CHAPTER 7 Celebrating War with the Mongols

David M. Robinson

Introduction

War with the Mongols was a formative experience for the (1368– 1644).1 From the to the , Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋, the founding ruler who is commonly known as the Hongwu 洪武 emperor (r. 1368–98), ordered military campaigns against Mongol leaders first in north , then on the steppe, in the forested hills and plains of Liaodong 遼東, and in the semi- tropical region of 雲南 to the southwest. His son, Zhu Di 朱棣, the Yongle 永樂 emperor (r. 1403–24), personally led his armies into the steppe five times, a signature feature of his reign. Such campaigns were an enormous burden on the fledgling Ming dynasty, requiring massive commitments of manpower, administrative energy, financial resources, and political capital. The results were mixed. The Ming court expelled or coopted Mongol forces in north China, Liaodong, Yunnan, and the southern edge of the steppe. During the 1360s and again in the 1380s, Ming imperial armies inflicted serious de- feats on the remnants of the Yuan court deep in the steppe but failed to elimi- nate Mongol polities in either the eastern or western Mongolian steppe. The and his court claimed victories but seldom achieved decisive triumphs. Given their significance, the Ming dynasty’s conflicts with the Mongols have been one of the most thoroughly studied facets of the Ming period, as scholars have analyzed their implications for foreign policy, trade, border defense, logis- tics, political legitimacy, and perceptions of the Other.2 Rather than replicate

1 I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Joseph Lam who generously shared his exper- tise of Ming court music with me. I would especially like to thank Stephen West and Huang Ch’i-chiang for their detailed comments on the translations found in this paper. I have grate- fully adopted nearly all their suggestions. I am responsible for any remaining errors and infelicities. 2 A modest sampling of relevant scholarship with an emphasis on the Hongwu and Yongle reigns includes Dreyer, Early Ming China, pp. 71–76, 140–43, 173–82; Waldron, The , pp. 55–86; Rossabi, “The Ming and Inner Asia,” pp. 224–31.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004343405_009 106 Robinson such work, this essay explores how the early Ming court represented its wars against the Mongols in prose, poetry, and music.

The ’s Court

From the dynasty’s earliest days, celebration of military victory through music and dance formed an integral element of court life; official guidelines detailed performances at state banquets.3 Groups of musicians and dancers were ar- rayed to the right and left of the emperor’s dais. Titles included the Dance of Pacifying the Realm 平定天下之舞, which symbolized the “suppression of re- bellion through military merit,” the Dance of Soothing Foreign People of the Four Quarters 撫安四夷之舞, which symbolized “inducing men from afar to submit through awe and virtue,” and the Dance of the Eight Foreign Peoples Submitting Treasures 八蠻夷獻寶之舞.4 Such performances were to remind audiences of military force’s importance in establishing the dynasty, forging order from chaos, and winning recognition from surrounding neighbors. Yet judging by the titles, they did not explicitly or exclusively focus on victories over the Mongols. More open references to war with the Mongols are found in the tunes (qu 曲) that accompanied state banquets. As one facet of a comprehensive court protocol related to ritual and music instituted in 1370, the throne ordered that nine tunes be performed at court audiences. Several of them invoke vic- tory over the Mongols but with a clear emphasis on accepting surrendered Mongols into the new polity. The first of the nine is entitled “Rising in Linhao” 起臨濠, Linhao being the hometown of the Ming founder.

3 Standaert, “Ritual Dances and Their Visual Representations.” For the importance of music at the Ming court as both an instrument of orthodoxy and a vehicle of expression, see Lam, State Sacrifices and Music in Ming China. On martial rituals, including military tunes and processions, during the Ming, see Ren, Ming Qing junli yu junzhong yongyue yanjiu, pp. 17–72. 4 “Da yan yi” 大宴儀, “Yan li” 宴禮, in Shen Shixing, compiler, Da Ming hui dian, 72.1a–3b, vol. 2, pp. 1151–52; Zhang Tingyu, compiler, Ming shi (henceforth cited as MS), juan 61, p. 1503 志第三十七樂一. These guidelines seem to have been first established in 1370. See Ming Taizu shilu, 56.8a–16b, pp. 1101–14 洪武三年九月乙卯. The Dance of Martial Virtue 武德 之舞 figured in most major ritual offerings at court including sacrifices at the round-mount- altar compound (圜丘), at the imperial ancestral temple (太廟), and sacrifices to the sun (朝日).