In ancient times, the northern separatist forces often won. Do you think this is a coincidence?

When studying Chinese history, you will find an interesting phenomenon, that is, a major theme in ancient Chinese history is that the northern nomads continued to attack the farming civilization southward.

The "nomads" here do not refer to a specific ethnic group. Sometimes many different nomads appear at the same time, and the relationship between them is very loose and not strictly subordinate. Just like the famous "Battle of Feishui", after Fu Jian's defeat, the national army became even more dissatisfied with him, and the situation became a situation where everyone was pushing against him.

Because there are more than one nomadic people in the north, an interesting phenomenon has occurred:

The northern peoples continue to attack the south, and some of them are brave and good at fighting. They were the first to cross the Great Wall. , occupying the colorful world of the Central Plains. We know that living environment determines national culture. If the nomadic peoples who have entered the Central Plains want to survive in the long term, they must accept the system and lifestyle of agricultural civilization. Over time, these ethnic groups gradually became Chinese and became a farming civilization. But there are other nomads in the north, and those nomads also want to occupy the Central Plains!

The result is that the nomads who entered the Central Plains before have to use the power of agricultural civilization to withstand the fierce attacks of the nomads further north, and the situation has turned.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen also faced such a dilemma. After he entered the Central Plains, Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital from today's Datong City, Shanxi Province to Luoyang, Henan Province in order to better rule the Central Plains. city. The entire upper-class nobility of the Xianbei tribe was moved to the south by him. Because we still have to resist the southern invasion of other ethnic groups in the north, after moving south, we must leave a group of defensive troops in the north. This group of defensive troops was called the "Six Towns of Xianbei" because they were stationed in six military towns (military strongholds).

It should be emphasized that at this time, Xianbei had just taken over the Central Plains, the six towns had not yet been fully Chineseized, and the soldiers in the six towns were still powerful nomadic warriors.

Something happened at this time.

Because Emperor Xiaowen launched a very radical "Comprehensive Sinicization" movement in Luoyang, not only the language and clothing must be Sinicized, but also the system must be Sinicized. The most important thing is that one of the traditions of the Han people is to govern the country with civilian officials. Whoever has a high level of education will become an official. Emperor Xiaowen also copied this system.

In terms of the system itself, there is nothing wrong with it and it is a very reasonable policy. But Emperor Xiaowen acted too hastily, which had the opposite consequences. The soldiers in the six towns of Xianbei were all rude warriors who grew up from the grasslands and fought on the battlefield. They did not understand any poetry and culture. They only knew that after the court's official selection system was suddenly changed, the promotion of soldiers in the six towns in the court was The channel is completely blocked.

From the perspective of the soldiers in the six towns, this incident really made them very excited: It was obviously us who conquered the Xianbei country through life and death, but those nobles actually went to imitate the foreign races that we defeated, and imitated them It's infuriating enough to dress and talk like them and be proud of it. Now this is the only way to be qualified to be a high official?

——So we are not convinced, this is so unfair!

As a result, because of Emperor Xiaowen's radical sinicization, after his death, the soldiers in the six towns immediately rebelled, forming a new regime with the soldiers in the six towns as the core. The soldiers in the six towns are all professional soldiers, and their identities are hereditary, thus forming large families with great military strength. The aristocrats we usually call all started from culture, while the soldiers of the six towns are all military aristocrats.

Most of these military nobles occupied the "Guanlong" area of ​​Chang'an generation, so they were also called "Guanlong nobles".

"Guan" refers to the Guanzhong area of ​​Shaanxi Province. This is where the "Guanzhong area" has appeared many times in Chinese history. "Long" refers to the Longshan area in Gansu next to "Guanzhong". "Guanlong" is roughly equivalent to today's eastern Gansu Province and central Shaanxi Province in my country.

This area was very important in ancient times. What is special about it is that it is located at the junction of agricultural areas and nomadic areas, and has the advantages of both civilizations:

The Guanzhong area is one The basin-shaped plain has developed agriculture, so it can support a large population and has a strong economic level. This is the advantage of agricultural civilization. At the same time, it is close to nomadic areas, and the people have the sturdiness of nomads and fight bravely. This is the advantage of nomadic civilization. Moreover, there are natural terrain barriers on all sides of Guanzhong, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack, making it suitable for self-defense.

Because of these favorable conditions, in Chinese history, the Guanzhong area often gave birth to powerful military groups, and the Qin State that unified the six countries originated from Guanzhong. Many dynasties in ancient China liked to set their capitals in Chang'an, precisely because Chang'an was located in the center of the Guanzhong region.

The Guanlong nobles were the most powerful military group at that time.

Why do you say this? We can first take a look at the overall situation in China at that time.

At this time, China was divided into two parts, north and south. The north was ruled by nomadic regimes like the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the south was ruled by the Han regime.

The power of the southern political power is in the hands of some hereditary nobles and powerful men, which is called "political power". This is a very backward political system. It has many shortcomings, let’s just name two:

First of all, clan politics is not conducive to national unity. A unified country should have a strong central government that holds local financial and military power in its hands. Local governments must put the central government first and follow the central government in everything they do. Clan politics is just the opposite. Those big families put the interests of their own family first, thinking first about how to protect their own land and how to pay less taxes. Under their influence, national policies tend to be separatist and self-protective. From the warlord wars at the end of the Han Dynasty until the reunification of the Sui Dynasty, China was divided for 360 years (except for the brief reunification in the Western Jin Dynasty). This was the longest period of division in Chinese history, and it was not unrelated to the clan system.

The second and most critical point is that under clan politics, power is inherited by blood, not selected by strength. Then officials have no motivation to work hard and do not need to achieve any political achievements. If you don’t do business anymore, what are you going to do? In addition to satisfying material desires, human beings also have spiritual pursuits. The highest realm of spiritual pursuit is art and philosophy. The aristocrats of the south were most passionate about these things, and their level of poetry, prose, and poetry was the highest in the country at that time. The great calligrapher Wang Xizhi and the great painter Gu Kaizhi are among them. In addition, they are also keen on studying metaphysics and Buddhism, both of which belong to the category of philosophy.

The problem is, if all the officials are studying art and philosophy, then who will manage the country? How can this country be good if no one manages it? Officials in the Wei and Jin Dynasties were immersed in this situation all day long, which led to a classic comment left by later generations: "Talk alone harms the country."

Even if they don’t manage the country, these people are still eroding the country’s interests.

In ancient China, taxes were collected based on household registration for most of the period. Taxes will be collected based on how many people are registered in the household registration. In order to prevent people from leaving their household registration and evading paying taxes, the state conducts regular population censuses. The wealthy and aristocratic people are all big landowners. They protect the people on their own land and let them work for them, but they do not allow them to register their household registration. In this way, wealthy landowners pocketed the taxes that should have been paid to the state.

At that time, the population gap between the north and the south was not very big, but by the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the population in the northern household registration was ten times that of the south. This also means that the tax revenue is ten times that of the south, and the national strength is ten times that of the south. If these two regimes fight, isn't it obvious who will win and who will lose?

We can say that the sinicization of the northern nomads is "copycat" and imitated from the south. Even Emperor Xiaowen caused a rebellion among his men because the copycat was not good enough. But copycats have at least one advantage. The northern regime does not have the chronic diseases of the southern clan society, and none of the ills mentioned above exist. Once Chineseization is completed, the system will be superior to that in the south.

For example, northern literati were not good at writing poetry and painting, but they were keen on practical knowledge. The geography magazine "Shui Jing Zhu" and the agricultural book "Qi Min Yao Shu" were both written by northerners. Obviously, these practical knowledge are of greater benefit to the country.

The decline and rise of national power has changed the political landscape.

When the strength of the north and the south is similar, no one can defeat the other, and China can only fall into long-term division. With the gradual Chineseization of the northern regime and the continuous degradation of the southern aristocratic society, the gap in strength between the two sides is getting wider and wider. After the difference reaches a certain level, the north will definitely be able to unify China.