Strategies and Measures

The scope of the southwestern frontier in imperial China includes present-day Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, and southwestern Sichuan, as well as the northern part of the China-Indochina Peninsula that once belonged to the Central Plains dynasty. The Han, Jin, Southern, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties governed the southwestern frontier to varying degrees. The regimes of Nanyue, Shuhan, Nanzhao, and Dali also established their unique rules there. Its vicissitudes over more than 2,000 years have outlined the epic evolution for this region and left many elusive historical mysteries.