As succession to the Tusi position was hereditary, these regimes effectively formed numerous autonomous petty dynasties under the suzerainty of the central court.
[5] It has been described on at least one occasion as sharing similarities with the "U.S. federal government's recognition of some Native American tribes as in some ways sovereign entities.
[12] The tusi chieftains and local tribe leaders and kingdoms in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan submitted to Yuan rule and were allowed to keep their titles.
After reunifying China under the Ming dynasty and becoming the Hongwu Emperor, he brought this practice to the entire southern border zone of the empire.
The post was hereditary as opposed to the examination system in China proper, but succession, promotion, and demotion were all controlled by the Ming administration which required each tusi to use a seal and an official charter.
Areas of tusi administration tended to explode into violence or turmoil intermittently and would invariably provoke Ming military intervention.
Thus, they decided to transfer part of ruling power to those local political rulers in exchange for their defense of the border zone.
Nominally, they had the same rank as their counterparts in the regular administration system[19] The central government gave more autonomy to those military tusi who controlled areas with fewer Han Chinese people and had underdeveloped infrastructure.
[20] Throughout its 276-year history, the Ming dynasty bestowed a total of 1608 tusi titles, 960 of which were military-rank and 648 were civilian-rank,[21] the majority of which were in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.
The leader was later given the title Yanhua Chanshi (演化禅师), or "Evolved Chan Master", and the power to rule 15 villages as his domain as a reward.
[22] After a chieftain was recognized by the central government as a tusi, he would receive a patent of appointment, a bronze official seal, a belt decorated with gold, and a formal attire as uniform.
For seasonal religious rituals or sacrifices, tusi had rights to collect rice and copper coins from each local household.
[30] Apart from bodyguards, tusi were allowed to maintain a private military, the size of which depended on their domain's resources, to better defend the borderland and suppress rebellion.
They enjoyed autonomy or semi-autonomy in their domains, but were expected to maintain order and defend the border zones for the Ming dynasty.
For example, in Anping of Guangxi province, each household was required to donate 400 copper coins during weddings and funerals of members of the tusi's family.
[35] In 1621 the Yi people instigated the She-An Rebellion in Sichuan and Guizhou, which lasted until 1629 and took an astronomical toll on Ming resources before it was quelled.
Gaitu guiliu (改土歸流) was a policy of abolishing the rule of local tusi (土司) and replace (gai 改) them by a "mainstream" (liu 流) direct administration.
During the Ming dynasty, there were 179 tusi and 255 tuguan (Chinese: 土官, "native civilian commanders") in Yunnan and titles were generally retained with the exception of punishment for severe crimes.
By the time of the Yongzheng Emperor, there were only around 41 left in Yunnan, including Cheli, Gengma, Longchuan, Ganya (modern Yingjiang), Nandian, Menglian, Zhefang, Zhanda, Lujiang, Mangshi, Mengmao (Ruili), Nalou, Kuirong, Shierguan, Menghua, Jingdong, Mengding, Yongning, Fuzhou, Wandian, Zhenkang, and Beishengzhou.
The tusi acted as stop gaps until enough Chinese settlers arrived for a "tipping point" to be reached, and they were then converted into official prefectures and counties to be fully annexed into the central bureaucratic system of the Ming dynasty.
By the time of the Ming-Qing transition, what remained in the southwest were only a few small autonomous polities, and the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories (sanfan zhi luan; 1673-81) did much to erase these from the landscape.
China (PRC) established the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Region and ended the last Tusi system in Sipsongpanna.
[39] Under this system, all the officials in the bureaucracy were put into nine major categories: upper-upper, upper-middle, upper-lower, middle-upper, middle-middle, middle-lower, lower-upper, lower-middle, and lower-lower.