Indonesia recently announced that it would move its capital. Let’s talk about the important history of capital relocation in ancient China?

In fact, for every country, moving the capital is a big thing, because the original hand may have developed quite well, but because it lacks the aura of identity like the capital, it development will decline. Moreover, the new capital city may also waste relatively large projects to build many buildings. In the history of China, there is also a history of moving capitals, for example, King Ping moved eastward, Xiaowen moved to Luo, and Hailing moved to Yan.

After the Western Zhou Dynasty was declared destroyed, the princes supported King Zhou Ping to take the throne. However, because the capital was damaged by an earthquake at that time, there were also threats from foreign invaders around it. In order to ensure the stable development of the entire country and even the capital, they moved eastward to Luoyi, which is now Luoyang, Henan, and established the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Because the authority of the Zhou royal family was lost at that time, and the power of the princes was getting stronger and stronger, the population and land resources they controlled were in a period of great turmoil and development.

In the 18th year of Taihe, Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang with hundreds of civil and military officials and millions of infantry and cavalry in the name of Nanding. Such a capital move actually has the effect of killing multiple birds with one stone, because Luoyang has always been the center of the accumulation of Han culture in the Central Plains. If the Northern Wei Dynasty chose to establish its capital in Luoyang, it could promote the Sinicization reform economically and solve the food supply problem of the Northern Wei Dynasty. It can also facilitate the control of the Central Plains region, and can also unite with surrounding local classes to promote exchanges and integration among various ethnic groups.

Haining moved the capital to Yanjing in order to resist the concentration of forces within the royal family. Because only by moving the capital to Yanjing can it disintegrate the core of the opposition and better hold power in its hands. Therefore, the reason why the capital can be moved is because the ecological environment and economic deviation are the main driving forces.