From Chang'an To Luoyang: The Political Geography Of Guanzhong Localization In The Han Dynasty

On the basis of the studies on administrative geography and political history, the thesis is devoted to the Guanzhong Benwei political geography by describing the political process of its building background, formation, evolution, untill the collapse and its functions and influences in the actual political process of the empire.Under the specific political situation in the early Han dynasty, the court abandoned Luoyang and relocated its capital at Guanzhong and thus constructed a Guanzhong-centered political geography composed of the Guanzhong core area(关中核心区), the other area ruled directly by the Han court (关外直辖地) and the feudal kingdoms’area(关外王国) to control Guandong (关东). Not only did such an arrangement enable the Han dynasty to avoid the mistakes of the dead Qin, but also established a rather stable social order for the early Han’s economic recovery.With the settlement of the Eastern Kingdoms issue, and the permanent threat of the frontier Nomads upon the empire, particularly the lasting invasion of the Huns, the political geography constructed at the beginning of the Han dynasty became unfitted for dealing with the internal and external problems faced by the empire during the reign of the Emperor Wu Di. Under such circumstances, the Emperor Wu Di had adopted a series of measures including expansion of the territory and enlargement of Guanzhong to readjust the existing political geography and thus formed a new political geography characterized by the arrangement of the Great Guanzhong, Guanwai Neijun, and the frontier area. It is no doubt that such a political geography constructed by the Emperor Wu Di not only enabled the Northwestern oriented court to take a direct control of the vast and rich Guandong area and Lingnan, but also erupted the Huns-led Northern coalition. The Huns were forced to leave for Mo Bei(漠北), and the Northern frontier situation in which the Han empire was in a disadvantageous position had been thoroughly changed.The central and local issue of the Han empire was virtually the issue of Guandong. Although the court had solved the problems of the nonrelated kingdoms and the related kingdoms in the Guandong area, the great families, which concentrated in Guandong, with their actions of incorporation, arbitrariness, and intrigue, formed a serious menace to the empire. There was a difference between the political geography in the middle and late Western Han and the political geography in the early Han, but an emphasis on Guanzhong existed through the whole period, and this can be explained with respect to the Guandong issue bothering the empire so long.Whether the Guanzhong Benwei political geography functioned well depended upon a set of concrete policies. In other words, the Guanzhong Benwei political geography and the subsequent area controlling policy were substantially two in one. Due to the influences of the Confucian political forces and Guandong great families, the court had since the Emperor Yuan Di abandoned the state policy of transferring Guandong great families to Guanzhong. That meant that from a viewpoint of policy, the Guanzhong Benwei political geography began to encounter serious problems. The chaos in the final years of Xin Mang’s reign was pioneered by the Guandong hungry mobs. But the real force that led to the demise of Xin Mang was the Guandong great families led by the Nanyang Lius. Such a phenomena was related to the fact that the court had no longer implemented the policy of moving great families since Yuan Di. Although the measures already taken to confront great families included repression and inspection, the most effective of them was to transfer great families elsewhere. Therefore, the discard of such a transfer policy resulted in an obvious growth in the strength of the Guandong great families sixty or seventy years later.During the civil war, Emperor Guangwu made Luoyang his capital for the reasons that the north to the Yellow River was Guangwu’s base and the civil war situation resolved it. Facing the new situation and problems after the unification,although Luoyang as a capital had its advantages,it was not best option for its disadvantages in geography.Under such circumstances,a series of measures taken by Liuxiu clearly indicated that the court had the intention to move the capital from luoyang to Guanzhong. However, due to the special status of the capital in the country’s political, economic, cultural and other aspects, location or relocation of the capital, in fact, had a great deal to do with the disputes on the actual interests and the political ideas of various regions, various forces and even various political views. Anyway, the Eastern Han court ultimately failed to move back to the old capital Changan. The reason for this is very complicated. But no matter what, as the event’s final result is concerned, with the eastward movement of the capital, the core area of the Han Empire had also moved eastward, and the political geography centering on Guanzhong subsequently came to a total collapse.Altogether, the disintegration of the Guanzhong Benwei political geography had a far-reaching impact on the fate of the Han empire. First, the court had lost the ability to put into practice the traditional strategy of "controlling Guandong by Guanzhong". As a result, the strength of Guandong families increased and brought about the division of the nation. Secondly, the defense target was moving to the great families inside the empire. In order to guarantee the court’s control over the locality, and to reduce the possibility of local great families to hold local armies, the Emperor Guang Wu had adopted a series of military reforming measures, which unexpectedly led to the "declining of the court’s army". Third, the transfer of capital to Luoyang, the subsequent eastward movement of the empire’s core area, and the lowering of the status of the northwest frontier counties that functioned to safeguard the capital, not only had a negative impact on the empire’s management of the northwest, but to some extent made the court undetermined to defend the northwest frontier. In consequence, the Qiang menace was intensified and the frontier fortification moved inward. Meanwhile, more and more frontier ethnic groups such as the Huns, the Western Qiangs, and the Xianbeis immigrated south of the great wall, and paved the way for the later "Barbarian"invasions.