Study Of Guyuan Town In The Ming Dynasty

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty,in order to resist the attack from the Mongolia in the north,nine military defense fortifications had been set up in the northern boundary,and known as the "Nine Garrisons".The nine bastions in the heavily armed area were proof against Mongolia,and related closely to the dynastic destiny of rise and fall.Therefore,the area is crucial to the Ming government.Guyuan Garrison,prior to be set up in Shaanxi,is one of nine frontier defense fortifications in the Ming Dynasty.Its strategic position is very important."nerghbors Yulin Garrison in the east,Gansu Garrison west,and bound up with Ningxia Garrison like the lips and teeth".It also bore the dual task of anti-Mongolian and appeasement towards northern minorities.Since the tripartite overall jurisdiction was established there during the Emperor Chenghua years,Guyuan Garrison gradually develop into the entire northwest military command center,meanwhile the function of affiliation and overall jurisdiction became more prominent,and played an major role in consolidating the northwest border and maintaining the stability of the frontier of the Ming Dynasty.The study of Nine-Garrisons of the Ming Dynasty has always been the tradition and key area of academic research.These studies have mainly focused on the political and military aspects of military,war and ethnic relations,social and economic studies,such as troops-stationing and salt-standardizing,should be considered as well.However,the results of single researches for a command are relatively rare,especially in Guyuan Garrison,which has not yet attracted enough academic emphasis.Although the establishment of the garrisons is the product of the military struggle,the study on it is a systematic subject.In addition to the military field,it also involves political,economic,ethnic,cultural,social and other research fields,including evolution,the number of troops,the leaderships,fortifications,military equipment,logistics,cultural education and other sub-topics.Whereby,in this paper,the very characteristic Guyuan Garrison is chosen as the object and area,the above items raised as the main content of the research as well.Through the collection,research and analysis of historical records,we try to show the whole picture and development of this garrison to the readers.This paper consists of seven chapters,Plus a total of ten parts adding the preface and conclusion and appendix.The preface first explains the reason,the research object and the significance of the theme,then reviews the relevant academic history,and then introduces the historical records,the basis of the theme,the research method,and main content etc.Chapter 1 studies the formation and evolution of Guyuan Garrison in Ming Dynasty.This paper argues that it lacks proof to show that the ancient garrison Guyuan is a new one set up during the Emperor Hongzhi years,and this argument comes from the change of the historical military records of the Ming Dynasty.Guyuan Garrison is not a new one.Its predecessor was Shaanxi Garrison.From Shaanxi Garrison to Guyuan Garrison,the evolution process is essentially historical for places like Guyuan from the hinterland into borderland.And then to explore Guyuan district,the changes are mainly concentrated in the Qingyang,He Tao Min area,and Songshan.And then the paper goes ahead to explain the position of Guyuan Garrison as fortification in the Ming Dynasty.Chapter2 is about the external encroachment off Guyuan Garrison.Guyuan Garrison,as an important part of defense chain along the northern side of the Ming Dynasty,had to keep eyes on the Mongolia in north,minorities in west and Tuda(the submitted Tartar)inside.These three forces are main threats to Guyuan Garrison,especially the former two.Since the beginning of the Ming until the end,Guyuan Garrison has been affected by varying degrees of impact from Mongolia and minorites.Chapter3 examines the army of Guyuan Garrison.In the provincial garrison camp system,the army consists mainly of standard troops,camp soldiers,guards,reconnaissance and so on.Next,track down the number of troops and horses of Guyuan.From the limited records,Guyuan Garrison in the Ming Dynasty horse changes violently in the number,the army was as little as twenty thousand,and as many as seven or eight million;the number of horses ranged from one thousand to three thousand.On the Guyuan army,the number of records is rare and disordered,what's worse,inconsistent.We shall pay much attention when using these data.The contradictions in these data are disadvantageous to deal with at present,and can only be roughly speculated about the development trend.The change of the number of troops and horses in different periods reflects the evolution of the military tension and relaxation,the war and the peace periods in the Ming Dynasty.And then the paper aims to explore on several major ways to obtain soldiers and horses for Guyuan Garrison.Chapter4 examines the leadership system of Guyuan Garrison.Under the provincial camps,Guyuan Garrison army is divided into different leadership systems,such as "Zongdu-Provincial Governor-Bingbeidao"officials system and "General soldiers-Senate-garrison" generals system.Apart from that,here exists the monitoring system mainly consisted by Patrol Censor and Guard ministers.This chapter focuses on the study of the officials of the tripartite Zongdu,Provincial Governors,generals and guard officer of Shaanxi garrison,moreover,points out their changes in status and power respectively.Chapter5 examines the construction of the frontier-wall defense system in Guyuan Garrison,and mainly restores and introduces the constant construction of the six sections frontier walls,dozens of castles and a large number of piers constructed in Guyuan Garrison in the Ming Dynasty.Interconnected with each other in the form,thousands of miles frontier-wall defense system was built in this way.Further,on the defense system,this chapter briefly comments that it's much more substantially effective for the soldiers to defense the castles and piers positively than and relying on frontier walls negatively.Chapter 6 examines the military equipment and grain supply in Guyuan Garrison,mainly from four aspects,the weapons,horses,chariots,uniforms.Then specifically introduces the respective development situation of four main accesses of military grain supplement in Guyuan Garrison:the reclamation on the land,the collection from civilians,the transportation by merchants,and the provision down the government.Draw conclusions which are closer to the facts through circumspect analysis and investigation.Introduce briefly the status and role of the four supply accesses in different periods.Chapter 7 preliminarily examines the cultural educational situation in Guyuan Garrison,through the study of the various educational methods such as the popularization of Confucianism by government and enlightenment persuasion and the martial arts among the local society,etc.The paper discusses the cultural and educational situation of Guyuan Garrison as a whole.Overall,Guyuan Garrison culture and education achievements are superior to Gansu,Ningxia,Yan Sui three garrisons,but inferior to Liaodong,Ji and so on.Appendix part summarized war situation details of Guyuan Garrison in the Ming Dynasty and basic information of successive GOVERNORS,provincial Governors and guard ministers.