Power and Politics in Tenth-Century China: The Former Shu Regime ...

centuries, throughout the Qin–Han period (221 BCE–220 CE), Shu experienced rapid agricultural and commercial development. Increasingly more Chinese immigrants flowed into the region from the north, bringing advanced planting technology and helping the rich Chengdu Plain gain a reputation as the “Heaven’s Storehouse” (tianfu ).⁸ The routes, known as “Shudao ” (Roads to Shu), which ran through the precipitous Qinling and Daba Mountains and connected Guanzhong to inner Shu, were mainly developed during this period.⁹ The impact of these contacts with North China finished the Shu region’s Sinicization process and transformed it into an integral part of China proper, changing from “the Ba-Shu of Ba-Shu” to “the Ba-Shu of China.”¹⁰ From then on, Shu played a significant role in Chinese history, especially during times of dynastic transition.

In general, two distinct characteristics of Shu have been observed in Chinese political history since the Qin conquest.¹¹ First, the region was frequently captured by ambitious powers, mainly from North China, to permit a strategic detour around the formidable barrier of the Yangzi River to conquer territories in the south and unify the whole country. The

FIGURE 1. Shudao.