How did the Ming Dynasty treat ethnic minorities?

Although the Ming Dynasty was a Han regime, it attached great importance to the management and rule of minority areas.

1. In the southern minority areas, the chieftain system was first implemented since the Yuan Dynasty, and obedient minority leaders were awarded hereditary official positions to manage their own places. Later, the implementation of the policy of "improving the soil and returning to the flow" brought the Tusi area under the direct control of the central government, which was conducive to the development of national unity.

2. In North China, Northeast China and Northwest China, the Ming government mainly set up military institutions to guard the country, such as the headquarters and health centers, in order to consolidate the stability and unity of the country. The Ming government also encouraged economic and cultural exchanges between ethnic minorities and Han nationality, such as resettlement, trade exchanges, building schools, promoting Confucianism, etc., and achieved remarkable results. These measures of the Ming government made the relationship between the border minority areas and the central dynasty increasingly close, thus realizing the real unity of the central dynasty and the border areas.

3. For the Nuzhen and other ethnic groups in Northeast China, the Ming government adopted the policy of appealing, detaining and divide and rule. Politically, the Ming government appointed tribal chiefs, who served as chiefs of health centers, announced their duties and gave them letters, also known as imperial edicts. Hercynian Nuzhen comes to Beijing from Kaiyuan to pay tribute every winter. Tributes mainly include ginseng, mink, Haidongqing, horses, pearls and other precious local products.

In the Ming Dynasty, Miao, Yao, Zhuang, Yi and other ethnic minorities lived in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Sichuan and Huguang. In the Ming Dynasty, the chieftain system of the Yuan Dynasty was retained in the backward areas in southwest China, and the upper class of local ethnic minorities were appointed as local officials to rule. Tusi yamen includes Xuanwei Division, Tuzhifu and other government agencies at all levels, and officials are hereditary.

In the Ming Dynasty, the detention center system and the chieftain local official system were implemented in minority areas, which promoted the unity and development of multi-ethnic groups in China.