Chapter 13 Section 5 The Territory of the Eastern Han Dynasty

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang, a foreign relative, was in power. In 8 AD, Wang Mang abolished the puppet emperor and proclaimed himself emperor, with a new name for the country.Soon after the founding of the new dynasty, peasant uprisings broke out, and the clan and old ministers of the Han Dynasty resisted. In 23 AD, the generals of the Green Forest Army supported Liu Xuan as emperor and restored the Han Dynasty. In the same year, they invaded Chang'an, Wang Mang was killed, and the new dynasty fell. However, the separatist forces in various places established themselves one after another and competed with each other.In 25 A.D., Liu Xiu (Emperor Guangwu) came to the throne, and in the same year Luoyang was established as the capital, known as the Eastern Han Dynasty in history.Liu Xiu successively defeated the separatist regimes and hostile forces in various places, and restored the unity of the mainland in the thirteenth year of Jianwu (AD 37).

Because Wang Mang implemented discriminatory and insulting measures against non-Han people such as the Xiongnu, he continued to provoke wars in the border areas, which caused the resistance and invasion of the Xiongnu, and the escape of the beauties in Gaoju (gougou) in Northeast China.After the third year of Tianfeng (AD 16), even the communication with the Western Regions was cut off, the Protectorate of the Western Regions was abolished, and the Central Plains' control of the Western Regions was suspended.Therefore, in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu had to give up the territory from Hetao to Shanxi and northern Hebei.In the 25th year of Jianwu (AD 49), the Xiongnu was divided into two parts, the north and the south. The southern Xiongnu descended to the Han. In the second year, the Han Dynasty moved the eight counties back to the old land, and the border of the Han and Xiongnu returned to the late Western Han Dynasty. However, from the west of Youzhou to Yanmen County in Bingzhou (approximately equivalent to today's western Liaoning to northern Shanxi and adjacent southern Inner Mongolia), it will shrink southward.However, Nandanyu could no longer gain a foothold on the Mongolian plateau due to the attack of the Northern Huns, and moved south to Meiji County in Xihe County (now northwest of Junggar Banner, Inner Mongolia) to accept the protection of the Han Dynasty.

In the northeast, due to the pressure from the local Weimo people and the Mahan people, Emperor Guangwu gave up the seven counties of Lelang County east of Shandan Daling (now North Dafeng Mountains in North Korea).With the rise and expansion of Goguryeo, the jurisdiction of Xuantu County was completely abandoned, and the county government was moved to the west of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province today, with several counties under the jurisdiction of the former Liaodong County. However, in the southwest, the territory of the Han Dynasty expanded. In the twelfth year of Emperor Ming Yongping (AD 69), King Ailao outside the southwest region accepted the internal control. The Han Dynasty set up two counties, which were separated from Yizhou County. Six counties were combined to form Yongchang County.In this way, the territory of the Han Dynasty not only included all of today's Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, but also had jurisdiction over present-day eastern Burma.

In the sixteenth year of Yongping (AD 73), the Han army attacked the Northern Huns, opened up the line of communication with the Western Regions, and sent Banchao to control Shanshan (now Ruoqiang County, Xinjiang), Khotan (now Hotan City, Hotan City, Xinjiang) County area) and other countries, so in the following year, the Western Regions Protectorate was re-established, and this large territory was restored.Since the northern Huns were still very powerful and the Han army did not have a stable advantage, Emperor Zhang decided to withdraw the Han army from the Western Regions in the first year of Jianchu (AD 76) and abolished the Western Regions Protectorate.However, the local kings of Shule (in today's Kashgar City, Xinjiang), Khotan and other countries resolutely retained Banchao, and Banchao was unwilling to return without success, so he returned to Shule and fought alone with the remaining prestige of the Han Dynasty and his own courage. Most of China is still under the control of the Han Dynasty, and fewer and fewer countries are dependent on the Xiongnu.In the third year of Hedi Yongyuan (AD 91), the Han army defeated the Northern Huns, and the Northern Huns moved westward.However, due to the improper measures taken by the successors, the conflict with the local country was intensified. In the first year of Emperor Yongchu (AD 107), the Protectorate of the Western Regions had to be withdrawn.The retreat of the Han Dynasty caused the countries in the Western Regions to be threatened by the Xiongnu again, and some countries sought the asylum of the Han Dynasty again, prompting the Han Dynasty to establish the Changshi Mansion of the Western Regions in the second year of Yanguang (123 AD) and continue to exercise jurisdiction over the Western Regions.But Wusun has become an independent regime, and the area west of Congling (Pamirs) has also broken away from the rule of the Han Dynasty. The northwest boundary of the Han Dynasty retreated to the south of the western section of today's Shanshan Mountains.

With the expansion of the Linyi Kingdom abroad, the southern end of the territory of the Eastern Han Dynasty also retreated from the southern border of Phu Yen Province in Vietnam to the southern border of Thanh Thien Province.