"About" And The National Policy Of The Western Han Dynasty

This thesis which includes an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion systematically studied the application of “Treaties” in the development of the national policies in Western Han Dynasty(206 B.C.-A.D.24).The introduction considers basic issues for the study, including the background and rationale for the research, research aims and the academic achievements. This part points out that it is important to study the application of “Treaties” in the development of the national policies in Western Han Dynasty, not only because this work will fill in gaps in this field and promote our understanding, but also because this study pays more attention to the flexible aspect of national policies in Western Han Dynasty.Chapter1 reviews the distribution of nationalities in the first period of Western Han Dynasty as well the outline of regimes which built by those nationalities. According to these information, this part mainly studies the type and content of “Treaty” and the connection between “Treaty” and national relationship in the first period of Western Han Dynasty.Chapter2 reviews the development of Western Han’s comprehensive national strength and the situation of Western Han’s peripheral nationality regimes in the middle period of Western Han Dynasty. According to these information, this part mainly studies the type and content of “Treaty” and the connection between “Treaty” and national relationship in the middle period of Western Han Dynasty.Chapter3 reviews the distribution of nationalities in the last period of Western Han Dynasty. According to these information, this part mainly studies the evolution from “Treaty” to “Ban” and “Gao” in the last period of Western Han Dynasty, as well as its influence to the national relationship.The conclusion, the last part, sums up the main findings and the basic arguments of this thesis. This study demonstrate that all of the peripheral nationality regimes which are suitable for using the Western Han’s national policy of “Treaty” are powerful, at the same time, all of those regimes played important roles in the peace and development of the Western Han and its border areas. According to the development of “Treaty”, it is definitely that “Treaty” is the result of the game between Western Han and its peripheral nationality regimes. If the balance is changed, it is inevitable that the “Treaty” should be abolished or resigned. This argument could be proved by “Marriage for Peace Treaty”, “Treaty of Alliance”, and “Four Agreements With the Huns” which are treaties signed by the Western Han and the regime of Huns in different periods. So, to some extent, the development of “Treaty” reflects the truth that the Western Han had constantly strengthened its domination to the peripheral nationality regimes. It can also reflect the whole process of shaping, developing and flourishing of a multinational country in the Western Han Dynasty.