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영어

The main thesis of this paper is to use various traditional documents of Eastern Zhou, Qin and Han to verify each other with other unearthed documents to discuss the main content and characteristics of the ‘Five Directions’ records of Eastern Zhou, Qin and Han. ‘Five Directions’ is the collective name of the five directions of east, south, west, north and middle, and is an important part of the theory of the Five Elements. ‘Five Directions’ was a division of space and orientation in ancient China, and it was also an important part of the theory of the Five Elements. The establishment of the ‘Five Directions’ made the theory of the Five Elements had a corresponding relationship with space. As the current concept of Five Elements in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty has been basically finalized, the concept of ‘Five Directions’ with the attributes of the Five Elements has also been basically formed, and specific regional divisions have gradually appeared in the center and the surrounding areas. Therefore, in the middle and late Warring States period, there appeared a distribution pattern in which the Chinese ethnic groups were in the middle, and the Rong, Di, Man, and Yi ethnic groups lived on the four sides. This distribution pattern has had a profound impact on later generations, whether in terms of objective national geographic distribution or ideological concepts. Later, in the Qin and Han dynasties, in the historical documents of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the expressions of ‘Four Barbarians’ and ‘Four Sides’ as ‘Northern’, ‘Southern’, and ‘Western’ can be seen, which reflect the difference in the focus of the central government's frontier politics. The planning and practice of border politics in Qin and Han dynasties concentrated the political wisdom of those in power and their advisors. From the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Qin and Han Dynasties, the pattern of ‘Five Directions’ and ‘People of the Five Directions’ under the influence of unified thinking and the historical background of the establishment of a unified multi-ethnic nation in the Qin and Han Dynasties, presents the evolution of ideological concepts from ideal prospects to realistic reflections.