Ming Wei-Suo System

Timeline

1. c. 1384–1398Nanjing · Jiangsu ProvinceAround the seventeenth year of Hongwu, the Ming founder set the wei-suo structure: each guard of about 5,600 men, subdivided into battalion and company units; military households were hereditary and could not leave the register, and military farming was promoted to reduce treasury expenditure.
2. c. 1403–1424Beijing · North ChinaAfter the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing, guards were massively added and reorganized along the Nine Frontiers and the capital region; the Five Armies Camp and Three Great Camps worked in coordination, and the total number of guards and garrison density reached their Ming-wide peak in the early 1400s.
3. c. 1450–1644Nine Frontiers region · Along the Great WallAfter the Zhengtong era, desertion of military households, abandoned military farms, and widespread misuse of labor left guard rosters empty; the court increasingly relied on recruited and mercenary troops, and the wei-suo system survived in name only until the late Ming.