Han frontiers: toward an integrated view.

• Author: Cosmo, Nicola Di
• Position: Report

The cornucopian flow of excavated materials in the past half century has made systematic analysis of material culture and other aspects of everyday life from religion to ritual and art a daunting task for any period of Chinese history, but in particular for one so dependent upon both material and textual sources as ancient China. (1) Archaeological work conducted on the peripheral regions of China has redefined issues of culture contact along the frontiers of the Han empire, but the sheer quantity of the excavated materials and the dominance of regional models have made systematic analysis beyond territorial or cultural boundaries problematic. (2) Moreover, theoretical approaches based on the interaction between competing socio-economic systems, and possibly subordinated to a late imperial and modern perspective that tends to see frontiers in terms of colonial policies stemming from a "civilizing mission," continue to dominate, resulting in attempts to inscribe frontier history within models based on binary oppositions: steppe and sown, Han and non-Han, natives and foreigners, and--usually wrapped in quotation marks--"barbarians" and "civilized." (3)

In point of fact, while interest in frontier dynamics has been prominent in the works of archaeologists and historians alike, a holistic view of frontiers is still lacking in the panorama of China's early imperial history. A cursory comparison with a field such as Roman history, where the study of the frontiers of the Roman empire has become a central and fundamental part of the very conception of an imperial space and of its evolution in time, makes it evident that unless such an integrated approach is taken seriously we shall be limiting our comprehension of the Han empire. The political transition from the Warring States to the Qin, and from the Qin to the Han involves radically different conceptions not just of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, but also between different types of subjects, not to mention debates over the circumstances, opportunity, and methods of military expansion. Geographic and ethnographic concepts changed in relation to the central government's reach beyond the original states of the Central Plain, and knowledge about the world was intimately connected with the Han dynasty's projection of its power into remote and unexplored areas.

Looking at Han "imperialism" from a different angle, the apparent variety of circumstances as well as rough synchronicity of the expansion of Han rule along the full are of its frontiers must also take into account the question of frontier management and government as a general issue, regardless of specific frontier regions and local peculiarities. An additional desideratum stems from the need to put order in the mass of information today available about frontiers, and to establish research questions that combine cultural history with social, political, and military history. In other words, the often two-dimensional approach to frontier studies, whereby the frontier is constructed as an encounter between local and imported features, should be replaced with a three-dimensional view that places that dynamic relationship within the context of the construction of imperial frontiers. It is worth recalling that the imperial frontier system established by the Han was also a living administrative organism that changed over time in response to both local and central pressures, and that the experimentation carried out by the Han along the frontiers impinged upon later theories, debates, policies, and practices.

A practical strategy to develop a more integrated approach to Han frontiers is to focus on questions that have been raised in relation to their process of formation, and extrapolate from them similarities and differences, while maintaining chronological consistency. First, the question of Han expansionism has long been linked to political history and placed under the dual rubric of "motives" and "circumstances." Second, cultural contacts may be examined in close connection with attempts to demarcate cultural and ethnic frontiers, and by discerning Han and non-Han contexts. This essay includes a brief general introduction, and then, divided between a northern and a southern zone, a discussion of political and cultural aspects.

The northern and southern frontiers of the Han dynasty have been conceived and represented in the relevant historical and archaeological literature as discrete macro-zones. (4) The north is further subdivided into three regions, and the south at least into two. In today's geographical terms, the North's eastern zone is inclusive of Manchuria and parts of Korea, its central zone corresponds broadly to Inner Mongolia and parts of Shaanxi and Shanxi, and the western spans from western Gansu to Xinjiang. These regions differ from each other in terms of environment (forests, steppe, and desert oases), economic specialization (hunting and gathering, pastoral nomadism, and agriculture), and political and social cohesion.

The southern macro-zone includes a western region centered in Yunnan, and a central area known as Lingnan ("south of the mountains"), inclusive mainly of Guangdong and Guangxi, but incorporating also portions of Hunan and of central and northern Vietnam. The chief characteristic of the south is its ethnic diversity, favored by a rugged topography and sparse population, which was considered unsuitable for widespread Han migration and settlement until relatively recent times. Nonetheless, administrative and military personnel and merchants entered the region, and the south under the Han dynasty lost native characteristics in political and material culture and social structure to a greater extent than the north.

To these two large zones we should possibly add a western area coterminous with modern Sichuan, which however, by the Han period, had already undergone a lengthy process of economic and cultural integration with the Sinitic sphere, dating back to 316 B.C.E., and a local society had developed dominated by the Han element. (5) Yet Sichuan continued to present highly distinctive local characteristics that belied continuity with the pre-Qin cultures of the Chengdu Plains and connections with other parts of the Han realm as well as non-Han regions; these, together with its abundant natural resources, enhanced its position as a major source of both economic production and cultural innovation, and made Sichuan the point of departure for military expeditions to the far south. (6)

These geographical divisions are not simply heuristic devices that reflect modern awareness of cultural, historical, or ethnic coherence. The main standard sources for Han history--the Shi ji [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIPLE IN ASCII], Han shu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIPLE IN ASCII], and Hou Han shu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIPLE IN ASCII]--also describe the frontiers on a regional basis, although the ethno-political element prevails over the geographical one. (7) In Shi ji the north is described in three chapters, no. 110 on the Xiongnu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], no. 123 on the Western Regions, and the short chapter on Chaoxian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Korea). To the south are assigned three chapters, two dedicated to the Yue [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] people (southern and eastern), and one to the "foreign" (yi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) peoples of the southwest, roughly equivalent respectively to the Lingnan region and Yunnan province. (8) Of course, much information is contained in other chapters as well, and the biography of Sima Xiangru [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (179-117 B.C.E.) stands out for its rich description of the southern regions. (9) The Han shu preserves the accounts on the Xiongnu (chapters 94A and 94B) and on the Western Regions (96A and 96B, with relevant information also included in chapter 61, the biographies of Zhang Qian [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and Li Guangli [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) as discrete chapters. The accounts of the southern peoples, the eastern Yi and the two (southern and eastern) Yue are combined with that on Chaoxian in a single chapter (no. 95), which, however, internally preserves the tripartite organization of the Shi ji. (10) The Hou Han shu has chapters on the "Eastern Yi" (no. 85), "Southern Man [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and Southwestern Yi" (no. 86), "Western Qiang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (no. 87), "Western Regions" (no. 88), "Southern Xiongnu" (no. 89), and one for the Wuhuan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and Xianbei [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (no. 90). Further changes can be noticed in the arrangement and treatment of frontier peoples in later dynastic histories, such as the San guo zhi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Song shu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Jin shu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and Bei shi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] A close diachronic study of the relevant Han and post-Han sources on foreign peoples, which to date has not been realized, would probably reveal changes in historiographical method, in concerns and attitude toward foreign peoples, and in the overarching notions according to which peripheral non-Han "cultures" and lands were categorized. This line of inquiry would add much to our knowledge of the frontier as a place in which the culture of the Central Plain becomes a relative and not necessarily hegemonic value; but issues of textual analysis, archaeological interpretation and historical synthesis make this too vast a task to be undertaken here. (11)

In these sources we note a marked shift toward ethnic history and a descriptive attitude toward foreign customs and events. In Warring States' mainstream thought the barbarity attributed to foreign natives was easily accommodated in a mindset that would translate physical distance from a designated center (the Zhou royal seat) into moral inferiority, whereby geographical remoteness from...