Study On The National Geography Of The Ordos Plateau During The Yuan And Ming Dynasties

The ethnic minorities in Ordos Plateau experienced great changes during the Yuan and Ming dynasties on which the Mongolia, Han, Hui and other ethnic groups successively lived. This dissertation mainly discussed the distribution and migration of these ethnic groups in Ordos Plateau from three time periods.The dissertation is compose of five parts. The first part is an introduction of the significance, method of study and the achievements of other scholars. In the second part, by focus on the power distribution of the ethnic minorities in Ordos Plateau from the establishment of Yuan dynasty to end. Here I try to determined the rough distribution of the Tangut people and Jurchen people based on the boundary of Xia and Jin dynasties in Ordos Plateau. Later the Mongolian cavalry invaded which leaded to the end of Xia and Jin dynasties and since then, the Mongolia nationality marched in the Ordos Plateau. After the establishment of Yuan dynasty, Yuan government began to strengthen the military, immigrate, and cultivate which attracted a large number of Mongolia, Han, Hui and other ethnic groups when appeared a wave of national migration.In the third part I attempt to discusse the general ethnic geographic situation in Ordos Plateau from the Hongwu period to the Xuande period. With the march of the Ming army, the Yuan regime was forced to withdraw and from then the Mongolia and Han groups got into the Ordos Plateau. In the early Ming dynasty, the Yinshan Line was the northern boundary.But there appeared a large quantity Mongolian with the movement of the Mongolia people and soldiers in the southern and western parts of the Ordos Plateau meanwhile the Han and little Hui people that formed in Yuan dynasty and gathered at the western of the plateau. This dissertation infer the distribution of the Hui people mainly by the position of the legacy mosque. In general, the distribution and migration of these ethnic groups in Ordos Plateau were caused by the war during the unification of Ming regime. With the stabilization of the political situations, more and more Han people settled in the Ordos Plateau and then became the main ethnic.The fourth part of my dissertation would started from the middle of Ming dynasty, the Mongolia cavalry crossed the Yellow River and occupied the Ordos Plateau again because the Ming dynasty gave up the strategic point, Dong Sheng Wei. Later the Ming government entirely gave up the control of the most parts of the plateau and built a boundary wall in south of the Ordos Plateau, as a defense system. Since then, the wall of Yan Sui and Ning Xia became an obvious boundary between the Mongolia people and Han people in Ordos Plateau. Finally, the Mongolian settled in the Ordos Plateau and did not leave after hundreds of years’experience of competition and migration among the tribes. At the same time, the Hui nationality rapidly developed in Ordos Plateau. The writer could only make a general judge of it because of the limited historical document.In the last part I mainly discussed the distribution and migration of the ethnic groups in this area by recovering the sphere of influence of every government and analyzing the characteristics, factors, etc. of the geographic situation of different periods in Ordos Plateau.