Chiu Ling-Yeong
University of Hong Kong
The Consolidation of an Empire:
Early Ming Emperors’ Frontier Defence and the Untimely Demise of Tīmūr the Lame (Tamerlane)
35th Meeting of the PIAC, Taipei 1992
Chu Yuanchang, the First Emperor of Ming, was enthroned in 1368. After his enthronement, he immediately dispatched his most capable Princes, Prince Yen 燕王 and Prince Liao 遼王 to the frontier so as to avoid the possible insurrection of the Mongol remnants. In 1395, he again sent his seventeenth son Prince Ling 寧王 to reinforce his two step-brothers.
By 1395, Tīmūr the Lame had already achieved numerous successful but destructive military campaigns in Persia, Armenia, Georgia, Baghdad, Delhi, Kabul, Damascus and Ankara. In 1405, Tīmūr the Lame planned to conquer China, but he died on his way to the Celestial Empire.
In Ming Shih 明史，Ming Shih-lu 明實錄 and other related Chinese sources, there are countable records that Tīmūr the Lame had several times sent his envoys to China either paying tributes or seeking alliance; these records are not necessarily fictious but judging from Tīmūr the Lame’s personality and behaviour, it is hardly convincing that he would condescend to the rulers of an empire he planned to conquer. This paper attempts to offer some explanations why Chu Yuanchang had to rely on his sons to guard the frontier and also analyse Early Ming Emperors’ alertness in connection with Tīmūr the Lame’s possible invasion.