A Study On The Administrative Divisions Reform Of Southern Region In Sui Dynasty

After conquering the State of Chen in 589 AD,faced with the administrative pattern in the south and the local forces behind it,the conqueror of Sui Dynasty carried out a drastic reform of the existing administrative region in the south to achieve the goal of building the Zhou-Xian(?-?)constitution.In the terms of Xiangchuan(??)region,Sui's reform process and strategy in this area can be summarized to four aspects:(1)abolishing Jun(?);(2)abolishing the old Xian of the Southern Dynasty;(3)relocating the old administrative offices;(4)increasing the number of Zhou and then abolishing severals among new ones.The combination of the four measures constitutes a complete picture of Sui's multi-level reform of administrative regions in the south.The reason of abolishing Jun and Xian is to clean up the local forces(??)attaching to Jun-Xian,and relocating the old administrative offices is the accessory measure of abolishing Jun and Xian.The increasing of Zhou has two meanings:one is as the military and political node of the Sui Empire to control the Xiangchuan region,the other is to meet the needs of the local forces'participation in the regime for the time being,and to offset the impact of the fierce political and economic transformation on the locally dominant forces.Under the multi-level reform strategies,the spatial structure of the southern administrative regions was reconstructed,and consequently the authority of the Sui Empire was established in the south.In essence,the four strategies of the reform of the southern region in Sui Dynasty always embody one principle——the process of power centralization restarted by the northern state.The regional characteristics of Xiangchuan region are reflected in the increasing and decreasing of Zhou and a large number of abolishment of counties.With the elimination of the new Zhou and the end of the township official(??)system,the political habitat of the local forces was completely removed.Consequently,the local forces in Xiangchuan were engaged into resisting against Sui empire,which also led to the Xiangchuan region to a more reasonable administrative subdivision pattern.