“ACCOMMODATING BARBARIANS FROM AFAR”: POLITICAL AND CULTURAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN MING CHINA AND TIBET

Abstract

The Ming was a Han dominated dynasty established after the overthrow of the Mongol Yuan, a foreign conquest dynasty. After putting an end to the century of so-called “upsetting hat and shoes” <inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="splitsection3_in1.tif"/> rule of the “barbarians”, the Ming court often boasted of “emulating the way of the past sage kings” <inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="splitsection3_in2.tif"/> and took as its responsibility to recover and to reestablish the world order of a Chinese dynasty. Although the Ming inherited many of the former Yuan dynasty's institutions, it also made some fundamental changes. One of the important changes was rebuilding the “distinction between Chinese and barbarian” <inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="splitsection3_in3.tif"/> that had been broken by the Mongols, and the establishment of Ming legitimacy and identity as “Chinese rule” <inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="splitsection3_in4.tif"/>. From this identity, the Ming court once again held up the long-standing Han dynastic policy of “accommodating barbarians from afar” a basic principle for its interactions with surrounding ethnic groups. Not only was this a change from the previous dynasty's structure of rule as a great Mongol Ulus, but it also caused tremendous changes in the relationship between the Ming central government and other ethnic groups on its frontier.