Gaitu Guiliu and Qing Frontier Governance: Local Power and Negotiated Rule in Jinggu (Southwest Yunnan)

Abstract: This paper examines the Qing policy of gaitu guiliu (the replacement of native officials with direct administration by the Chinese imperial court) as a flexible form of frontier governance rather than a linear process of administrative consolidation. Using Jinggu (Tai: Möeng Bò) in southwest Yunnan as a case study, it argues that gaitu guiliu reshaped local power relations through negotiation and compromise, rather than eliminating native authority. Focusing on the early eighteenth century until the nineteenth century, the paper situates Jinggu—a Tai Nüa polity in the Upper Mekong region—within a frontier political environment characterised by long-standing practices of mediated rule. Prior to the reform, local governance relied on flexible arrangements that linked native officials to imperial institutions while accommodating regional political networks. These arrangements shaped how gaitu guiliu was implemented on the ground. The paper demonstrates that the formal abolition of hereditary tusi (literally, meaning aboriginal office) authority did not dismantle local power structures. Instead, the introduction of regular officials often intensified fiscal extraction and administrative coercion, destabilising existing balances of authority. In Jinggu, these changes provoked sustained resistance involving Tai, Yi, and Lahu communities, revealing how administrative reform transformed local social and ethnic relations without securing effective control. In response to persistent unrest, Qing authorities adopted a hybrid mode of frontier governance that combined regular administration with continued reliance on native intermediaries. By foregrounding gaitu guiliu as a negotiated and contingent governing process, this paper reframes Qing frontier governance and challenges state-centered interpretations that treat administrative reform as a straightforward extension of imperial power.