Luchuan

Maps sometimes do not tell the whole story. Just because an area appears to be within the borders of a powerful country such as China, it does not mean that the people living there actually feel themselves to be, in this case, Chinese. An example of this is the Yunnan province of China, which has been within the boundaries of the Chinese state for hundreds of years but which even now has been fully integrated into it. In the fourteenth century, a large tract of Yunnan was under the control of an independent Tai polity known as Luchuan.

The Yunnan province region of China was the area to which the Mongols held on longest; it was not until he had reigned for 15 years that the new Ming emperor sought to reincorporate Yunnan into the central Chinese state, which is a fact that lends additional evidence for believing that the Chinese have long held an ambivalent attitude towards the area. By this time, residual Mongol (Yuan) control had atrophied to the extent that Tai Mao had been able to re-assert its own independence. By this time, the Si family had established control over large parts of Tai Mao and were recognised as holding the hereditary headman position by the Chinese, who eventually took back the area and renamed it the Luchuan Pingmain Pacification Commission, centred on Ruili, Longchuan and the southern parts of Dehong Dai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. Several generations of Si headmen pursued a complex relationship with the Chinese state before being eventually swept away. The first, Si Ke Fa (1340-71), had asserted Luchuan's independence from what was left of Yuan control, dismissed the local headmen and installed his own. In 1355, he sent his son Mansan to the Yuan court and managed thereby to have his actions legalised and his position formalised. It is recorded, although not substantiated, that peoples from as far away as northern Thailand, Laos and Burma paid tribute to him.

However, it was Si Ke Fa's grandson, Si Lun Fa (1381-99) who took Luchuan influence to its greatest extent, to an area of some 10,000 square li, encompassing Cheli, Mainguo, Tufan, Yongchang and other settlements. Inspired by his success, Si Lun Fa sought to re-establish independence from the Ming and gathered together various ethnic minority groups for his attack on Jingdong and central Yunnan in 1385. however, defeats at battles at Moshale and Dingbian by the Ming, combined with incidences of civil unrest, quelled his attempt and, although re-confirmed as hereditary headman by the victorious Ming, Si Ke Fa's power was compromised by the re-allocation of a number of minor headman positions away from his control.

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