer-term roles in military and historical literature, especially the nature of the wetland ecosystems and topography in military actions. The wetlands themselves proved very resilient in the face of war and conflict, and were used and perceived in a ways beyond actual conflict, especially in the realm of propaganda and militarized language. They even continued to serve in military fashion in Mao’s more politicized “war against nature”. Wetlands and marshes thus served as both literary and tactical characters in a long process of militarizing China’s landscape, and have been continued to be repurposed in this fashion in creative ways. By analyzing the impact of wetlands and marshes and this repurposing, this study begins to outline how wetlands and marsh ecosystems served as an ever-present, large and small-scale boon and bane to military and state activities. In short, this essay outlines an introduction to an ecosystem and militarized landscape history of one of China’s least studied physical environments.