The Yongle Northern Canon as Bestowed on Jizu Mountain in Yunnan Province

The Ming Court probably bestowed seven sets of the Yongle Northern Canon to areas in Yunnan. In one case, the Wanli Emperor (r. 1573–1619) issued a decree to present the canon to Huayan Temple on Jizu shan in the fourteenth year of Wanli (1586). His mother, Empress Dowager Li (1545–1614), issued a decree the following year that imperial court would exempt 1284 _shi_ 石of grain-tax from the local people (almost equal to 65,736 kg of rice) to bring prosperity to the country and blessings to the local people. This paper examines the Ming court’s bestowal of the Yongle Northern Canon in Yunnan to analyze the relationship between the Imperial Court and the border province in the southwest and to explore why the court disproportionately favored temples on the sacred Buddhist mountain Jizu shan. One purpose was clear: to consolidate the border region and to protect the empire.