Study of Institutional Culture in Ancient Tujia Society—Military System Culture (I)
Chapter 3: Military System Culture. This chapter explores the military system of ancient Tujia society, mainly concerning the military organizations and management systems established by the central dynasty in Tujia areas to consolidate power and stabilize the frontier, including the Weisuo system, the Yingqi system, the Tujia army system, and its military training system. Section 1: Weisuo and Yingqi Systems...
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
Chapter Three: Military System Culture
The military system of ancient Tujia society discussed in this chapter mainly concerns the military organizations and management systems established by the central dynasties in the Tujia areas out of the need to consolidate political power and stabilize the frontier, including the wei-suo system, the ying-qi system, the tu army system, and the military training system of the tu army.
Section One: The Wei-Suo and Ying-Qi Systems
In the Tujia areas, the feudal dynasties of the Ming and Qing periods, out of the need to maintain political rule and defend national security, successively implemented the wei-suo system and the ying-qi system to organize and manage the Tujia military.
I. The Wei-Suo System
Wei-suo were military organizational institutions established by the central dynasties in the Tujia areas during the Ming and Qing periods. Their purpose was to strengthen supervision over the various tusi in the Tujia areas and prevent social unrest and war in the Tujia areas. It should be affirmed that the establishment of wei-suo institutions eased the contradictions between the central government and the tusi, safeguarded national unity and stability, and was conducive to the Tujia people living and working in peace and contentment.
(I) Distribution of Wei-Suo in the Tujia Areas
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, while the central dynastic regime directly appointed circulating officials (liuguan) to the Tujia areas to govern jointly with native officials (tuguan), it also continuously stationed heavy troops and established guard stations (weisuo) in the border zones and strategic areas of the Tujia region, building a military defensive encirclement around the Tujia areas. Each guard was directly garrisoned by troops dispatched by the imperial court, which opened up land for military farming: "Guard soldiers, when there is no trouble, shoulder the hoe; when there is trouble, grasp the weapon." The chiliarchs (qianhu) and centurions (baihu) of the chiliad posts (qianhu suo) were mostly already-submitted "native chieftain officials"; "officials did not draw salaries, their posts were recorded as native officials; soldiers did not receive pay, their names were recorded as native troops." The distribution of guard stations in the Tujia areas was as follows: in the western Hubei Tujia area, Shizhou Guard and Datian Military-Civilian Chiliad Post were established; in the western Hunan Tujia area, Jiuxi Guard, Yongding Guard, as well as Maliao Pass-Ding Chiliad Post, Tianping Pass-Ding Chiliad Post, and Dayong Chiliad Post were established; in the eastern Chongqing Tujia area, Chongqing Guard and Qianjiang Chiliad Post were established; in the northeastern Guizhou Tujia area, Wukai Guard was established.
Regarding Shizhou Wei and Datian Junmin Qianhu Suo. "In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, it was reorganized as the Shizhou Wei Junmin Zhihui Shisi, under the Huguang Dusi. It governed one junmin qianhu suo, called Datian; three xuanfu si: Shinan, Sanmao, and Zhongjian; and eight anfu si... The Datian Junmin Qianhu Suo was established, subordinate to Shizhou Wei." "In the intercalary fourth month of the twenty-third year of Hongwu, on the bingshen day, the Datian Qianhu Suo was established, subordinate to the Shizhou Junmin Zhihui Shisi. Previously, the Duke of Liang, Lan Yu, memorialized that the barbarian people of the caves of Sanmao, Zhennan, Dawang, Shinan, and others rebelled and submitted unpredictably. Although Qianjiang and Shizhou had guard troops, they were separated by great distances, making it difficult to respond promptly in emergencies. Now the area of Dashuitian in Sanmao was connected with the various barbarian caves, and it was appropriate to establish a qianhu suo for defense. At this point, Qianhu Shishan and others were ordered to lead 1,500 native soldiers from Youyang and establish a suo at Dashuitian to guard it." According to the Draft History of the Qing, Shizhou Wei was stationed in Enshi City and governed thirty-one tusi including the Shinan Xuanfu Si and Rongmei Xuanfu Si. "Under the Ming system, Shizhou Wei governed three li, five suo, and thirty-one tusi. Shiduli, Dutingli, and Chongningli, along with the three suo of Fuokuo Left, Right, and Center, the Datian Military and Civilian Thousand-Household Suo, and the Zhiluo Town Defense Hundred-Household Suo. Gu Zuyu, in his Readings in Historical Geography, states that the Datian Military and Civilian Thousand-Household Suo governed native offices such as the Sanmao Chief's Office. "The Datian Military and Civilian Thousand-Household Suo is 350 li west of the guard headquarters. Originally native territory, in the Song dynasty it was the loosely administered Rouyuan Prefecture, in the Yuan dynasty it was called Sanmao Cave. In the fifth year of Hongwu, the area was pacified, and in the twenty-third year the Sanmao Thousand-Household Suo was first established. The Ming army renamed it the Datian Military and Civilian Thousand-Household Suo. Its wall was less than three li in circumference, and it was subordinate to the Shizhou Guard.
Regarding Jiuxi Guard, Yongding Guard, as well as Maliao Pass-Ding Chiliad Post, Tianping Pass-Ding Chiliad Post, and Dayong Chiliad Post. The Guangxu edition of the General Gazetteer of Hunan records: "In the twenty-second year of Hongwu (1389), second month, the Huguang chiliarch Xia Dezhong allied with the Jiuxi barbarians and rebelled." In order to prevent the "barbarian people" of the Tujia areas from rising again, the feudal dynasty established Jiuxi Guard in western Hunan. "Jiuxi was the ancient Suokou market, ninety li northwest of Cili County, in the twenty-second du. In the Hongwu era of the Ming, the Marquis of Dongchuan and others were ordered to suppress Xia Dezhong and set up a stockade for defense. The location was strategically vital, where all routes converged, capable of controlling the Miao barbarians; later, because guard stations were established everywhere, a guard was set up here, named Jiuxi Guard." The History of Ming records the establishment of Yongding Guard and Dayong Chiliad Post: "Cili... to the southwest was Yongding Guard, established in the Hongwu era. In the eighth month of the twenty-third year, it was moved to Yuping in the Yongshun Pacification Office; to the northwest was Longfu Pass, to the southeast were Houping Pass and Heichong Pass, called the Three Passes of Yongding. Its subordinate was the Dayong Defense Chiliad Post, originally Dayong Guard, west of Yongding Guard, established in the fourth month of the ninth year of Hongwu, changed to a post in the thirty-first year. There was also the Maogang Chief's Office, northeast of the guard, established in the Zhengtong era." The Longqing edition of the Yuezhou Prefecture Gazetteer records: "The Maliao Defense Chiliad Post was in the seventeenth du northwest of Cili. In the Hongwu era, native chieftains were made chiliarchs and centurions, native people were made pass-ding, Han officials were co-defenders, and centurions were further assigned to guard the various passes." In the first year of Hongwu, the native official Xia Kewu recommended the native chieftain Qin Shun as stockade officer. In the second year, Qin Tianshun and other native chieftains were still made chiliarchs and centurions. They led native soldiers to guard it, and ten centurions were further stationed at each pass for drill and defense, subordinate to Changde Guard, later changed to subordinate to Jiuxi Guard; their chieftains and pass soldiers were allowed to farm as they pleased, with no taxes.
Regarding Chongqing Guard and Qianjiang Chiliad Post. The Ming dynasty established Chongqing Guard, governing the Youyang Pacification Office and the Shigui Pacification Office. "The Youyang Pacification Office: in the fourth month of the fifth year of Hongwu, Youyang Prefecture was still established, and the Youyang Pacification Office was also established... In the sixteenth year of Yongle it was changed to be subordinate to Chongqing Guard.... The Shigui Pacification Office: in the first month of the eighth year of Hongwu it was made a pacification office, subordinate to Chongqing Guard." "In the ninth month of the eleventh year of Hongwu, jiashen day, the Qianjiang Defense Chiliad Post was established. At that time, the Pengshui County magistrate Nie Yuanji said, 'Qianjiang borders the Sanmao, Panshun, Youyang and other caves; barbarian bandits come and go, repeatedly causing trouble for the people; it is appropriate to establish a military guard and garrison. ' The edict followed his words, and a chiliad post was established to guard it."
(2) The Military Functions of Guard Station Institutions in the Tujia Areas
The difference between the Huguang native offices of the Ming dynasty and those established in the Yuan dynasty was the combination of the native office system with the guard station system; guard station institutions mainly undertook military defense functions. The Ming dynasty established guard station institutions in Huguang province, equipped with large numbers of military commanders and standing troops. The Ming court stipulated that each guard have one commandant, two commandants-adjutant, and four commandants-assistant; each defense post have several senior and junior chiliarchs and centurions; each guard lead 5,600 troops, each chiliad lead 1,120 troops, each centurion lead 112 troops. The Ming court also stipulated that guard stations established in prefectures and counties were under the jurisdiction of the provincial regional military commission, and each regional military commission was in turn separately under the central Five Chief Military Commissions. "In the early Ming, regional military commissions were established, stationed in the provincial capital, with each guard subordinate to them... Jiuxi Guard had regular troops and reserve troops; its regular troops were the troops subordinate to each battalion and post. The reserve troops were the several brave men originally organized in each prefecture and county, and the several archers."
Guard station institutions undertook military functions in two respects. On the one hand, internally, they suppressed uprisings of the Tujia "barbarian people." For example, the native chiliarch Qin Tianshun of the Tianping Pass-Ding Chiliad Post served the feudal dynasty and suppressed the Tujia people's uprising led by Qin Zhong. "In the second year of Hongwu, Qin Hou rebelled at Cili, and the Pingzhang Yang Jing advanced to attack. Qin Tianshun was ordered to attack from a pincer position, fighting continuously to Yongding, where he encountered the rebel partisan Tian Da at the Qianbaizhang Gorge. He captured him; Zhong was defeated and fled, and was executed." On the other hand, externally, they resisted foreign invasions; guard station institutions won brilliant military achievements for the Ming dynasty in resisting Japanese pirate invasions. In the thirty-fifth year of Jiajing (1556), native soldiers from guard stations at Yongshun, Maliao and other places surrounded and annihilated the Japanese general Xu Hai in a corner of Shenjiazhuang. Governor Hu Zongxian made the native official Tang Ren the vanguard commander: "Hu Zongxian then took overall command of military affairs; (Maliao Post Chiliarch Tang) Ren requested an audience and presented his strategy. Zongxian marveled at him, invited him into his staff, and had him assist in military planning. The bandit force was then at its height, and eight routes converged. Ren sometimes personally supervised battles, sometimes made decisions in the command tent. At that time Chen Dong and Xu Hai were at odds. Zongxian induced (Xu) Hai to surrender, ordering him to bind Dong and Maye and present them; he also ordered (Chen) Dong's faction to attack Hai, and Hai drowned himself. Before long, he again lured and captured Wang Zhi and executed him. (Tang) Ren indeed participated in the planning." In the thirty-seventh year of Jiajing (1558), native soldiers led by Tujia guard stations participated in the Zhoushan campaign against the Japanese pirates. The Japanese pirates at Zhoushan in Ningbo relied on the terrain and put up stubborn resistance; the regional commander Yu Dayou commanded more than 6,000 native soldiers from Maliao, Sangzhi, Zhenxi and other places, resisted the Japanese pirates, burned their camps, and won a great victory in the Zhoushan campaign. Thereupon, the Japanese pirates in Zhejiang were completely cleared out.
II. The Battalion and Banner System
The battalion and banner system was another military organization and management system established by the central dynastic regime in the Tujia areas. It began in the Ming dynasty and was an inheritance and innovation of the guard station system. Battalions and banners were mutually independent military institutions, with no clear subordinate relationship between them; the principles of their establishment were also different. Generally speaking, the establishment of battalions was based on the number of native soldiers, while the establishment of banners was determined by territory. Therefore, in the Tujia areas, native officials of the same rank possessed completely unequal numbers of battalions and banners.
(1) The Organization and Structure of Battalions
A ying was a unit in the regular army of the Tujia tusi and also a standing military organization of the tusi. Generally, only relatively large xuanwei si and xuanfu si could form native troops with ying as the unit; small and medium tusi did not have troops with this organization. Depending on the size of their power, the number of ying established by tusi varied. A complete ying military organization consisted of five ying: front, rear, center, left, and right. Among them, the center ying had the most important status and was led by the eldest son who was to inherit the position of tusi, while the other four ying were led by heads from major local clans or by relatives and trusted followers of the tusi. Each ying had 100 soldiers, and the ying troops had to undergo strict selection, with strong young men from each village and stockade carefully chosen to serve. All those selected to enter the ying were provided with a certain stipend: 'Each soldier received 3 taels and 6 qian of silver for work and food, and 3 dou and 6 sheng of rice, all apportioned from the people.' The ying troops were 'both to provide defense and to serve at labor,' and were an important armed force by which the tusi regime maintained local order.
According to historical records, the native officials in the Tujia areas that established battalion soldiers included: the Rongmei Native Office, the Maodong Native Office, and the Youyang Native Office. Among them, the Rongmei Native Office had the largest scale of battalion soldiers; in addition to the front, rear, left, center, and right five battalions, it also established a vanguard battalion, inner front battalion, inner left battalion, inner right battalion, inner bureau battalion, inner center battalion, as well as a firearms battalion, personal guard battalion, standard battalion, and guest-star battalion. The Maodong Native Office also established five battalions of "center, front, rear, left, and right," each with one chief banner officer, one banner leader, and one banner drummer. The Youyang Native Office "established five battalions, with five deputy commanders, five defense officers, twenty chiliarchs, and forty centurions."
(2) The Organization and Structure of Banners
The banner was an organizational institution that lodged soldiers among farmers; it was both a military campaign organization and a unit for native people to defend the land and farm. All residents within the jurisdiction of a native official were organized into corresponding banners. The names of banners varied; different native officials named their banners differently, and at the same time, the number of banners also reflected the strength of military forces and the size of population among the native officials.
According to the Qianlong edition of the Yongshun Prefecture Gazetteer, the Yongshun Native Office had a total of 75 banners. The soldiers of each banner usually lived scattered in the countryside, engaging in farming, and in wartime brought their own provisions and went out to fight. The names of the banners of this native office were: "Chang, Li, East, West, South, North, Xiong; Jiang, Neng, Jing, Rui, Ai, Xian, Feng; Zuo, Tao, De, Mao, Qin, Xun, Ce; You, Lue, Ling, Tong, Zhen, Jin, Zhong; Wu, Di, Liang, Xing, Fei, Yi, Ma; Biao, Chong, Shui, Zhan, Yong, Xiang, Long; Ying, Chang, Hu, Bao, Jia, Wei, Jie; Fu, Qing, Kai, Xuan, Zhi, Sheng, Gong." Taking seven characters as a line, each character representing one banner, for a total of fifty-six banners; later the two characters "Jing Mou" were added, making 58 banners. In addition, those serving the native official included the "Rong, Lie, Xiang, Miao, Mi Fang, and Drum-and-Trumpet six banners, the Ban Dang seven banners, the Chang Chuan banner, the San Ren banner, and the Zong Guan banner; and the 'Fu' character banner, which consisted of the clansmen and population of the native official." In fact, of the 75 banners of the Yongshun Native Office, only 58 were used for military needs; the remaining 17 banners provided administrative and logistical services for the native official and should not be included in the banner soldier formation.
The Baojing Native Office, of the Peng surname, governed a total of 16 banners, named Hu, Bao, Du, Zhi, Mou, Yong, Wei, Qu, Biao, Sheng, Qin, Li, Fei, Liang, Xian, and Zhen. The Sangzhi Native Office had a total of 14 banners, namely "East, West, South, North, Shen, Ling, Gui, Shun, Wei, Long, Hu, Rong, Zong, and Ke."
The Rongmei Native Office had a total of 48 banners, mainly including the Xun banner, Great banner, Dragon banner, Small Tiger banner, Personal Retinue banner, New banner, Camp banner, Lingdu banner, and Shanbiao banner. Local gazetteers also record the East banner, South banner, North banner, West banner, Phoenix banner, Cloud banner, Tiger banner, Dragon banner, and others. Volume 16 of the Changlo County Gazetteer records: "The Rongmei Native Office oppressed the native people, dividing them into banners named Feng, Long, Yun, Hu and other characters; each banner had a leader, above whom were the various officers of brigadier, mobile corps commander, and defense officer, and below whom were the major heads, each managing banner leaders and a number of chiliarchs, all holding licenses." The Sanmao Native Office was once very powerful in the Yuan and Ming periods, but declined in the late Ming and early Qing and could not match other offices. According to Volume 16 of the Laifeng County Gazetteer: "Since the beginning of native offices, only military force was valued; at that time Sanmao had forty-eight banners." The Maodong Native Office had five battalions and seven stockades, each led by a sheba or native head. "Within the office, soldiers and farmers, when there was trouble, shouldered halberds and followed; when there was no trouble, they farmed and practiced martial arts; this was probably the ancient idea of lodging soldiers among farmers."
(3) The Main Characteristics of the Battalion and Banner System
The camp-banner system in the Tujia region was a very special military organizational system, completely different from the military establishment in other regions during the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty military setup: "Initially, five Chief Military Commissions, twenty-one Regional Military Commissions, two Garrison Commissions, one hundred ninety-one Guards, two hundred eleven Battalions for defense, military farming, prefectural herding, and chiliarch offices, ninety-five Pacification Offices, Recruit-Pacification Offices, and Comforting Offices, and one hundred seven Barbarian Tribal Regional Military Commissions and Guards, each commanding its troops and tribes, obeying civil and military orders for patrols, weapons, grain transport, capital drills, garrison duty, mobilization, tribute, and frontier defense. Generally, a Guard had 5,600 men, a Battalion had 1,120 men, a Century had 102 men; each had two Head Banner leaders and ten Small Banner leaders, organized in large and small units to form an army. In major national campaigns, civil officials were appointed as Grand Coordinators, Supreme Commanders, or Military Advisors, while the Chief Military Officer wore the general's seal and led the troops. Upon return, the seal was handed back to the court, the general returned to his residence, and the troops returned to their Guards and Battalions to await orders. Military officers were not allowed to issue orders to move troops without authorization." Although the five-battalion system under the tusi system referenced the organizational structure of the Ming dynasty military, the tusi also directly commanded the five battalions, and the banner soldiers were also divided among tusi of varying sizes. Therefore, the battalion-banner system inevitably fueled the tusi's ambition to carve out territory for themselves. After the tusi became the highest administrative official and supreme military leader within their jurisdiction, they often relied on their troops and dominated a region independently.
The battalion and banner system in the Tujia areas was also a soldier-farmer integrated system combining military and production functions. The banner was a military organization established according to administrative divisions: "When there was trouble, they were assembled as soldiers for battle; when there was no trouble, they dispersed as common people to practice farming. Each native office divided its tribes into banners; each banner had a leader, governing households... the native people were separately subordinate to each banner." The banner system preserved in a new way the original clan and tribal characteristics of the Tujia areas, because after village tribal chiefs received court investiture, they transformed into native office heads possessing military and political power. They implemented a feudal serf system in their jurisdictions, using their possession of land to exploit residents through labor rent and rent in kind, organizing their households into the soldier-farmer integrated "battalions" and "banners," and turning battalion and banner soldiers into personal local armed forces and "household retainers." Banner soldiers were both the strong-arm men by whom native officials collected taxes and extorted from the native people, and the basic force for vendettas and conflicts among native officials. For example, although the Xiang clan of the Sangzhi Native Office and the Tian clan of Rongmei were constantly in vengeful conflict, they also jointly attacked other native offices. In the tenth month of the second year of Yongzheng, under the pretext of pursuing and binding the Baojing Native Office official Peng Zejiao, they "gathered more than 4,000 native soldiers, camped at Suoduoping in Baojing for more than a month, burned more than sixty villages and stockades, seized several thousand men and women, and sold them off at Youyang, Shinan and other places.... The native people had long been cruelly treated by the Sangzhi and Baojing offices, killed at will, and even kin slaughtered one another; the native people were as if in water and fire."
With the end of the replacement of native officials with circulating officials in the Tujia areas, the native office system was replaced by the circulating official system, and the battalion and banner system suited to the native office system also withdrew from the stage of history. After the replacement of native officials with circulating officials, the banner, as a purely administrative institution, was still retained in the Tujia areas. "In the seventh year of Yongzheng (1729), native offices were changed and counties established; the land of the South and North banners was cut off and assigned to Sangzhi; half of each of the Chen, East, Xiong, Jiang, Rui, Ai, Zhen, Wu, Biao, Zhan, Long, and Wei banners, together with the Xian, Feng, Tao, Mao, Ce, Tong, Gai, Fei, Ma, Yong, Xiang, Hu, Jie, Qing, Xuan, and Sheng banners, was assigned to Longshan. Those within Yongshun territory were half of each of the Chen, East, Xiong, Jiang, Rui, Ai, Lue, Zhen, Wu, Biao, Zhan, Long, and Wei banners, together with the Xi, Neng, Jing, De, Xun, Ling, Zhong, Di, Xing, Yi, Chong, Shui, Ying, Chang, Bao, Kai, Zhi, and Gong banners. Also the Fu character banner consisted of the native official's clan, scattered in various townships, now separately belonging to the two counties of Yong and Long."