This is the previous article "Why did the Manchu Qing enter the Central Plains?" No way, destiny is the return, not to go no" is a deepened version of "No Way".
In the previous article, from the perspective of historical philosophy, the inevitability of the Manchu Qing's entry into the Central Plains was discussed. The author has a history of civilization to call this inevitability the Mandate of Heaven. The Mandate of Heaven always carries a fatalistic concept in it, in fact, this is not fate, but the law of historical development, the philosophy of history.
To review, there are three reasons why the Manchu Qing dynasty came to dominate the Central Plains:
First, the territorial structure of ancient China determined that the northeast could not exist independently of China, and the northeast was controlled by Beijing, the yanji region of the center of civilization. The Manchu Qing could not have become a single independent state in the northeast, and if it did not enter the Central Plains, what awaited him was to be swept away by the new central government in the Yanji region.
Second, the political system of ancient China determined that the Manchu Qing dynasty had more advantages and competitiveness as a feudal regime than the local governments of the prefectures and counties in the Central Plains. As a relatively complete political system, the Manchu Qing regime was more politically mature than Li Zicheng's peasant uprising and the small imperial court cobbled together by the Southern Ming Dynasty, and was more able to take into account the political and economic interests of all social strata and all nationalities. The Manchu Qing's entry into the Central Plains was supported by all strata.
Third, the center of civilization in ancient China determined that when the Manchu Qing entered Beijing in the Yanji region, it would be able to become a central government and have the basic force to sweep away the armed divisions of various regions. The center of ancient Chinese civilization shifted from Chang'an Luoyang in the Henan region of the Guanzhong region to Nanjing in Beijing in the Jiangnan region of the Yanji region. The ability of the center of civilization to dominate determines the size of a country's territory and its political ecology. And that's where destiny lies.
The center of civilization is the most developed area of a country's political economy and culture, the seat of the capital, and the only standard for production and life in each region. The expansion of the national territory is an external extension of the mode of production in the center of civilization. The summary of the above three reasons is actually a specific elaboration of these two definitions.
The center of civilization determines the size of a country's territory, determines the humanistic spirit of a country, and determines the direction of a country's political and economic development. The stability of the center of civilization is extremely important for a country and a civilization. Historically, there have been many ancient civilizations that have withered away and many huge empires that have fallen apart, all because of the evolution of the civilization era stage, the content of the geographical environment has changed, which has led to the shift of the center of civilization.
China's territorial structure is divided into six major blocks: northeast, grassland, western region, plateau, central plains, and southern region. Chinese civilization originated in the Central Plains, and the centers of civilization were Luoyang and Chang'an. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the western region and the south were merged into the Chinese territory. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Mongolian steppe and the northeast were merged into the Chinese territory. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was incorporated into the Chinese territory, while the grasslands and western regions were no longer owned by China.
Chinese civilization is a very inclusive civilization, not only cultural tolerance, but also regional tolerance. The great unification system and the tributary system of the feudal kingdoms are the specific contents of the tolerance of Chinese civilization.
After the collapse of the Tang Dynasty, the land of China fell into a situation of division and division of many countries such as the Liao, Song, Xia, and Jin. Although the Yuan Dynasty once again completed the great unification, the Western Regions were not within the territory of the Yuan Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, not only the western region was lost, but also the grassland.
Although the Yanji area is located in the Central Plains and is located in the Haihe Plain, it is a zone where agriculture and animal husbandry are combined, with a dual mode of social production. The expansion and maintenance of the national territory is an extension of the mode of production in the central society of civilization.
However, whether it was the grassland in charge of Yan Ji during the Yuan Dynasty or the Yan Ji in the Ming Dynasty, it was inevitable that the national territory would be maintained in the way of social production of its own people. During the Yuan Dynasty, he wanted to turn the Central Plains into a pasture. In the Ming Dynasty, he wanted to turn the grassland into farmland.
The Western Regions and its Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are all areas where agriculture and animal husbandry are combined, and their culture has become a glue between the Central Plains and grassland cultures. In the three dynasties of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Tubo culture had a very important political position. However, its usefulness is very limited. The Yuan Dynasty governed the Central Plains and the South with a tax-inclusive system, and the Ming Dynasty used the feudal system to bind the grasslands. In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the grasslands and the Central Plains, nomadism and farming, there were constant conflicts. The Yuan Dynasty disappeared in only a hundred years, the Ming Dynasty was three hundred years old, and the Great Wall was also built for three hundred years.
The terrain of the northeast is very important, it is a mixed economy of agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing and hunting, and the rise and the regime in the northeast are more inclusive than the regime in the steppe or the central plains.
The structure of the six major plates of China's territory is not only the structure of the territory, but also the structure of culture and the structure of the political ecology. China has been a unified multi-ethnic state since ancient times, and this territorial structure plays a vital role in maintaining Chinese civilization and ensuring the inheritance of Chinese civilization.
It was the Manchu Qing dynasty that fulfilled such a historical mission, enriched the specific content of China's great unification, and ended the long-term internal strife. Chinese civilization lagged behind the West in modern times, not because of the Manchu Qing. Rather, it is a historical necessity, the territory of a great power has its limits, and the conflict between the two centers of civilization cannot be completely eliminated. This point has been discussed slightly in the previous article.
The Qing Dynasty completed the construction of the territory of Chinese civilization, consolidated the position of the civilization center of the Yanji region, and enabled China to maintain the territory of the imperial era after a hundred years of humiliation in modern times. This is particularly surprising to Western historians.
Without the contribution of the Qing Dynasty, modern China faced the culture and military invasion of western powers, and China's fate is difficult to predict, like India or the Ottoman Empire.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, solved the historical tasks that were not completed by the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and was the savior of Chinese civilization. Its contribution is enormous. The author is not a clean powder, nor is it a full cleansing white. The rise of the West in modern times is short-lived, only the Chinese civilization has flourished for thousands of years, and it has never died in the past, although there are ups and downs, it can always be reborn and rise again. Superstitious Western ephemerality is unreliable, and it is only right to believe in oneself and rely on oneself.