How were the ancient nomadic areas managed and operated?

Generally speaking, the territory of China consists of two parts, one is the nomadic civilization area north of the Great Wall, and the other is the farming civilization area south of the Great Wall. Throughout the ancient history of the world, the struggle between nomadic people and agricultural people has never stopped. However, nomadic people entered agricultural areas, and after a period of time, they were assimilated by agricultural civilization and evolved into agricultural people. However, it is difficult for farming people to go deep into nomadic areas to manage nomadic people. Therefore, how to manage nomadic areas has become a difficult problem in world history. The same is true of China, but fortunately, after more than two thousand years of experience and lessons, China finally formed the most perfect management model in the Qing Dynasty.

First, the defense strategy of Qin and Han Dynasties against Xiongnu was desert south and desert north. Although they both belonged to the desert, their natural conditions were quite different. Monan area is located at the southern foot of Yinshan Mountain, with vast Gobi, and has a natural barrier with Mobei area. Hetao Plain is a vast expanse of fertile fields, with abundant water plants and the Yellow River flowing through it, which is very suitable for nomadism and farming. Nomads can go straight to Guanzhong and Shanxi after occupying the desert and heading south. After the central plains farming dynasty occupied this place, it could reclaim wasteland and build the Great Wall, turning this place into a frontier position to resist nomads from going south.

Hetao region

During the Warring States period, the Huns rose. Zhao immigrated, settled fields and built the Great Wall in Hetao area. The Qin Dynasty after the Warring States Period also adopted the same policy. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Huns were powerful and reoccupied the southern desert, so they invaded the Central Plains many times. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the first step was to recover the desert south and re-implement Qi Zhao's defense policy. Of course, after the central plains dynasty occupied this place, it could retreat and defend, enter and attack. But it is very dangerous to drive the army directly to Mobei. Nomads are in a state of mobility, and the troops of the Central Plains Dynasty will inevitably seek a decisive battle, otherwise they will return because of difficulties in supplying. Fortunately, the main force of Xiongnu was found in several decisive battles during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

Map of the ancient Great Wall

In this regard, the central plains dynasty adopted the method of "controlling foreigners with foreigners", that is, uniting and dividing nomadic people. Nomads know their habits better, so they can contain each other. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions to unite nomadic people in the Western Regions against the Huns. Later, Wusunguo, the strongest country in the Western Regions, formed an alliance with the Han Dynasty. In addition, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also launched the Hexi War, which cut off the connection between Xiongnu and Xiqiang. Woo Wu Huan and other nomadic people in the eastern Xiongnu. In this way, the Han Dynasty established enemies around the Huns.

Map of Zhang Qian's mission to the western regions

In addition, internal differentiation was also a major policy of the Han Dynasty. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Xiongnu experienced civil strife and gradually split into South Xiongnu and North Xiongnu. The Han dynasty made friends with the southern Xiongnu, let them live in the desert south area, and helped the Han dynasty deal with the northern Xiongnu. In this way, the threat of Xiongnu naturally disintegrated. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, nomadic peoples around the Northern Xiongnu, such as Ding Ling, Xianbei and Wuhuan, all attacked the Northern Xiongnu and eventually disintegrated. They couldn't get a foothold in Mobei and eventually moved west.

Zhao Sai

Second, the disadvantages and failures of "controlling foreigners with foreigners" These defensive measures of the Han Dynasty provided reference for the central dynasties in previous dynasties, but they also caused great problems. These nomadic people who were arranged in the frontier by the Han Dynasty had to surrender to the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty did not compile and manage them, nor did it educate them, let alone teach them to grow agriculture. This is to protect their nomadic nature. However, when there is chaos in the Central Plains, they will go south again and continue to harass. Some warlords in the Central Plains will choose to form an alliance with them and rely on their elite cavalry to deal with other warlords.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, these nomadic peoples entered the Central Plains one after another. However, the Western Jin government not only failed to educate and manage them, but connived at the fraud and oppression of local officials, which deepened ethnic contradictions and eventually led to the change of Yongjia and the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty. Since then, in the north, there has been a "five chaos China". In fact, the five riots were not caused by foreign invasion, but by class contradictions in the Western Jin Dynasty. Therefore, most of these ethnic groups did not invade the Central Plains, but migrated to the Central Plains long ago.

Wuhu moved south.

Since then, the Northern Wei Dynasty, established by Xianbei people, has unified the Yellow River basin and carried out rapid sinicization. The Northern Wei Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty was a development stage of China, which was initiated by Xianbei people. After Xianbei people entered the Central Plains, they created systems such as well-field system, rent modulation, and government soldier system, which have been passed down to the end of the Tang Dynasty. The thorough sinicization of Xianbei people means that Xianbei people quickly learned to deal with the soft and natural people in the desert in the way of traditional Central Plains dynasty. The Northern Wei Dynasty set up six towns in Hetao area and built the Great Wall on a large scale. These are all traditional ways.

Move the capital to Luoyang

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Central Plains dynasty made some progress in the management of nomadic people in the north, that is, it adopted the method of imprisonment. Emperor Taizong canonized all the nationalities who surrendered to the Tang Dynasty as the governor of Jimizhou and Jimizhou, and set up a governor to govern them. In this way, the Tang Dynasty was able to mobilize a large number of nomadic troops to fight. But in essence, this is "controlling foreign countries with foreign countries." An important reason why the Tang Dynasty was able to defeat East Turkistan, West Turkistan and Xue Yantuo. It is relatively easy because these ethnic groups are unstable internally and have many powerful external enemies. However, the way of "controlling foreigners with barbarians" in the Tang Dynasty also made itself suffer greatly.

In the late Xuanzong period of Tang Dynasty, An Lushan, who helped the Tang Dynasty defend its frontier, launched an Anshi Rebellion, which led to the decline of the Tang Dynasty. Since then, the Tang Dynasty has been unable to compete with Uighur and Tubo. In 762, the Tubo army invaded Chang 'an directly, and the Tang Dynasty defeated the Tubo with the help of the Uighur army. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty relied on the army of the Shatuo people to quell the rebellion in Huang Chao. Later, the Shatuo people established several regimes in the Central Plains, including the later Tang Dynasty, the later Jin Dynasty and the later Han Dynasty. How similar this phenomenon is to the Jin Dynasty. To sum it up. This strategy of controlling foreigners by barbarians eventually failed.

Third, the elimination of the debate between Hua and Yi: after the Tang Dynasty, the formation of Greater China was greatly reduced in the Song Dynasty. However, at this time, the nomadic people in the north have developed into a new stage. In 9 16, Yelv Baoji, a Khitan, proclaimed himself emperor, the first in the desert area, and established the Liao Dynasty. Compared with the former nomadic regime, Liao has made great progress. In the past, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Rouran and Turkic were strictly a powerful military alliance, which could not be stopped by a strict country. Once the powerful external forces intervene, the alliance will soon fall apart. However, Liao was different, and its state institutions were perfect, which was not inferior to the Central Plains dynasty. Moreover, Liao also created a system of "North and South Courtyards", in which the North Courtyard managed nomadic people according to tradition and the South Courtyard managed Han people according to the rules and regulations of Han people.

Therefore, Liao can not only control nomadic people well, but also manage agricultural areas well. After signing a peace agreement with the Northern Song Dynasty, Liao will not send troops to invade the Northern Song Dynasty. This is because Liao changed the backward custom of Xiongnu only relying on plunder and became a national machine seeking stability and self-development. Since then, the State of Jin has adopted a similar policy. The policies implemented by Liao and Jin countries are the first time in the history of China. It is puzzling why this system can be well used by nomadic people in the north, but it is difficult to implement in the Central Plains Dynasty. An important wish is that the Central Plains dynasty stuck to the "debate between China and foreign countries" and did not really regard nomadic people as their own.

/kloc-the rise of Mongolia in the 0/3rd century is another great event that changed the nomadic people. After the establishment of Mongolia, the loose organization in desert areas in the past was basically changed, and a relatively perfect regional management system began to be established. Mongolia's ten flags are one road, ten roads are one state, and ten states are one country. It has 10, 100, 1000, 1000 and 10000 grassroots organizations. Therefore, Mongolia's management of nomadic people is more progressive than that of Liao. Since the rise of Mongolia, the nomadic people in desert areas have been called "Mongolia" and have never changed, which is also because this powerful regional organization has strengthened the national concept and improved the cohesion.

127 1 year, Kublai Khan announced his re-accession to the throne in Beijing, succeeded to the throne as Emperor China, and established the Yuan Dynasty. This also shows that Mongolian nomadic people have also begun to adopt "Han rule". Of course, the Mongols' contact with and learning from China culture was far less than that of the Khitan nationality and the Jurchen nationality, which led to the slow sinicization of the Yuan Dynasty. This is also one of the reasons for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang drove the Mongols back to the desert under the slogan of "expelling Land Rover and restoring China", which made the concept of Sino-foreign debate in the Ming Dynasty reach an unprecedented level. In the early days, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to fight against Mongolia with the aim of giving up the emperor of Mongolia. But after the Mongols no longer proclaimed themselves emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang was relieved. By the Ming Dynasty, all ethnic groups in Kansai, Duoyan, Sanwei, Jurchen and other places were imprisoned, and they returned to the method of "controlling foreigners with foreigners" in the Han and Tang Dynasties, constantly sending troops to attack, dividing the forces of all ethnic groups and making them fall into infighting. At the same time, we will build nine Great Walls, the Great Wall along the coast, the Great Wall in Liaodong and the Great Wall in Miaojiang on a large scale, and shrink ourselves within the Great Wall. At the same time, the maritime ban and border ban were implemented, which cut off the non-governmental trade between the Central Plains and the surrounding ethnic groups in an attempt to crack down on it economically. These ethnic policies of the Ming Dynasty have long been proved wrong by history, so they will inevitably be thrown into the trash can of history.

In the late Ming Dynasty, Manchu (Jurchen nationality) rose again in Northeast China. On the national policy, Manchu inherited the traditions of Liao, Jin and Yuan, and abandoned the practices of Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Mongolians strictly divided administrative divisions, set up alliances and flags, married Mongolian nobles, and even vigorously promoted Yellow Religion (Tibetan Buddhism) to weaken their martial arts. In Qinghai and Tibet, the Qing Dynasty practiced the policy of integrating politics with religion, stationed troops and set up ministers. In the Han dynasty, Confucianism ruled the country, and the laws and regulations of the Ming dynasty were basically implemented. In the Western Regions, Bo restrained himself and made full use of his religious beliefs. It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty is a master of ethnic policies.