The southwestern borderland in imperial China covers the area encompassing present-day Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, southwestern Sichuan, and the northern part of the Indochina Peninsula, once under the Central Plains dynastys rule. For more than two millennia, China exercised varying degrees of political and military control over this region. The book traces the history of the dynamic and delicate relationship between the imperial court and the southwestern borderland throughout the Han, Jin, Southern, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and examines how the Nanyue, Shu- Han, Nanzhao, and Dali regimes governed the region. The authors close analysis of both the governance strategy and its implementation sheds critical lights on how this important relationship was sustained for such a long period of time.

Fang Tie, Professor and Doctoral Student Supervisor at the Center for Ethnic Groups of the Southwest Borderlands at Yunnan University, specializes in borderlands history, ethnic history, and historical geography. He is Former Director of the Center for Ethnic Groups of the Southwest Borderlands, a Ministry of Education-designated Humanities and Social Sciences Key Research Base. Fang currently serves on the expert panel of the Academic Planning Evaluation Group at the National Social Science Fund; as Vice President of the Chinese Society for Historians of Chinas Foreign Relations; Vice President of the Society of Yunnan Nationalities; Council Member of the Chinese Association for Ethnic History, the Chinese Society for Mongolian History, and the Chinese Society for Yuan History; and as Executive Director of the Chinese Society for Southwestern Ethnic Groups. Fang has published more than 140 journal articles, many of which have been reprinted by Xinhua Digest and China University Academic Abstracts. His books include A General History of Southwest China, History of Borderland Development in Southwest China, Exploration of Borderland Ethnic History, and New Explorations in Borderland Ethnic History. Fang is the recipient of a number of outstanding achievement awards from the Ministry of Education and the Yunnan Provincial Government.