Гуманитарный вектор (Apr 2023)
Treatise “Discourses on the Migration of Barbarians” as a Source of Information on the Migration Crisis of the Western Jin Era (265–317 AD)
Abstract
The relevance of the issues raised in the article is due to the fact that the analysis of the content of the treatise of the dignitary Jiang Tong (unknown – 310 AD) will allow us to reconstruct the features of the early stages of the evolution of the approaches of the Chinese bureaucracy to the problem of the overgrown “barbarian” enclaves. The novelty of the study is in in-depth analysis of the cause-and-effect relationships of the general historical events of the Western Jin era in the context of studying the migration policy of the central and regional Jin authorities in relation to barbarian peoples. The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of the approach to the problem of the overgrown “barbarian enclaves” in the all-Chinese Western Jin empire, reflected in the work of the dignitary Jiang Tong “Xi rong lun” (“Discourses on the resettlement of barbarians”). This treatise has survived to this day as part of the official dynastic history of the Jin Shu (collective biographical chapter 56). Three complex, important and little-studied problems related to the Jin migration crisis and the historical and political process of the Troubled Western Jin era are briefly reviewed and analyzed. First, it is a problem of the fragmentation of the historical and cultural aspects of the general outline of the historical events of the Western Jin era, which is characteristic of the troubled periods of history. Second, it is a problem of the historical and geographical reconstruction of the area of residence of ethnical minorities of the Northern China. Third, it is a problem of reconstructing the Jin methods of weakening and Sinification of the ethnical minorities of the Northern China and adjacent territories. We draw a conclusion that the view on the problem of ethnic enclaves presented in the treatise was distinguished by a detailed analysis of the history of the issue, as well as detailed calculations of the proposed resettlement of “barbarian” peoples.
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