Mincang

Mincang, officially the Mincang Confederation (: 岷昶聯盟; Min2cang3 Nian2min2) is a, federal constitutional republic spanning the heart of Sinju. It borders Fukoet, Hokan, and Gaoxiong to the north, Meisaan and Sansiao to the northeast, Zhuigo and Tangbeh to the east, and Hhokai, Sitoan, Lanxieu, and Fuinam to the south.

Mincang is known for its distinct, spicy cuisine, its hot climate, and its turbulent history.

Classical Mincang
The region that now forms Mincang, as well as Fuinam, Fukoet, Zhuigo, and Sansiao, was home to some of the earliest societies in Sinju — including the one which would eventually become Cheonje. Danyang, Cheonje’s capital, was located in the northeastern part of Mincang, and in the first few centuries CE it became the cultural, commercial, and administrative hub of much of Sinju. During that time, Mincang also became a major salt production center, with the empire building up advanced infrastructure to drill into the subterranean salt pools extant in the area. Salt production would come to define the Mincangan economy for centuries.

Early Mincang
After the Raze of Danyang and the fall of Cheonje, Mincang was splintered into several smaller states. While Meisaan, Jeongmi, and other nearby territories united in the 900s, Mincang remained divided until the 1100s, when it was briefly united for approximately 70 years. Despite this division, substantial cultural development nonetheless took place. Beginning in the 1190s, a first wave of Hakka migration took place, originating from the north and settling in the southwestern coastal region (today’s Fuinam).

Hundred Years of Instability
The region was entirely united again the 1300s, following a brief invasion from the recently-formed Jeongmian-Meisaani Union in 1294. The great famine of 1465 caused widespread rebellion, which set off the so-called ‘hundred years of instability’, lasting until the 1560s. During this period, factional warfare was nearly constant and several internal mass migrations took place. A second Hakka wave also entered the region, this time settling along the coast in general and especially in the northwest (modern Fukoet).

First Mincang State
Mincang was united again into a single state from 1569 to 1703. This period saw one of the strongest central governments since Cheonje, though its territory did not include several regions historically considered part of Mincang — Sansiao (which had come under Meisaani control), Zhuigo, and other ethnic-minority-inhabited mountainous regions. Over the last sixty years of its existence, however, a series of inept leaders and the economic drain imposed by still-constant war against the un-unified outer regions caused the central Mincangan state to slowly lose much of its power to local authorities and the merchant societies to whom it delegated salt production.

Societies period and Industrialization
After the unified state underwent a coup d’état and was dissolved in the early 1700s, Mincang was once again governed by a multitude of small powers. Rule during this time was traditionally carried out by one or more of the sihui, or four kinds of societies: familial, lineage-based clan associations or monarchical city-states; ethnic-based associations or states (mostly in the east and southwest); military-based warlord dominions; and often democratic merchant guild-based gongsis. These societies often overlapped, with some controlling both physical territory and the allegiance of the people resident there and others controlling just one or the other. Each society levied separate taxes, organized separate militaries, and instituted separate laws, and typically had a conception of which community — whether defined by territory, ethnic identity, or occupation — they were responsible for. Intra-society relations were governed largely by ‘alignment politics’, in which constantly shifting alliances and cliques prevented any one society from taking greater control.

Several merchant-based societies, controlling territory mostly in the Mincangan north and littoral, developed strong ties to Jeongmi and Meisaan through heavy trade relations, some serving nearly as puppet states for those nations’ economic and cultural interests. Through these connections, Mincang slowly progressed through a trickle-down industrial revolution, which shifted some power away from rural, agricultural ethnic-based societies and to the trade-based ones in industrial centers.

Confederated Mincang
In 1843, a large coalition of salt-producing societies met to create the Salt Pact, a loose treaty organizing anti-piracy action, better universal regulation of prices, and infrastructure development. The Pact is widely seen as the beginning of a Mincangan national movement, as its members coalesced around an economic stance in opposition to the more foreign-connected territories, which depended on Jeongmi’s support for their development. In 1858, a mass quasi-religious peasant revolt known as the Crimson Turbans, which had originated in rural areas, spread those territories, upsetting the traditional balance of power. In order to prevent its spread into the rest of Mincang, over seventy societies — including the Salt Pact — quickly unified into the Mincang Confederation of Societies (會社聯盟). The Confederation was able to defeat the Crimson Turbans with an organized military coalition, but the political Council of Societies it established persisted. The Confederation government gradually strengthened through the 1870s, carrying out military reforms to modernize and make uniform the now centrally-controlled military. During this time, natural gas also became a significant portion of the Mincangan economy.

Mincang’s political structure was still substantially devolved, following a consociationalist and prebendalist model: society leaders consorted through the Confederation to stave off inter-group conflict and return any benefits they could to their communities, but most people remained loyal to their individual society. Mincang was also still not completely united, with some small merchant societies remaining Jeongmian or Meisaani tributaries. A series of successes in several minor skirmishes with a militarizing Meisaan in the 1890s and 1900s contributed to an increase in nationalist sentiment, while the persistence of several non-Confederation tributaries continued to provoke anti-foreign anger as well.

The 1920s saw the rise of a new ideology — irredentist Cheonjism. Recalling Mincang’s history as the origin of the Cheonje empire, it called for a new Cheonje uniting all of Sinju under the control of Mincang. A crippling depression in 1925 led many Mincangans to look towards a stronger national government for solutions; a coup in 1927 by high-level officers from within the unified military, primarily from the southern Hong clique, provided the answers. The new junta government rapidly increased militarization and promoted, among other nationalist policies, anti-Hakkaism — many Hakka were coastal merchants and were therefore labeled as loyal to the meddling Jeongmi.

In 1935, Mincang signed the Chukyo Pact with Nukigurun, Fusen, Gaoxiong, and Hachuabsh, entering the Great Eulhae War and attacking Meisaan in 1936.

Contemporary Mincang
After Eulhae, Mincang was greatly demilitarized and democratized, and Fukoet and Fuinam were carved out of its northwest and southwest as sovereign Hakka states. Today, Mincang is a corporatist, progressive democracy. As a result of its sihui tradition, social welfare and primary education are still pillarized, with little national welfare system. Machine politics, drawn on the lines of the old societies, is rampant, though its influence is steadily decreasing.

Geography
Mincang's geography features mountains, plains, and rivers.

Flora and fauna
s are a noted part of Mincang's bamboo forests, and can be seen in many national parks.

Religion
During the gradual collapse of Cheonje, Buddhism became very popular in the country.

Cuisine
Mincang cuisine is notable for being very spicy, and has achieved a great deal of popularity internationally. It possesses bold flavors and incorporates heavy usage of chili peppers, garlic, and the, which gives spicy Mincangan food a unique tongue-numbing flavor.