Basalawarmi ( xng, ᠪᠠᠵᠠᠯᠠᠸᠠᠷᠮᠠᠢ, , died January 6, 1382), commonly known by his
hereditary noble title, the
Prince of Liang, was a
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
prince and loyalist who fought against the ascendant
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
in
China proper
China proper, Inner China, or the Eighteen Provinces is a term used by some Western writers in reference to the "core" regions of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China. This term is used to express a distinction between the "core" regions popu ...
. He was a descendant of
Khökhechi, the fifth son of
Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...
.
[Zhang, Tingyu et al.History of Ming.vol.124]
Before the fall of the Yuan
Before the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
's fall in 1368, Basalawarmi had been the Yuan
Viceroy
A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...
of
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...
and
Guizhou
Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...
, in southwestern
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. He held the title of
Prince of Liang, a
hereditary title
Hereditary titles, in a general sense, are nobility titles, positions or styles that are hereditary and thus tend or are bound to remain in particular families.
Though both monarchs and nobles usually inherit their titles, the mechanisms often d ...
passed down from one of his forebears, a son of
Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...
.
Following the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
's overthrow of the Yuan, Basalawarmi, from his capital city of
Kunming
Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...
, led one of the last pockets of Yuan resistance to Ming rule. He was able to withstand the advance of other forces of his time due to the relatively remote location of his domain.
Meanwhile,
Hongwu
Hongwu () (23 January 1368 – 5 February 1399) was the era name of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty of China. Hongwu was also the Ming dynasty's first era name.
Comparison table
Other eras contemporaneous with Hongwu
* C ...
of Ming, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, decided to approach Basalawarmi with an overture of peace, believing that conquering a remote region with force would be a costly action.
The connection between Basalawarmi and the remnant Yuan forces was limited but not terminated.
Ayusiridara Khan dispatched a messenger to Basalawarmi in order to confirm his sovereignty over Yunnan.
Despite the fact that Basalawarmi was truly loyal to the falling Yuan dynasty, Yunnan was independent of any external political forces during the reign of Basalawarmi.
The
King of Dali Duan Gong was
married to the Borjigin princess Agai, daughter of the Prince of Liang, Basalawarmi. They had a son and a daughter,
Duan Sengnu. their children were also called Duan Qiangna and Duan Bao. Duan Sengnu raised Duan Bao to take revenge against Basalawarmi for the killing of Duan Gong. A play was made based on these events. According to Yuan documents, the Duan family were originally ethnic
Han
Han may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group.
** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
from Wuwei commandery, Gansu. Other Duan families also originated from Wuwei.
Defeat and death
The
Hongwu Emperor
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...
initially sent a diplomat, Wang Wei, to attempt to negotiate with Basalawarmi in 1372, but Basalawarmi
executed
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
Wang Wei in 1374 after negotiations broke down. The Hongwu Emperor then dispatched the generals Fu Youde and Ma Hua to deal with Basalawarmi. In 1381, Ma Hua attacked Basalawarmi from
Guiyang
Guiyang (; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), historically rendered as Kweiyang, is the capital of Guizhou province of the People's Republic of China. It is located in the center of the province, situated on the east of the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, ...
while Fu Youde's deputies, Mu Ying and Lan Yu, attacked from another direction. The combined Ming forces, which numbered 300,000 men, met Basalawarmi's 100,000 units. Basalawarmi's forces were decisively defeated. Following his defeat, Basalawarmi
drowned
Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...
his wife, ordered his
ministers to commit
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
, and committed suicide himself on January 6, 1382.
After his death, his family was exiled to the state of
Tamna
Tamna, or Tamna-guk, was a state based on Jeju Island from ancient times until it was absorbed by the Korean Joseon dynasty in 1404, following a long period of being a tributary state or autonomous administrative region of various Korean kingd ...
(modern-day
Jeju Island, South Korea) according to the edict of the Hongwu Emperor.
Mythical account
In ''
The Deer and the Cauldron
''The Deer and the Cauldron'', also known as ''The Duke of Mount Deer'', is a comic historical novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha), the longest of his novels and the last to be published but chronologically it is the eighth novel. It was initially pub ...
'', a novel written by
Jin Yong
Louis Cha Leung-yung (; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong (), pronounced "Gum Yoong" in Cantonese, was a Chinese wuxia (" martial arts and chivalry") novelist and essayist who co-founded the Hong Kong d ...
, the main character retells a humorous mythical account of Basalawarmi's defeat. In this legend, Basalawarmi is said to have hundreds of
war elephant
A war elephant was an elephant that was trained and guided by humans for combat. The war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks and instill terror and fear. Elephantry is a term for specific military units using elephant ...
s, obtained from what is now
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
, in his army. The Ming general Ma Hua defeats Basalawarmi by unleashing ten thousand
mice
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
which drive Basalawarmi's war elephants to terror, alluding to the widespread
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
that elephants are
afraid of mice. Basalawarmi himself is not presented favorably; he is described as a drunken, fat, and cowardly old man.
See also
*
Khatso
The Khatso people (), commonly known as the "Mongols in Yunnan", is a Mongolic ethnic group, mainly distributed in Tonghai County in the Yunnan Province of southwestern China. The Khatso people are descendants of the army personnel of the Yuan dy ...
- Mongols who remained in Yunnan after the death of Basalawarmi.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basalawarmi
Yuan dynasty people
1382 deaths
People from Kunming
Year of birth unknown
Prince of Liang
Borjigin
Transition from Yuan to Ming
Suicides in the Ming dynasty
Suicides by hanging in China