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three major attacks against the Tai Mao polity in modern- their resources, but also left them open to imposition of other
day western Yunnan and northern Burma known to the demands by the Ming. In the 1440s, for example, Mubang
Chinese as Luchuan – extending from 1438 to 1445 – have (Hsenwi/Theinni) deployed its forces to assist the Chinese
essentially been neglected in the studies of Southeast Asian forces arrayed against Si Renfa in exchange for the
history, and thus so has this aspect of Ming colonialism. cancelling of an outstanding debt to the Chinese state (which
However, they were some of the most important events in had been unilaterally imposed by the Ming) of 14,000 liang of
the history of 15th-century Southeast Asia, resulting in the silver. In 1448, the gold, silver, rice, paper money, cowries
fragmentation and colonisation of one of its largest polities. and horses owed in lieu of labour by eight prefectures in
The Tai Mao political leader Si Renfa 思任發 (fl. 1400–44) Yunnan, plus Jinchi, Tengchong, Ganyai, Nan Dian,
had, during the 1430s, made attempts to recover territory Longchuan, Cheli 車里, Mengyang, Mubang, Mengding,
formerly subject to his father Si Lunfa, but which had been Menggen 孟艮, Weiyuan 威遠, Wan Dian, Zhenkang 鎮康
atomised by earlier Ming policies. He had gained control and Dahou, being mainly Tai polities stretching right across
over Ganyai, Nan Dian, Tengchong, Lujiang and Jinchi 金齒 Indochina, were all cancelled in reward for their military
by 1438, when the Ming court sent generals to assist the local assistance in destroying the power of the Möng Mao polity
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commander Mu Sheng against him. While the Chinese of Luchuan. 34
forces claimed initial success, a further 50,000 troops from Another of the essential policies of the Ming state in
all over southern China were mobilised in 1439 for the first pursuing its colonial aims in the Tai regions of Yunnan, and
major Luchuan expedition. Further missions were in fact in all its colonial endeavours, was its efforts to keep
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dispatched in the 1440s and the year 1444 saw the colonised polities as divided from each other as possible.
destruction of Luchuan (the power base of Si Renfa), the This had the dual role of firstly reducing the threat any
killing of Si Renfa and the establishment by the Ming of single polity could pose to China, and secondly facilitating
Longchuan 隴川 Pacification Commission (apparently the the manipulation of these polities. In this manner, China
first use of the term Pacification Commission Xuan fu si pursued an active policy of ‘divide and rule’ colonialism, and
宣撫司 in Chinese history) to partially replace Luchuan. A in this the military forces in Yunnan played an important
former Luchuan chieftain, Gong Xiang 恭項, who had gone role.
over to the Ming, was then appointed as Pacification In 1404 there were efforts to divide Babai/Dadian
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Commissioner. (Lanna) into Babai/Dadian and Babai/Zhennai (Chiang
A further major Ming military expedition which was to Rai). This was eventually unsuccessful, despite a Chinese-
greatly affect the upland Southeast Asian polities was that sponsored military attack on Lanna. A similar attempt by
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launched in 1448 to capture Si Jifa 思機發, a son of Si Renfa. the Ming state to split the polity of Cheli (Chiang Hung) into
At a date equivalent to April/May 1448, imperial Cheli and Cheli/Jingan was made in 1421, so as to reduce its
instructions were issued to Wang Ji 王驥 (1378–1460) power and allow the appointment of a Chinese registrar and
requiring him to capture Si Jifa and the chieftains of military commissioner in the latter. One hundred and fifty
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Mengyang. The surrounding polities of Ava-Burma, years later, when the power of Ava-Burma was expanding,
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Mubang, Nan Dian, Ganyai and Longchuan were also the Ministry of War also urged in respect of Yunnan that
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required to provide troops for deployment against Si Jifa. ‘special instructions should be sent to the various yi noting
The imperial orders sent to Wang Ji presaged the disruption that they are not permitted to have communication or form
which such an expedition would have wrought in the region. links with each other’. At the end of the 16th century, the
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‘He [Si Jifa] may flee into Ava-Burma’s territory and be Ministry of Rites urged that Ava-Burma only be given
concealed by the people there. If so, capture persons as the recognition by the court on condition that it ‘not seek
situation demands, so that the yi people will know fear and alliances with other tribes’. And, all along, it was the power
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the Great Army will not have been sent in vain.’ While of the Ming colonial forces in this area and the local forces of
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Wang Ji reported success in his attack on Si Jifa’s stockade, other polities controlled by the Ming that provided the
later accounts tell of how Wang Ji had sought personal threat or actual power which allowed them to pursue these
advantages from the ‘native officials’ and how in fact he had policies of divide and rule, which have marked all colonial
been defeated by Si Jifa. Again in 1454, Chinese forces were regimes.
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dispatched, this time against Si Kenfa 思掯法 and others in
Mengyang, who had established their own regime in Overland domination II: Formal colonialism involving
competition with the Ming appointee. the incorporation of Đại Việt/Đại Ngu by the Yongle
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Achieving a balance between economically exploiting emperor
the newly conquered areas in Yunnan and trying to In 1406, in an effort to increase Ming influence and power in
maintain social stability (and thereby control) in those areas the Vietnamese polity of Đại Việt, known to the Ming as
was something the Ming and its agents constantly debated. Annan 安南, the Yongle emperor attempted to send a
Despite claims that social stability was at risk in Yunnan in puppet ruler named Chen Tianping 陳天平 (Trần Thiên
the 1440s due to the levies, the Ministry of Revenue refused Bình, d. 1406) into that polity. Trần Thiên Bình was killed
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to reduce any of the gold and silver payments required, as he proceeded into the country. This killing by the
claiming that ‘they are an old system dating from the Vietnamese became the immediate pretext for the Yongle
Hongwu reign, and it is difficult to abolish them’. The gold, emperor to launch a huge invasion, a move obviously
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silver and horse demands which the Ming state imposed on planned well before the event. He appointed senior generals,
the Tai polities of Yunnan and beyond not only depleted sea-crossing commanders, firearms commanders, rapid

Domination in Four Keys: Ming China and its Southern Neighbours 1400–1450 | 17