THE MONGOLS AND MU YING IN YUNNAN--AT THE EMPIRE'S EDGE.

摘要

This dissertation is composed of two major sections. The first, a narrative, illumines Yunnan's history through the Yuan dynasty. The Mongol period marks an important watershed for Yunnan; for the first time, the area came under the direct control of the government of China. But the Mongols had not been able to secure Ta-li, Yunnan's naturally fortified northwestern region. It remained under the influence of the(, );Tuan family, Ta-li's rulers from the mid-tenth to mid-(, );thirteenth centuries. Furthermore, with the influx of Mongols, Muslims, Central Asians as well as Han-Chinese into the aboriginal southwest, Yunnan's Mongol experience was more one of territorial incorporation into the complex Mongol East Asian Qanate than assimilation into the Chinese world. But the heritage of Mongol involvement in Yunnan did affect the course yet to be taken by the Ming.;Broad consideration shaped the Ming court's approach to Yunnan; but, the overriding concern was the integration of Yunnan into the empire. Mindful of the futility of attempting wholesale Han administration over this inhospitable area, Ming T'ai-tsu chose to supplement a provincial core of civil administration both by enfeoffing Mu Ying (' )(, ) , his;adopted son, in Yunnan, and by instituting a loose system of tribal administration in place of the county level of government. The policy of ultimately replacing these tribal chiefs with regular Han-Chinese officials, known as kai-t'u kuei-liu depended on an influx(' )(, );of a Chinese population that could be registered and taxed, and the cultural and agricultural transformation wrought by their presence on the local non-Chinese.;The second section, consisting of Chapter III, is an annotated translation of the Ming History's biography of Mu Ying, the founder of the family most closely associated with Yunnan during the Ming period, and his descendants. Beyond being a faithful rendering of a family's official biography, the translation provides focus for Chapter II of the narrative--Yunnan Under Mu Ying and the Ming--and should be read as its companion. Since Mu Ying was critical to a pattern of governance which remained unique within all the Chinese imperial world, his story is a chronicle of Yunnan's integration into the empire.