The southwestern borderland in imperial China covers the area encompassing present-day Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, southwestern Sichuan, and the northern part of the Indochina Peninsula, once under the Central Plains dynasty’s rule. For more than two millennia, China exercised varying degrees of political and military control over this region. The book traces the history of the dynamic and delicate relationship between the imperial court and the southwestern borderland throughout the Han, Jin, Southern, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and examines how the Nanyue, Shu- Han, Nanzhao, and Dali regimes governed the region. The author’s close analysis of both the governance strategy and its implementation sheds critical lights on how this important relationship was sustained for such a long period of time.