安定郡 / Anding Commandery

Overview

安定郡 / Anding Commandery now appears in the wiki as both an early An-era Qiang-front campaign location and a later Shun-era frontier commandery restored after abandonment. Hanji 786 places Ma Xian and Hou Ba attacking Xianling Qiang in Anding in 113 CE; Hanji 810 later makes Anding part of Yu Xu’s three-commandery restoration package with Beidi and Shangjun.

Current Profile

Hanji 786 supplies the earlier military layer. In the Deng-regency crisis field, Ma Xian and Hou Ba attack a Xianling Qiang branch in Anding. The notice is brief, but it establishes Anding as an already active Qiang-front space before the later 129 CE restoration debate.

Hanji 810 gives the fuller policy layer. Yu Xu asks the court to restore Anding, Beidi, and Shangjun and move people back. His argument joins geography, food supply, frontier defense, and imperial security: the region has fertile land, irrigation and transport value, and defensive importance for Chang’an and the imperial tombs.

Shun accepts the proposal in the ninth month of 129 CE and orders the commanderies restored. Anding’s current wiki significance is therefore not simply as a map unit, but as a place where Qiang-front conflict and later abandoned-frontier recovery become two phases of state-capacity strain.

Key Characteristics

• Qiang-front commandery visible in a 113 CE campaign notice before the later restoration case.
• Frontier commandery restored as part of a strategic northern package.
• Linked to arable land, water management, transport, pasture, and defense rather than administration alone.
• Treated as protective terrain for Chang’an and imperial tombs.
• Reoccupied through imperial order after Yu Xu’s memorial.
• Source-bounded place page, not yet a full historical geography entry.

Evidence

• Early Qiang-front campaign: Hanji 786 says Ma Xian and Hou Ba attack Xianling Qiang forces in Anding in the 113 CE layer.
• Restoration proposal: Hanji 810 says Yu Xu proposes restoring Anding, Beidi, and Shangjun.
• Strategic rationale: Hanji 810 frames the region as fertile, logistically useful, and defensive for Chang’an and imperial tombs.
• Imperial acceptance: Hanji 810 says Shun issues the order in the ninth month to restore the commanderies and return people.

Qualifications

This page follows Hanji 786’s brief campaign location and Hanji 810’s restoration argument. It does not settle Anding’s exact historical boundaries, earlier abandonment chronology, or later administrative changes. Hou Ba remains source-scoped until additional bounded evidence makes him a durable page candidate.

What Changed

• Added Hanji 786’s 113 CE Anding campaign layer before the 129 CE restoration case.
• Reframed Anding as a commandery whose wiki significance now spans both Qiang-front conflict and later frontier recovery policy.

Relationships

• 马贤 - commander attacking Xianling Qiang forces in Anding in the early An-era layer.
• 先零羌 - Qiang group named in the Anding campaign notice.
• 虞诩 - official whose memorial makes Anding’s restoration a policy issue.
• 汉顺帝 - ruler who orders Anding and the neighboring commanderies restored.
• 北地郡 - paired commandery in the same restoration package.
• 上郡 - paired commandery in the same restoration package.
• 边郡恢复治理 - concept directly grounded by the Anding restoration case.