IDEAS of EMPIRE in EARLY MING CHINA: the LEGACY of the MONGOL EMPIRE in CHINESE IMPERIAL VISIONS, 1368-1500 by Christopher Edwar
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IDEAS OF EMPIRE IN EARLY MING CHINA: THE LEGACY OF THE MONGOL EMPIRE IN CHINESE IMPERIAL VISIONS, 1368-1500 by Christopher Edward Eirkson Bachelor of Arts, Chinese Studies, State University of New York at Albany, 2011 Master of Arts, History, University of Pittsburgh, 2013 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2018 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH THE KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Christopher Edward Eirkson It was defended on August 27, 2018 and approved by Pernille Røge, Assistant Professor, Department of History Vincent Leung, Associate Professor, Department of History, Lingnan University Benno Weiner, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Carnegie Mellon University Co-Chair: Ruth Mostern, Associate Professor, Department of History Co-Chair: Evelyn Rawski, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of History ii Copyright © by Christopher Eirkson 2018 iii IDEAS OF EMPIRE IN EARLY MING CHINA: THE LEGACY OF THE MONGOL EMPIRE IN CHINESE IMPERIAL VISIONS, 1368-1500 Christopher Eirkson, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2018 In the mid-fourteenth century the branch of the Mongol empire in China, the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), collapsed. In its wake arose a new political order, the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the last imperial state in China founded by Chinese. The cultural and ethnic differences between the rulers and courts of these two dynasties suggests stark differences between them, and the rhetoric of early Ming rulers, when read at face value, indicates that the Ming represented the resurgence of native sovereignty and the rejection of Mongol Yuan administrative practices, military endeavors, and expansive models of imperial rule. Over the last two decades, innovative research has questioned these assumptions, but there remain unappreciated connections between the Yuan and Ming that reveal the complex ways in which Ming rulers adapted Yuan state- building practices and understood the Ming dynasty’s relationship with its Mongol past. Building on world historical methodology and recent work in the field of Yuan-Ming studies, this dissertation argues that early Ming rulers and statesmen viewed their empire as the successor of the Yuan and readily incorporated Mongol-generated imperial language, practices, and state-building methods into the new Ming polity. Early Ming emperors consciously redeployed steppe state-building traditions. They sought to re-establish Yuan patterns of iv hegemony over continental East Asia, and in pursuit of these goals, designed strategic policies and commissioned representations that mirrored Yuan imperial visions. When discussing Mongol subjects of the Ming and relations with Mongol groups in the steppe, Ming court language carefully distinguished between cultural and political identities. It was not until the 1440s that Ming rulers, facing military disaster in conflict with Mongols, curtailed their broad ideas of empire, a strategic decision that culminated in the construction of what we know today as the Great Wall. In a larger Eurasian context, this study places the Ming dynasty closer to other contemporary post-Mongol empires, including Muscovite Russia and the Ottomans. In China, as elsewhere in Eurasia, the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the adaptation and modification of Mongol imperial ideas rather than the rejection of the Mongol past. v TABLE OF CONTENTS I) INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1 A. HISTORIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................4 B. SOURCES..............................................................................................................10 C. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................13 D. TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS ...............................................................17 E. CHAPTER OVERVIEW .......................................................................................22 II) CHAPTER 1: IDEAS OF EMPIRE IN CHINA, MONGOL EURASIA, AND THE POST- MONGOL WORLD .......................................................................................................28 A. EMPIRE IN PRE-MODERN CHINA ...................................................................31 1. WHAT IS EMPIRE? THE MODERN ACADEMIC DEBATE AND THE CASE OF CHINA .......................................................................................................31 2. WARRING STATES AND QIN-HAN CHINA .............................................37 3. EMPIRE FROM HAN TO SONG, SEDENTARY AND NOMADIC ...........40 4. MONGOL IDEAS OF EMPIRE .....................................................................52 a. MONGOL UNIVERSAL EMPIRE AND MILITARY POWER .............52 b. OVERLAPPING CIVIL AND MILITARY ADMINISTRATION ..........57 c. THE FUSION OF STEPPE AND SEDENTARY IMPERIAL WORLDVIEWS ........................................................................................60 vi B. RETHINKING THE EARLY MING NARRATIVE IN A EURASIAN FRAMEWORK......................................................................................................63 1. MUSCOVY, STEPPE RELATIONS, AND STRATEGIC WALL-BUILDING IN RUSSIA, 1450-1650 ........................................................................................66 2. ANALYSIS OF MUSCOVITE FRONTIER HISTORIOGRAPHY ...............71 3. THE OTTOMAN-TIMURID CRISIS OF 1402 ..............................................79 4. LESSONS FOR MING HISTORIOGRAPHY ................................................85 C. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................95 III) CHAPTER 2: THE INTELLECTUAL AND SPATIAL LEGACY OF THE MONGOLS IN IMPERIAL CHINA ...................................................................................................97 A. LAW AND EMPIRE IN NORTH CHINA .........................................................100 1. CULTURAL AND “ETHNIC” LAW IN THE LIAO AND JIN ..................102 2. ETHNIC LAW IN THE MONGOL EMPIRE AND YUAN DYNASTY ....107 B. SPATIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE EMPIRE AND THE STEPPE FRONTIER IN THE SONG, YUAN, AND MING ............................................114 C. THE POLITICS OF HISTORIOGRAPHICAL INCORPORATION .................127 D. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................131 IV) CHAPTER 3: STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES ON THE STEPPE FRONTIER IN THE YUAN AND MING ......................................................................................................133 A. FUNCTIONAL SIMILARITIES BETWEEN MONGOL APPANAGES AND MING PRINCEDOMS ....................................................................................................136 1. MONGOL APPANAGES .............................................................................136 2. EARLY MING PRINCELY ESTATES ........................................................142 vii B. MOVING THE CAPITAL: STRATEGIC CONCERNS AND THE YAN REGION ..............................................................................................................................152 1. KHUBILAI KHAN AND DADU .................................................................152 2. THE YONGLE EMPEROR AND BEIJING .................................................159 C. YUAN MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND THE EARLY MING PERIOD ..163 1. MILITARY ORGANIZATION SYSTEMS: WEISUO AND TUNTIAN .....164 2. BUREAUCRATIC SYSTEMS: MILITARY PATHS TO HIGH OFFICE ..167 D. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................173 V) CHAPTER 4: POLITICAL RHETORIC, THE TUMU CRISIS, AND WALL-BUILDING, 1424-1505 .....................................................................................................................175 A. WALL-BUILDING IN EARLY/MID-MING CHINA .......................................178 B. MILITARY AFFAIRS AND THE NORTHERN FRONTIER, 1424-1449 .......182 C. CONSEQUENCES OF THE TUMU CRISIS .....................................................188 D. THE EVIDENCE FOR CHANGING MING RHETORIC ON MONGOLS, 1400- 1449: HU AND LU ..............................................................................................194 VI) CHAPTER 5: NEW NARRATIVES OF THE MING DYNASTY, LATE IMPERIAL CHINA, AND WORLD HISTORY .............................................................................206 A. A NEW CHRONOLOGY FOR THE EARLY MING DYNASTY ....................207 1. THE YUAN FALL AND THE HONGWU REIGN, 1350-1398 ..................207 2. TANISTRIC CONFLICT AND MILITARY CAMPAIGNS, 1398-1450 ....211 B. NEW APPROACHES TO STATE-BUILDING IN POST-MONGOL EURASIA .. ..............................................................................................................................214 viii C. LATE IMPERIAL CHINA: THE LATE MING AND QING IN THE NEW NARRATIVE AND WORLD HISTORY ...........................................................218 D. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................221 VII) CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................223 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................229