An Exploratory Study On The Military Geography Of Gao Family In JingNan State

Occupying a rather important status in the history of China, The East Han Dynasty doesn’t get enough research equal to its historical status in the field of history of Qin and Han Dynasty. Through the whole history of The East Han Dynasty, magnates and consort clans play essential roles in its development. As one of the six most powerful clans in The East Han Dynasty, Geng’s Family exerts much influence on its politics. Hence, this thesis aims at exploring the status of magnates and political characteristic in The East Han Dynasty through the study on the development course of geng’s family.In the first place, the general introduction to the development course of the magnates in The East Han Dynasty from its expansion, development to its decline in a chronological way taking its periodical characteristics as the research clue. In virtue of their achievements and contribution made to The Later Han Dynasty in the Unification Wars, taking the chance of the war against Huns, the third generation as its core further their family expansion scale in a new way——acting as boarder officers. the fourth generation attempted to form their sphere of influence in the central authorities, which resulted in failure. However, the failure didn’t shake their foundation of power. At last, the Geng’s family was destroyed in the war against Cao in The Late East Han Dynasty led by Geng Jifan. According to the analysis in this thesis, the conclusion can be reached that the Geng’s family played active role in The Early and Middle East Han Dynasty, declined in the Chong Zhi period, faintly active in the Huan Ling period, and was destroyed in the Xian period. The political development of The East Han Dynasty can be thus discerned through the observation of the development of the Geng’s family.In a word, the development of the Geng family in the You Fu feng district of the Eastern Han Dynasty is closely related to the political situation of Eastern Han Dynasty, and it shows the characteristics of a regalia dominated society. The extremely strong dependency the Geng family has upon the imperial power and the derived loyalty to the emperor are the reasons for his prosperity and as well as his downfall. In the mean time, the family spirit which is composed of feast behaviour, death for a cause and militarism has practical significance even today.