Tusi, often translated as "headmen" or "chieftains", were hereditary tribal leaders recognized as imperial officials by the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties of China, and the Later Lê and Nguyễn dynasties of Vietnam. They ruled certain ethnic minorities in central China, western China, southwestern China, and the Indochinese peninsula nominally on behalf of the central government. As succession to the Tusi position was hereditary, these regimes effectively formed numerous autonomous petty dynasties under the suzerainty of the central court. This arrangement is known as the Tusi System or the Native Chieftain System (Chinese: 土司制度; pinyin: Tǔsī Zhìdù). It should not be confused with the Chinese tributary system or the Jimi system.
Tusi regimes were located primarily in Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Sichuan, Chongqing, the Xiangxi Prefecture of Hunan, and the Enshi Prefecture of Hubei. Tusi entities were also established in the historical dependencies and frontier regions of China in what is today northern Myanmar, Laos, and northern Thailand. The Vietnamese Later Lê and Nguyễn dynasties also implemented the Tusi system.
