Huaxia, also known as "Xia", "Zhuxia", etc., is the self-designation of the ancient inhabitants who lived in the Central Plains (present-day Henan).
About 5,000 years ago, between Huashan and Xiashui in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin, there were many tribes, including the Yandi and Yellow Emperor tribes. The Yandi and Yellow Emperor tribes formed the "Huaxia Nation" through fusion in the later period, and in turn, formed one of the oldest civilizations in the world, "Huaxia Civilization".
According to historical records, among the "Three Emperors and Five Emperors", the first of the "Five Emperors" is the Yellow Emperor, so posterity calls the Yellow Emperor the ancestor of the Huaxia clan. After the Yellow Emperor, there appeared: Emperor Zhao, Tang Yao, Xia Yu and others. Dayu was a concubine of the Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan and the leader of the Xiahou clan. Because of his meritorious efforts in controlling water, he inherited the throne from Shun, and with the support of the princes, became the co-lord of the tribes in the Central Plains, and later, with Yangcheng as the capital, established the first dynasty in Chinese history.
As the central dynasty, the Xia Dynasty, its eleven clans and the royal family of the Xia Hou clan, have a certain patriarchal relationship in blood, maintain a relationship of sub-fiefs in politics, and have a relationship of tribute in the economy, which also constitutes the core territorial scope of the Xia Dynasty: from the western part of Henan Province and the southern part of Shanxi Province in the west to the junction of Henan Province, Shandong Province and Hebei Province in the east, reaching the northern part of Hubei Province in the south, and reaching the southern part of Hebei Province in the north, with a territory of about 2.1 million square kilometers.
Even so, the geographical location of the Xia Dynasty at this time was only part of China's territory. At the time of the Shang Dynasty, in addition to the above-mentioned land, it also included the remaining land in Shaanxi and Jiangsu, and parts of Liaoning, Gansu, Hunan, Zhejiang, Chongqing and Sichuan, and the territorial area at this time reached about 3.2 million square kilometers.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, because the people of the Zhou Dynasty lived in the west, they had to march for more than forty days to go to the central Heluo region. Therefore, in order to better control the vast territory in the eastern region, King Wu of Zhou wanted to build a new capital city around Luoyang. Unfortunately, however, King Wu of Zhou died shortly after destroying the Shang Dynasty.
The Duke of Zhou, who had been assisting King Cheng of Zhou, built two cities in Luoyang after quelling the rebellion, the west side was used as the palace of the royal city, and the east side was used as a temple. According to historical records, these places were all for political service, so that Zhou Tianzi could better manage the surrounding princes and concentrate his royal power, and chose the capital city.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, in order to reward the meritorious people, the rulers of the state distributed the land and the people to these meritorious people together, and let them establish their own territories to defend the royal family. Depending on the size of the merits, the size of the territory divided into fiefs and the titles of the princes will be different. However, the princes must obey the Zhou royal family, pay tribute on schedule, accompany the battle, and defend the royal family.
The rulers of the Zhou Dynasty distributed their power to the various princes, but in order to be able to take the territory into their own hands, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty had to be selected in the middle of the world, and an important purpose of this was to be able to better manage all the people in the territory. This has been recorded in many cultural relics excavated in later generations.
However, the territory of the Western Zhou Dynasty was basically similar to that of the Shang Dynasty, with about 3.4 million square kilometers, mainly centered on the southeast coast.
During the reign of King Wu of Zhou, the Zhou Dynasty was also harassed by many foreign invasions. For this reason, King Wu of Zhou often worried about the major affairs of the country, and soon after, King Wu of Zhou died of illness. However, the three prisoners of the court were dissatisfied with the fact that Zhou Gong came to power, so they joined forces with the son of the King of Shang, and it took zhou three years to overthrow these reactionary forces one by one, and finally, the chaos was rectified.
In order to further expand his territory and to be able to better manage it, the Duke of Zhou took a series of measures. They split up the people left over from the Shang Dynasty, and let Uncle Kang govern the Shang capital's chaoge, and let the Shang King's brother Zi Jian establish the Song kingdom in Shangqiu. In order to strengthen the management of the merchant nobility, they also made a number of measures:
Let the merchants form their own armies, and add the military strength of Zhou Tianzi to them, strengthen management; establish land states in the newly conquered areas in the east, and arrange the Zhou Dynasty's confidants in the surrounding areas. Under this mode of management, each princely state could cooperate with the surrounding tribes to develop and grow.
The people of the Zhou Dynasty all said that they were descendants of the Xia Dynasty, so the sifang tribes that called themselves "Huaxia" and "Zhuxia" and were hostile to the Zhou Dynasty were called "Siyi". At that time, the Zhou Dynasty people believed that as long as they could abide by the Zhou rites, they could be called "Zhuxia", and "Hua" was used to describe Hanfu, and "Xia" mainly referred to the country that "performed the Zhou rites".
The Zhou Dynasty regarded Luoyang as a political and economic center, centered on it, and constantly expanded their territory outward. Because the various xia in various places had the desire to merge together, slowly these tribes began to become stronger, and took the initiative to move closer to the Zhou Dynasty and combine with the Zhou Dynasty, thus expanding the cultural field of China.
The remaining other countries, such as the Kingdom of Wu, the State of Yue, the State of Chu, the State of Xu, etc., all migrated from the Central Plains to the south. However, the State of Qi, the State of Lu, and the State of Qin began to expand their territory. Until the Warring States period, the territory under the jurisdiction of Zhu Xia was already dozens of times that of the Zhou Dynasty. At this time, many tribes had been fused together, laying the foundation for the later Unification of the Qin Dynasty.
Later, when the Qin Dynasty unified the world, it attacked the Xiongnu to the north to collect the Hetao region and pacified Baiyue to the south, under such circumstances, China achieved great unification, thus allowing China to enter an era of true great unification. At this time, the territorial area was about 3.6 million square kilometers, including all of Ningxia and all of Chongqing and the larger almost entire sichuan.
In the end, under the rule of the Qin Dynasty, not only the great unification between the nationalities, but also the unified management of the territory. It is precisely because of this great unification that both imperial power and territory have been fully centralized. China's original territory also expanded from the point of the Zhou Dynasty to a large territory now.
It can be said that with the evolution of history, China's territory is also constantly expanding, which is the inevitable development of history. During the period of China's great reunification, the Chinese people experienced a arduous struggle, and finally, they formed our current "Chinese nation".
Resources:
【"Shi ji · Five Emperors Benji", "Shi Ji Xia Ben Ji", "Shi Ji Zhou Ben Ji"]