本文主要討論被編入土官和灶戶的不同人群，如何藉由政治體系的架構在山鄉擴展、結群與競爭，並形塑了十八世紀帝國的邊區社會。文章集中於滇藏邊境山鄉社會，除了分析土官與灶戶等個別家族崛起的過程，也透過地方既存的社會與聯姻網絡，來說明他們如何鑲嵌在政治機構並發揮不同程度的社會力量。土官透過控制山鄉資源以及聯姻結盟建立超越人群與地域的土官集團；被編入流官體系的白人則前往鹽井區，以灶戶身分拓展其山鄉之鹽銷網絡。前者掌握滇西北山鄉夷民與山林資源，後者握有開採鹽井各項資源，隨著鹽井官有與鹽課徵銀，使得滷鹽所需的柴薪、鹽道、背鹽、負販管道等鹽課逐漸跨越土官與流官的界線，將不同人群串連在鹽銷網絡之中。與鄰人合作是區域社會的常態，但隨著明朝制度化身分的規範，土官和灶戶分別採取不同方式來維持他們與鄰人的合作關係，也因而形成二股相互競爭的勢力。土官政治旨在羈縻，然隨之而來的人群流動與社會重組，卻積極地塑造了帝國邊區的社會樣貌。

Despite immense geographic complexity, China's southwest has historically been a dynamic area connected by social exchanges, trading, and politics. This article focuses on two ethnic groups along the border of Tibet and Yunnan who were living under two different political policies from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries; the Moso under the native official system, and the Bai under direct rule of the Ming state. This article traces how the leading families of these two groups were both connected by traditional alliances and came to be embedded in Ming dynasty political institutions which changed their social networks. Restricted by Ming native official (tusi) policy, some of the native clans were encouraged to set up strong marriage alliances. Through this strategy, the Lijiang Mu clan gradually became a leading family among native officials. As the Mu clan gained control over mountain resources, they established a strong native political group that incorporated ethnically diverse peoples and covered extensive territory along the upper reaches of the Yangzi. As civilians of the Ming Empire, Bai people were granted permits to establish salt households and migrated to mountain areas where they cultivated mountain fields and established salt selling routes extending to the borderland of the Mu clan's territory. These two groups embody parallel social networks in tension with each other; the former achieved a wider political integration while creating a system of social stratification in native mountain society through marriage restriction, while the latter set up a flexible territorial consolidation by controlling the salt networks. In sum, the Tibet-Yunnan border region displayed the dynamic development of social networks involving ethnically diverse populations which became interwoven with each other during the Ming. This process occurred at the local level even as political institutions shaped the character of these ethnic relationships.