The Pragmatic Way: Managing the Streets in Qing Beijing

Abstract

Drawing upon scholarship from the study of space, social history, and urban history, this article examines the institutional development of street management in Beijing during Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Based on archival sources and private writings about Qing Beijing, this article argues that while the Qing state prescribed a segregated spatial order onto its capital city of Beijing, the practices on the streets were ultimately determined by the constant battle between stagnation and flow. In maintaining the living environment of its imperial capital, Beijing, the Qing state recognized different needs, physically, financially, politically, and administratively, of different people residing and operating in the same urban space. Anchored on an urban history of street management, this article further connects the street concerns to more significant issues about managing the space in the empire and the implications of different priorities for the empire.