Why was Jiangnan always regarded as a barbaric land before the Song Dynasty?
It’s not exactly considered a wilderness. The biggest reason is the difference in environment and geographical location. This can be illustrated by its division.
A brief summary:
The division of Jiangnan first appeared in the pre-Qin period. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the division of Jiangnan gradually became clear. The pre-Qin Jiangnan refers to today’s Hunan. Province, southern Hubei Province.
In the Sui Dynasty, Jiangnan also represented the southern part of Jianghan and the northern part of Jianghuai. The description of Jiangnan at this time was relatively vague, but it can also be seen that the area represented by Jiangnan was relatively wealthy at this time.
The Song Dynasty made clear divisions based on the previous divisions, benefiting from the emergence of the Yangtze River. It was changed into a road and divided into Jiangnan East Road and Jiangnan West Road. Jiangnan Road in the Song Dynasty refers to the current Jiangxi Province, Jiangsu Province and Jianjiang Province.
In ancient times, the south of the Yangtze River was a land of plenty. Where does the theory of barbarism come from? I have only heard of Nanman, which is different from Barbarian.
I don’t know who said that.
If it refers to Jiangnan in a broad sense, it includes today's Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Your conclusion is correct because Hunan was the last one to be developed. However, if Jiangnan in the narrow sense refers to the Suzhou and Hangzhou areas, it cannot be called a wilderness, but the Song Dynasty was indeed a turning point. Wilderness should mainly be a combination of population, city, industry, and talent.
The emergence of Jiangnan as a barbaric land before the Song Dynasty is inseparable from the origin of our country's civilization. The Chinese nation originated in the Yellow River Basin, so the first developed area was Guanzhong, the Central Plains, and North China. Jiangnan was in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It belongs to Wu and Yue. According to records, after Yue was defeated by Wu, there were only tens of thousands of people left in the country. This shows that the Jiangnan area was desolate at that time. Let’s analyze the process of Jiangnan development.
1. Changes in the Jiangnan region.
After the Qin Dynasty
During the period when Qin unified the world, it was recorded in the "Historical Records of Qin": "In the 30th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Shu defended Ruowu and attacked Chu, taking Wu County and Jiangnan. It is Qianzhong County. "Jiangnan appearing in this book refers to present-day Hunan Province and parts of southern Hubei and Jiangxi. During Wang Mang's reign, Yidao County was renamed Jiangnan County, which is today's Yidu area in Hubei Province. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Liu Biao Biography" records that "the Jiangnan sect's thieves flourished...only the Jiangxia thieves Zhang Zhuang and Chen sat in Xiangyang City with troops, and Biao sent Yue and Pang Ji to fight against them, and when they surrendered, the south of the Yangtze River became peaceful."
After the Yongjia Rebellion in the Western Jin Dynasty, the refugees from what is now the Central Plains migrated southward one after another across the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River, and moved southward with Jiankang (now Nanjing) as their capital, which became the Eastern Jin Dynasty. During the Sui Dynasty, Jiangnan in this period sometimes referred to Hunan and Hubei.
In the first year of Zhenguan (627) of the Tang Dynasty, Jiangnan Road was established, covering the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei to the south of the Yangtze River (see the eighth chapter of Lu Yu's Tea Classic in the Tang Dynasty). After the Anshi Rebellion, the East Road entered Huainan and Jiangnan from the North China Plain.
After the Jingkang Rebellion, the largest number of northern people migrating southward was at this stage. In just over ten years, "Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hunan, Fujian, Guangzhou, and the northwest were full of people living in exile." In the eleventh year of Shaoxing, the Song-Jin peace treaty was reached. The peace treaty stipulated that the Southern Song Dynasty could not accept "fugitives" from the Jin Dynasty, and the wave of southward migration began to subside.
In the Song Dynasty, it was changed into a road. Jiangnan Road covers all of Jiangxi and parts of southern Anhui, and is divided into Jiangnan East Road and Jiangnan West Road. Jiangnan East Road includes Xuanzhou, Chizhou, Taipingzhou, Huizhou, and Raozhou ( Shangrao), Xinzhou (Yingtan), Fuzhou, Hongzhou (Nanchang); Jiangnan West Road includes Yuanzhou (Yichun), Jizhou (Ji'an), Jiangzhou (Jiujiang), Qianzhou (Ganzhou). The Jiangnan Road in the Song Dynasty mainly refers to Jiangxi Province, that is, the Ganjiang River Basin, while Suzhou and Hangzhou during the same period belonged to the Liangzhe Road.
Jiangnan Region
In the official geography that began in the Yuan Dynasty, the word "Jiangnan" was also used for administrative divisions. In the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Keli served as an official in Suzhou. When commenting on his political achievements, historians said that in Ming Dynasty Dong Qichang's "Jie Huan Yuan Gong's Behavior": "After the divine king has achieved the reputation of power and wealth, (Yuan Keli) is the crown prince in Jiangnan!"
In the second year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the Jiangnan Chengxuan Political Envoy Department was established in the southern direct jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, which was later changed to Jiangnan Province. Together with Jiangxi Province, it is under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of Liangjiang. In the 18th year of Shunzhi, Jiangnan Province was abolished and divided into Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province (the governor of Jiangsu and the Chief Secretary of Jiangsu were stationed in Suzhou
2. Changes brought about by three large-scale population migrations in the Jiangnan region
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Jiangnan was the capital of Wu and Yue. During the Three Kingdoms period, Jinling was the capital of Soochow. Jinling was the central city for most of the time in the Southern Dynasties. But why was it still called a barbaric land before the Song Dynasty? The backwardness of agricultural production technology and culture
In order to avoid chaos, people in the north moved south three times on a large scale
(1) The Three Kingdoms. During this period, the people migrating south brought advanced farming techniques, and they worked together with the Yue people to reclaim wasteland, develop agricultural production, and develop the Jiangnan area; however, the scale of the southward migration was small at this time, and it was not enough to change the population shortage in Jiangnan.
(2) During the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties, farmers who migrated south many times brought advanced production tools and technologies, built water conservancy projects with the Southern People's Government, widely used oxen for farming, and developed large areas of land. The economy of Jiangnan further developed;
(3) By the Sui Dynasty, Jiangnan was already a prosperous area, and Yangzhou at that time was the largest city like Luoyang, the eastern capital. At this time, it could no longer be said to be a barbaric land. During his southern tour, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty often enjoyed himself in Yangzhou and missed Shu.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin'an was established as the capital. At this time, a large number of people moved southward, especially when Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty forced the northern powerful to move to Lin'an, which brought great cultural prosperity. At this time, Jiangnan has become the most fertile area. At this time, paddy fields increased in the south, rice became the main crop, and the output of the Taihu Lake Basin occupied an important position in the country. Cotton planting was further promoted, and the cotton textile industry gradually became the main agricultural and sideline industry in cotton-producing areas.
At this time, Jiangnan has become the most important area. Taxes account for more than half of the country's taxes. There are many talents.
In short, the wilderness or richness of the Jiangnan region is most related to the cultural origins, population changes, and industrial maturity of the Chinese nation.
Hello everyone, I am Feng Waer. I am very happy to answer this question. Why was Jiangnan called a barbaric land before the Song Dynasty? First, in ancient times, it was more difficult to develop in the south than in the north. In the vast semi-arid areas of the north, it was much easier to open up wasteland for farming because there were not many dense forests. They widely planted food crops such as millet, wheat, sorghum and soybeans. Wait, the second fear of miasma caused the feudal rulers' prejudice against Jiangnan. They were not accustomed to the climate and soil. Many northerners died after coming to the south. There were more endemic diseases in the south than in the north because of the humid and hot natural environment in the south. The third reason is that the South was a place of relegation. In ancient times, transportation was underdeveloped and information was blocked. The rulers often had never been to the South in their lives and had little affection for the South. In addition, the false support of literati and poets led them to have negative feelings towards the South. Biased. I hope my answer will be helpful to you, thank you
Hello, I am Baicao Yushanfang, and I am very happy to answer this question.
Why was Jiangnan always regarded as a "barbaric land" before the Song Dynasty? This has a certain relationship with the history of the development of Chinese civilization.
Chinese civilization was originally mainly in the Yellow River civilization, and the Yellow River Basin is the birthplace of Chinese civilization. In the previous dynasties before the Song Dynasty, the capitals were all in the north, with Chang'an (today's Xi'an), Luoyang, Bianjing (today's Kaifeng), and Yindu (today's Anyang) taking turns as capitals to rule the country. The area north of the Yangtze River has long been the ancient political, economic and cultural center. The population was relatively large, and the cultivated land was cultivated and matured. Even the legend of Dayu's water control was about managing the water system in the north, and the farming and irrigation system in the north was also relatively mature. The north is the main food-producing area for human reproduction.
The farming technology at that time was not suitable for cultivating the humid and hot climate conditions in the south, where weeds grew wildly and the mountainous, wet and heavy farmland was not suitable. In addition, Jiangnan has a sparse population, frequent fever epidemics, blocked mountain roads, and inconvenient transportation, making living conditions extremely difficult. There were fewer northerners migrating southward, and the imperial court also chose the south as a place to punish and demote officials. Therefore, the Jiangnan area before the Song Dynasty has always been called a "barbaric land".
The northern region is a fertile land, so it has become a battlefield for plunder by all parties. From the wars between the rulers of the Central Plains to the conquest of the northern ethnic minorities, many people fled to the south to escape the war. During the "Anshi Rebellion" in the Tang Dynasty, a large number of northern people moved to reclaim the south, which laid the foundation for the development of the Jiangnan region. A preliminary foundation was laid. It became a turning point in the development of the South in history.
The fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the relocation of the capital to Lin'an (today's Hangzhou) ultimately promoted the great development of the southern region. Due to the abundant rain in the south, a large amount of farmland was reclaimed and rice production increased rapidly, which led to the "Jiangnan" There is a saying that if it is cooked, the world will be full. With the further development and improvement of farming technology in the southern region, it has been praised as "Suhu and Lake are ripe, and the world is rich". This shows that local grain production was already very high at that time. Since then, the Jiangnan region has lost its title of "barbaric land".
This is why Jiangnan was always regarded as a "barbaric land" before the Song Dynasty.
Why was the south a barbaric land in ancient times? Let’s laugh at history and tell you.
Let’s not talk about civilization and tribes. Looking at the geographical location, in ancient times, the terrain north of the Yangtze River was flat, fertile and densely populated. In the south, except for the Yangtze River area, most of the land is hilly and the soil is acidic. Especially in ancient times, production technology was low and there was no ability to cultivate these lands.
The main reason is that the south has a miasma that kills people. Even in modern times, during the Vietnam War, the US military suffered heavy losses due to climate problems. Even in the Tang Dynasty, some officials preferred to commit suicide rather than go south after being exiled to the south. From the history of war, the Central Plains dynasty defeated the powerful nomads in the north, but sometimes it could not defeat the tribes in the south at that time. The biggest reason was miasma.
Since the Han Dynasty, people have generally believed that going to the south equals death. When Jia Yi was demoted to Changsha, he was determined to die. Due to the humidity and heat, there are more endemic diseases in the south than in the north. In ancient times, moisture was one of the six evils, and people were naturally afraid of moisture.
After the Song Dynasty, the ancients began to plant rice on a large scale, which effectively suppressed the spread of mosquito and fly diseases and improved the efficiency of land use. Only then did the south gradually develop.
The south lagged behind the north for a long time in ancient times, which was also the reason why Chinese civilization gathered in the north in ancient times. Because the northern area was dry and had no forests, it was easy to open up wasteland, and the foods grown at that time, such as millet, wheat, etc. All suitable for the North. The climate in the south is humid, and even the grass can only be burned after it dries up. This means that in the era of backward productivity, the south can only open up land in winter.
"Jiangdong" refers to the area where the lower reaches of the Yangtze River from Jiujiang to Wuhu merge diagonally toward the northeast. The southeastern part of this section of the Yangtze River is called "Jiangdong" (Jiangnan, Jiangbiao, Jiangzuo). This area includes today's Jiujiang and Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, and Huizhou and Wuhu in southern Anhui (the "Jiangdong elders" whom Xiang Yu met shamelessly are today's Ma'anshan in Anhui). Gu Yanwu wrote in "Rizhilu", "The name of Jiangxi is almost gone. It is unknown that the whole company is located in the south of the Yangtze River, so it is impossible to talk about the west! "Jiangxi" is just the abbreviation of "Jiangnan West Road". "Jiangdong and Jiangnan" have always been Jiangxi and have little to do with Jiangsu. Before the Song Dynasty, most of Jiangsu was still under the sea. The current "Jiangsu" was formed by the alluvial of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. Before the Song Dynasty, the outlet of the Yangtze River was in what is now Nanjing. Today's Lianyungang, Yancheng, Nantong, and eastern Suzhou had not yet formed land. Based on the alluvial speed of the Yangtze River, Suzhou probably did not exist in the Spring and Autumn Period. (The statement that "the capital of the Kingdom of Wu is in Suzhou" is purely far-fetched by Jiangsu itself. It has no evidence and is not consistent with common sense).
During the Three Kingdoms era, the "Wu Kingdom" was governed in Chaizhou in the early stage. Sang (Jiujiang), the main areas are Jiujiang, Fuliang, Huizhou, and Wuhu. In the later period, the administrative office was moved to Jianye, but it never had anything to do with Su, Wuchang.
The Yellow River and Yangtze River basin areas have a warm climate, moderate rainfall, and fertile soil. Therefore, they entered the urban farming society early. The land is called China and the people are called Huaxia. The natural conditions in the border areas are poor and they are mostly inhabited by hunting and herding tribes, so they are called barbarians.
In ancient times, it generally refers to other ethnic groups other than the Chinese, including Nanman, Beidi, Xirong and Dongyi. In most cases, the barbarians, Rongdi, and Rongdi are collectively referred to as barbarians or four barbarians.
Before the Song Dynasty, Jiangnan was called the land of the Southern Barbarians, which was related to the economic and political center of the dynasty. Please watch the video answer, thank you for your support! [zuoyi][zuoyi]
In ancient times, the terrain north of the Yangtze River was flat, fertile and densely populated. Except for the Yangtze River area, most of the south is hilly. Ancient production technology was low and there was no ability to cultivate these lands.
There is a miasma in the South that kills people, and people generally believe that going to the South means death. Due to the humidity and heat, there are more endemic diseases in the south than in the north.
During the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in the Western Jin Dynasty, the Hu people took advantage of the chaos to rebel against the Jin Dynasty. After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, the royal family of the Jin Dynasty and the majority of residents in the northern Yellow River Basin entered the stable Yangtze River Basin to avoid chaos.
Later, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian established the Sui Dynasty in 581 and destroyed the Chen Dynasty in 589. This brought an end to 300 years of turmoil in China. During these three hundred years of turmoil, ethnic minorities massacred the Han people in the Central Plains, which caused economic damage. Seriously damaged, the Han nationality also gradually moved south.
The Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty caused a large number of northerners to move southward. The Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, and a large number of northern people moved southward until the Southern Song Dynasty completed the shift of the economic center of gravity southward.
After the Song Dynasty, large-scale rice planting began in the south, which effectively suppressed the spread of mosquito and fly diseases and improved land use efficiency, and the south gradually developed.
In fact, this statement itself is open to question.
In the more than a thousand years before the Song Dynasty, China's territory experienced three large-scale southward migrations. It was these three continuous overlapping developments that led to the prosperity of the Wuyue Kingdom and the all-round cultural and commercial prosperity of the Southern Song Dynasty.
1. The first time was the "Southern Development" of the Qin Dynasty
When the Qin Dynasty unified the six countries, the entire south of the Yangtze River was regarded as a barbaric and smog land, and there were There are schistosomiasis, venomous snakes on the ground, and local natives. The roads are still impassable, making development extremely difficult.
In order to transport grain, the First Emperor ordered the Ling Canal to be dug, and plank roads were built in Bashu to transport troops. It is unknown how many lives were spent to unify Dongou, Minyue, Ouyue, etc. The land of Guangdong and Guangxi.
When the Qin Dynasty fell, the southern governor Zhao Tuo did not return, and an army of 200,000 troops stayed in the south. Later, Zhao Tuo established the Nanyue Kingdom, and these people became the earliest developers of Lingnan.
It was not until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that Dong Ou moved inland and South Vietnam belonged to the interior, and the whole of China was once again unified. At this time, after more than 70 years of development, the south had already made considerable improvements. During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Jia Yi served as a tutor in Changsha. The Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha unearthed in the 1970s is even more luxurious.
2. The Jin Dynasty moved south
Before the Jin Dynasty moved south, we all know that Sun Quan’s father and brother were in charge of Jiankang (Nanjing) for three generations, and the land east of the Yangtze River divided the world. The most important thing is that the shipping industry was very developed during the time of Wu State, and maritime trade already existed.
That is to say, the Jin Dynasty moved south, made Jiankang the capital, and divided the north and the south. So from Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the east, to Hubei and Hunan in the center, and all the way to Bashu, they were all under the rule of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Even with the change of political power, the Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen Dynasties lasted for three hundred years. At that time, the south was already a wealthy land comparable to Chang'an, and the rice output of the two lakes began to exceed that of the north. .
3. The Anshi Rebellion
The third large-scale southward migration was caused by the Anshi Rebellion.
Because the Anshi Rebellion occurred in the north, from the east to the west, the people were ravaged by iron hoofs and displaced, creating a desolate scene.
Tang Xuanzong went directly from Chang'an to Hanzhong and took refuge in Bashu. People from the Central Plains area moved south to the south of the Yangtze River on a large scale.
The consequences of the Anshi Rebellion were extremely far-reaching, not just the Tang Dynasty's transition from prosperity to decline. It objectively caused China's economic and cultural center to shift to the south, causing the decline of the north in the next thousand years. And objectively, it led to the emphasis on literature over military affairs in the Song Dynasty, and the status of literati over generals, which also affected the political pattern for the next thousand years.
This time the northerners moved southward, they brought advanced technology from the north. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the land south of the Yangtze River became an important place for tax revenue.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the southern countries of Wuyue and Southern Tang Dynasty were much richer than Zhao Kuangyin’s Northern Zhou Dynasty in the north. The reason why Qian Miao of Wuyue State voluntarily gave up resistance was that unlike the prosperous Hangzhou that was destroyed by the war, he was able to continue to retain the economic center position in Jiangnan.
Therefore, it is untrue to say that Jiangnan was a "barbaric land" before the Song Dynasty.
Is the Jiangnan area a barren land?
This statement is first based on the civilization of the Central Plains. Before the Song Dynasty, the hinterland of Jiangnan was basically the border of the Central Plains dynasties, and the spread of Central Plains culture here was even less. Therefore, people in the Central Plains generally become a barbaric land.
Second, in fact, the term "wild land" is not accurate from a broad perspective. According to historical records: The large tombs of the Shang Dynasty in Oceania and the previously discovered ruins of Wucheng and Niutou City have fully proved that as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, this was the "Bronze Kingdom of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River", and the culture of Jiangnan was already quite extensive. developed. This discovery bridged the gap in the history of Jiangnan civilization and was a severe challenge to the "Central Plains-centrism". It shocked the world and caused a great shock! The Jiangnan region during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties was a backward, ignorant and "barbaric land". This traditional historical view is facing major revision! For this argument, a large number of exquisite bronzes unearthed in Ningxiang, Hunan, which is also in the Yangtze River Basin, and the Sanxingdui Cultural Site in Sichuan also provide strong evidence.
Therefore, Jiangnan is not a barbaric land in the narrow sense. It also has a glorious history and culture. The civilization in the Jiangnan region has also left a profound impact on modern history.