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How Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty made the ancient Dian kingdom surrender

How Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty made the ancient Dian kingdom surrender

In the sixth year of Jianyuan (135 BC) at the beginning of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty’s accession to the throne, after Tang Meng returned from his envoy to Nanyue, he wrote a letter to Nanyi Yelang (now Qianxinan, Guizhou). Later, he was sent as an envoy to Nanyi and set up Qianwei County, which started the pace of Emperor Wu’s strategy to manage the southwest. In the sixth year of Yuanguang (129 BC), Sima Xiangru, a native of Shu, believed that Xiyi Qiong and Ju could also be established as prefectures.

In the same year, he was ordered to send Xiyi as an envoy. Ba and Shu soldiers lead the way to Xiyi. The actions of Tang Meng, Sima Xiangru and others and the Han Dynasty’s series of strategies to the southwest laid the foundation for the connection between the ancient Dian Kingdom and the Han Dynasty.

In the first year of Yuanshou (122 B.C.), Zhang Qian, who was an envoy to Daxia, reported to Emperor Wu that he had seen Shubu and Qiongzhuzhang in Daxia. Through inquiries, he learned that Daxia passed through Shendu Kingdom and Shu in the southeast. To carry out trade, he suggested to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that “Great Xia is in the southwest of the Han Dynasty, admires China, suffers from the Xiongnu, and is separated from it.

It is sincerely connected to Shu, and the national road is convenient. It is beneficial and harmless.” Zhang Qian said that he can connect Daxia through the southwest. Impressed by Emperor Wu, in the same year he sent Wang Ranyu, Bai Shichang and others as envoys to the southwest to find a way to Shendu, so Han contacted ancient Yunnan for the first time. Although the missions of the Han Dynasty received the friendly support of the King of Dian, the exploration to the west was hindered by the Kunming people.

According to Sima Qian’s records, “When they arrived in Dian, the Dian kings tried the Qiang and stayed there for more than ten generations in order to seek the Tao. For the rest, Kunming is closed, and none can pass through the poisonous country.” This trip did not achieve the expected purpose, but Dian Kingdom began to attract the attention of the Central Dynasty. “The envoy returned, because he said that the great country of Yunnan is enough to attach himself.”

According to Yan Shigu’s commentary, “The words can be recruited specifically to make him attach himself.” These all indicate a problem. The trip of the Han envoy made the Han The dynasty set its sights on the Dian Kingdom, which became a prelude to the return of ancient Dian to Han.

In the fifth year of Emperor Wu Yuanding (112 BC), Emperor Wu sent troops to conquer Nanyue, and successively wiped out and pacified the minority forces in Southwest China such as Nanyue, Yelang, Qilan, Qiong, and Cha. According to Sima Qian’s saying, “Toulan is often separated from the Dian Road.” The attachment of the surrounding ethnic groups to the Han Dynasty directly exposed the Dian Kingdom to the Han Dynasty.

Taking advantage of the large army to wipe out the remaining prestige in the southwest, Emperor Wu sent Wang Ranyu to enter Yunnan again as an envoy, advising the Dian king to surrender to the Han and submit to the court, but the Dian Kingdom did not obey, and his fellow clansmen Lao Jin and Mi Mo also invaded the Han Dynasty several times. Messenger officers and soldiers.

So in the second year of Emperor Wu Yuanfeng (109 BC), “the emperor sent troops from Bashu to attack Laoguang and Mimo, and came to Yunnan with troops.” Threatened by the powerful military strength of the Han Dynasty, the King of Dian finally surrendered, and the Kingdom of Dian was officially included in the territory of the Han Dynasty. The period when the Han Dynasty was in contact with the ancient Dian Kingdom was the middle period of Emperor Wu’s reign, and the Han Dynasty was very powerful at this time.

It can be seen from Sima Qian’s writings that Emperor Wu conquered the southwest and conquered ancient Yunnan was an inevitable result. However, it can also be seen that the ancient Dian Kingdom was not the original goal of the Han Dynasty at first, but only hoped to “go out of the west and the west, and refer to the poisonous country”, so it had contacts with ancient Dian.

From the point of view of the king of Dian asking “Han is familiar with me”, and Sima Qian’s view that “because the way is not clear, each of them thinks that they are the masters of a state, and they don’t know that the Han is vast”. A long-standing situation, the ancient Dian Kingdom and the Han Dynasty did not have direct contacts.

Although the “Historical Records” has recorded the trade traffic between Bashu and the Southwestern Yi in the chapters such as “Huozhi Biography” and “Southwestern Yi Biography”, there is basically no mention of the product trade of the Dian Kingdom, which shows that the ancient Dian Kingdom was relatively closed.

At the same time, it can be seen from the discourse of the Han envoy “Speaking of the Great Dian Kingdom” that the ancient Dian Kingdom should have been a relatively large clan and tribe in the southwestern minority areas, which also successfully attracted the attention of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

Among the barbarians in the southwest, the annexation of the ancient Dian Kingdom was not a bloody process. Qi Lan, Lord Qiong, and Hou Hou were killed, and Nanyue was conquered several times by the Han Dynasty to destroy the country. Although Yelang joined and rebelled, he had to surrender in the end. The ancient Dian Kingdom was carried out by the Han Dynasty through the method of “letting Wang Ranyu use Yue Po and punish Nanyi soldiers as a metaphor for the Dian king’s entry into the dynasty”.

When other small tribes voluntarily surrendered, the ancient Dian Kingdom remained unmoved and resisted with the tribes of the same surname. However, the Han Dynasty did not send troops to directly destroy them, but eliminated the interdependent Laozhan and Mimo. Thus forcing ancient Yunnan to submit. After the annexation of ancient Dian, the Dian king was not punished or killed like Qie Lan and others, but was treated friendly by the Han Dynasty by “giving the Dian king the king’s seal and rejuvenating his people”.