Department or Program
History
Second Department or Program
Asian Studies
Abstract
Abstract
This thesis argues that the Ming court regarded the Mongol soldiers in the royal guards as core collaborators and supporters of royal power on equal footing with the Han Chinese.
The targeted breakpoint of this project is a type of sword named Mixi sword which was equipped by the Ming Royal Guards regiment. By implementing the method of analyzing archival arms and armor in my research, I claim that the Mixi sword was not native Chinese, but originated in the Mameluk Sultanate (al-Misri) and was transported to the Steppe by Muslim merchants and soldiers, becoming a prestige weapon among the Mongols. When some Mongols surrendered to the Ming, these swords became iconic for Mongol members of the Ming royal guard. Since the sixteenth century, during the most solemn royal ceremonies, Han-Chinese royal guards who marched alongside the emperor imitated and commemorated their Mongol predecessors in the regiment by equipping the Mixi sword that these Mongol soldiers once carried into battles for the Empire in the past two centuries.”
Building on the analysis of the Mixi sword. I challenged the arguments that describe the Mongols’ ethnic identity dissolved under the Ming rule as the result of assimilation, and some of their noble titles as mere tools to maintain their loyalty and pacify the hostile Mongols outside the Ming’s northern borders. Instead, I proposed that the existence of the Mixi sword and the connection of the swords with Mongol personnel in the Mong Royal Guards indicated that on some occasions, the high status of some Mongols was granted not as a result of political control, but instead, as sincere honor and remembrance, and integrated into the Ming’s origin narrative as an intimate core partner of the royal power. The Han Chinese soldier’s imitation of Mongol soldiers provides a noticeable glimpse into the traditional Chinese ideology of the 华夷之辨“Differentiation between Civilized and Barbaric.”
I argue that the Ming court regarded the Mongol soldiers in the royal guards as core collaborators and supporters of royal power on equal footing with the Han Chinese. The breakpoint of this project is a type of sword named Mixi sword which was equipped by the Ming Royal Guards. By analyzing material remains and administrative records, I claim that the Mixi sword originated in the Mameluk Sultanate (al-Misr) and was transported to the Steppe becoming a prestige Mongolic weapon. I challenged the arguments that describe the Mongolic ethnic identity dissolved under the Ming rule as the result of assimilation.
Level of Access
Open Access
First Advisor
Chaney, Wes
Second Advisor
Faries, Nathan
Date of Graduation
5-2025
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Recommended Citation
Huang, Gongshi, "Royal Guards, The Mixi Sword, and Political Identities: Mongols as Co-Founders of the Ming Dynasty" (2025). Honors Theses. 510.
https://scarab.bates.edu/honorstheses/510
Number of Pages
62
Components of Thesis
1 pdf file
