论彝族土司制度的实施与完善

土司制度贯穿元、明两代。元代全面实行土司制度,边疆民族地区出现了一种“土流并治”的格局。但土司制度在封建王 朝统治者心目中,只是一种手段、一种安抚边疆民族地区的权宜之计。土司制度在明代达到鼎盛时期。明代的土司政权在政 治组织形式上已经被纳入了明王朝中央集权的统一管理,而在土司的统治区域内,在政治、经济结构上仍然保留了地方的民族 特点。明朝中期以后,随着封建中央集权统治对西南彝族地区的进一步加强,逐步开始了所谓的“改土归流。”

On the Implementation and Improvement of the System of Appointing Ethnic YiPeople's Hereditary Headmen in Yuan and Ming Dynasties

The system of appointing ethnic Yi people''s hereditary headmen ran through Yuan and Ming dynasties, and Yuan dynasty witnessed the full implementation of that system. Later in the national border regions inhabited by ethnic groups a system of parallel government by both hereditary headmen and government-appointed officials began to evolve. Nevertheless, in the eyes of feudal dynasty rulers that system remained still an expedient approach to pacify the border region''s ethnic groups. Reaching its heyday in Ming dynasty, that system in its political organization forms had been fit into a unified and centralized government of Ming dynasty, while in the domain of the hereditary headmen rule, its political and economic structures still kept regional ethnic characteristics. After the middle term of Ming dynasty reign, as centralized control of the southwestern Yi populated regions further strengthened, the so-called "change of hereditary headmen rule to government officials'' governance" took effect progressively.