A Brief History of the Tujia — The Tujia After Gaitu Guiliu (I)
Section 2: The Tujia After Gaitu Guiliu — I. Reasons for and Implementation of Gaitu Guiliu: In the early Qing dynasty, the court continued the policy of "using barbarians to rule barbarians" toward southwestern ethnic minorities, following Ming precedents: any tusi who pledged allegiance was allowed to inherit his post. After vigorous management during the Kangxi reign, the state was unified and the regime stable, enabling the use of powerful...
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Section II: The Tujia People After the Replacement of Native Officials with Appointed Officials
I. The Reasons for and Implementation of the Replacement of Native Officials with Appointed Officials
In the early Qing Dynasty, the Qing court continued to adopt the policy of "using barbarians to control barbarians" toward the ethnic minorities in the southwest. Following the Ming system, local tusi (native chieftains) were allowed to inherit their posts as long as they expressed submission. After vigorous administration during the Kangxi reign, the Qing Dynasty achieved national unification and a stable regime. With its powerful political, economic, and military strength, it was able to abolish the tusi system in the ethnic minority areas of central-south and southwest China and establish direct rule.
In the late Ming and early Qing, the landlord economy developed widely, but under tusi rule, land could not be bought or sold, the common people were not allowed to migrate, corvée labor was heavy, and exploitation was cruel. The tusi system severely fettered the development of social productive forces and became a shackle on socioeconomic development. The tusi practiced tyrannical rule within their territories: "Their subjects lived separately in various banners; when a male was born, he was registered in the books; when grown, he was conscripted for service. Taxes were levied without justification, punishments and executions were arbitrary, and confiscation and sale of property were done at will." "The tusi killed people without requesting imperial approval, and did not observe mourning even upon the death of a parent." The tusi's household slaves could be disposed of at will. Lady Tian, wife of Tangya Tusi Qin Ding, traveled leisurely to Mount Emei in Sichuan with over a hundred slaves and maidservants, arranging marriages for them along the way. The Yongshun Tusi "whenever the shedba handled civil lawsuits, regardless of whether they involved marriage, land, or cases of homicide and theft, before the trial, without distinguishing right from wrong, determined victory or defeat solely by bribes. After the trial, the winner was pressed for gratitude gifts, and the loser also had to pay redemption money. In extreme cases where families were too poor to pay, their property was confiscated and their people sold off." Economically, the tusi exploited and extorted the common people at will with numerous pretexts. "In Yongshun, it was called the 'fire pit tax'—for every household cooking fire, 2 mace and 2 candareens of silver were levied per pit. In Baojing, it was called the 'hoe tax'—each hoe entering the mountains was taxed 3 to 5 mace of silver. In Sangzhi, it was called the 'smoke household tax,' equal to the fire pit tax. The autumn grain tax paid was deducted from this." On the basis of extorting the common people, the tusi lived a life of extravagance and debauchery. The Rongmei Tusi's banquets had "twelve courses, with goblets of pure gold." "The female entertainers were all lovely maidens of seventeen or eighteen, exceptionally beautiful."
Tusi fought each other endlessly over succession and property, bringing deep suffering to the Tujia people. In the first year of the Yongzheng reign of Emperor Shizong of Qing (1723), Peng Yubin inherited the post of Baojing Tusi. His uncles Peng Zeqiu and Peng Zejiao plotted to seize the office and seal, led tusi soldiers to besiege the government office, and engaged in mutual plunder and killing for several months. Later, Peng Yubin colluded with the Sangzhi and Rongmei tusi, under the pretext of pursuing Peng Zejiao and his brother, led tusi soldiers to burn over sixty villages and stockades, captured over a thousand Tujia and Han men and women, and sold them in Youyang, Shinan, and other places. In the fourth year of Yongzheng (1726), the Sangzhi Tusi Xiang Guodong and the Rongmei and Yongshun tusi, due to conflicts of interest, provoked and killed each other. The continuous internecine warfare and vendettas among the tusi made society unstable and the people unable to live in peace. Even Qing officials admitted that "the common people are as if in water and fire" and "the common people cannot bear their fate." Large numbers of Tujia people fled to escape the tusi's tyranny. In Baojing Tusi territory, "the people were scattered and the fields lay waste"; in the Rongmei area, "for over twenty years the people could not live in peace, fleeing and wandering, with few remaining." Therefore, the Tujia people of Youyang, Baojing, Sangzhi, Rongmei, and other places listed the tusi's crimes and accused them before Qing officials. "Petitions poured in like a swarm." "The common people accused them one after another. Urgent cries, all longing for gaitu guiliu (replacing tusi with regular officials)." Even Ran Yurong, a relatively enlightened intellectual from the Youyang Tusi family, because "the native officials were tyrannical" and harmed the villagers, filed a complaint requesting the establishment of regular officials. In the eleventh year of Yongzheng (1733), the Tujia people of Rongmei Tusi rose in revolt, "resisting grain taxes and forming factions, bringing their families," and in the dark of night bound the native officials guarding the checkpoints and fled the tusi territory.
At the same time, the tusi, due to military needs, often formed alliances with each other or dominated other tusi, forming larger separatist forces and creating hidden dangers to national unification. In the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi (1685), the Rongmei Tusi and Baojing Tusi renewed their old alliance. In the fifty-ninth year, they allied with the Sangzhi Tusi, enabling the Rongmei Tusi to establish its position as the dominant tusi in the southwestern Hubei region. "The rest—Zhongdong, Tangya, Sanmao, Dawang, Gaoluo,muce, Dongxiang, Zhongxiao, and others, too numerous to count—all looked to it for guidance and feared its authority, like the small states of Zheng, Wei, Zhu, and Ju serving Qi and Jin. The combined territory of all these tusi spanned who knows how many thousand li, shielding all of Chu, controlling the Miao and Man peoples, connecting to Ba and Shu in the west, and reaching Qian and Yue in the south." This situation increasingly clashed with the unification and development of the Qing feudal state.
The tusi also relied on their power to continuously expand into the Han Chinese areas along the borders, seizing large amounts of Han land, and even appointing officials in nearby prefectures and counties, directly affecting Qing rule in these places. The Muce, Sanmao, Labi, Tangya, Shinan, and other tusi successively seized no fewer than several hundred parcels of land in nearby Han areas. Land disputes arose endlessly, and lawsuits continued year after year. The Shinan Tusi Qin Yuding and the Dongxiang Tusi Qin Zhaochu, due to their lawless behavior, were summoned by Qing local authorities for questioning, but the Rongmei Tusi sheltered them and refused to allow the prefectures and counties to arrest and try them. The Rongmei Tusi also privately appointed officials in the bordering areas of Sichuan prefectures and counties, and annually sent tusi agents to collect taxes arbitrarily, posing a great threat to Qing rule in the region. The tusi's external expansion had a significant impact on the prefectures and counties in neighboring Han areas, often causing social unrest and destroying production. During the Yongzheng reign, officials were repeatedly sent to survey boundaries and erect Han-native boundary steles to prohibit this, but with little effect.
Under the above circumstances, the Qing court implemented gaitu guiliu (replacing tusi with regular officials) in the Tujia areas successively from the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727) to the thirteenth year (1735).
In the gaitu guiliu process, the Qing court adopted a policy of combining suppression with pacification and using both kindness and severity. On one hand, it deployed troops and secretly ordered the Yiling Town commander to reorganize his forces to block the tusi's advance route; it also dispatched Vice General Zhou Yide of Hengzhou to station troops at Jiuxi, with the troops of Lixian and Yongding under his command, to block the tusi's retreat route. If the tusi resisted, they could be attacked from both sides. It also ordered Zhou Yide, Hunan Provincial Judge Wang Rou, and Commander Liu Ceming to proceed separately to Yongshun, Baojing, Sangzhi, and other tusi offices to explain the pros and cons and persuade the tusi to voluntarily request gaitu. The Yongshun, Sanmao, Zhongdong, Dongxiang, Labi, Gaoluo, Muce, and other tusi, as well as the native officials of the Maogang and Maliao thousand-household offices, under the special circumstances of heavy troops pressing from outside, accusations from their own people within, the general trend, and popular sentiment, were forced to voluntarily request gaitu. The Baojing, Sangzhi, Shinan, Youyang, and other tusi were unwilling to easily give up their rights and interests and hesitated. The Qing court, based on the accusations of the common people, listed their crimes and forced reform. The Rongmei Tusi Tian Mingru refused gaitu, so the Qing court applied military force, sending large troops to surround and besiege him. His subordinate Wufeng Chief's Office head Zhang Tongzhu and others led their followers to defect, captured his private associates, and "the common people escorted the accomplices and petitioned for the establishment of regular officials." Tian Mingru, abandoned by all and surrounded on all sides, was forced to hang himself.
In the historical process of gaitu guiliu among the Tujia tusi, the gaitu of the Sinan and Sizhou two Xuanwei offices was a special case, mainly manifested in the early timing of their gaitu. The gaitu of these two tusi occurred in the eleventh year of Yongle in the early Ming (1413). Their gaitu was so early that not only could other Tujia tusi not compare, but even in the entire tusi system, it was unique. The gaitu of the two tusi originated from mutual vendettas, which the "History of Ming: Guizhou Tusi Record" documents in detail. After the gaitu of the Sinan and Sizhou tusi, the Ming court established prefectures in their territories: Sinan, Zhenyuan, Tongren, Wuluo, Sizhou, Shiqian, Liping, and Xinhua.
The Qing Dynasty's gaitu of the Tujia tusi proceeded quite smoothly, with the entire process basically completed without resistance. The Tujia tusi, historically known for their strength, were somewhat unexpectedly reformed in the great tide of Qing gaitu guiliu. There were naturally many reasons, but among them, the practical gaitu strategies adopted by the Qing court were a very important factor. These strategies included:
1. Combining military intimidation with peaceful pacification. Although the gaitu of the Tujia tusi involved no direct armed conflict, in planning the gaitu, given the tusi's long-vaunted strength, the Qing court did not neglect any precaution. Before formally implementing gaitu, it made military deployments, forming effective military deterrence and coercion against the tusi slated for reform. The Yongshun, Baojing, Sangzhi, and other tusi all voluntarily requested gaitu under these circumstances.
2. Abolishing tusi under various pretexts. This strategy involved gaitu on grounds of the tusi's "tyranny" or "lawlessness," such as the Rongmei Tusi reformed for being "extremely vicious," the Shinan Tusi for "lewdness and resisting summons, sentenced to gaitu," and the Zhongjian Tusi for "tyrannical lawlessness sentenced to gaitu"; or gaitu upon the tusi's "earnest request" or "voluntary" submission, such as the fifteen tusi of southwestern Hubei including Zhongdong who "assembled at the provincial capital and publicly petitioned for gaitu," and the Maogang and Shangxiadong tusi who requested gaitu themselves; or gaitu due to succession disputes, such as the Youyang Tusi where two brothers fought over the position and were reformed.
3. Using western Hunan to promote gaitu in southwestern Hubei. Of the four major Xuanwei offices in Huguang, except for the Rongmei Tusi in Hubei, the other three—Yongshun, Baojing, and Sangzhi—were all in western Hunan. The Qing court's strategy at the time was: "The Sangzhi office is the rear door, Yongshun and Baojing are its horns. If several offices are pacified and made into prefectures and counties, Rongmei will be trapped on its own." This strategy was quite effective. After the gaitu of the western Hunan tusi, the fifteen tusi of southwestern Hubei including Zhongdong assembled at the provincial capital to publicly petition for gaitu.
4. Concentrating forces to strike at powerful and lawless tusi. This strategy was mainly aimed at the gaitu of tusi in southwestern Hubei. There were many tusi in this region, but the Rongmei Tusi was the leader among them. The rulers believed that once the Rongmei gaitu problem was solved, the gaitu of the remaining tusi would be easily resolved. To this end, in the gaitu of the Rongmei Tusi, the officials in charge took great pains. First, they exposed the various evil deeds of the Rongmei Tusi; second, they deployed troops for military deterrence; third, they summoned the tusi head Tian Mingru to the capital; and finally, they instigated popular uprising to divide and disintegrate. This strategy was quite successful. The result was that the common people forced the tusi Tian Mingru to commit suicide and detained many native officials who surrendered to the Qing army. This was, on one hand, a revolt by the deeply oppressed common people, and at the same time, from a certain perspective, can also be seen as the result of instigation by the officials presiding over the gaitu.
Regarding the settlement of tusi who underwent gaitu, the Qing court adopted a policy of differential treatment during the implementation of gaitu guiliu. Tusi who voluntarily requested gaitu were appointed as canjiang (brigadier generals), waiwei, qianzong, bazong, and other offices, with permission for hereditary succession; those forcibly reformed were no longer granted official positions; those who resisted reform were dismissed for their crimes. The court also used the stratagem of luring the tiger from the mountain, ordering the tusi and their direct relatives to relocate to Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Liaodong, Henan, Shaanxi, Wuchang, Hanyang, and other places to prevent hidden dangers. The native officials under the tusi were ordered to "return to their native places and settle in their occupations."
According to this strategy, after the Yongshun Xuanwei Commissioner Peng Zhaohuai "voluntarily requested" gaitu, he was appointed Miao Frontier Canjiang, granted the title of Tuoshala Hafan, with permission for hereditary succession, and additionally awarded 10,000 taels of silver to settle and establish property in his ancestral place in Jiangxi. Similarly, the Sangzhi Shangxiadong Chief's Office heads Xiang Yuheng and Xiang Liangzuo, who "voluntarily" offered their territory, were granted hereditary bazong titles, and the Maogang Chief's Office head Qin Chun was granted a qianzong title. In other cases, the fifteen tusi of southwestern Hubei including Zhongdong were respectively granted waiwei and qianbazong titles, the four chief's offices under the Youyang Tusi were granted qianzong titles, and the Shizhu Tusi was changed to a native tongpan (subprefect), with permission for hereditary succession.
Tusi who resisted during gaitu or were themselves reformed for crimes all received severe punishment. The most representative was the Rongmei Tusi. Because the Rongmei Tusi Tian Mingru openly resisted gaitu and disobeyed imperial edicts, although he ended by hanging himself, he still received severe punishment. According to the "Original Ministry Document" in the Qianlong "Hefeng Prefecture Gazetteer: Evolution," his wives, concubines, sons, and daughters, according to the regulation for settling the families of tusi sentenced to decapitation or strangulation in distant provinces, were sent to Shaanxi for settlement. Many of Tian Mingru's subordinates were sent to remote border areas of Guangdong, Henan, and other places for settlement. Other tusi reformed for crimes—Baojing, Sangzhi, and Youyang—were all exiled to other provinces as severe punishment. Among them, the Baojing Xuanwei Commissioner Peng Yubin was settled in Liaoyang for his crimes, the Sangzhi Xuanwei Commissioner Xiang Guodong was settled in Henan, and the Youyang Xuanwei Commissioner Ran Yuanling and his ten descendants were moved to Renhe County, Zhejiang.
Apart from the large and medium tusi already relocated above, the remainder were mostly small tusi at the chief's office level, who remained in their original places after gaitu. These included the three native prefectures and six chief's offices under the Yongshun Tusi, the Wuzhai and Ganziping chief's offices under the Baojing Tusi, the Shangxiadong and Maogang chief's offices under the Sangzhi Tusi, the Wufeng, Shiliang, Jiaoshan, and Shuijin four chief's offices under the Rongmei Tusi, and the Pingcha, Yimei, Shiye, and Diba four chief's offices under the Youyang Tusi. For these small tusi already reformed, the Qing court had sufficient ability to control them, so leaving them in place without relocation caused the court no concern.
Gaitu guiliu was a reform of the political and economic system. The native officials who enjoyed various political and economic privileges were not willing to easily give them up, and whenever there was an opportunity, they resisted. Shortly after Yongshun's Peng Zhaohuai surrendered his territory, because Qing officials were "too strict in control and too hasty in reorganization," the native official Tian Ergen ordered over forty people from various banners, along with over a hundred followers, to rush into the city, besiege the government office, and bind the guards, attempting to resist the reform. The Qing court then beheaded the leading native officials and shedba, and sent the rest into exile.
Looking at the gaitu guiliu during the Yongzheng reign as a whole, the degree of reform in the Tujia areas was more thorough than in other ethnic minority areas of central-south and southwest China.