A Spatial-temporal Exploration Of Local Armed Rebellion In The Three Kingdoms Period

The Three Kingdoms period was a time of division and chaos,and the military was a major theme.Since the Eastern Han Dynasty,local armies have been active as a special military force with the rise of powerful landowners,and have grown in the chaotic times of the late Han.Groups such as Cao Cao and Liu Bei started with local armies and gradually formed regimes,and these groups(or regimes)frequently confronted each other militarily.But in addition,in the counties or peripheral areas that they already controlled,new local armed activities often flowed or grew up,which were a kind of local rebellion in relation to the rule.This included the rapid gathering of forces such as private soldiers and minions of military generals and commanders,as well as clan folk and foreign nationalities,which were mostly military acts caused by changes in the surrounding situation or by misguided ruling policies.Rebellion included mutiny and defection of subordinates,and chaos was mainly a result of banditry and bankruptcy.Taking the three kingdoms of Cao Wei,Shu Han and Sun Wu as axes,it is worthwhile to cut through the discussion with a historical-geographical perspective as such rebellions were encountered at different stages and regions of their development,affecting the formation of the regimes as well as the history of the three kingdoms after their triumph.The exploration reveals that the Central Plains hinterland gradually moved towards peace after Cao Cao’s rise to sweep away the warlords,with the remnants of the Yellow Turbans,the first rats in its midst,diminishing;the benefits of the mountains and the sea made banditry rampant on one side of Qing Xu,affecting the stability of the east;local armed groups in Guanzhong erupted after accumulating under Cao Cao’s group’s strategy of first going east and then going west,but were resolved centrally;and the ethnic rebellion in Liangzhou was the result of a regime confrontation drawn from the Central Plains to the northwest.The relatively few rebellions under Shu Han were the result of a combination of peaceful accumulation in the Jing and Yi regions and good governance of Shu;however,Liu Bei’s entry into Shu and a series of reforms to the inner counties of southern China,coupled with a brief spat with Sun Wu,made southern China unsettled;behind the tranquillity of Zhuge’s strict governance of Shu,the northern expeditions also laid the groundwork for rebellions to move to the north;in the post-Zhuge era,fatigue with northern expeditions and even listening to the enemy’s entry into Ping,overwhelmed the northern counties and caused the barbarians to move.The local armed forces of Sun Wu were diverse,with mobile clansmen and draconians more active than the ’mountain yue’ who settled in the mountains;the spatial distribution moved from east to west,influenced by the development of Sun Wu’s territory and the natural geography of the south;and the rebellions in the Jing and Jiao regions in the later period were centrifugal in nature and an important factor in the fall of the state.A comparison of the regions reveals that the tradition of enlightenment and good governance in the north and the restored strength of the state enhanced Cao Wei’s own stability and in turn exacerbated the unrest in the south;the special mountainous and seaside regions were often hotbeds of local armed rebellion;the regimes took active measures to deal with the rebellions,adapting to local conditions and attempting to bring such military forces to bear;the foreigners in the southern regimes were an important source of rebellion;the Shu Han territory was spatially deep from north to south The Sun Wu territory was stretched east-west,with thousands of miles of river defences,but after the fall of the Shu Han and the loss of its western allies,it was surrounded by enemies on three sides,and the rebellious tide at its borders was out of reach.All this helps to give a more comprehensive and in-depth grasp of the historical development of the Three Kingdoms period.Of course,the discussion of ’chaos’ is also for the sake of ’governance’,to better reduce the possibility of local ’chaos’ and to enhance the efficiency of the methods used to manage it."The discussion of ’chaos’ is also for the sake of ’governance’,to better reduce the possibility of local ’chaos’ and to enhance the efficiency of the methods used to manage local ’chaos’ in order to achieve long-term peace.