Fan, an expert in Ming history, said: "China's coastal defense works can be traced back to a long time ago." When Yang Jinsen, State Oceanic Administration, discusses the origin of coastal defense in the section "Overview and Pre-coastal Defense History" of China's Coastal Defense History, he thinks that "Qi undoubtedly has maritime defenses. From the perspective of "attack is the best defense", Wu also has maritime defense. " In addition, the modern scholar Huang Mingfen's "Xiamen Coastal Defence Culture" and the "Fujian Coastal Defence History" compiled by the Military Compilation Institute of the Navy stationed in Fujian all started from the pre-Qin coastal defence. The History of China's Coastal Defence says: "Although these affairs are not typical coastal defence, they are related to the coastal defence affairs after the Ming Dynasty. Studying these historical events as pre-history should be a valuable exploration.

Coastal defense theory in Tang dynasty

Mao, the author of Frontier Defense, said: "China's coastal defense practice can be traced back to 1000 years ago, but the literal concept of' coastal defense' appeared late." Due to the constant foreign wars, the imperial court was worried about the threat from the northern coastal countries. As early as the 7th century AD, the Tang Dynasty set up Donglai garrison (the basic unit of the Tang Dynasty border guards) in Laizhou, Shandong Province (now Ye County, Shandong Province), and set up Pinghai Division in Dengzhou (now Penglai, Shandong Province) to strengthen the control over the coastal areas of Shandong Peninsula.

Coastal defense theory in song dynasty

According to historical records, Hui Shi Qi, a Confucian scholar in the Qing Dynasty, said in the article "Preventing the Sea": "The law of preventing the sea in the Song Dynasty is not detailed: there are navies, ships and sea lanes." Lu Jianyi, a young scholar, said in his monograph "Research on the Defence of Fujian and Taiwan": "As far as relevant information is concerned, there was no record of coastal defense before the Song Dynasty. After the economic center of gravity moved southward in the Song Dynasty, pirates began to appear, and there was a preliminary record of the coastal defense water village. " Dr Wang Qingsong, a young scholar, devoted himself to the study of coastal defense in the Southern Song Dynasty. In his article, he said that in order to deal with the military threat from the sea, the Southern Song government strengthened the unified leadership over coastal defense and established the Coastal Defense Department; In terms of defense, the Southern Song Dynasty implemented the coastal defense strategy, focusing on maritime defense, and established a number of naval forces along the coast, and established corresponding early warning and communication systems. At the same time, a strict defense system was established along the coast of Li Qian, relying on government armed forces such as patrol and county commandant, as well as civilian armed forces. Of course, although some scholars admit the coastal defense theory of the Song Dynasty, the coastal defense of the Song Dynasty is far from that of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Jiajian, a scholar from Taiwan Province, put forward in On Coastal Defence in Qing Dynasty: "Most dynasties in China ... were not as determined and active as coastal defence management. ..... As for the method of preventing the sea, although there is a saying that the Song Dynasty is gradually preparing, the research on coastal defense in the Song Dynasty is not as rigorous as that in the Ming Dynasty. "

Coastal defense theory in Ming dynasty

Cai, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, said in Coastal Defence: "Coastal Defence has not been seen in ancient books, but since the Ming Dynasty, the strictness of coastal defence has been stricter than the self-evident Jiajing." "Guangdong Tongzhi" records that "in ancient times, there was border defense but no coastal defense, and the sea goes without saying." Scholars' academic research on textual research in Qing Dynasty influenced their later understanding. According to these documents, it is concluded that China had coastal defense in the Ming Dynasty, which is accepted by most people in the academic circles. However, "defending the sea" is not the origin of coastal defense, and "the past dynasties are not classical" is only from the word coastal defense, which cannot deny the existence of coastal defense data. Haiphong began in the Ming Dynasty. This view represents the general view of academic circles, not only because the word "coastal defense" appeared in the Ming Dynasty, but also because the Ming Dynasty resisted the invasion of foreign enemies from the sea and formed a relatively complete defense system. Lu Jianyi said: "Strictly speaking, the establishment of coastal defense thought and coastal defense system should start from the Ming Dynasty." Fan believes: "Before the Ming Dynasty, except for the Yuan Dynasty, there was a war to resist foreign invasion from the sea. Most of them were directed at their own hostile forces or other ethnic groups, and they were limited to individual areas and did not have a complete defense system. So these are just the buds of coastal defense, and the real defense system was formed in the Ming Dynasty. " In addition, because the Ming Dynasty provided us with abundant coastal defense materials for the study of ancient coastal defense, the achievements of coastal defense research in China were mostly concentrated in the Ming Dynasty, with outstanding achievements in coastal defense system, coastal defense infrastructure and coastal defense thought.

In a word, people's differences arise from scholars' different angles of analysis, some from the perspective of foreign invaders, some from expanding the defense targets to include various domestic maritime hostile forces. The development of coastal defense in China has its own characteristics. The study of China's coastal defense should not be marked by the appearance of the concept of coastal defense, nor can it be applied to the ancient coastal defense with today's concept of coastal defense. The emergence of coastal defense forces, the construction of coastal defense infrastructure and the germination of coastal defense thoughts should all be important factors for us to examine the starting point of China's coastal defense.

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