Imperial Rule and Ethnic Identity

Such tensions sometimes had an ethnic dimension. In mountainous sections of the southern province of Guangdong, such people who fell outside the state's reach were often called Yao, a broad term that in later centuries came to connote a non­Chinese linguistic or ethnic identity.

The imperial state's expansion also directly contributed to the construction of, for lack of a better term, ethnic identity. As noted earlier, registration as a “Tatar” household determined the administrative standing of Mongol and Jurchen families.

Finally, the Yao figured in another important pattern of governance used by the Ming (like earlier and later dynasties) in interactions with the familiar Other in border regions. In the tusi or local chieftain system, the Ming state recognized leaders from families that had often held power for centuries. Recognition from the throne, access to Chinese economic resources, and occasional recourse to Ming military support strengthened these local leaders' position. The administration of regions under their control was staffed by local men rather than officials dispatched by the central government, as was the norm in the rest of empire. Local populations were not rigorously integrated into the imperial household registration system. One scholar has characterized the result as “dual sovereignty.”^[1450] During struggles among local elites, incumbents, and challengers sometimes called on Ming sup­port. The Ming state, however, exercised only uneven control, and many officials argued against entanglement in violent struggles that were imperfectly understood and usually tangential to core dynastic interests.^[1451] However, the Ming state showed no intention of abandoning regions under tusi rule, and their local leaders regularly contributed units of men to bolster Ming imperial forces in campaigns elsewhere in China.