As a unit of ethnic aggregation, civilizations have an inherent drive to open up living space. Therefore, the so-called expansion orientation does not differ according to cultural characteristics, but only under the influence of geographical environment and cultural concepts, there are differences in expansion characteristics. Relying on their respective geographical environments, different civilizations in Eurasia have developed different types of political systems, condensed cultural concepts with different connotations, and finally accumulated and integrated into a complete civilization system, which steadily exerted active effects on the internal processes of civilization and the external geopolitical environment. Correspondingly, the same is true in the concept of boundaries. Different civilizations have different concepts of territory, and in general, from west to east, the territorial model of the four civilizations of Western Europe, Arabia, Russia and China has the greatest impact on the geopolitics of Eurasia and even the world. Although the frontier expansion momentum of these four civilizations is composed of many factors, relatively speaking, each has distinct characteristics that distinguish it from other civilizations. This paper reveals the historical characteristics and roots of the ancient Chinese territorial model on the basis of comparing the territorial patterns of the four main civilizations in Eurasia.
The "finite expansionism" of ancient China and its historical roots
Due to the fragmentation of the terrain, western Europe is not easy to form a unified situation, for a long time small countries bordering each other, because of the narrow living space, so they have been constantly at war with each other. In this geopolitical context, since ancient times, Western European countries have constantly tried to use the Mediterranean Sea as a springboard to march to Asia and Africa, or to carry out commercial trade through peaceful means; or through war, to plunder resources to open up living space and support the suzerainty, thus establishing a dominant position in Europe. Since the Age of Discovery, Western Europe has aimed to colonize the whole world, spread Christianity, and establish world hegemony. Correspondingly, the expansion of Western Europe's territory was aimed at the entire world, with a particular focus on strengthening its own economic power. In other words, the Western European territory model is the most economically driven feature.
Arab civilization arose in the harsher environment of the Arabian Peninsula, on the one hand, through commercial trade, from overseas economic wealth; on the other hand, advocating a strict monotheistic religion of Islam, advocating the spread of doctrine throughout the world through war. Thus, since the 6th century AD, arab states have been expanding in all directions, and their core driving force is the most religious than other civilizations. In other words, the Islamic territorial model is the most religiously driven feature.
Russia is the only one in the core of several major civilization systems in modern times, the only one in inland Asia, due to the cold climate, low rainfall, steppe, forest as the main landform of the Russian civilization, although agriculture is the mainstay, but the productivity can not be guaranteed, so in the vast Russian plain, continuous expansion, in order to plunder resources, open up geographical channels with the outside world economic exchanges. After the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Russia inherited the authoritarian system of the Mongol Empire in the political and military fields, rose rapidly, and took advantage of the decline of Turkic power to frantically expand its power from a small principality throughout the Eurasian interior, thus establishing the largest land frontier in the world today. This model of frontier exploration, which advocates force and war, has made russia's territory expand rapidly, but it has also made it difficult to complete rapid internal integration accordingly, and the result of continuous internal contradictions is the final collapse of the Soviet Union. In other words, the Russian civilization territorial model is the most emblematic of war-driven characteristics.
Although the above three civilizations have differences in historical connotations and driving factors, the geopolitics they face together are very similar, that is, they are all in the most primitive regional international order - the "jungle order". After the formation of the earth, different forms of species were continuously derived. Different species maintain the ecological balance of the earth with the help of food chain patterns. This is also the most primitive ecological order on earth. The core characteristics of the ecological order of the food chain are the survival of the fittest, natural selection, and suitability for survival. It is precisely under this most primitive and basic survival logic that competition between different species continues to promote biological evolution and finally the emergence of human society. In this regard, the scientific community summarizes it as the "law of the jungle". After human beings walk out of the jungle, although they have gone to the grassland, the logic of survival, whether within the group or between groups, still follows the law from the jungle, and constantly carries out the struggle between individuals and groups. The law of the jungle is a manifestation of the animality of human society and the logic of its existence that continues at the beginning of its emergence. Correspondingly, with the gradual development of human society, the law of the jungle, as a life consciousness intrinsically rooted in human beings as animals, on the one hand, has been continuously developed in terms of the scale, form and influence of the struggle between individuals and groups, and the potential gradual evolution of human society's self-destruction is incomparably close to reality, and the two world wars and the continuous friction of the international community in recent years are typical embodiments; on the other hand, human society constantly measures the balance between the cost of struggle and the final benefit in the long-term struggle. Thus more and more tend to adopt a cooperative posture, so as to develop tolerance, moderation and other acquired social attributes, this social attribute is not only reflected in individuals, but also in the social contract between groups, and even in the establishment and promotion of international contracts.
Among the above three civilizations, Western Europe and Arab civilizations are in a geographically cramped and ecological environment is insufficient, and in order to strive for limited resources, the two major civilizations have been in fierce competition for a long time, which is a typical area of jungle order. In order to ensure survival and eliminate the enemy, the two civilizations within and between the two civilizations have reached their limits in internal mining, and can only continue to expand outwards, using external resources to supplement and strengthen themselves. Although Russian civilization is far from the white-hot zone of competition in Western Europe and the Arabian Peninsula, due to the relatively primitive survival of agriculture, there has been no unification for a long time, and a jungle order has also been formed between different internal regimes. Before and after the Mongol invasion, Russia was gradually unified, and in view of the fact that only by continuous expansion, plundering frontier resources, and carrying out economic exchanges could it maintain the existence of a huge political power, it also continued to expand its territory outward.
It can be seen that under the decision of the geographical environment, the above three civilizations are under the jungle order, in order to strengthen their strength, they continue to open up frontiers and develop commerce to maintain the existence and development of their own life community, which belongs to the "divergent civilization". In this historical pattern, between the hinterland and frontiers of the above three civilizations, or between the suzerainty and the colonies, there is basically a one-way historical relationship, that is, the hinterland and the suzerainty plunder and profit from the frontiers and colonies. However, the reason why it is called "basically a one-way historical relationship" is because this historical relationship has derived another contiguous and inverse relationship, that is, in order to ensure plunder and profit, the hinterland and the suzerainty appoint agents in the frontiers and colonies, and even promote the institutional form of the hinterland and the suzerainty, and even spread the cultural spirit of the hinterland and the suzerainty, thus causing the frontier and colonies to show a dichotomy, and one type of frontier and colony has been seriously plundered population or resources due to the lack of a suitable geographical environment and superior economic conditions. The two gradually present a historical situation in which one trades off and the other, such as modern Africa; while another type of frontier and colony is due to its more suitable geographical environment and superior economic conditions, thus presenting a hinterland and a full replication of the suzerainty, and the two are gradually homogeneous and integrated, such as the modern Americas. Whether it is one or the other, or homogeneous, it stems from the economic needs of the growing hinterland and the suzerainty. In other words, the historical drive of the above three civilization territorial models is, in the final analysis, economic driver. Since external expansion has benefits, the above three civilizations will continue to expand, expand, and then expand the policy of outward expansion, which is regarded as one of the foundations for the foothold and development of civilization. If the above arguments are synthesized, the above three civilizations can be summarized as "economically driven outward-bound infinite expansionism."
Unlike these civilizations, China as a whole presents the characteristics of "restrained expansion" or "limited expansionism". Specifically manifested in the following three aspects. In terms of geographical space, Chinese civilization does not expand outward uncontrolledly like the above three civilizations, but mainly surrounds the plains and penetrates around, and for marine space, given its essential conflict with agricultural civilization, it has been abandoned from the official level. From the perspective of pioneering methods, it is not only the use of war methods, but also the use of economic, cultural and other means, and more advocating the use of peaceful exchanges, which is naturally related to the so-called "ominous thinking of soldiers" that Chinese civilization advocates humanism and is full of vigilance against war. Finally, from the perspective of expansion, it is also to a large extent to eliminate the threat of the surrounding nomadic peoples, especially in the west and north, and to maintain their own security, rather than simply territorial expansion. Therefore, Chinese civilization belongs to the "cohesive civilization".
This territorial model is also rooted in China's geographical environment and the resulting economic patterns. Different from the above three civilizations, the center of Chinese civilization is a flat and rich plain, which provides enough living space for the Chinese ancestors to build a country based on agriculture, and also enables China to maintain a huge economy and leading advantage for a long time, and it is no longer necessary and urgent to obtain external resources. On the other hand, the surrounding area, unlike the above three civilizations, is a resource gathering place, China is surrounded by mountains on all sides and faces the sea on one side, which is not only inconvenient for large-scale promotion of agricultural economy, but also the four ethnic groups take advantage of this sinister geography to form a certain resistance to the Central Plains regime, and the Western and Northern nationalities even have a long-term cavalry advantage over the Central Plains Dynasty. Correspondingly, the expansion of the Frontier frontiers of the Central Plains Dynasty, on the one hand, due to the lack of strong support for the frontier economy, has the economic risk of sitting on the mountain and eating the air; on the other hand, it is also easy to fall into the trap of the dangerous geography and even military superiority of the frontier, thus causing a serious impact on the regime in both financial and military aspects. Moreover, the agricultural economy is more dependent on climate and population, and if it encounters natural disasters and large-scale conscription, it will have a direct impact on agricultural production, resulting in social unrest and political instability. In this historical state, when the Central Plains Dynasty expanded, it was bound to first find a balance between the stability of the regime and the development of the frontier, and carry out moderate frontier development on the premise of not damaging the stability of the regime. Therefore, the formation of the boundaries of the Central Plains Dynasty actually ended at the critical point under the long-term balance between political stability and frontier development. On the surface, this critical point is at an ecological critical point that is obviously not suitable for large-scale promotion of agricultural economy, but in fact, in the deep sense, it is at the critical point of the outbreak of the financial crisis of the Central Plains Dynasty. In other words, the ancient Chinese Central Plains Dynasty had certain limitations in the governance of frontiers.
The ancient Chinese concept of "differential order territory" and the formation of the "Chinese Asian order"
But in contrast to the limited political capacity, the vast and relatively flat topographical features of East Asia led to the formation of a "tianxia" order centered on China and without borders in ancient China. How to resolve the tension and contradiction between reality and culture? Since there are constraints on military means, they can be compensated by political and cultural means. This is to form a certain political alliance with areas that cannot be directly controlled by military power through political exchanges and cultural dissemination, and to obtain the status of political suzerainty through economic subsidies. Specifically, it is the implementation of the county system in the directly ruled areas, the bondage system in the border areas that cannot be directly ruled, and the feudal system in more distant areas, thus forming a concept of "differential order territory" that is different from the "unity" and "homogenization" of the modern nation-state. And even through a variety of ways, the regimes on the periphery and beyond which they still cannot reach a certain relationship will be selectively ignored by the world order.
The so-called "bondage" means that the frontier political power is formally incorporated into the state system, generally does not interfere with its institutional form, internal personnel turnover and social customs, and implements indirect rule, that is, the so-called "cultivation of its religion is not easy to its customs, and its administration does not change its appropriateness." [1] The connection between the central government and the qiang regime is mainly due to the responsibility of the central government to protect the qiang regime, and the qiang regime has the responsibility of undertaking conscription and conscription. [2] Outside the feudal areas, relations with the central government were more loose, and the relationship between the central government and the feudal power was only nominally monarchical, and the relationship between the two was maintained only by tribute once a few years. [3] It can be seen that the differential order territory in geopolitics presents a differential order pattern from the center to the frontier, at the political, economic, social, cultural and other levels, the political relationship is from tight to sparse, and the control is from strong to weak. "The system of the Holy King, the ritual of Shi De, the first Jing shi and then the xia, the first the xia and then the Yi di." [4] "The four kingdoms inside China and the outside are destroyed, so that each of them can live in peace." ”[5]
This was the case, for example, in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty generally inherited the areas directly controlled by the Yuan Dynasty, and in order to manage the vast territory, it implemented different management models in different regions, setting up counties and counties in the Han areas of the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, which were directly controlled; in the northern frontier, military towns were set up and militarized management was implemented; in the southwest frontier, toasts were set up everywhere and ruled by feudalism; and on the Korean Peninsula, the Mongolian Plateau, the Western Regions, and Southeast Asia, the vassal system was implemented, thus showing distinct geographical differences and regional division characteristics. The post stations built to implement government decrees and manage local governments covered both direct control areas and bondage areas. The "History of Ming" first describes the affairs of the Ming Dynasty, followed by "Toast Transmission" and "Foreign Transmission", reflecting that China still maintained the poor order pattern of Chinese Asian order in the late traditional society. In the tributary trade, the Ming Dynasty also set different treatment to determine the different positions of different tribes and vassal states, thus constantly shaping its relationship with the Ming Dynasty. For example, during the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty, in the tributary trade with Wuliangha Sanwei, Jurchen, Xifan ("Huiyi"), and "Beiyu", adopted different times, numbers, places, and reward specifications to commend those who supported the Ming Dynasty and criticize those who rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, so as to adjust and maintain the political ties between the surrounding ethnic groups and the Ming Dynasty, and strengthen the political rule over the border areas. [6]
Then, in addition to the cultural imagination, the areas of direct control and the subordinate areas of the domain, that is, the "to serve" and "barren clothes" in the "five services",[7] belong to the dynastic territory? Fan Chengda of the Southern Song Dynasty expressed this in "Zhi Man". "Outside the present-day counties, although the prefectures of Qiangzhou are barbaric, the land is close to the province, and the people are taxed and servitude, so they do not take brute orders." If you are too bondaged, it is said to be outside, and it is really brutal. [8] That is, the area of confinement belongs to the territory, and the outside belongs to the "outside", that is, outside the territory. It is precisely for this reason that after the annexation of the Yimin people in Bozhou, Sichuan in the early Ming Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty practiced feudal rule, it was regarded as being within the territory. In March of the seventh year of Hongwu (1374), Zhongshu Province played: "The land of the Bozhou Xuanwei Division has entered the territory, that is, with the king and the people, he should receive his tribute." Please order that from the beginning of the four years of Hongwu, each year will receive 2,500 stones of grain for military supplies. ”[9]
On the other hand, although Zhu Yuanzhang also believed that Bozhou was subordinate to the territory, he still distinguished it from the interior and did not order it to undertake military service like the interior. "The land of the southwest of Bozhou has also been included in the territory since the past, offering tribute, but when it is quietly ruled, it is not its nature to be disturbed or disturbed. When the king came to the world, he came first, and all the land taxes were included in his land, and there was no need to revert to a fixed amount to levy his gifts. [10] It can be seen that there are still quite different areas of state status between the areas ruled by the region and the area directly ruled by the region. The two are not only different political systems, but more importantly, there are also huge differences in the conscription system related to the national economy and people's livelihood. In the ancient world, the significance of the territory was not mainly the land itself, but the people who lived on it, as well as the taxes and military service they undertook; if they could bear the burden of service, they would be valued. This is very different from the modern conception of territory, which is influenced by nationalism, which regards every inch of land, regardless of its ecological environment, as sacred and inviolable. Therefore, in ancient China, there were those who distinguished the area from the area under direct rule in a strict sense, and did not regard the area as the map of the country. In the twenty-seventh year of the Wanli Dynasty (1599), at the beginning of the Battle of Bozhou, in order to envelop the toast around Bozhou, the Ming Dynasty slowed down the pace of "changing the land and returning to the stream", believing that the nature of toast and the state and county in the sense of national territory was consistent. Emperor Mingshenzong decreed: "Since the opening of the Toshi Dynasty, it has been ruled by customs, paid tribute to the world, and the upper and lower levels are at peace, so why should we change the land into a stream, and the party is the territory of the imperial court?" [11] However, judging from the tone of this rhetorical question, people at that time had the concept that toast was not a national territory, and only the prefectures and counties that were directly controlled by the establishment of rogue officials belonged to the national territory. In fact, to a certain extent, the Ming people will only set up military institutions, not civil affairs agencies in the border areas, and consider them to be outside the country, given that they do not undertake the same conscription as the inland states and counties. During the Jingtai period, "Guizhou Miao rebelled, and it was not peaceful for a long time." He Wenyuan asked him to depose the second division of the clan and the second division, and set up a special capital division to make a large general. Yu Shaobao was humble and said, "If there is no second division that is Yi Zhiye, why should it be through the Dian Dao?" And abandoning the ancestral frontier for no reason is ominous. 'Go to bed.' [12] (Change) Sure enough, after the Battle of Bozhou, the imperial court changed the land in Bozhou and returned to the ming dynasty, believing that from then on Bozhou belonged to the Ming Dynasty, while the neighboring Tusi remained in its original appearance and was demarcated outside the territory, and the two sides had an official border. In the twenty-ninth year of the Wanli Calendar (1601), the bingbu played "Zheng territory".
Sowing left water west, right through Yongning, although the address is like a canine tooth, the original boundary between each other. But the yi sex dogs and sheep, male and male, invade and impermanent. Both changed the land into a stream, when the border was cleared, the Yongdu dispute. Those who were originally from The Prefecture of Broadcasting belonged to my territory; those who were originally from Yongning and Shuixi belonged to the Luxury and An Er clans. The monument is set up, and it will always be observed. [13]
In the thirty-second year of the Wanli Calendar (1604), when the Ming Dynasty discussed the merits of pingbo, it was also called: "Pingbo a feat, open up the territory and expand the territory, and achieve great achievements.". [14]
It can be seen that under the ancient Chinese concept of differential order territory, the counties and counties under direct control belong to the formal national territory, while the indirectly controlled feudal area is in the ambiguous area of the territory, which is controversial. As for vassal states, they do not belong to the formal territory of the country, and there is also a border between the official territory and the official territory. However, the continuous frontier development in ancient China gradually incorporated the qiangzhi area and even some vassal areas into the national territory. Due to the limitations of technical conditions, this process was very slow in the pre-modern period, and the ancient Chinese territorial pattern thus presented an ever-expanding and dynamic "differential order territory". A Chinese history is a history in which under the concept of "the king has no outside", the internal pattern of the differential order territory is continuously integrated and transformed into a "homogeneous territory", while the external is continuously extended and expanded outward. It is precisely in the wave of inlandization of frontiers that the historical pattern of pluralism and integration of Chinese civilization has gradually taken shape. "The Rongdi of the past is now China." [15]
Under this concept of regional international order, Asia, especially East Asia, has formed a regional international order centered on China, that is, the "Chinese Asian order". The pattern of the Chinese Asian order is markedly different from the "economically driven outward-bound infinite expansionism" of Western Europe, Arabia, and Russia. First of all, the establishment of the Chinese Asian order is not led by economic drive, but by political drive, and the external expansion of the Central Plains Dynasty is not only to plunder economic resources, but to achieve the political unity of the "tianxia" order. Thus, the Chinese Asian order is a form of "politically driven expansionism." Second, the establishment of the Chinese Asian order is not to dominate the Asian international order, but to safeguard China's geopolitical peace. As mentioned above, The economy of China's hinterland is obviously superior to that of the surrounding areas, and it is unprofitable for China to forcefully control the surrounding areas, in this case, the Central Plains Dynasty actively exerted influence on the surrounding areas, on the one hand, to realize political ideals, on the other hand, to maintain the stability of the surrounding areas, to prevent or resist the emergence and growth of threatening forces in the surrounding areas, so as to ensure peace in China's periphery and maintain the stability of the regime. It can be seen that unlike the outward expansion of the above three civilizations, which is an outward-looking and predatory divergence, the Chinese Asian order is a kind of cohesion or introversion aimed at the stability of the Central Plains Dynasty regime. Therefore, the Chinese Asian order does not emphasize economic plunder or homogeneity like the above three civilizations, but emphasizes the coexistence of differences and peace. In the relationship between the hinterland and the frontier, it is not a one-way relationship, but while Maintaining political rights to the frontier and even the vassal states, China bears the political obligation to rise and perish; the frontier and even the vassal states continue to obtain China's preferential economic trade while maintaining political subordinates. In short, the two sides do not insist on homogeneity, but are harmonious and different. Thus, the Chinese Asian order is a form of "inward expansionism." Finally, although they are all expansionism, the above three civilizations are an infinite expansionism, as long as it is profitable, it has been expanding outwards, and once this tradition is formed, even if it is not profitable for a while, it is also actively controlled, such as the British into Tibet, Russia into Siberia, both. Although this kind of infinite expansionism has led to continuous wars, it has more actively and proactively opened up the historical situation of world integration and promoted the emergence of the modern world. In contrast, the Chinese Asian order is a kind of limited expansionism, although it is conducive to the peace of the international order in Asia, especially in East Asia, but it lacks the impetus to promote the formation of the globalization pattern. Combining the above discussions, the Chinese Asian order can be summarized as "politically driven inward limited expansionism."
The geopolitical environment and expansion resistance of ancient China
So why does China's territorial model present a different pattern of territory than other Eurasian dominant civilizations? This first originated from ancient Asia, especially the regional international order in East Asia, which has long been in a state of imbalance in which China is the only one, rather than the equilibrium state of the above three civilizations, which correspondingly causes the regional international order to transcend the "jungle order" and move towards a higher stage of "harmonious order". On the Asian continent, especially on the East Asian continent, China has maintained the largest economy and leading edge for a long time due to the superiority of its geographical environment, and other civilizations are under the scope of China's economic, political, cultural, and military radiation, so China has long lacked real and powerful competitors, and accordingly, when establishing the Chinese Asian order, the focus is not to eliminate other regimes, but to maintain the stability of the Asian international order, so as to avoid the fire at the city gate and the pond fish, so as to strive to build a harmonious and different harmonious international order, which can be called " Harmonious Order". The harmonious order is a higher international order than the jungle order, and human society tends to emphasize order and coexistence in dealing with ethnic relations after experiencing the great destruction of disorderly competition. If compared with the natural world, the jungle order is equivalent to a group of animals that have not yet formed a group, fighting and fighting for leadership; while the harmonious order is finally produced after a long struggle between the leaders and begins to lead everyone to cooperate with each other. The harmonious order of the Chinese Asian order was not formed naturally, but was also formed after a long war of equilibrium, and was further ascended and optimized. Specifically, in the pre-Qin period, after experiencing long-term and frequent wars in the tribal, chieftainial, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States periods, China gradually formed the political concept of "great unification" and the authoritarian centralized system of the Qin Dynasty, thus opening the historical door to China's strong rise and domination of the asian international order. Although the harmonious order is superior to the jungle order, it cannot be said that Chinese civilization is obviously superior to the other three civilizations, but it should be understood that this difference comes from different geographical environments. That is, the harsh geographical environment of Western Europe, Arabia and Russia has prompted the surrounding areas to maintain a balanced situation, while China's relatively superior geographical environment has enabled China to take the lead in entering a more advanced stage. From this point of view, Chinese civilization does show the characteristics of precociousness, and the saying that "Chinese people love peace" is not unreasonable.
Second, although China has been dominant in Asia for a long time, it has been in a long-term confrontation between the north and the south, and structural internal friction has restricted the pace of China's expansion in the Asian region, so that China cannot substantively unify Asia for a long time, but can only maintain a pattern of poor order territory. The so-called long-term confrontation between the north and the south in China is a long-term confrontation between the Han civilization in the south based on agricultural economy and the Northern civilization in the north, which is based on animal husbandry economy. The formation of this division stems from the geographical environment of the East Asian continent. In the northern Asian inland area of northern China bordering the northern plain, there are two major mountain systems distributed from east to west, the "Outer Mountains" are Daxing'anLing, Yinshan Mountains, Altai Mountains and Tianshan Mountains from east to west, and the "Inner Mountains" are Xiaoxing'anling, Changbai Mountains, Taihang Mountains, Liupan Mountains, Helan Mountains, Qilian Mountains, Arjin Mountains and Kunlun Mountains from east to west. The two major mountain systems not only divide the northern frontier of China into three major geographical spaces, from north to south, which are typical Asian inland, inland plain transition zone, and inner crescent plain; but also because they block the northward advance of the warm and humid air flow of the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the formation of different climatic characteristics in the three geographical spaces, namely arid climate, semi-arid monsoon climate and temperate monsoon climate. Affected by topographical and climatic conditions, the three major geospatial economic methods and political organizations also show a completely different appearance. Under the typical arid climate of the Asian inland, the northern peoples developed a single nomadic economy; in the temperate monsoon climate of the Inner Crescent Plain, the Chinese and Han ethnic groups developed a meticulous agricultural economy. In addition to local governments, the ancient Chinese dynastic regimes were basically distributed in these two major areas. Among them, the place north of the Yin Mountains (including Wolf Mountain, Ula Mountain, Daqingshan Mountain, Grey Tengliang Mountain, and Dama Mountains) of the Outer Mountains system and the south of the Taihang Mountains (including the branch Yanshan Mountains) of the Inner Mountains are divided into the eastern part of the typical Asian inland area, the central area of the Inner Crescent Plain, especially the place where the dynastic regimes are concentrated, and the more famous dynastic regimes in Chinese history are distributed here, that is, the main clue of ancient Chinese historical changes exists in this area, and these two major areas can be regarded as the political center of ancient China.
In the transitional zone of the inland plain, due to the atypical and transitional characteristics of the terrain and climate, although it has the conditions for the development of nomadic and agricultural development, it is not a universal extension zone. Therefore, in the ancient history of China, the transitional zone of the inland plains has become a buffer zone for the transition of agricultural economy and nomadic economy, and the tug-of-war between the Han nationality and the northern ethnic groups, and the place where mountains and rivers intersect has become an area with vigorous economy and hidden military crises, and it is also corresponding to the distribution area of the Great Wall of the Han nationality (The Chinese nationality) occupying the agricultural belt and defending the northern ethnic groups; not only that, when the Han nationality goes north to the interior of Asia, it can also use the local agricultural and animal husbandry economy, which is not only conducive to obtaining supplies, but also developing cavalry , providing a tactical basis for a duel with the northern peoples. [16] On the contrary, when the northern peoples went south to the northern plains, not only could people and horses be supplied, but the agricultural economy could also supplement the lack of a single nomadic economy, which was conducive to the establishment of a relatively long-term rule of the northern ethnic groups in northern China. When the Hanized Northern Wei regime discussed the frontier, it first conquered the northern Ruoran, and there was a consideration of profiting from the Yin Mountains. [17] The Tang poet Wang Jian's "Liangzhou Xing", Zhang's "Longtou", and Sikong Tu's "Hehuang You", all record the situation of agriculture and animal husbandry brought about by Tubo's eastward entry into the Hexi Corridor after the Anshi Rebellion. [18]
It can be seen from this that the transitional zone of the inland plains is the "core frontier" of the Central Plains Dynasty and the northern ethnic groups, and occupying this zone is in the initiative in the relations between the north and the south, expelling the other side or seizing power. "North of Yunshuo, south of the desert, is the junction of Huayi, from the land of ancient wars. ...... The northwestern border defense is especially heavy than other places, and here it belongs to the key of the north and the south, and the strength and weakness of the chinese and foreign countries are determined by its land belonging to the south and the north. [19] From the perspective of the Central Plains Dynasty, the Seizure of the Core Frontier by the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the Ming Dynasty all laid the foundation for advancing into the desert north and expelling the Northern tribes. From the perspective of the northern peoples, the seizure of the core frontier established military superiority over the Central Plains dynasties, such as the Xiongnu and turks; and even further transformed into political superiority, which allowed them to rule the Yellow River Valley and even the whole of China, such as the Northern Wei, Liao, Jin, and Yuan. On the other hand, the loss of this zone is passive in north-south relations, and they are driven back to their headquarters or lose power. From the perspective of the northern ethnic groups, for example, "(Yin Mountain) is more than a thousand miles from east to west, lush with grass and trees, and prolific animals and animals." In the Han Dynasty, Mao Dun was single in the obstruction and ruled as a bow arrow. After Emperor Wu seized his land, the Xiongnu entered the Kou and had nothing to hide, and they did not cry after this. [20] Another example is the Qilian Mountains, "the water and grass are beautiful, the winter in the mountains is warm and cool in summer, and it is advisable to graze cattle and sheep", "Yanzhi Mountain is more than 100 miles from east to west, and twenty miles from north to south, there are also pine and cypress five trees, water and grass are beautiful, suitable for animal husbandry, and the same as Qilian Mountain." The Xiongnu were expelled from this mountain, and thus there was a lament that "I have been killed by the Qilian Mountain, so that I will not rest for six years; and the mountain of my Yanzhi will be lost to my women without color"[21]. The Xiongnu also turned from prosperity to decline and moved west to Central Asia. From the perspective of the Central Plains Dynasty, for example, after the "Anshi Rebellion" in the Middle Tang Dynasty, the Han people lost their actual control over the core frontier, and by the Fifth Dynasty and the Two Song Dynasties, they had officially lost their exotic lands, thus presenting a historical pattern of being suppressed by Shatuo, Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongols. A crucial step in the Mongol process of exterminating gold was also the seizure of the core frontier. [22]
It can be seen that in ancient China, the Central Plains Dynasty and the Northern Nationality regime gained the core frontier to gain the world, and those who lost the core frontier lost the world. The full attention paid by the ancient Chinese north-south regime to the Hexi Corridor or the Shanhou region has fully demonstrated the main role of the core frontier in the historical changes of ancient China. Correspondingly, the overall investigation of the relationship between the core frontier and the changes in ancient Chinese history is an attempt to construct an interpretation model of ancient Chinese history from the perspective of geography. Considering that geography is an objective and more fundamental existence than history, this explanation has very obvious significance for understanding the long-term, holistic and structural characteristics of ancient Chinese history.
It is worth noting that the American sinologist and Mongolian scholar Owen Lattimore summarized the area referred to as "China's Asian inland frontier" or "Great Wall Frontier", and put forward the theory of "frontier form", that is, the mixed ethnic groups born from the Great Wall frontier have repeatedly established large empires that unified the north and south of the Great Wall, which promoted the progress of Chinese history, and such regimes are also known as "nomadic dynasties" and "border dynasties". [23] In fact, considering the reality, the founders of the Han, Tang, Yuan, And Qing dynasties that unified the north and south of the Great Wall were not mostly from the mixed zone of the core frontier, but still from the typical zone of agricultural plains and the interior of Asia, and it was only after entering the core frontier and taking advantage of the unique local geopolitical situation that a large empire with vast territory and diverse ethnic groups was established. Thus, it was geography, not ethnic groups, that gave the core frontier a special place in Chinese history.
After the frontier expansion of the Central Plains Dynasty to a certain period and stage, it encountered obstacles from the northern ethnic groups, as if hitting the "frontier wall", and for a time, even in the modern period, there was a long-term phenomenon of "frontier countercurrent". In the midst of constant interaction, the Han (Huaxia) regime and the four-ethnic regime have shown a pattern of continuous expansion of the frontier as a whole, but in the face of the constant pressure of the Han (Huaxia) regime, the four ethnic groups have also been reunited to oppose the Han (Huaxia) regime, which is gradually growing in power. Not only that, but there was also a constant pattern of internal strife within the Han (Huaxia) regime, and the losers often fled to the four sides and merged with the four nationalities. The so-called Xu FuDongdu and Jizi entering the dynasty, although they are all legends, they do reflect the historical context of the Chinese people constantly entering the four sides. The convergence of these two veins has prompted the regime of the four ethnic groups to continue to integrate and grow, and even to appear to be more powerful than the Han (Huaxia) regime, thus entering the Central Plains, and even winning the orthodoxy and even unifying China. This is particularly evident in the northern peoples. Although the northern peoples of ancient China constantly posed a threat to the Central Plains regime, such as the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were Inu Rongjin to arrive at Hojing, the Siege of Baideng in the Western Han Dynasty, the "Wuhu Chaohua" in the Middle Ages, and the "Anshi Rebellion" in the Tang Dynasty. All of the above events are landmark events in which the frontier shows a countercurrent, oppression inwards, and the Han nationality encounters the barrier of the frontier wall, and the head is broken and bleeding.
As a heterogeneous civilization that is different from the Han civilization, did the Bei regime show a different concept of territory when it suppressed the Central Plains Dynasty internally? On the one hand, it is true that the reason why ancient Chinese civilization is "limited expansionism" as a whole, and the concept of ancient Chinese territory is "as a whole" is "differential order territory", is that there are also certain heterogeneous factors within Chinese history, which have the potential and possibility of generating other historical orientations. But on the other hand, this vein was eventually integrated into the frontier mainstream model of ancient Chinese differential order territory as a whole.
Because the Xiongnu and the Western Hu Turks and Uighurs all originated in the western part of the steppe and were far from the Han agricultural belt, they did not have much interest in absorbing han civilization and carrying out political rule, and only regarded the Han area as the object of population and property plunder, but for the vast inner Asian steppe, they had a strong desire to conquer, so they established a nomadic country with inland Asia as the main body and control over the transition zone of agriculture and animal husbandry. When the Central Plains Dynasty was weak, the Xiongnu, Turks, and Hui hui formed a trend of suppression on the Central Plains Han Dynasty, relying on tributary trade, war plunder, and other methods to maintain the existence of a huge country. When the Zhongyuan dynasty was strong, it moved westward into Central Asia and even Eastern Europe. Therefore, although in ancient China, the nomadic states posed great military pressure on the Central Plains Dynasty, due to the excessively simple economic method, they were often under the impact of natural disasters and infighting, as well as under the attack of the Han regime, and soon disintegrated, showing the stormy characteristics of "its rise and fall, and its death is also sudden". Although it has a direct and obvious great impact on the course of ancient Chinese history, it only stays at the physical level of collision, and does not have a chemical reaction with the Han civilization, thus becoming the basic factor in recreating Chinese civilization. Its historical role basically stayed in the historical positioning of inland Asia, and did not become an integrator across landlocked Asia and the Crescent Plain, and thus remained limited to the nature of the regime of the nomadic countries. Although its territorial model is another territorial model in ancient China, that is, "outward expansionism", it has not entered and shaped China's mainstream territorial model.
In contrast, the Eastern Hu peoples Xianbei, Khitan, Mongolian, and Jurchen have the political concept of accepting agricultural zones and integrating different civilizations due to the ecological diversity of their origins and their proximity to agriculture, thus further elevating them to agricultural and pastoral countries and even unified dynasties. Due to the nuances of the place of origin, economic mode, and background of the times, the four ethnic groups have a considerable difference in the degree of acceptance of Sinicization.
Although the Liao Dynasty had the historical conditions to further encroach on the Han Dynasty in North China, it may have continued the tradition of nomadic peoples getting along with the Tang Dynasty, accustomed to receiving economic subsidies, and lacked the political courage to replace the Central Plains Dynasty, thus showing a long-term stagnation in the scope of the south and the state system. Compared with the Northern Wei, Liao, Jin, and Qing dynasties, the Mongol origins were closer to the steppe hinterland, so the Mongol Empire initially aimed to conquer Eurasia and establish a world empire. After many battles for the throne, the Mongol Empire showed a trend of division, and its suzerainty, the Yuan Dynasty, presented a geopolitical pattern in which neiya and Han were based on a significant part of the rule of the founder Kublai Khan in Han China. Correspondingly, the absorption and institutional reference of the Liao Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty to the Han civilization were on a relatively limited scale. Correspondingly, in terms of territorial concept, it still maintains a strong inner Asian characteristic, and is far from the concept of differential order territory of the Han Dynasty, which still belongs to the context of the ancient Chinese "outward expansionism" territorial model.
In contrast, the three regimes of the Northern Wei, Jin Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty gradually accepted the concept of differential order territory under the influence of the Han civilization in the Central Plains, and gradually regarded themselves as China, while the nomadic peoples with more distant geographical space and more powerful military power were "Yidi", such as the Northern Wei Dynasty's view of Rouran and the Jin Dynasty's view of Mongolia. If the above two dynasties only realized the transposition of positions and perspectives, then the Qing Dynasty achieved an unprecedented expansion and integration of the concept of differential order territory. On the one hand, the Qing Dynasty actively expanded its territory and realized military conquest and political rule over the Manchus, Mongols, Han nationalities, Tibetans, and southern ethnic areas; on the other hand, in terms of governing philosophy, it accepted the concept of Han civilization emphasizing internal affairs, thus continuing the historical tradition of the ancient Chinese Central Plains Dynasty attaching importance to the agricultural civilization in the hinterland and despising the East Asian maritime civilization under the condition of historical conditions, and still placing East Asia and Southeast Asia in the subordinate sequence, rather than directly conquering. And under the circumstance that Sino-foreign exchanges are gradually strengthened and developed, more and more distant known civilizations are included in the new differential order frontier pattern, which also directly lays the basic appearance of the contemporary Chinese territorial pattern. In other words, on the basis of inheriting the concept of the territory of the ancient Han regime and the northern ethnic regime, the Qing Dynasty, under the premise of fully opening up and laying the pattern of great unification and multi-ethnic territory, took the concept of the territory of Han civilization as the main body, supplemented by the concept of the territory of the northern ethnic groups,[24] thus establishing a highly developed and rich territorial concept system, and building a differential order territorial pattern on the basis of a vast territorial space, reflecting the final achievements of the concept and practice of ancient Chinese territory.
IV. The "outer frontier" of ancient China and its modern transmutation
Although the concept of the differential order of the Chinese Asian order territory has maintained the stability and continuation of the Chinese civilization community for a long time, it has also reduced the historical motivation of Chinese civilization to open up frontiers, and even when the historical conditions are available, it is still confined to traditional visions and concepts, and has let go of many historical opportunities, so that Chinese civilization has long been limited to the regional civilization of Asia, and has not become the first founder of the global order. However, time and space have been changed, and from the perspective of current international politics, on the one hand, the "differential order territory" will help correct the rigid modern nation-state system that originated in the competitive geopolitical environment within Europe, emphasizing the duality of "either enemy or friend", and with its flexible and pluralistic diplomatic concept, it provides more possibilities for reducing conflicts and strengthening cooperation, and provides an ideological and theoretical system that can be used as a reference for the current and future with the continuous advancement of globalization, the formation and exchange of cross-national regional communities, and ultimately the world unity. On the other hand, it provides historical reference for encouraging China to get out of the isolation and passivity of the surrounding geopolitical environment. Specifically, under this concept, the concept of "peripheral frontiers" can be constructed by combining China's historical tradition and current geopolitics.
The frontier under direct and indirect control can be called the "native frontier", and the vassal state area on the periphery of the "native frontier" can also be regarded as the peripheral area of the "native frontier" from the perspective of historical ties with China and the relationship with Chinese civilization, or the marginal zone, or the extended zone, or the radiation zone. From the perspective of the Chinese Asian order, its political geography belongs to the outermost of the "Nine Suits" - "Fanfu", which can be called "peripheral frontiers". In terms of the continuous expansion of Chinese ethnic groups, it belongs to the place where Chinese scattered and spread in order to pursue profits or avoid disasters in times of peace or war, which can be called "marginal frontiers". From the perspective of China's civilization's external transportation, it belongs to the intermediary channel for China's exchanges with other major civilization systems, which can be called "extending the frontier". From the perspective of the spread of Chinese civilization, its cultural context is deeply influenced by China, which can be called "radiation frontier".
The "southern peripheral frontier" is more explicit, that is, the Southeast Asian feudal state. In ancient China, especially after the Tang and Song dynasties, the Chinese people, in order to pursue profits or avoid disasters, quite a lot of pan-Hainan Ocean, went to Europe and Africa; after the Age of Great Navigation, Western European countries and Ming Dynasty China formed close economic and cultural exchanges through the Nanyang Passage with the Strait of Malacca as the core, which was the main driving force for the formation of the world economic pattern in the early stage of modern world history. Southeast Asian countries not only pay tribute to China politically, but also pay tribute to China in the "domain" area of China's poor order politics; and the economic, ethnic, and cultural levels are mostly influenced and driven by the Chinese, and even the Chinese - known as the "Nanyang Tang People" at that time, in fact became the masters and subjects of many regions, so the "southern peripheral frontier" presents political and economic relations with China, especially the latter- [25] In terms of geographical characteristics, the southern outer frontier has both land and sea, with maritime trade as the main feature, which can also be called "Nanyang Maritime Frontier".
In contrast, the "northern periphery frontier" is more complex. From the Korean Peninsula and the Daxing'an Mountains in the east, through the Desert North Grassland in the middle, to the Western Regions in the west, due to the relatively indirect and alienated relations with China, it belongs to the outer frontier. It can be seen that some areas of the northern peripheral frontier coincide with the eastern frontier and the western frontier of the core frontier. Because the desert grasslands are far from the Chinese headquarters and less threatened, the local nomadic peoples rely on the vast grassland area to continuously cultivate and develop into a large nomadic empire, which is correspondingly the rise and political center of gravity of the nomadic forces that are most threatening to the Chinese headquarters, and the birthplace of the "Whip of God" that swept across Eurasia. In history, although the Han people have gone north to this region many times, due to the local ecological and economic conditions are too simple, it is difficult to achieve the transplantation of economic and political methods, before the Qing Dynasty, it has not been able to establish a fixed mode of rule, corresponding to the peripheral frontier. The land of Daxing'anling is densely forested, which is the birthplace of forest dwellers who gather various production methods of farming, fishing and hunting, and nomadism, and is also the initial base for its integration of North China and even the unification of China. Due to its geographical remoteness, it has contact with the Chinese headquarters, especially the lack of war, so it is not the main economic target of the Chinese headquarters, and it is correspondingly a peripheral frontier. The Korean Peninsula is not only the limit of the expansion of the land frontier of Chinese civilization in East Asia before the Middle Ages, but also the gateway to the defense of maritime civilization in recent times -- Japan has entered the land from the sea, and the war with the Korean regime when the Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing regimes were established can clearly reflect the first point, and the Ming Dynasty's Wanli Crusade and the contemporary War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea clearly reflect the second point. The relationship between the Western Regions and China has shown a phased character. In the pre-Han and Tang dynasties of the Middle Ages, the Han people controlled the vast east-west Central Asian region of the Onion Ridge (present-day Pamir Plateau), but this area was not only far away from the Chinese headquarters, but the mode of rule was relatively relaxed, and the frontier development of the prosperous world was soon replaced by the contraction of the frontier, so the characteristics of the outer frontier of the western region were more obvious. In recent times, with the pace of ecological deterioration in Central Asia, the eastward expansion of Islam, and the rise and expansion of maritime civilization, eurasian geopolitics have shifted from the overland Silk Road to the maritime Silk Road, and the Chinese headquarters has shown a historical trend of retreating from the northwest frontier in terms of objective strength or subjective will, the two Song Dynasties have no political vassal relationship with the western region, and the Ming Dynasty only regarded Jiayuguan as a vassal area, and the characteristics of the peripheral frontier were more obvious. Northeast China, Korea, and the Western Regions are China's outer frontiers, not only in their relations with china's headquarters, but also in their political affiliation with the Mongolian plateau. In the study of ancient Chinese history, the long-standing unobtrusive Han-centrism obscures the narrative of the Mongolian plateau forces' long-term political domination of the vast frontiers on both sides, and since the Mongolian plateau and the Chinese headquarters belong to a regime that closely and deeply interacts within the Chinese civilization, the political unity of the Mongolian plateau for the eastern and western regions can naturally be regarded as the basis for these two major regions as the basis for China's northern peripheral frontiers. Compared with the southern peripheral frontier, the northern peripheral frontier as a whole shows the connotation and characteristics of political dominance and official domination. When the Silk Road was open before the Middle Ages, the economic communication characteristics of the western region were more significant, but compared with Nanyang, it still appeared that the officially dominated political color was stronger. In terms of geographical characteristics, the main feature of the northern outer frontier is land, so it can be called "Inner Asian Land Frontier".
From the perspective of historical changes, due to the military-political drive of the northern and southern regimes, the northern peripheral frontiers have shown a trend of "localization" that has paused and regressed in the middle, with the expansion of the Han and Tang dynasties in the middle and the establishment of the Mongolian Yuan Eurasian Empire as a prominent node, and finally ending with the integration of the inner Asian frontier by the Qing Dynasty. However, due to the rise of Russia's land power and eastward expansion, the Qing Dynasty's westward expansion was curbed to a certain extent, and correspondingly, on the territorial map, some areas were contracted. Similar to the northern outer frontier, the southern peripheral frontier is driven by the economy and culture of the people, supplemented by official tributary trade, showing that although it was officially suppressed for a certain period of time, such as the Ming and Qing dynasties, it still basically continued to develop the "localization" trend, and the "Sinicization" of Nanyang gradually became stronger. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, the Nanyang countries that obtained advanced guns from Western Europe continued to rise in power, and began to expand their territories on a large scale, such as Burma and Vietnam, thus beginning to challenge the authority of the Ming Dynasty, and in the Ming-Burma War, the Ming Dynasty lost, thus ceding a large area of land. At the same time that the Qing Dynasty vigorously integrated the northern peripheral frontiers, the southern peripheral frontiers were due to China's traditional heavy land and Qinghai consciousness, and the Qing Dynasty's geographical roots in Inner Asia, after the heavy losses of the Qing-Burma War in the Qianlong period, it showed a historical situation of official abandonment, which eventually led to the rise of the native races in Southeast Asia and the repeated purging of the Chinese, and in the expansion of the western powers in modern times, it gradually degenerated from China's peripheral frontiers to Western colonies and the encirclement of China's oceans. Correspondingly, the collapse of Chinese civilization in the modern period is not limited to the loss of China's local sovereignty and cultural variation, but also to the overall collapse of China's Asian order, which is manifested in the continuous encroachment of China's peripheral frontiers. In other words, the impact of the West on the East in the modern period, from the perspective of the long-term confrontation between the east and the west, is actually the European community replacing the Chinese Asian order. This reversal pattern continues to this day, thus warning the key initiative of political consciousness and political strategy in the development of civilization.
The concept of "peripheral frontiers" is put forward, on the one hand, from the perspective of Chinese history, in addition to emphasizing the geographical orientation of the frontier areas, but also from the historical orientation, according to the relationship between the frontiers and China, to carry out hierarchical divisions, highlighting the "pattern of difference order" in ancient Chinese politics; on the other hand, from the perspective of world history, it is revealed that between the Chinese civilization at both ends of the Eurasian continent and the Western European civilization, that is, the core civilization, there is a peripheral zone radiated by the core civilization, which acts as an economic, cultural, and political communication bridge, although in terms of geographical location, The degree of civilization is a marginal region, but it has played an intermediary and communication role in the history of world formation, and has a great space worth excavating in future research. In other words, the study and division of the local frontier emphasizes the internal evolution path of Chinese history, and the proposal and distinction of the peripheral frontier points to the external evolution path of the historical relationship between Chinese civilization and the world.
The fall of the outer frontier and the defection to Chinese civilization are, in a sense, the complete end of China's traditional concept of territory. Before and after the Qin Dynasty, the difference order territory is generally a true reflection of the degree of historical development in China and its surrounding areas at that time, that is, with the Yellow River Basin, where the natural conditions are the most superior, as the core, in ancient Asia, especially in East Asia, there was indeed a geographical pattern of decreasing civilization. However, with the gradual destruction of the Yellow River Basin and the gradual rise of the Yangtze river and the Pearl River Basin, the idealization of the differential order territory has faced more and more challenges after the Middle and Tang Dynasties, and the successive rise of the northern regime in the recent period and its long-term suppression and even replacement of the Han Dynasty are regarded by the Song people as an unprecedented change, not only because of the strength of its armed forces, but also in the transmutation of civilization, resulting in the gradual blurring of the boundaries of Huayi. [26] If the unification of China by the Mongols and Yuans was still mainly a mixture of military forces, the unification of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was accompanied by the comprehensive integration of civilization. Although the Qing Dynasty thus broke through the narrow distinction between Huaxia and Han as the core, the difference order of the territory was divided into a larger geographical space, which undoubtedly had considerable creativity and change, with the inclusion of Han territory and frontiers, and China with a larger space as the core. However, what is full of historical irony is that the Qing Dynasty, which has gathered the Chinese historical tradition in all aspects and completed great changes, has come to a historical period of direct collision with Western capitalist civilization, and its initial attitude of barbarism and contempt for Western countries has been severely criticized by modern history as "stubborn". The loss of the outer frontiers of the Qing Dynasty is really the inflection point of history in the light of traditional Chinese civilization, which has encountered unprecedented historical changes, resulting in misunderstanding and confusion, rather than being caused by one dynasty and one generation.
Correspondingly, compared with the study of local frontiers, the current proposal and research on the concept of "peripheral frontiers" is more in view of the fact that the world's great powers have used various methods, including political, economic, military, etc., to push the frontiers to The borders of China, forming a geopolitical environment of encirclement or choke belt of China, and that China should further take the initiative to challenge this international shackle after establishing an economic power, and use various methods to strengthen the influence of the surrounding areas that have been influenced by the Chinese tradition for a long time. The practical international significance of rebuilding the Chinese Asian order. [27]
conclusion
The relatively vast and flat terrain of East Asia prompted ancient China to form the concept of "the king is outside". However, the harsh geographical environment of the frontier of the four ethnic groups led to the low yield of frontier development in ancient China, but also a huge risk, and even endangered the regime itself. Therefore, under the premise of ensuring the stability of the regime, ancient China formed a "limited expansionism" that sought a balance between stabilizing internal affairs and frontier development, and established a "world order" at a relatively small cost as much as possible. Under this concept of territory, the ancient Chinese Central Plains Dynasty did not pursue the unlimited expansion of the territory, but pursued the establishment of a stable and regional "differential order territory" through economic and cultural auxiliary military means, so as to form a direct ruling area - the control area - the feudal contact area in the political region from the inside out, thus establishing a regional international order centered on China - "Chinese Asian Order" in Asia, especially in East Asia. It has long maintained peace and development in the international order in Asia, especially in the East Asian region. The Chinese Asian order typically embodies the characteristics of the regional international order in the pre-modern era, and is of great theoretical and practical significance for correcting the boundaries and ethnic disputes of the current nation-states and realizing the unity and development of regional communities.
[1] [Han] Zheng Xuan's Notes, [Tang] Kong Yingda Shu, Gong Kangyun's Collation, Wang Wenjin's Examination of the Book of Rites and Justice, Vol. 12, "The Royal System", Thirteen Commentaries on the Shushu Edition, Beijing, Peking University Press, 2000, p. 467.
[2] For the ancient Chinese bondage system, see Xu Xingxiang, "Research on Ancient Chinese Ethnic Thought and Bondage Policy", Kunming, Yunnan Nationalities Publishing House, 1999; Peng Jianying, "The Evolution of Ancient Chinese Bondage Policy", Beijing, China Social Sciences Press, 2004; Liu Tong: "Research on The Tang Dynasty", Xi'an, Northwest University Press, 1998.
[3] For the ancient Chinese clan system, see Huang Songjun, "Research on the Ancient Chinese Clan System", Changchun, Jilin People's Publishing House, 2008; Li Dalong, "Research on the Han and Tang Clan System", Beijing, China Social Sciences Press, 2006; Sun Hongnian, "Research on the Relationship between the Chinese and Vietnamese Clans in the Qing Dynasty", Harbin, Heilongjiang Education Publishing House, 2006; Sun Hongnian, "Sino-Vietnamese Relations in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1885)", Harbin, Heilongjiang Education Publishing House, 2014.
[4] [Han] Bangu: Book of Han, vol. 78, The Biography of Xiao Wang, Beijing, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1962 Punctuation, p. 3282.
[5] [Song] Hu Anguo, Qian Weiqiang's "Spring and Autumn Biography of Hu Shi", Vol. 1, "The Second Year of Yin Gong Shang, Yin Gong", Hangzhou, Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 2010, p. 6.
[6] [Ming] Written by Liu Yuanqing, edited by Peng Shuxin, Liu Yuanqing's Collected Works, Vol. 1, "Temperance Gongyi Shu", Shanghai, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2014, pp. 10-12.
[7] "The system of the five costumes of the Yu Gong: Yue Dian Fu, Yue Hou Fu, Yue Sui Fu, Yue Yao Fu, Yue Huang Fu. Nei erdian and Hou Erfu are the land of China; outer and outer, desolate erfu, are the areas of Yidi. [Ming] Qiu Mao: "University Yanyi Supplement", vol. 143, "The Limits of Yidi Neixia Waiyi", in Zhou Weimin, Wang Ruiming, Cui Shuting, Tang Lingling's "Qiu Mao Collection", vol. 5, Haikou, Hainan Publishing House, 2006, p. 2228.
[8] [Song] Fan Chengda, Hu Qiwang and Qin Guangguang, Guihai Yu Heng Zhi Ji Ji Zhi Annotated Zhi Man, Chengdu, Sichuan Nationalities Publishing House, 1986, p. 207.
[9] [Ming] Hu Guang et al.: Records of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 88, Hongwu 7, March 1962, Taipei, Institute of History and Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 1962, p. 1558.
[10] Records of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 88, Hongwu 7th March Jia shu, p. 1558.
[11] [Ming] Ye Xianggao: Records of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 339, September 27, 2000, Taipei, Institute of History and Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 1962, p. 6278.
[12] [Ming] Huang Jingfang, Chen Shikai and Xiong Dejidian, "The History of the Nation is Doubtful", Vol. 3, Jingtai, Shanghai, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2002, p. 73.
[13] Records of the Ming Dynasty, vol. 358, April 29, 20011, p. 6687.
[14] Records of the Mingshen Sect, vol. 4O1, 32nd year of the Wanli Calendar, p. 7518.
[15] Huang Hui: On the Interpretation of the Proofreading of Heng, vol. 19, Xuanhan No. 57, Beijing, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1990, p. 823.
[16] During the Western Han Dynasty, "Tianshui, Longxi, Beidi, and Shangjun were the same as Guanzhong, but in the west there were qiangzhong benefits, in the north there were rong zhai livestock, and animal husbandry was for the world." Of course, the land is also poor and dangerous, but the Kyoshi wants its way." [Han] Sima Qian: Records of History, vol. 129, "The Chronicle of Cargo Breeding", Beijing, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1959 Punctuation, p. 3262. "Tianshui, Longxi, mountains and trees, the people use the board as a room house." And Anding, Beidi, Shangjun, and Xihe, all approached Rongdi, practiced combat readiness, and raised their strength, taking shooting and hunting first. Therefore, the "Qin Poems" are said to be 'in its board house'; it is also known as "Wang Yuxingshi, repair my armored soldiers, and travel with my son." And the passages of "Che Shu", "Si Wei", and "Xiao Rong" all talk about che Ma Tian Hunting. Han Xing, the son of the Liang family of the six counties, was chosen by Yulin and Zhimen, with material strength as the official, and the famous generals were more prominent." Book of Han, vol. 28, Geography, p. 1644. Yang Yan, the chancellor of the Tang Dynasty, called Yanzhishan (Yanzhishan) "a man of many people, and his livestock are many horses, and he is captured to control the main heavenly street of the Yin Kingdom, Zhou yixing, Qin yizhi hegemony, Han Dezhi to break his right arm, but nan mu." [Song] Yao Xuan: Tang Wenzhi, Vol. 5 O, Monument to the Ancestral Hall of Shenning Jigong of The Great Tang Dynasty Yanzhi Mountain (Yang Yan), Wenyuange Siku Quanshu, Taipei, Taiwan Commercial Press, 1986, p. 704. Liang Xiang of the Jin Xue Dynasty said: "The capital of Yan is located in Xiongyao, leaning on the mountains in the north, and the Xia area in the south, if you sit in the hall, look down on the court, born locally, the people and horses are brave, although the Liao is small, the Yan can control the north and south, and sit on the Song coin." The first choice of Terbame Kyoto. [Yuan] Detachment, etc.: The History of Jin, vol. 96, "Biography of Liang Xiang", Beijing, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1975 Punctuation, p. 2136. Ming Gechen Peng Shi believed that Ningxia "backs the mountains and faces the river, and the four plugs are dangerous." China has enough to resist foreign yi, and foreign yi is enough to resist China." [Ming] Hu Ruli, ed., [Ming] Guan Lu Re-revision (Jiajing) Ningxia Xinzhi, vol. 1" Ningxia Zongzhen Zhisheng, Yinchuan, Ningxia People's Publishing House, 1982, p. 11. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xia Wanchun believed: "The wealth of grass and trees, Mo Sheng in the north of the Dynasty, Mo farther than the river and Hebei, Yue planted famous materials, and covered the land." [Ming] Xia Wanchun: The Collected Works of Xia Wanchun, Vol. VIII, Yan Qing, Shanghai, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1959, p. 139.
[17] "[Shizu] asked the Secretary of State that Helian and Worm were consulting He Xian. (Eldest grandson) Song and the king of Pingyang, Changsun Han, Sikong Xijin, etc., said: "Helian lives in the soil, failed to be troubled, and the creepy world is a border harm, it is advisable to first ask for the great sandalwood." And then harvest its livestock, enough to enrich the country; if it is not enough, it will hunt the Yin Mountains, kill more animals, skin and flesh and tendons, in order to replenish the army, and the more it destroys a small country. [Northern Qi] Wei Shu: Book of Wei, vol. 25, "Biography of Changsun Song", Zhonghua Bookstore, 1974 punctuation, p. 644.
[18] "Liangzhou is surrounded by yarn Haohao, and no one in the Han family has opened the old road." Biantou Prefecture county exhausted the Hu soldiers, and the general did not build a defensive autumn city. Thousands of miles of people are gone, and every year they are cold. Most of the women come to China to receive women, and half of the male students are Chinese. In the old days, the People of China did not plough the plows, but xiangxue now plants grasses. The sheep are also dressed in brocade, when defending against felt. Raise silkworms into cocoons, and that can be used as flags around the tent. Luoyang family learn Hu Le, Chengtou mountain chicken horn horn. "[Qing] Cao Yin et al. (ed.), Quan Tang Poetry, vol. 298, Liangzhou Xing, Beijing, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1960, p. 3374." Longtou had already cut off people, and Hu rode into Liangzhou City at night. The Han family fought to the death everywhere, and longxi land was destroyed in the whole dynasty. Drive my sidemen to huddle and scatter cattle and sheep to eat grass. Last year, China raised its children and grandchildren, and now I learn Hu language in felt. Who can make Li LightChe more charged Liangzhou belongs to the Han family. "Quan Tang Poems, vol. 18, "Horizontal Blowing Quci, Longtou," p. 180." Since xiao guan, the war dust has begun, and the river huang has cut off the spring in a foreign land. Han Er did all the hu'er language, but cursed the Han people to the head of the city. Quan Tang Poems, vol. 633, Sikong Tu II.
[19] [Qing] Zhang Zeng: Gui Sui Zhi Luo, vol. 3 O, Renbu Shijian, in Suiyuan Tongzhiguan, vol. 12, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia People's Publishing House, 2007, p. 317.
[20] [Ming] Min'e Shanren: Translation, edited by Bo Yinhu and Wang Xiong, Compilation of Mongolian and Chinese Historical Materials of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 1, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia University Press, 2nd edition, p. 218.
[21] [Qing] Zhang Shu, ed., The Old Affairs of Xihe, a preliminary compilation of series integration, Shanghai, The Commercial Press, 1936, p. 2.
[22] "In the arid regions of Eurasia, the key to victory or defeat lies in the horses. To this end, the Jinguo side also stretched from the southern edge of the Yin Mountains through the Gobi to the Hulunbuir Grassland in the far northeast, and built a great wall of earthen walls and trenches called 'boundary trenches' to guard the herds of military horse farms. Since all fell into the hands of the Mongols, the victory and defeat of the two sides have been clearly determined. [Japanese] Sugiyama Masaaki, Ulan and Urina translation of "The Conqueror of the Rushing Grassland: Liaoxi Xia Jinyuan", Guilin, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2014, p. 266.
[23] Owen Latimer, Translated by Tang Xiaofeng, China's Inland Frontiers of Asia, Overseas China Studies Series, Nanjing, Jiangsu People's Publishing House, 2005, pp. 263-273, 346-351.
[24] For example, the Qianlong Emperor, who boasted of establishing "ten perfect martial arts" in the frontier areas, also showed a certain degree of orientation towards the traditional Han nationality in the concept of frontiers in his later years. The "Ten Complete Records of the Imperial System" says: "I am a martial artist, and I will sweep the cave and plough the court, and I will not leave a single one behind, nor will I have the intention of being a good life in heaven." Even if all the land is exhausted, and the border of Tibet is thousands of miles away, the so-called uncultivable defenders will be paid to others. It is the surrender of the order to allow the demotion of the master, in order to do the things of the People's Liberation Army. [Qing] Dong Yu et al.: Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, vol. 1414, Qianlong Fifty-seventh Winter October Pengchen Tiao, Beijing, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1985, p. 1018.
[25] This influence is very far-reaching, for example, the contemporary Southeast Asian countries still show the characteristics of being deeply influenced by China in literature and art. Chen Qingfei, "The Rise of MCA Literary Fields and Local Cultural Prose in the 1990s", Jinan Journal (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), No. 12, 2014.
[26] "The Xiongnu of the Han Dynasty, the Hui hui of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tubo are all different from the Jin and Yuan. Jin, Yuan, the change of the ancient Yidi also. Today's rebellious slaves are not unique from the Han and Tang dynasties, but also different from the Mongols. However, the situation between the Song and the Jin people is slightly similar. [Qing] Qian Qianyi, [Qing] Qian Zeng Notes, Qian Zhonglian Annotated "Muzhai Beginner's Collection", vol. 24, "Essays IV. Xiang Yanxia", Shanghai, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2009, 2nd edition, p. 780.
[27] The international political science community has conducted research on the current strengthening of diplomatic ties between China and Southeast Asia through culture and other means. For example, Yu Huifen and Tang Chong, "On China's Cultural Diplomacy to Southeast Asia", Jinan Journal (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), No. 5, 2010.
![Looking at James toes, Rose knees, Maddy white hair, do you still envy the NBA star's high salary?[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)