A Study On The Defense System Of Tongwan City In The "Sixteen-States" Period

Tongwan City was the capital of the Xia state of Helian family established by Helian Bobo,the leader of Teifu Xiongnu tribe,during the Sixteen Kingdoms Period of ancient China.It has remained well-preserved as a historical site till today.It was an evident for the mighty military power under the rule of Helian Bobo and an excellent collection of city-building techniques of Xia.Since modern time,Tongwan city has provided an important approach for scholars in geography,history,archaeology,ethnology and others to study the evolution of Maowusu Desert,the political and historical development of Xia of Helian family,the urban morphology of Tongwan city,and the development of Tiefu Xiongnu tribe.This paper focuses mainly on the defense measurements of Tongwan city,the role of human factor in defense,and the construction of the internal and external defense space and system.At the beginning,five characteristics are given about defense measurements of Tongwan city,namely,the completeness of the defense system,city construction in accordance with the local conditions,full utilization of spaces and resources,protection of the king over the residents,and the unique design of wall towers.In addition,four principles for city building are found after comparison between the defense measurements of Tongwan city and Dailai city,the former politic center of Teifu Xiongnu tribe – 1.Great importance should be attached to the natural surrounding environment of the city;2.A city should be equipped with a complete urban defense system;3.Natural endowments should be fully used;and 4.The east was considered superior in city planning.Next,this paper analyzes the foreign relations of Tiefu Xiongnu tribe during the ruling period from Liu Hu to Helian Ding so as to find out the significant impact of geopolitics on making Tongwan city the capital.Four features of the foreign relations are discovered including hostility to Tuoba states,dependence on Zhongyuan(Central Plain)states,relations established with distant political powers in the south,and emphasis on relations with small states in the west.In this paper,a reason for the rapid extinction of Xia of Helian family is pointed out that Helian Bobo broke the balance triangle among the politic powers of this area by gradually eliminating the Later Qin and driving away the Eastern Jin,which removed the obstacle for the unification of northern China by the Northern Wei.Furthermore,efforts are spent on Tongwan city to figure out the relation between the urban defense measurements and the defense function and the important factors influenced the relation.Finally,this paper studies the remains of the high buildings and palaces,terrain and roads in order to analyze the layout of internal defense spaces,and also the whole Shuofang area in which the Tongwan city is located regarding to its natural defense conditions,including mountains and rivers,so as to explore the defense layout of Shuofang area as a enclosed geographical unit.With the external and the internal defense layouts of Tongwan city integrated,the whole system can be divided into six parts – three internal parts and three external ones.On the basis of predecessors' studies and researches,this paper studies the Tongwan city with the focus on its urban defense,aiming to reveal how the natural and the human factors worked together in the construction of the defense system of Tongwan city.It can contribute not only to the abundance of studies on the urban defense of the Sixteen Kingdoms period but also to the improvement of academic systems for Tiefu Xiongnu and the Xia state of Helian family.