Historical Views and Historical Facts: The Evolution of Perceptions of Fanzhen since the Song Dynasty

As a formof local governance, Fanzhen("藩镇") has been viewed very differently across different eras. In the early Song, drawing on the experience of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, scholar-officials generally regarded Fanzhen as detrimental to state governance. As foreign invasions grew frequent, especially the southward incursions by the Liao, the ideas of enfeoffing local powerful clans and establishing Fanzhen gradually became mainstream. During the transition between the Northern and Southern Song, the establishment of Fanzhen was once again repeatedly discussed. In the peaceful periods of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the dominant view was to guard against Fanzhen. Around the Ming- Qing transition, there were widespread calls for Fanzhen as a means to defend against foreign enemies. During the Republican era, amid warlord chaos, the view that the Fanzhen were domineering and unruly became an unshakable consensus. After the reform and opening-up, people began to re-examine Fanzhen, and understandings of Fanzhen became increasingly diversified. Generally speaking, whenever the country suffered foreign aggression and popular uprisings, the idea of establishing Fanzhen would emerge. However, views differed from period to period on many issues, including where Fanzhen should be established, whether their offices should be hereditary, who should be appointed as military governors, and what scope of authority such governors should possess. Whenever local power threatened central authority, the view of overbearing Fanzhen became dominant. In times of unified empire and strong centralization, by contrast, scholar-officials tended to hold more objective views of Fanzhen. While perceptions of Fanzhen since the Song Dynasty have undergone continuous evolution, they have also maintained consistent features:in terms of content, discussions in successive dynasties all centered on the relationship between the central government and local authorities, with the rise and fall of the state as the main thread, extending to related issues such as eunuch power and factional strife, and in terms of purpose, all conceptions of Fanzhen ultimately aimed at safeguarding "great unification" and centralization of power