The Ethnic Relationship Of Liangfan In The Sui And Tang Dynasties

Khitan and Xi were two important minorities in ancient Chinese history. They had the same origines and communicated respectively with the Central Plains and other minorities nearby after they broke up in North Wei. Their relationship became complicated gradually especially during the Sui and Tang dynasties, the top period of Chinese feudal society. They both did obligations and had conflicts and wars with Sui-Tang central government. Sometimes they obeyed and betrayed the powerful minorities. Meanwhile,they developed cooperations and initiated conflicts with the weak minorties nearby.There are many reasons for these complicated relationships among which getting survival and development is the basic need for every nation including these two nations. This became the fundamental reason of their changing relationship with other nations. They had some development for several times during the Sui and Tang dynasties,eg.Sui Wen Di and Tang Tai Zong period. With great support of the central government,these two nations gave up conflicts and strenthened communication and cooperation which made them much stronger. They hold tightly the western Liao district and named themselves"Liangfan",which means two nations,after they betrayed Tang dynasty in Wu Zetian administration. Besides the central government,Liangfan also gathered together when they obeyed big minorities such as Turk and Huihe,following them to rob the border distrct of the Central Plains. This is helpful to their development and gave them more advantage of developing relationship with other nations. The other administrations nearby also became the outer element for Liangfan to adjust their diplomacies. The way how the ruling class treated Liangfan,whether their ethnic thoughts were right and whether they were powerful had great influence on Liangfan.Liangfan,with Yingzhou and Youzhou,the borderland of the Central Plains,on their south,Mohe and Shiwei,the northeastern minorities on their north,Gaoli on their east and Turk and Huihe on their west,was special and important in geography,so their attitudes to the nations nearby greatly influenced not only themselves,but also the adjustment of the policies of the nations nearby. Basically speaking,Liangfan is eager to get the stable support of the agricultural economy of the Central Plains because they could really get the rapid development. When Liangfan got close to Sui-Tang dynasty, they got great development in both economy and social formation,and their status in northeastern area was raised. On the contrary, if they destroyed the good relationship with the central government,they caused punishiment and their strenth and their status in northeastern area were badly damaged. When Liangfan was controlled by Turk,Huihe and Gaoli,though they got wealth very fast,they indeed got a stepback in both economy and politics under the management of the normadic economy. They were also maltreated by these minorities,losing the right of living. For the big nations nearby,Liangfan could be the their army which could firstly attack other big nations for them,so Liangfan often became the target to be grabbed by these big nations.