Abstract:

During the Hongzhi reign of Ming Dynasty, the central government set up the Nan Gan Governor to strengthen its management of the Nanling Mountainous Area. The Nan Gan Governor was allocated a vast area encompassing four provinces under its jurisdiction. While it seemed that the jurisdiction of the Nan Gan Governor was vast, its actual authority of office was rather limited by the central government and, consequently, its administration often hindered. At the end of the Jiajing reign, in order to strengthen its governance and expand its jurisdiction area, Nan Gan Governor proposed to set up a new county in neighboring Guangdong province and transfer it to Ganzhou-fu, Jiangxi Province. This action immediately aroused the collective opposition of Guangdong officials. After that, the two sides competed for the establishment of Pingyuan County. Focusing on the dispute over the establishment of counties, this paper discusses the evolution of the governor’s jurisdiction and authorities by combing various efforts from the Nan Gan Governor in order to break the governance dilemma in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Key words: Nan Gan Governor, jurisdiction of governor, jurisdiction of governor across provinces, administrative region, governor