Governance is based on unity, and chaos is based on division. Historical governance and chaos change, and the general trend of the world also changes with division and unity.
Counting from the beginning of the reform of the Wanchang Dynasty, in just one year, the world has been in chaos. The transition from rule to chaos is so fast, unprecedented in history, even faster than the collapse of the Qin Dynasty. But after the collapse of the Wei Dynasty,
The result was different from that of Qin
After meeting Lin Jian, Yunzheng finally accepted Lin Jian's surrender two days later and easily obtained the Hulao Pass, the last natural barrier in Luoyang. He then used Lin Jian's main force as two wings to seize the key passes around Luoyang and personally led the main force.
The army marches into Luoyang
Yun Yi's army descended from the southeast of Shandong to Huanghuai, and successfully captured the entire natural danger of Luoyang in northern Jiangsu. The Hulao Pass was lost. The news that the emperor's uncle Lin Jian had surrendered to Emperor Jing'an Lin Xi spread to northern Anhui, and the central army of the puppet North Korea in northern Anhui immediately moved to divide its troops.
Yun Yi surrendered
At this point, the Northern Xinjiang Army of the Yun family occupied the entire Central Plains, Shandong and the Huanghuai Plain, with the Yangtze River as the boundary and facing the Qinglong Sect across the river.
Zhou Guangshuai's army in Guanzhong was unstoppable all the way, defeating the exhausted Leng family and Xichuan rebels, and fought a decisive battle with Long Xiangwei led by Lin Sheng and the remaining troops of the Leng family. After the defeat of the Leng family in Chengdu, they unexpectedly surrendered to Zhou Ye without any backbone.
This fact caused an uproar in the world. From then on, the Zhou family monopolized Guanzhong, Shuzhong, and dominated Western China.
On the day Yunzheng conquered Luoyang, the puppet emperor Lin Xu burned himself and the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the golden palace that symbolized imperial power, was burned twice in a few months, and the end of the Wei Dynasty was undoubtedly revealed.
After obtaining the Central Plains, Yun Zheng personally led his army south, encircled Lin Xi and defeated Zhang Jianyuan's rebel army, and then left part of the army to continue to suppress the rebels. However, he took Lin Xi back to Luoyang and officially ascended the throne.
However, Lin Xi, who returned to Luoyang, sadly discovered that Luoyang at this time was no longer the Luoyang of the Lin family. As for him, the emperor, he had long since lost the ability to command the world.
In fact, the evolution of historical chaos, divisions, and mergers has its own logic. The geographical environment is only one of the factors. First, it must be based on social and political cohesion and centripetal force, followed by geographical management measures. Divisions are also first of all social factors.
Political centrifugal forces appeared, and then geographical centrifugal forces emerged.
If we look at geographical factors alone, China's geographical environment is characterized by the coexistence of overall unity and local independence. There are both factors conducive to unity and centrifugal factors.
The area included in China's current territory is basically the stage where Chinese history unfolds. Due to the topography, the east and south of this area are surrounded by vast oceans, the southwest and northwest are steep mountains, and the north is
The geographical environment of the desert is relatively closed and independent. The Qin and Western Han Dynasties successively established a unified empire, and actively expanded the borders to ensure the security of the empire. The territory of the empire basically reached the natural area of this area.
The concept of ultimate unity gradually became deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with the establishment of the unified empire, and became a very important part of ancient Chinese political culture. Even when the world was in chaos, most of the heroes competing for the throne had the ambition to reunify the world.
In the historical evolution of more than two thousand years, the overall situation of unity has been basically maintained. This concept of unity, which is closely integrated with China's geographical environment and widely rooted in the hearts of the people, is the most basic factor.
On the other hand, China's territory is so vast, and the mountains and rivers within it are criss-crossed, forming relatively independent small regions. There are differences in geographical environment, production and lifestyle, nationality, culture, social customs and other aspects between regions.
is very large. To achieve true unification, a deep integration of the above aspects must be carried out. Otherwise, the differences in the above aspects may appear as potential centrifugal forces under certain conditions, and may be eliminated under certain circumstances.
induced
Among the various regions within China's territory, there are both favorable conditions for promoting mutual connections, and natural barriers that relatively isolate each other, such as large rivers such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. They are an important link between the east and west.
There is a natural separation between the south and the north. Large mountain ranges such as the Taihang Mountains, Qinling Mountains, and Dabie Mountains were indeed natural separations under ancient traffic conditions; but the fault zones or rivers passing through these mountains
The valley and lowland formed by the cut provide traffic channels through which
As for whether geographical factors play a positive role in promoting connections or play a negative role in centrifugation, it depends on the degree of social and political integration at that time and the appropriateness of the central government's management measures.
When a dynasty is strong, its rulers are often able to implement relatively positive political, economic, military, ethnic and cultural policies with a king's broad mind that embraces the world, and the policies they pursue are often well received.
Positive effects, thereby bringing into play the positive factors in China's geography that are conducive to unification, minimizing potential centrifugal forces so that they do not have actual negative effects, and the unification situation is thus maintained
When a dynasty is weak, it often has too many evils. It often accumulates many contradictions and problems in a subtle way. Extensive contradictions are brewing in the evils, and centrifugal forces in all aspects grow in the evils. With the growth of widespread contradictions and centrifugal forces in society,
, geographical centrifugal force has also begun to appear. When this centrifugal force grows to a certain extent, it may destroy unity and form a situation of division.
In the alternation between rule and chaos, unity and division, geographical factors come into play under the premise that other more fundamental factors such as society and politics play a role.
Chaos and chaos change, unification and division also change with the change of dynasties. Social conflicts and social problems are usually common and extensive; when the evils are hard to come back, the contradictions and problems are often concentrated on a few major and acute issues.
Sometimes, given the slightest opportunity, contradictions will quickly intensify, and the opportunity to form a prairie fire is usually manifested in history as periodic severe natural disasters, aggressive foreign wars, internal conflicts within the ruling group, etc.
When this situation occurs, the ruling order will quickly collapse, the unified situation will also quickly disintegrate, and a situation of heroes vying for supremacy will emerge.
After the disintegration of the old ruling order and unified situation, history often uses divisions and turbulence to brew a new ruling order and a new unified situation. Chinese history has experienced three relatively long-term splits. The three long-term splits are the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Wei
During the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms as well as the Song, Xia, Liao and Jin periods co-existed successively. After these three long-term divisions, three great unifications were completed. These three great unifications were Qin and Han, Sui and Tang, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
During the unification period, they all experienced brief shocks. From the Qin to the Western Han Dynasty, from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, from the Sui Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, and the succession of Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the process of changing dynasties all experienced brief shocks. The unification after each major split was more complicated than before.
The previous unification was deeper and broader, and the degree of social integration was also higher
The disintegration of the old ruling order is usually the product of the intensification of social contradictions. Social contradictions intensify, social centrifugal forces grow, unified centralization is weakened, the independence of each region becomes prominent, and geographical centrifugal forces also begin to appear, thus making the world appear.
a split situation
To re-establish a new ruling order and re-establish a new unified situation, we must first integrate various social contradictions and eliminate various political centrifugal forces. Only then can we eliminate geographical centrifugal forces, end divisions, and re-establish unity. Only the widespread contradictions in society can be eliminated.
and problems still exist, political centrifugal force has not been eliminated, geographical centrifugal force will continue to exist, and it will be very difficult to rebuild a unified situation
Wang Fuzhi once discussed two forms of dynasty decline: one is landslide, and the other is disintegration. He said: "Collapse and disintegration will lead to uniform death. However, if the power disintegrates due to different forces, there will be no repairs.
Sit back and watch it all disappear; those who want to support it may be unable to support it. Qin Fei's lands collapsed. One man shouted and the whole world was in swarm. In a few years, the country would be barren. The branches of the clan would be cut off. The death would not be gradual. The building would collapse and the foundation of the building would not be solid.
, The tree was originally uneasy, splitting from east to west, south to north, and fell, and collapsed in a moment without any remaining tiles. The world regarded it as dead and there was no one to save it. When the tiles were combined, there was no longer any strength to support or maintain each other.
The Sui and Yuan Dynasties were also cut by the Zhou Dynasty, and the land of Sanchuan was first conquered by the Qin Dynasty; the Han Dynasty was repeatedly in danger, and then usurped by the Wei Dynasty; the capital of the Tang Dynasty fell three times, and the emperor came out from all directions, and then was captured by the Liang Dynasty; the Song Dynasty
One Bian, two Hang, three Fujian, four Guang, and then finally sank into the sea. Then the land will collapse, or the branches and common people are still rising in Xia Fang, or the lonely ministers are still guarding their Qiu Long, the city is sinking, and there is Ningyu to avoid in the wild.
As the society moved down, there were still loyal loyalties who had fled. Although the solid foundation for the foundation was very deep, the erosion would be deep over the days and months. If there was no way to do anything, it would fall apart. It would take hundreds of years to disintegrate.
The disintegration is complete and the world begins to be at peace."
Wang Fuzhi described the characteristics of the two forms of dynasty decline. Generally speaking, collapse means comprehensive chaos and disorder, which usually lasts for a short time, and the reconstruction of a new ruling order is usually faster; collapse means that in
After the collapse of the overall order, there is still a partial order preserved, and its decline often takes a long time. The reconstruction of a new ruling order and a new unified situation also often takes a long time. Qin, Xin, Sui
The demise of the He Yuan Dynasty is classified as disintegration, while the decline of the Eastern Han, Western Jin, Tang and Song Dynasties is classified as collapse.
As for why these two different forms appear, the reasons are of course complicated.
Generally speaking, dynasties with a relatively high degree of zhuanzhi are prone to disintegration after the disintegration of the ruling order. The highly zhuanzhi rule of such dynasties often creates a society with a single power structure.
, lacking an intermediate force to share power with the imperial power, its tyrannical rule caused the most direct contradiction between the highest ruling class and the lowest people.
"I don't know the superiors, the customs are in chaos but the government is not repaired" actually refers to the most direct contradiction between the highest level and the lowest level. Because there is a lack of social classes that share interests with the imperial power, there is also a lack of intermediate forces that can buffer and disperse the contradictions.
, once its rule is weakened for some reason, a slight fuse can lead to a general outbreak of contradictions. As a result, its imperial power encounters widespread opposition. Therefore, after the overall order disintegrates, it does not even have local order.
law was maintained, resulting in the kind of widespread turmoil and chaos that Wang Fuzhi called disintegration
The Qin, Xin, Sui and Yuan dynasties are relatively typical in this respect. Most of these dynasties ruled tyrannically, with a high degree of Zhuanzhi, excessive taxation, and weak use of people's power. After the imperial power of such dynasties was weakened, the number of heroes competing for the throne was often in the tens. However, as time went by,
After a short period of turmoil and chaos, most of them were wiped out and the world was reunited.
And a dynasty whose degree of governance is not high, or whose governance is weakened for some reason, is prone to collapse after the disintegration of its ruling order. In the ruling order of this dynasty, there are intermediate forces that share power with the imperial power.
This kind of intermediate force is not only a force that weakens the imperial power, but also a force that maintains the imperial power. When the imperial power is challenged, this kind of intermediate force can play a role in buffering and diffusing conflicts. In such a dynasty, even if the overall order disintegrates, those intermediate forces are still
This force can maintain or establish local order as a political centrifugal force. If combined with geographical centrifugal force, it often leads to a situation of separatism and separatism.
This was the case with the decline of the Eastern Han, Western Jin and Tang Dynasty. The imperial power of the Eastern Han Dynasty had already been weakened by eunuchs and relatives. After experiencing the impact of the Yellow Turban Uprising, power was transferred to the state pastors. Most of the warlords who later divided the four directions were these state pastors.
, the warlord separatist regime at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty eventually evolved into a situation in which Wei, Shu, and Wu were the three pillars.
The Western Jin Dynasty punished the fall of Cao Wei and reused the clan and re-implemented the feudal system. In the "Eight Kings Rebellion", it was these clan kings who led to the decline and chaos of the Western Jin Dynasty. In the "Yongjia Rebellion", it was these clan kings who were responsible for maintaining local order and rebuilding Sima.
After the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty "collapse", what emerged was the long-term confrontation between the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties and the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Dynasties.
After the "An-Shi Rebellion" in the Tang Dynasty, power was transferred to vassal towns, which gradually evolved into a situation of vassal-town separatism. It was these vassal-towns that led to the decline of the Tang Dynasty, and they were eventually replaced by vassal-towns. However, before the final demise of the Tang Dynasty, they were responsible for maintaining local order and making
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the founders of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms were actually the evolution of this kind of power.
As two forms of dynasty decline, disintegration is total chaos and disorder, with no traces to be found; while collapse still retains partial order, and traces can be traced.
The Wei Dynasty died in a landslide
Today, the Wei Dynasty has long existed in name only
North China, Central Plains, Huanghuai and Jianghan are all controlled by the Yun family, the largest force in the world
Guanzhong and Shuzhong are controlled by the Zhou family, the second largest force in the world
In the southeast, southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi are occupied by the Qinglong Sect, which is the third largest force in the world.
The only thing that remained peaceful was the Jiang family in Guangdong and Guangdong. However, the Jiang family took the opportunity to occupy Hunan, which the Yun family had not had time to occupy. This is the fourth largest force in the world.
Dividing the world into four parts begins here
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