Ming China and Its Allies Ontheeveoftheearlymodernage,Mingemperorsruledbetweenone fifth andonequarteroftheglobe’spopulation,themajorityoftheworld’slargest urban centers, the biggest standing army on the planet, and the day’s most affluenteconomy.Farfrombeingisolated,theMingcourtwasthegreatest centerofpoliticalpatronageineastEurasia,likelytheworld.Althoughthe Mingthronemighttrumpetitssuperiority,itunderstooditsneedforallegiance fromrulingelitesinneighboringregions.Inthismajornewstudy,DavidM. RobinsonexploresMingemperors’relationswiththesinglemostimportant categoryofEurasiannobles:descendantsofGenghisKhanandtheirMongol supporters. Exploring the international dimensions of Chinese rule, this revisionist but accessible account shows that even rulers such as the Ming emperorneededalliesandwerewillingtopayforthem. davidm.robinsonisProfessorinAsianStudiesandProfessorofHistoryat ColgateUniversity. Ming China and Its Allies Imperial Rule in Eurasia David M. Robinson ColgateUniversity,NewYork UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314 321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi 110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06 04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108489225 DOI:10.1017/9781108774253 ©DavidM.Robinson2020 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2020 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJInternationalLtd,PadstowCornwall AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Names:Robinson,DavidM.,1965 author. Title:MingChinaanditsallies:imperialruleinEurasia/DavidM.Robinson. Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:Cambridge UniversityPress,2020.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2019031673(print)|LCCN2019031674(ebook)|ISBN 9781108489225(hardback)|ISBN9781108774253(epub) Subjects:LCSH:Mongols China History 15thcentury.|Mongols Politicsand government.|Nobility Eurasia.|China History Mingdynasty,1368 1644.| China Politicsandgovernment 1368 1644.|China Foreignrelations Eurasia. |Eurasia Foreignrelations China. Classification: LCC DS753 .R63 2020 (print) | LCC DS753 (ebook) | DDC 951/.026 dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019031673 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019031674 ISBN9781108489225Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthirdpartyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. In fond memory of Tom Allsen (1940 2019). Contents ListofMaps pageviii Acknowledgments ix ListofAbbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 MarchtoPowerinaChinggisidWorld 19 2 SearchforControl 58 3 MongolNoblesattheMingCourt 88 4 TheStrugglefortheChinggisidLegacy 131 5 AlliesandCommensurability 163 Conclusion 196 Bibliography 214 Index 240 vii Maps 1 ChinaandInnerAsiainthefifteenthcentury page17 2 EarlyMingemperorsinthesteppe 22 viii Acknowledgments DuringmytimeatKyotoUniversity,whenthisprojectfirstbegantotakeshape, FumaSusumuwasalwaysasupportivementor.WhileafellowattheInstitute for Advanced Study, I profited from the scholarly generosity of Ursula Brosseder,NicoladiCosmo,MatthewMosca,andStephenWest.Myerudite hostsandcolleaguesatAcademiaSinica,ChangChi-ying,KevinChang,Chen Hsi-yuan,SeanLei,LinFu-shih,TommasoPreviato, WangFan-sen,andWu Jen-shu were unfailingly genial and encouraging. Over the years, the late Thomas Allsen generously shared his wide-ranging knowledge of Eurasian history. For their generous bibliographic assistance, I am grateful to Martin Heijdra and Hyoungbae Lee of Princeton University East Asian Library. I extend my thanks to Lucy Rhymer, my editor at Cambridge University Press. I particularly thank Christopher Atwood, Craig Clunas, Johan Elverskog, and Matthew Mosca, who took time to read and critique draft chapters.Theirinsightshavemuchimprovedmyunderstandingofmanykey issues and contributed greatly to whatever coherence the book achieves. Colgate colleagues, especially Dan Bouk, R.M. Douglas, Robert Nemes, Heather Roller, Andrew Rotter, Kira Stevens, Brenton Sullivan, and Xu Dongfeng,havegenerouslyextendedmuch-appreciatedsupportandinsights. I have benefited immensely from the opportunity to share preliminary research with colleagues at East Asian Languages and Literature, University of Pennsylvania; East Asian Studies, Princeton University; the School of Chinese, Hong Kong University; the Bonner sinologisches Kolloquium, Bonn University, Germany; Renmin University, Beijing; the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing; the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica; the Association for Ming Studies, Taiwan; the Center for Chinese Studies, Taiwan; theCenter for MongolStudies, UniversityofInner Mongolia;KyotoUniversity;andtheMaxwellSchoolofSyracuseUniversity. Several conferences – Korea and the World Seen (Observed) through the Kangni Map, Seoul National University; Korea University, Seoul; Center for Mongolian Studies; Comparative Studies in Imperial History, Eisenach, Germany; Mobility and Transformations: Economic and Cultural Exchange in Mongol Eurasia, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; The Mongols and ix x Acknowledgments Sino-Mongol Relations, 1368–1634, Nanjing University; and International OrderandExchangeinEastAsia,SecondInternationalSymposium–provided awonderfulchancetolearnfromexpertsandsharpenmyideas. My research would have been impossible without the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, Institute for Advanced Study, Fulbright program to Taiwan, and Colgate’s Research Council and Lampert Institute Faculty Fellowship. This workwassupportedbytheLaboratoryfortheGlobalizationofKoreanStudies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2013- LAB-2250001).