National Governance And "White" Identity In Erhai Region Of Ming And Qing Dynasties

This dissertation takes the Er’hai Area as study object, and focus on the following two questions:one is that from Ming Dynasty on, the practice process of centralization in the forms of Weisuo(卫所)in southwest borderland mainly; the second is that the response and the evolution of group identity awareness of non-Han Chinese in the process aforementioned. The main study materials of this dissertation can be cataloged into two groups:the documents of official history, books on political regulations, veritable records, collected works, the local documents are mainly local gazetteers, stele inscriptions, genealogy and local legend’s texts. The dissertation can be divided into four parts as follows:First, the research ascertains that the military of Weisuo in the Ming Dynasty contained two different types:the Han military(汉军)and the Tu military(土军)The Tu military was mainly composed of Cuan-bo military(爨焚军)and the regular people of the prefecture and county. The organization of Tu military showed no difference from that of the Han military, however, the Tu military was responsible for both military service and taxation. The Tu military’s engagement in farming or in military affairs may alternate from time to time under different situations. The Tu military in Erhai Area is predominantly formed by the local Bai people, which ends up with the name of Tu military of Bai(白土军)Second, based on the geographical name data, and centered in the Dali Wei(大理卫),the paper reconstructs the temporal, and spatial distribution of Weisuo’s farming land in Erhai area in the Ming Dynasty. Research suggests that, the Dengchuan Basin and the Eryuan Basin instead of Erhai Basin have been the center of garrison reclamation of Dali Weisuo in the Ming Dynasty. The distribution of the settlement within the garrison reclamation realm shows that the settlement history of different ethnic groups occurred in order of time. And, there have been boundaries among the inhabit spaces of different ethnic groups, especially between the Han people and the Bai people.Third, according to the research on the household management and the conflation of Weisuo in Erhai area during the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the paper pointed out that, the military families in Yunnan in Ming Dynasty can be divided into two types:the Weisuo military families and the Prefecture-county military families. The old term "Minjia" that refers to Bai people started from Qing Dynasty. After Weisuo was incorporated into prefectures and counties, the difference of taxation reinforced the significance of classification of Junjia(军家)and Minjia(民家)Lastly, the analysis on the text of local legends suggests that, the local ethnicBai people’s ethnic identify differentiated into two levels in Erhai Area in the Ming and Qing Dynasties along with the centralization process from the central court. The claiming of ancestral origin among the Bai elite class has experienced a shifting from Jiulongzu to Yingtianfu of Nanjing in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Meanwhile, the group identity of the civilian class shown to be self-recognized as a distinct Bai ethnic group.