Editing Zhejiang (section)

===Qing era===
[[File:Dayu Bay - Shitang Cun - P1210531.JPG|thumb|left|A restored Qing era (1891) bridge on a coastal road]]
Under the late Ming dynasty and the [[Qing dynasty]] that followed it, Zhejiang's ports were important centers of international trade.

"In 1727 the to-min or 'idle people' of Cheh Kiang province (a [[Ningbo|Ningpo]] name still existing), the yoh-hu or 'music people' of [[Shanxi|Shanxi province]], the si-min or 'small people' of Kiang Su (Jiangsu) province and the [[Tanka people]] or 'egg-people' of [[Guangdong|Canton]] (to this day the boat population there), were all freed from their social disabilities and allowed to count as free men."<ref>{{cite book|quote=the lot of both Manchu and Chinese bondsmen. In 1727 the to-min or "idle people " of Cheh Kiang province (a Ningpo name still existing), the yoh-hu or " music people " of Shan Si province, the si-min or "small people " of Kiang Su province, and the tan-ka or "egg-people" of Canton (to this day the boat population there), were all freed from their social disabilities, and allowed to count as free men. So far as my own observations go, after residing for a quarter of a century in half the provinces of China, north, south, east, and west, I should be inclined to describe slavery in China as totally invisible to the naked eye; personal liberty is absolute where feebleness or ignorance do not expose the subject to the rapacity of mandarins, relatives, or speculators. Even savages and foreigners are welcomed as equals, so long as they conform unreservedly to Chinese custom. On the other hand, the oldfashioned social disabilities of policemen, barbers, and playactors still exist in the eyes of the law, though any idea of caste is totally absent therefrom, and "unofficially" these individuals are as good as any other free men. Having now taken a cursory view of Chinese slavery from its historical aspect, let us see what it is in practice. Though the penal code forbids and annuls the sale into slavery of free persons, even by a husband, father, or grandfather, yet the number of free persons who are sold or sell themselves to escape starvation and misery is considerable. It is nominally a punishable offence to keep a free man or lost child as a slave; also for parents to sell their children without the consent of the latter, or to drown their girls; but in practice the law is in both cases ignored, and scarcely ever enforced; ''a fortiori'' the minor offence of selling children, even with their consent. Indeed, sales of girls for secondary wives is of daily occurrence, and, as we have seen, the Emperors Yung-cheng and K'ien-lung explicitly recognized the right of parents to sell children in times of famine, whilst the missionaries unanimously bear witness to the fact that the public sale of children in the streets—for instance, of Tientsin—was frequently witnessed during recent times of dearth. But slave markets and public sales are unknown in a general way. Occasionally old parents sell their children in order to purchase coffins for themselves. Only a few years ago a governor and a censor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0bkNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA404|title=China, past and present|author=Edward Harper Parker|year=1903|publisher=Chapman and Hall, ld.|location=London|page=404|access-date=2012-02-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603164245/http://books.google.com/books?id=0bkNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA404|archive-date=3 June 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> "Cheh Kiang" is another romanization for Zhejiang. The Duomin ({{lang-zh|s=惰民|hp=duò mín|w=to-min|links=no}}) are a caste of [[Untouchability|outcasts]] in this province.

During the [[First Opium War]], the British navy defeated [[Eight Banners]] forces at [[Ningbo]] and [[Dinghai]]. Under the terms of the [[Treaty of Nanking]], signed in 1843, Ningbo became one of the five Chinese [[treaty ports]] opened to virtually unrestricted foreign trade. Much of Zhejiang came under the control of the [[Taiping Heavenly Kingdom]] during the [[Taiping Rebellion]], which resulted in a considerable loss of life in the north-western and central parts of the province, sparing the rest of Zhejiang from the disastrous depopulation that occurred. In 1876, [[Wenzhou]] became Zhejiang's second treaty port. [[Lower Yangtze Mandarin|Jianghuai Mandarin]] speakers later came to settle in these depopulated regions of northern Zhejiang.