英文摘要 |
This article is a study of the empire-building process of the Han Empire. The author investigates the reasons for the northern rebellions during the reign of Han Gaodi 漢高帝 (Liu Bang 劉邦), the founder of the empire, and points out the factors that hindered the consolidation of Han imperial authority. The article analyzes three aspects of the background and reasons for the northern rebellions: the self interests of the regional leaders, the regional cultural factors of the northern frontier, and the influence of the Xiongnu 匈奴. The author asserts that the personal ambitions of the rebel leaders were not the only factors that led to the rebellions. In order to grasp the whole picture, the author proposes to look into the influence of regional cultures. The regional culture of the former Yan 燕 and Zhao 趙 kingdoms of the Warring States Period still had great influence at the inception of the Han Empire, and thus formed its own cultural identity and persistently resisted the rule of the imperial authority, which represented a mixed culture of the Qin 秦 and Chu 楚 kingdoms of the Warring States Period. In other words, it was a cultural confrontation between the Zhao-Yan and the Qin-Chu. Furthermore, from a Eurasian perspective, the Zhao-Yan culture was partly similar to the nomadic culture of northern Eurasia, whose representative at the time was the Xiongnu. The concept of “Northern Frontier Belt” proposed by Chinese archaeologists is helpful to elaborate and reveal the interactive relationship between the northern frontier of the Han Empire and the Xiongnu. |