Research On The Northern Frontier Political Geography Pattern Changes In The Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty is one of the most powerful and prosperous times in Chinese history. During the approximate three hundred years of its reign, the rulers have created extremely magnificent material wealth and spiritual civilization and highly developed economy, which makes Tang Dynasty so greatly well-known and influential that its reputation spread far and widely through times with great impact. During the governing of Tang Dynasty, its ruling territories changes several times. The ruling territory reaches an unprecedented scope in the early Tang Dynasty with the north ruling territory reaching to Lake Baikal Region and the Jimifuzhou (autonomous counties and prefectures) system being established. Although northern territory is not under the direct ruling of Tang government at the end of Emperor Gaozong’s reign, Tang government still maintains its dominant position towards the nomads in northern grassland before the outbreak of Anshi Rebellion, but with the breaking out of Anshi Rebellion, its preponderance gradually fades away. At that time, the central government even has to rely on the Uyghur inhabited in Mobei region to suppress the rebellion and recalcitrant Tibet-the formidable enemy in the west. The ruling territory has shrunk largely with only Monan region in the north, the western region being under the ruling of Tibet, the Long Mountain being the boundary of the two sides, and the western region of Lang Mountain and Long Mountain, the former northern boundary of Tang government, being the northern boundary of Tibet and Uigur. Up to the late Tang Dynasty, Tang government further loses the control of northern territory due to peasant uprisings.The thesis consists of four parts. The first part discusses the political and geographical patterns of northern territory in the early Tang Dynasty, including the natural geographical conditions of the northern territory, the emerging, development and decline of Eastern Turkic Khanate, the political policies that Tang government adopts to rule the northern territory and the establishment of the Jimifuzhou (autonomous counties and prefectures) in the Mobei region. The second part expounds the political and geographical patterns between the reign of Gaozong and Xuanzong, including the domination to jimi that Tang government adopts in Eastern Turkic Khanate, the migration of Huige tribe and the establishment of Huige Khanate, the internal migration of Dangxiang and the establishment and decline of Dangxiang’s Jimifuzhou (autonomous counties and prefectures), and garrison system of the northern territory in Tang dynasty. The third part discusses the political and geographical patterns in the late Tang Dynasty including the exchanges between Uigur Khanate and Tang government, the decline and the migration of the Uigur, the emerging and distribution of the DangXiang tribe and the garrison system of the northern territory in the late Tang Dynasty. The last part expounds the relationship between the alteration of the political and geographical patterns of the northern territory in Tang Dynasty and the economy and transportation, including the Turkic economy and its exchanges with central plains, the economy Uigur and its exchanges with central plains, the economic policies that the government adopts in ruling the northern territory, Through the discussion of the above four parts, this thesis mainly discusses the impact that the national relations has on the political geography, the ruling of Tang government to Jimi in the northern region and the impact that garrison system’s alteration and migration of nationalities have on the political pattern during the Tang Dynasty.Through researching the subject, the thesis takes time as the longitudinal clues to vividly reproduce the alteration of the political and geographical patterns in the northern territory of Tang Dynasty both in time and in space and furthermore, makes a preliminary analysis to the causes of the different patterns.