Chapter 7 The Roads into Yunnan

1 Introduction

From the early eighteenth-century Chinese perspective, the Far Southwest was a remote frontier region, kept at a distance by inaccessible terrain, barbarian peoples, and a hostile environment. Chinese and sinicised peoples were estab- lished on the temperate plateaus and valleys, as well as along the main routes, which constituted merely some 3% of the region. For the most part, its inhabit- ants were peoples with a great diversity of cultural traditions and languages. These people were regarded as barbarians, with their barbarity assessed by the distance between their customs and the settled, agrarian model of civilised Chinese life. In addition, the dreaded zhangqi 瘴氣 (miasma)—believed to be the cause of a plethora of sudden, grave, almost inevitably lethal diseases— were considered typical of the southern frontier and contributed to percep- tions of the natural hostility of the region.1 At the same time, the Far Southwest had been known and relevant to Chinese state interests since antiquity, on account of its resources. By the early Qing, the exploitation of silver and copper deposits had developed into a major industry across the region, operated by Han and Muslim Chinese. In ad- dition, far-flung trade networks supplied mineral and raw products across the region and channelled highland and tropical medicinal products and luxury goods towards China proper. Yunnan province in particular possessed special strategic importance as a frontier zone. In the setting of environmental hostility and barbarity on the one hand, and rich resources and imperial border protection on the other, the mountain area between the plateaus of central Yunnan and the Sichuan Basin was a key link, despite being largely inaccessible, as shown in Map 1.7. It was a borderland zone within Sichuan province, under the rule of four Yi 彜 lords, who were long-established tusi 土司 (chieftains or aboriginal officials). The Yi feudal so- cieties, ruled by an elite stratum of warriors who valued both pastoralism and raiding activities, remained thoroughly barbarian in Chinese eyes and largely outside Chinese cultural and commercial networks.2 In addition to the key geographic position on the routes linking the Sichuan Basin to central Yunnan,

1 Bello 2005. 2 See Hermann 1997, 50–52, for a concise introduction to the tusi system.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004416178_009 272 Chapter 7 their lands possessed rich deposits of copper, silver, and zinc. Without formal recognition of their existence on the part of the imperial government, several large mines were operated and worked by Chinese entrepreneurs and miners.3 The sources reflect on trade and transport links across the investigated area mostly indirectly. Mentions of routes and valuable Yunnanese products—such as bullion, precious stones, and medicines—are evidence for long distance trade networks into and across the Far Southwest.4 Trade was small in volume, and speed and transport efficiency were not major concerns. It appears that the only road out of the Sichuan Basin into central Yunnan that was used with any frequency was the courier road that passed through Weining 威寧. This road constituted the most direct overland link between Kunming and Beijing, and was the assigned courier route for communications and officials dis- patched from the capital. Time permitting, the latter preferred the route via Hunan and Guizhou, as this longer alternative permitted boat travel from Beijing to the Hunan-Guizhou border. The technologies used in local and long distance transport are uncertain. Carrying baskets are recorded across the Southwest. While carrying was cer- tainly part of rural life, the extent of porterage beyond the village context is unknown. As the Yi were famed as riders and cattle breeders, horse riding was evidently widespread, and the use of horses and oxen as pack animals is prob- able. No records reflect the presence of either donkeys or mules. Mobility was high, but small and thinly spread populations suggest limited exchange within the area and even less with other places. One specific record of Yi horse riding before Ortai’s conquest is Tian Wen’s 田雯 (1635–1704) short text Wumeng ma shuo 烏蒙馬說 (On the horses of Wumeng).5 Wumeng 烏蒙, the oldest known name of an Yi polity in the re- gion, does not necessarily refer to the small state centred on the Zhaotong 昭通 Plateau but might generally refer to the entire highland area between cen- tral Yunnan and the Sichuan Basin. A renowned author and successful official, Tian Wen served in Guizhou for over a decade from the late 1670s.6 Presumably during these years, he observed, rode, and learnt about the Wumeng horses. He

3 See Kim 2015a for the copper mines of southern Dongchuan; Chen Hailian 2018 for the sil- ver mines of northwestern Guizhou; and Kim and Yang 2019 for silver mines in and near Dongchuan prefecture. 4 Shishang leiyao; scattered mentions of goods appear in gazetteers and other written and oral records. 5 En’an xianzhi, 86f. 6 Tian Wen, an eminent poet of the early Qing, was a native of Shandong and served as gover- nor of Guizhou from 1687 to 1691. Even if he had not previously travelled to the Northwest, he would have passed through Shanxi and Shaanxi on his journey from Beijing to Guiyang.