Guanzhong, from Baoji in the west, to Sanmenxia in the east, to Qinling mountains in the south, to the Loess Plateau in the north, up to 300 kilometers from east to west. The hinterland of Guanzhong is an alluvial plain formed by the three rivers of Weihe, Jinghe and Luohe, known as the "Eight Hundred Mile Qin River". The three rivers and their tributaries are distributed horizontally and horizontally, the land is fertile, irrigation is convenient, and agriculture is developed.
Photo - Guanzhong Hexi Hedong
The great advantage of Guanzhong from the North China Plain and the Jianghan Plain, which are also fertile, lies in its geographical location that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Guanzhong became the land of the emperor, starting from the Zhou Dynasty, King Wu of Zhou raised an army from Guanzhong, and would ally the princes of the world to go out of the Hangu Valley in one fell swoop, and establish the eight-hundred-year-old Great Zhou Dynasty.
Although the Zhou Dynasty won the world, it did not move the capital to the Central Plains, but continued to build the capital in Guanzhong, and divided the vast land of the Central Plains to other princes. At that time, Zhou Gongdan's evaluation of Guanzhong was: "There is no better way than [pī] mountains and rivers, fertile fields for thousands of miles, and the world is victorious." ”
In the eyes of the Zhou people, Guanzhong is the best place in the world, and it is nowhere compared. Later Dynasties such as the Qin, Han, and Tang Dynasties, like the Zhou Dynasty, first based themselves in Guanzhong and then moved east to annex the world.
What are the geographical advantages of Guanzhong? Let's first look at the ancient heroes' views on Guanzhong and the development of the Land of The Emperors in Guanzhong.
During the Warring States period, Su Qin, a zongheng family, commented on King Huiwen of Qin: "Qin, the country of the four cypriots, is taken by mountains, and with the crowd of Qin soldiers and the religion of war, it can swallow the world and rule as an emperor." "The four sais mentioned by Su Qin refer to Hangu Pass in the east of Guanzhong, Wuguan in the southeast, Dasanguan in the west, and Xiaoguan in the northwest. It means that Guanzhong is prominent in terrain, there are mountains and water, guard these four passes, and then arm the many people in Guanzhong, enough to annex the world. Su Qin is worthy of being a great cross-country master wearing the seal of the Six Kingdoms, his evaluation of Guanzhong is very pertinent, and his prediction finally became a reality, and the Qin State is to unify the world from the land of the four plugs in Guanzhong.
During the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Fan Ju's evaluation of Guanzhong was more direct: "If it is advantageous, it will attack, and if it is unfavorable, it will enter the defense, and this land of kings will also be defended." Fan Ju's evaluation is also very in place, if you win the battle, you will attack from the east, and if you can't win, you will come back to defend the Hangu Pass and the Yellow River line, such a place is not what the king's land is.
Later, on the occasion of the Qin and Han Dynasties, when Xiang Yu was preparing to build a capital after the destruction of the Qin Dynasty, the minister Han Sheng suggested to Xiang Yu: "Guanzhong, blocking mountains and rivers, the land of the four plugs, the fertile land, but all of them are hegemonic." Han Sheng suggested that Xiang Yu achieve hegemony in Guanzhong, but Xiang Yu did not think so, and the result was known to future generations.
Then Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu, and when choosing the capital, Lou Jing, a courtier, suggested: "When a husband fights with others, he does not strangle him or his back, and he fails to win all of his victories; now his majesty's case qin's hometown, this is also the world's stifling and his back." Lou Jing means that if you fight with someone, if you don't strangle someone else's throat and hold his back, you won't win a fight. If the capital is built in Guanzhong, it will choke the throats of the eastern countries and hold them on their backs, which will be the place of victory.
Zhang Liang, who is famous for his name, analyzed: "In Guanzhong, it is enough to obstruct three sides and defend it, and to control the princes in the east alone; the princes have changed, and they go down the river, which is enough to lose." This so-called golden city is a thousand miles, and the kingdom of heaven is also. Compared with Lou Jing's exaggerated metaphor, Zhang Liang is obviously more realistic, he believes that the defense of Guanzhong only needs to hold the east side, but the attack can go down the river, which is very convenient.
Tian Ken, another of Liu Bang's advisers, also described Guanzhong as follows: "Qin, a victorious country, with rivers blocking mountains, convenient terrain, and its subordinate soldiers are princes, such as building water on a high house." "It means sending troops from Guanzhong to attack other princes, just like pouring water from a high house." Compared with Lou Jing's humor, Zhang Liang's reality, Tian Ken's literary color is grand, and the idiom of building a lofty building is from here.
The hero saw a little the same, so many people affirmed Guanzhong, Liu Bang eventually built the capital Guanzhong Chang'an, so a Great Han Dynasty was born.
Figure - Guanzhong terrain
In the following Western Han Dynasty, Ma Qian, the Taishi company, wrote the historical masterpiece "Shi Ji", and he was also deeply touched by the terrain of Guanzhong, writing in the "History": "Those who do things will be in the southeast, and those who reap merit will always be in the northwest." "It means to achieve great things and hegemony, and the Yue state in the southeast is a good place, but the final establishment of the dynasty is still the best in Guanzhong."
There is still a good example of Tai Shi Gong's words today, there is a famous saying in the NBA in the United States: offense wins, defense wins championships. It is precisely because Guanzhong has excellent defensive conditions that it has repeatedly become the land of the dynasty's dragon ascension. Tai Shi Gong did not know about the NBA, his words were a summary of the previous dynasties, but his incisive summary was also applicable to future generations.
After experiencing the turmoil of the Three Kingdoms, Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Brief Sui Dynasty, Chinese history ushered in a great dynasty, the Tang Dynasty.
Before the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, after Explaining Guanzhong's geographical superiority to his father Li Yuan, Tang Taizong Li Shimin suggested that Li Yuan first attack Guanzhong: "Guanzhong Haojie rises up together, and the unknown is attached, and if the gong drums to the west, caress it, like the ears of the things in the bag."
Here Li Shimin raised the status of Guanzhong again, not only affirming the geographical advantages of Guanzhong, but also mentioning that the people in Guanzhong are more warlike, as long as they control the Haojie in Guanzhong, unifying the world is like driving a tiger and catching a wolf, as easy as probing the bag to get things.
In the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Guanlong clique was indeed an important military force that could influence the situation in the world. Later, Li Yuan listened to Li Shimin's advice, and sure enough, he took Guanzhong first, and then won the world.
The Tang Dynasty was followed by the Song Dynasty, and although Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, set the capital in Kaifeng, his real ideal place to build the capital was Chang'an. Zhao Kuangyin once said: "It is not enough to move to Henan, but it is long time to move to Chang'an." Want to take the danger of the mountains and rivers to go to the redundant soldiers, follow the story of Zhou Han, in order to secure the world. Although the Northern Song Dynasty performed modestly militarily, zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, wanted to create a great dynasty comparable to the Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, and the mood was understandable.
Later, after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty and the rebuilding of the Southern Song Dynasty, when choosing the capital, the chancellor Li Gang suggested: "Guanzhong is the upper, Xiangyang is second, and Jiankang is the lower." Since the lord of ancient Zhongxing, starting from the northwest, it is enough to have a southeast according to the Central Plains; from the southeast, it cannot restore the Central Plains and have a northwest. Although Zhao Zhuo was forced to finally choose Nanjing (Jiankang), but Li Gang's words are still quite standard, the so-called emperors who swept the world since ancient times are mostly from the northwest of Guanzhong, occupying the southeast region, and there are very few in history that have hit Guanzhong or even unified the world.
After the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, and Beijing became the imperial capital after Xi'an, and the political influence of Guanzhong declined, mainly because after the gradual prevalence of hot weapons, the geographical advantages of Guanzhong declined, and the road to Guanzhong was too steep, resulting in the economic backwardness of Guanzhong.
In the period of World War II, Guanzhong once again made the world look up to its unique geographical advantages. If the territory of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States is used to deduce, the territories of the six eastern countries such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, and Luoyang have all fallen, but the Guanzhong of the Qin State is still in the hands of Chinese.
Why didn't the Japanese enter Guanzhong and loot Xi'an? During World War II, only the two densely populated geographical plates of China and Sichuan were still in the hands of Chinese.
At that time, the National Government temporarily established the capital of Chongqing, and the main force of the National Revolutionary Army was also in the Sichuan Basin, which also guarded the dangerous road of the Three Gorges, and it was reasonable that Chongqing did not fall.
However, in Guanzhong at that time, the Chinese troops stationed in Guanzhong were not the most well-equipped direct troops. The Japanese army, which dared to challenge the United States, fought a battle with this miscellaneous army at Mount Nakajō outside the eastern part of Guanzhong, and then gave up its intention to enter Guanzhong.
Of course, the Japanese have full strength to lay down Guanzhong, and they are discouraged because they lack confidence in occupying Guanzhong. Guanzhong's geography is oval in shape, and after entering Guanzhong, the front line is very long, and it is difficult to supply materials, and it is also necessary to guard against the Red Army on the northern Shaanxi Plateau and the armed forces in the Qinling Mountains that are either red or white or black. After much measurement, the Japanese still gave up entering Guanzhong, which shows the special geographical advantage of Guanzhong.
During the Warring States period, before the Qin state unified the six kingdoms, it first occupied guanzhong and the Sichuan basin (which belonged to the state of Ba and Shu at that time) before launching a general offensive against the six eastern kingdoms, and at the same time occupying the relevant central and Sichuan basins, the geographical advantage of the Qin state was also very obvious.
Even today, when we open up the map of China, you will find that Shaanxi Province is the most central part of China, and Xi'an is the most central part of China, which may be an important reason why Chang'an can be the capital of the thirteen dynasties.