When you look at historical maps, you often find a situation: in the past feudal dynasties, only the map of the Qing Dynasty was a color.
What does that mean? For example, let's take a look at the map of the Qin Dynasty.
Seeing that there was none, in addition to the earth color of the basic territory, it also changed a circle of Xiongnu, Qiang, Loulan, Wusun and so on with lilac.
In everyone to see the Han Dynasty.
In the history textbooks of the Western Han Dynasty, there are also some Xiongnu, Qiang, mourning and so on painted in different colors.
Look at the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty also had Tubo and Jingxiao, and the colors of Nanzhao were different.
Needless to say, the Song Dynasty, the Song Liao, jinxia, plus what Tubo a large number of Mongolians, is simply a big fight.
Even the Yuan Dynasty, which has a very large territory, is different.
Maps of China during the Yuan Dynasty have a Chahatai Khanate marked in yellow.
The Ming Dynasty, what valar, Tatar and what is different.
All the way to the Qing Dynasty, the following figure is the commonly used map of the Qing Dynasty in 1820 (from the late 18th century onwards, the Qing Dynasty territory was stable, until the modern era, which was the largest qing dynasty territory when it was stable).
As you can see, it is a color, either the territory of the Qing Dynasty or a foreign country.
Why are only maps of China during the Qing Dynasty painted in one color? In fact, this is the definition of "China".
China is not the same as the Central Plains Dynasty, China in the modern sense is actually a collection of all the peoples and civilizations in this land, of course, in terms of volume and influence, the Central Plains Dynasty is the absolute subject, which is not controversial, but the surrounding things can not be regarded as foreign.
For example, let me give you an example, during the Tang Dynasty, there was a Tubo on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, was Tubo from the Tang Dynasty? Of course not, the Tang Dynasty never ruled Tubo, at that time the Tang Dynasty and Tubo were two countries, but later the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was integrated into China, and the main body of Tubo, The Tibetans, also became part of China.
Then, the Tubo Dynasty is naturally also part of Chinese history, so when drawing the territory of the Tang Dynasty, although Tubo cannot be regarded as the territory of the Tang Dynasty, it must not be equated with the Korean Peninsula, Japan and the like.
What xiongnu, Nanzhao, Dali, Goguryeo, Vala and the like are similar reasons,
The territory of ancient China was not equal to the territory of the ancient Central Plains Dynasty
When we draw the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty, we need to mark these national forces that were later integrated into the Chinese nation, but at this time did not belong to the Central Plains Dynasty.
So why didn't the Qing Dynasty need it? Because the Qing Dynasty completed the task of returning to Tibet, after the reunification of the Qing Dynasty, through the Southern Expedition and the Northern War, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet and other places were controlled, and achieved a relatively strong degree of rule, since the Qianlong Emperor pacified the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, the Qing Dynasty basically controlled the Han Dynasty and all the border areas, and then the periphery was the vassal state.
Therefore, there was no such situation in the Qing Dynasty, the surrounding area has been pacified, and it can be directly painted as a territory.