A Study Of The Tusi System In Tibetan-inhanbited Area

The Tusi system , a national autonomous system that was carried out by the country in regions inhabited by ethnic groups was not formed overnight, but had a historical development. In Tibetan-inhabited area, the formation of Tusi system was not only associated with the central authority's policy of administering the border areas, but also closely connected with the high-ranking officers' setting up the separatist regimes and establishing the political independence. In the process of developing economy and military strength, the feudal lords paid much attention to Buddhism so that they could consolidate their own strengths. From 11^th A.D to 12^th A.D, Xizang Buddhism consecutively established different sects. With the combination between those sects and some influential families, politics and religion in Xizang combined with each other. After ceaseless dilation, merger and combination, before Mon-Go nationality entered into the lands of Tibetan regime, the Tibetan-inhabited area had formed more than ten political and religious powers. In order to govern this region which had a wide stretch of land and unbalanced development in society and culture because of different histories and geographies, the central government had adopted many different systems since Ming Dynasty, such as the Senggang system that was formed by unifying politics and the religion; the Weisuo system that had the feature of jointly administration of civil and military and so on. Among them, the main system was the Tusi system which was formed according to its own regional customs.In the main body of this thesis, by regarding the central government's administration to the Tibetan-inhabited area from Yuan Dynasty to now as the background, we learned much about the development of the Tusi system in Ming and Qing Dynasty. We also learned something about the fundamental contents and historical origins of Tusi system in Tibetan-inhabited area by analyzing its connotation and extension. We found that the central government carried out Tusi system according to the reality of Tibetan-inhabited area and the essence and connotation of Tusi system embodied the traditional political thought of governing the border areas in the feudal times, that is "control according to its own customs","unify the world".The Tusi system in the Tibetan-inhabited area always hanged about or expanded from it.By studying the connotation and nature of Tusi system, we found that in the southwest and middle southern of regions inhabited by ethnic groups, it was formed in Song Dynasty, but in Tibetan-inhabited area, it formed formally in Ming Dynasty. That was because that the name of the official position is the marks of the formation of Tusi system. The official position of the Tusi system included civilian post and military post and they didn't form at the same time. The civilian post formed in Song Dynasty, but the military post only formed in Ming Dynasty. The Tusi system was formed in Ming Dynasty by Overall.According to textual research and the Tusi family's rough counting, we found that there were 849 various nations of Tusi in Tibetan-inhabited area. Among them, 795 were Tibetans and 54 belonged to other nationalities. The thesis not only thoroughly and carefully studied the global and individual feature of Tusi system in Tibetan-inhabited area from different aspects including official position system, inheriting system, system of rewards and penalties, paying tribute system, taxes and corvee system, military affairs system, educational system and so on, but also analyzed the influence of social and economical forms in Tibetan-inhabited area and Tusi politics to the cultural changes of the Tibetan minorities, especially the centralized administration networks which was constructed by the central government according to "Tu-liu-can-zhi" and "politics apotheosis " and became the basic principal and administration model to construct Tusi system. On this basis, by studying the complex and volatile political environment, the thesis analyzed the political relations among Tusi, central government and the temples. We think the main feature of Tusi politics was that in order to survive and expand their powers, Tusi always attached themselves to some political powers and they had complex relations with central government. The Tusi who had weak power always devoted themselves to the imperial government, but the Tusi who was more powerful or lived in remote areas usually changed their attitudes with the changing of the central government's power. When the central government's strength was powerful, they could always "obey the emperor's order ". But when the central government's power was too weak or had no time to pay regard to them, they would expand their own power by uniting with some peripheral Tusi or temples. In the end, with the development of the society, the central government made Tusi system in Tibetan-inhabited area disappear from the history through Gai-tu-gui-liu which was mainly happened in Qing Dynasty. In Ming Dynasty,besides the large-scale Gai-tu-gui-liu in LongZhou, SiChuan province and in the northwest part of China, there had no other large-scale Gai-tu-gui-liu. Although it also happened in Republic, it was only the end of the Gai-tu-gui-liu in Qing Dynasty.In order to reveal Tusi system in Tibetan-inhabited area further, the thesis summed up the unique individual and regional forms of Tusi system in Tibetan-inhabited area by using case study and comparison. It also revealed the difference in Tusi system between Tibetan-inhabited area and no-Tibetan-inhabited area and its clauses. By probing into the rules in Tusi system, we also learned the ruler's different political attitudes towards different problems and the useful experience or lessons in the process of the central imperial dynasty's carrying out its Tusi system since Yuan Dynasty. All those provides us some referential experience to work out national and religious policy.