Decline in Han commanderies in the Ordos region 2-140 CE
"Even though the Han formally retook control of the Ordos, the many decades of unrest and raids had already incited migrations of Chinese communities southward. Numerous administrative seats were removed or shifted to different frontier territories and official withdrawals of Han colonists in the frontier were declared for many of the northern commanderies (see Hou Hanshu 1B), even though these declared retreats were most likely only a declaration of processes that had long been underway (Bielenstein 1967, 113). Significant drops in the total population and number of households can be discerned between the registered census counts of 2 CE and 140 CE (Fig. 14) (The numbers for 2 and 140 CE are taken from the gazetteer chapters of the Hanshu (ch. 84B) and Hou Hanshu (ch. 113), respectively). While Ordos area commanderies, from Anding 安定 to Shang 上, showed drastic drops, adjacent commanderies, such as Yanmen and Dai, did not exhibit the same sortof exodus phenomenon. But we must be reminded that the recorded declines in population and household counts relate only to the numbers of registered (i.e. controllable) constituents of the Han empire and should thus not be mistaken for an overall emptying of the Ordos.
Xihe 西河 commandery, having not only the most territory and initial registered population but also spanning the heart of the Ordos pastures, exhibited the greatest decline. This region within the upper bend of the Yellow River also demonstrates an almost complete abandonment of Han cemeteries. Considering the pastoral groups in the Ordos that were perhaps not registered households, as well as the occurrence of people sent to the frontier who then escaped the reaches of Han jurisdiction, it is just as likely that a significant populace of local pastoral groups remained while either Han officials lost control over existing groups or Han governed households retreated from the Ordos. These decreases are reflected as well in a great reduction in the number of administrative counties, which accompanied the empire-wide disappearance of the offices for salt extraction and distribution. A parallel diminution of Chinese-style archaeological sites also demonstrates a lessening of the Han imperial presence in the Ordos frontier (Fig. 15).Han withdrawals from the frontier that are visible in the archaeological record appear to have left only a few dense areas of sites that may relate to sub-regional administrative enclaves or even ‘islands’ of imperial control (cf. Parker 2003). Thus, the first and second centuries CE should be seen as a decline not so much in population as in control by the Han Chinese."
-Bryan Miller, The Southern Xiongnu in Northern China Navigating and Negotiating the Middle Ground. University of Michigan
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