Research On The Evolution Of High-level Administrative Districts In Shaanxi Since The Northern Song Dynast

The research on the geography of historical administrative regions or the history of administrative divisions should explore the reasons for the changes on the basis of accurate restoration and description of the changes of administrative regions,so as to make the research rise to the level of interpretation and understanding.Historical political geography focuses on the relationship between political process and geography.It intersects but is different from historical regional geography.It is not only from the perspective of "politics" to investigate the reasons for the change of administrative regions.Military,economic,social,cultural,natural environment and other factors will have an impact on the change of administrative regions.This paper takes the high-level administrative region of Shaanxi since the Northern Song Dynasty as the research object,tries to find the real reason for its change in the process of investigating its administrative division and the evolution of administrative region,and discusses it with the existing understanding.Most of the previous dynasties before the Northern Song Dynasty set up local governments with complete power.Since the Northern Song Dynasty began to separate the powers of local governments,the Jin,Ming and Qing Dynasties and even today mostly adopted this form of"separation system",it is the administrative organ that holds the administrative power."Shaanxi"has been a local high-level administrative region since the Northern Song Dynasty,followed by Shaanxi Zongguanfu(总管府)in the Jin Dynasty,Shaanxi Province in the Yuan Dynasty,and Shaanxi Buzhengshisi(布政使司),Shaanxi Duzhihuishisi(都指挥使司)in the Ming Dynasty.Although the establishment of local administrative institutions in Shaanxi is only a part of the overall design of the country and has institutional commonalities with other places,it also has distinct characteristics.This is because Shaanxi is located in the frontier of the song,Jin and Ming Dynasties,so the establishment and division of administrative institutions in Shaanxi are easily affected by the Dynasty’s foreign policies and military activities.In the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty,this influence was also reflected in the blending of different institutional designs of the state in"border areas"and"provincial areas"in Shaanxi.The high-level administrative structure of Shaanxi in the middle and late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty is the most complex.The whole process of Shaanxi administrative region from the initial formation of the Northern Song Dynasty to today can be divided into two stages.The first stage is from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty,which can be called the stage when the administrative region was finalized.In this stage,the administrative region of Shaanxi experienced many times of integration and decomposition.After the provinces were divided in the Qing Dynasty,it was roughly finalized,and the customary boundary line was also formed.The second stage is the period of the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China,which can be called the stage when the administrative boundary is legalized.The Nanjing National Government proposed and carried out the work of surveying the boundary of administrative regions,but the final result was not ideal.From 1989 to 2002,the Chinese government completed the demarcation of the administrative boundaries at the provincial and county levels,and the boundaries of Shaanxi Province were fully legalized.Of course,these two stages should not be understood as absolute,because there is also a legal line in the first stage,and there is also the adjustment of local administrative regions in the second stage.The division of Shaanxi in the Northern Song Dynasty was mainly affected by the specific territorial situation in the early Song Dynasty.Compared with the Song Dynasty,Shaanxi in the Jin Dynasty was a regional decomposition.Compared with the Jin Dynasty,Shaanxi in the Yuan Dynasty was a regional integration.Compared with the Yuan Dynasty,Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty is not only another regional integration,but also a regional adjustment.After the division of Shaanxi Province in the Qing Dynasty,today’s Shaanxi Province was basically formed.In the process of regional integration and decomposition in Shaanxi,each opening and closing has its own influencing factors,mainly political and military factors.After the basic finalization of Shaanxi Province,the traditional customary line has also been formed.The boundary shape of the traditional customary line can basically be summarized as the combination of some precise points and most fuzzy bands.The reasons for the failure of demarcation work in the period of the Republic of China are:the obstacles of land private ownership system and farmers’private ownership concept,as well as the lack of leadership ability of Nanjing National Government and local government.After the founding of the People’s Republic of China,some adjustments were made to Shaanxi Province in the 1950s and 1960s due to transportation,ethnic group,economy and other reasons.Before the comprehensive demarcation,the customary boundary line was still used during the provincial adjustment.With the development of social economy and the improvement of people’s ability to use resources and cognitive level,the previous customary line often caused boundary disputes due to unclear boundaries.For example,the border disputes between Shaanxi and Gansu in Ziwuling(子午岭)and Neimenggu in Jianhu have been difficult to resolve for a long time.In the process of the change of high-level administrative regions in Shaanxi since the Northern Song Dynasty,the inheritance and inertia of administrative regions are very significant.At the time of the change of dynasties,the direct factor to change the administrative region of Shaanxi is war.Often,the areas occupied after a military operation will be included in the same high-level administrative region.This factor is the reason why Shaanxi had Hanzhong Basin in the yuan and Ming Dynasties.In peacetime and non frontier areas,the division of administrative regions basically considers whether the management is convenient,and its indicator is traffic conditions.Through many research cases on the relationship between Shaanxi high-level administrative regions and the Yellow River,Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountain,the existing Interpretation of the demarcation principle in the academic circle has the tendency of absolutization and mechanization in the application.Since the Northern Song Dynasty,the measures taken by the central government to prevent local areas are mainly reflected in the design of the power structure of the high-level government,not mainly in the division of administrative regions.Every time the separation between high-level administrative regions and natural areas in Shaanxi has other more reasonable explanations.