People Who Crossed The Border Between The Ming And Mongolia

It was the fiercest time of the Ming dynasty that from the year 1551 to the year 1570.An ambitious Khan,whose name was Altan Khan,conquered Southern Mongolia.His domain was from Liaodong,Jizhan in the east to Gansu,Qinghai in the west.His military often invaded garrisons of Ming government,like Datong and Xuanfu.Therefore,Han Chinese people who lived in the southern side of the Great Wall always suffered from famine,warfare and misery.A lot of them escaped to southern Mongolia and worked for Altan Khan:they brought the skills of cultivation and changed steppe to farmland.Mongolian called them and their buiding Bansheng,which trasliterated from a Chinese word baixing(it means people).Excellent persons among them could become minions of Altan Khan.These Han Chinese people organized a net which communicated the people living northern and southern side of the Great Wall.By this net,they obtained information of Ming garrisons and brought labor to Altan Khan.In some way,they affected the decesion of Altan Khan.However,in the year 1570,a grandson of Altan Khan,named Daicing Ejei Taiji,suddently capitulated to the Ming government,and then Altan Khan decided to negotiate with the Ming.As an equal condition,the Ming extradited important leaders of Bansheng and destroyed their espionage network.Previous studies' views had always been from the ecomomic development of the Mongolia and the Ming government.This thesis tries to initiate from the experience of Bansheng people themeselves and describes how they struggle to survive under the Altan Khan's control.I mainly use the records in Chinese and in Mongolian,and anlyze the role of these Bansheng people between the Ming and Mongolia and how they organize their network.This essay includes three parts.The first one descries the danger that previous Bansheng people met when they escaped to southern Mongolia.The danger is mainly from other Mongolian tribes,Mongolian aristocrat of Altan Khan and Ming governments' spy.In this part,I take an example of how Bansheng people assisted Mongolian military to attack the Ming cities.In the example,it can be seen how Ming governors,spies,emissaries and Mongolian aristocrat coroporated to interupted this attack.I try to analyze the attitudes of Mongolian aristocrat and Altan Khan towards Bansheng people.The second part elaborates main battles between Ming's and Mongolian military.I list a form of fifteen battles I found in the records.Based on it and other archives,I could describe background and escaped journey of important leaders and their suborinate.I also anlyze the total population of Bansheng and their nationality identification.In the event of Laoyingbao,a name of Ming garrison,we could see how the network make sensed in real battles.In the last part,my descrbination begins from the event of Dicing Ejei Taiji,because he was the most important person who truned the antagonization to peace.In the turing process,I anlyze the negotiation and contest of the four powers:general with lower rank,ministers of the Ming,Mongolian aristocrat and Altan Khan.This part is intended to show people with different ranks and various purposes how to struggle and how to bleed.Bansheng is the kind of people who has the fewest option in this game.In the end,they became the victim of the negotiation between all of the players.