Why did the prosperous "Han and Tang Dynasties" all experience the western capital Chang 'an?

Chang 'an, the ancient capital of the 13th Dynasty, is the first capital called "Beijing" and the first real city in history. Zhou Wenwang made its capital here and built Fengjing. After King Wu ascended the throne, Hao Jing was built, which was collectively called Fenghao. Today, Ann is called "Good" for short. In the fifth year (the first 202 years), Emperor Gaozu established Chang 'an County, and built Changle Palace on the basis of the south bank of Weihe River, the north side of Epang Palace and Qinxingle Palace. In the seventh year (the first 200 years), Emperor Gaozu built Weiyang Palace, and the capital moved here from Liyang in the same year. Because it is located in Chang 'an Township, it is named Chang 'an City, which means "long-term stability". Luoyang, the ancient capital of the Nine Dynasties, is one of the first national historical and cultural cities announced by the State Council, one of the four ancient capitals in China and a world cultural city.

Historically, Chang 'an was located in Guanzhong area. With its special geographical and social conditions, it formed a military system to achieve reunification, and then gradually moved its political center to the world's Kanto (East) to realize the "universal" rule of the empire. This was the basic law of the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties. The so-called western capital, western capital, so we can look at it more broadly and talk about the issue of "moving the capital to the east" or "building the east" in ancient China. Here we temporarily put aside the situation that the western Jin Dynasty, the eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty were forced to move their capitals because of the fall of their capitals. Luoyang in ancient China was the world, and the Central Plains where it was located was also the most prosperous area in culture. The most powerful period in China, such as the Western Han Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty, was based in Chang 'an, not diametrically opposed. The Eastern Han Dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang after the Western Han Dynasty, and Wu Zetian also moved its capital to Luoyang after the establishment of the Wu Zhou Dynasty. Is there a connection between this? Taking the Anshi Rebellion as the node, we can roughly divide the ancient history of China into two sections. We can see that before the Anshi Rebellion, the capital was moved from Guanzhong to Guandong many times, or the east capital was built outside the capital of Guanzhong. The famous ones are the Duke of Zhou who built Luoyi, Emperor Guangwu who moved the capital to Luoyang, Yang Di and Wu Zetian who moved the capital to Luoyang. We find that this phenomenon runs through the Western Zhou Dynasty, Qin and Han Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, so the reasons behind it are as follows.

Luoyang peony

Looking at the Qin Dynasty first, we can see from the Chu-Han War that the purpose of Chen Sheng and Wang Huai is to restore the system of other countries, instead of replacing the Qin Emperor with Chu Emperor. Therefore, it can be said that the essence of the Chu-Han War is not only against the Qin State, but also against the Qin system, specifically against the Qin-style Guanzhong military system. In short, the success of the Qin Dynasty originated from its geographical conditions and social customs in Guanzhong, and established a set of military system with military reward as the core, which provided strong mobilization and achieved unity. However, its failure lies in its continuing to pursue the militaristic policy based on Guanzhong after reunification, rather than adopting the general policy of civil administration.

At the beginning of the founding of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Jing said to Liu Bang, "Is Luoyang in the world? Without virtue, it is easy to die. " Therefore, it is suggested that Liu Bang build Chang 'an as the capital and restrict the vassal States by virtue of the natural barrier in Guanzhong, which shows that the opposition between Guanzhong and Kanto is still profound in the early Western Han Dynasty, and the Guanzhong standard still occupies the mainstream. After nearly a hundred years of melting, the cultural contradiction between Guanzhong and Kanto gradually weakened, and the concept of "Seven Countries" has long been replaced by counties and counties, and Luoyang, which moved its capital to "Virtue is king", was put on the agenda.

The proposal to move the capital to Luoyang originated in the Western Han Dynasty and Yuan Di period. The biography of Yongfeng in Han Dynasty contains a letter saying: May your Majesty move the capital to a state? Long live, longing for the emperor. When Wang Mang was in power, the wind of moving the capital to Luoyang rose again, that is, Chen Wei said, "establish the emperor's virtue and take Luoyang as the country."

Zhou people established the Zhou Dynasty based on the West, but the customs in Guanzhong were completely different from those in Kanto, so the rule of Zhou people could not be carried out, which soon led to the chaos in Wu Geng. After the Duke of Zhou put down the rebellion, in order to carry out the Kanto rule, Luoyi, the capital of the East, was built, and the political center gradually turned to the East, dominating the world. After three hundred years of chaos in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, history returned to Guanzhong again. Yu Wentai united the forces of Beizhen and Guanlong Haozu, and formed the Guanlong Army state system with the government military system as the core, which was unified by Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty in less than a hundred years. For the empire, an important proposition is how to get rid of the influence of Guanlong Group and become an omnipotent empire. In order to achieve this goal, Yang Di moved the capital to Luoyang, promoted the gentry of Jiangnan and Shandong, and suppressed the political power of Guanlong Group, which eventually led to the dissatisfaction of Guanlong Group represented by Yang Xuangan and the demise of Sui Dynasty.

The unification of the Tang Dynasty means the re-realization of social integration. After 100 years of war, Guanlong Group gradually withered. Emperor Taizong redefined Genealogy to represent the reconciliation between Guanzhong and Kanto, and then determined the popularization process of the empire. The last blow to the old Guanlong Group was Wuhou from Shandong. After Wu Zetian established Wu Zhou, she was eager to get rid of the old forces in the DPRK, so she moved the capital to Luoyang, which dealt a fatal blow to Guanlong Group.

Longmen Grottos

Chang 'an area has a cyclical prosperity in history, with Chang 'an as its capital in the Western Zhou Dynasty and Chang 'an as its capital in the Qin, Western Han, Western Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties. It can be seen that these dynasties are basically powerful dynasties in the history of China. They have enough strength to resist the invasion of northwest ethnic minorities and moisten and strengthen their national strength with the fertile soil of Qinchuan in 800 miles. However, while they made the Guanzhong area prosperous, they also exhausted the soil fertility in this area (for example, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty tried to "eat Luoyang" many times), and the later dynasty Confucianism continued to build its capital here, with little room for development. Another reason is the destruction of Chang 'an area by the turmoil in the last years of the dynasty. During the reign of Wang Mang, Chang 'an was attacked several times, with a sharp drop in population and devastation. The grandeur and prosperity of the past are gone forever, and the conditions for continuing to be the capital are also lost.

Look at Luoyang, which is located on the south bank of the middle reaches of the Yellow River, across several rivers such as Iraq, Luoyang and Jianshe, with Mangshan Mountain in the north, Yique in the south, Tiger Prison in the east and Kansaka in the west. Known as the "crown of mountains and rivers, its shape is better than the world". According to Zhang Hua, Luoyang is a place to defend itself by risks, and it is "located in the center, with Gu Gu in the west, Jingshan in the east, Sanjiang in the south, and Sanjiang in Da Yue in the north, a country beset by wind and rain". Luoyang is the world, with a dangerous geographical position, which has always been a battleground for military strategists. In addition, the fertile soil, developed surrounding waterways and convenient water transportation in the Ilo Plain can solve the replenishment problem of the capital well, allowing the emperor to sit in the center, control the world remotely and concentrate on maintaining his own rule.

There are profound economic and political reasons for the changes here. The Han Dynasty finally moved its capital to Luoyang during the reign of Wu Zhao, but its popularization process was basically completed during the reign of Wu Zhao Zhao. Moving the capital to Chang 'an after the death of Wuhou does not mean the resurgence of Guanlong forces, and the political factors are equally complicated. This process did not appear again after the Tang Dynasty. I think there are about two reasons. One is that Guanzhong area was further weakened during the Five Dynasties, and the other is that China's political system was further improved during the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the regional-based policy could not be reproduced.

To sum up, the appellation of the eastern capital and the western capital in Chinese historical dynasties needs to meet two conditions: first, the two different historical periods continue the same legal system, at least the ruling group recognizes the continuity of political power between them; Second, in two different historical periods, the capital of political power and the status of things are relatively different. As for why there is an existing West and an East behind it, it involves another problem, that is, the loosening and subversion of the unified dynasty in China's history were basically caused by the harassment of nomadic people in the north as a fuse and catalyst. After the establishment of the new dynasty, most of the capitals of the old dynasty were in ruins, and they were forced to move inland under the pressure of the north, that is, to move south and east.

References: Chen Su Town: Chunqiu and Han Daoism.

Tanigawa Daoxiong: On the Formation History of Sui and Tang Empire

Kaiyuan: the Establishment of the Han Empire

Chen: On the Political History of the Tang Dynasty