The Runan Country Of The Eastern Han Dynasty

In the eastern Han dynasty,runan county near the capital,is the bosom land of the emperor,occupied an important position.This paper takes runan county as the research object,starting from the development of runan county,the vicissitude of its counties and its principalities,the administrative measures of runan prefect,investigating the local governance’s characteristics of runan prefect and the regional economic and cultural’s development of runan county,in order to revealing the historical status of runan county.Between the Han dynasty,the runan county belonged to the regime of the eastern Han dynasty in the second year of the reign of Jianwu.At the beginning of the eastern Han dynasty,the administrative division of runan county inherited the administrative division system in the reign of Yuanshi,emperor Ping of the western Han dynasty,owned 41 countries.After combined,removed,and new settled,runan country owned 37 countries in the fifth year of the reign of Yonghe of emperor Shun,according to the record of County Annals.After that,the administrative area of runan county has also changed,and finally formed the administrative pattern of 39 counties.In the eastern Han dynasty,there were 51 people enfeoffed in runan county,and 31 counties were made into principalities.With the abolition of the principality,the principalities and the counties make the conversions.Due to the importance of runan county,the central government of the eastern Han dynasty,especially in the early stage,paid much attention to the appointment of runan prefect.The prefects took an active part in local governance.In the early period of the eastern Han dynasty,they carried out the imperial decrees and made some achievements in political,economy and culture.In the reign of emperor An,Shun,Huan and Ling,which was also the period of the dictatorship of the relatives and eunuchs,and the period of the chaos of the government,the runan prefects gave full play to his positivity,selected virtuous officials,rectified the bureaucracy,and clarified the politics of runan..In the period of warlords’ infighting at the end of the eastern Han dynasty,the runan prefects exercised military functions to control and stabilize runan society on behalf of different separatist forces.The local governance measures of the runan prefects presented the characteristics of stages with the change of the political situation of the eastern Han dynasty:in the early stage of the eastern Han dynasty,many measures were taken simultaneously,then in the period of emperor An,Shun,Huan,Ling,clarifying politics were the most important,and in the period of emperor Xian,they committed to control and stabilize runan society.Because of the lucidum political environment in the early eastern han dynasty,the policy of attaching importance to the development of economy and culture,as well as the active and promising administrative measures of the runan prefects,the economy and culture of runan county presented a sustained development trend.In economy aspect,the agricultural economy developed and the population increased.In culture aspect,private schools flourished,enlightenment prevailed and scholar increased.However with the political corruption caused by the consorts and eunuchs,the local peasant uprising and the separation of warlords,the economy and culture of runan county suffered heavy losses and declined after emperor Huan.In economy aspect,small-scale peasant economic bankruptcy and exile,In culture aspect,affected by Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions,runan county’s scholars were persecuted,and doubt on the Confucian value,Confucianism declined,the ethos of rigidity also has gone.The rise and fall of runan county in the eastern Han dynasty changed with the political situation of the eastern han dynasty,and the local governance measures of the runan prefects,to some extent,accelerated the govern and rise of runan county and delayed the chaos and decline of runan county,but could not change the result.The change of runan country’s economy and culture from prosperity to decline was the inevitable result under the influence of political changes in the eastern Han dynasty.