Monthly Archives: February 2022

[Review] 李楠《汉代西域行政制度与屯戍体制研究》(Li Nan: Research on the Military Colonies Settlements and General Frontier Administration of the Western Regions under the Han Dynasty)

Li Nan 李楠, Handai Xiyu xingzheng zhidu yu tunshu tizhi yanjiu 汉代西域行政制度与屯戍体制研究 (Research on the Military Colonies Settlements and General Frontier Administration of the Western Regions under the Han Dynasty), Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe 中国社会科学出版社, 2020. ISBN 978-7-520-3692-37, 226 pages, 88 RMB.

Reviewed by Arnaud Bertrand (ARscAN – Central Asia, UMR 7041; Catholic Institute of Paris)

Between the end of the second century and the early years of the first century BCE, the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 9 CE) expanded to the west and developed a complex administration to control the conquered territories. Prior to this expansion, the Korean peninsula, the Mongolian steppe, northern Vietnam, and the Western Regions were peripheral to what was “China” at that time. During Emperor Wu’s reign (141–87 BCE), these remote areas were no longer buffer zones with other Asian powers but became partly, or totally, integrated into this growing empire.

Li Nan’s work focuses on the administrative practices deployed by the Western Han, Xin (9–23 CE), and Eastern Han dynasties (25–220) in connection with the occupation of the northwest. More precisely, he focuses on the strategies used by the central administration to rule over the city-states of the Tarim Basin. The study deals with the Western Regions (Xiyu 西域) roughly corresponding to modern Xinjiang. Since the high Neolithic age, this region has constituted a space of constant interactions between the “Chinese” and the “Central Asian” worlds. It stretches from Loulan in the east to Kashgar in the west, though the latter never became an imperial commandery (jun 郡). During the period dealt with in this book, the region was governed by a General Protectorate (Xiyu duhufu 西域都護府), with the aim to control the local economy of the city-states in the form of an imperial colony. The book examines how the Chinese practically managed this Protectorate.

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