地理认知与边界划定:清末滇缅边界变迁研究

清末滇缅划界谈判是近代中缅边界变迁和发展的一个重要阶段。本文借助外交档案和条约舆图等资料,对中英谈判涉及的滇缅边界划定和变迁过程作细致复原。光绪年间《中英续议滇缅界务商务条约》和《中缅条约附款及专条》的签订基本划定了滇缅中段的边界线。中英对“分水岭”地理认知上的矛盾,对尖高山以北段未定界的交涉产生重要影响,结果使中国事实上丧失了对尖高山以北、扒拉大山—高良共山以西小江流域的领土主权。在南段未定界,双方对边界会勘依据有诸多分歧,难以取得共识。清末中英关于滇缅边界问题的谈判结果,基本塑造了当今中缅边界的走向,对其后民国时期与20世纪60年代中缅两国的边界谈判和最终划定产生了重要影响。

Studies on the Changes of the Yunnan-Burma Border in the Late Qing Dynasty

Negotiations over the demarcation of the Yunnan-Burma border in the late Qing Dynasty was an important stage of China-Burma border changes in modern times. With the help of diplomatic archives, treaties and maps, this paper makes a detailed restoration of the process of delimitation of the Yunnan-Burma border in the Sino-British negotiations. The signing of Convention Giving Effect to Article Ⅲ of the Convention Relative to Burma and Thibet between China and Great Britain and Agreement Modifying the Burma-China Frontier and Trade Convention between China and Great Britain during the reign of Guangxu basically delineated the middle section of Yunnan-Burma border. The contradiction in the geographical cognition of the “watershed” between China and Britain had an important impact on the negotiation of the undefined boundary in the north of Jiangao Mountain. As a result, China had actually lost the territorial sovereignty of Xiaojiang River Basin north of the Jiangao Mountain and west of Balada-Gaolianggong Mountains. In the southern section of the undefined boundary, China and Britain have many disagreements over the basis of the boundary survey, and it was difficult to reach a consensus. The results of the Sino-British negotiations over the Yunnan-Burma border in the late Qing Dynasty basically shaped the course of the Sino-Myanmar border, and had an important impact on the border negotiations and final delineation between China and Myanmar in the Republic of China period and the 1960s.