Migration and Land Exploitation from Yuan to Qing Dynasties: Insights from 252 Traditional Villages in Hunan, China

This paper investigates 252 traditional villages in Hunan, China, and uses ArcGIS and Geodetector to analyze village expansion and land exploitation from the Yuan dynasty to the Qing dynasty caused by factors such as migration during China’s middle and late imperial periods. This article demonstrates the development of land by the earlier settlers of ancient Chinese villages and shows the progression from easily exploited flatlands to more difficult-to-exploit mountainous areas. It also shows that early settlers relied more on natural factors when establishing their villages during the Yuan Dynasty but relied more on factors such as transportation due to the migration policies introduced during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This paper will help us to determine the migration dynamics of ethnic groups and the distribution of settlements in the region (Hunan region) during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing eras.