Chapter 17 Section 2 Application of the Principle of Landscape and Convenience

The shape of mountains and rivers means that natural mountains and rivers are used as the boundaries of administrative divisions, so that administrative divisions are consistent with natural geographical divisions. The principle of convenient shape of mountains and rivers is the most natural and intuitive principle. The so-called "states and counties change sometimes, and mountains and rivers are not easy through the ages" just shows the important role of mountains and rivers in political districts.Especially in the areas on both sides of the mountains and rivers, there are often different landforms, climates and soils, forming different types of agricultural areas, and also forming different customs and habits.The ancients have long noticed this problem. "Book of Rites·Royal System" says: "The wide valleys and great rivers have different systems, and the people's livelihood is different from the customs." Therefore, adopting the principle of mountains and rivers means that the division of administrative regions is carried out on the basis of the unity of material culture and spiritual culture. of.

In addition to causing geographical differences, mountains and rivers also became a natural obstacle to cultural transmission in ancient times when transportation was underdeveloped. Therefore, it is a common principle for all ancient civilizations in the world to use mountains and rivers as boundaries to divide administrative regions.Only in the immigrant countries formed in modern times, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, did they use latitude and longitude as the basis for dividing state and county boundaries regardless of the distance between mountains and rivers, so that most state and county boundaries are horizontal and vertical geometric lines.But even so, the principle of using mountains and rivers as the boundary has not been completely discarded, as evidenced by the boundaries of the 13 states in the eastern United States.

In our country, the principle of the convenience of mountains and rivers appeared at the same time as the formation of the boundary concept.During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, mountains and rivers were used to mark the borders between countries. "Zuo Zhuan" records such a story: In the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhao Chuan, a doctor of the Jin State, killed Jin Linggong. Zhao Dun, who was in charge of Zhengqing at the time, left the capital to avoid the notoriety of killing the king, showing that he had never heard of it. But he "returned without leaving the mountain."So the official historian of the Jin State wrote: "Zhao Dun killed his king." The reason is that as a ruler, he "does not cross the border when he perishes, and does not seek thieves when he returns." It can be seen that the Jin State at that time was surrounded by mountains.The river is the border, as mentioned earlier: "Qi and Zhao regard the big river as the border." During the Warring States Period, Qi and Zhao continued to expand each other's territory, and finally ended on both sides of the river.

Taking mountains and rivers as the boundary is so natural and integrated. Therefore, when people in the Warring States Period planned to divide the Kyushu after the unification of the country, they used the mountains and rivers as the sign of the boundary, and pretended that it was determined by Dayu, and achieved the "Shangshu·Yu Gong". A great book on geography.After Qin Shihuang unified the country, he divided the world into 36 counties, and also used mountains and rivers as the basic basis for demarcating administrative regions.For example, the boundary of today's Shanxi Province was roughly formed in the Qin Dynasty. Its east, south, and west sides were bounded by Taihang Mountain and the Yellow River. In Qin Dynasty, it was also the boundary of Taiyuan, Hedong and Shangdang County.

The territory of the counties in the Han Dynasty was much smaller than that in the Qin Dynasty, and because of the subsequent division and encroachment of the kingdom's territory, some counties did not match the boundaries of mountains and rivers. It was an unprecedented phenomenon at first.Of course, some county boundaries in the south are still consistent with mountains and rivers. The most typical one is Yuzhang County, which is almost exactly the same as Jiangxi Province today, with mountains on three sides and rivers on one side as boundaries.The prefectures and states after the Eastern Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties were adjusted on the basis of the Western Han Dynasty, so the boundaries also deviated from the general trend of mountains and rivers to a considerable extent.However, the state boundaries of the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties were more in line with the boundaries of mountains and rivers than the boundaries of counties and states.However, after the Southern and Northern Dynasties, states and counties continued to be divided, and their size plummeted. There were no definite rules for the demarcation of political regions.

The disadvantages of the Sui Dynasty's reform of the former dynasty not only simplified the hierarchy, merged provinces and prefectures, and the county boundaries were mostly determined by the situation of mountains and rivers.For example, the borders of the counties in Hedong coincided with the Yellow River and Taihang Mountain again, returning to the state of Qin Dynasty, although the size of the county was smaller than that of Qin Dynasty. After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the principle of the convenience of mountains and rivers was formally put forward. "New Book of Tang Geographical Records" contains: "However, the world was initially determined, and there were many states and counties. The counties in modern times are smaller, but the state boundaries are mostly in line with the direction of mountains and rivers. More than 300 states are divided into 10 areas, and these 10 areas are in line with the natural geographical areas. This double coincidence relationship has a great influence on future generations.On the one hand, the 10 roads were later divided into 15 roads, and evolved into more than 40 square towns in the late Tang Dynasty. Some of the southern square towns established part or all of today's Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and other provinces. boundary.On the other hand, many state boundaries in the Tang Dynasty continued, becoming the boundaries of states (prefectures) in the Song Dynasty, roads in the Yuan Dynasty, and prefectures in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and remained stable for hundreds of thousands of years.

Although there are economic needs and cultural benefits to implement the principle of mountains and rivers, there is a big disadvantage for the centralization system, that is, a political area completely bounded by mountains and rivers will become a complete In a district of Xingsheng, a country of four fortresses, if the territory of this administrative district is large enough, and the chief executive of the administrative district has certain powers, there may be a phenomenon of separatism based on danger.In the separatist rule of prefectures and herdsmen in various places at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the ensuing three kingdoms, the separatist rule of feudal towns in the late Tang Dynasty, and the resulting split of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, there are many regimes that have long dominated one side by virtue of geographical danger.

The level of warfare in ancient times was not high, and lofty mountains, long rivers and great rivers were all natural fortifications.Therefore, such as the Lingnan Mountains, the Sichuan Basin, and the Shanxi Plateau are all separatist areas with excellent geographical conditions.The Book of Changes, one of the Five Classics, says: "Natural dangers cannot be raised, and the land is dangerous with mountains, rivers and hills. Princes set up dangers to defend their country, and they will be used in times of danger." This idea has been in the minds of ancient politicians and military strategists. is deeply rooted.Therefore, Zhuge Liang persuaded Liu Bei to occupy Yizhou in "Longzhong Dui", and his leading idea was: If Liu Bei could not go on to compete in the Central Plains, he could also retreat to become the king of a country.And indeed it is.Although the Shu Han was weak and small, it was able to compete three-point with Wei and Wu. It was because Yizhou was protected by the Qinling Mountains in the north, Wushan Mountain in the east, and a fertile basin with thousands of miles of fertile land in it.

The eternal swan song "The difficulty of the road to Shu is difficult to reach the blue sky" points out the geographical characteristics of the Sichuan Basin, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Therefore, whenever there is a division or a change of dynasty, a regional separatist regime will appear here.During the Han Dynasty, Gongsun Shu proclaimed himself emperor here and occupied it for 12 years, becoming a model for the later Shu Han.During the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Chenghan Kingdom was established here; in the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, two regimes, the former Shu and the later Shu, entered the political stage successively.After the Song Dynasty, the separatist regime no longer appeared, but Sichuan's favorable geographical situation became the base of peasant rebels such as Ming Yuzhen during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and Zhang Xianzhong during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Contrary to the concave topography of the Sichuan Basin, the Shanxi Plateau is a convex topography, surrounded by surging rivers to the west and southwest, and surrounded by the majestic Taihang Mountains to the east and southeast. A closed geographic unit that is difficult to attack.Therefore, during the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, many small kingdoms were established or originated here, and then expanded to other regions.This was true of Liu Yuan's former Zhao and Shi Le's later Zhao, and the territory of the later Xiyan Kingdom was almost identical to today's Shanxi Province except for the southwest corner.During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Northern Han Kingdom established in Shanxi was the only one located in the north among the Ten Kingdoms. Although it was next to the bed of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was the last kingdom to be annexed during the unification process of the Northern Song Dynasty, except for Khitan. In addition to backing, the special geographical environment is also an important reason.

The Lingnan area was also called "negative mountains and dangerous obstacles" in ancient times.Although the Nanling Mountains are not very steep, but because they are far away from the ruling center of the dynasty, it is easy to cause a state of separatism.During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Zhao Tuo established the Nanyue Kingdom here, which lasted for more than a hundred years.During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Southern Han regime also maintained here for more than half a century. Since the principle of the shape and convenience of mountains and rivers is an important factor in promoting local separatism, since the Qin Dynasty, the rulers have consciously adopted the principle of canine teeth to counteract it.The reason why the Sui and Tang Dynasties emphasized the principle of the convenience of mountains and rivers is that Sui prefectures, especially Tang prefectures, were much smaller than Qin prefectures.But even then, the dog teeth principle has not been completely abandoned.During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, this principle was fully developed, causing some administrative divisions to deviate from natural geographical areas.