When it comes to Shandong, everyone's first reaction is definitely Shandong Province, after all, the characteristics of Shandong's big Han is tall and mighty, and the characteristics of the good man of Liangshan have long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so that everyone has a very good perception of Shandong. Everyone is so familiar with Shandong Province, but do you know why Shandong Province is called "Shandong"? Why not call it another name?
There are many interesting places in China's place names, such as Hunan Province and Hubei Province, Henan Province and Hebei Province, and the names correspond to the north and south, and it is obvious that they are the names they take with a lake or a certain river as the boundary. In the same way, Shandong Province and Shanxi Province actually have similarities!
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the name Shandong had already appeared, but Shandong at that time was not exactly the same as the current Shandong Province. At that time, Shandong Province, still belonged to the State of Qi, known as QiDi, and the official place name of Shandong Province really appeared during the Qing Dynasty! During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Shandong actually refers to the east of Kunshan Mountain!
At that time, Kunshan (in the territory of present-day Henan Province) was of great strategic significance, it was at the southern end of the Jin and Qin states, and to the east was the seat of the Eastern Zhou royal family and the State of Zheng, that is to say, whoever controlled Kunshan could grasp the strategic initiative to dominate the world. Therefore, at that time, there were many major wars around Kunshan, for example, when the Duke of Jinxiang set up an ambush at Kunshan, attacked the Qin army, and almost completely annihilated the Qin army, the three famous generals of the Qin army were all put on the pot by the Jinxiang gong, resulting in a great reduction in national strength.
From the perspective of the Qin people, Kunshan is their eastward struggle for the world, and it is also the dividing line between them and other countries, so they usually call the east of Kunshan Shandong! The Six Kingdoms of Shandong spoken of during the Warring States Period actually refer to the six kingdoms of Han, Chu, Zhao, Wei, Qi, and Yan. That is to say, in fact, Shandong at this time, the scope of the general refers to a very wide range, in the eyes of the Qin people, the east of the Kunshan Mountains are Shandong, the Warring States Seven Xiong, in addition to the Qin State, other countries are in Shandong!
From the Spring and Autumn Warring States to the Western Han Dynasty, Shandong generally refers to the area east of Kunshan, and in various documents of that era, when mentioning Shandong, we can understand it as east of Kunshan, such as the Book of Shangjun, Han Feizi, and the Book of Han. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the definition of Shandong changed again.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and finally the Sima family unified the world and established the Western Jin Dynasty, but the good times were short-lived, and the Western Jin Dynasty soon perished, and then a great chaotic world began. It is also in this period of drastic social change that everyone's definition of Shandong has changed, and Shandong no longer refers to the east of the Kunshan Mountains, but to the east of the Taihang Mountains!
This change was even more pronounced during the Sui and Tang dynasties. Tang Taizong Li Shimin was born in the Guanlonghao clan, according to the demarcation at that time, Li Shimin they should belong to the Shanxi people, because they were west of the Taihang Mountains, and at that time, the court, Shandong Shi clan talent, they despised the Shanxi Shi clan, seeing this scene, Li Shimin was naturally unhappy. He was from shanxi, and he had to fight for the Shanxi Shi clan, so Li Shimin asked his subordinates to compile the "Clan History", ranked the various Shi clans, and implied that the shanxi Shi clan should be ranked better. However, his suggestion was rejected, and the Shandong Cui clan was still ranked first, surpassing the Li family, so Li Shimin was furious, and in the end, the crowd was forced by Li Shimin's pressure to rank the imperial Li clan first, and the Shanxi Shi clan was barely able to overpower the Shandong Shi clan.
It can be seen that compared with Shandong in the Qin and Han dynasties and Shandong in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the land boundary has become smaller, and after the Song Dynasty, the definition of Shandong has changed again, and his land boundary has been pressed smaller and smaller, which is basically equivalent to the current Shandong Province. During the Song Dynasty, the meaning of Shandong was actually the Shandong Province we now refer to, but at that time there was no term Shandong Province, until the Qing Dynasty, the term Shandong Province began to really appear in the public eye. Since then, Shandong Province has basically taken shape, and although its boundaries have changed, the main body has always been that piece of land.
epilogue
It can be seen that there is actually a big difference between the current Shandong and the ancient Shandong! Modern Shandong refers to our coastal province of Shandong Province, while Shandong in ancient times has undergone several changes, step by step compressed into modern Shandong Province!
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in the eyes of the Qin people, Kunshan was the boundary of the Qin State and other countries, and it was the key place that prevented the Qin State from going east to compete for the world, so they took the Kunshan Mountain as the boundary and called the east of the Kunshan Mountain as Shandong. This situation lasted until the Western Han Dynasty, after experiencing the great turmoil of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Shandong was no longer bounded by Kunshan Mountain, but became bounded by Taihang Mountain, at this time Shandong refers to the east of Taihang Mountain, and Shanxi refers to the west of Taihang Mountain. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the definition of Shandong changed again, and Shandong at that time referred to the qidi in ancient times, which is what we now call Shandong Province. However, at that time, the term Shandong Province did not appear, and everyone used to call Qidi Shandong east of the Taihang Mountains!