Guīshùn

Guishun, in the border country now centred on Jingxi in western Guangxi, developed under the hereditary Cen chiefs. During the Yongle reign, Cen Zhigang of Zhen'an entrusted the district to his second son. In 1496 the Ming court raised it to a native-official subprefecture, rewarding Cen Ying's military service. Recognition carried substantial obligations: Guishun was to provide five thousand soldiers when required and send two thousand annually to await orders at Wuzhou.

The office connected local dynastic ambitions to imperial campaigns. Cen Zhang, Cen Ying's successor, helped defeat his son-in-law Cen Meng of Tianzhou, turning a family relationship into a weapon of frontier politics. In the early Qing, direct administration replaced hereditary rule. Local inscriptions reveal a subsequent change in leadership: men holding examination qualifications gained influence, helped build temples and recorded family genealogies. Guishun's institutions thus shifted from the military authority of native chiefs toward a society in which education and written ancestry increasingly supported local standing.