Mosquito-Relish Diplomacy

Emperor Ping’s Charter and Hill-Valley Dynamics between China and Thailand

Authors

  • Richard D. Cushman (deceased)
  • Hjorleifur R. Jonsson Arizona State University

Abstract

The Mien and some other Yao peoples of southern China and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia have a curious document that is known as Emperor Ping’s Charter (Chinese: Pinghuang quandie) or the License for Crossing the Mountains (Chinese: Guoshanbang, Mien: Jie sen borngv). The text of the document provides a somewhat fantastic account of the origins of the Yao people, and declares that because of their ancestor’s favor to the Chinese Emperor then the Emperor granted them certain favors in return. Chinese scholars and some Westerners draw on the document for dates regarding interactions between the Chinese and the Yao. More recently some Western scholars have emphatically declared the document a fake that was made up by the Yao in order to strike beneficial deals with the Chinese authorities. We offer a third perspective by drawing on cases of hill-valley relations across Mainland Southeast Asia. For millennia, highland peoples provided valuable trade goods for lowland markets, including for international trade, and also served as border guards and significant allies of lowland courts. Trade and interethnic alliances contributed to the shaping of social life in Mainland Southeast Asia and adjacent southern China for millennia. The available historical evidence suggests that multiethnic networks were common, and further that they drew on efforts to promote peace and security.

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2020-12-01

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