A Social, Economic and Cultural Review on the Pilferage and Illegal Felling of Forest Trees in Huizhou during Ming and Qing Dynasties

In recent years large numbers of studies involving Huizhou's forest have been conducted both at home and abroad, most of which focus on forest management,forest protection, and measures taken by the local government. However, very few researches deal with the phenomenon and reasons of the pilferage and illegal felling of trees in Huizhou. Huizhou is selected as the research object due to several reasons. It is a typical region where there are many mountains but few lands, thus there exist obvious conflicts between people and land. Besides, this place is favorably endowed with abundant historical resources. This paper systematically analyzes the phenomenon and reasons of the pilferage and illegal felling of trees in Huizhou during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and points out that this phenomenon is related not only to the background of the sharp increase of population, but also to the more frequent population mobility. What's more, under the macroscopic background of Huizhou's folk custom to pursue profits in Ming and Qing period, Huizhou people's greed for small gains, the infestation of villains, and other factors also aggravated this phenomenon. In the end, it is suggested that these historical lessons can be efficiently utilized in modern forest resources m