Dali Kingdom

Dali was a Buddhist Bai kingdom. Established by Duan Siping in 937, it was ruled by a succession of 22 kings until the year 1253, when it was destroyed by an invasion of the Mongol Empire. The capital city was Dali. In 1274 the Province of Yunnan was created, and the region has since been incorporated into China.

Yunnan under the Mongol Empire

The Mongols established regular and tight administrative control over Yunnan. In 1253 Möngke Khan of the Mongol Empire dispatched the prince Kublai to take Yunnan. The Mongols swept away numerous native kingdoms, including the Dali Kingdom. Later Yunnan became one of the ten provinces set up by Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan appointed Turkmen Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar as governor in Yunnan in 1273. Before that, the area had been ruled by a local king and a Mongol prince under the Great Khan. The Yuan provincial authorities conferred various titles on many native chieftains, who were obliged to pay taxes. When the Mongols were expelled from China in 1368, Yunnan was thrown into chaos and anarchy for several years. The Ming dynasty defeated the last of the Yuan loyalists in 1381.

Ming dynasty

The newly proclaimed Ming dynasty did not send armies into Yunnan until 1381. The central government allowed the general Mu Ying, the foster son of dynastic founder Zhu Yuanzhang, to set up a hereditary feudatory system in the province. Throughout the Ming, the Mu family developed tremendous influence in Yunnan.

From the end of the 15th century, the Toungoo Dynasty in Myanmar began encroaching on Yunnan. In the 16th century Chen Yongbin, the governor of Yunnan held back a Myanmar invasion. After the war, he built eight passes along the border in the Tengyue subprefecture to mark the demarcation between the two countries.

Qing dynasty

'Front of Tibet' Map Painted by Wu Run-De in the 'Ding Wei' year after 1901, which would have been 1907. Political regions shown clockwise from the top are Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Xianluo (Thailand), Miandian (Burma), Budan (Bhutan), Yindu (India), Nebo'er (Nepal), and so-called 'Houzang' ('back of Tibet'). Note that Thailand, or Tai regions, are shown between Yunnan and Burma, on Yunnan's historically typically ill-defined western border.

After the fall of the Ming in northern China, Yunnan became the last Southern Ming regime headed by Zhu Youlang. Supported by rebel loyalists, he persisted in resistance against the Qing conquest even after the Qing capture of Kunming in 1659. Zhu and his men then fled into Myanmar to seek refuge in Ava but were treated as prisoners. Zhu's armed followers savaged Upper Myanmar in an attempt to rescue him. General Wu Sangui, then still loyal to the Qing, invaded Myanmar in 1662 with a sizable army and demanded Zhu's surrender. Although he hesitated, King Pye finally decided to hand Zhu over to avoid hostility. Wu Sangui later turned against the Manchus but died in 1678. Yunnan finally fell to the Qing army in 1681.

Reference: Wikipedia

Photo resouce: Unsplash

If there's any copyright issue involved, please contact us to delete.