Looking back at the history of China, it is not difficult to find that "great unification" was the main theme of the ancient feudal society in China for more than 2,300 years. Although there were periods of division in which dynasties changed, heroes rose up and separatist regimes confronted each other, there was always a regime that broke the balance and unified China by force. Generally speaking, the types of unification are nothing more than "North-South unification" and "North-South unification". The former undoubtedly occupies the majority. This is a very interesting historical phenomenon.
Let's first look at which regimes have completed reunification.
I. North-South reunification:
Most of these regimes are based in Guanzhong area (there are also regimes in Mongolian grassland and Northeast China). They first went east to Tongguan, seized the Central Plains, and then partially unified the North. Then, take Bashu and divide the troops into two ways. All the way from Sichuan along the Yangtze River to the east, all the way to the south of the Huaihe River Plain, waterways go hand in hand to unify the country. These systems are:
1, Qin
The rudiment of Qin State is a tribe named Won who lives in the west of Longyou. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was made a vassal. When he moved to Wang Dong, he made great contributions to the escort, was made a vassal, and began to communicate with other countries. Since then, Qin entered the hometown of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and its clothes were all in the three Jin Dynasties of Rong and Dongke, which developed and grew in the long-term war of annexing other countries. In 22 1 BC, the king of Qin unified the six countries and established the first centralized unified empire in the history of China.
2. Western Jin Dynasty
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and Wei Shuwu was divided into three parts. Countries are evenly matched, and no one can unify the whole country with one enemy and two. After Sima Qian Wei, the military and economic advantages of the north became increasingly obvious. The emerging Jin Dynasty was first Shu and then Wu, and was unified in 279 AD, known as the Western Jin Dynasty in history.
3. Sui Dynasty
After more than 300 years of confrontation between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, China ushered in the era of great unification. The Sui Dynasty, which stood for generations in the north, had the strength to unify the whole country through the development of "imperial rule". The decadent ruling class, political chaos and the loss of popular support in Nan Chen gave the Sui Dynasty an excellent opportunity for reunification. In 589 AD, Sui established Kang, Chen Wu and unified the north and south.
4. Northern Song Dynasty
Marked by the abolition of the Tang Dynasty in Zhu Wen in 907, China entered the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. After a long period of merger and integration, the Northern Zhou regime unified the Central Plains. In 960, the Northern Song Dynasty. According to the principle of "south first, then north, easy first, then difficult", after nearly 20 years' efforts, the Northern Song Dynasty finally conquered the Northern Han Dynasty in 979 AD and completed its reunification. Of course, due to the rise of nomadic people in the north, compared with the first three unified dynasties, the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty was not perfect. But in fact, it has completed the integration of the traditional houses of the Han nationality and promoted the progress of the historical wheel.
5, yuan
With the rise of the Yuan Dynasty, the historical task of unifying China fell on a northern nomadic people in an unprecedented way. With Mongolian fighters stepping over Jin and Xia, bypassing Yunnan and Guizhou, Dali, located in the southwest, was destroyed, and finally Lin 'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, was captured in A.D. 1279, which completely eliminated the remnants of the imperial clan in the Southern Song Dynasty and once again created the era of great unity of China.
6. Qing dynasty
1644, Wu Sangui, commander of Shanhaiguan in the Ming Dynasty, led the Qing soldiers into the customs. There are Qing soldiers outside and peasant troops in Li Zicheng. The general trend of the Ming dynasty has gone, and it is in jeopardy. Soon, the Qing army defeated the peasant army that led troops north to Beijing, and the emperor shunzhi ascended the throne. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Qing army soon split into two roads, led by Dourgen and Wu Sangui, all the way west and all the way south. The two armies went hand in hand and quickly captured Chengdu, Nanjing and other places. In A.D. 1683, with the surrender of the Zheng family in Taiwan Province Province, China was unified.
Second, the south unified the north:
1, Western Han Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty, established shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China, triggered a new social crisis because of excessive taxes. The bonfire of the uprising in Daze Township soon burned half of the Qin Empire. With the rise of the Western Chu regime, the Qin Dynasty collapsed rapidly under various blows. Xiang Yu's enfeoffment system and Zionist policy plunged the world into chaos again. Liu Bang lived in the southwest corner. With his outstanding political leadership, he unified China in 206 BC and opened the Han Dynasty which lasted for hundreds of years.
2. Ming dynasty
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the national Red Scarf Army uprising made the Yuan Dynasty exist in name only. There have been many separatist regimes in the north and south of the Yangtze River. Zhu Yuanzhang, who started his army in Jiangsu and Anhui, resumed production and accumulated strength in Jiangsu according to the strategy of "accumulating grain, building high walls and slowly becoming king". Soon, Zhu Yuanzhang wiped out the Wu regime in Zhang Shicheng, northern Jiangsu, as well as Fang Guozhen and Chen Youding in Fujian and Vietnam. And defeated the Chen-Han regime in the two wars of Poyang Lake. Unified the Jiangnan area except Sichuan and Yunnan. In A.D. 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in Yingtian, with the title of Daming, and then began the Northern Expedition. According to the principle of "taking the wing first, then pounding the heart", the Ming army successively captured Shandong, Shanxi and Henan, and finally captured the metropolis and unified the north. With the surrender of Shu Wang in the Ming Dynasty and the collapse of Liang Wang in the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was unified.
Through analysis, we draw the following conclusions:
First, in the eight national unification wars in ancient times, the north completed six times and the south completed two times. The scale is also much larger than that of the south.
Second, in terms of time, the reunification of the North and the South covers almost all historical periods. The unification of the north and the south appeared after the Qing Dynasty, and the most representative was the Ming Dynasty, which was more than 500 years ago.
Thirdly, from the background of reunification, the political power that unified the whole country from the north won in the long period of political coexistence, and then unified the whole country. The Western Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, which unified the whole country from south to north, all won by peasant uprisings.
In other words, whenever China is in a long-term confrontation between the North and the South, and there are many regimes, only the North will take the lead in breaking the balance and finally reunifying the whole country!
Third, the reasons for the unification of China in the north:
First of all, the unique geographical environment is the external driving force for the reunification of northern China.
Ancient China was a semi-closed area with agriculture as the main industry. There are vast deserts and grasslands in the north (bounded by the Great Wall). To the west and southwest are the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Hengduan Mountains. The southeast is bordered by the sea of Wang Yang. China is divided into north and south by the Yangtze River. The terrain structure in the south is relatively simple, with plains and hills as the main features. In contrast, the terrain in the northern region is more complex, with plateaus and valleys interlaced and the terrain fluctuates greatly. There are many passes, forts and ferries, which are easy to defend but difficult to attack. Historically, the nomadic forces in the northern grassland and the Central Plains culture have been in a state of interaction for a long time. Whenever the minority regime rises, the border troubles in the Central Plains will be very serious. The northern region bears the brunt, becoming the region most directly impacted and stirred by these two forces. When the central dynasty was strong, it could only maintain the high-pressure situation against the nomadic people in the north for a certain period of time, but it could not solve the border problem once and for all. Because of the different topography and climate between Mobei and the Central Plains, its value to agricultural nationalities is quite limited.
In ancient society, land and population were symbols of a country's wealth. There is no doubt that the vast fertile land and gradually prosperous population in the south of the Yangtze River have great attraction to the north. The north has powerful rivals and desert grasslands, while the south is a comfortable and conservative court with broad development space. After the reunification of the northern region, it is clear at a glance what the aspiring monarch and his great soldiers will do. Of course, after the Tang Dynasty, after the development of the Southern Dynasties, the strength of Jiangnan began to gradually equal or even surpass that of the North. However, due to the relatively closed, safe and single geographical environment in the south, there are few headaches in the north, frequent wars and regime changes, which are easy to kill people's will and enterprising spirit. Therefore, it is not that the south does not have the strength to unify the whole country, but that the south has basically not seriously considered unifying the whole country. Perhaps this is the meaning of "born in sorrow and died in happiness".
Secondly, the long-term military superiority of the north is one of the important conditions for unifying the whole country.
No matter who unifies who and when, there is only one means or way, and that is war. There are many factors that determine the success or failure of a war, and the strength of military power is undoubtedly the most direct and important.
Throughout ancient history, the north has always been a place of frequent occurrence of wolf smoke. From the war with the northern minorities to the struggle for political power in the region, the war environment gave birth to military strategists like Sun Tzu, Wuqi and Zhuge Liang, and invincible generals like Lian Po, Han Xin and Guan Yu. In addition, the North has frequent contacts with ethnic minorities, and the people in Guanzhong, Sanjin and Zhao Yan are "good at riding and shooting" and "full of chivalrous spirit". Coupled with the large number of cavalry in the north, good mobility and strong lethality, the quality of soldiers, the combat effectiveness of the army and the ability of military organization are very impressive.
In contrast, the southern rulers are more introverted and have little interest in innovating armaments. The people fight less, the folk customs are more elegant, and they don't like war. So once the conditions are ripe, the resistance of many southern regimes is very limited and reluctant.
Third, the northern region is superior to the south in transforming economic strength into war capability.
The Yellow River Basin is the cradle of the emergence, development and growth of Chinese civilization, and it is this fertile soil that enables Chinese civilization to be passed down for thousands of years. Although in almost every split period in China's history, the north was plunged into war, people were displaced and the economy was depressed. However, due to a good foundation and correct governance policies, the North can always recover quickly from the depression. After a certain period of rest and accumulation, once the time is ripe, its rich war experience and a large number of talents will show its power. A strong and mature centralization of authority can mobilize human and material resources in this field in a short time, thus buying and supporting a relatively long unification war (which took 20 years in the Northern Song Dynasty).
Perhaps, you will think that the south also has strong economic strength and war potential, which reminds me of the changes in the economic status of the north and south since the "An Shi Rebellion" in the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, in the Northern Song Dynasty, the tributes of Jiangnan and Sichuan accounted for more than half of the world. "Two lakes are ripe, and the world is enough." The old saying "Su Hu is ripe, the world is enough" is not a lie. Even cited the example of the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" period, because the taxes in the south of the Yangtze River could not be put in place, resulting in the annual income of the Qing court being less than 10 million and two thousand. ...
I don't deny the fact that Jiangnan's economy is superior to that of the north. I just want to remind you of two points: first, economic strength does not necessarily mean war capability. In terms of war mobilization, the centralized system in the north is undoubtedly more mature and efficient than that in the south. Second, the real prosperity of Jiangnan's economy is based on the period of peaceful and stable reunification. Only under the condition of great unification can the economy of the south of the Yangtze River fully develop and show its value that cannot be ignored. It is undoubtedly meaningless to ignore this grand background and unilaterally emphasize the economic prosperity of Jiangnan.
Finally, talk about the significance of monarch and timing when the north unifies the south.
Many countries in history have superior objective conditions, such as strong economic and military strength and favorable natural environment, but these countries have not completed reunification, such as the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. Or failed in the process of reunification, such as the southern Tang Dynasty and the former Qin Dynasty. What is the reason for it
First of all, if a ruling group has poor ability and leadership in governing the country, or has no unified desire, it even hopes that the world will be in chaos and let itself survive in a corner. What is this regime waiting for it, not its demise? This was the case in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty.
Secondly, after the former Qin dynasty formally unified the north, it was premature and reckless to rush south to unify the whole country in one fell swoop. The rulers of the Southern Tang Dynasty had limited talents and were short-sighted. Faced with the general situation of reunification, they were timid and missed the opportunity, and became fish in the Northern Song Dynasty.
In a word, although the author "plausibly" quoted the "proof" of the "inevitability" of North-South reunification. But we know that the development of history is far from being as mechanical and simple as our generation imagined. The real reason may be the power of several generations, which is difficult to interpret. However, a historian put it well: "Although history is gone, we have an understanding of the past and at least a pursuit"!