浅谈汉武帝开拓西南夷地区的根本原因

在两汉边疆思想中对西南夷地区存在着"无用"和"国本"两种相互对立而又紧密联系的思想观念,这一观念之争几乎贯穿了两汉的始终。由于交通和地理环境的影响,西南夷地区一直被汉王朝视其为"无用之地",而在汉武帝时期西南夷地区却得到了进一步的开拓,并由此奠定了我国疆域基础。通过对汉武帝时期西南夷的基本概况及当时的边疆观的介绍,以及对该时期许多史实的论述,分析了汉武帝当时开拓西南夷地区的根本原因,即西南夷地区的开拓是为征讨南越寻找便捷通道,以及寻找通往大夏的交通线,而不是为了开发西南夷地区的经济资源。

On the Root Causes for Emperor Wu of Han to Develop the Southwestern Barbarian Areas

During the West and East Han Dynasty, the southwestern barbarian areas were considered to be both ＂useless＂ and ＂fundamental＂ to their boundary. Owing to the influence of transportation and geo- graphical environment, the southwestern areas had been taking as useless land by the rulers of Han Dynas- ty. But Emperor Wu explored this area with more efforts, which contributed to the foundation of China＇s territory. Through the introduction of the basic situation of southwestern barbarian areas and the concept of the frontier at that time, by reviewing the historical recordings, this paper is aimed at discussing the root causes for Emperor Wu to develop the southwestern barbarian area. It is found that the exploration of southwestern area was to get easy access to the expedition to South Vietnam, as well as looking for trans- port to Da Xia, rather than to develop the economic resources in southwestern barbarian areas.