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Wan-li: Year 11, Month 12, Day 19

31 Jan 1584

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The Yun-nan Grand Coordinator Liu Shi-zeng advised: "Through investigations of the yi situation, it appears that in the eighth year of the Wan-li reign (1580/81), Mang Rui-ti called the guard officials from Teng-yue Subprefecture to go and meet him. The military defence circuit was afraid that Han Ba of Mu-bang had guileful plans and thus five persons, including the interpreter Mu Xiao-keng, were secretly sent taking silks and saddled horses to go into Ava-Burma to spy and investigate. Unexpectedly, they were captured on the road by Han Ba. Ba subsequently sent them to Pegu with attendants and documents. When they arrived, Xiao-keng and the others presented all the goods they had brought to the Mang bandit. The bandit took them and sent these persons back, together with several types of coarse cloth, silks and brocaded cloth. The extravagant and unprincipled words he wrote in a bamboo-leaf letter did not indicate the sense of offering tribute. Then a document seeking to offer tribute arrived, but at the same time documents relating to changes in the pacification commissions and spying on Teng-chong/ Yong-chang continued to arrive. At one and the same time, there were two things going on and they were contradictory. Subsequently, I sent an interpreter to instruct [Mang Rui-ti] with orders and to reward him with gold and silks. Further Han Ba was specially rewarded. This was in order to get them to offer tribute. However, it happened that by then the Mang chieftain had died and his son Ying-li, who inherited the post, would not meet the Han envoy or receive the Han rewards. Also, he was angry at Han Ba for having dual loyalties. He thus imprisoned Han Ba and attacked his territory. His tyranny and rebellion are thus very obvious. Now we need to make plans in many respects to punish him. We must not just consider this a minor matter of whether or not he has offered tribute." The Emperor said: "Previously, the Mang chieftain wildly attacked and seized the territory of the native offices. The local officials were relaxed and did not make concerted arrangements. They sought only to be without trouble and thereby they stoked the rebellion. This led to where the feudatory shield was completely lost and many troubles occurred on the border. Now, there is this wild claim that this chieftain had presented goods and sought to have relations. This appears to be very great deception of superiors. The office of scrutiny is to immediately investigate this official's past activities and memorialize the details."

Shen-zong: juan 144.5b-6a

Zhong-yang Yan-jiu yuan Ming Shi-lu, volume 102, page 2688/89

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Preferred form of citation for this entry:

Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/wan-li/year-11-month-12-day-19, accessed January 22, 2019