本文主要以雲南夷民所發動的鐵索箐動亂來討論明朝基層土官制度與相關治理政策對山鄉政治生態所造成的衝擊。鐵索箐位於濃西大理與姚安之間一大片的叢山峻嶺之中，自明初統治以來，夷民動亂先後持續了約二百餘年。由於該山鄉周邊生產豐富的鹽井、金與銀礦，山鄉夷民多以負鹽貿易為生，四周土酋亦多以山區為中心相互結盟。明朝統治雲南以來，設置鹽井提舉司、衛所以及土巡檢於沿山四周。此地先有姚安土官自久反明，後雖平息，但此後山鄉擾攘不止，史冊多以掠奪者視之，並以鐵索箐賊名之。本文試圖從山鄉社會的角度，來談明朝治理時山鄉夷民與國家之間的互動，以及後來夷民被編整到不同政治體系中的過程。

This paper focuses on how tribal people living in the mountainous areas of Yunnan were organized under the Ming state and how their status changed in the course of the conquest of the southwest. The changes considered here occurred between the 14th and 16th centuries. At the time of the Ming arrival in Yunnan, the tribal chieftains and their people possessed abundant natural resources, including salt wells, gold and silver mines, and also enjoyed privileged access to trading routes in the mountainous hinterland. Control over these resources and privileges was structured through a network of kin groups. When the Ming state conquered this part of Yunnan it centralized control over natural resources and delegated responsibility to its own agents. This led to conflicts with the mountain chiefs and other people who are identified in state documents as ＂bandits＂. I argue in this paper that the extension of state power in the Ming upset the ecological balance of exchange systems between tribal society and agricultural populations, resulting in rising tension and conflict between the mountain people and lowland farmers. I demonstrate how, as a means to resolve this problem, the illiterate bandits of the mountains were separated into different political systems and sorted into three groups: registered subjects, native soldiers and native subjects, and mountain societies that were structurally marginalized by these political divisions.