Chapter 19 Section 4: The extremeization of the dog teeth principle
The Yuan Dynasty was a period of turning point changes in the principle of the dog-tooth relationship.Whether it is a province as a high-level administrative region, or a road that is reduced to a unified county administrative region, the principle of incisiveness has gone to extremes.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the situation varied greatly from road to road. In terms of hierarchy, many roads in the north passed through counties and then led to counties in addition to directly-administered counties; many roads in the south were simpler and did not lead to counties.In terms of size, there is also a huge disparity between roads and roads. The big ones are like Shanxi, where there are only two and a half roads, and one road is as big as half of today's province; the smaller ones are like Fujian Xinghua Road, which only covers two counties.As far as boundaries are concerned, many roads in the south are bounded by mountains and rivers.However, the roads in Hebei and Shandong are extremely criss-crossed, resulting in many enclaves—that is, territories that are not connected to the area of the road.
The most extreme example of the principle of dog teeth is the demarcation of provinces.The provinces in the Yuan Dynasty had a very large territory. Even small provinces were hundreds of thousands of square kilometers in size. Moreover, the governors held great power over the military, civilians, and finances. In addition, there were many and complicated levels of administrative divisions. In order to prevent the occurrence of separatism, the only The only way is to use the principle of incisiveness.Therefore, the provinces in the Yuan Dynasty completely reversed the division method of Hanzhou, Tang Road, and Song Road in the past, and ignored the existence of the most important mountains and rivers in history-the Qinling Mountains, Huaihe River, Nanling Mountains, and Taihang Mountains. It cannot be a complete area of victory.
For example, the Shaanxi Province crosses the Qinling Mountains to form the Hanzhong Basin; the Huguang Province has Hunan and Hubei as the main body and crosses the Nanling Mountains to form Guangxi; the Jiangxi Province also crosses the Nanling Mountains to form Guangdong; The area directly under Zhongshu Province is also called "Fuli", but it spans the east and west sides of the Taihang Mountains, and has three different geographical regions: the Shanxi Plateau, the North China Plain and the Shandong Hills; Fujian mountains.Only the province of Sichuan has become a country with four frontiers, but its northern barrier, the Qinling Mountains, does not belong to this province, so it is difficult to develop a climate of long-term separatism.
The division of provinces in this way completely eliminates all factors that rely on the danger of mountains and rivers.Therefore, although the provinces in the Yuan Dynasty had a large territory and great separation of powers, they lacked the geographical basis for implementing separate regimes, and it was not easy to cause divisions.Comparing the Dao of the Tang Dynasty with the provinces of the Yuan Dynasty, we will find that the demarcation methods of the two dynasties are exactly the opposite.The division of Tang Dao was mainly horizontal, but the division of Yuan Province was vertical.
The main mountains and rivers in China all run east-west, and the roads in the Tang Dynasty were divided by the shape of mountains and rivers. Therefore, most of the 10 roads in the early Tang Dynasty were horizontally long and vertically short. Henan Road ran from the Shandong Peninsula to the mountains in western Henan; From the coast of the East China Sea to the Guizhou Plateau, the horizontal length is more than 1,000 kilometers, but the vertical length is only 400-500 kilometers. Lingnan Road, Shannan Road, Huainan Road, and Longyou Road are also flat and wide.Only Hedong Road, Hebei Road, and Jiannan Road are narrow and long, but this is also limited by mountains and rivers. Hedong Road is located between Taihang and the Yellow River, and Hebei Road is limited by Bohai Sea and Taihang.The desire to divide provinces in the Yuan Dynasty was the opposite of that in the Tang Dynasty. It was necessary to facilitate military control from north to south and to eliminate the dangers of mountains and rivers. The shape of the provinces was naturally completely opposite to that of the Tao.The four provinces of Shaanxi, Huguang, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang are long in the north and south and short in east and west, which is completely different from the horizontal arrangement of Jiangnan and Lingnan.However, Zhongshu Province combined Shandong, Shanxi (Hedong Road of Tang Dynasty) and Hebei together, but changed the vertical direction to the horizontal direction.
Later generations mostly depreciated the method of dividing provinces in the Yuan Dynasty.Chu Dawen, a native of the Qing Dynasty, said: "The establishment of provinces in the Yuan Dynasty was only for extravagance, and the old "Yu Gong" division of states and Tang and Song Dynasty divisions of roads were abolished. Henan and Hebei are one, and the Yellow River is in danger; Jiangnan, Jiangnan, Jiangbei is one, and the Yangtze River is in danger; Hunan and Hubei are in one, and Dongting is in danger; Zhejiang East and West Zhejiang are in one, and Qiantang is in danger; Huaidong, Huaixi, Hannan, Hanbei prefectures The counties were wrongly attached to each other, and Huai and Han were in danger of losing; Hanzhong was attached to Qin, and the prefecture was attached to Chu, and Neijiang and Waijiang were integrated, so Shu was in danger of losing. Therefore, the rise of bandits in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties also came without a place. If you destroy a county, you will shake a prefecture; if you destroy a prefecture, you will shake a province; if you destroy a province, you will shake every province."
In all fairness, Chu's statement has not completely touched the point. He has not yet mentioned the most unreasonable matter of combining Lingnan and Lingbei as one, and combining the east and west of Taihang Mountain.Moreover, the integration of Jiangnan and Jiangbei into one was a matter of the Ming Dynasty. Although it happened once in the early Yuan Dynasty, it was corrected later.Merging eastern Zhejiang and western Zhejiang into one was not a fault of the Yuan Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty, Eastern Zhejiang and Western Zhejiang were not separated at all. Therefore, it is not appropriate to say "abolish the old separation of the Tang and Song Dynasties".At the same time, Guizhou was attached to Chu in the Tang and Song Dynasties but not in the Yuan Dynasty.However, Chu's statement that local law and order cannot be maintained due to the disappearance of natural dangers has some truth.
Further analysis shows that although the extreme practice of dog-tooth intercourse occurred in the Yuan Dynasty, its thought had already sprouted in the Southern Song Dynasty.Wen Tianxiang, a national hero, has already proposed: "Today, the world should be divided into four towns, and the capital should be established to rule them. Changsha should be built with Yihu Lake in Guangxi; Longxing (now Nanchang) should be built with Yijiangxi in Guangdong. ); built in Panyang (now Boyang) based on the east of the Yijiang River in Fujian; built in Yangzhou based on the east of the Huaihe River in the west of Huaihe River. Responsibility for Changsha to take Hubei, Longxing to take Qihuang, Panyang to take Jiangdong, Yangzhou to take Lianghuai , making it powerful enough to resist the enemy." ("Song History·Wen Tianxiang Biography")
Wen Tianxiang's proposal was almost completely consistent with the divisions of several southern provinces in the Yuan Dynasty, which was a common conclusion drawn from political and military perspectives.In order to resist the enemy in the north, Wen Tianxiang believed that it is necessary to attack from multiple fronts, and in order to make the "divine forces" must combine the two roads into one road, so he advocated that Hunan and Guangxi be one, Jiangxi and Guangdong be one, and Jiangdong and Fujian be one , resulting in a vertical merge.If they merge horizontally, such as combining Jiangxi and Hunan into one, and Guangdong and Guangxi into one, then although there are many people in the land, there is only one direction of attack, which is naturally disadvantageous in terms of military affairs.
The ruling thought of the Yuan Dynasty was just the opposite and complemented each other. It was necessary to implement southward control and at the same time make the province a military colony with a large population. Therefore, the road of the Song Dynasty could only be vertically merged. Road and Guangnan West Road constitute the Huguang Province; Jiangxi Province is composed of Jiangnan West Road and Guangnan East Road;Imagine if Hunan and Jiangxi were combined into one province, and Guangdong and Guangxi were combined into one province, wouldn't the central government's military control over Lingnan be beyond reach?Therefore, the idea of southward control in the Yuan Dynasty and Wen Tianxiang's northward resistance to the enemy is exactly "opposite but both complement each other".
If we observe in more detail the division process of the provinces in the Yuan Dynasty, we can also find that the division of the seven provinces in the early Yuan Dynasty was completely the direct result of the military conquest in the south, and the subsequent 11 provinces were further adjusted according to the needs of administrative management. Forming.From the above situation, it can be seen that the establishment of provinces in the Yuan Dynasty was not all based on "extravagant and extravagant" fantasies, but was formulated out of the clear needs of military and political rule.
Of course, the subdivision of provinces in the Yuan Dynasty was only subject to the sole purpose of centralized rule, and many disadvantages were bound to occur. For example, there was no danger in the place, which hindered long-term stability; The integration into one is not conducive to the development of agricultural economy; if the province is too large, the administrative management in peacetime is very inconvenient, and a road-level supervision area has to be set up between the province and the road, which increases the management level.Therefore, after the rise of the Ming Dynasty, these ills were reformed.But these reforms are not to abandon the principle of dog teeth, but to create a new dog teeth area from another aspect.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Nanjing was established as the capital and the rule of the south was stable. Therefore, the three southern provinces in the Yuan Dynasty were divided into two. Jiangxi Province returned to Yuzhang County in the Han Dynasty. The province returned to the jurisdiction of the Fujian Observatory in the late Tang Dynasty and the territory of Fujian Road in the Song Dynasty; Guangdong and Guangxi were adjusted according to the Song Dynasty.In addition, the Ming government divided Zhongshu Province in the north of the Yuan Dynasty into three: Beiping (later changed to Beijing and Jingshi), Shandong and Shanxi.The Jiangbei province in the central part of Henan is divided into three provinces: Nanjing, Henan, and Huguang.In the Yuan Dynasty, only the province of Shaanxi was left in the area where the dog's teeth intersected.But in the Ming Dynasty, a new situation of dog-tooth intercourse emerged again.
The first is the establishment of Nanjing.Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, set his capital at Jinling in the south of the Yangtze River (Yuan belongs to Jiqing Road, Ming belongs to Yingtianfu), and his hometown is Fengyang in Huainan. Therefore, in the first year of Hongwu (AD 1368), he took Jinling and Fengyang as two centers. , Delineate a Greater Nanjing including Huaibei, Huainan and Jiangnan in three different regions. This is an unprecedented move.Both the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River were important dividing lines of administrative divisions in history. Before the Song Dynasty, administrative districts crossing the Huaihe River or the Yangtze River were rare phenomena.Although the Yuan Dynasty strictly enforced the principle of dog teeth, the Jianghuai Province in the early Yuan Dynasty only crossed the two banks of the Yangtze River, and the Henan Jiangbei Province in the middle Yuan Dynasty only crossed the Huaihe River in the north and south.Due to its special status in the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing had a large territory, including 16 prefectures and four Zhili prefectures. Its northwest corner went directly to today's Dangshan Mountain in Anhui, and it was only more than 100 kilometers away from the southern end.
The setting of Nanjing makes the neighboring province of Zhejiang appear too cramped, with only nine prefectures in total.So Jiaxing and Huzhou were later ceded to Zhejiang, but in this way, it violated the principle of the convenience of mountains and rivers again, making the Taihu Lake Basin belong to two high-level administrative divisions.In history, the Taihu Lake Basin has always been in a single high-level administrative area, and it remained unchanged from Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties.Therefore, Gu Yanwu, a scholar in the early Qing Dynasty, described this practice as cutting people in half.
The government under Nanjing also has the phenomenon of dog teeth.For example, Yingtianfu, where the capital is located, straddles the north and south of the Yangtze River. Zhu Yuanzhang established a large mansion in Fengyang, his hometown, and made his territory occupy both sides of the Huaihe River.
Besides Nanjing, there are several typical examples.The first one is Henan Province.The establishment of the Ming Dynasty by Zhu Yuanzhang was caused by military operations from south to north, just the opposite of the Yuan Dynasty.Therefore, when Henan Province was established, it was deliberately made to have a territory north of the Yellow River, so as to be in a state of incisiveness with the southern boundary of the capital.This boundary line has been adjusted several times until it changed from a zigzagging state to a straight line after liberation. However, the phenomenon that Henan Province also has Hebei land still exists, and this area is the most affluent area in Henan Province. across the Plains.
The second is Guizhou Province.Guizhou was divided into parts of Huguang, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in the eleventh year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1413 A.D.).The boundary of Guizhou Province in the Ming Dynasty was very special. Not to mention the east, south, and west sides, the provincial boundary in the north was indented for a large section, and the territory of Sichuan Province was like a sharp knife piercing the heart of Guizhou.The famous Zunyi and its surrounding areas in modern history belonged to Sichuan at that time, not Guizhou counties.This demarcation is obviously to control the needs of the new province. It was not until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty that the complete boundary of Guizhou Province was formed today.
The provincial boundaries of the Qing Dynasty basically followed the Ming Dynasty, without major changes. For example, the above-mentioned Guizhou provincial boundaries were the most important adjustments, and the two provinces were only determined when Nanjing (renamed Jiangnan in the early Qing Dynasty), Shaanxi, and Huguang were divided into two. The boundary between the new provinces.
Shaanxi is divided into Gansu Province, with the western boundary of Yan'an, Xi'an, Fengxiang, and Hanzhong as the provincial boundary; Huguang is divided into Hubei and Hunan provinces, with the northern boundary of the original Yuezhou as the provincial boundary; it doesn't take much thought.Only Jiangnan Province was divided into two provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui. It did not use the horizontal division in history to conform to the natural geographical area. It includes Huaibei, Huainan and Jiangnan.This is done to make the rich Jiangnan and Huainan, which is not as good as Huainan, and Huaibei, which is relatively backward economically, can be fertile and barren.Historically, the transfer of the agricultural and economically important areas was from north to south. Originally, the Huaibei area was quite developed economically and culturally.After the Tang Dynasty, the Huainan area developed rapidly, known as "Yang (state) one Yi (state) two".Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the development of the Jiangnan region has ranked first in the country, and Huainan and Huaibei have fallen behind.By the Ming Dynasty, disasters continued on both sides of the Huaihe River, and it had retreated into a poor area.Combining Huaibei, Huainan, and Jiangnan regions into one province is contrary to the situation of mountains and rivers, but it can only be said that it is justifiable to do so based on the principle of combining fertility and barrenness.
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