Zhongshun King’s Throne Inheritance And Hami Crisis In Ming Dynasty

In order to make a management at Western Region and to maintain the stabilization at the northwest frontier,Ming Court set up Hami garrison command and awarded Zhongshun king for Mongolian nobilities,letting them fulfill the duties of protecting Gansu township,leading the polities at Western Region,guiding the tributary and delivering the information of minorities.During the period in Tianshun of Ming Dynasty,Zhongshun king failed to have any offspring.Start with it,because of the issue of Hami garrison command’s heir to the throne had not been effectively resolved,lead to the failure of its Jimi command’s function,Turfan set in a weak point and occupied Hami city,Hami crisis had broken out.In the process of dealing with the Hami crisis for more than 60 years,the Ming Court was unable to make effective and fundamental responses,which were mainly manifested in four aspects:one is the inability to quickly and effectively determine who will be the heir to the zhongshun throne;the second is to show a cautious attitude,thus missing the favorable opportunity to solve the Hami crisis;third,it is difficult to carry out effective policies continuously;fourth,it misjudged Hami’s situation and mishandled it.For various reasons,the Ming Court could not effectively recover Hami city and resolve the Hami crisis,and gradually lost the negotiation with Turufan,led to the increasingly fierce Hami crisis and seriously threatened the northwest frontier defense of the Ming Court.Finally,the Ming Court had to abandon the Hami garrison command that had been in operation for more than 100 years and narrow the northwest defense line to Jiayu pass.Besides the rise for Tulufan and its gradual eastward expansion,the improper disprosal of this issue by Ming Court is the important factor of the outbreak of Hami crisis and its increasingly fierce on the northwest frontier of Ming Court.Hami Crisis was a concrete manifestation of the Ming Dynasty’s lack of control over the northwestern frontier,the gradual shrinkage of its influence on the Western regions,and the gradual decline of the Ming Dynasty’s comprehensive national strength.It also reflected the decline of the "challender-response" mode of the traditional Central Plains dynasty in the face of the frontier minority regime.