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Chapter 2 In any discussion of imperial development, in any part of the
globe, issues of political domination and attendant violence
Domination in Four Keys: must inevitably be invoked. The half century of the Ming
dynasty examined in this volume certainly constitutes no
Ming China and its exception. This period witnessed state violence often on a
massive scale domestically (as in the wars waged during Zhu
Southern Neighbours Di’s usurpation of the throne) as well as violence against
neighbouring polities on all borders (as in the Tumu
1400–1450 campaign of 1449). This chapter examines the manner in
which the Ming state dominated polities to its south, and
will suggest four different forms of domination of those
polities: two forms of overland domination, comprising
Geoffrey Wade either indirect colonialism through the native office system
(tusi 土司), whereby traditional rulers were retained under
threat of military coercion and subject to corvée and tax
demands, or formal colonialism, such as the incorporation
of Đại Việt 大越 during the Yongle reign, and two forms of
overseas domination, the first involving the establishment of
a broad pax Ming in the East Asian oceanic realm through
the Zheng He voyages, and the second comprising formal
declaration of suzerainty through the erection of stelae in
four maritime polities. Together these forms constituted the
‘four keys’ in which early Ming China pursued domination
of its southern neighbours (Pl. 2.1).

Overland domination I: Ming military actions against
Yunnan
In 1369, only a year after Zhu Yuanzhang had formally
founded the Ming dynasty, he sent proclamations for the
instruction of ‘the countries of Yunnan and Japan’. This early
1
recognition of Yunnan as a ‘country’ (guo 國) which lay

Plate 2.1 The three prongs of southern expansion during the Yongle reign. The map is after Ma Huan 馬歡, Ying yai shenglan 瀛涯勝覽
(Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores) (Mills 1970), with arrows added by author

Domination in Four Keys: Ming China and its Southern Neighbours 1400–1450 | 15