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

"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"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 9 List of tables 10 List of maps 11 The emperors of the two Han dynasties 12 1 Introductory orientations: the Later Han, its northwest frontier and regional identity 18 The Later Han 21 The northwestern frontier of the early Chinese empires 27 2 Opening new territory and partitioning the space: natural and administrative geographies of the early imperial northwest 42 Physical landscape 43 Political landscape before the Former Han 46 Political landscape in the Former Han period 50 Political landscape in the Xin and Later Han period 58 3 Being peripheralized: the northwesterners in the Later Han empire 72 Peopling a frontier 73 Peripheralization of the northwestern frontier 88 4 The others within: the Qiang Wars and the abandonment of the northwest 115 Who were the Qiang? 116 Enduring rivalry between Han and Qiang 122 Seeds of destruction 130 5 Epilogue: the beginning of the end 154 Bibliography 159 Index 175