Tunken Shubian is two words, Tunken is the meaning of stationing down to reclaim the field, and Shubian is the meaning of guarding the frontier. However, the two words are often used together, emphasizing the meaning of the latter.
As early as the Western Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty summed up the lessons of the failure of the Western Expedition and began to "set up a lieutenant and plough the Tuntian Canal" to create conditions for the Han Dynasty to unify the western region. After the unification of the Western Regions in 60 BC, the Western Han Dynasty further expanded the Tuntian in the Western Regions, and the Tuntian soldiers and soldiers were also soldiers and farmers, and they also cultivated and fought, which not only provided grain and grass for the army and guaranteed the combat effectiveness of the army, but also developed production, prospered the economy, promoted the social progress of the frontier areas, and was also an important force in maintaining social stability and developing the economy of the Western Regions.
Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, successive dynasties have regarded Tuntian as an important measure to unify and manage the Western Regions. Among them, the Tang and Qing dynasties had the largest scale and the most significant results. However, with the rise and fall of the Central Plains Dynasty, this move did not achieve perfect success. Analyzing the reasons for this, it mainly lies in these two words: woman.
Chao Que (200 BC – 154 BC), han Chinese, native of Yingchuan (present-day Yuzhou, Henan), politician and writer of the Western Han Dynasty. After emperor Jing of Han ascended the throne, he was appointed as the Internal History and later moved to Yushi Dafu. He developed the policy of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce", advocating the acceptance of millet to the throne, increasing agricultural production, and revitalizing the economy. At the same time, on the issue of resisting xiongnu invasion of the border, he put forward the strategic idea of "emigrating to the real border", suggesting that the people be recruited to enrich the border and actively prepare for the Xiongnu to attack and plunder.
In 169 BC, Chao Erroneously gave Emperor Wen of Han a "Speech and Military Affairs" in an attempt to unite the barbarians with the Chinese army, "the two armies are in harmony with each other, each using its own skills", and at the same time, advocating the initiative to attack the Xiongnu, but Emperor Wen of Han politely refused. Later, he also put forward the "Guarding the Border and Persuading the Peasants" and "Recruiting the People to Be Scattered", advocating the strategy of active defense. Among them, there is such a passage in the "Guarding the Border and Persuading the Peasants to Evacuate": His Majesty is fortunate to worry about the border, and he sends the general to send a pawn to cure the congestion, and even benefits him greatly. However, let the distant pawn guard the plug, one year old and more, do not know the ability of the Hu people, it is better to choose a permanent resident, the family room and the field, and prepare for it... First of all, the house is a house, with a field vessel, which is a recruiter and a disciple who is exempted from re-making a dwelling; the insufficient, the one who raises a slave to atone for his sins and the slave who loses his slave to worship; the insufficient, is the one who desires to raise the people. All were given to the High Lord, and their homes were restored. Give winter and summer clothes, eat, and be able to stop self-sufficient.
This passage translated into our vernacular today is: The emperor worried that the border was a blessing for the people of the world, and sent generals, officials, and soldiers to govern the border, which was a great policy of benefiting the people. However, ordering distant soldiers to guard the border plug, changing every year, it is difficult to understand the specialties of the Hu people, it is better to choose people who live all year round, settle down and buy land and property, and use it as a precaution... First real estate, then the equipment for ploughing the land, the recruitment of criminals and those exempted from punishment to live; if not enough, recruit householders, slaves, atonement men and those who send slaves who want to worship; if this is not enough, recruit those who want to go. All rewarded high-ranking officials and placed their homes. Winter and summer clothing, and plenty of food, until they are self-sufficient.
Chao mistakenly said that only by relocating the people to enrich the frontier can there be no more wars on the frontier, and the people on the frontier protect each other like fathers and sons, and no longer have the worry of being invaded (the migration of the people to the real border, the matter of the distant death, the father and son of the people who have been stuffed down, and the suffering of the dead). However, this proposition of his was only really realized by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, whose government first carried out a large number of immigrants in the area of Bayannaoer in present-day Inner Mongolia, reclaiming agricultural planting, building water conservancy projects, and only in 121 BC, digging irrigation channels in Shuofang County, employing tens of thousands of people, which lasted for two or three years. The imperial court not only paid these people a settlement fee, but also built houses and subsidies for these people, allowing them to bring their families to take root in the frontier, which really enriched the population of the frontier and achieved the purpose of reclamation and reclamation.
However, the problem was also reduced with the weakening of the strength of the Central Plains Dynasty, and those who were immigrated would soon run back, and it was difficult to take root in the frontier. We take Dunhuang as an example, in the Han and Tang Dynasties, this place was undoubtedly a grand and glorious place, but in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it basically belonged to a state of decline, and to the Ming Dynasty, it entered the lowest valley in history, and the descendants of the Han and Tang Dynasties in Dunhuang disappeared without a trace.
In this regard, the "Dunhuang County Chronicle" records this: "At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the People were disturbed by Tubo, and the people migrated inland, and the land was not in Tubo. "Meaning, at that time, all the Han people here fled back to the interior." In 1524, the Ming Dynasty ordered the closure of Jiayu Pass, the relocation of Kansai civilians to Guannei, and the abandonment of Gua and Sha Prefectures. For the next two hundred years, Dunhuang was unstructured and gradually declined, becoming a desert land where "the wind sows the willows in the sky, and the moon shines on the quicksand for a day".
Why? The reason is that the Lord has no woman, in a word: no wife can not rest in the heart, no son can not take root. Women are home, and with it, everything is at ease, and it is natural to take root. (Wen | Lusheng)