Research On Ming Dynasty's "Grant Honorific Titles, Appoint Official Posts" Strategy In Governing Tibet

Tibet Autonomous region and the vast Tibetan areas is an inalienable part of China since ancient times. From the Yuan Dynasty, the Central government rules over Tibet, respecting the nation's characteristics and traditions. The Yuan Dynasty's rules over Tibet is more dependent on Mongolian strong military force, and the central government only supports one Saskya sect. In the Ming Dynasty, the government uses"Grant honorific titles, Appointed official posts"strategy, which means to value and appoint any powerful lay and religious persons to rule over Tibet. Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, The Ming Dynasty's rule in Tibet is more systemetic and in-depth.Though the way of management is not as mandatory and rigid as the Yuan Dynasty, the policy itself is more intelligent and strategic, and the rule appears more modest and effective .Ming Dynasty's"Grant honorific titles, Appoint official posts"stategy in governing Tibet is the inheritance and development of ancient Chinese feudal granting system. It is also a stategic and innovative rule to Tibet according to Ming Dynasty and Tibet's actual situation. The thesis includes six parts: introduction, four chapters, and the conclusion.The Introduction part mainly summarizes topic's significance and academic research on Ming Dynasty's rule over Tibet.The first Chapter traces back the history of Ming Dynasty's"Grant honorific titles, Appoint official posts"strategy. This chapter is divided into three sections: first section discussed the idea of ancient Chinese to contribute vassals to restrict the power of each others, which is an important origin of Ming Dynasty's policy. The second section describes the situation before the Ming dynasty, when successively Central government grant official posts for Tibetan religious and secular leaders, which is the important historical foundation of Ming Dynasty's"Grant honorific titles, Appointed official posts"stategy. The third section compared the ancient Chinese feudal granting system and the central government's granting system in Tibet. The second chapter discusses the main content of Ming Dynasty's"Grant honorific titles, Appointed official posts"strategy. This chapter is divided into five sections: the first section describes the policy of"offering the title"which was used by the early Ming emperor; the second section describes the Ming Dynasty's administration established in the Tibetan areas; the third section describes the Ming Dynasty's granting and management of lay and religious Tibetan, which includes granting the title of "Eight Kings" and etc; the fourth section describes the Ming Dynasty and the Tibetan local Tributary relations and tea-horse trade; the fifth section summarize the purpose of The Ming Dynasty's"Grant honorific titles, Appointed official posts"strategy.Chapter three discusses the reasons for forming the Ming Dynasty's"Grant honorific titles, Appointed official posts"strategy from three points: Ming Dynasty's idea on managing the border area, geopolitical factors of Tibet , the actual situation of Mongolian and Tibetan areas, Chu Yuan-chang, and Chengzu's important rule in implemeting the policy. This chapter is divided into three sections: section one sought ideas from the Ming Dynasty's control over border area and geopolitical factors of Tibet; section two discuss the necessity of the policy implementation from actual situation of Mongolian and Tibetan areas; section three discuss Chu Yuan-chang, and Chengzu's important rule in implemeting the policy of"Grant honorific titles, Appoint official posts".The fourth Chapter outlines the characteristics and the positive and negative impact of the"Grant honorific titles, Appoint official posts"policy. This chapter is divided into two sections: first section talks about the policy's feature, such as its reality, its directiveness, balance, phases, etc; the second section describes the positive and negative impact of the"Grant honorific titles, Appoint official posts"policy in mainland and the Tibetan area.In conclusion, it's an intensify summarization to the whole text.