河西에서의 政權 出現과 河西의 浮上

Abstract

The Sixteen Kingdoms Period of Wu Hu (五胡 “Five Barbarians”) defeated powerful unified nations of the central China although it was during a short period of time. Power shifts of Wu Hu, ignoring concerns over dynamics of political power shifts outside of the central China, have been generally comprehended with the idea that Wu Hu powers incoherently competed among themselves. The discipline rather focused on discourses only on the central China. In this dissertation, I analyzed the development of political powers in the HéXi region for a comprehensive study of power shifts of Wu Hu. I believe the HéXi region is not just a corridor region or a pathway but also a boundary region where it developed its own political. There are mainly two aspects that made the HéXi region possible to develop as separate political powers. First, the isolated natural environment combined with political factors ensured the spacial independence. Although it is an arid region, it also has a lot of water resources in mountain areas. Four main cities in the HéXi region were developed along with such water resources. The development of agriculture on a large scale in these areas are inferred. Geographical circumstances of the HéXi region were beneficial for the trade with the west of China. Besides, stock-farming was abundant compared to other regions. In addition, Western Qin (西秦) and Tǔ​yù​hún (吐谷渾) blocked the relation with the central China, and thus the HéXi region could be developed as an independent political region. Later Qin (後秦) maintained its political power strong and tried to control the HéXi region through Western Qin (西秦). Despite Later Qin‘s (後秦) ambition, it could not completely control HéXi region due to its geographical and political limits. Second, after the downfall of Former Qin, Later Liang (後涼) was established first and after the downfall of Later Liang many of other powers established their nations. The foundation of Lü Guang (呂光)‘s Later Liang provided a new path and changed political circumstances to other powers to establish their own nations in the HéXi region. Even though Lü Guang (呂光) faced hardships, his leadership decentralized the political power of Former Qin of the central China. Many of other powers who modeled after Later Liang developed to separate nations and such phenomena led to the so-called “division” of several political powers in the HéXi region. However, this phenomenon was not the division of a political power to several powers but the development of existing minor groups to respective nations. Lü Guang‘s eastablishment of Later Liang was not easy because of existing powers and officers to this region from Former Qin. Despite hardships that Lü Guang had, the development of Later Liang suggested blueprints to other powers. Minor powers who were under control of Later Liang finally developed to Southern Liang (南涼), Northern Liang (北涼), and Western Liang (西涼) respectively. Although there were conflicts between diverse ethnicities, the HéXi region developed to an independent political region setting boundaries from the central China. Since the political power of the HéXi region developed separately, Northern Wei (北魏) who was developing its power from Hebei (河北) did not consider the HéXi region intimidating. Thus, Northern Wei focused on developing its power to Later Qin of the central China after the downfall of Xia (夏) which was located between Northern Wei and Later Qin.