The Genesis And The Vanishing Of The Sixteen Prefectures

The Sixteen Prefectures in the Liao Dynasty were located in today's Jing,Jin,and northern Hebei,eastern Hebei,northern Shanxi area.Due to its difficult terrain and numerous barriers,as well as the strategically important location and abundant natural resources,the place was granted with great military importance.At the end of Tang Dynasty,the segmentations in the Hebei military governorship had caused the chaos in Youzhou and the surrounding area.At the same time,the Khitan tribe that rapidly developed in Mongolia continued to expand southwards,showing its covetousness to the Youzhou area.During the period of the Five dynasties period,the severe military and political chaos had affected the Youzhou and Yunshuo areas,and the Khitan military and political forces had also been involved in the turmoil of the areas to fight for their ownerships.In 936 AD,the Hedong Khrom Jingtang Shi who based in Taiyuan initiated a revolt,and formed an alliance with Khitan to subvert the Houtang governance and establish the Houjin regime.In the year of 938,Shi offered the Sixteen Prefectures including the areas of You,Ji,Yun,Shuo to Khitan in return.Since then,the Sixteen Prefectures was subsumed under the regime of the northern ethnic separatist regime.Later,while the Khitan Liao Dynasty vigorously managed and rebuilt the area,the Central Plains regimes continued to organizemilitary northern expeditions towards the Sixteen Prefectures.Though they failed from time to time,they never forgot the intention to reclaim the governorship over the Sixteen Prefectures.During the Northern Song Dynasty,they either hoped for their own reforms towards a stronger national power,or dreamt of aligning the Jin regime to defeat the Liao regime.Until the rise of Mongolia,Kublai Khan set the capital in Dadu(Beijing),and achieved the unification the the country.It was not until this time that the issue of the Sixteen Prefectures was settled.The “issue of the Sixteen Prefectures” had been lasted for about 4 centuries,which to a certain extent had influenced the development of the political structures of the Five Dynasties,Northern Song Dynasty,Liao and Jin regime,as well as their tracks of historical development.Moreover,it resulted in the shift of the economic development center of the Central Plains regime to the Southern-East of China,and it shaped the fundamental characteristic of the Chinese historical and cultural tradition that is multiculturally united and pursues a joint development of one homeland.