唐代長安北通豐州天德軍驛道考

The Post Road Leading from Ch'ang-an Northward to Feng-chou, T'ien-te-chün in the T'ang Period

嚴耕望(YEN KENG-WANG)

《中國文化研究所學報》 6卷1期 (1973/12) Pp. 143-167

https://doi.org/10.29708/JCS.CUHK.197312_6(1).0011

並列摘要

The strong enemy of the T'ang empire in the north was the T'u-chüeh (突厥) in the earlier period of the T'ang dynasty; in the later period of the T'ang dynasty the Uighurs (回紇) rose up instead of the T'u-chüeh. Because the defensive line in the north of the empire was the Ordos bend of the Yellow River (河套), the T'ang government constructed six military cities in the outer side of the River, among which the most important as well as the most northern one was the city of T'ien-te-chün (天德軍), situated at the present Ulan Obo (烏蘭鄂博) district with the longitude 108.5° E and the latitude 41.3° N. In the inner side of the Yellow River there were three chou (州) to supply these six military cities in the north of the Yellow River. Feng-chou (豐州), which site was 41° N and between 107.5° E and 108° E (in the north of the present channel of the Yellow River), about 180 li (里) from T'ien-te-chün, was the central one of these three chou. There were three post roads leading from Ch'ang-an (長安) northward to the district of the Ordos bend of the Yellow River to connect the imperial capital and the northern frontier for the purposes of communications and military liaisons. The central road began at Ch'ang-an, led northward, passed Fang-chou (坊州), Fu-chou (鄜州), Yen-chou (延州, now Yen-an Hsien 延安縣), crossed over the mountain ranges of Heng-shan (橫山), passed Hsia-chou (夏州, the present Po-ch'eng-tzu 白城子, 100 li west of the present Heng-shan-hsien 橫山縣), crossed the Ordos desert, and reached Feng-chou and T'ien-te-chün. This road was the shortest and the most important one among these three post roads connecting Ch'ang-an and the district of Ordos bend of the Yellow River; it ran for about 1800 li. It took not more than five days for the express post to go to the capital from the northern frontier by riding on this road. In this article the author investigated the details of this road.