Abstract: During the more than 200 years since Tongren prefecture was set up in the Ming Dynasty,the Miao people had caused great trouble for the government.Two improper strategies should be responsible for this situation,one is that the Ming Government had been forced to defend and fight,the other that the government was ignorant of the Miao people and the Miao frontiers,indulging in a stiffened strategy of depleting flesh and resources.The improper strategies had led to the continuous disasters of war in Tongren and its surrounding areas in Hunan,Hubei,and Sichuan,causing the government to adopt a worst strategy of building “frontier walls” to defend.

Key words: the Ming Dynasty, the Miao frontier, governing the Miao people, loss