Zhu Xieyuan And Governance Southwest In The Late Ming Dynasty

There were both domestic strife and foreign aggression in the late Ming dynasty, completely contrary to whose decline was the south-western chieftains minority, especially those in Sichuan and Guizhou province which had a large number of cable soldiers and made ready for power expansion. More strain appeared in the relationship between Ming’s royal government and fully-oppressed chieftains minority people as well as civilians and conflicts also escalated along with oppression and the struggle against oppression. Until the outbreak of She’an riot, Ming’s reign in the south-west was driven to the verge of collapse. Zhu Xieyuan, right in this kind of background, shouldered the mission, organized counterinsurgency and coped with the problems after war.In the process of counterinsurgency and coping with the problems after war, Zhu Xieyuan demonstrates his outstanding talent in politics and military affairs. His strategic thoughts in managing south-western China contained the following aspects:primarily fight accompanied by consolation, focusing on psychological strategy and disintegrating them from within, controlling the Miao minority with Miao minority to balance their power, wiping out other henchmen to isolate the chief criminal, receiving budget from the central government to increase income and reduce expenditure, selecting talents and appointing capable leaders from the local regions, putting efforts together and fighting cooperatively.Zhu Xieyuan’s strategic thoughts and measures in managing south-west China revealed distinctive features:emphasis on stability, mild policies; specific aims and empahsis on pragmatism; maximizing its strengths while minimizing its weakness, being active rather than passive. Zhu Xieyuan’s strategic thoughts and measures in managing south-west China exerted far-reaching influence on both Ming’s royal government and the following generations. The regaining stability of south-west region:1. The chieftains minority in Yunan took advantage of the decline of chieftains minority in Sichuan and Guizhou province, and began to rise.2. The rehabilitative measures of Zhu Xieyuan helped the recovery of productivity and regaining stability of the society.The change of Ming dynasty and its relation with south-west region:1. Although south-west region returned to the control of Ming’s royal government, the controlling power is rather weak and unstable.2. The territory of south-west region slowed down the declining pace of Ming dynasty.The influence on the following generations:1. Qing dynasty paid more attention to the stability of southwest frontier, accepted the chieftains system recognition and kept a clear political mind, constantly on the alert against the trend of the southwest chieftains, gave heavy power to Wu Sangui, and heavily fortified2."The building the brute" strategy for the mid-Qing period ertai provided beneficial reference for large-scale gai-tu-gui-liu policy. The Qing dynasty mainly grasp the initiative in the process of change of flow.