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Captives, Deserters, and Exiles: Control of Migrant Mobility in the Northern Wei Period (386–534 CE)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2021
Extract
Controlling the physical movement of people was a well-established tradition throughout imperial China. Scholars have argued that the Qin (221–206 BCE) and Han (206 BCE–220 CE) empires required their subjects to register personal information, including their place of residence, with local governments, and both empires exerted strict control over the flows of officials and those who traveled for personal reasons within the territory, mainly through checkpoints and travel documents. Recent studies have also shown that forced resettlement was a common means of mobility regulation. Ancient states, from the Qin to the Mongol empire, achieved their imperial goals through a variety of measures, one of the most important of which was the relocation of subjects and conquered peoples whenever and wherever they saw fit.
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- Forum—Migration in Early Medieval China
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- Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2021
References
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8 WS 27, 670.
9 WS 41, 932.
10 WS 41, 932.
11 WS 36, 833.
12 WS 41, 932–33.
13 WS 59, 1313.
14 WS 100, 2216.
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24 WS 60, 1341.
25 Ryan Russell Abrecht, “My Neighbor the Barbarian: Immigrant Neighborhoods in Classical Athens, Imperial Rome, and Tang Chang'an” (PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2014), 237.
26 Nan Qi shu 57, 985. For references to the Nan Qi shu, I have used the Zhonghua shuju edition. See Xiao Zixian 蕭子顯 (489–537 CE), Nan Qi shu 南齊書 [History of the Southern Qi dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1972).
27 WS 68, 1514.
28 Liu Shufen 劉淑芬, Liuchao de chengshi yu shehui 六朝的城市與社會 [Six Dynasties cities and society] (Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, 1992), 422–33.
29 Liang shu 50, 701. For references to the Liang shu, I have used the Zhonghua shuju edition. See Yao Silian 姚思廉 (557–637 CE), Liang shu 梁書 [History of the Liang dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1973).
30 Hou Xudong 侯旭東, “Bei-Wei Shen Hongzhi muzhi kaoshi” 北魏申洪之墓誌考釋 [A study of the “Epitaph of Shen Hongzhi of the Northern Wei dynasty”], in 1–6 shiji Zhongguo beifang bianjiang. minzu. shehui guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 1–6 世紀中國北方邊疆．民族．社會國際學術研討會論文集, ed. Jilin daxue guji yanjiusuo (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2008), 219.
31 Tsai Hsing-Chuan 蔡幸娟, “Bei-Wei shiqi nanbei xiangren daiyu: keli yanjiu” 北魏時期南北降人待遇: 客禮研究 [Treatments of northern and southern surrenders in Northern Wei times: A study on guest rituals], Chengda lishi xuebao 15 (1989): 366–73.
32 WS 24, 630.
33 WS 61, 1360.
34 WS 24, 631.
35 Zhao Chao 趙超, Han Wei Nanbeichao muzhi huibian 漢魏南北朝墓誌彙編 [Collection of tomb inscriptions of the Han, Wei, and Northern and Southern dynasties] (Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe, 1992), 125.
36 WS 70, 1551.
37 WS 43, 977.
38 WS 24, 630.
39 WS 66, 1476.
40 WS 70, 1551.
41 WS 55, 1219.
42 WS 67, 1487.
43 WS 70, 1551.
44 WS 38, 877.
45 See Hou, “Bei-Wei Shen Hongzhi muzhi kaoshi,” 219.
46 WS 38, 875–77.
47 LYQLJ 5, 227.
48 The Theodosian walls of fifth-century Constantinople, the largest city in the West, enclosed 14 square kilometers. See Abrecht, “My Neighbor the Barbarian,” 233–34; Xiong, Victor Cunrui, Capital Cities and Urban Form in Pre-Modern China: Luoyang, 1038 BCE to 938 CE (New York: Routledge, 2017), 95Google Scholar.
49 LYQLJ 5, 227. According to the Luoyang qeilan ji, there were 109,000 households in Luoyang. If the size of a household is estimated at five, the population of Luoyang was 545,000; if the size of a household was four, the total population was 436,000. Of note, based on Jinling ji 金陵記 [Record of Jinling] of the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), some scholars suggest that Jiankang was at the time the world's populous city, with 280,000 households. However, we know very little about the book and its compiler, and we do not know the source of the reference regarding the population of Jiankang. Thus, it is debatable whether Jiankang was more populous than Luoyang during the sixth century CE. See Liu, Liuchao de chengshi yu shehui, 135.
50 In the early sixth century, it was said that there were seven hundred Indian Buddhist monks living in the imperial Yongning (Eternal Peace) Monastery. See Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667 CE), Xu gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳 [New continuation of the biographies of eminent monks] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2014), 13–14.
51 Many Sogdians settled in Luoyang during this period. One of them was Kang Po 康婆 (d. 647 CE). According to his tomb inscription, his ancestors migrated from Central Asia to Luoyang during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen (r. 471–99 CE). For Kang Po's epitaph, see Zhou Shaoliang 周紹良, ed., Tangdai muzhi huibian 唐代墓誌匯編 [Collection of tomb inscriptions of the Tang dynasty] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1992), 96.
52 Qian Guoxiang 錢國祥, “Bei-Wei Luoyang neicheng de kongjian geju fuyuan yanjiu: Bei-Wei Luoyang cheng yizhi fuyuan yanjiu zhi yi” 北魏洛陽內城的空間格局復原研究—北魏洛陽城遺址復原研究之一 [A study of the reconstruction of the layout of the inner city of Northern Wei Luoyang: Research on the reconstruction of the site of Northern Wei Luoyang, part one], Huaxia kaogu 4 (2019): 80–82.
53 WS 18, 428.
54 Ho, Ping-ti, “Lo-Yang, A.D. 495–534: A Study of Physical and Socio-Economic Planning of a Metropolitan Area,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 26 (1966): 70–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
55 WS 25, 647.
56 WS 60, 1339.
57 LYQLJ 1, 2.
58 WS 60, 1339.
59 LYQLJ 4, 141–45.
60 LYQLJ 3, 129.
61 Bei Qi shu 33, 444. For references to the Bei Qi shu, I have used the Zhonghua shuju edition. See Li Baiyao 李百藥 (565–648 CE), Bei Qi shu 北齊書 [History of the Northern Qi dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1972).
62 WS 103, 2302.
63 LYQLJ 3, 115–17.
64 LYQLJ 3, 115–17.
65 Xiong, Capital Cities and Urban Form in Pre-modern China, 98.
66 Wang Jing 王靜, Zhongguo gudai zhongyang keguan zhidu yanjiu 中國古代中央客館制度研究 [Research on the guest hostel system in ancient Chinese capitals] (Ha'erbin: Heilongjiang jiaoyu chubanshe, 2002), 24–25.
67 Tsai Tsung-hsien 蔡宗憲, “Nanbeichao de keguan ji qi dili weizhi” 南北朝的客館及其地理位置 [Guest hostels of the Northern and Southern dynasties and their locations], Zhongguo dili lishi luncong 24, no.1 (2009): 79.
68 LYQLJ 3, 130.
69 Bei Qi shu 33, 444.
70 Bi Bo 畢波, “Suidai Daxing cheng de xiyu huren ji qi jujuqu de xingcheng” 隋代大興城的西域胡人及其聚居區的形成 [Central Asians in Sui dynasty Daxing and the formation of their residential areas], Xiyu yanjiu 2 (2011), 4–12; Tao Wang, “A City with Many Faces: Urban Development in Pre-Modern China,” in Exploring China's Past: New Discoveries and Studies in Archaeology and Art, ed. Roderick Whitfield and Tao Wang (London: Saffron, 1999), 110–21.
71 Liu, Liuchao de chengshi yu shehui, 431.
72 See Meng Fanren 孟凡人, “Shi lun Bei-Wei Luoyang cheng de xingzhi yu Zhongya gucheng xingzhi de guanxi” 試論北魏洛陽城的形制與中亞古城形制的關係 [Preliminary discussion of the relation between the shape of Northern Wei Luoyang and that of ancient Central Asian cities], in Han Tang yu bianjiang kaogu yanjiu (di yi ji) 漢唐與邊疆考古研究 (第一輯), ed. Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1994), 97–110; Wang, “A City with Many Faces.”
73 WS 7, 140.
74 WS 37, 854.
75 WS 83a, 1825.
76 WS 94, 2027–2028.
77 Geoffrey MacCormack, “On the Pre-Tang Development of the Law of ‘Treason’: moufan, dani, and pan,” Journal of Asian Legal History 5 (2005): 2.
78 WS 71, 2027.
79 WS 61, 1375.
80 Northern Wei Emperor Taiwu (r. 424–52 CE) ordered that children aged fourteen or younger who were held liable for the crimes of their family be castrated. See WS 111, 2874. But this law was modified during Emperor Wencheng's reign (r. 452–65 CE). According to the Wei shu, a court official suggested to Emperor Wencheng that if a child aged thirteen or younger was unaware of his relative's scheme of rebellion, he should be spared the death penalty and be forfeited to the government as a slave. See WS 41, 920.
81 Song shu 65, 1723. For references to the Song shu, I have used the Zhonghua shuju edition. See Shen Yue 沈約 (441–513 CE), Song shu 宋書 [History of the Liu-Song dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974).
82 WS 24, 626–27.
83 Chan Chun-Keung 陳俊強, “Beichao liuxing de yanjiu” 北朝流刑的研究 [Research on exile punishment of the Northern dynasties], Fazhishi yanjiu 10 (2006): 33–83; Deng Yiqi 鄧奕琦, Beichao fazhi yanjiu 北朝法制研究 [Research on the legal system of the Northern dynasties] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2005), 149–151.
84 WS 51, 1131.
85 WS 14, 186.
86 WS 83a, 1817.
87 WS 66, 1468.
88 WS 43, 973.
89 WS 43, 966.
90 Chan, “Beichao liuxing de yanjiu,” 50.
91 WS 111, 2887.
92 WS 61, 1356 and 71, 1570.
93 Chittick, Andrew, Patronage and Community in Medieval China: The Xiangyang Garrison, 400–600 CE (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010), 128Google Scholar.
94 WS 71, 1583.
95 McKeown, Adam, Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 3Google Scholar.
96 WS 38, 875 and 61, 1370.
97 Foucault, Discipline & Punish.
98 LYQLJ 2, 89 and 3, 115.