Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven

The Capital Region

27 2 The Capital Region In 1500, Beijing and the surrounding area, the capital region, were simultaneously very old and very new. The region’s chief topographical features had formed nearly one million years before, and finds of Homo erectus in the area date from 500,000 b.c. Agriculturists had practiced in the region for roughly ten thousand years, and important walled political centers had appeared in or close to Beijing since at least the sixth century b.c. More recently, the Khitan Liao dynasty (907–1115) had located its southern capital in present-day Beijing, the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234) had established their central capital there, and, most recently, the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1272–1368) had chosen the site for their capital, Dadu. Thus, by the fifteenth century, Beijing and the capital region constituted a core area of China, long settled and closely associated with centers of political power. Yet, Beijing and the capital region were also very new in the fifteenth century. The founding emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) had situated his dynastic capital not in Beijing but in Nanjing to the south, closer to his power base and the economic center of the empire.1 Relegated to the status of a military outpost and deprived of the economic and political resources that made possible the splendor that dazzled Western observers like Marco Polo, Beijing’s glory quickly faded. When the third Ming emperor decided to make Beijing the main dynastic capital , early in the fifteenth century, it was not simply a matter of issuing an imperial decree or changing the city’s name. Beijing’s reconstruction was an enormous effort, which strained the empire’s resources and required decades to complete.2 Even the idea of Beijing as the capital was new to men of the Ming during the early decades of the fifteenth century. During the first half of the century, they self-consciously referred to it as the “northern capital” to distinguish it from the now secondary capital of the south, Nanjing. Only later would Beijing’s position grow sufficiently established that writers would refer to it as simply “the capital.” 28 The Capital Region Given the ritual and political centrality of Chinese capitals, the process of remaking Beijing into a capital city set in motion powerful political, economic, social, and military forces that would transform much of life in the surrounding region. During the first three reigns of the dynasty (1368–1424), in an effort to bolster defense, stabilize local society, and reinvigorate a suffering economy, the Ming state relocated more than one million people from around the empire to what became the Northern Metropolitan Area. Emperors granted large tracts of land throughout the region to imperial favorites. Among these favorites were eunuchs from counties south of Beijing fortunate enough to have secured positions in the imperial city. The Ming government attempted to organize Chinese society into hereditary households responsible for providing designated services to the state. As much as one-fifth of the Ming empire’s hereditary military households were concentrated in the Northern Metropolitan Area to keep Beijing secure. Despite Beijing’s powerful influence over the Northern Metropolitan Area, the state’s interests in the capital were not monolithic, and its authority in the area often gave rise to tensions at the local level. Emperors and their civil officials in Beijing frequently sparred over how imperial power should be allocated and exercised. This was particularly true during the reigns of emperors who refused to conform to the civil bureaucracy’s expectations of how the Son of Heaven should govern. These tensions played out on the local level as magistrates and prefects came to terms with recipients of imperial largess and the considerable influence endowed by such favor. Even within the imperial bureaucracy, jurisdictional conflicts arose. Jurisdiction over local military populations was anything but straightforward , and on occasion military officers openly threatened local civil officials with naked force. Even more thorny were matters involving Mongols settled in the area. Were they subject to regular military jurisdiction ? Were they the responsibility of civil officials? Neither set of authorities was anxious to find out, and many officials either attempted to shift responsibility elsewhere or elected to turn a blind eye to problems . These murky lines of jurisdiction and competing spheres of influence were well suited to those who violated the laws of the empire. Thus, one might assume that the area around Beijing would be one of the most secure in...