The Origins of the Tusi System

The Tusi system, a unique form of indigenous governance in imperial China, emerged as a pragmatic solution for administering remote frontier regions. These semi-autonomous chieftains ruled over territories spanning modern-day Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, and Guangdong provinces. The system’s roots trace back to the Dali Kingdom (937-1253), with powerful clans like the Gao family in Yunnan maintaining authority well into the Republican era (1912-1949).

These Tusi lords wielded extraordinary power within their domains. The Ning family of Guangxi demonstrated this dramatically when Ning Chengji massacred the male members of the Wei family for refusing a marriage alliance – unaware they were relatives of Emperor Zhongzong through Empress Wu Zetian. Such incidents reveal the Tusi’s brazen defiance of central authority when operating in their mountain strongholds.

The Delicate Balance With Central Government

Imperial dynasties adopted a calculated approach toward these frontier warlords. From the Tang through Qing periods, emperors including Li Shimin, Zhao Kuangyin, Kublai Khan, and Zhu Yuanzhang tolerated Tusi autonomy not from weakness, but due to practical considerations. The mountainous terrain made military campaigns prohibitively expensive, while the perceived “uncivilized” nature of local populations offered little economic incentive for direct rule.

This uneasy equilibrium occasionally shattered, as demonstrated by Yang Yinglong, the Bozhou Tusi whose late Ming rebellion (1589-1600) covered 75,000 square kilometers across three modern provinces. His defeat in one of the Wanli Emperor’s Three Great Campaigns led to limited “gaitu guiliu” (replacing native chieftains with imperial officials), yet failed to deter subsequent uprisings like the She-An Rebellion (1621-1629) that drained Ming military resources during the Manchu threat.

The Agricultural Revolution That Toppled the Tusi

Two humble American crops – corn and sweet potatoes – quietly engineered the Tusi system’s demise. Introduced during the Wanli era (1573-1620), these drought-resistant, high-yield staples transformed marginal lands into valuable assets. Guizhou’s population skyrocketed from 1.7 million in early Qing to over 5 million, creating land pressures that made Tusi-controlled territories irresistible to the state.

The Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1722-1735) launched comprehensive gaitu guiliu campaigns from 1726 onward. With new crops providing logistical support, imperial forces dismantled Tusi power across southwest China. Former chieftains’ lands were redistributed to landless peasants under tax incentives, while indigenous populations gradually assimilated into mainstream agricultural society – though the system persisted in remote areas like Kham and Gansu.

The Nomadic Parallel: Food Security and State Building

Similar agricultural transformations reshaped nomadic societies. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304-439), Di tribes around Chouchi became crucial grain suppliers to the Western Jin remnant court at Chang’an. The Xiongnu leader Liu Yuan, educated in Han classics, strategically adopted farming to strengthen his Han-Zhao regime.

Kublai Khan’s victory over Ariq Böke in the Toluid Civil War (1260-1264) hinged on controlling grain supplies to the Mongolian steppe. His blockade of Karakorum demonstrated how agricultural logistics could decide nomadic succession struggles. The Yuan Dynasty later institutionalized military farming (tuntian), with 20,000 soldiers cultivating over a million mu (≈67,000 hectares) in Xinjiang alone during campaigns against Kaidu.

Legacy in Modern China

Today, former Tusi territories like Lijiang and Hongya have become tourist attractions showcasing indigenous architecture. The gaitu guiliu reforms laid foundations for the Qing’s prosperous frontier regions, while crop diffusion patterns continue influencing ethnic distribution. Meanwhile, Mongolia’s later attempts at urbanization – like Altan Khan’s 16th-century Hohhot – echoed the perennial tension between nomadic mobility and settled agriculture that shaped East Asian history.

This complex interplay between geography, food production, and governance reminds us how seemingly mundane factors like crop yields could reshape empires. The Tusi system’s thousand-year dominance ultimately yielded not to imperial armies, but to the quiet revolution of American crops taking root in Chinese soil.