Author: Fang Kun
Source: "Historical Research" WeChat public account
The original article was published in journal of ocean university of China (social sciences edition), No. 1, 2022
Sea frontiers are an important part of the territorial boundaries of coastal countries. The study of the history of maritime frontiers is an important part of the study of the history of the territories of relevant countries. In recent years, scholars have made great achievements in the study of China's maritime history, not only establishing a relevant narrative system, but also making important progress in the study of different periods, different locations and different social fields in the historical development of haijiang. The author does not speculate on the shallowness, but only talks about the conceptual connotation of the history of sea frontiers, the historical periodization, some laws of the development of sea frontiers in historical periods, and the relationship between land frontiers and sea frontiers. Where there is a mistake, I would like to ask Fang Jia to teach you.
First, the analysis of the concept of sea frontiers
Studies have shown that the concept of sea frontier refers to different things from ancient to modern times. The modern concept of sea frontier is a geographical concept of the category of a state, which is generally used to express sovereign space such as the territorial sea of a country, and is also generally used to refer to the sea areas and islands under national jurisdiction, including exclusive economic zones, contiguous zones and continental shelves beyond the baseline of the territorial sea. The so-called sea frontier here is essentially a brief expression of "national maritime territory", that is, offshore seas and islands recognized by modern international law and under the jurisdiction of national sovereignty. For example, when we talk about the territory of contemporary China, we use the following expression: it includes a maritime territory of 9.6 million square kilometers of land, more than 6,500 islands, and nearly 3 million square kilometers of sea areas under China's jurisdiction under the modern international law of the sea. However, looking at the sea frontier in the historical period, we will find that both the spatial orientation and the scope boundary are different from the modern sea frontier. What are the parts of the sea frontier in the historical period? How big is the scope? What is the connotation of the traditional concept of sea frontier? How did the ancients understand the relationship between land and sea? How to govern the sea frontier? How should we evaluate the maritime concept and sea-related practice of our ancestors? These issues are not only academic, but also of great practical significance. Because it is not only the logical starting point for the study of the history of the territory, but also involves major issues such as the formation and historical evolution of China's national territory. Answering the above questions and summarizing the development laws of the maritime frontier on the basis of clarifying its historical development process is of great significance for the complete and in-depth study of China's national history.
How did the ancestors of the historical period understand the relationship between the sea and the land and the sea? This is a key question in the analysis of the traditional concept of sea frontiers; and to answer this question, we must first clarify the profound influence of geographical conditions and geopolitical environment on the concept of ancient Chinese territories. As we all know, China is located on the East Asian continent, bordering the vast Pacific Ocean in the east and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the "roof of the world" in the west; "land surface sea" is the basic geographical feature of this vast continent. From the 20th century BC, within the coastline of 18,000 kilometers stretching from Liaoyan in the north to Liangyue in the south, successive dynastic regimes changed successively, gradually forming a dynastic state territory pattern with the Central Plains as the core region. Around the center of the regime's rule, the dynastic ruling area extended in all directions, and its extremes reached the coastline in the east and south directions; the west, northwest and southwest ended in the Hengduan, Himalayas, Kunlun, and Tianshan mountains. Together with the majestic graben, the coastline formed the natural boundaries of the dynastic territory. The ancient ancestors who lived on this continent had a vast living space and rich natural resources, and there was no need to expand outward across natural boundaries. This geographical environment profoundly influenced our ancestors' understanding of the territory and the ocean. In the view of dynastic rulers, all territories were land. They demarcated "frontiers" as "boundaries" on land, planned the approximate scope of the territory, and thus derived a regional spatial form with sovereign jurisdictional significance. It should be pointed out that for a long period of time, the relevant dynastic regimes did not clearly demarcate the boundaries of the territory, but the land territory could be divided into "areas" (or "political districts") at all levels as the basis for jurisdiction. However, in the face of the sea, almost all the rulers of the dynasty regarded the coastline separating land and water as the natural boundary of the dynasty's territory, and regarded the sea as a natural barrier to protect the security of the territory. For water bodies and seas outside the coastline, the ancient ancestors did not and could not treat them the same as land, let alone associate them with the "area" of the territory. In the concept of the ancients, the ocean is another unknown world outside of "kingization", it has no "frontier" and no "boundary". Since the sea area was not within the territory of the dynasty, the so-called "maritime territory" of the present people could not exist in ancient times. Although in the past thousands of years, the territories of successive dynasties have undergone various changes and shrunk, the above concept of territories has not changed substantially in people's minds. Therefore, the "sea frontier" in the historical period does not refer to the "maritime territory".
So what is the connotation of the concept of "sea frontier" in the historical period? How do we determine its spatial extent? The author believes that the answers to these two questions have changed in different historical periods. We know that the word "sea frontier" appeared relatively late in ancient texts. However, since ancient times, the ancient ancestors who lived near the sea have formed the first understanding of the coastal zone, coastline and nearshore waters in the living environment in which they lived; then they have a view and draw certain conclusions about the relationship between land and sea observed in life, and the impact of the ocean on human life. The early consciousness of sea frontier was formed; because the ancestors regarded the sea as the boundary of the land edge, the sea frontier in the early concept of the ancients was the sea boundary.
Before the formation of the "Great Unification" dynastic state, parts of the northern coast under the rule of the Yan and Qi regimes had already undergone a certain degree of early development. However, most politicians in the princely regime still adhere to the concept of "sea frontier is the sea boundary", regarding the outside of the sea boundary as a place not under the jurisdiction of the "royal land", so the water space outside the coastline is not included in the jurisdiction. During the Qin and Han dynasties, this concept was gradually revised. With the formation of the "great unification" of the dynastic state and the consolidation of its territorial rule, the understanding of the marginal areas of the territory, especially the coastal areas, in the concept of the rulers has changed: the coastal areas within the coastline and the large islands outside the coastline (such as Hainan Island) are regarded as the "special areas" of the dynastic territory. Examining the practice of the Qin and Western Han dynasties in ruling the territory of the country, it can be found that special economic policies were implemented in the coastal areas on the edge of the territory. This practice of economic strategy allowed people to evolve and expand the concept of sea frontiers from linear boundaries to a kind of "area" with relatively vague boundaries that was included in the coastal administrative divisions of the dynastic ruling system; its status was the same as that of other frontier areas; but because of its location on the coast, the dynastic regime adopted different economic governance policies and administrative jurisdiction measures for the sea frontier. Although the Qin and Han dynasties have undergone dynastic changes, the main connotation of the concept of sea frontier contained in the traditional Chinese concept of territory has never changed substantially until the end of the 19th century. What is more interesting is that the rulers of almost all dynasties from the Qin to the Qing Dynasty did not clearly define the scope of the sea frontier under their rule. To this day, the academic understanding of the concept of sea frontiers is still ambiguous, which has led to different interpretations of the relevant history.
From the above combing, it can be seen that the concept of sea frontier in the historical period has undergone a dynamic development process. From the "sea boundary" of the pre-Qin Dynasty, it evolved into a coastal area of the unified territory of the Qin and Han dynasties. After the adjustment and integration of the Three Kingdoms, two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a coastal territory was formed, dominated by coastal zones and adjacent land areas, including tidal flats and harbors. It needs special emphasis to be placed on the fact that, in the early stages of the formation of coastal territories, their spatial extent did not include the maritime space formed by marine water bodies and the islands in between; Subsequently, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the exploration and integration of the frontier by the dynastic regime, the various areas of the coastal territory successively entered the stage of in-depth governance and development, and the coastal waters and islands beyond the coastline were gradually brought under the jurisdiction of the dynastic regime, and the spatial scope of the sea frontier was gradually expanded. In the process of slow spatial expansion and gradual deepening of development, coastal territories have gradually formed a basic pattern of their own development.
Second, several stages of the development of maritime frontiers in the historical period
From "coastal boundaries" to "coastal frontiers", the changes in the connotation of sea frontiers show the changes in the perception of the relationship between land and sea by dynastic rulers in different historical periods from another perspective. Although "sea frontier" rarely appeared in official documents as an exclusive term before the Ming Dynasty, the governance of sea frontier has always been an important part of the governance of successive dynasties (including coastal separatist regimes). Two points need to be emphasized here: First, the coastal areas were included in the territorial division from the northern princely regime in the Spring and Autumn Period. Previously, the Zhou royal family had jurisdiction over the coastal areas only in the name of "suzerain"; and the feudal regime had few measures to rule the coastal areas under its jurisdiction, let alone permanent administrative management. With the continuous expansion of coastal development, some sea-related production categories in the field of social production (such as sea salt production in the State of Qi) have developed. The northern princely regimes were the first to promulgate sea-related management policies (such as the "GuanshanHai" of the State of Qi). When the princely regime began to set up counties within the feudal territory, the orientation and spatial scope of this new administrative division were roughly confirmed. It is on this basis that individual sections of the northern coastal territory have been able to take the lead in taking shape. Second, the spatial scope of the dynastic sea frontier has slowly expanded since its formation, but the coastal land area has always been the main body of the coastal territory; those large islands that have been successively included in the jurisdiction of the dynastic regime (such as Hainan Island, etc.) are also regarded as "maritime land", and the jurisdiction of the dynastic regimes on large islands is no different from that of the mainland. In fact, in the 1700-year-long historical period before the Northern Song Dynasty, the successive regimes of the Central Plains Dynasty did not establish a complete special system for the governance of the sea frontier. This phenomenon was not completely stopped until the Song Dynasty.
From the completion of the unification of the Qin Dynasty to the middle of the 19th century, the development of China's coastal territories showed the following trend: during the Qin and Han Dynasties, the development of the sea frontier north of the Huai River Basin was ahead of the southern sea frontier. From the end of the Han Dynasty to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, due to the frequent wars and chaos in the north, the development of the Bohai Sea and the northern coastal areas has slowed down significantly; the development of the coastal areas of the Yellow Sea and the Yellow Sea is unstable; the development of the southeastern sea frontier has gradually accelerated during the same period, and finally catches up with and exceeds the level of social development in the northern coastal area; and the Lingnan coastal area, which is located at the southern end of the sea frontier, is still in a stage of development to be fully developed at this time. The whole lags behind the southeastern sea frontier. With the southward shift of the center of gravity of China's economic development, the Southern Song Dynasty eventually formed a basic pattern of "prominent in the middle section and slightly lower at both ends" in the development of ancient coastal territories. This pattern continued until the late 19th century.
Considering the characteristics of different periods, the author believes that the historical development of China's maritime frontiers before the 20th century mainly went through the following stages:
The first is the foundation stage. This period includes the Xia, Shang, Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn Warring States periods, which can be divided into two periods. The first period included the Xia and Shang dynasties. Although this period lasted about a thousand years, the social and historical development at this time was still at the entrance of the "civilization stage", and the territory and population of the early state with the Central Plains as the center were very limited. Although there are legends and records of "Yuding Jiuzhou" and "Yiyi Changing Xia", the rulers of this period could not truly bring all coastal areas into their actual jurisdiction. Therefore, at this time, there is no such thing as the existence of the sea frontier. Later generations identified the coastal area inhabited by "Jiuyi" in this period as the integration area of early land and sea civilizations. The sea frontier in the historical period was gradually developed in this area. The second period included the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn Warring States periods. This was a special period before the unification of the Qin Dynasty. Under the influence of the division of princes, although the coastal areas began to develop early during this period, they had different degrees and characteristics. On the whole, most of the social development of the coastal areas before the Warring States period was in the initial stage, and the impact of the coastal economy on social development had not really emerged. Most of the rulers of the princely regime treated the coast as the inland hinterland exactly the same, and the coastline was only a natural administrative termination boundary. Since they generally do not have a clear demarcation of the territory, they will not make a more certain zoning of the coastal area at the edge of the jurisdiction. During the Warring States period, with the implementation of the county system, the above situation changed significantly, and regional forms began to appear. However, the coastal and hinterland are mixed in the county division setting, and are not "separately listed" because they are on the edge of the sea. This system of dividing the coastal and hinterland into the same political region became a tradition, which had a profound impact on the continuation of China's coastal divisions and the development of maritime frontiers in later generations.
On the whole, the degree of coastal development in the north during this period was higher than that in the south; the social development of most coastal areas south of the Yangtze River was still in a blank state at this time, and the coastal areas of Mindi were not even under the jurisdiction of the princely regimes. However, it should be emphasized that most of the princely regimes in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period had formed a state scale; the rule of coastal princes had actually covered the coastal zone and its hinterland. This laid the foundation for the formation of the coastal territory of the unified dynasty during the Qin and Han dynasties.
The second is the formative stage. The so-called formation means that the coastal areas on the edge of the dynastic territory are fully incorporated into the administrative system with the county system as the core, and become the coastal territories of the dynasty and are developed and governed. The formation stage of the sea frontier is a historical stage that inherits the past and the future, including the two periods of the Qin and the Two Han Dynasties, the Three Kingdoms and the Two Jin Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In this stage, the development of haijiang was not only the inheritance and integration of the foundational development of coastal areas in the pre-Qin period, but also laid an important foundation for the adjustment and overall development of haijiang in the post-Sui and Tang dynasties.
The Qin and Han dynasties were the early stages of the formation of China's coastal territories. Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms and established the "Great Unification" dynasty. The unified territorial pattern replaced the division of the vassal regimes. Under the territorial rule system with the county system as the core, the Qin and Han regimes established a complete administrative network in the coastal margins of the territorial territory, so that all coastal areas from Liaoyan in the north (including the northern part of the Korean Peninsula) to the two Guangdong in the south and extending to the Indochina Peninsula were incorporated into the rule of the dynastic regime, forming a unified dynastic coastal territory. During this period, the coastal areas of various places have experienced different forms of governance and development, and have formed their own development models: the northern coasts have continued the development process that began in the pre-Qin period and continued to maintain certain development advantages; the overall development of the southern sea frontier has lagged behind. In the governance of the southern sea frontier, the central government of the dynasty mainly focused on three types of areas: one was the surrounding area of the county (state) county administration office set up along the coast. The economic model adopted for such areas is to expand the scope of development so that different regions are gradually connected, and then new counties and counties and administrative divisions are added in areas with relatively mature development conditions. This development model was mainly implemented in the southern part of Hangzhou Bay in Huijian County, and in most of the coasts of present-day Zhejiang and Fujian. The second category is the areas that have experienced development governance in the pre-Qin period, and the development during the Qin and Han dynasties has been more in-depth and has achieved obvious development results. There are mainly areas around Wu County and Huiji County, which belong to Hangzhou Bay, which are located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The third category is areas affected by geography and other factors, where socio-political and economic development has formed independent regional units and actually formed a state of division, such as the coastal areas under the jurisdiction of lingnan and South Vietnam. For the slight exploitation of such coastal areas, the dynastic regime mainly established political authority through military action, and on the basis of ensuring the stability of the regime's rule, gradually promoted social production and improved the level of regional civilization through the simultaneous use of military town jurisdiction, population migration and administrative measures.
In general, the coastal territory of the Dynasty during the Qin and Han Dynasties was not formed for a long time, and the social development of the sea frontier was also the beginning, and the imbalance in the development between the various regions of the sea frontier was very serious. However, under the unified economic strategy and continuous promotion of the dynastic regime, the development of various regions of the maritime frontier has made progress to varying degrees. In particular, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the development speed of the southern coastal society accelerated, and unprecedented progress was made, laying the foundation for the initial emergence of a new development pattern in China's maritime frontier during the Sui and Tang dynasties.
During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, the development of maritime frontiers entered the middle and late stages of formation. At this time, it was in a period of division in Chinese history, and it was also a special period of development of ancient coastal territories. In a state of division, in order to maintain their rule and expand their power, independent regional regimes continued to develop their territories. It is worth noting that the development of maritime frontiers carried out in this context has the characteristics of small regions, relatively concentrated development fields and rapid results, and remarkable social results. Especially in the southern coast, the development of the sea frontier under the auspices of the regional regime has effectively promoted the overall progress of the coastal society, making it catch up with the development level of the northern coast in a relatively short period of time, and showing the development potential of "opening up later". This not only changed the overall backward social outlook of the southern coast, but also laid an important foundation for China's social and economic center of gravity to shift from the north to the south, and finally formed a historical pattern of "the world's great plan, relying on the southeast".
How to determine the spatial extent of the formation stage of sea frontiers is an important issue that cannot be avoided in the study of China's maritime frontier history. Judging from the development process of the formation of the sea frontier, it is more constrained by natural conditions than the land territory, so it has its own special law of development. However, at the same time, its formation is also the inevitable result of the evolution and development of political, economic and cultural social factors in the pre-Qin coastal area, reflecting the evolution and change of the political situation during the Qin and Han dynasties. After realizing unification, Qin comprehensively implemented the territorial management system with the county system as the core. The establishment of counties and counties along the coast of Qin was the most important political achievement of the unification dynasty for the first time through the sea frontier. It directly reflects the ruling intentions, administrative capacity and social foundations of the dynastic regime. Therefore, the beginning of the formation and formation of the sea frontier in the historical period should be based on the establishment of a unified dynasty by the Qin Dynasty; we should refer to the grass-roots administrative divisions along the coast of the Qin and the two Han Dynasties, especially with reference to the conditions for setting up counties, to determine the spatial scope of the formation period of the traditional sea frontier.
In the history of the development of China's political system, counties have always been the basic administrative units; the Qin regime once explicitly defined the size of counties as "large rates and hundreds of miles", and its setting standards are convenient for local regimes to effectively rule as the basic principle. The county's political district size is very stable, and its role is also very significant, and it has played an important role in the local administrative organs to "persuade the peasants" and complete the taxation, as well as the implementation of effective administrative management. This range of counties in the Qin Dynasty is of great reference significance for us to determine the spatial scope of the traditional sea frontier in the formation period. The author believes that the space for the formation of the sea frontier should be limited to covering the coastal counties; in other words, the coastal counties constitute the approximate scope of the Qin and Han sea frontiers.
After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the territorial system with the county system as the core was more perfected by the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties after 200 years of integration. Especially in the southern coast, after experiencing the governance of the Eastern Wu and Eastern Jin dynasties, by the time of the four dynasties of the Southern Dynasty, it also had relatively certain political divisions and conditions for increasing county governance. Mr. Tan Qijun once pointed out that the addition of local political district institutions, especially the creation of county governance, "can roughly indicate that the place has matured day by day" Therefore, the author believes that the stage of coastal territory formation that began in the Qin Dynasty was completed by the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The third is to adjust the stereotyping stage. This stage went through the Sui, Tang and Song and Yuan periods. The so-called "adjustment" refers to the expansion and contraction of the scope of dynastic sea frontiers with the rise and fall of political rule; the so-called "stereotyping" refers to the regional integration of the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the basic pattern of sea frontier development was finally finalized during the Southern Song Dynasty with the completion of the southward shift of China's economic center of gravity.
The Sui and Tang dynasties were the second period of unification in Chinese history, and it was also a period when the dynastic territory once again achieved greater expansion. The Sui Dynasty re-established its rule over the whole country. The reunification of the territory has brought the sea frontier into a new round of integration and development. However, the Sui dynasty and the Sui Dynasty died, and the sea frontier was not fully developed. After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, since the Taizong Dynasty began to change the administrative divisions successively, the coastal territories were adjusted again, and there was a clear trend of exploration and expansion in the Sheng Tang Dynasty: at the southern and northern ends of the sea frontier, the control of the Tang Dynasty was extended in a large area. But this trend has not existed for long. After the Middle and Tang Dynasties, the central government's rule over the coastal territories was significantly weakened, and there was a contraction in the north and south directions of the sea frontier at the same time: the coastal area north of the Sea of Japan and the western coastal area of the Indochina Peninsula south of the Beibu Gulf were successively excluded from the control of the dynastic regime; after that, the jurisdiction of the central government over the coastal territory was fixed, and the adjustment of the first coastal land area after the formation of China's sea frontier was finally completed.
The Tang Dynasty was the first peak period in the development of China's ancient sea frontiers. At that time, most of the dynastic coastal territories had established a mature network of political rule, and the development of coastal society and the development of the marine economy had reached a high level; in the management of the sea frontier, special agencies began to be established, and some special systems were formulated sporadically. New growth points appeared in the socio-economic development of Haijiang: parts of the southeast coast gradually grew into new sources of fiscal revenue and taxation for the dynasty; some coastal cities also developed into new regional economic and political centers. By the 10th century, the economic operation of coastal societies had been largely integrated into the dynastic economic system. Since then, economic activities in coastal land areas and parts of coastal waters, as well as the development of sea-related production in coastal areas, have been regulated by this system. In the late Tang Dynasty, the social development gap between coastal and inland political and economic centers has gradually narrowed. Some areas of the southeastern sea frontier and its hinterland are gradually more socially developed than the economically developed inland areas. This has accelerated the southward shift of China's economic center of gravity. Through the operation and governance of regional regimes such as Wuyue, Southern Tang and Southern Han during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the social economy of the southern sea frontier continued to develop, and the southeast coast already had obvious advantages in becoming the main pillar area of the dynastic economy.
The development of maritime frontiers during the Two Song Dynasties completed the historic process of its adjustment and stereotyping stage. Although the Northern Song Dynasty ended the division and division of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, its rulers lacked the grand ambitions and outstanding talents of the Han and Tang emperors, so that the country was poor and weak. Despite this, the Northern Song Dynasty still had great economic development, the coastal economic development has also made important achievements, shipbuilding and navigation technology has been in the world's leading position; with the further expansion of maritime interests, since the Northern Song Dynasty began to actively deploy the South China Sea maritime patrol system. The Southern Song Dynasty was the second climax of the development of the sea frontier. Although this development climax has distinct regional characteristics in the context of the "division of the north and the south", its impact on future generations is far-reaching and huge: due to the remote southeast of Security, the security of the sea frontier is related to the security of the dynastic regime, and coastal defense became an important direction of national defense during the Southern Song Dynasty; at the same time, the weight and rank of the sea frontier governance in the function of the dynastic regime increased, the jurisdiction and system of the sea frontier formed the "specialization" characteristics for the first time in the Southern Song Dynasty, and some institutions formulated and set up for the jurisdiction of the sea frontier were introduced and continuously improved. Under the administration of the Southern Song Dynasty court, the southern sea frontier, especially the southeast sea frontier, developed prominently, and the prosperity of the coastal economy far exceeded that of the Northern Song Dynasty. With the full completion of the process of the southward shift of China's economic center of gravity, the development pattern of "prominent middle section and slightly lower ends" of coastal territory has finally been finalized. It marks that the historical development of China's maritime frontier has formed a situation in which the main space composition is stable and the social development is upgraded.
The Mongol Yuan Dynasty collapsed in 1279 and unified China with the southern Song Dynasty, leading to a vast sea frontier stretching uninterrupted from the Sea of Okhotsk in the east to the Gulf of Beibu. Riding on the iron horse to conquer the Eurasian continent, the Yuan rulers carried out large-scale cross-sea conquest operations in the south and north of the dynastic territory, and carried out overseas military expansion: in the south, the Yuan army conquered Annam three times and occupied the city with troops without achieving its goal; the cross-sea conquest of Java also withdrew its troops due to defeat and returned to the country; in the north, although the Yuan dynasty regime once again pushed the jurisdiction of the sea frontier to the coastal area of the Sea of Japan, it failed to attack Japan twice across the sea. During the reign of the Yuan Dynasty, in less than a hundred years, it carried out frequent maritime activities, continued the policy of promoting the development of overseas trade and navigation industry during the Two Song Dynasties, and established large-scale maritime shipping; sent officials to "south over the Pearl Cliff" to survey the waters and islands and reefs of the South China Sea; set up an inspection department in Penghu to formally set up administrative agencies and effectively administer the Taiwan and Penghu regions of the southeastern sea. However, two major characteristics of its maritime frontier strategy prevented it from having a greater historical impact: one was that the maritime expansion ultimately failed; the other was that the sea frontier policy implemented due to the short period of rule was not systematic. However, because of this, the slight achievements of the Yuan Dynasty did not surpass the Southern Song Dynasty. Its biggest impact is to consolidate the basic pattern of maritime development that has not been fixed for a long time through "failed maritime operations".
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the development of China's maritime frontiers had many common historical characteristics. There are two most prominent ones: First, in the context of the southward shift of the economic center of gravity, the development of the sea frontier has prominently presented the characteristics of "south is higher than the north", and the overall development of the southern sea frontier continues to be higher than that of the north. Second, the maritime direction is an important direction for national defense. Because the forces of the civil war attach great importance to the maritime battlefield, the defense of the sea direction is also increasingly valued. In particular, during the Southern Song Dynasty, the territory of the dynasty was threatened by the security of the hostile regime from the sea direction, and the sea direction began to become the basic direction of the dynasty's national defense. Therefore, from the Song and Yuan dynasties onwards, domestic national wars were no longer only based on land as a battlefield, and the importance of the maritime battlefield began to stand out.
It should be pointed out that the acceleration of the development of maritime frontiers in the adjustment and stereotyping stage has stimulated the integration and adjustment of different coastal economies. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the dual characteristics of the social and economic development of coastal areas have been more distinct: on the one hand, the agricultural economy has accelerated its promotion in the coastal areas, promoted the development of coastal agriculture, and prospered the coastal social economy. However, while forming a special form of development, coastal agriculture has formed a high squeeze on the development of the marine economy; on the other hand, the inherent marine economy in the coastal area is still adhering to its own tradition in the development of the sea frontier society. With the continuous deepening of the development of sea frontiers, the above dual characteristics have increasingly shown the convergence trend of mutual restriction and interaction. The unprecedented expansion of the sea frontier by the Tang Dynasty stimulated the development vitality of the marine economic tradition contained in the coastal society; the marine economy of the Song and Yuan dynasties was more active, and more people engaged in extensive marine activities. But that doesn't change the prospect that the ocean economy will shrink as it is squeezed by agrarian economies and then suppressed by dynastic politics.
The fourth is the stage of maturity and transformation. This stage included the Ming and Qing dynasties. The development of China's ancient sea frontier reached its peak at this stage; at the end of this period, ancient China was subjected to a huge security threat from the direction of the sea. The development of the Dynasty Sea Frontier encountered the most severe challenges. Under the comprehensive impact of the Western powers across the sea and the ocean, the traditional sea frontier jurisdiction and governance system has rapidly disintegrated, and the sea frontier is not only the front line of the security of the dynastic territory, but also the region with the most prominent social contradictions and the most rapid economic changes in the entire country. In the all-round crisis, the development of China's maritime frontier entered a period of historical transformation, and it was forced to begin the historical process of transformation to a modern maritime frontier.
From the end of the 14th century, the development of China's ancient sea frontiers entered its heyday. As a well-developed and mature unified dynasty, the Ming and Qing regimes implemented the same essential policy of governance and jurisdiction over the sea frontier, and made important achievements in the practice of sea frontier governance: The policy and system of sea frontier governance were gradually improved, forming a multi-mode management system that combined military management, local officials management, and local civil affairs management, and combined local civil affairs with the garrison of coastal defense troops, thus forming the management system of the sea frontier of the dynastic regime; the economic development of the sea frontier region continued and expanded the basic model of coastal economic development since the Tang and Song dynasties It continued to maintain the regional characteristics of the development of maritime frontiers, further consolidating the pattern of maritime frontier development that was stereotyped during the Southern Song Dynasty; more frequent maritime economic activities and the continued development of overseas trade; the emergence of Zheng He's world-wide maritime feats in the Western Ocean, and the further expansion of the scope and scale of foreign political and economic exchanges; the Ming Dynasty won victories in the struggle against the Japanese and established a complete coastal defense system; the Qing Dynasty recovered Taiwan and formally brought the Taiwan, Penghai, and South China Sea islands under the jurisdiction of the coastal state and county system, which had a far-reaching impact on China's national security and the construction and development of maritime frontiers The Qing dynasty and the Qing Dynasty also made important achievements in the development and governance of Hainan Island and other islands within the sea frontier.
However, China's maritime frontier, which was in its heyday, was also inevitably moving in its opposite direction: its development was severely constrained by the relevant institutional policies of the dynastic regime. First, the Ming and Qing dynasties experienced obvious vacillations and uncertainties in the formulation and implementation of maritime frontier policies, which had serious consequences for the stable development of maritime frontiers. The most typical of these is the "sea ban" policy that has been strictly enforced for two generations. Second, the management systems of the Ming and Qing dynasties are all centered on the jurisdiction of the people and the coastal land areas, and have obvious characteristics such as emphasizing people over the sea and emphasizing land over islands, which is contrary to the development law of the sea frontier society. Therefore, it has had a serious destructive effect on the socio-economic structure of the sea frontier. Third, in the management practice of coastal economic sea-related production, the Ming and Qing regimes both showed the tendency of emphasizing agriculture and salt industry and light fishing merchants shipping, which increased the squeeze on the marine economy and had a significant impact on the development of the marine economy. Fourth, the development of maritime trade was included in the tributary trade system, while strictly restricting private maritime trade activities, which led to the accelerated contraction of the marine economy and also undermined the social stability of the maritime frontier. It can be said that the rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties have gradually lost the pioneering spirit of the Song and Yuan dynasties to the sea frontier, and the closure of the country will inevitably bring the development of the sea frontier to a standstill.
In the middle of the 19th century, the development of China's ancient sea frontier entered the final stage of differentiation and disintegration. The Western powers opened China's national door with "strong ships and sharp cannons", the steady development of China's ancient sea frontier was broken, and the governance and jurisdiction system of the sea frontier that had gradually developed and matured over the past two thousand years was violently impacted. In large-scale foreign wars, the coastal areas of various places became the first territories to fall. With the opening of coastal cities, the traditional sea frontier management system has been completely abolished. Under the influence of Western forces, the traditional pattern of maritime development has been rapidly disintegrated. At the end of the 19th century, China's traditional maritime society was forced to embark on a difficult process of transformation; a new maritime territorial jurisdiction system originating from the West began to emerge.
The author believes that in the nearly thousand years from the 10th century to the 19th century, although the historical development of China's ancient sea frontier belonged to two different stages and successively presented various historical mirrors, the basic elements that hindered or promoted the social development of the sea frontier were roughly the same and did not undergo fundamental changes. The governance and development of haijiang carried out by the dynasties after the Southern Song Dynasty was, to a certain extent, the transformation or improvement of the governance system of haijiang on the basis of the coastal territory operated by the Song Dynasty. The difference is that the scope of the sea frontier gradually expands to the two directions of land and sea and there is a major change. In the direction of the sea, the jurisdiction of the sea from the Song to the Qing dynasties continued to extend, and its speed gradually accelerated. This expansion of the scope of maritime jurisdiction is mainly through the extrapolation of the actual control area through navigational activities, with the establishment of jurisdiction over near-shore islands as the base point, and the scope of control is extended to all coastal waters. In general, the dynastic regime's jurisdiction over the near-shore islands was gradually established with the increase in maritime production activities, maritime trade activities, and foreign maritime exchanges, including the results of maritime military activities. As the scope of these maritime activities gradually expanded, more offshore islands and seas were incorporated into the dynastic administrative system and became an integral part of the dynastic coastal territory. In the coastal land area, the spatial scope of the inland sea frontier in the same period was gradually extended from the coastal zone to the hinterland, so that the land range of the sea frontier also showed a trend of expansion. It should be pointed out that this "reverse" expansion of sea frontiers is the result of the continuous expansion of exchanges between land and sea. Among them, economic and cultural exchanges have always been dominant; but military activities, as a special form of communication, have played an important role in the spatial expansion of maritime and land areas. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, coastal defense has become an important part of the dynasty's national defense. In the construction of coastal defense, increasing the depth of land defense is a typical model for the "reverse" expansion of the scope of sea frontiers. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the defensive deployment of "integrating the river and the sea" implemented to defend the northern military forces from moving south had implications for the construction of coastal defense in the coastal areas under the jurisdiction of the four provinces of Pingjiang, Jiaxing, Shaoxing and Qingyuan. In some of the key areas of coastal defense, the deployment of the Southern Song Army has obviously exceeded the scope of coastal counties and expanded deep into the hinterland. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the above phenomena were more common and became a significant feature of the development of maritime frontiers at that time. In many official documents and courtiers of the Qing Dynasty, the name "Seven Coastal Provinces" can be seen. This expression of "province" as the unit of coastal zoning reflects that at this time, the jurisdiction of coastal provinces can be regarded as the land of sea frontiers, and the level of local institutions presiding over sea-related affairs is also fixed in "province". In fact, by the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the development and integration between the coast (especially the southeast coast) and the hinterland had been formed to a greater extent. Therefore, the end of the development of traditional sea frontiers is also the period when the land scope of sea frontiers is the largest.
When the mid-19th century was violently impacted by the aggression of the great powers, the long-term sustained development of the sea frontier society suddenly came to a standstill, and the development pattern of the sea frontier was completely destroyed. However, in the face of unprecedented changes, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty did not adjust the sea frontier policy and rebuild the sea frontier management system, and the sea frontier still maintained its original position in the dynastic territorial rule system; its spatial scope was still dominated by coastal land areas and some coastal waters and islands; and before the complete disintegration of the early 20th century, the sea frontier still generally maintained its original basic form.
Third, several laws governing the development of maritime frontiers in the historical period
In the history of the development of China's territory, the development and development of sea frontiers has an important position, and at the same time has some special development laws. Here are just three to illustrate.
1. Dynastic rule was crucial to the development of the sea frontier. In China's history, the unification and division of the country have alternated several times. The territorial maps of dynasties have been consolidated and profited and lost. Among them, the scope of the land frontier has been repeatedly contracted or pushed farther, and there have been frequent spatial changes; the identity of the presiding officer of the land frontier governance has also varied from place to place and from time to time. However, the spatial extent of the sea frontier has not changed significantly for a long time. Successive dynasties of governance and development of the sea frontier were also presided over by the dynastic regime. Therefore, the governance of the sea frontier has always been a state act. Whether the territory is unified or divided, dynastic regimes (including divided regimes) can play a role in promoting the development of the society of the sea frontier. It's just that in different historical periods, this push has taken different forms.
The first is to accelerate the political strategizing of coastal territories through violent impetus. In the early days of coastal territory development, the development measures of the unified dynasty were generally based on the implementation of political tactics and the establishment of political rule as the primary goal; its realization was mostly through large-scale military conquest to establish rule, that is, the establishment of an effective political power network as a key measure to stabilize rule and promote development; during this period, it was often adjusted to the ruling order of a certain coastal area through the way of military jurisdiction or local attack. This strategy of implementing the coastal territory in the form of armed violence consolidated the unification of the dynastic territory, accelerated the process of incorporating the coastal area into the dynastic ruling system, and kept the coastal frontier areas in basic synchronization with the ruling center in the evolution of feudal politics. This is of great significance to China's social development.
The second is to be able to strongly promote the economic development of coastal territories with centralized rule measures. After the two Han Dynasties, the governance of the sea frontier of successive dynasties not only had political measures, but also focused more on the development of the coastal economy. This is true during periods of national unity, as well as periods of division. Since the centralized rule (the division of power is also a centralized system) can control social resources in a large area and has strong social mobilization, the dynastic regime can rely on this advantage to strengthen investment in the development of coastal territories, and at the same time take compulsory measures to strengthen the control of the development of sea frontiers, and promote the rapid development of coastal economies through super-economic coercive means. The result could be to narrow the gap in social development between the coastal and the central regions of domination in the short term. Under the impetus of this political role, the economic development of China's coastal territories before the 10th century AD had been incorporated into and regulated by the dynastic economic system.
Finally, through a stable network of political power, the stable development of the maritime frontier society is guaranteed. Under the conditions of ancient society, every dynastic regime with consolidated rule and stable dynastic situation will continue to pay attention to the security and development of frontiers and sea frontiers, and promote the process of frontier and sea frontier development through administrative organs at all levels and various administrative means. The stability of the dynastic political situation and the normal operation of political functions can not only improve the efficiency of the government's support for the development of the frontier, but also strengthen the high-intensity control of the frontier if necessary. As far as the governance of the sea frontier is concerned, a unified dynastic regime can exercise direct jurisdiction over the coastal areas, ensure the basic stability of the coastal society, and thus increase the population and land quantity accordingly, thus promoting the development of the coastal economy at a normal or extraordinary speed. Therefore, the stability of the dynastic regime plays an extremely important role in the political and economic development of the coastal territories.
2. The national split does not have a completely negative impact on the social development of the maritime frontier; the state of division does not mean that the process of the development of the maritime frontier will inevitably regress. In historical times, unified dynasties have made the governance of the sea frontier an important part of governance; in the state of division, regional regimes have also purposefully exploited the coastal areas under their rule out of the need for survival. Judging from the overall historical process of China's coastal territory development, there are two phenomena that deserve our special attention.
First, under the conditions of a unified society, the degree of political stability of the country is directly proportional to the breadth and depth of the development of coastal territories. As mentioned above, under the condition of unification, a stable political order and effective ruling measures could promote the support of the dynastic regime for the development of coastal territories; on the contrary, the social unrest caused by the split could also directly block the process of sea frontier development; the rulers imposed extreme policies to strengthen the control of coastal territories, and even interrupted Sino-foreign maritime exchanges and cancelled coastal economic activities. These policy measures are extremely destructive to the normal development of the maritime frontier society, and will directly lead to the stagnation of the development of the maritime frontier. Second, under the condition of division, certain specific factors can offset the negative impact on the social progress of the sea frontier, and may even stimulate the economic development of the coastal area and accelerate the speed of its development and operation. Generally speaking, the destruction of the unification situation will affect the process of sea frontier development, but the results of this division are not all catastrophic. The fragmented geopolitical environment may even stimulate the acceleration of development and operation of coastal areas. The following phenomenon has occurred many times in Chinese history: due to geographical conditions, the social chaos that occurred in the central area of the dynasty did not directly have a devastating and destructive impact on the development of the sea frontier. On the contrary, large-scale wars that broke out in a cyclical manner led to the southward migration of a large number of northern populations, providing advanced production technology and labor for the development of the southern society. It is precisely on the basis of making use of these abnormally growing social resources that the political needs of consolidating their rule and annexing opposing enemy countries have gone all out to promote the policy of developing social resources and developing social economy in the areas under their rule, and have achieved good social benefits. For example, in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, although the division of the country undermined the political unity of the whole country, in the southern coast directly controlled by the Eastern Wu regime, the regional economy was stimulated by regional economics and development vitality, and the development of the sea frontier had a certain development in a relatively short period of time. By the time of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the degree of development of the southeastern sea frontier had caught up with and exceeded the level of development of the northern coast. This shows that the social conditions of unification or division cannot fundamentally determine the speed and degree of development of maritime frontiers. The rule of the separatist regime can also promote the development process of local sea frontiers, and the development of sea frontiers under the auspices of the separatist regime may even be more intense and more effective in society. Therefore, splitting does not mean that the process of sea frontier development will inevitably go backwards.
3. Geographical conditions have an important impact on the formation of the development model of maritime frontiers. Geographical conditions are one of the important conditions for the development of human society; geographical environment differences directly affect the formation of social and economic models in the early stages of human society; in the history of China's territorial development, geographical conditions have also had a huge restriction on the early development of maritime frontiers.
China's coastal territory spans several climatic zones. At different latitudes, the geographical conditions of the coast and its adjacent hinterlands vary. This made the development of ancient coastal territories geographically different from the beginning. Before the 10th century AD, this difference showed an increasing trend, resulting in obvious development characteristics of coastal territories, and the development and development models of each section of the maritime frontier with their own characteristics. Take the development of Lingnan Sea Frontier as an example. The original level of development of productive forces in this area was relatively low, and the geographical environment in which it was located was very special: the five ridges and mountains that stretched across the area completely separated Lingnan from the inland, so that the latter's advanced agriculture basically lost its radiation pull effect on Lingnan's economy. In this context, a completely different development model has emerged from other coastal areas: the port city has gradually grown into a political and economic center along the Lingnan coast and adjacent hinterland. For example, Guangzhou, as a navigation port very early, has prominently affected the entire Coastal Economic Operation of Lingnan: internally, the economy of Guangzhou Port City has stimulated the agricultural and handicraft production in the surrounding areas, expanded the scale of production, and improved the technical level; externally, Guangzhou has relied on its location and port conditions to drive Lingnan to carry out foreign maritime economic exchanges. This development model of driving regional coastal social and economic development through the port city is completely different from the development of other sections of the sea frontier. It can be seen that the geographical environment determines the depth and breadth of the development of the sea frontier to a large extent, and also affects the formation of the development model of the sea frontier.
Fourth, the relationship between "sea frontier" and "land frontier" in the historical period
The changes in the concept of sea frontiers and the expansion of spatial scope in the historical period are not only related to the development of social productive forces, but also accompanied by the process of understanding and utilizing the ocean by ancient ancestors. Therefore, the themes of sea frontier history include the relationship between land and sea in different periods, as well as the relationship between the sea and people, while the study of sea frontier history is most concerned with the changes in the living environment of people and the progress and development of society within the coastal, hinterland and coastal space. It includes both physical and geographical elements as well as human elements.
As an objective material world, both the sea and the land are the objects of the production practice of human society. In the relationship between the three, there are the following three distinctive characteristics: First, all human maritime activities in the historical period are based on coastal land and meet the basic needs of survival as the starting point, gradually leaving the land to the sea, going to the sea, leaving the support of coastal land, leaving the support of coastal land, most marine activities are difficult to sustain; second, all kinds of social activities carried out by human beings in the coastal area in the historical period, including all material and spiritual life, Its characterization and characteristics are importantly different from those of the inland region; third, whether on the Mediterranean coast or on the Pacific coast of the East Asian continent, all early marine civilizations inevitably bear the imprint of their own adjacent land regions.
In the history of China's frontiers, "land frontier" and "sea frontier" have developed along different trajectories and have different performance characteristics in different periods. (The "land frontier" referred to in this article is the abbreviation of "land frontier" - the author's note) Therefore, to analyze the relationship between the two, we must first understand the "general trend" of the dynastic territory in a specific period. The author here refers to the frontier situation during the Qin and Han dynasties to examine the differences and connections between land and sea frontiers during the formation of China's coastal territories.
The Qin and Han dynasties were an important period in the development of ancient Chinese territory. During this period, the qin and Han regimes underwent a significant shift in the economic center of gravity of the dynastic territory. After the Qin Dynasty destroyed the Six Kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang was most concerned about the security of the frontier areas in the direction of the Mongolian plateau; the Western Han Dynasty focused on the northwest, and the exploration and defense of the northwestern counties was the most important strategic arrangement of the Western Han Dynasty; the Eastern Han Dynasty gradually shifted the center of gravity of the rule to the south, and the dynastic regime began to pay more attention to the economic and strategic governance of the areas south of the Yangtze River, especially the marginal areas of the southern territory. Because the territory of the Qin and Han Empires was unprecedented; and this territorial situation required the dynastic rulers to take the central area of political power as the first priority, determine the center of gravity of "ruling within" and "outside the imperial court", and take this as the fundamental rule of the vast territory of the dynasty. Thus, in the practice of dynastic rule over territory, the difference between the center and the periphery of the "region" was naturally formed; and the concept of frontier was formed on the basis of this cognition.
The so-called "edge" of the frontier refers to both being on the edge and being in the remote. On the whole, the frontiers of the Qin and Han dynasties have at least the following three characteristics based on geographical conditions: First, the geographical conditions of the frontiers are diverse, including plateaus, mountains and deserts, as well as coastal zones on the edge of the continent, so the frontier includes both "land frontiers" and "sea frontiers"; Second, the geographical conditions of all frontier areas are mostly obviously different from the central area of dynastic rule with the great river impacting the plain as the core area; third, the south China Sea is the border area furthest from the political center of the dynasty. Among them, the three characteristics of the sea frontier are shared; while the land frontier only accounts for two of them. Therefore, although the land frontier and the sea frontier belong to the same frontier, there are major differences in the geographical conditions and geographical environment of the two, which determines that the governance strategies of the dynastic regime for the two are bound to be different.
First, the land frontiers of the historical period can be adjusted from time to time with the changes in the scope of the dynastic territory; but the sea frontier rarely has this phenomenon. Due to geographical conditions, the spatial expansion of the maritime frontier beyond the coastline in the historical period was relatively late, and the amplitude and frequency of outreach were much lower than the adjustment of the land frontier. This feature is particularly prominent in the formation stage of sea frontiers. Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty expanded his territory in the north and pushed the northern frontier boundary to the north of Hetao and Yinshan, expanding both the territory and the depth of national defense; in contrast, the Western Han army's strategic actions on the coastal territory in the same period were basically carried out within the coastline and did not carry out combat operations at sea.
Second, the land frontier in the historical period was mostly adjacent to "other countries", while the sea frontier basically had no maritime neighbors for a long time. The "other countries" adjacent to the land frontier include both ethnic minority regimes with large scale and stable ruling areas, as well as social groups with small territorial areas and populations, and unstable production and living areas. This surrounding environment makes the frontier vulnerable to geopolitical influences and social unrest. In contrast, the environment in which the sea frontier is located is more stable. From the Qin to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the dynastic regime was neither adjacent to the extraterritorial regime with more mature civilization and more developed social production, nor did it have an armed force that really threatened the dynastic territory and the survival of the regime. Although the sea frontier was at the outermost edge of the dynastic territory, it was not subjected to large-scale intrusion from extraterritorial military forces from the sea before the Ming Dynasty. In the context of the very different security environments between land and sea frontiers, the dynastic rulers must pay more attention to the security of land frontiers, and the status of land frontiers in the dynastic territories will be higher than that of sea frontiers.
Third, although the economic and strategic aspects of land and sea frontiers belong to the main content of the "frontier governance" of the past, the above two differences determine that the governance strategies and methods of the two are different. The governance of the frontier in the historical period is the historical process of the dynastic regime using state power and the social forces controlled to control the border areas and solve the border problems. The frontier governance of successive dynasties must solve two problems: one is to consolidate the political rule in the frontier; the other is to properly handle the relationship between the Han nationality and the indigenous people or ethnic minorities. To this end, in addition to direct rule over the frontiers, successive dynastic regimes also adopted indirect forms of rule such as bondage. Some scholars have pointed out in this regard that the essence of successive generations of governance of frontiers is "a kind of governance with inter-ethnic governance as the main content, that is, inter-ethnic governance of frontiers." Obviously, this conclusion is mainly a summary of the historical practice of land frontier governance, because only in the process of land frontier governance must the dynastic regime handle inter-ethnic relations; for the governance of the sea frontier, there is no kind of ethnic minority who is "willing to jointly establish a unified political community with the Han nationality"; and successive emperors have tried to directly rule all coastal and island residents as "households and people". Therefore, the object of governance of the sea frontier is often relatively single, and there is no such thing as "handling the relationship with the various ethnic groups on the frontier and the political power established by the various nationalities". Although in some periods of the formation stage of the sea frontier, ethnic minority rebellions against the rule of the Han regime also broke out along the coast, but its essence was a social contradiction in the form of "official-people" contradictions, not pure inter-ethnic contradictions. The main form of governance of the dynastic rulers of the sea frontier was direct rule. This is the most important difference between the economic land frontier and the governance of the sea frontier.
Fourth, in the dynastic territorial pattern of the historical period, the relationship between land and sea frontiers, and between sea frontiers and hinterlands, is not equal to each other. First of all, it needs to be emphasized that under the rule of the Great Unification Dynasty, the relationship between land and sea territory is not opposed to each other, and the two are both special areas of the dynasty's territory. However, in the governing philosophy of most rulers of successive dynasties, the land frontier is obviously heavier than the sea frontier. Three distinctive features of the Qin and Han dynasties reflect this concept in the economic strategy: First, the part of the sea frontier needs to be subordinated to the territory to unify the overall situation. In the overall situation of the dynastic territory, the coast was only a part, and its status was neither comparable to the land frontier, nor could it be in line with the traditional central area of the central territory such as the Central Plains. The rulers will always be relatively backward in their strategic arrangements for solving the problem of maritime frontiers, and they must first consolidate their political rule over the main territories; therefore, in the governance of the territory, the core areas of the dynastic territories are the first priority, and then the security of the land frontiers is guaranteed, which is an important buffer zone connecting the core areas of the territory and the areas outside the territory, which is of great significance to the stability of the national territory. This was the fundamental reason why the Qin and Western Han Dynasties strengthened the defense of the northern and northwestern land frontiers for security. Because of this, the Qin Emperor and Han Wu mostly chose to make a strategic move on the sea frontier at a favorable time when the strategic situation of land and xinjiang was relatively stable. Second, the sea frontier is strategically reared by land territory or coastal hinterland, so as to facilitate adequate military support and operational support. All coastal initiatives during the Qin and Han dynasties, whether it was protracted frontier conquests, or the establishment of county governments and large-scale migration, were carried out under the leadership or support of the army, requiring a large amount of material and manpower support, and all needed to be based on the recovery of the dynasty's economy and the prosperity of the dynasty. Therefore, the dynastic regime's pioneering governance of the core territory and the land frontier was to lay the foundation for the economic and strategic sea frontier: to accumulate strength to support the large-scale social development of the sea frontier. The third is the gradual downward movement of the social hierarchy of the main body presiding over the development of maritime frontiers, so as to promote the continuous and deepening of coastal social development. This feature was more pronounced in the Han Dynasty. When the military conquest was completed, as the coastal areas successively entered the stage of governance and development, the identity of the presiding officer of the sea frontier economy quietly changed: from the beginning, it was directly presided over by the central government, and gradually moved down to the local government to preside over; in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a situation in which local heroes and strong people hosted the governance affairs of the sea frontier. With this downward shift of social hierarchy, the policies and measures of haijiang governance have gradually weakened in political and military colors, and the economic and cultural significance has become more prominent, and the social development of haijiang has become more and more characteristic of the inland agricultural model while not understanding expansion and deepening. The role and impact of this change in the identity of the "presiding" and the adjustment of the tendency of governance policies are most fully manifested in the development of the southern sea frontier.
The asymmetrical relationship between the sea frontier and the hinterland arises from the exchange activities between the coastal and inland hinterland in the early stage of the formation of the sea frontier, which is mainly reflected in the exchange process of production and living materials related to the social and people's livelihood. As coastal fishing and other marine production activities are largely constrained by the marine environment and climatic conditions, ancient coastal dwellers were not able to be "self-sufficient" at all times in their access to the means of subsistence; Not only is it impossible for cereal-based foods to meet living needs at all times, but non-grain-based foods (such as fish and other catch-ups) are not readily available because they are not easy to preserve. Although the development of coastal agriculture has partially offset the shortage of food sources, the "steel demand" that continues to increase with the population still makes coastal residents dependent on production and living materials such as food, cloth and iron tools from the agricultural areas of the hinterland. At the same time, there is a difference in demand between large numbers of people living in the hinterland and inland smallholder economic models, with relatively little demand for products from the marine economy. Although the exchange of living materials has promoted and supported the development of the commodity economy, the difference in demand has caused an asymmetry in the exchange between the sea frontier and the hinterland. The development of this "asymmetrical relationship" has made the marine economy, which formed a primary form very early, not only develop very slowly, but also has always been subordinate to the agrarian economy, and ultimately failed to occupy its due position in the history of China's economic development.
It should be pointed out that the ruling philosophy of the dynastic rulers in the historical period and the territorial policies promulgated by them will also expand the influence of the above-mentioned asymmetric relations under certain social conditions. The concept of "China and Siyi" upheld by the rulers of the Qin and Han Dynasties was an important source of the "asymmetric relationship" between the central area of rule and the frontier. Under this concept, the territorial governance standards that distinguish between "internal and external" have an extremely serious impact on the governance and development of maritime frontiers. Due to the "external" status of the sea frontier, it can be "protected" or "abandoned". In dealing with major disputes over the governance of the sea frontier, emperor Yuan of the Western Han Dynasty personally decided to abandon the counties, abandon Hainan and return to the mainland. This retrogression of the territorial economic policy had a great negative impact on the handling of border and sea frontier affairs and the development and governance of Hainan Island in later dynasties.
The materialist view of history tells us that historical development is not subject to human will. Although the relationship between land frontier and sea frontier in the historical period is not equal, although the traditional agricultural civilization has always had a strong radiation assimilation effect on marine civilization, the development of maritime frontier history has never been interrupted, the inheritance of marine civilization has not been interrupted, and the coastal social economy has always maintained a special form of development. Based on this, the author adheres to the following view: "Although ancient China formed a centralized state centered on the inland very early, this did not affect the progress of the marine economy in coastal areas and the formation of regional marine traditions, as well as the general development of marine civilization." What we need to do now is to summarize and summarize the historical laws of this progress and development, so as to facilitate the governance of contemporary sea frontiers for reference.
Author Affilications:China Institute of Ocean Development, Ocean University of China
Comments from omitted, the full version please refer to the original text.
Editor: Xiang Yu
Proofreader: Water Life
Official subscription number of the Chinese Academy of History
Historical China WeChat subscription account