The full text is 1686 words, the reading time is about 3 minutes The Tang Dynasty is recognized as a powerful country in the ancient Chinese feudal period, and the grand situation of "All Nations Coming to the Dynasty" and the title of "Heavenly Khan" have achieved the dignity and glory of the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty, which had the strongest comprehensive strength, strong economic strength and brilliant cultural achievements, all had a certain positive impact on the development of world civilization.
Politics is the foundation of economic and cultural development, and the reason why the Tang Dynasty had such an arrogant achievement mainly depended on the stable environment shaped by its powerful political maintenance, and civilization and development were able to thrive. The Tang Dynasty was originally a martial dynasty, and after the internal unification was realized, the Tang rulers implemented the border expansion system.
At that time, the Tang Dynasty had fierce enemies in the southeast, southwest and northwest, and the Tang Dynasty completed the expansion of its territory with its strong military strength and diplomatic wisdom, and the territory at that time could reach 12 million square kilometers, second only to the Yuan Dynasty.
At that time, European civilization did not develop, the advanced nature of the Tang Dynasty was obvious to all, and with the strength of the Tang Dynasty, it should have been able to expand westward and realize the desire to conquer Europe.
However, the Tang Dynasty did not carry out the pace of westward expansion, but in the later period, it mainly defended the outside world, no longer carried out any expansion, insisted on stabilizing the territory, and adopted the mode of pacification, tolerance and exchange of diplomatic relations with the outside world. Why did the Tang rulers abandon the path of expansion? What is the main reason for this?
The current situation affects the external strategy
1. During the reign of Li Shimin, the Tang Dynasty was the strongest
Since the establishment of Li Yuan, the Tang Dynasty has experienced the reign of Zhenguan and the prosperity of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, and after the Anshi Rebellion, it has gone into decline. The Kaiyuan dynasty is known as the peak state of the Tang Dynasty, and in fact, the Zhenguan period can be regarded as the most prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty.
During the reign of Tang Xuanzong, it was indeed culturally progressive and economically prosperous, but the military strength at this time was not as strong as that of Tang Taizong, and most of the territory of the Tang Dynasty was stabilized during the reign of Tang Taizong, and the military strength of the later Tang Dynasty was actually weakening and weakening.
2. In the late Tang Dynasty, the reason for the weakening of military strength
War is the thing that consumes the most of the country's economy, and successive years of foreign conquests have caused infinite loss of population and economy. In the early days of the Tang Dynasty, there was not much problem in expanding the border, and in the later period, the resources of the continued conquest were too large, and the bearing capacity of the entire dynasty was damaged to a certain extent, and then it shifted from offensive to stable defensive position.
The late Tang Dynasty, which was strong, did not need to fight at all
1. The tolerant heart of the Tang rulers
The rulers of the Tang Dynasty always engaged in diplomacy with the mentality of "Huayi family", and when they were strong, there was no contempt for ethnic minorities, and many small countries willingly attached themselves to the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty also treated each other with courtesy and carried out reciprocal economic or cultural exchanges. Because when the Tang Dynasty was strong, it did not need to carry out any conquest at all, and it could become a great power of all countries to come to the dynasty.
2) The purpose of diplomacy is to build good relations
The main purpose of the Tang Dynasty's diplomacy was to ensure the stability of the border, and the foreign tribes that were eliminated in the early expansion of the border were also forced to fight each other because the two sides could not live in peace.
In view of the stability of the country, war must be waged to make the whole country more stable. Later, with the strength of the Tang Dynasty, the rulers of many empires were unwilling to be enemies of the Tang Dynasty, and friendly diplomacy was realized, and the policy of expanding the border was no longer implemented in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.
Nor do objective conditions allow for expansion
1. Outward expansion is still dominated by neighboring countries
Tang Dynasty is a typical agricultural country, the agricultural state of the plains is not as strong as the nomads, the process of expansion requires a strong strategic advancement, although the neighboring nomads have cavalry, but the military strength of the Tang Dynasty is still enough to compete with it, the supply of the central plains inland is very easy to export to the border through the Territory of the Tang Dynasty, and there will be no huge difficulties in expanding the frontier.
2, going to Europe, is a test for transportation supplies
If the Tang Dynasty needed to conquer Europe, it needed to stretch its own supply line. At the time of the Tang Dynasty, transportation and so on were already very advanced, but in the face of this long route and bad weather, from the perspective of the Chinese art of war, it was not suitable for onslaught, and the Tang Dynasty itself did not have the characteristics of nomadic people, and naturally did not dare to risk a long-distance attack.
In addition, the internal affairs of the Tang Dynasty at that time were actually not stable, there were many hidden dangers that had accumulated for a long time, if the Tang Dynasty hastily conquered distant countries at this time, it would inevitably cause the entire country to fall into crisis, so the Tang Dynasty did not advocate external expansion.
The strength of the Tang Dynasty was recognized, and due to the implementation of the equalization system, the flexible combatability of the prefectural army system was greatly improved. Although the military strength of the early Tang Dynasty was strong, the economic strength foundation was stable.
But in the end, it was impossible to overcome the various drawbacks of the rush. Thousands of miles or thousands of miles of attack, the need for strong supply support, this is a huge test for the Tang Dynasty, in the face of all these impossible goals, to defend as an attack is a better strategy.
In the early days of the Tang Empire, relying on its own strength to gradually stabilize, the national strength and population gradually increased, and it continued to expand the border. As time went on, war losses increased and population losses increased, so the military strength was not as strong as before, so the Tang Dynasty abandoned its conquest of the West in its heyday.
Especially when the neighboring countries of the Tang Dynasty saw the strength of the Tang Dynasty and took the initiative to show their willingness to carry out economic trade or cultural exchanges, with the tolerant attitude of the Li and Tang rulers, it was naturally the "Huayi family", and there was no need to carry out any more conquests, and it was the best choice to maintain friendly coexistence. To sum up, there are historical reasons why the Tang Dynasty abandoned its westward conquest.
Reference: New Book of Tang