The Geographical Distribution Of Knowledge Of The Characters In The Tang Dynasty

The dissertation takes the historical intellectuals as the main object for the research who were recorded in New and Old Tang Shu, Deng Ke Ji Kao, The Poetry of The Tang Dynasty, The Articles of The Tang Dynasty. In the way of quantitative study, it pursues the intellectuals' geographical distribution on the Tang Dynasty (618-907) by viewing the following aspects: the situation of the intellectuals' geographical distribution, its characteristics and changes of the times.There were a number of intellectuals in the Tang Dynasty, 3,096 included here. They spread over 462 counties belonging to 22 provinces (Peking and Tian Jin as two parts of He Bei province, Chong Qing as a part of Si Chuan province). According to the division of the provinces, the intellectuals' geographical distribution of the whole country can be classified into three: the concentrated region, the relatively concentrated region and the scattered region. With the division according to the main mountains and rivers, the intellectuals appeared mainly at the Guan Zhong area, Fenjin area, the middle and the lower reaches of Yellow River and the Yangtze and the coastal area of the Southeast. The frontier area produced few. This situation looks more obvious if we take counties as the study unit.The intellectuals' geographical distribution on the Tang Dynasty showed the basic trend that it radiated from the centered area and decreased successively. However, the trend featured itself with its imbalance, assembly and marginal decrease, which enriched the conclusion that generalize it as "more in the south and less in the north". This situation varied from time to time through the 290 years history of the Tang Dynasty.In the early period of the Tang Dynasty, the center of the intellectual distribution was on the north, especially the area between Xi'an and Luoyang. In the middle period of the Tang Dynasty, some provinces seemed to appear the phenomenon that the intellectual counties became less and the intellectuals radiated from a single center. But generally speaking, the distribution center was still on the north, oetween Xi'an and Luoyang. In the later period, the number of the intellectuals on the northern provinces was decreasing, and so was its percentage. The condition on the southern provinces was just the opposite. So we conclude that the center of the intellectuals' distribution was moving to the south.There was much difference between the variation of the culturally developed region and the cultural core viewed from the whole history period and the condition of them viewed from each period. In the three periods of the Tang Dynasty, the culturally developed region were various from each other. The whole trend was that more culturally developed regions showed up on the southern provinces, and their status became more important. Though the cultural core was still on the area of Shanxi and Henan province on the north, its position differed on that three periods. Generally, the later the less important it was, and the more obvious the trend moving to the south was. This conclusion was proved on the later dynasty.