"Tusi system" is a national policy used by the ruling class of feudal dynasty to solve the ethnic minority areas in southwest China. Its significance lies in keeping the shackles, and it is still imitating the "shackles system" of the Tang Dynasty. Consolidate its rule politically, maintain the original mode of production economically, and be satisfied with collecting tribute. The chieftain system in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region began with the "Jimi system" in the Tang Dynasty, formed in the Song Dynasty, flourished in the Ming Dynasty, collapsed in the Qing Dynasty, and ended in the early 20th century, which lasted for more than a thousand years.
The yuan dynasty began to be established. It was used to confer the titles of tribal leaders on ethnic minorities in northwest and southwest China. The position of chieftain can be hereditary, but the attack officer needs the approval of the court. In the Yuan Dynasty, Tusi had three military attache positions, namely, Xuanwei Ambassador, Fu Xuan Ambassador and Anfu Ambassador. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the chieftain was placed along the border. Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been three civil service positions: local magistrate, local magistrate and local magistrate. Tusi paid a certain tribute to the court and provided troops according to the imperial edict; Maintain its ruling rights as a tribal leader internally.
Since the Yuan Dynasty, the central dynasty has adopted a policy of appeasement to the ethnic minorities in the southwest frontier, and some ethnic minority leaders have been awarded the positions of local officials, forming a chieftain system. The implementation of the chieftain system continued until the early Qing Dynasty, and some chieftains were "hereditary" until the Republic of China. In the Yuan Dynasty, the local officials appointed in Chuxiong mainly included Gao, the military and political director of Conan, Gao, the military and political director of Yao 'an Road, and Gao, the military and political director of Fuding Road.
Most local officials are Yi people, but there are also Bai and Dai people. In the 14th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (138 1), the Ming army entered Yunnan, and the chieftain surrendered one after another. The imperial court retained the hereditary positions of local officials of various chieftains, which were divided into: knowing local officials, knowing local people together, having a unified system with local officials, and experiencing local officials. The largest is the state level, and the smallest is the hometown guard.
In order to strengthen the control of Tusi area, the central dynasty stipulated that Tusi pay tribute regularly. Toastmasters pay tribute to the central dynasty, which is a specific way to maintain the relationship between the central dynasty and Toastmasters and maintain the relationship between monarch and minister. Therefore, the feudal dynasties in Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties attached great importance to toast tribute.
The chieftain accepted the title of the central dynasty politically and sometimes enjoyed preferential treatment of tax reduction and exemption economically. Lighten the burden of preferential treatment, either because of natural disasters, or because of war, or to show grace.
Under the toast system, people below the toast are serfs. They have no land. In addition to providing heavy unpaid labor and serving as soldiers for the toasts, they also pay or pay tribute to the toasts in kind. This feudal serfdom was the economic basis of the chieftain system. In particular, some toasts extort money by force, such as pit money, hoe money, fireworks money and so on. Tujia people live under the double oppression of feudal rule and chieftain exploitation.
As a product of social development in Yuan Dynasty, chieftain system played a role in strengthening centralization and consolidating rule, and also had a far-reaching impact on later political system, especially local administrative divisions.
The Positive Role of Tusi System in the Historical Process of China
The first is to consolidate the frontier. The chieftain system was formed in the Yuan Dynasty. During the Yuan Dynasty, the territory of China was unprecedentedly powerful, so how to consolidate the frontier became a problem that had to be considered. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty said that as long as the frontier nationalities showed obedience, they would no longer interfere with their local management. In this way, the Yuan Dynasty did not have to spend huge energy to govern the frontier, and the Tusi border became a solid defense line and safeguarded national security. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it basically continued the frontier governance model of the Yuan Dynasty and developed the chieftain system to the extreme.
The second is to save administrative costs. The central government of all previous dynasties will consider the input and output of ethnic areas, that is, administrative costs. Ethnic areas are mostly remote areas or alpine mountainous areas. In the social period when land is the basic means of production, grain is the main harvest and the commodity economy is underdeveloped, the tax revenue and products that the central dynasty can obtain from ethnic areas are extremely limited. Therefore, their main expectation for ethnic areas is to protect the environment and people, followed by taxes or local specialties, such as horses and wood. When a chief surrenders to the central government, he usually expresses his willingness to pay taxes, but in fact he has not paid the full amount. In case of flood and drought or other special circumstances, the toast would report to the feudal emperor and ask for tax relief. The emperor would generally agree and give some material help. After toasting local specialties, the emperor not only couldn't get in. Under the influence of Confucian culture of "coming without being rude", he will also give back money with higher value than tribute to show the grace of the dynasty. The relationship between Tusi and the central dynasty is mainly administrative subordination, but the economic dependence is not obvious. Tusi's management mode of "ruling according to customs" made the central dynasty not have to invest a lot of manpower and material resources in the border areas, which greatly saved administrative costs.
Third, it has promoted the situation of mutual checks and balances between all parties. Adjacent toasts are connected by land. In the era when land is the main wealth and means of production, there are often disputes or compromises between chieftains because of land. Tusi and Tusi had a triangular relationship with the Central Dynasty. The struggle between the chieftains has to consider the authoritative intervention of the dynasty, and the game between the chieftains and the central dynasty has to consider the opportunities of other chieftains. This containment enables multi-party relations to coexist peacefully, does not intensify contradictions, and maintains a relatively stable social order.
The fourth is to protect multiculturalism. Ethnic minority cultures are accumulated in the long-term historical process, and it is inevitable that they will be impacted and lost by strong cultures in the process of "assimilation". The way of "ruling by custom" in the chieftain system has given ethnic minorities a lot of free space and prevented their traditional culture from being hit hard.
Historical limitations of the chieftain system
The main strategy of feudal dynasty to toast was "pay tribute according to the amount and listen to me", which was used to effectively control toast economically and politically. The disobedience of the chieftain often leads to the situation that the soldiers are self-respecting and the tail is too big to fail, which makes the central government have to consider the process of "changing soil into flow". This process has gone through a long period, because the central government has never had a perfect solution to the toast system, so that the central government has changed frequently and the toast system has never been established, so the saying "a hundred years of emperors, a thousand years of toast" has come into being.
After all, it is difficult to eliminate the potential threat to the central government because of the relatively closed toast system, cruel domestic rule and endless wars abroad. The most important thing is that the toast system has not adapted to the needs of economic and social development. Therefore, once the central government has enough power, it will intervene. By the Ming Dynasty, with the stability of the Ming Dynasty, local officials had realized the limitations of the chieftain system, and the idea of "changing soil into flow" was gradually adopted and initially implemented. At the peak of the Qing Dynasty, the dynasty was powerful, so a large-scale "local reform" was carried out, and the chieftain system was basically destroyed. However, the toast system remained in the Republic of China until the founding of New China.
The agreement between "customary rule" and the rule of law
China implements the system of regional ethnic autonomy under the leadership of socialist countries. Ethnic equality and common prosperity of all ethnic groups are our basic ethnic policies. The party and the state have always paid attention to the economic and social development in ethnic areas and given preferential policies and support to all aspects. In recent years, ethnic minority areas have also made great progress in culture, education, medical care and health care. However, due to historical and geographical reasons, the economic and social development in ethnic areas still needs a lot of manpower and material resources. The success of applying for the heritage of "Tusi Site" urges us to re-examine the historical orientation and function of Tusi system, that is, Tusi system is not useless, but has certain reference significance for adhering to the system of regional ethnic autonomy and formulating relevant ethnic policies.
"Rule by Rites" embodies the respect for minority cultures and the brilliant political strategies of feudal rulers. However, the customs and habits of ethnic minorities are inevitably inconsistent with the national legal system. For example, the customary mediation system of the Yi people has played a great role in solving civil disputes, but mediation is also used in criminal cases, which conflicts with the spirit of national law. In this case, national laws and national customs should have an appropriate point of convergence, which should not only ensure the authority of the national legal system, but also safeguard the dignity of national culture.
In the Tusi era, the central dynasty also attached great importance to cultural education in ethnic areas, such as requiring Tusi's children and close relatives to study feudal ethics and ethics in Beijing, and some even set up educational institutions in ethnic areas. Although the central dynasty attached great importance to education in minority areas to a great extent out of the maintenance of feudal rule, it also objectively promoted the development of cultural education in minority areas. Nowadays, one of the most important factors causing the "de facto inequality" among all ethnic groups in China is the imbalance of educational conditions. The combination of "ruling the country by customs" and ruling the country according to law requires vigorously developing culture and education in ethnic areas, inheriting and carrying forward the excellent national culture, and suppressing customs that are not in line with the development of the times.