Contenu du sommaire : Desseins de frontières

Chinese Borders: some Keyword Examination of the various sources from the oldest works to the most recent shows that, if the notion of border can be translated by different characters (simple or composite) and expressions, a certain number of them refer immediately to the border or its attributes. This lexicon is organized around the basic terms referring to the concept of borders or to their uses in the administration of the confines of the Empire.

Territorial Planning and the Notion of Border in Ancient Times The ancient texts show the link between the archaic foundation of the social order and marks, lines, and boundaries drawing and fixing the outline of a social sphere organized and subject to a single authority. In this article, the author emphasizes the importance of the notion of border in Chinese political tradition in ancient times, the terminology of which is already to be found in Shang oracular inscriptions and Western Zhou bronzes. Ancient territorial units were organized around two devices : the Altar of the Earth in the center and the borders at the margins of the territory. The Altar of the Earth of a locality is the emblem of a horizontal relation that links the community with the great square of the nine provinces and of a vertical relation which places it under the authority of the State, illustrated by the Taiyi talisman found in Mawangdui. As for the territory of the unified Empire, its borders were most likely marked by visible signs, even on the southern border which did not require as considerable an organization as the one set up in the North.

Military Personnel and Bureaucrats on the Gansu-Qinghai Border in the Late XIth century Based on several studies dealing with the policy of assimilation of the North-Western tribesmen implemented by Wang Anshi (1021-1086), this essay focuses, beyond the sole event of the reforms on the impact of this policy upon the bureaucratic organization. The pioneering front stirred rivalries between various cliques within the court, which viewed it as a special space, the management of which could provide opportunities for political restructuring at the central level. Hence, management of the frontier played a direct role in the bureaucratic alliances at the highest levels of government, and reshaped the overall orientations of the dynasty.

On Possible Uses of a Frontier : The Case of Xinjiang (XIXth - XXth centuries) From a land of adventure, trade and transhumance, the area between Oriental Turkestan and the rest of Central Asia transformed into a political frontier over the course of the XVIIIth century. As a buffer zone between the Russian and Chinese empires, this border has always been porous. Local populations knew how to avail of this frontier, where many a time they took refuge from their respective States. To the eyes of the Turkish and Chinese populations of this area now called « Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region », the « historical border » with China is still embodied in the ancient pass of the Great Wall. Xinjiang is a space where it is difficult to forge a common identity. However, with time, repression, discrimination, economic distortion and migrations, the feeling of belonging to this specific entity is emerging at the turn of the 21th century. been porous. Local populations knew how to avail of this frontier, where many a time they took refuge from their respective States. To the eyes of the Turkish and Chinese populations of this area now called « Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region », the « historical border » with China is still embodied in the ancient pass of the Great Wall. Xinjiang is a space where it is difficult to forge a common identity. However, with time, repression, discrimination, economic distortion and migrations, the feeling of belonging to this specific entity is emerging at the turn of the 21st century.

Toward a New Definition of the Sino-Tibetan Border: the Simla Conference (1913- 1914) and the Xikang Province Project This article analyses the process leading from an attempt to draw a border to the recognition of a « border zone » between China and Tibet at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tibet, located between the British and Russian spheres of influence in Asia, was highly coveted, and thus the need to define Tibetan territory borders became urgent. The failure of the Simla Conference in 1913-1914 and the gradual establishment of the Chinese province of Xikang over Tibetan territory demonstrate how China was able to control a 'border zone' in order to protect its center from two powerful neighbours.

China and the Korean Peninsula : a Suspended Border ? Traced along the course of the Yalu and Tumen Rivers at the end of the XIVth century, the border between China and Korea was later to become a cause of dispute from the early XVIIIth to the XXth century. In spite of any number of negotiations, the two sides never achieved a complete definition of the border. This was not implemented until the second phase of negotiations which resulted in a border treaty signed some ten years after the end of the Korean War between China and North Korea. This treaty kept secret for several decades gave a substantial advantage to North Korea. Nevertheless, since it did not include South Korea in the negotiation process, the border between China and the Korean peninsula still remains to some extent an unresolved issue. There is indeed no doubt but that any reunification of the two Koreas advantageous to South Korea will place the issue of the border on the political agenda, at the very least with the objective of finally defining a clear-cut position. A certain number of historical disagreements over the past few years between China and South Korea also highlights a potential source of tension in the near future.

Border Splinters The number of countries bordering on a nation as large as China is considerable. The many ways of examining these borders, be it through geography, history, anthropology, linguistics, economy or law, would entail an enormous investment of work. Each of these fields would have to be investigated on varying scales of effort. For instance, the subject of proper names alone would deserve a long systematic study. The possible approaches - from study of object to that of processes - are nearly infinite. However, comparison enables us to escape from the limits of systems and syntheses, to have disorder prevail over order, to gather fragments, to favour splinters. The vision outlined in the following pages involves granting a large place to gratuitous similarities, to chance occurrences that may spring forth from a detail, a notion, a word proposed by the contributions dealing with Chinese borders. We shall survey a series of varied examples in space - France and Italy in the Ancien Regime, Algeria and Morocco in the late XIXth and early XXth centuries - that enable us to address the question of the lexical field regarding borders and limits, also the question of the structure and consistency of a territory, of the processes involved in the frontier adventure (border and administration, occupation and conquest, hero models), and last the question of proper names, be they referring to parts of the country or hydronyms . The article is rounded off by a presentation of the relations between borders and capitals - in China and in France - based on texts by Jules Verne and Montesquieu.