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Eastern Eurasian Geography, History, and Warfare

Jonathan Karam Skaff

in Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580-800

This chapter serves as an introduction to Eastern Eurasian geography, military struggles, and political organization during the medieval period. It discusses the climate and geography of East ... More

This chapter serves as an introduction to Eastern Eurasian geography, military struggles, and political organization during the medieval period. It discusses the climate and geography of East Eurasia, and maps the medieval China-Inner Asia borderlands. The next few sections provide background information on the Sui- to mid-Tang dynasties and modern Turko-Mongols of Eastern Eurasia. This chapter also describes the evolving power balance in Eastern Eurasia.Less

On the Edge of Empire: Han–Yuan Sha Po

Mick Atha and Kennis Yip

in Piecing Together Sha Po: Archaeological Investigations and Landscape Reconstruction

Chapter 6 explores the contrasting evidence for activity spanning the Han, Six Dynasties–Tang, and Song–Yuan periods at Sha Po. The study of structural remains and artefactual evidence associated ... More

Chapter 6 explores the contrasting evidence for activity spanning the Han, Six Dynasties–Tang, and Song–Yuan periods at Sha Po. The study of structural remains and artefactual evidence associated with Sha Po’s Six Dynasties–Tang kiln-based coastal industry is supported by the results of a programme of thermoluminescence dating of kiln remains. Collectively, the evidence suggests that Sha Po was a planned and imperially controlled kiln complex directed towards the production of salt, with lime as a process-related by-product. In a pattern typical across Hong Kong, the industry’s post-abandonment phase is associated with Northern Song and some Southern Song–Yuan ceramics.Less

Mazu yulu and the Creation of the Chan Records of Sayings

Mario Poceski

Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright (eds)

in The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts

This chapter analyzes the Mazu yulu, compiled around 1085, which purports to record the life and teachings of the famous Zen monk, Mazu Daoyi (709-788). It examines the structure of the text, its ... More

This chapter analyzes the Mazu yulu, compiled around 1085, which purports to record the life and teachings of the famous Zen monk, Mazu Daoyi (709-788). It examines the structure of the text, its complex internal structure and style, and reflects on the image provided in this text of the “golden age of Zen” in the Tang dynasty. The author places this text in relation to the larger genre of “Records of Sayings” (yulu), using that analysis to begin to rethink the history of Chinese Chan Buddhism.Less

The Tang Renaissance

Richard L. Davis

in Fire and Ice: Li Cunxu and the Founding of the Later Tang

Fifteen years surely seemed an eternity to Cunxu, on the eve of securing the elusive conquest of the Liang. The man derided a decade ago as, “the kid who fancies cockfights,” had turned the corner as ... More

Fifteen years surely seemed an eternity to Cunxu, on the eve of securing the elusive conquest of the Liang. The man derided a decade ago as, “the kid who fancies cockfights,” had turned the corner as underdog and put residual doubters to rest. A sign of his promising political acumen emerges in several appointments at the onset of 923.Less

Flying Money and Capitalist Monks

Joe Carlen

in A Brief History of Entrepreneurship: The Pioneers, Profiteers, and Racketeers Who Shaped Our World

By the Medieval Era, the Far East had not only caught up with Christian and Islamic civilization but, at least in commercial terms, had surpassed both. From the invention of fiduciary (or paper) ... More

By the Medieval Era, the Far East had not only caught up with Christian and Islamic civilization but, at least in commercial terms, had surpassed both. From the invention of fiduciary (or paper) money to sophisticated forms of urban development and labor specialization, Chinese entrepreneurs had transformed their society. The chapter describes how these entrepreneurs, some of whom were Buddhist monks, shaped and distinguished China during the Tang and Song Dynasties.Less

Baijie’s Background: Religion and Representation in the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms

Megan Bryson

in Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China

Chapter one goes back to the Nanzhao (649-903) and Dali kingdoms (937-1253) to understand the broader context in which the Buddhist Baijie arose. It shows that though Nanzhao and Dali rulers adopted ... More

Chapter one goes back to the Nanzhao (649-903) and Dali kingdoms (937-1253) to understand the broader context in which the Buddhist Baijie arose. It shows that though Nanzhao and Dali rulers adopted most of their Buddhist texts from Chinese territory, they embraced Indian Buddhist images and claimed Indian origins for their Buddhist tradition. Moreover, it was their worship of distinctive deities with Indian iconography that distinguished their Buddhist tradition from that of Tang and Song China. This emphasis on India did not just stem from India’s prestige as Buddhism’s birthplace, but also from Dali’s position in relation to China. While Nanzhao and Dali rulers could not claim equality with Chinese rulers as Sons of Heaven, their relative proximity to India meant that they could claim superiority as Buddhist monarchs.Less

People and Places

Richard L. Davis

in From Warhorses to Ploughshares: The Later Tang Reign of Emperor Mingzong

Li Siyuan acceded to the throne in 926 and came to be embraced by the skeptical courtiers of his day and discriminating historians centuries later. Chapter 1 provides background to the Shatuo people, ... More

Li Siyuan acceded to the throne in 926 and came to be embraced by the skeptical courtiers of his day and discriminating historians centuries later. Chapter 1 provides background to the Shatuo people, their culture and how their leaders became symbolic extension of the ruling family in the Tang Dynasty. The chapter also explained the life and legacy of Li Keyong, Siyuan’s adoptive father, the women as well as the surrogate sons in the family that create challenges as the regime transitioned from conquest to governance. It also introduces other political characters who became essential to Siyuan’s reign as emperor of the Later Tang.Less

Institutions, Reforms, and Political Culture

Richard L. Davis

in From Warhorses to Ploughshares: The Later Tang Reign of Emperor Mingzong

Chapter 5 discusses policies Mingzong implemented in detail. It spans from the changes he has included in the law and order of the country to his education policy to campaigns against corruption to ... More

Chapter 5 discusses policies Mingzong implemented in detail. It spans from the changes he has included in the law and order of the country to his education policy to campaigns against corruption to finances and technology. Some of these policies reflect the incorporation of the Shatuo culture into the Middle Kingdom, and has lasting influence in the history of China.Less

Introduction

Linda Rui Feng

in City of Marvel and Transformation: Changan and Narratives of Experience in Tang Dynasty China

The introduction explains the important relationship between Chang’an and Tang literati writers, arguing that they serve as intermediary between the city and text. It gives a brief contextualized ... More

The introduction explains the important relationship between Chang’an and Tang literati writers, arguing that they serve as intermediary between the city and text. It gives a brief contextualized introduction to the Chang’an as both an imperial capital and a site for collective life. It discusses the nature and provenance of the book’s major textual sources, arguing for a need to reconceptualize and reimagine these texts as workings of the cultural imagination, rather than confined to bibliographic categories and regulated within generic boundaries. It also introduces the theoretical models used throughout the book, as related to the concepts of liminality, spatial practice, and the production of space.Less

Disintegration: The Tang–Five Dynasties Transition

Benjamin Brose

in Patrons and Patriarchs: Regional Rulers and Chan Monks during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 1 offers a broad, historical overview of the rebellions leading to the collapse of the Tang dynasty and the economic and political autonomy of southern territories. While the overthrow of the ... More

Chapter 1 offers a broad, historical overview of the rebellions leading to the collapse of the Tang dynasty and the economic and political autonomy of southern territories. While the overthrow of the Tang court and the decimation of the aristocracy are frequently equated with the onset of disorder, the loss of centralized control effectively freed southern provinces from the political restraints and economic obligations imposed by the Tang court, ushering in a period of relative peace and prosperity. This chapter focuses on the early histories of the kingdoms of Wuyue, the Southern Tang, and Min with particular attention paid to the patronage practices of the first generation of rulers. In their efforts to transition from military to civil rule, southern kings sought political legitimacy through the promotion of both regional and transregional cultural traditions—a process that reshaped Buddhist institutions in major southern cities.Less

Mandarin Chinese: “Altaicization” or Simplification?

John McWhorter

in Language Interrupted: Signs of Non-Native Acquisition in Standard Language Grammars

This chapter shows that while Altaic languages had a decisive effect upon Mandarin, transfer was a relatively minor factor, while reduction due to non-native competence was comprehensively ... More

This chapter shows that while Altaic languages had a decisive effect upon Mandarin, transfer was a relatively minor factor, while reduction due to non-native competence was comprehensively transformative. The evidence also suggests that the crucial locus of transformation was not the occupations by Genghis Khan (13th through 14th centuries) or the Manchus (1644-1911), but the widespread resettlement of conquered and dispossessed peoples amid Han Chinese on the northern Chinese frontier from the 600s through the 800s under the Tang dynasty. A comparison of Mandarin with its sister languages in nine aspects of grammar is presented.Less

Chan Transmission Records and Factional Motives in the Tang Dynasty

Albert Welter

in Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism

This chapter examines the factional motives in the Chan Buddhism in China during the Tang Dynasty using transmission records. It reviews early Chan transmission records that exposes the rise of ... More

This chapter examines the factional motives in the Chan Buddhism in China during the Tang Dynasty using transmission records. It reviews early Chan transmission records that exposes the rise of factionalism in Chan just as these factions are beginning to forge a successful identity in Chinese Buddhism. It analyzes the factional nature of the claims of the three full-blown multilineal transmission records compiled around the beginning of the Song Dynasty including the Patriarch's Hall Anthology, Jingde Record Lamp, and the Tiansheng Extended Transmission of the Lamp.Less

Cathay to Confucius: Ezra Pound and China

Josephine Nock-Hee Park

in Apparitions of Asia: Modernist Form and Asian American Politics

This chapter argues that Ezra Pound's multiple invocations of China were bound to his American ambitions. Pound struggled with Whitman to take on the mantle of American bard, but he turned to the ... More

This chapter argues that Ezra Pound's multiple invocations of China were bound to his American ambitions. Pound struggled with Whitman to take on the mantle of American bard, but he turned to the Orient as a means of disciplining the homeland he had fled. Reading both Pound's early interest in Tang Dynasty verse in his Imagist poetry and his later devotion to Confucianism in the China Cantos, this chapter unveils an underlying desire to speak for and to America via the Orient that runs the length of Pound's career.Less

Vassals and Kings

Richard L. Davis

in Fire and Ice: Li Cunxu and the Founding of the Later Tang

Death has a way of destabilizing empires organized around hereditary succession, yet transitions for the Shatuo Turks proved more volatile than most. Li Keyong died of a brain tumor on the nineteenth ... More

Death has a way of destabilizing empires organized around hereditary succession, yet transitions for the Shatuo Turks proved more volatile than most. Li Keyong died of a brain tumor on the nineteenth day of the first month (908.01.19). Interment ensued months later at Daizhou, halfway between Taiyuan and Datong in northern Shanxi, where he had once served as prefect. The eldest of eight surviving sons, Cunxu succeeded as Prince of Jin, consistent with his father’s dying wishes. Twenty-seven days of rigorous mourning ensued. But even before the deceased could be laid to rest, a plot would unfold that tested the mettle of Cunxu when loyalties to persons collide with deference for traditions.Less

Official Recognition of Chan Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty

Albert Welter

in Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism

This chapter examines the history of the official recognition of Chan Buddhism in China during the Tang Dynasty, or the period from 618 to 906. It reviews two partisan debates related to the Chan ... More

This chapter examines the history of the official recognition of Chan Buddhism in China during the Tang Dynasty, or the period from 618 to 906. It reviews two partisan debates related to the Chan struggle for recognition in order to show the role played by government officials and secular literati in the development of Chan. It suggests that the debate associated with the struggle between rival Chan factions in the early Song Dynasty was instrumental in defining the principles that came to characterize Chan, and served as the foundation for the acceptance of Chan as a leading school of Chinese Buddhism in the Song.Less

The Use of Sociopolitical Terminology for Nomads: An Excursion into the Term Buluo in Tang China

İsenbike Togan

in Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change: The Mongols and Their Eurasian Predecessors

While the question of what a tribe is has been addressed in the literature, and the Chinese term currently used for tribe is buluo, this paper suggests the value of reexamining the meaning and the ... More

While the question of what a tribe is has been addressed in the literature, and the Chinese term currently used for tribe is buluo, this paper suggests the value of reexamining the meaning and the context from which this term emerged. This study examines buluo in seventh–eighth-century sources, when the early Tang was in close interaction with the nomads in the North, and argues that the term buluo was used to refer to composite non-kinship groups, while other terms (such as bu, xing, or zu) were used for kinship groups. The Tang dynasty used buluo when writing the history of earlier dynasties as well as its own. The evolution of the term buluo starting with the Northern Wei is an example of how nomads were agents for change in Chinese historiography.Less

The Prodigal Son

Richard L. Davis

in Fire and Ice: Li Cunxu and the Founding of the Later Tang

Footing in two cultures proved a mixed blessing for Li Cunxu (885–926), the object of much envy in his day. Through paternal ties to the Shatuo-Turks of Inner Asia, he projected the martial panache ... More

Footing in two cultures proved a mixed blessing for Li Cunxu (885–926), the object of much envy in his day. Through paternal ties to the Shatuo-Turks of Inner Asia, he projected the martial panache reminiscent of his father, Li Keyong (856–908). Equally impressive was Cunxu’s comfort with the culture of his Chinese mother, Woman Cao, who drew upon a dedicated group of local mentors to prepare the youth for his destiny with history. Cunxu made frequent boast of his facility in the literary language and classical traditions of China. He also made much of his creativity as poet and musician, having composed by his own hand the marching songs for his armies. Conscious of his role as model for future Shatuo emperors, Cunxu needed to strike the right balance in negotiating his two identities. But sadly, fifteen years of almost ceaseless warfare in search of realizing other people’s dreams left little time for second thoughts about the cost of dynasty to own individuality. Would he force change upon the institution of monarchy or would the institution humble him? Tragically, so much constructive energy in his short yet historic reign were consumed by this epic contest of wills.Less