Military Expeditions Led by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty : Areas of Requisition and Numbers of Mobilization

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  • 北魏孝文帝の親征 --徵發地域と動員兵數--
  • ホクギ コウブンテイ ノ シンセイ : チョウハツ チイキ ト ドウインヘイスウ
  • 北魏孝文帝の親征 --徴発地域と動員兵数--

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This paper examines the military expeditions led by emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei dynasty and investigates possible reasons why later emperors of Northern Wei did not lead similar expeditions. The emperors of Northern Wei were expected to be commander-in-chief of the imperial army and emperor Xiaowen followed this tradition. But at his time, the sanzhang 三長 system was established to draft from bianhu 編戶, he changed the areas of requisition to lighten their burden of military service caused by his military expeditions. When constructing the new capital Luoyang 洛陽, although his military expeditions which needed some 200, 000 soldiers were a considerable burden for the bianhu, he could not get appropriate results for such a large-scale mobilization. Before the transfer of the capital, the emperors of Northern Wei who led armies could expand their territory by attacking small countries and acquire livestock by attacking Ruru 蠕蠕. After emperor Xiaowen moved to Luoyang, the Southern dynasties became the main enemy, so he could not use this tactic any more. The battle against the Liang dynasty intensified during the reign of emperor Xuanwu. He drafted in increasing numbers from bianhu in order to reinforce military strength at the southern borders and, to make matters worse, tens of thousands of soldiers were lost due to the defeat in the battle of Zhongli 鍾離. This lost caused big damage to the Hebei 河北 area, which is considered the economical center of the dynasty, so the emperor had to reduce military actions and lost opportunities to lead military expeditions.

Journal

  • 東方學報

    東方學報 94 113-141, 2019-12-20

    Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University

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