Digital humanities approach to analyzing the roles and military power of Supreme Commanders and Grand Coordinators in the Ming Dynasty: a computational analysis of Ming Shilu

Abstract This article represents a digital humanities research endeavor that attempts to explore the roles and military power of Supreme Commanders and Grand Coordinators in the Ming Dynasty, employing computational analysis of the Ming Shilu. By leveraging a semi-supervised text classification framework to identify military paragraphs without needing prior annotation and generating heat maps based on location entities identified in the text, we discerned patterns correlating the presence of these officials with the incidence of military conflicts. We acknowledge the study's limitations, including potential misinterpretations due to the complexity of events and language used in the Ming Shilu. Despite these, our research illuminates the value of computational techniques in historical inquiries. The results underscore the complexity of Supreme Commanders' and Grand Coordinators' roles within local administration and military power structures and their impact on the political environment of the Ming Dynasty. This article advocates for future research to integrate diverse textual and data sources and incorporate additional digital methodologies, aiming for a deeper understanding of the Ming Dynasty's political landscape. This research significantly propels the utilization of digital analytical tools in historical research, offering a richer, more nuanced understanding of the past.