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The Study on Governing Shu at Northern Song Dynasty

Author: ZhangJian
Tutor: MaQiang
School: Southwestern University
Course: History of Ancient China
Keywords: the Northern Song Dynasty governing Shu checks and balances constraint reference
CLC: K244
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 90
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Abstract

Shu consisted of four provinces at Northern Song Dynasty, namely Cheng Du, Kui, Zhizhou and Lizhou which were geographically compatible with Chongqing and Sichuan today for the most part as well as parts of the current Hanzhong of Shanxi province and the southern part of Gansu province. Being the border area of Northern Song Dynasty, Shu possessed an extremely strategic position with Tubo to its west, Nanzhao to its south and Xixia to its north. Besides, Shu was richly endowed with a natural condition. Qinling Mountains as the northern partition, Hengduan Mountains to its west, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau stretching to the south and Bashan Kuimen separating it in the east formed a huge natural basin. There were ample man made products and natural recourses and the people were well off, so the stability of this region was closely related to the development of Northern Song. Northern Song government formulated many policies to rule Shu in particular in order to achieve the restful administration and maximization of dynastic interests.The paper will discourse on Northern Song’s strategies and thought to govern Shu from five aspects:The first chapter introduces the central government’s and Sichuan local government’s political strategy. The official selection ways and corrupt officialdom punishments are two focuses. The government attached a great importance to the official selections with close attention. Therefore, the officials in charge were entrusted with confidence, charged with important missions in many cases and allowed to act at their discretion by the emperor. The local officials couldn’t be for the most important position, which was the result of security consideration. Although with the gradual improvement of security situation, the ever strict rules became somewhat loose. But the heads of administration in this region were not local people all the same. However, the officialdom, justice and some other sections of the government still reflected the government’s precautionary measures.The second chapter focused on the economic policies of Shu. On the one hand, the well known "three redundant" issues of Northern Song brought about much financial stress. What’s worse, the normal operation of the huge political system required a lot of money and supplies to support, so wealthy Shu was imposed on this task. All previous officials took it as their priority and spared no effort to collect money for the central government on the premise of maintaining stability of this region. The initiative can serve two purposes, namely to relief the finance shortage of the dynasty, and to weaken the economic power of Shu, thereby reducing the turmoil potential and gaining a better maintenance of security in this region. This policy continued to take effect till the destruction of the Northern Song Dynasty.The third chapter elaborates the enlightenment of Sichuan. The enlightenments were mainly concerned with two aspects:one is to change the backward customs and habits and the other is to develop the region’s education. Because the government expected those enlightenments could help to enhance people’s cultural awareness, thus maintaining stability in the region in a better way.The fourth chapter describes the Northern Song Government’s military control over Shu, which was very successful and benefited from the very special military deployment that was "weak foreign powers". The government deposed a small amount of troops within Shu, and meanwhile deployed many around this region such as Jingmen Army and Qinfeng army stationed in Qinfeng province in case of some emergencies. The policy of containment like this had a great beneficial effect Chapter V will make a brief summary of the Northern Song’s governing thought of Shu and the interactive relationship between central and local governments. The main idea is supported by management’s strong attitude to educate the main line of treatment, while the central government and local government relationship is the relationship between separation of powers and checks and balances. Northern Song dynasty, the situation, at any time to adjust the relationship between central and local, so as to maintain stability in the region.

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CLC: > History, geography > History of China > Feudal society ( 475 BC - AD 1840 ) > Sui and Tang period ( 581 ~ 1840 ) > Song : Northern Song Dynasty ( 960 ~ 1127 )
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