Elegy of Tang Dynasty

A prescription that is not a prescription—an alternative interpretation of the separatist rule of vassal towns in the middle and late Tang Dynasty
The authoritative book on the study of feudal towns is the textbook published by Renmin University Press. Zhang Guogang, a professor of the Department of History at Tsinghua University, "Study on Fan Towns in the Tang Dynasty (Updated Edition)" basically explains everything about the feudal towns clearly.

This book is older than many readers today. Since then, academic research results have not overturned the conclusion of this book, but have added to and strengthened it.

In order to pave the way for the second half of my novel, it is necessary to mention the feudal town here.It will be discussed from the following aspects, which are the issues that readers are more concerned about, namely:

First, the classification of feudal towns.

Second, the social foundation of the feudal town.

Third, the positive and negative effects of vassal towns on the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

Fourth, the origin, development and demise of vassal towns.

Without explaining the basic concepts, I will only talk about the author's own understanding of the feudal town.

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The first one is the classification of feudal towns.

This concept was proposed by Du Mu, a famous political commentator in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

That's right, just like people are different from each other, feudal towns can also be classified.

Du Mu concluded at that time that feudal towns can basically be divided into four types:
The first type is the rebel separatist type dominated by the three towns of Heshuo.On the surface, they are the remnants of the Anshi Rebellion, but in fact they have profound social foundations and hundreds of years of interest entanglements.

The semi-independent status of the three towns in Heshuo is the result, not the cause.

This kind of vassal town was famous far and wide for its arrogance and domineering. Many strange things in the middle and late Tang Dynasty came from here.For example, this is the case with the famous "Emperor of Chang'an, Wei Boya Bing".

Their characteristic is that they do not pay taxes to Chang'an. The internal officials of the vassal town basically recruit themselves, and the Jiedushi are recommended internally, and they can often receive rewards from Chang'an.Not long after the Anshi Rebellion ended, there was even a situation where the three towns of Heshuo expanded their territory and threatened the central government.In the later period, it was peaceful and independent with Tang Ting.

Its number of internal turmoils is second to none among all vassal towns (65/171)

The second type of feudal town was created to defend against the three towns of Heshuo. It was a defensive feudal town that existed in a large area around the three towns of Heshuo. It was also the so-called "Central Plains Defense and Containment Fan Town".

The characteristic of this type of vassal town is that all the governors are appointed by the court, they have strong military strength, and there are frequent arrogant and unruly generals.This type of vassal town is also responsible for maintaining the lifeline of the Tang Dynasty - the Jianghuai Canal.

It is worth mentioning that the above are only superficial interpretations.In fact, this type of vassal town was not at all the mainstay supporting the imperial court in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Its internal turmoil was not inferior to the three towns in Heshuo, and it could not be tightly controlled by the imperial court.

Internal mutinies looted military supplies, killed Jiedushi to support themselves, robbed court supplies from other vassal towns, and even refused to carry out court orders. These trivial things were commonplace.

By the way, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Wen served as the military governor of the Xuanwu Army in the Central Plains vassal town and began to strive for world hegemony.So if you think about it a little, you will know that there must be constant moths in these Central Plains feudal towns.Its number of internal turmoils is second only to the three towns of Heshuo. (52/171)

The third type of vassal town is the "frontier imperial vassal town" that was reorganized after the northwest frontier was continuously invaded by foreign tribes such as Tubo and Uighurs and the defense line was broken.Some of them were the remnants of the former Hexi Jiedushi, Longyou Jiedushi and Shuofang Army.Some were split from the newly expanded "Shence Army" of the imperial court.

This type of vassal town is characterized by its extremely strong military strength, but its local output is also extremely limited. It relies entirely on supplies from Chang'an and faces strong military pressure from foreign tribes in the northwest.

Because military expenditures were completely dependent on the Tang court and they faced strong pressure from foreign tribes, this type of vassal town experienced less turmoil than the middle prototype vassal town. (42/171)

It is worth mentioning that the reason for the unrest in these feudal towns was actually just because the Tang court was short of money and silk, or the commander-in-chief of the feudal town oppressed the soldiers and withheld food and salary.This type of vassal town has the highest loyalty to the imperial court. It can be said that it is one of the capitals of the Tang Dynasty to establish a foothold in Guanzhong.

But having said that, the so-called "loyalty" of the northwest feudal town also has conditions and boundaries.They will only be loyal when the food and salary from the imperial court are in place.If the food and salary are not in place, then there is no reason to rebel.

The most typical example is that in the early days of Tang Dezong's accession to the throne, who was nicknamed "Little Longji", he did not pay attention to the demands of the northwest vassal towns, which led to the outbreak of the "Jingyuan Mutiny".

The fourth type of vassal town is called the "Southeast Wealth Type", which is basically located in Jingxiang, Jianghuai, Jiangnan and other places.It was less damaged by the Anshi Rebellion and became the granary and money bag to maintain the operation of the Tang Dynasty.

The vassal towns here were all set up by the Tang court on their own initiative after the Anshi Rebellion. They had very few troops, generally no more than [-] people, and their purpose was only to defend against bandits.

There was also less internal turmoil in these vassal towns. (12/171)

It can be seen that not all types of vassal towns are unruly or arrogant.There is only the first type of vassal town that is truly open-fire and "disobeys orders".

So why was it that the Tang court was unable to deal with the separatist vassal towns in the middle and late Tang Dynasty? Let’s talk about the second point here.

A strong social foundation for the existence of the feudal town.

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Second, the social foundation of the feudal town
Any regime can exist only if it is separated from its social foundation, otherwise the political structure cannot exist stably.So, what is the social foundation of the feudal town?

This question cannot be answered directly. The social, economic, and political structure of the Middle Tang Dynasty must be viewed together.

During the Mid-Tang Dynasty, the population cycle had entered a "period of high risk". During the Tianbao period, the Ministry of Households had more than 800 million household registrations. If hidden household registrations are also included, then the entire Tang Dynasty had a population of at least 5000 to 6000 million. Only Probably more, not less.

The development of agriculture has entered a bottleneck period; the scale and quality of the commodity economy are completely unmatched by the previous court.At this time, the social structure of the Mid-Tang Dynasty (before the An-Shi Rebellion) took on a completely different look from before.

According to previous rules:
Land annexation followed a standard pattern, with a large number of homesteaders becoming tenants, dependent on the powerful, and becoming "black households" under the protection of the powerful.

At the same time, a large number of bankrupt farmers have left their homes and become a source of social instability.The Tang Dynasty at that time followed this trend and used the recruitment system to temporarily suppress social conflicts.But it cannot solve the fundamental problem.

It is impossible for nobles to take the rope handed to them by the poor and hang themselves for the sake of revolution, right?
The fields in the hands of the nobles would not be spit out unless someone put a knife to their necks.

So we could only kill some powerful people and restart the dynasty.

However, the situation in Datang was slightly different.

During the Tianbao period, a large number of bankrupt farmers became Long March athletes in border towns and settled in the local areas.This gave Datang a social foundation for frantic border expansion, provided the raw materials for Ji Ge's ideal of border expansion, and temporarily alleviated the outbreak of social conflicts.

An Shi Rebellion interrupted the process of opening the border.

But we can assume how the situation would have evolved if there had been no Anshi Rebellion.

Land annexation in the Central Plains cannot be suppressed, and the number of bankrupt farmers will only increase, becoming an unstable factor with unknown levels of damage.The frontier cannot accommodate them, so they can only start a crazy involution mode.

The Tang Dynasty opened in the direction of the Western Region, and the population that could be accommodated there was extremely limited.

The development of science and technology has also entered a bottleneck period, and there is no social soil for the implementation of the industrial revolution.

The trend of extravagance and lust among the upper echelons of the Tang Dynasty was getting higher and higher. The wealthy families were stinking of wine and meat, and people were freezing to death on the road.

Therefore, chaos on the border, peasant uprisings, and even rebellions within the ruling class are all high-probability events. It is impossible to remain stable, and it is impossible for Ji Ge to survive forever.

So at this time, the historical process began to face choices.

If conditions permit, there will be a turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty, 2000 to 4000 million people will die, the population cycle will be reset to the initial point, and the three plans of equalizing land, government soldiers, and light tax burden will be implemented again, and the old path of Zhenguan will be followed again. .A large number of new powerful people were born.

Many careerists at that time may have planned this.

However, in the minds of some people, including many people who regretted the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty in later generations, the will of those people who should die may be scattered, but they converge into the trend of history, that is:
Times have changed!We don’t want to go back the way Zhenguan did!
Regardless of whether there is the Anshi Rebellion or not, the feudal town will be the choice of history, but it may not be called a feudal town, or it may be called something else.But something similar will definitely appear.

Whether you like it or not, the feudal town is the trend of history and the choice of history. It is a "firewall" built by Tang Dynasty society in order to adapt to the changes in the situation.

After all, no matter how bad order is, it is better than no order at all.The feudal town is the greatest common denominator of the entire mid-Tang Dynasty society!

Those bankrupt farmers who have lost their land need to find a way out while land annexation has not stopped.This path is to join the army in a feudal town and be a Qiu Ba!

These people have learned the art of killing and no longer want to go back to farming honestly. There may have been honest people in the past, but their endings were not good, so the remaining Qiu Ba people do not want to be manipulated by others.

For those literati, there was no place for them in the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, but there was a place for them in the shogunate of the feudal lord.

Surrounded by wolves, the mainland is ready to move. Tang Ting needs heavy troops to stabilize the situation and stabilize the contradictions at the bottom of society.

Fan Town may not be that good, but it is the most cost-effective option.

Everyone unanimously accepted that this was the social basis for the existence of the feudal town.

These bankrupt refugees are not dependent on large local households, nor are they part of these large households.Therefore, it is obvious that the way for local large households in the past dynasties to become the ruling class of the new dynasty through their own private armies has been broken.

Unintentionally, the feudal town suppressed the feudal tyrants and revolted!

Moreover, because the population has begun to move on a large scale, the land transfer speed has become faster, and it has become difficult to have a large family that has been dominant in one area for decades.Although land annexation continues, land is changing owners frequently.

These factors are mixed together, and after the erosion of time, what finally reaches a stable state is the feudal town.Because of the differences in local sentiments and distribution of political forces, four types of vassal towns evolved.

This system is only very unfavorable to Tang Ting, but is it also true for other forces and other classes?
Then it depends on who is writing the history books!
It is worth mentioning that although the types of feudal towns are different, the habits and social foundation of the military officers and soldiers within the feudal towns are surprisingly consistent!
For this reason, by the end of the Tang Dynasty, the classification of vassal towns was no longer applicable to the situation at that time.

For example, the originally peaceful vassal towns in the south began to separate themselves into one side, recruiting troops and horses like a country within a country.The Central Plains vassal towns began to gather arrogant and powerful generals to rebel and join Huang Chao's deeds; the northwest vassal towns were controlled by eunuch forces, and even the Shence Army began to treat the emperor's position as a commodity to bargain for, and so on.

The Qiu Ba line of the Middle and Late Tang Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms are in the same vein.No matter how the upper-level power changes, how the upper-level Jiedu envoys change, the Qiuba people at the bottom, whether they are in the southeast or the three towns of Heshuo, are almost the same as birds.

Being a soldier is so comfortable, much better than farming. As long as you become a Qiuba, you will be reluctant to leave this profession where you can become rich as long as you can kill people.

Therefore, what the Tang court wanted to rebuild its glory was to cut off the feudal vassals and return to the prosperous era of Zhenguan and Kaiyuan.However, the way back has been blocked and there is no way to go back. The foundation of the entire society has changed.

(To be continued)
(End of this chapter)