Abstract: The mining and smelting of copper mines in Yunnan during the Qing Dynasty was the largest and most influential single development activity in the history of the southwestern border, and a large number of mining documents were also preserved. Through these documents, the process of copper mining and metallurgy being a refined division of labor and strict management based on large-scale artificial aggregation, combined with a large amount of knowledge, technology, and various material resources can be found. If the key driving force behind the origin of civilization and nation is the deepening and expansion of social division of labor, then at the eve of the birth of civilization, only copper mining and metallurgy can provide sufficient depth and scale of social division of labor. During the Qing Dynasty, most of the copper mining areas in Yunnan were still under the rule of chieftains who had a backward civilization. Through more than a hundred years of prosperous copper mining development, the areas large copper factories located have all leaped into civilized areas on par with the mainland.From this perspective, a more detailed and vivid explanation can be obtained as to why the Bronze Age was generally synchronized with the origins of civilization and nations.

Key words: Qing Dynasty, Yunnan copper factory, labor scale, organizational division of labor civilization and the origin of nations