Analysis Of The Ming Dynasty In Shaanxi Trilateral Rations Supply System

The northwest of Ming Dynasty's border defense was very important, Ming Dynasty had set four border towns, such as Yan Sui, Gansu, Ningxia and Guyuan in the Northwest Territories government. Because they all lied in the Shaanxi Province of Ming Dynasty. They were also called San Bian which was used to resist the harassment and aggression from ministries of Mongolia. So Ming Dynasty deployed a large number of forces in Northwest. The army provisions supply had become an important part of Northwest frontier. The system of army provisions supply was an evolving process and kept on changing in San Bian. Because of the location, the army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty was more independent. Exploring the changes of supply system can reflect the partial reason why Northwest frontier of Ming Dynasty continued declining. This article proceeds from the main source of the army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty. After collecting, arranging and analyzing related documents, the writer divides the article into two parts:grain supply and money supply. It recovers the system of army provisions of San Bian in Ming Dynasty and as the basis for it, the article analyses changing process of the system of army provisions supply. What's more, it preliminarily discusses the changing and internal differences of army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty.The first chapter is an introduction. It arranges and analyses the reason for choosing this topic, current research and historical explanation. There are two reasons for choosing this topic:The first is current research on the system of army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty is relatively weak. The second is my interest on researching army provisions supply. The main task of this article is to study the characteristics and changing process of army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty. Current study of San Bian focused on the setting of military town and the study of the Great Wall. The study of army provisions supply more focused on a specific replenishment. The study of army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty are less. The documents of San Bian in Ming Dynasty are numerous and jumbled. This article analyses and collates typical and reprehensive documents.The second chapter is historical background of studying army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty. It combs setting, deployment of troops and ways of army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty. By analyzing the documents and absorbing the existing research results, it defines the year of setting San Bian in Ming Dynasty. It discusses the setting and trends of deployment of troops and summarizes the main ways of army provisions supply of San Bian.The third chapter is studying on "grain" supply. According to historical documents, it analyses the main source of grain one by one. It studies the military garrison supply, pro-tax pay from the system and quantity and analyses its trends in order to get a more complete understanding on the characteristics of "grain" supply.The fourth chapter is studying on "money" supply. First, it analyses the main source of "money" supply include the common people, the army and the government.. Then it further studies on the scale of money supply and analyses the trends. Combined with previous studies, it explores the formation of grain market in San Bian and its function.army provisions supply system of San Bian in Ming Dynasty. It makes a preliminary study on the spatial differences and historical changes of army provisions supply. By analyzing the documents which recorded a comprehensive content of army provisions, it compares the differences in space and time of army provisions supply system and explores the characteristics of different army provisions supplies in border towns. Then it gets the internal differences in army provisions supply system by comparison and makes a preliminary analysis on historical changes of army provisions supply of San Bian.The last chapter is conclusion. After studying all of the above, it has a conclusion:The army provisions supply of San Bian in Ming Dynasty was in a process of changing, but totally in a declining process. The capacity of supply was declining. This led to a sharp increase of national financial expenditure and then became a huge burden of the government of Ming Dynasty.