Chapter 7 Chapter Six Where is the Under Heaven——The Reasons for the Transfer of the Capital of the Unified Dynasty

In the more than 2,000 years after the unification of Qin Dynasty, the capitals of the five unified dynasties experienced both the development process of reconstruction and the transfer process of successive capital cities.Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Xi'an and Luoyang were the capitals of the unified dynasty, and the two places intersected to become the capital.After the Northern Song Dynasty, the capital was first established in Kaifeng near the Jianghuai area, and finally made a long-distance jump to Beijing in the northernmost part of the North China Plain, and Nanjing in the middle of the Yangtze River basin was the capital for decades.

What caused some ancient capitals with hundreds of years of capital history to decline and lose their honorable status as the capital of a unified dynasty?And what caused some cities that were not the most important to become the capitals of the unified dynasty?What is the reason for the transfer of the capital? According to Sima Qian's "Historical Records Zhou Benji", in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Duke of Zhou managed Luoyi and praised it as "in the middle of the world, where the tribute roads from all directions are uniform", and it was the most ideal place for emperors to build their capitals.Being located in the center of the world, allowing all parts of the country to come to the capital to pay tribute and pay roughly the same mileage, and to facilitate the connection between the capital and all parts of the country is indeed a basic principle that the founding monarchs of all dynasties considered when choosing the capital.But in the world, it often changes with the changes of the country's borders, and there is no fixed place.Even if you live in the world, if there are towering mountains, few flat lands, and inconvenient transportation, it is impossible to be selected as the capital.Therefore, whether "centered" or "not centered" is relative, it is not easy to determine.Among the five ancient capitals, only Luoyang and Kaifeng are slightly in the center, while Beijing, Nanjing, and Xi'an are not.

If we analyze the trajectory of the changes of the five ancient capitals, we can see that the three ancient capitals of Xi'an, Luoyang, and Kaifeng are arranged in a horizontal line in the central part of my country, and they all happen to be on the south bank of the Weihe River and the Yellow River. The two ancient capitals form a vertical line, arranged in the east of our country, on the edge of the ancient Central Plains.If they are distinguished by age, the three ancient capitals located in the heart of the Central Plains were established before the Northern Song Dynasty, which is equivalent to the early stage of feudal society in our country.The interesting arrangement of the five ancient capitals in time and space is really intriguing.

The ancient capital was the political center and the largest military fortress in the country. It was the residence of the supreme ruler of a country and his family members, ministers, army, servants and other service personnel of all kinds. The nobles, bureaucrats, wealthy businessmen and all kinds of The great rich generally outnumber other cities.Out of the need to enrich the capital, rulers often build the capital into the most populous city in the country through immigration and other measures.Based on the above two reasons, the capital is generally the country's largest consumer of food and daily necessities.Moreover, most of the population in the capital city are not farmers, handicraft workers and other people engaged in labor production, but consumers of a large number of daily necessities.In other words, the capital's grain and various daily necessities depended on supplies from other places.Before the use of modern means of transportation, long-distance transportation of large quantities of goods often required a lot of manpower and a lot of time.Today, it takes only two hours to fly from Beijing to Hangzhou, and only 20 hours by train. In ancient times, it took 20 to 30 days to travel the Grand Canal by the most convenient boat at that time.Therefore, the ancient capitals were generally located in economically developed areas or near economically developed areas with convenient transportation, so as to obtain the needed food and materials more conveniently.

It is no coincidence that the three early ancient capitals of Xi'an, Luoyang and Kaifeng were located in the Yellow River basin.In ancient times, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River had a mild climate, vast plains, and loose soil.Under the condition that wooden or stone production tools were used at that time, it was undoubtedly much easier to develop the north than the mountainous, swampy [juru Juru], and jungle-covered south.Therefore, although many high-level ancient cultural sites have been discovered in the south and north, which proves that the birthplace of Chinese civilization is not concentrated in the Yellow River Basin, but only the North China Plain, which is easy to develop earlier and has a low terrain, was first established by a A small civilization point develops into a large civilization area.Therefore, the three slavery dynasties of Xia, Shang, and Zhou all arose in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and took this as their basic ruling area.From then until the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have been the most economically and culturally developed areas in China.

As early as the Warring States Period, the Guanzhong area where Xi'an is located today was praised by Su Qin as the "Land of Abundance" with "a thousand miles of fertile fields".Sima Qian said in "Historical Records: Huozhi Biography" that the land in Guanzhong accounts for 1/3 of the world's population, but its wealth accounts for 6/10 of the world.The Yiluo Basin where Luoyang is located is also very rich. Because it is close to the North China Plain and has convenient transportation, it can also obtain grain and products from other areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River nearby.Therefore, during the long period of time from the unification of the Qin Dynasty until the demise of the Tang Dynasty, the capital of the unified dynasty has been going around in Xi'an and Luoyang.However, as far as the time of establishing the capital is concerned, it took a long time to establish the capital in Xi'an, and Luoyang served as the capital only for more than 200 years in the middle of this process.

Due to the unbalanced political and economic development, there were often two regional interest groups, Guanzhong and Kanto, in the northern region before Tang Dynasty.The founding monarchs of Qin, Western Han, Sui, and Tang all used Guanzhong as their base, conquered Guanzhong, and unified the world.The Guanzhong Plain where Xi'an is located has the highest agricultural conditions in the northwest, surrounded by mountains and water, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it is easy to compete in the Central Plains by opening to the east.Therefore, setting the capital here will have the economic strength and military geographical advantages to subdue the Kanto.

In addition, Xi'an faces the northwest of China, enters the Western Regions through the Hexi Corridor, crosses the Loess Plateau and enters the Mongolian steppe, and is not far to the west and is adjacent to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.The period when the capitals of Xi'an and Luoyang were established was the period when nomadic peoples from Mongolia participated in the competition in the Central Plains. The Xiongnu in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the powerful nomadic regimes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, such as the Turks, Xia Jiasi, Xue Yantuo, and Tubo, entered the Central Plains. The north and west point to the Guanzhong Plain.In addition, the Silk Road leading to the Western Regions, starting from today's Xi'an, was my country's main external communication line at that time.The Han and Tang dynasties were the prosperous times of my country's feudal society. The unified dynasty actively expanded outwards and was very active in military affairs, diplomacy, and international trade. The geographical location of Xi'an was obviously convenient for the Han and Tang dynasties to carry out the above activities.

Luoyang is a few hundred kilometers east of Xi'an, bordering the Yellow River in the north. It is a small basin with hills on three sides. Compared with Xi'an, Luoyang has a more moderate geographical location and more convenient water and land transportation.However, it is located at the junction of the two major interest groups in the Kanto and Guanzhong, known as the place of the Four Wars, and the surrounding low hills are not enough to rely on for long-term resistance.Moreover, the area of ​​the basin is small, and the agricultural resources cannot be compared with the Guanzhong Plain where Xi'an is located.In addition, it is far away from the areas where the nomadic regimes are located and the Silk Road, and it feels beyond reach, and it is not convenient to expand territories and carry out diplomatic and international trade activities.

In the Western Han Dynasty, Luoyang's status could not be compared with that of the capital Chang'an.Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, rebelled against the old system and established Luoyang as his capital. After the war between the Han and Han Dynasties, the Chang'an palace was ruined and the people were devastated, which was difficult to repair quickly.Another important reason is that Liu Xiu mainly relied on the economic and military power of the Kanto region to seize the world. He and his main generals were born in the Nanyang and Hebei regions of the Kanto region, and their capital was Luoyang, close to their hometown. , and can rely on the strength of the Kanto to control Guanzhong.The Western Jin Dynasty was the continuation and development of the Cao Wei regime in the Three Kingdoms. The capital remained unchanged, and Luoyang was still the capital.In addition, in the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the State of Shu had been eliminated, but the State of Wu still occupied the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.Luoyang is closer to the Jianghuai area than Xi'an, and Luoyang as the capital is also convenient for unifying the world.

After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the national political and economic situation began to change.Due to repeated wars, production conditions in Guanzhong have deteriorated.For example, the Zhengguo Canal and Baiqu systems irrigated more than 40,000 hectares of fields in the Han Dynasty, and only 10,000 hectares of irrigated areas were left in Tang Yonghui.On the other hand, the consumption desire of the ruling class increased, government agencies expanded, the number of officials and their families increased greatly, and their dependence on food and materials outside Guanzhong increased.Therefore, a large amount of food and supplies need to be transported to Chang'an by water every year.However, the Sanmen Gorge on the Yellow River has been famous since ancient times for its many rapids and reefs that make it difficult for boats to navigate. In addition, the Weihe River has a large sediment concentration that is not conducive to navigation, which greatly limits the scale of grain transportation.For this reason, the Sui and Tang Dynasties had to build Luoyang, which has convenient transportation, especially water transportation, as the eastern capital.Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang. Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian often led civil and military officials to Luoyang. Tang Gaozong lived for more than a year, and Wu Zetian almost lived in Luoyang.One of the purposes of Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian living in Luoyang was to consume grain and materials from the south and the Kanto on the spot, which was called "eat food" by the emperor in history, which heralded the end of Xi'an's history as the capital of a unified dynasty. After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the war in the north lasted for a long time, the population decreased greatly, and the economy became increasingly depressed.As for the area south of the Qinling-Huaihe River, except for the Jianghuai area between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, which was sometimes affected by the Civil War, the rest of the vast area is relatively peaceful. The migration of the northern peoples of technology to avoid chaos has been greatly accelerated.In the late Tang Dynasty, the south has become the main production area of ​​grain and textiles in my country. In addition to the separatist regime in the north, grain and taxes are not handed over to the central government. The central government has to rely on the south for grain and financial revenue.In addition, after the mid-Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road was interrupted, and sea transportation became the main mode of external transportation. The rise of the Khitan people located in the southeast of Inner Mongolia became the main threat to the Central Plains Dynasty, making Xi'an lose its former advantages of facilitating diplomatic, military and international trade activities.The above-mentioned changes made it difficult for Xi'an to continue to serve as the national political center.Kaifeng is located at the intersection of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal, and is relatively close to the Jianghuai area. Due to this transportation advantage, its status rose day by day after the late Tang Dynasty, and finally replaced Xi'an and Luoyang as the capital of the unified dynasty. However, there is no danger of mountains and rivers around Kaifeng, and it is a place where there were many wars in history. It is Chang'an and Luoyang, which have been chosen as capitals by emperors since ancient times, and they have the intention of moving their capitals to the west several times.The reason why he did not move the capital in the end was that Kaifeng could get grain and supplies from Jianghuai nearby, which was beyond the reach of Chang'an and Luoyang.General Li Huaizhong persuaded Zhao Kuangyin not to move the capital, which is what he said.He said: "Kaifeng has the convenience of the Bianqu (that is, the Grand Canal), and it can transport millions of grains from the Jianghuai River every year (ten buckets are one bushel). Hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the capital will eat Jianghuai grains. You live in Luoyang. Where can I get grain from the Jianghuai River?" (Volume 17 of Li Tao's "Continued Zizhi Tongjian Changbian") It is not only the army that relies on food from the Jianghuai River, but even the ordinary people in Kaifeng are no exception.Due to its proximity to the Jianghuai River and the convenience of transporting grain, the Northern Song Dynasty became the dynasty that transported the largest amount of grain in ancient my country, and a considerable part of it was naturally supplied to the people of Kaifeng.The canal connecting Kaifeng and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the main source of grain and supplies, has become the artery of north-south transportation and the lifeline of the country. To sum up, the capital city of the Unified Dynasty moved eastward from Chang’an and Luoyang to Kaifeng out of economic considerations. It was the continuation and development of the emperor’s departure from Chang’an to Luoyang for food since the Sui and Tang Dynasties. consumer goods.From a political point of view, the eastward relocation of the capital is also of great significance.Since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the south has become the economic center of our country, and its political importance has also been rising.During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the world was divided.But after a little analysis, it can be seen that there are five dynasties in the north. Although the dynasties change frequently, they are still generally unified under the banner of one emperor; among the ten kingdoms, nine are located in the south, and only one (Northern Han) is in the north today. In Shanxi Province.Therefore, the so-called split situation mainly refers to the implementation of separate regimes in the southern region.Putting the capital in Kaifeng, which is close to the Jianghuai River, also facilitates the control of the southern region, which is the center of the country's economy and is prone to splitting. After the Yuan Dynasty, Beijing replaced Kaifeng as the capital of the unified dynasty. It can be said that it was mainly produced in the context of ethnic struggle. Both the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty were established after my country's frontier ethnic groups entered the Central Plains. The Yuan Dynasty was founded by the nomadic Mongolian people from the Mongolian grasslands.They used to live in areas with sparse population, backward economy, and low level of social development. They were mainly attracted by the advanced economy and culture of the Central Plains, and then gradually moved south to dominate the Central Plains.Therefore, after they occupied the densely populated and fertile North China Plain, they naturally had to focus on management and build it into a base for further southward travel.On the other hand, Shenyang, the capital of the early Qing Dynasty, and Kaiping Prefecture, the original capital of the Yuan Dynasty, were almost thousands of miles away from the Central Plains, and the transportation was inconvenient, which was not conducive to ruling the Han areas nearby.Beijing was the first and most important city they captured in the Han area, and it was also an important town in the northern part of the North China Plain. Using Beijing as the capital made it easier to control North China and seize the whole of China.Historically, the Yuan and Qing dynasties first took Beijing, then took North China, and unified the whole of China after the capital was established in Beijing. For the rulers of these ethnic groups, the establishment of the capital in Beijing also has the advantages of establishing capitals in the hinterland of the Central Plains such as Chang'an, Luoyang, and Kaifeng.First of all, these ethnic groups from the temperate zone did not find it easy to adapt to the hot summer temperature when they first entered the Central Plains. Beijing is located in the north, so summer is cooler than that in the hinterland of the Central Plains, and the average temperature of the hottest month is 2°C or even 4°C-5°C lower. .At the end of the third year of Kaiyun (AD 946) in the Later Jin Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, the Khitan army occupied Kaifeng, but they hurried back to the north in March and April of the second year. Human beings cannot live there" (Volume 286) is also one of the reasons.In contrast, the summer temperature in Beijing is easier to adapt to.Beijing is close to the grasslands and plateaus outside the Great Wall, and it is also convenient for the rulers to escape the summer heat nearby.Secondly, Beijing is close to their hometown, which is convenient for maintaining contact with their hometown, so as to preserve a retreat route.At that time, the population of the Mongols and Jurchens was not large, generally only a few hundred thousand people. The rulers of these ethnic groups ruled over the tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of Han people, and it was inevitable that they would have a potential sense of fear.Establishing a capital in an area close to the life of the ethnic group can usually obtain a sense of psychological security. Once the rule of the Han area cannot be maintained, it can quickly flee to the hometown.Emperor Shun, the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, fled back to the Mongolian plateau with his concubine, prince and some ministers on the eve of the fall of Beijing. Even Ming Chengzu's move to Beijing was inseparable from the background of ethnic struggle.After Emperor Yuan Shun returned to the Mongolian plateau, he still had considerable strength and continued to be called the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. His arrogance was still strong, and he posed a huge threat to the emerging Ming Dynasty.Ming Chengzu was a vassal prince stationed in Beijing responsible for defending the northern border before he came to the throne, and he was deeply impressed by this.Therefore, after he seized the throne, he moved his capital to Beijing. Not only did he occupy the frontier as the emperor, but he also led heavy troops into the depths of the Mongolian grassland many times to wipe out the vital forces of the Mongolian army so that it could not threaten the Ming Dynasty.In addition, Beijing was the base on which Chengzu made his fortune, and it was relatively reliable politically, so it was relatively safe to choose this place. However, as the capital of the unified dynasty, Beijing was not an ideal choice.First of all, it is located on the edge of the Central Plains, and it is far away from the southern regions such as the Sichuan Basin, the Pearl River Basin, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Needless to say, it is also quite a distance from the former political center in the north. Not conducive to the control of the country.What's more, the material base of the area where Beijing is located is limited, and it is unable to meet the consumption needs of the ruling class and a large number of non-productive populations. Grain and materials still mainly rely on the Yangtze River Basin, and the long-distance transportation by the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has greatly increased the burden on the people.Secondly, Beijing is adjacent to the powerful surrounding ethnic groups, and establishing the capital here is equivalent to the emperor guarding the border, and the capital as a fortress.Although there are Yanshan Mountains on the west and north sides of Beijing that can be used for defense, the east and south sides are the Great Plains, and there is no danger to rely on. Once the cavalry of the surrounding ethnic groups break through the defense lines of Yanshan Mountain and the Great Wall, they will enter the open Great Plains and arrive in a few hours. Suburbs of Beijing.If the national power of the Central Plains Dynasty is strong and the strength of the surrounding ethnic regimes is weak, Beijing’s security will not be a big problem, but when the national power is weak or in turmoil and the surrounding ethnic regimes are strong, it is very difficult to ensure the safety of the capital .In the mid-Ming Dynasty, the nomadic regime on the Mongolian grasslands broke through the Great Wall several times and marched to the outskirts of Beijing. Even Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty was captured as a prisoner; this is evidence that the Qing army captured Beijing shortly after entering Shanhaiguan in the late Ming Dynasty. Nanjing is located in the fertile lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where the economy is developed and the transportation is convenient.The urban area is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the river on one side. It is easy to defend, and it is the closest to North China than other cities in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It is the main capital of the southern separatist regime.However, compared with ancient capitals such as Xi'an, Luoyang, and Kaifeng, Nanjing's geographical location is relatively southerly. The establishment of Nanjing as the capital is conducive to the development of the south, but it is not easy to control North China, which has always been a political whirlpool in China, and it is not easy to strengthen relations with surrounding areas. contact.Therefore, before the Ming Dynasty, the period when Nanjing played a greater role on the political stage of our country was basically a special era when China was in a war and split. At the end of the breath", Nanjing's status in national politics was greatly reduced. In 1365 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang led the Red Scarf Army across the Yangtze River and occupied Nanjing.Later, Zhu Yuanzhang used Nanjing as his base to develop his own strength, conquered the west and the north, unified the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and finally unified the whole of China.The reason why Nanjing was chosen by Zhu Yuanzhang as the capital of the Ming Dynasty was first of all because it was the base where he made his fortune. He had been operating here for many years and established a solid political foundation. After the founding of the country, it was easy to stabilize the situation.Secondly, Nanjing is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where the economy is most developed in the country. Nanjing is the capital, and the supply of food and consumer goods in the capital can be easily solved without long-distance transportation.Due to Nanjing's geographical location being too far south, Zhu Yuanzhang inspected the Central Plains region at the beginning of his accession, intending to choose a capital of "Linzhong Xia, Yuyi Di" in the traditional capital city.However, he found that after the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the economy of the Central Plains was broken, the population was sparse, and some cities had become empty cities, so he decided to set up Nanjing as the capital to solve the problem of food supply for the army.Zhu Yuanzhang's starting point for choosing the capital was the same as that of Zhao Kuangyin in the Northern Song Dynasty. The first consideration was how to conveniently obtain the essential food and consumer goods for the soldiers and civilians in the capital.After Zhu Yuanzhang established Nanjing as his capital, Nanjing began to appear in China as the national political center. Through the tortuous process of the changes of the five major capitals, we can find that the choice of the location of the capital is crucial to each unified dynasty.When each dynasty chose its capital, there were not only economic and political considerations, but also military and geographical choices, mainly focusing on the following two aspects: First, it is required to be located in or close to economically developed areas, so as to obtain food and consumer goods nearby.If it cannot be located in or close to an economically developed area, at least there must be a relatively convenient transportation route to connect the capital with it, so as to solve the supply problem through long-distance transportation. Second, it is required to be located in or close to the base area on which to start, so as to consolidate the regime quickly, and rely on the area where the capital is located to control other areas.For the surrounding ethnic groups who entered the Central Plains to establish a unified dynasty, the main requirement for choosing a capital was to be close to the ethnic region, so as to maintain close ties with the ethnic region, and to build the capital into a base for continuing to unify the country in the south.In addition, it is also easy to adapt to the climate there. The rulers of different periods have different priorities for the above two aspects, depending on the main contradiction in each period.Generally speaking, the unified dynasties established by the surrounding ethnic groups paid more attention to the second aspect, and set the capital in Beijing, which was close to the ethnic area.The unified dynasty established by the Han people paid more attention to the first aspect, seeking to keep the political center consistent with the economically developed areas.Only Yongle in the Ming Dynasty was special, reflecting the fact that Ming Chengzu established the capital with his own base and the fact that the national struggle was sharp at that time.