Kato Kumiko Laboratory

Sipsongpanna was a Tai state that existed in the southernmost part of present-day Yunnan in China until the Chinese Communist Liberation in 1950. The Mekong River ran through its center, and its tributaries made intermountain basins and small alluvial flats, where Tai people were the main residents. On the other hand, non-Tai people mainly lived on the hills.

Sipsongpanna consisted of approximately thirty principalities, or autonomous political units, called “moeng.” Each moeng was governed by its own prince. The prince of Moeng Cheng Hung was also the “king” of Sipsongpanna.

In Sipsongpanna, the taxes were divided into three categories; rice, the other tributes, and corvée. This paper is a discussion on the tributes and corvée given by people to the king from a Tai manuscript written in Tham letters as a source of information.

The analysis shows that the descriptions of tributes and corvée in the manuscript include many cases of non-Tai hill people and people of other moengs, although it also refers to corvée for Tai villages in Moeng Cheng Hung. According to the manuscript, the political power of Cheng Hung could exercise influence not only on Tai people in Moeng Cheng Hung but also on hill people and certain people in other moengs.

However, when the political power of Cheng Hung imposed tributes or corvée on them, it did not divide them into Tai and non-Tai people, but instead recognized all of them by the concept of “phai moeng.” Similarly, they did not divide tributes from corvée, but instead recognized them under one concept of “Nguat Chao.” The most common taxable unit in the manuscript was baan or village, which was the only taxable unit for the Tai people in Moeng Cheng Hung. In addition, kawn, a hill people’s unit, was the next most common taxable unit in the manuscript.

Tai states, which were located in present-day Thailand, Laos, Shan States in Myanmar, Southwestern China, or Northwestern Vietnam, consisted of several principalities or autonomous political units called moeng or muang. The power relationship among the principalities and the capital moeng can be understood by discussing how the capital moeng ranked the principalities politically and ritually.

This paper analyzes Sipsongpanna as a case of Tai states. It was located in the southernmost area of Yunnan and became a part of China after the Chinese Communist Liberation in 1950. Some of the principalities in Sipsongpanna were given official titles as governors by the Qing Dynasty in the first half of the eighteenth century. This paper uses, as sources of information, Tai manuscripts written in “Tham” letters as well as the reports of the investigations conducted in the 1950s for land reform.

Analyses show that the principalities given high titles by Moeng Cheng Hung, the capital moeng of Sipsongpanna, were divided into two categories:

1.old and autonomous principalities that appeared by the first half of the fifteenth century in Cheng Hung Chronicle — most of these were ranked relatively low in the accession ceremony and parades for the king

2.principalities that were rarely referred to in Cheng Hung Chronicle before the eighteenth century, when the Qing Dynasty bestowed upon them the highest title of indigenous rulers (except Moeng Cheng Hung) in Sipsongpanna — most of these were ranked relatively high in the accession ceremony and parades for the king

The appointment of indigenous rulers with different official titles in the first half of the eighteenth century by the Qing Dynasty may have significantly affected the power relationship among the principalities. Both Moeng Cheng Hung and the other principalities attempted to use this to their own advantage.

Sipsongpanna had paid tribute to both Chinese and Burmese Empires since the latter half of the 16th century. In the middle of the 19th century, contact with the Rattanakosin Dynasty also appeared. Mahachai, the Lord of Muang Pong, which was a powerful principality in Sipsongpanna, as well as

Suchawanna succeeded to the throne and was officially appointed as the monarch of Sipsongpanna by the Chin Dynasty in 1834. From 1847 to 1850, another member of the royal family attempted to seize the throne, with assistance from Burma and Chiang Tung. In 1848, during this intermittent warfare, Suchawanna’s mother and younger brother (the viceroy) moved to Bangkok and stayed there for several years. Mahachay, the lord of Moeng Phung, also went with them.

Most previous studies argue that this implies that Sipsongpanna relied on the Rattanakosin Dynasty and sought help in internal warfare against the usurper. However, there is not sufficient evident yet to prove this.

This paper examined a record of Mahachay’s statement made to Bangkok in 1852. It was found that Sipsongpanna’s deepening relations with the Rattanakosin Dynasty could not be interpreted to mean that Sipsongpanna asked for help from the Rattanakosin Dynasty of her own accord. Instead, it is better to be interpreted that Sipsongpanna was forced to create relations with the Rattanakosin Dynasty by way of aggressive leading of the Rattanakosin Dynasty, Nan and other northern tributaries.

This paper discusses Qing China’s view of its border and territory in Southernmost Yunnan in the 1830s by analysing historical sources such as Pu’er Fu Zhi, the official account of Pu’er Fu, written in the Dao Guang Period (1821-1850) and Captain McLeod’s 1837 Journal. In Yunnan’s southernmost borderlands, twenty-odd Tai principalities called moeng (muang) formed ‘Sipsongpanna’, where the lord of Moeng Cheng Hung, held the position of supreme ruler. Sipsongpanna had paid tribute to both the Chinese and Burmese dynasties.

It was found that the understanding of what constituted ‘Chinese’ territory in this region was still vague, but at least in 1837, Moeng Cheng Hung was considered to be on the edge of Chinese territory and functioned as a barrier. The Chinese view of where exactly the border was situated was also not clear, but, in practice, the line that China had to protect was Jiulong Jiang or the Mekong River, which flowed next to Moeng Cheng Hung. Here, the entry of ‘foreign’ officials across the ‘border’ was very strictly controlled, whereas merchants had far easier access.