论明代“理苗”之失——以铜仁府“苗患”不绝为例

On the Loss in Governing the Miao People by the Ming Dynasty——Taking "the Trouble by the Miao People" in Tongren Prefecture as Example

明代的铜仁府自置府之日起,一直"苗患不绝",两百余年间总是一波未平,一波又起,明廷为此疲于奔命,糜费资财无数。究其原因,全在于明廷在理苗上存在着两大失策。从战略上看,明廷一直被动设防、被迫迎战。从战术上看,明廷未能主动收集和积累"苗疆生界"内的苗情资料,沉溺于与"苗疆生界"内苗民拼人力、拼物力的呆板战法。这两大失策的存在,直接导致了有明一代,铜仁及周边的湖广、四川接壤地带战祸连连,正常的社会、经济生活蒙受了重大的损失,最后不得不采取围绕苗疆修筑"边墙"被动退守的下下之策。

During the more than 200 years since Tongren prefecture was set up in the Ming Dynasty,the Miao people had caused great trouble for the government. Two improper strategies should be responsible for this situation, one is that the Ming Government had been forced to defend and fight, the other that the government was ignorant of the Miao people and the Miao frontiers, indulging in a stiffened strategy of depleting flesh and resources. The improper strategies had led to the continuous disasters of war in Tongren and its surrounding areas in Hunan, Hubei, and Sichuan, causing the government to adopt a worst strategy of building ＂frontier walls＂ to defend.