3 Preferential Policies for Uyghurs
5.4 Textbook #3
chapter explains that this “…meant that Emperor Taizong was everybody’s king.”201 There are two more interesting points in this first part of the chapter. Firstly, the title of the chapter is “United as a Family.” This of course suggests that all minority groups are united in the common motherland of China. Secondly, it mentions that the Tang Dynasty set up a protectorate in Xinjiang. Of interest here is the following sentence: The Tang Dynasty “…appointed the Eastern Turkic nobles to manage the area. The people still retained their own habits lifestyle.”202
5.4 Textbook #3:
This has echoes of the current system in the PRC, in which ethnic groups such as the Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongols have their own autonomous regions which nevertheless must remain part of China.
Compulsory Education Course, Standard Experimental Textbooks, Chinese History, Seventh Grade, Volume Two
The first part of this chapter discusses China’s early contact with Tibet. The author will not discuss this part in great length because it is not related to the Uyghurs or Xinjiang. He will only mention that as with chapters on the Uyghurs, these pages depict the Tibetans as great admirers of Chinese culture, and press home the idea of unity and cooperation.
The next part of this excerpt deals with the ancestors of the Uyghurs (referred to
201經全國中小學教材審定委員會 2001 年初審通過 七年級 下冊 義務教育歷史課程標準研製組
p. 26
202經全國中小學教材審定委員會 2001 年初審通過 七年級 下冊 義務教育歷史課程標準研製組
p. 26
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most troubling part of this excerpt is the description of the Uyghurs as “brave and innocent.”203 There is a similar description of Tibetans earlier. The chapter also states that Han Chinese living in this area were greatly influenced by Uyghur culture, even to the point of “…dressing themselves in Huihu clothes.”204Of great interest is the text’s treatment of the Qing’s war against the Zhungars.
Previous texts have discussed this as well, but the author decided to wait until this text to discuss it (this text covers it in much greater detail). The text has this to say about the Uyghurs who fought the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century: “They [those who fought the Qing] robbed from the Uyghur, set fires and killed people wherever they went, causing great resentment.”
This is consistent with academic sources that the author has read, which claim that Han people on the Chinese “frontiers” in the eighth century took on many habits of the locals.
205 The text goes on to say that the Qing dispatched
an army to suppress the “rebellion,” and that the soldiers were given strict orders not to harm innocent people. According to the text, popular support helped the Qing crush the rebels. It claims that locals “…greeted Qing soldiers with food and supplies.”206
203 義務教育課程標準實驗教科書. 中國歷史. 七年級. 下冊. 歷史課程教材研究開發中心. p. 22
At the same time, it claims that local leaders refused to help the rebels,
204 義務教育課程標準實驗教科書. 中國歷史. 七年級. 下冊. 歷史課程教材研究開發中心. p. 23
205 義務教育課程標準實驗教科書. 中國歷史. 七年級. 下冊. 歷史課程教材研究開發中心. p. 101
206 義務教育課程標準實驗教科書. 中國歷史. 七年級. 下冊. 歷史課程教材研究開發中心. p. 101
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國立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
closing town doors to retreating rebel forces.
While the neutrality of all these texts is suspect, this excerpt borders on outright falsehoods. The PRC text depicts the rebels as brutal and unjust, and paints the Qing as liberators who did not harm civilians. To be fair, other texts say that Zhungar actions at this time were provocations against the Qing.207 However, the Qing texts demonize the Zhungars, and gloss over horrific atrocities committed by the Han Chinese. As we have already seen, the PRC texts say that the Qing troops had instructions not to harm civilians. Charles Perdue and James Millward tell us that the Qianlong emperor embarked upon a deliberate campaign of genocide and slavery.208 “[Emperor] Qianlong repeatedly urged reluctant generals to exterminate all the Zhungars except women and children and the elderly, who were to be enslaved to the Manchu…”209
Later in the chapter, there is an interesting quote. It is long, but worth repeating Millward goes on to tell us that through deliberate policies of starvation and smallpox, the Qing effectively wiped out the Zhungars. In light of this, it is incredible that the PRC textbook would depict Qianlong and the Qing as noble and merciful. The author finds this depiction no different from a German denial of the holocaust, a Japanese denial of Nanjing, or an American denial of slavery.
207 Millward, 2007, p. 91
208 Millward, 2007, p. 95
209 Millward, 2007, p. 95
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At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the territory extended westward to the Pamir Mountains, northwestward to the Lake Balkhash, northward to Siberia, northeastward to the Outer Xing’an Mountains and Kahhakin, eastward to the Pacific Ocean, southeastward to the Taiwan Islands, Senkaku Islands (Diaoyutai Islands), and Chiwei Islands, and southward to the islands around the South China Sea.210
One needs only consider the PRC’s current territorial disputes to understand the significance of that paragraph.