The Research Of Commanderies In Southern Tang Dynasty

Commanderies is a kind of military town, which was established in the middle and late Tang dynasty. After An Shi Rebellion, the local governments were gradually controlled by commanderies instead of the central government of Tang dynasty. But southeast commanderies including Huainan Dao is the sources of Tang government finance, so it was still tightly controlled by the Tang government. By the end of the Tang dynasty, especially after the Huang Chao Rebellion, southeast commanderies including Huainan Dao, as financial resources of the Tang government, gradually became independent in its military and finances, which weas similar to "overlord" in the Central Plains and Heshuo, and gradually becoming a separatist forces. During Yang Wu period, the regime was established, and the emperors appeared one after another, but Yang Wu regime inherited the tradition of the Tang dynasty, widely setting commanderies in its states. And powerful minister, Xu Wen, Xu Zhi became military governor of Zhenhai Ningguo (repress and protect the whole country)army, keeping the remote control towards the central government. So Yang Wu regime was still under the influence of "overlord politics". After Wu Tang dynasty revolution, Li Yi, an emperor of Tang dynasty learned the lessons from Yang Wu’s failure to take the measures of "running the state by intellectuals" and "protection of the well-being of the local people". From the two sides of commanderies itself and its officers, the emperor tried to eliminate the influence of the military on the local government, improve the military regime, and establish the imperial guard troop, leading to military functions of commanderies gradually shrinking and declining. Southern Tang finally got rid of the overlord political influence and implemented power centralization.The first three chapters review historical origins of commanderies in southern Tang dynasty from different historical stages. The first chapter mainly starting with the Huangchao Uprising as a tipping point, describes the process of Huainan Dao as the original "financial military commanderies" turning into the "overlord" under the control of Yang xingmi. Under influence of Huang Chao’s Uprising, the original military and financial basis of Huainan Dao "financial military commanderies" progressively collapsed. Gao Pian hoped to use this turmoil as an opportunity to build a powerful "overload" by taking advantage of the national transportation jam and the subsequent "The Emperor personally written in ink to remove someone from office" By consolidating the chaos of financial and military orders, he tried to establish a powerful "overlord" in the area between Yangtze river and Huai river. Not only could he become strong, but also he could fight independently against the aggression of the warlord Qin Zongquan in the Central Plains. Due to his false measures, such as putting too much faith in Lv Yongzhi etc, caused dissatisfaction from Bi Shiduo, Qin Yan and others, leading to the opposition between the newly promoted departmen and the original department. So Bi Shiduo and the others started to rebel, arresting Gao Pian. Yang Xingmi took the opportunity to rise in Luzhou, successively defeating Qin Yan, Bi Shiduo, Sun Ru and Ge Congzhou and others. Finally, he completely controlled the area between Huai River and Xuanzhou, Shengzhou and Changzhou in Southern China. By integrating various forces in wars, they built their own powerful armed forces. During the gaps in wars, by loosening the control over common people, productivity recovery, independent taxation and finance and appointment their local officials independent, which build a strong overlord politics at last.Chapter two narrates the transition from overlord politics to separatist regime. Ater the death of Yang Xingmi, his son Yang Wo attempted to establish the authority, but due to his own factors, the power gradually transferred to inferior military officer, Xu Wen in a series of political gambles. He achieved military exploit on the war of suppress Jiangxi province and Wu and Yue states war, integrated local forces and gradually established authority, moreover, promoted Yang Wu to declare himself as an emperor and established a regime. In fact, the power still was controlled by Xu Wen and Xu Zhihao among the overlord in Zhenhai Ningguo army.In the end, Xu Zhihao promoted Wu Tang dynasty revolution and established southern Tang dynasty under overlord’s authority.This stage is a transition period form the overlord politics to separatist regimeChapter three explores historical facts to investigate commanderies situation after the establishment of southern Tang dynasty. Above all, starting from the situation of Lihtsou in his early years, he had a profound understanding on commanderies’ domineering manner due to his early personal experiences, so he distrusted of worriers including foreign warriors. So he promoted measures, such as "running the state by intellectuals" and "protection of the well-being of the local people", appointed literati as commanderies officer, reduced wars and weakened the effect of worriers in political life. By the efforts of Lihtsou, prosperous culture was set up, and the traditional worship worriers was transformed. After succession of Nyioetson and Hou Dzu, they also succeeded the policy of "running the state by intellectuals",and eliminated influences of worriers by measures. At last, using Lin Renzhao several out-of-commanderies experiences and wining many victories on the battlefield, but in the end his"killed by poison" experience as a case study, to show the ruler of southern Tang dynasty to stay vigilant on worriers.Chapter four mainly investigates the evolution of commanderies and executive appointments in southern Tang dynasty. Thus, it discusses the differences between the army in general commanderies and army in counties, such as, Jianwu army, Xiongyuan army, Jiangyin army,subsidiary counties under the government of commanderies in southern Tang dynasty and candidates for executives, as well as its official position, ranking its migration scenario and commanderies executives’tenure gradually decreasing trend from frontier to the central government. After Yuan dynasty, hereditary system was basically eradicated and the style of warrior chief executive was different form overlord period. In addition, out-of-town was adopted by rulers as methods of official demoting, so commanderies was lowering its status and commanderies executives was not accepted willingly by central government official. By letting central government official directly "know state affairs"and establishing tunpan, which further limited the powers of commanderies. At last, it probes into another factor that southern Tang dynasty commanderies cannot cause social unrest--establishment of the imperial guard troop in southern Tang dynasty. Commanderies in southern Tang dynasty is no longer the only armed forces in the local place, there are also camping soldiers of the imperial guard troop and township army with characteristics of militia forces in the local places. Those three military forces do not subordinate but contain to each other, reducing the military functions of commanderies itself, so they put an end to the insurgency in commanderies.