Chang'an 30,000 li interpretation: Why did Chang'an, the ancient capital of the thirteen dynasties, decline? Not only natural disasters, but also man-made disasters

The hit "Chang'an 30,000 Li" poster

    Chang'an (Xi'an) is the ancient capital of thousands of years, with a total of thirteen dynasties such as Western Zhou, Qin, Western Han, Eastern Han, Xin, Western Jin, Former Zhao, Former Qin, Later Qin, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang. The latest "Chang'an 30,000 Li" has brought this famous ancient capital of the thirteen dynasties to people. Before the Tang Dynasty, Xi'an was favored by the rulers with its unique advantages, and Xi'an, which had accumulated thousands of years of culture, could be called the gathering place of Chinese civilization. But why did such a thousand-year-old capital decline after the Tang Dynasty? Today, Xi'an is still not a mainstream city in the country, so let's discuss its decline.

First, why Xi'an was favored by the Thirteen Dynasties

    The reason for the rise of a thing is often also the cause of its decline, history gives certain things certain advantages for a period of time, once these advantages expire, history will take them back, transfer them to others, analyze the reasons for the decline of Xi'an, we must first see what advantages she has.

    Historically, the thirteen large and small dynasties built their capitals in Xi'an, and if the small imperial court was removed, such as the short life of the new dynasty, and it was obtained by usurping the Han, it can be ignored; At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo moved the capital to Chang'an (Xi'an), and after Dong Zhuo's death, Emperor Xian of Han moved to Xuchang, Henan; The Five Chaos of the Western Jin Dynasty, the fall of Luoyang, the capture of Emperor Huai of Jin, and Sima Ye's accession to the throne in Xi'an, was for the Emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty; Former Zhao and Later Qin were divided into sixteen kingdoms, and they were warlords at all; Former Qin existed for too short a time, and only unified the north; Western Wei was actually in the hands of the Yuwen clan, and Western Wei and Northern Zhou were actually one family, but Northern Zhou was soon taken by Yang Jian. Therefore, after removing the above small imperial courts, only Qin, Western Han, Sui, and Tang really established a unified empire in Xi'an. The Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties are successive, and the Han and Tang dynasties were all prosperous on the ruins of the previous short-lived dynasty. So why did the Han and Tang dynasties choose to build their capital in Xi'an, a mainland city?

Changan

    First of all, for the poor imperial court such as the Han and Tang Dynasties, which were established after a long period of war, Xi'an is an ancient capital, which has undergone a long period of construction, complete urban planning, and basically complete urban defense systems, urban facilities, and imperial palaces, which can basically be used and can reduce expenses.

    Second, Shaanxi in the Han and Tang Dynasties was not today's Loess Plateau, but with dense forest vegetation! Xi'an has eight waters around Chang'an, which can bear a huge population burden. The opening of the Silk Road made Xi'an an an important commercial town in the northwest, so the town prospered commercially. Exotic civilizations communicate here, and the culture is extremely developed.

    Third, ancient transportation and communication were inconvenient, and in the face of barbarian invasions, the emperor in order to have the ability to react quickly, generally

All put the capital on a traffic artery not far from the border. This is because the general location of the Son of Heaven is closely protected, and there are many garrisons around the Beijing Division. The biggest threat to the Han and Tang dynasties were the northern steppe peoples, and in order to quickly organize forces to deal with border troubles, the capital was chosen to rush to Xi'an.

    The above are the conditions for Xi'an to be selected as the capital, but once these conditions change, Xi'an's status will inevitably be shaken.

Huns

Second, the influence of natural factors

    In the context of agrarian civilization, weather factors have a huge impact on the change of dynasties. Before the Tang Dynasty, Chinese mainland temperatures were mild, and Henan once produced elephants. There is also the story of Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei "riding a red dust concubine laughing, no one knows that it is a lychee", for a long time thought that Tang Xuanzong wasted people's power and delivered lychees from Guangdong to Xi'an at the speed of thousands of horses, but this is to take today's common sense to see the Tang Dynasty thousands of years ago. In fact, Sichuan produced lychees in the Tang Dynasty, and Yang Guifei's lychees actually came from Sichuan. Before the Tang Dynasty, Xi'an had a subtropical climate, with an average temperature one degree higher than today and more precipitation than today.

Yang

However, after the Tang Dynasty, the above natural conditions have changed dramatically.

First, temperatures are falling and droughts are frequent. After entering the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the temperature of Xi'an dropped, and the climate changed to cool dry, and to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Falling temperatures will lead to a decrease in the quality of grain seeds, which will lead to a decrease in yields; The drought and freeze problems caused by the drop in temperature have directly led to food shortages. Droughts have been frequent in Xi'an in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, for example, in the Sui Dynasty, due to the food shortage in Xi'an, the Son of Heaven traveled east to Luoyang to "eat" (ask for food); In the first year of Tang Dezong's reign (785), there was a severe drought in which "there were no seedlings in the early spring, and as for August, it was very early, Hanhu was exhausted, and the wells were without water"; During the Southern Song Dynasty, Xi'an had a "scorched grain and exhausted water". Frost disasters were most pronounced in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Ming Dynasty existed for 276 years, of which 12 times occurred in the Guanzhong Frost with Xi'an as the core; The Qing Dynasty entered the customs in 1644 and died in 1912, coexisting for 268 years, and there were as many as 54 frost disasters in the pass.

Second, transportation is inconvenient. The inaccessibility here is economic, not strategic. Strategically, Xi'an controlled the northwest and monitored the grasslands; Eight hundred miles of Qinchuan, there is Xianhan Zhigu in the east, Wuguan in the south, easy to defend and difficult to attack, Qin and Han have unified the world because of this, and Northern Zhou has also attacked Northern Qi since then, and it is naturally convenient to transfer troops and transport troops. However, the dangerous terrain, on the other hand, is extremely unfavorable for outsiders to enter, and it is extremely difficult to transport supplies from the southeast to Guanzhong . During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, he built a short section of the canal from Xi'an to Luoyang, called the "Guangtong Canal", but the transportation capacity was limited and had little effect. Coupled with the decline of the Silk Road, Xi'an's commercial status has also been shaken. Coupled with the rapid reproduction of the population, by the Tang Dynasty, the population pressure in Xi'an was increasing, so the more famous "grain-chasing Tianzi" (also went to Luoyang to ask for food) appeared in the Tang Dynasty, and Wu Zetian directly moved the capital to Luoyang.

Third, earthquakes are frequent. Xi'an is not a safe place, although the tiger is in the dragon plate, but there are often earthquakes. From 25 AD in the Eastern Han Dynasty to 1911, there were 101 earthquakes in Guanzhong Dynasty, including 63 in Xi'an, and 50 in Xi'an in the Tang Dynasty alone! Additional disasters caused by earthquakes, mudslides, plagues, and landslides followed. Too many earthquakes are also the direct cause of the decline of Xi'an after the Tang Dynasty!

3. Man-made disasters

    If natural disasters are inevitable, then man-made disasters exacerbate natural disasters.

    The first is the scourge of war. Because Xi'an has always been the capital, the opposition forces have taken the defeat of the other party's capital as the first goal in order to destroy the hostile forces, so Xi'an has experienced countless wars since the Qin Dynasty. At the end of Qin, Xiang Yu burned Afang. The peasant uprising of Wang Mang's new dynasty also conquered Xi'an. During the Five Hu Chaohua period, Xi'an was sacked by the Five Hus in turn. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Li Yuan and the Turkic Shibi Khan agreed to conquer Xi'an, and "all the children are the khans." In the late Tang Dynasty, Xi'an was ransacked seven times, the most famous being the "forced demolition" of Zhu Wen in 904. It is said that before Zhu Wen withdrew from Xi'an, he demolished all the houses of Xi'an residents, and since then Xi'an has completely declined, and "Chang'an has been in ruins ever since." During the Five Dynasties period, Xi'an was also the focus of contention among the northern forces. To the two Song Dynasties, the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia, the Western Xia and the Jin Dynasty, and the Song and Jin Dynasties all fought many large-scale wars in Shaanxi. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the warlords of the Yuan Dynasty, as well as the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming army, also fought in Shaanxi with Xi'an as the core.

With the development of Chinese commerce, after the Tang Dynasty, the northerners moved south, Jiangnan became China's granary, economic center of gravity, since then China's economic development Jiangnan is an important town, located inland Xi'an does not have these advantages, coupled with many wars have destroyed the local economic base, which makes future generations reluctant to come to Xi'an to build a capital.

The second is the environmental destruction in Xi'an. There are two types of this environmental damage. First, war damage, war, will definitely destroy the local ecology. In addition, there is the destruction of the lives of Xi'an residents, with the expansion of Xi'an residents, Xi'an land is not enough to feed a huge population, "Tang capital Chang'an... Its land is still too narrow to give Jingshi ", and in order to survive, the people of Xi'an have to cut down trees and clear the land, exhaust the land and fish to provide living materials. This ecological damage, in turn, exacerbates natural disasters.

In the end, natural disasters and man-made disasters merged, causing the ancient capital Xi'an to completely decline. Therefore, since the fifth dynasty, no unified regime has established a capital in Xi'an.

Don people

Wen Shijun said

    Xi'an is a symbol of traditional civilization, it has cultivated many dynasties, and it is the gathering place of Chinese civilization. The strong Han and the Tang Dynasty all rose because of Xi'an, but with the development of the times, the sea became more important to a country, so the status of Xi'an in the mainland became more embarrassing. However, it should be affirmed that the decline of Xi'an's strategic position does not affect the great significance of its historical and cultural heritage to Chinese civilization.

bibliography

Li Yan: "Research on the Impact of Environmental Changes and Disasters on Urban Migration and Development in the Middle Reaches of the Ancient Yellow River", Master Thesis, Shaanxi Normal University, 2007.

Wang Jun: "The Construction of China's Ancient Capital and the Changes of Nature: The Rise and Fall of Chang'an and Luoyang", Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, No. 11, 2000.

(Author: Haoran Wenshi Zitang)

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