The Ming Dynasty was the last Han Dynasty in China's history and the most polarized dynasty for modern history buffs.
Of course, there are many controversies about the Ming Dynasty, and the territorial scope of the actual control is one of them, especially the rule of Tibet, whether the Ming Dynasty belongs to the centralization of power or bondage, has become the most controversial place for netizens.
Many believe that Tibet's incorporation into the rule of the Central Dynasty began during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, but Wang Lang believes that this is a misconception, because the effective rule of Tibet began in the Yuan Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty inherited this legacy.
That is to say, in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Tibet was absolutely under the centralized rule of the central dynasty, not a place of bondage among certain populations.
Of course, Wang Lang's words do not count, and we restore the truth of history little by little from the context of history and from the corner of the history books.
1. In order to find out whether the Ming Dynasty's rule over Tibet was centralized, it is first necessary to understand what the system of bondage was.
Bondage means that on the one hand, it is necessary to "bondage", that is, to use military means and political pressure to control, and on the other hand, to use "restraint", that is, to use economic means and material interests to give comfort. Originating from the Tang and Song dynasties, this kind of recognition of the local indigenous aristocratic status, and the granting of princely titles, formally incorporated into the administration of the central imperial court, in essence belonged to the system of local autonomy, known in the Ming Dynasty as the toast system.
This system was to some extent in the interests of the Central Dynasty, however, the greed of human nature was beyond the control of the emperor. Once Toshi had ambitions, he was bound to tear up the peace agreement and rebel against the Central Dynasty.
For example, the Battle of Luchuan in the Orthodox Years was because the father and son of Si Sirenfa in Yunnan Launched four rebellions, which triggered the suppression of the Central Dynasty's army.
That is to say, the system of bondage is not once and for all, always on the verge of riots, which can only satisfy the vanity of the Chinese, and only formally realizes the "merit of the indoctrination of the saints", but in essence, if it is divorced from the central dynasty, this is different from the officials sending displaced officials to the localities.
2. So was Tibet a place of bondage during the reign of the Ming Dynasty? Or is it the toast system? To understand this, it is also necessary to understand the structure of the ming government in Tibet.
Since Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, the county system was established as the foundation of the state political system, and the county system began to be implemented in successive dynasties. Of course, the Ming Dynasty was no exception.
However, as the founding emperor and chief designer of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the construction of imperial power and the constraints of local power, and he had his own set of ideas for building the organizational structure of the government.
To this end, in addition to the prefectures directly under the central government, he set up the provincial system of the Yuan Dynasty, which was in charge of the administrative power of a province; at the same time, he also set up two other provincial-level institutions, namely, the Department of Punishment and the Department of Commanding Envoys, which were in charge of the judiciary and the military respectively.
These three provincial-level institutions are called the "three divisions", and they are not subordinate to each other, and each is responsible for the central government, which can be said to be the earliest "separation of powers".
This was Ming Taizu's construction of the traditional Han dynasty, and for the non-traditional Han region, he set up a separate administrative body, such as the Wusi Zangdu Commanding Envoy Division, which governed Tibet.
In the fifth year of Hongwu, in 1372 AD, the Ming court sent Shaanxi Chengcheng to announce the entry of the envoy Wailang Xu Yunde into Tibet, conveying the goodwill and edicts of the Ming Dynasty, causing all the old bureaucrats of the Yuan Dynasty in Tibet to accept the official positions of the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, zhu Yuanzhang's strategy of "giving priority to lay officials and supplementing monks" to officials in Tibet was generally bureaucrats who ruled Tibet in the old Yuan Dynasty.
In addition to the Establishment of the Wusizang Capital Command and Envoy Division, the Ming Dynasty added the Duogandu Command and Envoy Division; and the two major command envoy divisions also set up military institutions at all levels, such as the Xuanwei Division, the Solicitation Division, the Ten Thousand Households Office, the Thousand Households Office, and the Hundred Households Office. The officials of the various health centers, such as Tongzhi and Tongjue, were appointed by the central government and were administratively subordinate to the Central Military Department, which further strengthened the central dynasty's management of Tibetan areas.
By the time of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty's administration of Tibet had changed again.
After Zhu Di ascended to the throne, he established a four-level "monk-official system" in Tibetan areas that was compatible with the administrative system, which compared with Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, the central government of the Ming Dynasty further systematized the administration of Tibetan areas, and also made Tibet officially become a place where politics and religion were integrated, and the living Buddha was not only the belief of tibetans, but also the center of power in Tibet.
The most famous is that in the year after the success of the Jing Dynasty, that is, in the thirty-fifth year of Hongwu, Zhu Di sent the Tibetan eunuch Hou Xian to welcome the fifth Karmapa Living Buddha and conferred on him the title of "Great Treasure Dharma King"; in the fourth year of Yongle, Zhu Di also gave the fifth Sidzhapa Gyaltsen the title of "King of Interpretation".
The golden vase signing system that made the Qing Dynasty talk about it actually began in the Ming Dynasty.
In the twenty-first year of Yongle, in 1423 AD, an important figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, the "Great Treasure King" Bandan Zhashi, was assigned by the Yongle Emperor to enter Tibet to examine the reincarnation of the Fifth Karmapa Living Buddha of the Great Treasure King, which is the earliest record of the Central Dynasty examining the reincarnation of the Living Buddha, and he also became the first person to be examined under the system.
3. In order to find out whether the Ming Dynasty's rule over Tibet was a policy of restraint, it is also necessary to further understand the ancient Chinese tax system and tributary system.
Taxation is the foundation of a country, but for the classical dynasties of ancient China, the "concept of clan domain" has always dominated the rulers' management thinking of neighboring countries and tribes, which has given birth to another way different from taxation, tribute!
In fact, not only the Ming Dynasty, but also other central dynasties, the Coming of the Kingdoms has always been a sign of prosperity. It is precisely under this kind of thinking, with the traditional land of China as the center and the Chinese civilization as the link, that the central dynasty is the upper kingdom and other neighboring countries and tribes are the vassal states, and the "distinction between China and Diyi" that has lasted for thousands of years has been born.
And the various vassal states bathed in Chinese civilization are proud to have been given the title of the Central Dynasty, and the official offices, costumes, languages, etc. will follow the example of the Central Dynasty, and add their own national characteristics to improve, and the most typical of them is the Korean Lee Dynasty on the peninsula, which calls itself "Little China".
These small states were politically independent, and the Central Dynasty would not send rogue officials to them, and naturally would not levy taxes on them. However, these vassal states would send envoys every year to bring tributes to the Emperor of the Heavenly Dynasty, hoping to receive a reward from the Emperor of the Heavenly Dynasty.
In other words, the taxes of ancient China were only levied on the people in their own inherent territory, and the vassal states only needed to fulfill the obligation of tribute.
The Ming Dynasty also adopted a tributary policy towards the land of bondage, the administrative power of the toast in the local area was relatively independent, and the Ming government did not levy taxes on them.
However, the Ming Dynasty adopted a tax policy towards Tibet.
After Ming Taizu brought Tibetan areas into his rule, he demanded that Tibetans use horses as silver and two credits as taxes, and also required Tibetans to bear servitude, believing that "the people have mediocrity, the soil has endowments, and it is indispensable", and did not reduce the responsibilities and obligations that Tibetans should bear for the construction of the country because of the particularity of Tibetan areas, but at the same time, Tibetans also enjoy the benefits of tax exemption and exemption from servitude in Han China.
The Records of the Ming Dynasty, Volume 188, records:
Tianquan Liuban summoned the people of the Eight Townships, and it was advisable to exempt them from military service.
The Records of the Ming Dynasty Records of The Hundred and Fifty Books records:
The people of Xifan have been attached for a long time, and have not tried to blame their tribute, and if they hear that there are many horses in their land, it is advisable to count the number of their lands to give out their endowments, such as three thousand households, then three households will produce a horse; four thousand households will produce a horse together, which will be determined as a soil endowment. Shu made him know that the emperor was personally honored to serve the court.
Records of Ming Taizu. Book 220 reads:
The Xifan tu chieftain of Xining Wei also made Zhen Ben say: "All the Fan tribes live in the wilderness and gather, shoot and hunt for food, and please lose two hundred horses for the year." "From there.
Not only that, for the sake of the economic and people's livelihood development in Tibetan areas, the Ming Dynasty also restored the post stations that were destroyed because of the war.
The Records of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 65, records:
(Yongle five years) Xin Wei, The Capital commanded Tongzhi Liu Zhao, He Ming, and others to go to Xifanduogan Wusizang and other places, set up a station, and comfort the military and the people.
The Records of Emperor Taizong of The Ming Dynasty, Vol. 88, records:
(Yongle seven years) Shaanxi Du commanded Tongzhi He Ming and sixty other people to go to Wusizang and other punishments to set up a post, and also played.
The Ming Dynasty spared no effort in the construction of Tibetan areas, and the opening up of roads and the strengthening of the army ensured the smooth flow of cultural exchanges and economic exchanges between Tibetan areas and The Han Dynasty."
Since the road is clear, the envoys have returned tens of thousands of miles, and there is no fear of theft. ”
It can be seen from this that Tibet was under the absolute centralized rule of the Ming Dynasty, not an imaginary place of bondage, and naturally would not appear in the list of tributes of the Ming Dynasty.
4. Finally, let's look at the most direct evidence, that is, the record of the Ming History.
"From Korea in the east, Tufan in the west, Bao'an in the south, Da Moraine in the north, 11,750 miles from east to west, and 10,944 miles from north to south."
This is the History of the Ming Dynasty. In the Geographical Chronicle, starting from Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, to the ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao, the description of the territory of the Ming Dynasty pays attention to a key place, that is, "the western tibet".
"According to" refers to the meaning of possession and occupation. Just four words tell us too much information, that is, the Ming Dynasty occupied Tibet, and conversely, the Ming Dynasty was under absolute rule over Tibet.
Of course, some people will think that this "according" can not be used for the interpretation of possession, then, we look at the "north distance moraine", the same is also "distance", the same pronunciation, but because the head is different, the meaning represented is also different.
"Distance" refers to the distance, "moraine" refers to the grassland desert, lian has meant: the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty stopped at the grassland desert.
In this way, the interpretation of the context will naturally make sense.
Of course, the author of the "History of Ming" is Zhang Tingyu, who went through the three dynasties of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, and is the only Hanchen who entered the Qing Dynasty Taimiao Temple to enjoy the incense of the Aixin Jueluo family, so there is no need for him to put gold on the face of Zhu Ming's royal family, right?
In fact, the "History of Ming" was compiled for nearly a hundred years, and the Qing court also reviewed it for nearly a hundred years, and what should be deleted was also deleted, and what should be changed was also changed, leaving behind something that the Qing emperor could accept.
So, what reason is there to suspect that the Ming Dynasty exercised not absolute sovereignty over Tibet?
Resources:
Ming Shilu
History of the Ming Dynasty
[I am Jiangdong Wang Lang, bringing you a different historical vision!] Stick to the original, like me please pay attention to me! 】