Tujia

Tujia communities lived in the Wuling Mountains, where Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Chongqing meet. Local hereditary chiefs governed their territories under the imperial system.

Under the Ming, Tujia chiefs supplied troops, including men sent to fight coastal raiders in the sixteenth century. The Qing offered pensions to compliant chiefs while displaying military force, then replaced many chiefs with appointed officials; between 1728 and 1735 most Tujia areas passed to direct administration.