Story: Why did the nomadic people have advantages after the Han people reached the peak of Tang and Song Dynasties?

The differences between nationalities and economic and social types are closely related to geographical factors. Changing the environment is often equal to the saying "thoroughly remould oneself". Therefore, it is impossible to be a certain ethnic group forever if they move from grassland to cultivated land or from cultivated land to grassland.

Based on this understanding, it can be found that almost all nomadic people who appeared in the history of China and had contact with the Han nationality on the Great Wall line have to be divided into two stages: one is the era of growing up on the grassland; Second, join in the era of agricultural fixed farmland belt.

by the time of the second stage, they not only no longer represent nomadic forces, but have been absorbed into the category of Han nationality in essence.

The nomadic opponents who fought against the Han people in history must therefore be confined to the previous stage, and cannot include the second stage.

how do nomads migrate to the Han environment and deteriorate, that is, how do they move from the first stage to the second stage? The historical phenomena in the early stage and the later stage are not the same. The key to the transformation and the premise of * * * all lie in crossing the Great Wall Line, and the way of crossing is different in the early stage and the later stage.

In the early days, any "Hu" in the Five Hues passed through the Great Wall, not by the superiority of force, but by the pledge of loyalty to the Han nationality.

After the Tang Dynasty, when the vitality of the Han nationality was at its peak, the situation was obviously different. Although the northern nationalities still lost their nomadism and became Han nationality because of moving into the Great Wall, the way of moving was always large-scale invasion and conquest.

Therefore, the advantage of nomadic people in the struggle inside and outside the Great Wall will not be obvious until the later period. In the early period, this feeling did not exist, showing the phenomenon of balance of power. However, even in the early period, the initiative of struggle was in the hands of nomadic people.

It is easy to understand that nomadic people first appeared in front of the Han people, not the Han people. Although the victory of the struggle in the past 1 years has been attributed to the Han people, every stage of the struggle has also ended with the nomadic people surrendering to the Han people. The cause of the struggle is always the former rather than the latter. Even if they surrender or compromise, the matter is still decided by the nomadic people. These are all active manifestations.

Only the potential initiative of its nomadic people can be upgraded to obvious advantages in the later stage, and the initiative-advantage-conquest can be integrated into one.

Therefore, nomadic initiative plays an important role in explaining history. As a result of the initiative, nomadic people have this condition in essence. In other words, there are reasons why they have to do otherwise-they are combative and extroverted.

the combativeness of nomadic people is the most prominent aspect.

nomadic life must move, and moving itself is a battle, while promoting the combative performance of nomadic people is an attached extroversion.

in other words, nomadic society has its inherent conditions that it must develop outside its own world.

The economic characteristics of grassland nomadism are only biased rather than absolute, and they absorb materials from outside their own society. Therefore, they can not be rejected on the grassland, but become a common social phenomenon.

In particular, the consumption desire of the nobles was stimulated after they had contact with the luxury goods produced in the settled society.

On the other hand, when the nomadic economy produces itself and exceeds the saturation point, the surplus livestock, wool and skins must also be sold, otherwise it will become an obstacle to social development.

This forms a situation: the settlement zone can be isolated from the grassland, but the nomadic society on the grassland can't be cut off from the agricultural settlement society, and it must have economic relations with it.

Only in this way, nomadic society has a significant tendency of dependence on settled society, and the normal way of dependence is trade.

this is the same phenomenon in the pan-nomadic economic and cultural circle in Eurasia, and it is not only the nomadic people in China's history.

Historians have always wondered why a nomadic production society can become an opponent of an advanced agricultural society with a deep foundation.

when a powerful nomadic country is established, where is the source of its social strength?

it is obviously not enough to rely on nomadic economy alone to reach such a situation, so a new economic aspect must be attached.

but what is this new economic aspect?

The answer has been completely revealed today. In the formula of "nomadic production+X = development", X stands for foreign trade.

nomads exchange their own livestock and ancillary products for all kinds of materials, except for their own consumption, and the rest of the goods are used for resale. In this way, commodities at the east and west ends of Eurasia can circulate in the market with each other, while nomadic people take advantage of the relay.

The higher the profit, the larger the trade circle and scale, and the more the wealth of nomadic society accumulates.

on the other hand, they used force to protect trade, and the developed trade in turn fostered their growing force.

the rapid rise and amazing efficiency of powerful nomadic countries are all beyond this model without exception. For the same reason, nomadic countries and nations must also have strong business character.

An example is found in China, and the early typical example is the Xiongnu. They take Mongolian prairie as their active center, and their trade targets include other nomadic people around them, forest hunters, agricultural people in Wozhou, and most importantly, China, the Han nationality in the fertile agricultural producing area.

Han products, such as grains, silk fabrics, handicrafts, etc., were indispensable to Xiongnu society at that time and were largely used as the capital of switch trade, which was also confirmed by literature and archaeological data.

The exchange trade between nomadic people and their surrounding settlements is only one way for them to obtain the materials they need. If the exchange income can't satisfy their desires, or if they still need to satisfy their material desires due to the lack of commodities that can be exchanged, the way will change immediately. The form of transformation is plunder, a more direct means of acquisition.

nothing in the settled society hates nomadic people more than this kind of predatory behavior.

regardless of the east or the west, nomadic people are therefore regarded as invaders or barbarians. However, from the standpoint of nomadic society, there is no substantial difference between trade and plunder in the meaning of "acquisition".

The two are equally important, inevitable and based on the social needs that cannot be developed outward, and they are only different in terms of peace or fighting methods. They are two sides of a whole. It is generally known that there is a so-called "mutual market" between the Huns and China, a Han nationality, because of the agreement between the governments of the grassland and the settlement society, and the trade opening place is generally set.

Mayi (Shuoxian County, Shanxi Province, then Yanmen County), one of the famous battlefields in the early years of the Han Dynasty, was also one of the main trading places.

In this way, the trade and plunder of nomadic people in ancient China alternated inside and outside the Great Wall.

Therefore, there are opinions among scholars that these characteristics of nomadic society are related to the opportunity of the establishment of the country, and it is necessary to organize the clans and tribes that were originally isolated and dispersed because of the effect of trade and plunder.

Tribes and tribal chiefs who are especially rich and powerful are therefore promoted as monarchs, so the formation of nomadic countries has a causal relationship with trade and plunder.

Aggressive plunder, because of its extroversion with trade, has always been in the initiative position in the long-term struggle inside and outside the Great Wall since the Huns.

With their mobility and speed, nomadic cavalry made a powerful assault without occupation, but quickly attacked and retreated, killing, destroying and taking away prisoners and their property, which made it difficult for the unprepared attacked areas to recover for quite some time.

However, it is not so easy for the settled society to launch a counterattack and expedition to invade the grassland.

At the beginning of the era, Wang Mang, the short-lived emperor of the new dynasty who divided the Han Dynasty into the early and late periods, launched twelve generals to separate their expeditions to the Huns. At that time, Yan You, one of the generals who was ordered to go out, wrote a letter pointing out the reason why Chen's plan was difficult to work:

"The famine was worse than that in the previous year, especially in the northwest. Send 3, people, have 3 diets, help Haidai in the east, take Jianghuai in the south, and then prepare. According to the plan, one year has not yet been assembled, and those who arrive first are exposed, and the situation is not available. This is also difficult. The border is empty, you can't serve rations, and you can adjust the county and the country, which is not related to the genus. This is also difficult. Counting one person's 3 solar eclipses, you can use 18 sticks. If you don't have cow power, you can't win. The cows should feed themselves and add 2 sticks, which is heavy. Hu Disha is full of brine, and there are too many aquatic plants. Let's take the past as an example. Before the army left for a hundred days, the cattle will be exhausted, and there is still a lot of surplus grain, so people can't bear it. These three difficulties are also. Hu Di's autumn and winter are very cold, and the spring and summer are very windy. It is too heavy to win. Eating and drinking water, because of the four seasons, the teacher is worried about diseases and epidemics. Therefore, it is necessary to cut Hu in the past life, but it will take a hundred days, and it will be impossible. These four difficulties are also. If the trench follows itself, there will be fewer people who are light and sharp, and they will not be able to sprint, and it will be impossible for Lu Xu to escape. Fortunately, when you meet Lu, you are tired and burdened. In case of danger, the title and tail will follow, and Lu will cover up before and after, and it will be dangerous. These five difficulties are also. Make great use of the people's strength, you must make contributions, and I will worry about it ... "(The Story of the Huns in Hanshu)

This is a valuable article in the history of the Great Wall struggle. The five" difficulties "of mobilization, logistics supply, transportation, different living habits under the influence of geography and climate, marching and tactical application clearly depict why the Han people can only be in passive objective conditions most of the time.

these conditions have been an insurmountable problem for the Han nationality until the modern transportation developed era.

it is not easy for the Han people to carry out military actions on the grassland, especially the effect is not obvious.

The people and livestock property that make up the whole nomadic society are all mobile. The expeditionary force had already spread out in all directions before it arrived, and then gathered again after it was evacuated. When it encountered it, it suffered slight losses because it had been broken into parts, unlike the people and property in agricultural society, which were fixed on the land and suffered heavy losses when it was ravaged.

Therefore, unless the Han nationality is in a period of substantial national strength, it should cooperate properly in intelligence blockade, spy utilization, enemy situation judgment, strategy and tactics application, etc.

Otherwise, it would be a failure for the Han troops to go back and forth in vain on the grassland.

Only in this way, the Han people usually refuse to invest this capital easily unless they have to, or focus on the greater and longer-term economic benefits of the settled society.

It's not easy for the Han army to March on the grassland, and it doesn't conform to the economic principle. Therefore, in the struggle against the grassland, they prefer to stand on the Great Wall line most of the time.

The Han nationality's stop-and-stop doctrine may also have influenced the establishment of the idea that the Great Wall was related to "preventing Hu" from the beginning.