Pacifying the Barbarians: The Structure and Evolution of Ming China's Northwestern Frontier

Abstract

This dissertation studies the structure of the Ming’s northwestern frontier during the fourteenth to seventeenth century, aiming to explore the interaction patterns between the Ming and the Inner Asian world. Centered on the Hexi Corridor, Ming China’s northwestern frontier was geographically embedded in Inner Asia and maintained intensive contacts with various Inner Asian powers, including the Mongols, Oirats, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and the Moghul Khanate, thus serving as an ideal example for observing how the Ming engaged in the political, military, and economic competitions across Inner Asia.<br /> Previous scholarship has either portrayed the Ming as a conservative Han Chinese dynasty or acknowledged its inheritance of the Mongol legacy from the Yuan, while arguing that the Ming turned inward and became increasingly isolated after the Tumu Crisis of 1449. Contrary to these views, this dissertation, through the close reading of Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Persian and Old Uyghur sources, argues that the Ming employed large numbers of Inner Asians as fuyi officials (pacification officials) to coordinate its relations with various Inner Asian forces, thereby participating ever more deeply in Inner Asian competitions and establishing a new Inner Asian order—fuyi system (pacification system).<br /> The dissertation is structured around four periods, each scrutinizing the impact of a major event on the configuration of the northwestern frontier: the Ming’s conquest and transformation of the Yuan northwestern frontier, and the invasions by the Moghul Khanate, the Qinghai Mongols, and the Right-wing Mongols. It analyzes how these events reshaped Inner Asian power networks and examines whom the Ming appointed, what strategies and policies it adopted, and with which forces it formed alliances in order to consolidate the frontier and respond to crises.<br /> The study argues that in the late fourteenth century, the Ming incorporated and reorganized the Yuan northwestern vassals into a novel northwestern Buffer System, which served as the intermediary for communication and confrontation between the Ming and the Inner Asian forces. Between 1473 and 1529, however, this Buffer System collapsed as a result of invasions by the Moghul Khanate and its allies, including the Oirats, the tribe of Čerčen, as well as Yaglakır and other Sarıg Uygur tribes. In response, the Ming began recruiting fuyi officials from Hami submitters and native families in Suzhou and Ganzhou, deploying them to receive tribute missions from the Western Regions, build alliances with Inner Asian forces such as the Oirats, Mekrin and Suldus, manage the submitted Hami, Handong, and Čikin Guard, and organize joint Han–non-Han military forces, thereby establishing the fuyi system. Furthermore, following the rise of the Qinghai Mongols under Ibarai and Burqai from 1512 onward, the Ming dispatched fuyi officials to establish contact with their leaders, successfully persuading them to submit to the Ming rather than form matrimonial alliance with the Moghul Khanate, revealing the attractiveness of the fuyi system to Inner Asian forces, with its core criterion laying in submission in exchange for political recognition, economic support and military protection. The fuyi system further expanded after the peace negotiation with the Right-wing Mongols in 1571, with more fuyi Officials appointed in the northwestern frontier to administer the mutual trade and handle daily conflicts with the Mongols. Two case studies—Mani Bugra, a Uyghur fuyi official, and the Ningxia Submitted Army, composed of Oirat, Mongol and Chinese fuyi officials—are undertaken, demonstrating how their multilingual abilities, personal Inner Asian networks, and diplomatic skills mediated Ming–Mongol relations and balanced the interests of multiple parties. Overall, this dissertation claims that the Ming did not increasingly isolate itself from the Inner Asian world; rather, it acted as a principal architect of a new Inner Asian order.<br /> Finally, in the conclusion, the study elucidates how the Handong Guard, Čikin Guard, and Sarıg Uygur tribes were integrated into the Yugur people under the administration of fuyi officials, and how the Qing inherited the Ming legacy by continuing to deploy fuyi officials to manage frontier affairs, demonstrating the far-reaching consequences of the fuyi system.