The Changes of Chinese Territory

The history of China's boundaries is about the history of the process of China's territorial changes from ancient times to the present day. China's boundaries have evolved since ancient times, from the "Shangshu - Yugong" nine states until the Republic of China in the shape of a begonia leaf, and then the Chinese people **** and the state boundaries of the change, and become a metaphor for the shape of the "rooster" to date. During the thousands of years of development. Nowadays, the Chinese people's **** and the country's national boundaries in the south neighboring Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar; southwest and India, Bhutan, Nepal border; west of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan; due north of the border with Mongolia; northeast of Russia and North Korea border; across the sea with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and other countries.

Summer, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, China's boundaries in a chaotic state. At that time, the tribal view was still strong, and the state was not fully mature. Therefore, the boundaries were also extremely uncertain. However, the three dynasties were all located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Xia was in the center, Shang in the east, and Zhou in the west.

During the Spring and Autumn period, the vassal states that were originally part of the Zhou dynasty were all focused on expansion as their first priority. The larger states were Chu, Jin, Qi, Qin, Wu, Yue, Yan, Zheng, Song, Wei, Lu, Ju and Zhongshan, plus the Zhou kingdom, which had already been reduced to a small state. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the western frontier of Qin extended to the upper reaches of the Wei River. The northern frontier of Jin reached the middle reaches of the Fen River in Shanxi. The state of Yan took possession of the Daling River basin. The State of Chu controlled the plain of Yunmengze. The state of Yue occupied the northern part of Zhejiang. These were the four boundaries at that time.

During the Warring States period, the three kingdoms were divided into three kingdoms, and the situation was chaotic. All the countries opened up their territories in all directions. The state of Zhao, through the Hufu Riding Archery, pushed its northern boundary from the Sanggan River to the Hetao area.

The state of Yan defeated the Eastern Hu and built the Great Wall, which extended its boundaries to the present Liaodong region. The expansion of Qin's territory was the most significant. In the west, it reached the Taohe River basin in present-day eastern Gansu, and it also conquered the states of Ba and Shu, expanding its power to the Sichuan region. The state of Chu also developed to the south into the Xiang, Zi, Yuan and Li basins, and to the west it occupied the western Hunan and western Hubei regions.

Qin Shi Huang created the first unified dynasty in Chinese history. During this period, the boundaries were greatly expanded. In addition to annexing the territories of the original Six Kingdoms, he conquered the regions of South Vietnam and Minyue. He also occupied the southern part of Henan Province and expelled the Xiongnu to the north of the Yinshan Mountains[1]. The Qin Dynasty connected the Great Walls built by Zhao, Yan and Qin during the Warring States period to form the Qin Great Wall, which stretches from Lintao to Liaodong and extends for more than 10,000 miles. It also opened the Five Foot Road in an attempt to penetrate into the southwest.

After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty by Liu Bang, Han Gaozu, he soon eliminated the vassals with different surnames, and then there was the chaos of the seven kingdoms during the reign of Empress Lu and Emperor Jing of Han. Due to the civil unrest at the end of the Qin Dynasty and the serious damage caused by the Chu-Han War, the early Western Han Dynasty was weak and had no time to take care of its borders. The land in Henan Province reverted to Xiongnu ownership during the Qin and Han dynasties[2]. South Vietnam, Minyue and Qianzhong were also abandoned. The country was greatly reduced.

After the economic development of the reign of Wen and Jing, the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was characterized by martial arts and unprecedented territorial expansion. In 127 BC, Wei Qing attacked the Xiong Nu in the north and recaptured the northern parts of Henan Land, Longxi, Beiji, and Shang County, and set up the two counties of Shuo Fang and Wu Yuan. The northern boundaries of Yunzhong and Yanmen counties were also extended outward. The northern boundary of the Western Han Dynasty was thus pushed to the Hetao, north of the Yinshan Mountains. In 121 B.C., Han general Huo Zaiwei went out to Longxi to destroy the Xiongnu tribes living in the Hexi Corridor, and set up Jiuquan County with its land. It was later divided into three counties, Zhangye, Dunhuang and Wuwei. Together with Jincheng County set up in Huangshui basin, the city of five counties in the west of the river. In 138 B.C., the king of Dong'ou was forced by the threat of the king of Min Yue to move his country to the present-day Jianghuai Valley. In 110 B.C., the Han army took Min Yue State into its territory. In 111 BC, the Han army leveled South Vietnam and took possession of Hainan Island, where it set up ten counties. In the southwestern region, the Han army conquered the states, and the border was once pushed to the Mourning Mountains and Gaoligong Mountains in Yunnan. In 108 years ago, the Han army annexed Wei's Korea and set up four counties in the northeast. The situation on the border was greatly improved. In the second year of Emperor Xuan's reign (60 BC), he established the Western Regions Defense Office to oversee the city-states in the Western Regions[3].

Toward the end of the Xinmang period, the boundaries of the new dynasty shrank. In the Liaodong region, the two counties of Zhenpan and Lintun were abolished. In the southwestern region, it went from seven counties to five, and abandoned Hainan Island and Xiang County. Later, during the Guangwu Zhongxing and Mingzhangzhi periods, the territories lost at the end of the Xinmang period were recovered and expanded, and in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the Central Plains were plagued by wars. The six counties of Dingxiang, Yunzhong, Wuyuan, Shofang, Shangxun and Beidi were abandoned. The Hetao, northern Shaanxi, northwestern Jin, and northern Hebei regions were successively abandoned during this period. Goguryeo and Limyi encroached on the northeastern and southern territories. Only the southwestern region expanded to the area around the Daying River.

[Mid-decline of the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the wandering of the North and South Dynasties

After the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Liaodong region was characterized by the power of various ethnic groups. The most powerful among them was Goguryeo. In 313 A.D., the Goguryeo took possession of Lelang, and the Chinese dynasty withdrew from the Korean Peninsula. 404 A.D., the Goguryeo further occupied two counties in the Liaodong region. The entire area east of the Liaohe River was now owned by Goguryeo.

There were a number of nomadic tribes in the northern desert region, and the largest force was Zoran, after the Tuoba Xianbei migrated to the central plains to establish the Wei dynasty. The war between Northern Wei and Zoran was constant, but the boundary was generally stable, with few changes. 555 years, Turkic and Northern Qi pincer attacked Zoran, Zoran was conquered. The Turks became the new hegemon of the northern desert. In addition, the Central Plains Dynasty also lost control of the Western Regions. Tukhun, on the other hand, threatened the borders of the regimes in northern China for a long time in the western region.

During the Three Kingdoms era, the Shu Han Dynasty set up a number of counties in the south-central region. The first and middle periods of the Southern Dynasty once controlled the Southwest, but after the Houjing Rebellion, various indigenous forces in the Southwest rebelled and became independent. The forces of the Southern Dynasties withdrew from Ningzhou. The Lin Yi State continued to grow northward, encroaching on the entire Ri Nan County. The southern boundary of the Chen Dynasty moved north to 18 degrees north latitude.

Remergence and re-expansion of the Central Dynasties of Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song and Jin