Chapter 23 3. Inside and outside the Great Wall

Look at the north first. The northern border is the Great Wall, just as the north and south are divided by the Huaihe River.The Huaihe River is natural, but the Great Wall is man-made.Long before the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Great Wall had become a dividing line, separating the inland from the foreigners.At that time, the land beyond the Great Wall was the north, and the north of the Huaihe River within the Great Wall was the middle. It was China and Zhonghua with advanced culture and civilization, also called Zhongtu and Zhongxia. Corresponding to Xia is Yi, the barbarian Rongdi, also called Hu.

Undoubtedly, behind this impolite title, there is a sense of cultural superiority and national self-confidence.It's just that no one expected that one day things would turn out like this: Rongdi outside the Great Wall became the masters of the interior, while the original masters were driven to the southeast corner and called Daoyi. Inside and outside the Great Wall, the world has been turned upside down. No one can adapt to such a change, including those winners.Facing the sudden power vacuum and the historical stage, they can only occupy the mountain as king or appear on the stage one after another, vividly displaying their blood and savagery, and turning the good land of the Central Plains into broken mountains and rivers.

This is the reason for the chaos of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms. However, even in this unprecedented turmoil, the power of civilization is still growing tenaciously, and it is the common wish of people of all ethnic groups to move from chaos to order.So there was the small unification of Zhao Shile before, and the great unification of Fu Jian of the former Qin Dynasty later.Although the two reunifications were short-lived, there is no doubt about the future direction.And regardless of the Hou Zhao of the Jie people, the former Qin of the Di people, and the Northern Wei of Xianbei, they all call themselves Zhonghua.

This is different from Rome. The former world leader, the Western Roman Empire, perished in the year that Empress Dowager Feng of the Northern Wei Dynasty started system reforms (476 AD).The dying Western Rome was divided into many fragments. Only the Byzantine Empire in the east survived the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty in China, and was finally conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.That was the year England and France ended their Hundred Years' War. However, although Byzantium is known as Eastern Rome, it is actually another country and another civilization.At least, its early days were more like the resurrection of the Alexander Empire, the resurrection of the Greek tradition, and the social revolution of the Christian Church than the great revival of Roman civilization.The real Roman civilization has been dead since the day the capital was moved to Constantinople.

In fact, Rome also split first and then perished, and this split is not the same as the Three Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern Dynasties.The three countries were all Han regimes, and the Northern Dynasties practiced a bilingual system, while the East and West Rome were Greek and Latin cultural areas respectively.As a result, Eastern Rome drifted away, and French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese were created by Germanic peoples on the broken land of Western Rome. China and Rome are different fissions. Perhaps, there is only one thing that everyone likes, and that is the title of emperor, except that Rome is called Caesar.The Kaisers of Germany and Austria were actually Caesars, as were the Tsars of Russia.However, they didn't seem to say that they were Roman emperors like Tuoba Tao claimed to be the emperor of China.

If you are not a Roman emperor, you have no obligation to revive Roman civilization, nor do you have to reunify the empire.What's more, Roman civilization was originally secondary. Before that, there were West Asian civilization, Egyptian civilization, Persian civilization and Greek civilization.Therefore, even if the Germanic people in Rome have been Romanized, they don't have to be consistent with Roman civilization, and they can live their own lives in separate families. Chinese civilization is original.Due to the barriers of the Himalayas and the Pamirs, West Asian and Indian civilizations had little influence on China, at least before the Wei and Jin Dynasties.And in East Asia at that time, China was also the only civilization.Therefore, nomads outside the Great Wall have only two options: either stay in the tribal age, or cross the Great Wall and identify with China.

Wuhu chose the latter. Moreover, they have already crossed the Great Wall. Rome has no Great Wall, only avenues.All roads lead to Rome and the division of Yi and Xia inside and outside the Great Wall are two different models and orientations.The former means that civilizations can be diverse and new, even at a cost.The latter believes that the world has only one center, civilization has only one form, and we have only one choice, which is to keep our foundation, even if we reintegrate. Otherwise, there is only destruction. After 400 years of turmoil and division, it was necessary to reunify. After reunification, only Chinese civilization can be built. This is probably the reason.

The only question is who will unify. History chose the Tuoba tribe of Xianbei. This doesn't seem to make sense.Because Xianbei is the most backward culturally among the Five Hu, and Tuoba is the most backward among the Xianbei tribes.However, among the seven heroes of the Warring States Period, isn't Qin State relatively inferior?Among Western countries, isn't the United States the latest to rise?It seems that cultural backwardness does not matter, the key lies in being good at learning and being brave in innovation. What's more, there are advanced problems in the advanced, just as there are great difficulties in the big.In fact, Rome and the Eastern Han Dynasty finally perished, because these two civilizations have gone from mature to overcooked, and have reached the end of their development.At this time, relying on one's own strength can no longer reform the past, and can only use external forces to recreate its glory.Sadly, the Germans failed to transfuse Rome, they mutilated it.

After that, there was a colorful map of Europe. The Xianbei people were in a dilemma. On the surface, they have many paths to choose from.The best strategy is to dominate the Central Plains and flatten the world to establish a unified empire. The middle strategy is to separate the party and set up a camp to protect the small regime. However, after entering the inland capital Pingcheng and becoming an agricultural nation, the third path is practically impossible.A flash in the pan like Qianyan of the Xianbei compatriot Murongbu, etc., is tantamount to sitting and waiting to die.The Tuoba tribe of Xianbei, who had no way out, could only advance towards the goal of becoming the Chinese Empire after being put to death.

The problem is that, as a minority and a rising star, even if the Northern Wei Dynasty could achieve unification, it would not be able to make China Xianbei.It can't, and it shouldn't.The only thing they can do is to change themselves first, and then change China. If you want to win the world, you must Sinicize. This is the reason why Empress Dowager Feng was determined to innovate and Tuobahong was fully Sinicized. In fact, this is the way to go. However, this means forgetting the ancestors and hurting the muscles and bones, and it also means changing the cultural traditions of the Xianbei people and harming the vested interests of some people.Therefore, the north, which had been united for nearly a century, had to split again, becoming the Eastern Wei and Western Wei.The Eastern Wei and Western Wei also had to have another coup d'état each, becoming Northern Qi and Northern Zhou.

Northern Qi and Eastern Wei, Northern Zhou and Western Wei, called the two dynasties, are actually one.Because those who hold the real power, the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi belong to the Gao Huan family, and the Western Wei and Northern Zhou belong to the Yu Wentai family.Yu Wentai is a Sinicized Xianbei, and Gao Huan is a Xianbeiized Han.Sinicized Xianbei and Xianbeiized Han, who will win in the end? Xianbeiized Han people. However, it was not Gao Huan, but Yang Jian. Yang Jian knew that the Yellow River has nine twists and eighteen bends, and will eventually flow into the sea.The world is uncertain, and the fundamental problem lies in ethnic relations.Gao Huan reconciled ethnic conflicts, but was destroyed by the Northern Zhou Dynasty; Yu Wentai wanted the Han people to become Xianbei, but was destroyed by the Sui Dynasty.Only the Sui Dynasty, which achieved the "mutualization of Han and Hu, with Han as the mainstay", finally succeeded. The people of the Sui and Tang empires were a new nation.This new nation has been integrated into the tribes of Xiongnu, Jie, Di, Qiang and Xianbei, so it can be called the new Han nationality.In the next stage, they will be the main creators of Chinese civilization. Three or four hundred years of ethnic mixed blood, so far the merits and virtues have been completed. Xianbei was reborn, Northern Wei Phoenix Nirvana, the newly born Sui Empire is actually an upgraded version of Tuoba Wei.They and the founders of the Tang Empire are both outstanding among ethnic mixed races. They have the genetic genes of Chinese civilization and the vitality of ethnic minorities.To create new history, they do their part. This is unmatched by the southerners, not to mention that they have their own problems. So, where is the problem in the Southern Dynasties?

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Notes: , Jian Bozan's "Outline of Chinese History", and Fan Shuzhi's "Outline of National History".