Dividing the Realm in Order to Govern: The Spatial Organization of the Song State (960-1276 CE)

by Mostern, Ruth

• ISBN13: 9780674056022
• ISBN10: 0674056027
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-02
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

States are inherently and fundamentally geographical. Sovereignty is based on control of territory. This book uses Song China to explain how a pre-industrial regime organized itself spatially in order to exercise authority. On more than a thousand occasions, the Song court founded, abolished, promoted, demoted, and reordered jurisdictions in an attempt to maximize the effectiveness of limited resources in a climate of shifting priorities, to placate competing constituencies, and to address military and economic crises. Spatial transformations in the Song field administration changed the geography of commerce, taxation, revenue accumulation, warfare, foreign relations, and social organization, and even determined the terms of debates about imperial power.The chronology of tenth-century imperial consolidation, eleventh-century political reform, and twelfth-century localism traced in this book is a familiar one. But by detailing the relationship between the court and local administration, this book complicates the received paradigm of Song centralization and decentralization. Song frontier policies formed a coherent imperial approach to administering peripheral regions with inaccessible resources and limited infrastructure. And the well-known events of the Song-wars and reforms-were often responses to long-term spatial and demographic change.

Table of Contents

Tables, Maps, Illustrations, and Figures	p. xiv
Map Standards and Conventions	p. xviii
Abbreviations	p. xx
Prologue	p. 1
A Proposal to Change the Jurisdiction of Two Frontier Counties	p. 2
Territory and State Power	p. 6
The Spatial Organization of State Power as a Field of History	p. 8
ôDividing the Realm in Order to Governö	p. 11
The Meaning of Territory
The Political Economy of Spatial Change in Imperial China	p. 19
Theorizing Spatial Organization in Imperial China	p. 20
Spatial Political Economy in the Tang-Song Transition	p. 23
Structural Constraints on Spatial Organization	p. 25
Song Territory in Historical Perspective	p. 30
The Spatial Organization of State Power in Song China	p. 35
Between Court and Prefecture: Provincial Circuits	p. 36
Prefectures	p. 38
Counties	p. 46
Households, Garrisons, Towns, and Cantons	p. 51
Conclusion: The Prefecture and County Ideal and the Political Reality	p. 55
Following the Tracks of Yu: Depictions of Imperial Territory	p. 57
Debating the Spatial Landscape	p. 58
The Tribute of Yu and the Persistence and Transformation Tradition	p. 61
Locating Territory in Space	p. 73
Spatial Information at Court and Beyond	p. 90
Conclusion: Millions of Maps	p. 98
The History of Territory
ôStrengthen the Trunk and Weaken the Branchesö: The Fall and Rise of the Territorial State (750-1005)	p. 103
Founding the Song State	p. 104
From Satraps to Bureaucrats	p. 108
This Land Is Song Land, or Making Empire Continental	p. 130
A Stable Landscape for an Established Empire	p. 162
ôEnrich the State and Let the People Prosperö: Spatial Organization in China's Long Eleventh Century (1005-1127)	p. 166
Pilot Spatial Renovation During Renzong's Reign (1023-64)	p. 168
Reform and Reaction Under Shenzong (r. 1068-86) and Zhezong (r. 1086-1101)	p. 182
Frontier Footprints in the Huizong Reign (1101-26)	p. 210
The Historical Arc of Northern Song Territory	p. 219
The End of the Middle-Period Spatial Cycle (1127-1368)	p. 222
Making the Southern Song	p. 226
New Forms of Wartime Spatial Organization	p. 228
The End of the Song Cycle and the New Logic of Yuan	p. 255
Appendix
The Digital Gazetteer of Song China	p. 263
How Trustworthy Is the Data?	p. 264
From the Alphabetical List to the Gazetteer to the GIS	p. 268
Spatial Analysis and Historical Research	p. 273
Notes	p. 277
Works Cited	p. 317
Index	p. 343
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