Luchuan-Pingmian Campaigns
Encyclopedia
In the middle of the fifteenth century Ming
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

 China began a series of four disastrous wars on its frontiers with Burma in Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

 against Tai
Tai peoples
The Tai ethnicity refers collectively to the ethnic groups of southern China and Southeast Asia, stretching from Hainan to eastern India and from southern Sichuan to Laos, Thailand, and parts of Vietnam, which speak languages in the Tai family and share similar traditions and festivals, including...

 chieftainships.

The Luchuan-Pingmian Wars or Campaigns (1436-49) arose after a long period of Chinese diplomacy failed to resolve the state of endemic warfare
Endemic warfare
Endemic warfare is the state of continual, low-threshold warfare in a tribal warrior society. Endemic warfare is often highly ritualized and plays an important function in assisting the formation of a social structure among the tribes' men by proving themselves in battle.Ritual fighting permits...

 among the Tai chieftainships that reigned along the frontier.

Events leading up to the war

From 1498 to 1504 the Ming imposed their own administrative divisions and taxation on the Tai chieftainships of the Tai
Tai
Tai may refer to:*Tai peoples*Tai languages*Tai , a Chinese surname*Mount Tai, in Shandong, China*Lake Tai, on the border of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, China...

-Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

 frontier
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...

. As they did this, the frontier region gradually fell into a state of endemic warfare between the various Tai chieftainships.

In the 1530s, the intensity of the war increased, spurred on by the weakness of Ming forces after their defeat and withdrawal from Vietnam in 1427. After 1436, Tai chieftains "began to invade the border counties of central Yunnan, reaching as far as the Yung-ch’ang and Ching-tung [in Chinese territory]."

Eventually, one of the tit-for-tat seizures of territory in this state of endemic warfare triggered Chinese military intervention. In 1437 the ruler of the Tai state of Nandian requested Chinese assistance in returning land that had been taken from it by Mong Mao. The regional commander of Yunnan was requested to make an investigation into the matter and in 1438 he found that Mong Mao
had "repeatedly invaded Nanlian, Ganyai, Tengchong,...Lujiang
Lujiang
Lujiang may refer to:*Lujiang County , a county in Chaohu Municipality, Anhui*Lujiang River , a passage in Xiamen Harbour*Lujiang Station, station of Line 2 of the Guangzhou Metro, Guangdong, China...

,
and Jinchi" and that the Mong Mao ruler had "appointed local
chieftains of the neighboring regions subordinate to him without
asking for the approval of the Ming court and that some of these
men joined forces with him to invade Jinchi."

The First Campaign (1438-1439)

After an initial victory, the Ming troops pursued the Tai leader deep into Tai territory. The Ming leader Fang Zheng faced problems. His troops were exhausted and his supply lines were cut off. He requested reinforcements, but few were sent. After Fang Zheng "fell into an ambush of the elephant phalanx of his enemy" he ordered his son to escape, was defeated, and died with his Ming troops.

In the wake of this defeat, Ming troops were withdrawn from the area and the Tai leader Chau-ngan-pha [Chinese: Si Ren Fa] became bolder, waging offensive warfare and attacking settlements closer to the heart of Yunnan .

The Second Campaign (1441-1442)

Although efforts by scholar officials at the Ming court were made to stop the campaigns and limit their damage and impact , a second Ming campaign to the Tai-Yunnan frontier was soon sent on its way. Eight months passed with no success in sight, when the Ming troops were ambushed by Tai troops. The Ming troops managed to fight the Tai troops off and lead an attack on the stronghold of the Tai leader Si Ren-fa. The Tai side was defeated with 50,000 deaths. A small group of around 1000 under the leadership of Si Ren-fa managed to flee .

Third Campaign (1443-1444)

The third campaign managed to remove Si Ren-fa from power with the help of the Burmese kingdom of Ava. Si Ren-fa's son Chau-si-pha [Chinese: Si Jifa] escaped capture, however, and established a power base at Mong Yang (Mengyang) on the west bank of the Irrawaddy river.

Fourth Campaign (1449)

A fourth campaign was sent in 1449 to capture Si Jifa, but failed to
achieve this main objective. The Chinese allowed remnants of the
defeated Tai ruling elite to remain in Mong Yang if they agreed
never to cross the Irrawaddy river to the east.

Chinese sources disagree about how Si Jifa finally met his end, one Shan
chronicle even claiming he reigned for another fifty years. The version of events found in the official Chinese
history includes one possible motive for the Tai
invasion of Ava
Ava
Innwa is a city in the Mandalay Division of Burma , situated just to the south of Amarapura on the Ayeyarwady River. Its formal title is Ratanapura , which means City of Gems in Pali. The name Innwa means mouth of the lake, which comes from in , meaning lake, and wa , which means mouth...

 in 1524-27, revenge:

"Si Jifa [Chau-si-pha] escaped to Mengyang [Mong Yang] in early
1449 but was caught by the chieftain of Ava-Burma. In April
1454 the chieftain of Ava-Burma asked the Chinese to revert
the land to him and the Ming ceded Yinjia to Burma, so Si
Jifa and his family, a total of six people, were delivered to the
Ming troops at a village on Upper Irrawaddy. Si Jifa [Chau-sipha]
was immediately escorted to the capital where he was
executed. However, Ava-Burma let Si Bufa, the younger
brother of Si Jifa, go free. He and his son, Si Hongfa
(Thohanbwa) continued to rule Mengyang without the official
approval of the Ming court. They sent tribute missions to
China, but the court kept a close eye on the matter. Early in
the Jiajing reign
Jiajing Emperor
The Jiajing Emperor was the 11th Ming Dynasty Emperor of China who ruled from 1521 to 1567. Born Zhu Houcong, he was the former Zhengde Emperor's cousin...

one of the descendants of Si Renfa [Chau-ngan-pha,
Thonganbwa], then ruling Mengyang, managed to
take revenge. In 1527 (Jiajing 6) he led an army that marched
south to invade Ava-Burma, killing the chieftain Mang-ji-si
(Shwenankyawshin) [Narapati (1502-1527)] and his wife."

Consequences of the Wars

As the historian Wang Gungwu observes:

"This war had disastrous consequences for the Ming state, it
disrupted the economies of all the southwestern provinces
involved in sending men and supplies in fighting a war of
attrition against a small tribal state and it cost the Ming state
the respect of its tribal allies on the border, who saw how inept
and wasteful the Ming armies were. Moreover, the war drew
commanders, officers, men, and other resources from the north
which might have been vital to the defence of the northern
borders. It is significant that the end of the Lu-ch’uan
campaigns early in 1449 was followed immediately by extensive
tribal uprisings and other revolts in five provinces south of the
Yangtze river, and, on the northern frontiers, by the
spectacular defeats later in the year which virtually destroyed
the imperial armies in the north and led to the capture of the
emperor himself by the Mongols. The year 1449 was a turning
point in the history of the dynasty."

Another important consequence of the wars is that the Ming favored diplomacy from this time hence and shunned any military action along the frontier .

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