Page 48 - Ming_China_Courts_and_Contacts_1400_1450 Craig lunas

monarch and his advisers. Certain rulers tended to be much volume), seemed willing to compromise somewhat, even
more interventionist, and domestic political conditions could promising to enfeoff the Hồ pretender as a duke so long as
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influence such decisions as emperors sought to assert the Trần were restored to the throne. But because he did
themselves at home by virtue of policy successes abroad. The not trust the Hồ he sent the commanders Huang Zhong
two most prominent examples of this in the Ming period are 黃中 (d. c. 1413) and Lü Yi 呂毅 (d. 1409) with some 5,000
the Wanli 萬曆 (r. 1573–1620) emperor’s decision to intervene troops as a royal escort. However, Hồ did not meet the
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in Korea in 1592 (which also had serious security escort party at the border as promised. When the Ming
implications for the Ming) and the Yongle emperor’s commanders inquired as to the nature of his absence they
decision to intervene in Vietnam, discussed here. 9 were told that he was ill. Though suspicious, Huang Zhong
The Ming intervention in Vietnam was connected to a proceeded through thick forests that caused his troops to
succession dispute. A usurper named Hồ Quý Ly (c. 1335– break formation. As a driving rain poured down, his men
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c. 1407) had killed off most of the incumbent royal Trần were subsequently ambushed in a narrow defile and nearly
family and placed himself, then his son on the throne. annihilated just after they crossed the Vietnamese border.
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Though dubious of his claims, after investigating the matter The Ming forces tried to advance to engage the enemy but
the Ming eventually accepted his explanation that the royal the Vietnamese cut a bridge so the Ming could not advance.
line had died out and that the new ruler was related to the Interestingly enough, even after they had attacked the
old king, and they prepared to invest the Hồ as rulers of Ming escort force and killed the Trần claimant, the
Annam. However, in preparation for this recognition the Vietnamese professed that they had no desire to oppose the
Yongle emperor firmly chastised the prospective Hồ ruler Ming, and, at least according to Ming sources, their
and reinforced his own status as the true Son of Heaven with emissary bowed before Huang Zhong, stating:
the right to intervene and control the situation. This was We distant yi dare not oppose the Great Nation, nor harm the
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part of the general Ming strategy of ‘manifesting awe’ Imperial army. It is just that Tianping is really but an unrelated
vis-à-vis tributaries so as to maintain a strategic balance of commoner and not a relative of the Chens. He dared to engage
power in favour of the Ming. Of course it must also be kept in artful deceit, misleading the Emperor and giving trouble to
in mind that the Ming sources, upon which the present study the army. Death could not expiate all his crimes. Now,
relies, tend to portray things from the perspective of the fortunately he has been killed. As an apology to the Son of
Ming court and its interests. They also tend to downplay the Heaven, my king will send a memorial admitting guilt, noting
that when the Imperial troops came from far off, our small
level of tributary agency and manipulation of the system for country, being poor, did not have sufficient supplies to long
their own ends, though certainly one can see that at work in support and maintain them. 21
the present case.
But in the autumn of 1404 a Trần refugee reached Huang Zhong pulled back because he was allegedly
Nanjing and recounted the story of the usurpation, outnumbered twenty to one and returned to China to report
requesting Ming aid in restoring the throne to the Trần to the Yongle emperor. The emperor was predictably
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family. Though as dubious of this man’s claims as they had enraged and addressed the Duke of Chengguo 成國公, Zhu
initially been of the Hồ, the Ming decided to investigate Neng 朱能 (1370–1406), saying, ‘How dare this petty rascal
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again. Ming suspicions were confirmed when a group of ruler insult me! This cannot go unpunished, how can I not
Annamese envoys on a tribute mission reportedly saw the use the army?’ Zhu Neng nodded and replied, ‘The
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Trần claimant in the Ming capital and confirmed the man’s traitorous bandit’s crimes are indeed great and cannot be
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tale, weeping and bowing before their ‘rightful king’. countenanced in Heaven or Earth. Your ministers request
Yongle was enraged that he had been deceived and vowed to that we bring your Heavenly Awesomeness to bear upon him
teach the usurpers a lesson: and exterminate him in one stroke.’ The Ming ruler then
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Who could have known he had killed the ruler and usurped the charged the usurper with 20 great crimes and assembled a
throne, changed the dynastic title and adopted a reign title, punitive expedition. These crimes included hindering an
treated the people cruelly and attacked neighbouring states! official Ming emissary, resisting Ming troops, occupying
The spirits of Heaven and Earth will not tolerate this. Even the officials’ homes and hurting the people, and deliberately
ministers and people are deceitful. That is a country full of deceiving the Ming so as to obtain tributary investiture. 25
criminals. How can this be tolerated?
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Though Yongle couched the war as a righteous effort to
The Ming then issued an edict demanding that the Hồ restore the legitimate ruling line, its framing and
renounce their claims and accept the Trần claimant as the prosecution also speak to larger concerns of grand strategy.
rightfully invested Ming tributary ruler. Perhaps sensitive to Among the crimes the Vietnamese were accused of were
the fact that he himself was a usurper, the Yongle emperor attacking their southern neighbour, the kingdom of
again stressed his role as the Son of Heaven and denounced Champa, as well as incursions into Laos and, perhaps most
the duplicitous and regicidal activities of the Hồ . Fearful of significantly, into southwest China. All of these areas were
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the possibility of a full-scale Ming invasion, Hồ Quý Ly under the purview of the Son of Heaven and his claims to
claimed that he had no knowledge of the Trần heir’s survival universal rule would be seriously undermined if he proved
and acceded to the demand that his son give up the throne in unable to defend them and come to the aid of loyal
order to buy time for his own military preparations. Even at tributaries. His father had repeatedly asserted Ming
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this stage the Ming emperor, occupied with military suzerainty over these lands, even incorporating some of their
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operations on multiple fronts including in southwest China mountains and rivers in official Ming imperial sacrifices.
(see discussion by Geoffrey Wade in Chapter 2 of this So although he was violating his father’s injunction against

38 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450