Although the historical export of the Wei and Jin dynasties eventually unified the south by the north, the Eastern Jin and Southern dynasties still had a profound impact on the development of the Jiangnan region.
For example, we now introduce ourselves, we are accustomed to calling ourselves southerners or northerners, even if we live in western provinces such as Shaanxi and Sichuan, I am afraid that we will not call ourselves "Westerners."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > geographical and cultural division, east-west to north-south</h1>
But the use of the south and the north as a natural division of China's geography and culture is not something that has existed "since ancient times." In the Han Dynasty, there was a famous saying called "Kansai out of the general, Kanto out of the phase", which means that the Guanzhong and Longyou areas are rich in famous generals and warriors because of the fierce folk customs; the Kantō region is culturally prosperous, and most of the Han Dynasty prime ministers are from the Kanto Region. It shows that the Han Dynasty actually divided geography and culture by "east" and "west".
If you go back further, the chu and Han wars, the confrontation between Qin and the six eastern kingdoms during the Warring States period, and even the destruction of the Shang by King Wu of Zhou are all east-west confrontations. Therefore, in the hearts of people in the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Central Plains was the core area that determined the trend of the world, and although Jiangnan had a vast hinterland, it was only the edge of the empire and had nothing to do with the overall situation.
Liu Bei, a tyrant of the first generation, heard that Cao Cao had occupied Jingzhou and wanted to run south to Cangwu and defect to his old friend Wu Ju. At first, he did not think of Liansun resisting Cao, although it was because he had no relationship with Sun Quan, but it was probably also related to the fact that Jiangnan had never been a plate of great significance in Chinese politics before. Sima Qian's "Records of History" says that "Jiangnan is humble and wet, and her husband died early", and the reliability of the record is somewhat doubtful, but it undoubtedly represents the general perception and imagination of northerners on Jiangnan.
Until the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Sima Rui also said to Gu Rong, a large clan in Jiangnan, that is, "Sending people to the land is often ashamed", that is, I live in other people's land, and I often feel ashamed in my heart. The background of this sentence has many different interpretations by scholars, but at least Sima Rui still psychologically takes the north as the center, and Jiangnan is only in a corner.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty, and the economic center of gravity shifted south</h1>
However, more than two hundred years later, this understanding has undergone tremendous changes, and Chen Shubao, the last emperor of the Chen Dynasty, heard that the Sui Dynasty's army had come, still confidently said: "The king qi is here, the Qi soldiers have come three times, and the Zhou soldiers have come again, all of which are indestructible." He who comes today will fail himself. That is to say, jiangnan this place is where the king's qi and orthodoxy lie, the northern Qi army fought three times, the northern Zhou army fought twice, both were defeated, and the Sui Dynasty people will definitely fail now, which reflects that people's understanding of the south at that time was very different from the past.
After the management and development of the hinterland of Jiangnan by the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty, by the time the Sui and Tang Empires re-established their unification, the situation was very different. The famous economic historian Quan Hansheng summed this up very well: "When China's second great unification empire appeared, the objective situation was somewhat different from that of the first great unification. At the time of the first reunification, the military, political, and economic center of gravity of the whole country was all in the north, and the problem was relatively simple. However, by the time the second unified empire appeared, the military and political center of gravity was still in the north, and the economic center of gravity had moved to the south. This change from "east to west" to "north and south" still affects China to this day, and this is undoubtedly an important legacy left to us by the great changes in Wei and Jin.
Although the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties were a chaotic period in Chinese history, it was precisely because of the tortuous development of this chaotic world that unification truly became the mainstream in Chinese history in the Sui and Tang dynasties. After the painstaking management of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty, the economy of the South has developed by leaps and bounds, and it has kept pace with the North in terms of economy and culture, and even gradually surpassed. The difference between the north and the south of China that we observe today was first laid down here.