The Collapse of China's Later Han Dynasty, 25-220 CE: The Northwest Borderlands and the Edge of Empire (Asian States and Empires)

Description

In the Later Han period the region covering the modern provinces of Gansu, southern Ningxia, eastern Qinghai, northern Sichuan, and western Shaanxi, was a porous frontier zone between the Chinese regimes and their Central Asian neighbours, not fully incorporated into the Chinese realm until the first century BCE. Not surprisingly the region had a large concentration of men of martial background, from which a regional culture characterized by warrior spirit and skills prevailed. This military elite was generally honoured by the imperial centre, but during the Later Han period the ascendancy of eastern-based scholar-officials and the consequent increased emphasis on civil values and de-militarization fundamentally transformed the attitude of the imperial state towards the northwestern frontiersmen, leaving them struggling to achieve high political and social status. From the ensuing tensions and resentment followed the capture of the imperial capital by a northwestern military force, the deposing of the emperor and the installation of a new one, which triggered the disintegration of the empire. Based on extensive original research, and combining cultural, military and political history, this book examines fully the forging of military regional identity in the northwest borderlands and the consequences of this for the early Chinese empires. Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements List of tables List of maps The emperors of the two Han dynasties 1 Introductory orientations: the Later Han, its northwest frontier and regional identity The Later Han The northwestern frontier of the early Chinese empires 2 Opening new territory and partitioning the space: natural and administrative geographies of the early imperial northwest Physical landscape Political landscape before the Former Han Political landscape in the Former Han period Political landscape in the Xin and Later Han period 3 Being peripheralized: the northwesterners in the Later Han empire Peopling a frontier Peripheralization of the northwestern frontier 4 The others within: the Qiang Wars and the abandonment of the northwest Who were the Qiang? Enduring rivalry between Han and Qiang Seeds of destruction 5 Epilogue: the beginning of the end Bibliography Index