Is the Great Wall really useful? Professor Mei: Miserable Europe
It turns out that history also has so many similarities! "In the thirties of the last century, the American historian Frederick. j.By comparing the historical chronicles of Rome and China, Tiggart discovered a striking pattern.
What is this law? Amazingly, these two ancient civilizations actually originated from the historical events ...... the construction of the Great Wall
The Great Wall built by the Qin Dynasty effectively blocked the invasion of nomads and ensured the security of China's northern frontier. The northern frontier of our country usually refers to the area north of the Great Wall in history, that is, the Mongolian Plateau and its southern edge, which was inhabited by nomads for most of history.
Historically, the Xiongnu, Donghu, Xianbei, Rouran, Turkic, Hui, Khitan, Jurchen and other ethnic groups have appeared on the Mongolian Plateau, staggered and replaced each other, forming a rich and colorful nomadic culture.
After Qin Shi Huang unified China, he set his sights on the north, and the construction of the Great Wall became a top priority. At that time, the Great Wall was not intended to defend against foreign invasions, but as a landmark and border symbol.
Historically, countries dominated by the Central Plains culture often used the Great Wall as the dividing line. Qin Shi Huang also built the Great Wall with the aim of weakening as much as possible the possible alliance between the people of the Central Plains and the steppes, and excluding the nomads.
At the juncture of the fall of the Qin Dynasty and the rise of the Han Dynasty, the Ordos region was reoccupied by nomadic peoples dominated by the Xiongnu. Subsequently, the relationship between the Xiongnu and the Han dynasty entered a delicate period of equilibrium that lasted for hundreds of years.
The Xiongnu used guerrilla tactics to harass the Han Dynasty, but were unable to further occupy Han territory due to the blockage of the Great Wall and the fact that it was only a threat rather than an invasion.
The military system and way of life of the Han Dynasty were very different from those of the nomads, so they were more inclined to seek peaceful solutions in warfare. Although there were heroic generals such as Huo Qubing and Wei Qing who fought against the Xiongnu, the main goal of the Han Dynasty was to maintain peace.
Therefore, the usual way of dealing with it was: the Xiongnu harassed, the Han counterattacked, the Xiongnu made conditions, and the Han moderately compromised to quell the war. During the Han Dynasty, incidents such as peace and affinity also occurred from time to time, which was actually a measure taken by both sides to maintain this delicate balance, and at the same time a way for the Xiongnu to benefit from it.
While the war between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu was not over, conflicts also broke out in Europe. Tigat was surprised to find that the timing of these clashes coincided with the Han Dynasty's control of the commercial arteries north and south of Tarim after the Han Dynasty had repelled the Xiongnu.
This change caused unrest in the regions of Russian Turkic, Afghanistan, and North India beyond the Pamirs. Soon after, in India, the Serbs were defeated by King Vishrama Adido of Ujjain, Ujian, India.
Around 58 BCE, Fretz III of the Parthian Empire was killed by his sons Mithridati and Orodes, an event that also revealed the contagious nature of warfare in history at the time.
As the Central Plains and nomads rivaled East Asia, this influence began to spread to Europe. And this transmission path is obviously related to the Silk Road. This road, which connected Chang'an with Antioch, the Syrian province of the Roman Empire, has undergone many interruptions and evolutions in its long history.
* Interruption, unique barbaric aggression Every time a war breaks out, it happens to coincide with the time of the blockage. The Silk Road was the main economic route connecting the Far East and Western Europe in the Mediterranean, and the national wealth of Parthia depended entirely on the control and exploitation of merchants who crossed its borders.
* The importance of exchanges is so great that peace and stability along the line from the Amu Darya River to the Euphrates River are completely dependent on the normal operation of Central Asian business travel. On the contrary, any harassment or obstruction of the road to the Far East would lead to a great upheaval enough to shake the Parthian throne.
The upheaval in Parthia will continue to spread, affecting the barbarians of Europe**. At that time, the barbarian tribes in Europe, mainly Germanic peoples, had a certain dependence on the ** trade routes.
The commercial instability of Europe made it impossible for the barbarians to maintain a normal economic life, and they were forced to turn their attention to the rich Roman Empire. As a result, the Roman Empire suffered several invasions from the northern barbarians over the years.
This laid the groundwork for the fall of the Roman Empire. In 476 AD, the Germanic general of the Roman army, Odoac, deposed the last emperor of Western Rome and proclaimed himself king, and the Western Roman Empire finally fell.
In Western Europe in the sixth and seventh centuries, the Germanic kingdoms stood side by side, and Europe moved from the backward slave era to the feudal age, which was a dark period that seemed to see no light.
The implementation of the feudal fiefdom system led to the decomposition of political power from top to bottom, resulting in the general lack of a power center with absolute control in European countries, and the king often did not have absolute authority.
The aristocracy became the de facto rulers of the locality, and the competing interests of the nobles often led to constant wars. This situation not only displaced the population, but also seriously hindered the economic development of the estate at that time.
With social unrest, there is a growing need for order and stability. This led to an expansion of religious power, in which God was seen as a symbol of absolute dominance.
This religious power has had a profound impact on the governance of the country, and even the phenomenon of "theocracy" has emerged. However, theocracy imprisoned the minds of the people, hindered the development of culture and technology, and intensified the exploitation of the people by the ruling class.
The entire European continent was in chaos, with dilapidated cities, depressed economies, and declining cultures. As a result, many criticized: "Europe has suffered a catastrophe because of a Great Wall." β
With the westward expansion of the Great Wall, Europeans and Americans expressed strong dissatisfaction with this. In 1866, Henry Yuer, a retired British military officer, completed the book "Chronicles of the Eastern Regions" in Italy, which was praised as covering almost everything known about the history of the East at the time.
Here are a few suggestions for new copywriting: 1The Great Wall is a symbol of the Chinese nation, and Yuer's discovery further proves the necessity of Qin Shi Huang's construction of the Great Wall in his efforts to unify China, while Li Guangli's actions pushed the Great Wall further afield.
The construction of the Great Wall by Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty in the Tarim River Valley is also a further testament to the importance of the Great Wall in Chinese history. This study provides theoretical support for Europeans and Americans to believe that the Great Wall had an important impact on Europe.
2.This study delves into the history of the Great Wall and finds that the construction of the Great Wall began with Qin Shi Huang's actions against the Xiongnu when he unified China, and pushed further westward during the Western Han Dynasty.
The construction of the Great Wall by Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty in the Tarim River valley also attests to the importance of the Great Wall in Chinese history. This discovery provides theoretical support for Europeans and Americans to believe that the Great Wall had an important influence on Europe.
3.Yuer's research sheds light on the history of the construction of the Great Wall, stating that Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall to resist the Xiongnu. During the Western Han Dynasty, the Great Wall was pushed further westward and was expanded by the Tarim River valley during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty.
This study provides a theoretical basis for Europeans and Americans to believe that the Great Wall had an important impact on Europe.
Historian Giornoki Yeno has explored the southern entrance of the Great Wall, Gubeikou, Shanhaiguan and other places, and believes that the western expansion of the Great Wall was a turning point between the strength of China and the Xiongnu, which led to the decline of the Xiongnu and fled to Europe, and then had an impact on the Roman Empire.
On this basis, Tigart concluded that without the construction of the Great Wall, the Xiongnu would not have been forced to move westward; If the Xiongnu had not moved westward, Europe might not have fought so much.
If it weren't for the countless wars raging in Europe, the Roman Empire would not have fallen, and Europe would not have fallen into the abyss. Although the Renaissance sprung up in Europe, for Tigart and some scholars, perhaps the future of Europe would be brighter if the Roman Empire had survived to this day.
They believed that the construction of the Great Wall and its westward expansion had hindered Europe's development for hundreds of years. To demonstrate China's influence on Europe, Tigart also compares historical events in Rome, Pasia, and China, showing the far-reaching impact of China's initiatives on Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the European continent.
In short, a single order of the Chinese emperor could influence the northern borders of the Roman Empire through two different geographical routes, thus changing the chaotic political situation.
From 73 BC to 102 AD, Ban Chao's governance in Kashgar laid the foundation for the Han Dynasty's wars in the Tarim region (the Xianwang period). At the same time, after the Mongol Wars, wars broke out between the tribes of northern Eurasia up to the upper reaches of the Vistula and Danube.
In addition, 18 of the wars in the eastern borders of the Roman Empire were triggered by wars of ethnic minorities in the Western Regions of China. And 27 of the 40 ** in Europe are related to the Han Dynasty's policy in the Western Regions, or at least to the changes in the situation caused by this policy.
Ban Chao retired and returned to his hometown in 102 AD. However, as soon as he left the Western Regions, war broke out from Gansu to the Pamirs. According to various arguments, the construction of the Great Wall of China seems to have been the starting point for all this, producing a butterfly effect that continues to influence the historical development of Eurasia.
Tigatt summed up this law and argued"The Great Wall of China was the main reason for the influx of nomads into Europe"γHe also blamed the migration and barbarism of barbarian peoples such as the Germans on the interference of trade routes by wars in China or Rome.
In fact, before Tigat, the famous scholar Zhang Taiyan in the last years of the Qing Dynasty wrote an article "The Xiongnu Moved to Europe", arguing"The Xiongnu were driven out by the Han Dynasty and eventually migrated to Europe"γ
Zhang Taiyan's view was agreed by Liang Qichao, who expounded the relationship between historical cause and effect and motivation in his "Chinese Historical Research Method", and took the westward migration of the Northern Xiongnu to Europe as an example to examine the course of this historical event.
This view is widely accepted by scholars around the world, but in the fifties, two decades after Tiggart's discovery of this pattern, a British professor offered a very different view.
Joseph Needham, a biochemical and science historian, used the perspective of the history of science to reveal the true reasons for the Germanic southward migration and tried to weaken the impact of the Great Wall on European history.
He pointed out that the real driver of the Germanic invasion was land drought, a long-standing problem in Central Asia.
Although the process of the Germanic invasion was slowed down to some extent, there were other ** routes available during this period, so it was not the main reason.
As for the westward expansion of the Great Wall, the impact on the westward migration of the Xiongnu was not too significant. After the 3rd century, with the collapse of the Xiongnu Empire, large numbers of Xiongnu, Turkic, and Mongol influxes into North China and established several dynasties there.
According to the analysis, climate change, traffic obstruction and the appearance of the Great Wall may have been affected to some extent, but the root cause of the Germanic invasion was a combination of factors.
In other words, the Great Wall was not the main culprit for Europe's catastrophe, but rather the inevitable impetus of history to bring about changes in Europe. Finally, the construction of the Great Wall and the rise of the Mongol Empire also revealed the truth of "world integration".
The traces of war are enduring and it is both a tragedy of human history and a catalyst for social development. For example, although the westward migration of nomads brought destruction and conflict, it also promoted the exchange and collision of Eastern and Western cultures, had a profound impact on the process of Western modernization, and promoted the progress of human society.
This kind of history enlightens us that every period of history is worthy of our deep reflection and reference. Reference: Joseph Needham. History of Science and Technology in China. Volume I, Introduction [M].Science Press, 1990Frederick. j.Tigat. Rome and China [M].Elephant Press, 2009Bao Zheshi. From medieval European civilization to modern Western checks and balances[J].Heilongjiang Historical Chronicles, 2014(17):3