Place names

Lu-chuan/Ping-mian Pacification Superintendency (麓川/平緬宣慰使司)

Initially a combination of two polity names, in the MSL references the "Ping-mian" element of the name was eventually dropped and the polity was known simply as "Lu-chuan". This Tai Mao polity was one of the major upland Southeast Asian polities of the 13th to 15th centuries. Ping-mian was probably "Pong". Phayre (1967; 12) notes "Pong" as a Manipuri term referring to a country on the Upper Irrawaddy, while Harvey (1925; 322) notes that "Pong" was the Mau Shan state of Mogaung. Lu-chuan was centred on what is today Rui-li County in Yun-nan, PRC and its territory extended over much of what is today western Yun-nan and the Shan states of Burma/Myanmar. The polity's power was gradually eroded and finally destroyed by a series of huge Chinese military expeditions in the mid-15th century.

Elias (1876; 14-50) provides "The Story of Mung-mau" which is based on Tai sources and Pemberton (1835). The names of the polity rulers in the MSL can be equated with those in the Tai sources as follows: Si Ren-fa = Tho-ngan-bwa; Si Lun = Tsa-lun ; Si Han-fa = Tho-han-bwa; while Si Ji-fa may be equivalent to Chau Si-pha. The genealogies of the Tai Mao rulers might be profitably compared with those of the Ahom listed in Baruah (1985; 661). For other literature, see Briggs (1949; 66-68), Jiang Ying-liang (1980), Liew Foon-ming (1993) and the entries under Tai Nua (Tai Mao and Chinese Shan) and Shan (Tai Ya) in Tanabe (1991; 44-53). See Song, Dao and Xue (1990) for a Sinicized account of Mong Mao in both Chinese and Tai.

For information on further Chinese sources relating to this polity, see Dao Yong-ming (1989; 141-235), Fang Guo-yu (1987; 797-98, 859-64, 867-70, 1065) and Gong Yin (1985; 196-198 and 1992; 615-618).