A Study On The Liao State Of Ming Dynasty

After the establishment of the Great Ming Dynasty, the regime of enfeoffment was set up by Ming Taizu, Zhu Yuanzhang for the purpose of maintaining the long-term peace and order in the newly-born country. However, with time passed by, the regime of enfeoffment was not only failed in keeping prolonged stability of the country, on the contrary, it brought heavy burden to the Ming Dynasty. With a general review of the research results of the decades nearby, improvement in the research of the regime of Fanfu in Ming Dynasty was great on the breadth and depth. There are significant results appeared in the field, among which researches in the external environment and background of the regime of Fanfu. All these achievements make a sound basis for the regional and specialized research. Several achievements have been developed in some certain Fanfu on the basis of former study. Whereas, systematic study on the regime of Liao Fan is still a blind area with little attention paid on by several scholars.Zhu Zhi, the fiftieth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, was firstly conferred the King of Guard, and then whose fief has changed to Guangning where he found the Fanfu of Liao. After the Jingnan Rebellion, he suffered from the consequence of the Cut Francisco policy, thus his fief was changed to Jingzhou by Chengtsu, Zhu Li. Liao Fan lasts over100years in Jingzhou from the35th year of Hongwu to the2nd year of Longqing, during which, the Fanfu of Liao was flourishing in every area of society with frequent activities and significant influence, including that of politics, economics and culture. Due to the crimes done in the area of Jingzhou, the title of the8th king of Liao, named Zhu Jie, was removed by Muzong in the second year of Longqing. As an epitome of the enfeoffment system of Ming Dynasty, the changing and development of Liao Fan are closely related to the history and politics of Ming, which is at the same time reflecting the changing and developing of the enfeoffment system of Ming Dynasty, and influencing each aspect of the society greatly, including politics, economy, culture and social life.As the target for the research, this thesis systematically researches Liao Fan in Ming Dynasty and mainly depicts the rise and fall of it as well as explain the reason of the rise and fall. What’s more, it also probes the political, economical and cultural activities of Liao Fan in the reign of Jingzhou and the influences brought by these activities. This thesis includes four parts. The first part is about the set up of Liao Fan and the changing of its fief. After the set up of Ming Dynasty, the enfeoffment system was carried out on the basis of learning the lesson of the history and out of the consideration of maintaining the interior governing and preventing the intruding of the Yuan in the north. Zhu Zhi was enfeoffed in the East Liao, where the Liao Fan was later set up and made significant contribution in military and economy to consolidate the frontier of Ming in its early years of existence. This part focuses on the discussion and verification of the time when Zhu Zhi, the Liao Jian Wang, arrived Jingzhou, and is to come to the conclusion that it was on November19th in the35th years of Hongwu. The second part is about the rise and fall of Liao Fan. With the constant changing political state of Ming and the then historical background, Liao Fan endures a process of up and down with the establishment of it in Guangning, and changing to Jingzhou and at last being deprived. The third part is the research on the pedigree of Liao Fan. Zhu Zhi, the King of Jian, has eighteen sons. Their descendants inherit the King with six generations and seven kings. According to the system of Fanfu in Ming dynasty, the firstborn child of the King inherit the crown, other sons are local kings. The first son of Zhu Zhi died at an early age, thus the crown was inherited by the second son Zhu Gui. There is a table for the pedigree in this thesis, from which the disorder of historical record on the sons of Zhu Zhi is revealed. In this part, there is a detailed research. The forth part is the activities of Liao Fan in Jingzhou and the influence of these activities. There has been ten Kings and over160years for the existing of Liao Fan. With all the descendants in Jingzhou, it exists for the longest time and the most activities and the greatest influence. Politically speaking, the promotion of political marriage made the ever-increasing number of imperial offsprings in Jingzhou who bullied the officials and had conflict with Zhang Juzheng, which impacted greatly in Jingzhou as well as to the whole dynasty. Economically speaking, Liao Fan put great financial pressure on the local government and interfered the development of local economy. As to the culture, Liao Fan set up academies to store books and engaged in religious activity which was not only inherit the rich heritage of cultural development and also made foundation for later development of culture. What’s more, it actually made great contribution for the development of tourism in Jingzhou.This thesis gains certain fruit from the systematic study of Liao Fan in Ming dynasty. Firstly, the exact arrival time of the King of Jian in Jingzhou is confirmed through analysing many ancient books and archaeological materials, which was on November19th in the35th years of Hongwu. Secondly, through macroscopic research of the rise and fall of Liao Fan, it is discovered that it endured a process of development from a higher starting point to the thriving period then to the rapid fall. Thirdly, it lasted in Jingzhou for the longest time with the most activities and the great impact. All in all, the negative impact of Liao Fan on politics, economics and the development of Jingzhou is more then the positive impact, which severely influenced the economic development of then Jingzhou, as well as caused the rapid fall of it. However, the cultural achievement is outstanding which made significant contribution in the thriving and development of the culture of Ming, as well as leaving precious resources for us to develop the cultural research that is objectively influencing the culture and tourism today. Besides, there has been no systematic study on Liao Fan before, thus this thesis is to fill in that blank to give people a comprehensive understanding on Zhu Zhi and his offsprings.