Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China The Politics of Culture and the Culture of Politics
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Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China The Politics of Culture and the Culture of Politics
Harvard East Asian Monographs 266
ii
Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China The Politics of Culture and the Culture of Politics
edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Maggie Bickford
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center Distributed by Harvard University Press Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2006
iii
©
2006 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Printed in the United States of America
The Harvard University Asia Center publishes a monograph series and, in coordination with the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Korea Institute, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, and other faculties and institutes, administers research projects designed to further schol arly understanding of China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian countries. The Center also sponsors projects addressing multidisciplinary and regional issues in Asia.
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Emperor Huizong and late Northern Song China: the politics of culture and the culture of politics
/ edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Maggie Bickford. p. cm. -- (Harvard East Asian monographs; 266) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN
0-674-02127-4 (cl: alk. paper)
I. China--History--Song dynasty, 960-1279. 2. Song Huizong, Emperor of China, 1082-1135. I. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, 1947- II. Bickford, Maggie. III. Series. DS75I.E67 2006 951 '.024092--dc22 2006010720
Index by David Prout
Printed on acid-free paper
Last figure below indicates year of this printing 16 15 14 13 12 II 10 09 08 07 06
Acknowledgments
This volume has been in gestation for several years, and along the way we have accumulated many debts. The two of us began talking about Huizong in 1998-99 when we were spending the year at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Pat was working on a book about Huizong and his reign and had decided to spend that year working on his in volvement with art; Maggie was working on auspicious imagery in Chi nese art and doing a chapter on Huizong's paintings of auspicious ob jects and events. As we gave talks on our work at the regular China colloquium, the art history seminar, and the one-day Symposium on Vis ual Dimensions of Chinese Culture, we got feedback from Institute pro fessors and other scholars participating in these events, including James Cahill, Charles Hartman, Irving Lavin, Marilyn Lavin, Victor Mair, Nancy Steinhardt, Hsingyuan Tsao, and many others. The response to our overlapping projects was positive enough that we organized a panel for the AAS meetings in
2000 with
the same tide
we are using for this volume. For that occasion we wanted to move be yond our previous focus on art; Pat therefore turned to Huizong's rela tions with Daoist masters and we solicited papers by Charles Hartman on the ban on the partisans during Huizong's reign and by Ron Egan on Huizong's involvement with literati culture. In addition, Paul Smith and Jerome Silbergeld joined us as discussants. So many scholars came up after the panel to tell us that they were working on related subjects that we decided to see if we couldn't flnd a way to get a larger group of people interested in the late Northern Song together. We are grateful that the China Program and the East Asia Center at the University of Washington agreed to fund a work-
Vi •
Acknowledgments
shop on this topic, and it was held in February 2001 in Seattle. Besides those who had participated in the panel, this time we were joined by Peter Bol, Elizabeth Brotherton, Susan Bush, Hugh Clark, David Knechtges, Ari Levine, Freda Murck, and Stephen West. Those who had given papers at the AAS gave new papers this time, generally be cause our earlier papers were to be published elsewhere. Thus we had ten essentially new papers on that occasion. The Seattle workshop turned out to be a very stimulating occasion, and by the time it was over we were confident that we had the makings of a strong volume. Still, we wanted to do more there were too many dimensions of court culture and learning that none of us knew much about and we decided to see if we could recruit scholars willing to ex amine music, science, and reform programs at Huizong's court. We ap proached John Chaffee, Asaf Goldschmidt, and Joseph Lam and were able to convince all three of them to write papers for our volume. The next academic year, 2001-2, both Maggie and Pat had the good fortune to get Guggenheim Fellowships to work on their books. Per haps that sparked our decision to try to get everyone together once more. We knew a better final book would result if the three new paper writers had a chance to interact with the rest of the group. Besides, some of those who had presented drafts in Seattle were planning sub stantially revised papers for the volume, and it would be best if every one had the chance to discuss them. This time we were fortunate that units at Brown were able to fund us, including the Thomas J. Watson Center for International Studies, the Provost's Contingency Fund, and the Departments of History of Art and Architecture and of East Asian Studies. We met in Providence in December 2001, and this time were able to involve several new discussants: Richard L. Davis, Robert E. Harrist Jr., Dore J. Levy, and Julia K. Murray. One of the many Song scholars who attended the Brown sympo sium was Tsuyoshi Kojima, visiting Harvard from Tokyo University. In his work on Song intellectual history, he had concentrated on the final years of the Northern Song, and we were able to talk him into joining our project by writing a paper for the volume. We are indebted to Byounghee Min of Harvard for translating his paper from Japanese for us. Still we felt the volume would be incomplete without some treat ment of Huizong's involvement with Daoism. Luckily, we were able to convince Shin-yi Chao to join our project and write such a paper.
Acknowledgments
Vll • •
Finally we would like to thank our group of authors, who have been a pleasure to work with from the beginning. We learned a lot from one another, perhaps especially when we found ourselves disagreeing. P.B.E. M.B.
Contents
Tables, Maps, and Figures
Xl •
Abbreviations
XlV •
Chronology
XV
Contributors
XVll • •
1
Introduction Patricia Buckley Ebrey Part I
Court Politics and Policies 1
Huizong, Cai Jing, and the Politics of Reform John Chaffee
2
Irredentism as Political Capital: The New Policies and the Annexation of Tibetan Domains in Hehuang (the QinghaiGansu Highlands) Under Shenzong and His Sons, 1068-1126 Paul Jakov Smith
3
Terms of Estrangement: Factional Discourse in the Early Huizong Reign, 1100-1104 Ari Daniel Levine
31
78
131
Part II
Imperial Ideology 4
Emperors Can Claim Antiquity Too: Emperorship and ,. Autocracy Under the New Policies Peter K. Bol
173
Contents
x
5
Tuning and Numerology in the New Learning School Tsuyoshi Kojima
206
Part III
Extending the Imperial Presence 6
Huizong's Stone Inscriptions Patricia Ebrey
229
7
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health Asaf Goldschmidt
275
8
Huizong and the Divine Empyrean Palace Temple Network Shin-yi Chao
324
Part IV
The Emperor and the Arts 9
Huizong's Palace Poems Ronald Egan
10
Huizong's Dashengyue, a Musical Performance of Emperorship and Officialdom Joseph S. C. Lam
II
361
Huizong's Paintings: Art and the Art of Emperorship Maggie Bickford
395 453
Part V
Who's Telling the Story? Rethinking the Sources 12
A Textual History of CaiJing's Biography in the Songshi Charles Hartman
13
Crossing Over: Huizong in the Afterglow, or the Deaths of a Troubling Emperor Stephen H. West
565
Index
611
517
Tables) Maps) and Figures
Tables I.I
Advisory Office staff, 1I02
1.2
Chronology of politics and reform, II02-21
6.1 6.2
Huizong's stone inscriptions with surviving texts
238
Eight Conducts steles that survived to be recorded by Qing or later epigraphers
242
New medical titles enhancing the prestige of physicians
291
7.1
Maps 2.1
Song frontier on the eve of the Hehuang annexation
2.2
Annexation of Hehuang, I079-II09
Figures followingp. 258 6.1
Cai Jing calligraphy of the title for the Biyong stele, II04
6.2
Huizong's calligraphy on the Biyong stele, II04
6.3
Huizong's calligraphy on the Eight Conducts stele in Taian
6.4
Huizong's calligraphy on the Eight Conducts stele, 1I08
6.5
Huizong's calligraphy on the Stele on Appearance of Spirits in Kunming Hall, III?
6.6
Huizong's calligraphy on the Divine Empyrean Temple stele, In8
38 61
Tables, Maps, and Figures
xii
6.7
Huizong's transcription of the Thousand Character Classic in regular script, 1104
6.8
Huizong's transcription of two poems, beginning "wish to borrow," n.d.
6.9
Examples of Huizong's stops from four early calligraphies
6.10 Examples of Huizong's na strokes from four early calligraphies 6.11 Examples of Huizong's pie strokes from four early calligraphies 6.12 Examples of Huizong's hooks from four early calligraphies 6.13 CaiJing's cursive script calligraphy, letter to Jiefu, n.d. 6.14 XueJi's calligraphy on Stele for Chan Master Xinxing, 706 6.15 Chu Suiliang's calligraphy for Yan Pagoda Prefaces to the Buddhist Canon, 653 6.16 Xue Yao's calligraphy of poems, 700 6.17 Huang Tingjian's calligraphy on stele for Boyi and Shuqi 6.18 Chongning and Daguan coins 6.19 Huizong's Edict for Xiang Yuzhi, n.d. 6.20 Huizong's Edict for Xiang Yuzhi, n.d., detail Music example I: "Welcoming the Deities"
400
10.1 Songshi presentation of the Dashengfu "Welcoming the Deities"
406
10.2 Late Northern Song Kaifeng and its ritual-musical sites
408
10.3 A set of sixteen bell-chimes
413
10-4 The eight classes of musical instruments and fourteen samples
10.5 A late Northern Song courtyard orchestra and its arrangement of musical instruments Music example 2: Jiang Kui, "Zhishao"
followingp. 482 ILl Huizong, The Five-Colored Parakeet on a Blossoming Apricot Tree 11.2 Huizong, Cranes if Good Omen 11.3
Huizong, Auspicious Dragon Rock
Tables, Maps, and Figures 1I.4 Huizong, Hibiscus and Golden Pheasant 1I.5
Huizong, Wax-Plum and Birds
11.6 Huizong, Flowering Peach and Dove 11.7 Huizong, Finches and Bamboo 11.8
Huizong (attributed), Cat
1I.9
Huizong (attributed), Imperial Hawk
II.IO Unidentified artist (late 12th
Blossoms, and Bamboo
) Sparrows, Plum
c. ,
II.II Huang Quan (attributed), Studiesfrom Nature 11.12 Unknown makers, rubbing of Good-Omen slab, Wu Liang Shrine (147 CE) 11.13 Unknown maker (8th c.) , Dunhuang, Au s
Omens Illustrated 11.14 Unknown maker, Illustration 0/the Imperial Guard 0/Honor, 1053 11.15 Unknown makers (Jin dynasty), "Crane Mantle" 11.16 Anonymous (Song dynasty), Immortals in a
Mountain Palace 12.1 The growth and development of the Songshi biography of Cai Jing
X111 • • •
Abbreviations
CB Xu ZiZhi tongjian changbian 1t�ii� -k�, by Li Tao *;l(III584). Usually we cite the Beijing, Zhonghua punctuated edition, but when necessary the older Zhejiang shuju 1883 edition, cited to juan and folio, as in npa.
CB-SB Xu ZiZhi tongjian changbian shibu (either the 2004 Zhonghua shuju punctuated edition, cited by page, or a reprint of the Zhejiang shuju 1883 edition, cited byjuan and folio).
CS]C Congshujicheng it .- 1f< 1&
lm.gH�� SBCK Sibu congkan lm � it flJ SKQS Siku quanshu lm '*1:--.SBBY Sibu be!Jao
SS Songshi*-3t, ed. Tuo Tuo IDtIDt (1313-55) et al. (Beijing: Zhonghua
1977). SHY *- -t- � � �, shuju,
Zhonghua shuju, 1957).
ed. Xu Song
{t {'A (1781-1848)
et al. Beijing:
]SBM Xu ZiZhi tongjian changbian jishi benmo * ii � -k � � � *- * (ca. 1220), by Yang Zhongliang :fIi1.p tt (1241-71). In Songshi zjliao cuibian (Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1967).
Chronology
Xia dynasty, ca. 1800--1600 BCE Shang dynasty, ca. 1600--1045 BCE Zhou dynasty, 1045-256 BCE Qin dynasty, 221-206 BCE Han dynasty, 202 BCE-220 CE Three Kingdoms, 220--265 (Western) Jin dynasty, 265-316 Northern and Southern Dynasties, 316-589 Sui dynasty, 581-618 Tang dynasty, 618-907 Five Dynasties, 907-60 Song dynasty, 960--1276 Liao dynasty (Khitans), 907-1124 Northern Song dynasty, 960--1126 Taizu, r. 960--76 Taizong, r. 976-97 Zhenzong, r. 997-1022 Renzong, r. 1022-63 Yingzong, r. 1063-67 wife, Empress Gao Shenzong, r. 1067-85 wife, Empress Xiang Xining period, 1068-77 Yuanfeng period, 1078-85 Zhezong, r. 1085-1100 wife, Empress Meng, Empress Liu Yuanyou period, 1086-93 Shaosheng period, 1094--97 Yuanfu period, 1098-1100
Chronology
XVl •
Huizong, r. 1100-1125 wife, Empress Wang, Empress Zheng Jianguo jingzhong period, 1101 Chongning period, 1102-6 Daguan period, 1107-10 Zhenghe period, IIII-I? Zhonghe period, I118 Xuanhe period, I119-25 Jin dynasty Qurchens), III5-1234 Qinzong, r. 1125-27 wife, Empress Zhu Jingkang period, 1126-27 Southern Song dynasty, 1127-1276 Gaozong, r. 1127-1162 SIX more emperors •
Yuan dynasty, 1215-1368 Ming dynasty, 1368-1644 Qing dynasty, 1644-1912
Contributors
MAGGIE BICKFORD is Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, and Professor of East Asian Studies at Brown University. She is author of Ink Plum) the Making rf a Chinese Scholar-Painting Genre (1996) and Bones rfJade Soul rfIce) the Flowering Plum in Chinese Art (1985). Recently, she has studied imperial Song initiatives in producing a definitive Chinese visual culture and investigated problems of auspicious visuality in China, through works such as "Emperor Huizong and the Aesthetic of Agency" (2002-3). PATRICIA BUCKLEY EBREY is Professor of History at the University of Washington. Her many studies of Song social and cultural history range broadly over topics in family, class, ritual, and visual culture, among which the best known is probably The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lves rfChinese Women in the Sung Period (1993). She is currently finishing a book-length study of Huizong's art and antiquities collections, after which she will return to her "life and times" of Huizong. PETER K. BOL is the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Lan guages and Civilizations at Harvard University. He is the author of 'This Culture rf Ours": Intellectual Transitions in Tang and Song China (1992) and coeditor of Wqys with Wordr: Writing About Reading Texts from EarlY China (2000) and the China Historical Geographic biformation System (2005). He is currently working on the historical role of Neo-Confucian ideol ogy and local cultural history.
XV1U • • •
Contributors
JOHN CHAFFEE is Professor of History and Director of the Asian and Asian American Studies Program at Binghamton University. He is the author of The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: A Social History of Examinations (1985, 1995), and The Branches ofHeaven: A History ofthe Sung Imperial Clan (1999) and co-editor of Neo-Confucian Education: The Forma tive Stage (1989). His current research involves the history of the Muslim maritime communities of Guangzhou and Quanzhou from the Tang to early Ming. SHIN-YI CHAO is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Rutgers Univer sity, Camden. She is author of a dissertation entitled "Zhenwu: The Cult of a Chinese Warrior Deity from the Song to the Ming Dynasties (960-1644)" (2002) and has written articles on Chinese popular religion and Daoism in the traditional and modern periods. Her interests in clude popular religion, Daoism, ritual studies, women in religion, and the relationship between state and religion. RONALD EGAN is Professor of Chinese at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of books on the Song dynasty writers Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi, as well as The Problem ofBeauty: Aesthetic Thought and Pursuits in Northern Song Dynasty China (2006). He has also produced a selective translation of the essays of Qian Zhongshu on Chinese aes thetics, entitled Limited Views: Essqys on Ideas and Letters (1998). ASAF GOLDSCHMIDT is Lecturer in the History of Medicine and the History of the Song Dynasty at the Department of East Asian Studies of Tel Aviv University. Recently, he has studied the impact of the gov ernment and environment on the reshaping of medicine during the Northern Song period, resulting in a manuscript entitled "Politics, En vironment, and the Integration of Medical Approaches During the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 CE)." He also studied the history of the Imperial Pharmacy and other medical institutions during the Song. CHARLES HARTMAN is Professor of Chinese and founding chair of the Department of East Asian Studies, the University at Albany, State University of New York. Author of Han Yii and the T'ang Search for Unity (1986) and associate editor for poetry of The Indiana Companion to
Contributors
XlX •
Traditional Chinese Literature (1986, 1998), he has also written articles on Song dynasty historiography and the textual history of Song historical works that have appeared in the HarvardJournal ofAsiatic Studies, T'oung Pao, the Journal ofSong-Yuan Studies, and Chinese Literature: Essqys, Articles,
Reviews. TSUYOSHI KOJIMA is Associate Professor in the Department of Chinese Philosophy, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Study at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is author of books on the history of the Song Dynasty and on Neo-Confucianism, two of which were trans lated into Korean. Since 2005, he has led a major project involving some 140 researchers entitled "Maritime Cross-cultural Exchange in East Asia and the Formation of Japanese Traditional Culture" (www. l.utokyo.ac.jp/maritime/english/index.html). JOSEPH S. C. LAM is Professor of Music (Musicology) at the School of Music, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is author of State Sacri fices and Music in Ming China: Orthodo:>ry, Creativity, and Expressiveness (1998) and many articles on traditional Chinese music and musical culture. Currently, he is completing a monograph entitled "Beautiful and Per fect Music from Southern Song China, a Transcultural History" and launching a research project on musical men of late Ming China. Am DANIEL LEVINE is Assistant Professor of History at the University
of Georgia. He has written narrative chapters on the Zhezong and Huizong reigns for volume 5 of the Cambridge History of China. Currently, he is completing a book manuscript on factional rhetoric in the late Northern Song.
PAUL JAKOV SMITH is Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Haverford College and the current John R. Coleman Professor of So cial Sciences. He is the author of Taxing Heaven's Storehouse: Horses, Bu reaucrats, and the Destruction of the Sichuan Tea Industry, I074-I224 (1991), and co-editor, with Richard von Glahn, of The Song-Yuan-Ming Transition in Chinese History (2003). His contribution to this volume is part of a lar ger study of soldiers, courtiers, and the political culture of war in Song China in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
xx
Contributors
STEPHEN H. WEST is Foundation Professor of Chinese of the School of Global Studies and the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State University. Formerly Louis Agassiz Professor of Chi nese at the University of California, Berkeley, he is the author, with Wilt Idema, of Chinese Theater IIgQ-I450 (1982) and The Moon and the Zither: Wang Shifu's Story if the Western Wing (1991). Recently he has been in volved with the study of memory, place, and materiality in the social and literary life of the Song, as reflected in his recent article, "Spectacle, Ritual, and Social Relations: The Son of Heaven, Citizens, and Created Space in the Eastern Capital of the Northern Song."
Introduction Patricia Ebrey
The Northern Song period (96o-II27) ended in debacle. The alliance that Song had entered into with the Jurchen state of Jin � proved dif ficult to maintain and late in II25 the Jurchens launched a two pronged attack on Song China, aiming to capture the capital, Kaifeng Ul·j;J-. When Emperor Huizong's #t * (r. IIOo-25) officials learned of the invasion, many proposed moving the capital south to regroup and buy time, but others insisted that it was better to stay and fight. Hui zong wanted to leave at once, but on the advice of his closest officials, he first abdicated in favor of his oldest son, Qinzong � * (r. 112527), then twenty-six. When the Jurchens reached the gates of the city, they offered to leave if the Song court paid a ransom of 5 million ounces of gold, 50 million ounces of silver, 10,000 bolts of silk and satin, 10,000 oxen, and 10,000 horses. These were huge sums, equivalent to many times the annual revenue of the court, and 180 times what the Song had been paying annually to buy peace from Jin's predecessor Liao it. The only way the court could raise anything like these sums was to empty out its treasuries and then demand that all private citizens turn over all their gold, including their jewelry. Even though the government was not able to raise everything demanded, it did submit huge quantities,300,000 ounces of gold and 9 million of silver before the Jurchens would depart. The Jurchens left with their loot after a month, on II26/2/II. Soon Qinzong's officials demanded that Huizong return to the capital, where he was set up in his former princely mansion, long since con-
2
PATRICIA E B REY
verted to a Daoist temple. Relations between Huizong and Qinzong were strained, and they rarely saw each other. Once the Jurchens had withdrawn, those who had favored con ciliation were condemned and a much tougher stance was advocated, one that court officials must have known would provoke another attack. Qinzong's officials attributed the defense failures to moral weakness and concentrated on rooting out officials who had served Huizong and seeing that they were demoted, exiled, or even executed. When the Jurchens did return in the eleventh month of 1126, the Song refused to negotiate and instead put up a fight. After a siege of forty days, the capital city fell. The Jurchens did not simply sack the city. To extract a second ransom, they placed their soldiers on the walls and threatened to loose them against the populace unless their demands were met. Their
5 million bars of gold (each bar 50 ounces), IO million bars of silver, and IO million bolts of silk and satin. This was 50 times the gold demanded the year before, and IO times the silver, and the Song had not met the previous quota. Qin primary demand was again for gold and silver, this time
zong insisted to his officials that preserving life was the highest priority and urged them to do everything possible to keep the Jurchen soldiers from ravaging the city. The demand for silk could be met more than enough
the government warehouses held
but to raise anything approaching that amount of
gold and silver required mobilizing informers to find those who had not turned over everything the year before. Servants who reported that their masters had hidden gold or silver were rewarded with part of what was found. After a month it was apparent that Song efforts to collect gold and silver were not going to reach anywhere near the sum demanded had collected only one percent of the gold and
IO
they
percent of the silver.
The Jurchens then proposed that the Song could fill part of the quota with women, with different values put on princesses, women of the im perial clan, wives of officials, entertainers, and the like. In the end, more than
11,000
women were turned over to the Jurchens and most of the
ransom was made up in this way. But it was not just gold, silver, silk, and women that the Jurchens extorted from the capital. They wanted horses, ancient bronzes, books and printing blocks, sacrificial vessels, astro nomical instruments, musicians, physicians, all sorts of artisans, and much else. Huizong had been the most aggressive of collectors, especially of books, paintings, calligraphy, and ancient bronze vessels. Every item now became the property of the Jurchens.
Introduction
3
Qinzong was induced to leave the relative safety of the walled city and to enter the Jurchen camp on 11271 II 10. Everyone expected him to return the next day, but instead the Jurchens posted notices that he would not be allowed to return until the gold and silver quotas had been filled. This led to renewed searches, with beatings of those sus pected of holding back. After the Chinese officials claimed that there was no more gold or silver to be found in the city, a clever person proposed the perfect way to test this assertion: to offer food for sale only for gold or silver. Because the Jurchens had not allowed anyone to leave the city since they had taken control of it, food was in extremely short supply and people were starting to die of starvation. When cus tomers showed up bearing gold and silver to buy rice at exorbitant prices, the Jurchens had the eight Chinese officials who had been as signed the task of running the searches for precious metals beaten to death in front of the main south gate. In addition, the failure of the Song to quickly turn over all gold and silver was used as an excuse by the Jurchens to dig up graves in all the surrounding areas, including those of princes and princesses. Firewood was just as big a problem as food was, a situation made worse by a particularly cold winter and several heavy snowfalls. In order to keep people from freezing to death, the Song government permitted the populace to tear down government buildings for firewood. Next they were allowed to dismantle the buildings in Huizong's Genyue El. garden. A few days later, they also were allowed to cut down the rare trees planted there just a few years earlier. Since the large garden rocks, many shipped from the south at great expense, had already been used for the catapults during the battles for the walls, by the time the Jurchens withdrew, there was nothing left of what had been the most spectacular garden in the realm. Toward the end of the third month of 1127, the Jin soldiers ftnally came down from the walls of Kaifeng, which they had occupied for nearly four months. Some 1050 carts were sent north with booty. Soon they were followed by seven convoys transporting nearly fifteen thou sand captives, including Huizong, Qinzong, their empresses and other consorts, their children and grandchildren, all the imperial clansmen that the Jurchens could round up, a few dozen high officials, along with the thousands of women, craftsmen, and other specialists whom the Jurchens had decided to take with them. Neither Huizong nor Qinzong ever returned south. It was only because one of Huizong's sons had been
4
PATRICIA EB REY
out of the capital during the siege and managed to rally Song forces that the Song dynasty survived at all, and then with significantly truncated territory and a capital in the southern city of Hangzhou. These events have cast a long shadow over the Northern Song, es pecially its last few decades.1 From the first years of the Southern Song (1127-1276) on, historians collected and edited evidence with the goal of explaining what went wrong. In order to account for Song military weakness, some pointed to the Song policy of limiting the. authority of generals and subordinating them to the civil bureaucracy. Others found the root of the problem in the New Policies :&JT� program initiated by Shenzong :# if- (r. 1067-85) and his grand councilor Wang Anshi ��;G (1021-86) in 1068. Those who had been critics of the reforms could take an I-told-you-so stance. Just as they had foreseen, the New Policies had brought confusion and destruction. It was unwise to criticize Huizong personally as long as his son Gaozong � if- (r. 1127-62) was emperor, but recriminations could be heaped upon his councilors and generals. Since their policies in the end had failed, Huizong's advisors must have been inferior men. In time, Huizong also was blamed for paying too much attention to religion, art, and gardens and not enough to what his officials were doing. The long shadow cast by the fall of Kaifeng still obscures our vision of the Northern Song period, not because no one asks new questions or challenges the received moralistic framework for approaching it, but because it has skewed the surviving historical record. Yet, even if Huizong's reign was prelude to disaster, Huizong him self stands out among Chinese emperors for his cultural accomplish ments. Apparently aspiring to be a latter-day sage-king, Huizong actively participated in the cultural side of rulership and as a conse quence he has a place in the history of endeavors as diverse as medicine, painting, music, and Daoism. He collected paintings, calligraphies, and 1. The principal sources narrating these events are Xu Mengxin -Mt-J-"" Sanchao beimeng huibian -=- fJl:Jt.]I i"� (Taibei: Dahua shuju reprint of Shixue yanjiushe 1939 punctuated ed.); Jingkangyaolu *4t*� (anon.) (CSJC ed.) ; Yang Zhongliang �1+� (fl. ca. 1170-1230), Tongjian changbianjishi benmo i!SI-k�R..*-*- (Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1967 Songshi ziliao cuibian ed.) ; Cui An 4Jt and Nai An � Jt, eds.,Jingkang baishijianzheng *4t:f1f.3t l tE, ed. Cui Wenyin -lt5t lip (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1988); Ding Teqi T#� (d. Il35+), Jingkangjiwen *4tR./lfl (CSJC ed.); Cai Tiao �{. (fl. Ilo0-30), Beishou xinglu :Jt.�;f�t� (CSJC ed.).
Introduction
5
antiquities on a huge scale and had catalogues compiled of his collec tions. He took a personal interest in the training of court artists and in stituted examinations for their selection. He wrote poetry as well as treatises on medicine and Daoism. He sponsored Daoist clerics and in stituted Daoist schools. He initiated an ambitious reform of court music and court rituals. He took a personal interest in architecture and garden design and undertook more than his share of new construction. He created his own distinctive calligraphy style and produced exquisite paintings. His reign may have ended in humiliation, but for twenty-five years he put on a dazzling performance. How do Huizong and his reign fit into the history of the Song period? In recent decades scholars have added tremendously to our knowledge of Chinese society, state, and culture during Song times. China during the reign of Huizong's father, Shenzong, is particularly well studied, undoubtedly because of the significance of the New Policies introduced by Wang Anshi and the reaction that they provoked. We no longer have to be satisfied with simplistic accounts of a moral struggle between good and evil. Intellectual, literary, and art history all now ground develop ments during the period in the great political controversies of the time. Following upon the work of social historians, it is now common to stress the differences between the Northern Song (especially the period
1050-1100)
and the Southern Song (especially the period
1140-1240). 2
Part of the genesis of these differences occurred during Huizong's reign. The suppression of opponents of reform, for instance, has been seen as finishing off any remaining idealist hopes of making a difference through service at court. At the same time, in a more positive way, the nationwide school system put in place by Cai Jing
JJ :t- (1047-1126) is credited with
bringing many more families into the educated elite and official service. Shifts in intellectual orientation also owe much to the Jurchen invasion and loss of the north, which created not only a sense of dislocation and discontinuity, but also a profound crisis that required rethinking all the old verities.
2. Robert M. Hartwell, "Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations of China, 750-1550," Harvard Journal '!fAsiatic Studies 42.2 (1982): 365-442; Robert P. Hymes and Conrad Schirokauer, eds., Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Beverly J. Bossler, Powerful Relations: Kinship, Status, and the State in Sung China (g6o-I279) (Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1998).
PATRICIA E B REY
6
The need to reexamine the place of Huizong's reign in the long tra jectory of Chinese history was a major impetus for the present volume. The authors of the essays here consider the last decades of the Northern Song from several vantage points. Some are interested above all in the nature of the Chinese state. What roles were played by such key power-holders as the emperor, his top officials, his intimates and favor ites, wider circles of officialdom, and the army? Should we think of the politics of the period as contests between emperors and officials? What were the consequences of the expansion of state activity, especially its greater intervention into cultural matters ranging from religion to music and education? Other authors are concerned with the institution of emperor. Did Huizong push the institution of emperor in any new ways? Does Huizong's suppression of dissent lend support to the view that the Song period marks a shift toward more autocratic emperors? Or was he so constrained and manipulated by his officials that he was hardly much of an agent himself? How important was the personality of the emperor? That is, how much of a difference did it make that Huizong was emperor, rather than one of his brothers? Another group of contributors focuses on the cultural products of Huizong's court, ranging from the paintings and poetry attributed to him to the works on medical or music theory written by officials working at his command. Did Huizong's patronage advance fields or stifle them? How should we evaluate the works attributed to Huizong? What does authorship mean in the imperial context? To provide a chronological framework for our essays, we begin with an overview of Huizong and his reign.
Huizong's Life in Brief Huizong was born in the palace in
1082.3 His
emperor, Shenzong; his mother, Consort Chen
father was the reigning
ft,
one of the middle-
3. This brief sketch is drawn from my unpublished manuscripts on Huizong and his court. The only comprehensive biogtaphy of Huizong is Ren Chongyue **-§;, Song Huizong, SongQinzong *,fiH�, *ik if- (Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe, 1998). The fullest treatments in English so far are Betty Tseng Yu-ho Ecke, "Emperor Hui Tsung, the Artist: I082-II36" (ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1972), and Ecke, "Song
Introduction
7
rank consorts. He was 28 months old when Shenzong died. Because his mother died a few years later, Huizong was reared by stepmothers, in cluding Shenzong's widow, Empress Xiang
foJ (1047-IIOI). Usually
Huizong is described as the eleventh son of Shenzong, but he did not grow up with ten older brothers, since eight of them had died before he was born. Within a few years, however, he had several younger brothers as well as several sisters, both older and younger. Upon Shenzong's death, Huizong's eldest brother, Zhezong
{ff *
(r. 1085-IIOO), succeeded to the throne. Because of his youth, a regent was required, and the natural regent was the senior empress, Shenzong's mother, Empress Dowager Gao
�
(1032-93). She turned out to be a
forceful ruler who orchestrated a rapid reversal of most of Shenzong's policies. The officials she brought back, including Sima Guang
� .� 7t.
.,* � (1036-IIOI), and Cheng Yi ;f.I ftJi (1033-II07), were known from the reign period name as the Yuanyou faction 3t 1:(;:t . (1019-86), Su Shi
The tutors who were assigned to educate Zhezong's younger brothers made sure that they received a solid education in the classics, but from his early years Huizong was also attracted to the arts. Princes had to prove their indifference to politics in order to avoid arousing suspi cion that they had ambitions for the throne. Some princes did this by showing that they enjoyed their indulged life, immersing themselves in the pleasures of dogs, horses, wine, and women. An alternative way to pass their days innocently was to pursue learning and art. This was the route taken by both of Shenzong's younger brothers, the men who offered Huizong his closest role models. His uncle Hao
fJi (1050-96)
was skilled in calligraphy and archery, but his real passion was collecting rare books. His uncle Jun
� (1056-88) was an able painter whose
wife also painted. Affinal relatives of the imperial family were also often involved in the arts. The one who had the greatest impact on Huizong was Shenzong's sister's husband, Wang Shen
.I.-tt
(ca. 1048-
ca. II03), one of the leading collectors of paintings and calligraphies of his day and an accomplished painter. Wang Shen was on friendly terms
Hui Tsung and His Time" (M.A. essay, University of Hawaii, 1967). Much fuller treat ment of the politics of the Huizong era will soon be available with the publication of the Cambridge History ofChina volume on the Song, which will have a chapter by Ari Levine on Huizong's reign.
8
PATRICIA E B REY
with many of the men prominent in cultural circles, most notably Su Shi and Mi Fu � '* (1052-1107). In 1098 Huizong moved out of the palace to his own mansion, built by the master builder Ii Jie 4'-� (ca. 1065-IIIO). The next year, at eighteen sui, Huizong was married to a Miss Wang ..I., two years his junior. Later that year, Zhezong, whose only son had just died in infancy, took ill himself. For months he suffered from an ailment that caused vomiting, diarrhea, and intense intestinal pain (perhaps an infected appendix). On New Year's Day, 1100, he was too ill to hold the traditional New Year's audience and twelve days later he died. Because no heir apparent had been appointed and because Zhezong had no sons or nephews, it was up to the senior empress, Empress Dowager Xiang, to decide who would succeed to the throne. Zeng Bu 'if AP (1035-1107), one of the members of the Council of State at the time, left a record of Empress Xiang's discussions with them. After she informed the councilors that Zhezong had died without sons, Zhang Dun " ,t*- (1035-1105) immediately proposed that Zhezong's full younger brother (that is, the younger son of his mother, Consort Zhu *-) succeed, even though he was not the oldest. Empress Xiang, how ever, responded, "All of the brothers from Prince Shen 11'..I. on down are Shenzong's sons. It is difficult to distinguish among them. Prince Shen has sick eyes. The next [in age] is Prince Duan 1.t ..I. [= Huizong], so he should be established."4 The other councilors expressed their ap proval of Empress Xiang's choice; so Zhang Dun, finding no support, gave up. From Zeng Bu's testimony, Empress Dowager Xiang was quite definite that she wanted Huizong to succeed Zhezong. In other con versations Zeng recorded, she repeatedly mentioned how intelligent he was, and in one of these she explicitly said that none of the other princes could compare with him . He was only three months younger than the oldest prince, so their age difference had little more than symbolic sig nificance. If the eldest had an eye disease or even just poor eyesight, he would have made a poor candidate for emperor, since emperors had to read through mountains of memorials and other documents.
Zeng Bu '!t AI> , Zeng Bu yilu '!t AI> i!*, in Ouxiang lingshi .fA:ft *".f*" , ed. Miao Quansun ��� (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1998), 9.3a. 4.
Introduction
9
Huizong was summoned, and after he had a chance to speak with Empress Xiang, he announced that he wanted her to rule with him. The councilors objected that he was full-grown, but he insisted, telling them that the empress had already agreed. It was not until months later that Zeng Bu realized that Huizong had made a politically astute move. The passed-over brothers could not object to decisions formally approved by their legal mother without opening themselves to charges of unfilial behavior, effectively limiting their opportunities to deliberately or un consciously obstruct the new administration. During the fttst six months of his reign, until Zhezong was buried, Huizong kept on Zhezong's councilors, and they reported to Empress Xiang after their sessions with him , although she rarely did more than express her approval of Huizong's decisions. After the burial, Huizong began dismissing the high officials whom he had inherited and brought back people who earlier had been dismissed by Zhezong. For nearly two years Huizong and Zeng Bu, who became his leading councilor, tried to create a bipartisan, coalition government. They never were able to reduce the acrimony between the two factions (the reformers and anti-reformers), however, and in mid-II02 Huizong gave up the effort and decided to side with the reformers (see Levine's chapter). Huizong made Cai Jing his grand councilor and set about reviving the reform agenda of his father (see Chaffee's chapter). He even changed foreign policy directions, reversing decisions that had been made the year be fore concerning the campaign on the northwest frontier (see Smith's chapter). Officials kept telling Huizong that men of character and inferior men could not abide being placed together, and that it was essential that he clearly identify who belonged to each category. Huizong decided to take their advice and from 1102 to 1104 he issued a series of lists of men whom he did not want in his government, the longest, issued in 1104, containing 309 names (see Levine's chapter). Since 83 of these men were no longer alive, the goal of these lists was as much to clarify the record as to make sure that those serving in office in fact supported his pro grams and would not attempt to subvert them from within. Suppres sion of dissent also extended to texts. The government banned the writings of key opponents of reform such as Su Shi and his followers.
While denigrating the opposition, Huizong celebrated the reformers. In 1104 he ordered a statue of Wang Anshi placed in the Confucian
10
PATRICIA EB REY
temple next to Mencius. The Directorate of Education was ordered to make pictures of this statue, print them, and have them distributed throughout the country. Banning the opposition proved to be as unsuccessful as the bipartisan Council of State had been, and a year and a half later Huizong began removing the restrictions on those listed. Huizong's decision to lessen the penalties imposed on the partisans was strengthened by the ap pearance of a comet a few days later on 1106/1/5. The comet remained in the sky until 1/26 and eventually led to the dismissal of Cai Jing (see Chaffee's chapter). Huizong did not, however, change his mind about which side to favor. Although he dismissed Cai Jing for several months in 1106 and again in 1109 for several years, he did not bring back any of the leading opponents of reform. During Cai Jing's fIrst and second terms on the Council of State, most features of the New Policies were reinstated, such as the tea and salt monopolies, the hired service system, and the square fIeld land tax sys tem. But Cai Jing's reforms went much further than Wang Anshi's had in matters of education, charity, and the imperial clan (see Chaffee's chapter). Already under Shenzong the New Policies had involved a re organization of the National Academy in the capital by introducing three levels known as the Three Halls -=- -®-. Cai Jing's plan increased the numbers of teachers, students, and schools, as well as the size of school lands. Not only prefectures, but also counties were to have schools, in cluding primary schools for elementary education. Each school would have three grades and tests would be used to promote students from one grade to the next within schools and between schools. Students who reached the National Academy could test directly into offlce. In order to handle the increased number of students arriving at the capital, a pre paratory school was built, called the Biyong Academy � $. One aspect of the new school system was the provision of specialized schools of painting, calligraphy, law, and medicine (on the last of these, see Gold schmidt's chapter). Huizong was sufflciently committed to these reforms to use his personal presence to promote them. In 1104, Huizong paid a visit to the Biyong and conferred on it a hand-drafted edict extolling the virtues of the new school system. This edict was soon carved on a stele. On Cai Jing's advice copies of the stele were distributed to all the pre fectural schools so that they could erect copies of it as well (see my chapter).
---------
Introduction
II
Cai Jing had critics even before he became grand councilor, and the attempts to suppress dissent did not keep people from writing scathing attacks of him. In 1105 one of those serving with him on the Council of State, Zhao Tingzhi :it!.f,tt z (1040-1107), charged that Cai's plan to eliminate the civil service examinations did not have roots in Shenzong's plans; moreover, Zhao alleged, it threatened the principle of fairness rooted in the practice of covering over the names on examination papers. Not long after, an official named Fang Zhen -}f #- (fl. 1100-1120) accused Cai Jing of planning to take the throne himself, as Wang Mang .£1f. (r. 9-23) and Cao Cao t 4� (155-220) had done in Han times. He also charged that Cai Jing treated Huizong like a child, convincing him of any crazy project by saying either that it was ancient or that it had been an unfulfilled part of Shenzong's plans. In addition, he claimed that Cai Jing had sent his son Cai You ,,"1� (1077-1126) to amuse Hllizong, with the result that flowers, strange rocks, and caged birds and animals were brought into the palace in a steady stream. Huizong came to the throne soon after he married, and within months his first son was born. He soon took more consorts, and in contrast to many of the earlier Song emperors, he quickly had lots of children. His wife had become his empress, but she died young in 1108. Nevertheless, by the end of 1108, twelve sons had been born to him, ten of whom were still living. Twelve daughters had also been born, but five of them already had died. Still, seventeen children nine sui or younger, together with their seven mothers, must have absorbed quite a bit of Huizong's time and energy. Huizong also found the time to involve himself in many cultural projects during his first decade on the throne. He supervised the court painters who redecorated his old princely mansion in the course of its conversion into a temple. He also got involved with the examinations for painters at the new painting school. From 1103 to 1108 he carried on a correspondence with the patriarch of the Maoshan *' � sect of Daoism, Liu Hunkang J1il.J.l (1035-1108). In 1104 Huizong put into practice some of the proposals of the seer, wonder-worker, and musical theorist Wei Hanjin 4tiii't (d. 1105), who advocated not merely the codification of new musical scales (discussed in Lam's and Kojima's chapters), but also the casting of nine bronze tripods using water and soil from the nine regions of the realm. The tripods were installed in a special temple where they were used in sacrifices to the Yellow Em-
12
PATRICIA BB RBY
peror, the Duke of Zhou, and others. An especially auspicious sign ap peared in apparent response: several thousand cranes circled above surrounded by colored clouds. The second decade of Huizong's reign was looked upon by people of the time as a great age of peace and prosperity. Meng Yuanlao ii.3(.* (fl. II26-47), in his masterly depiction of life in the capital during this period, remembered Kaifeng as an enchanting city, made all the more enjoyable by the frequent imperial processions through the city. Hui zong's officials regularly reported to him auspicious signs, perhaps be cause Huizong seems to have taken them quite seriously. In 1II3, when he heard that the Yellow River had cleared, he had someone write a com memorative account of it and had it carved on stone at the site. It was also during this period that Huizong undertook to have a visual record of the myriad auspicious phenomena that blessed his reign (see Bickford's chapter). Other large-scale projects that he sponsored in this period in cluded a huge new guide to the performance of ritual (the Zhenghe wuli xif!JIi Jit;fn A;ft -i1f1l, referred to in Kojima's chapter) and a similarly ambitious medical encyclopedia (see Goldschmidt's chapter). In both of these cases Huizong wrote a preface for the work, making claims of personal involvement in the project and belief in its significance to sage government. At the personal level, Huizong's second decade on the throne had its share of joys and sorrows. The consort Huizong was most attached to died suddenly in III3, leaving him distraught. She had joined the palace service at the age of 14 in IIOO and had borne her first child in II03, followed by another five children in the next few years. But there were happy occasions as well. In III4 his eldest son, Qinzong, was capped and the next year formally installed as heir apparent. He married the year after that, and in III7 Huizong became the first Song emperor who lived to see a grandson born to him. Many more would follow. During the early Zhenghe Jli;f11 reign period (IIII-q) , Huizong be came fascinated by a series of seers who could foretell the future or communicate with the dead. He had several dreams that made an im pression on him including one in which he was brought before a ruler who told him that it was his destiny to promote Daoism (see Chao's chapter). Huizong soon was sponsoring the compilation of a new Daoist canon and initiating a Daoist school system. One of the Daoists who came to the capital during this period was Lin Lingsu #. t: -t ,
Introduction
13
(I076?-1I20). In 1116 or III? Lin revealed that Huizong was an incarna tion of the elder son of the Jade Emperor, named the Great Sovereign of Long Life -k !l. *- ,*" . Huizong was so pleased with learning this from Ijn that he had the palatial Supreme Purity Precious Treasure Temple :k �t f � 1: built for him. He also ordered that Divine Empyrean ;if 1" temples be established in every prefecture to house images of the Great Lord of Long Life and his brother the Sovereign of Qinghua i-"*. Al though existing Daoist temples could be converted for this purpose, Buddhist ones were often converted instead. In III? Lin I.ingsu an nounced that the Sovereign of Qinghua had descended to earth. Hui zong assembled huge numbers of Daoist priests at Precious Treasure Temple to hear Lin tell of this great event. Lin Lingsu persuaded Huizong to place a series of curbs on Buddhism. In 1118 a text by Lin on the slanders of Buddhists was printed and cir culated. In 1119 Buddhist temples and monasteries were forbidden to increase their landholdings or buildings. Then, the foreignness of Bud dhism was to be erased through a process of renaming. Buddhist monks were renamed "scholars of virtue" �,t ± to correspond to Daoist priests who were called "scholars of the way" l! ± . They were to wear Dao ist-style robes, use their original surnames, and salute with raised fists, not joined palms in other words, they were to make themselves visually indistinguishable from Daoist clergy. Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and arhats were given new names Shakyamuni was to be called the Golden Im mortal of Great Enlightenment *- f: 1H�. Temples could retain the old statues of these newly renamed deities but had to clothe them in the robes and caps of Daoist divinities. These decrees proved unpopular, and late in 1119 Lin Lingsu was sent away. The following year most of the restrictions on Buddhism were removed. Huizong had long had a passion for building. Early in his reign he took an interest in the redecoration of his old princely mansion and in the layout of the Biyong Academy. In 1113 he began building a new palace complex, called Precious Harmony Hall f :fu�. Decorated in an un derstated style, with unpainted wooden beams and rafters, it had pavil ions to store books, antiquities, paintings, calligraphy, and musical in struments. A much larger palace-related project was the huge extension of the palace to the north, creating the new Extended Blessings Palace � ;f& 1: . Hong Mai �ll (1123-1202) described it as the most extrava gant palace construction project done in Song times. It had seven
14
PATRICIA EB REY
halls, thirty pavilions, a 1I0-foot-tall artificial mountain, and a pond 400 by 267 feet. The cranes, deer, and peacocks kept there numbered in the thousands.s In 1115 Huizong also restarted the long set-aside plan to build a Hall of Enlightenment EI}j � , which the master builder Li Jie had planned for him in 1104. Late in his second decade on the throne Huizong undertook yet another construction project, the Genyue garden outside the walls of the palace complex. For this lavish imperial park, plants, animals, and rocks were gathered from all over the empire and transported to the capital at enormous expense.6 During this period Cai Jing was in his seventies and semi-retired, coming to court only every third day, but he still had great influence. Huizong came to place increasing trust in the eunuch general Tong Guan � 1t (1054-1126), even to the point of making him a member of the Council of State in 1116. He had known Tong Guan from early in his reign and had great confidence in his military abilities. It was on Tong Guan's recommendation that negotiations were opened with Jin con cerning a joint attack on Liao. The Song already had begun massing troops in Hebei for the planned attack on Yanjing � * (modem Beijing), when a rebellion broke out in the southeast. The leader of the rebellion, Fang La -}fill, preached a form of Manichaeism, but resentment of state exactions motivated many of those who joined forces with him .7 Tong Guan was ordered to take his troops south to deal with the rebellion. He succeeded in suppressing it in mid-1I21, but in the meantime Jin captured Yanjing without Song help. Cai Jing retired in 1120, and Huizong pennitted Cai's successor as grand councilor, Wang Fu 3- 1I\lIi (1079-1126), to dismantle most of the New Policies and other projects that Cai Jing had supported over the years, including the school and charity organizations (see Chaffee's chapter). The government did not, however, retrench in all fields. A new building was erected for the Imperial Library outside the palace and a major book-copying project was begun to make three copies of 5 . Rongzhai suibi � *' � !f (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1978), sanbian 13.568-69. 6. On this garden, see James M. Hargett, "Huizong's Magic Marchmount: The Gen yue Pleasure Park of Kaifeng," Monumenta Serica 38 (1988-89): 1-48. 7. On this rebellion, see Kao Yu-kung, "A Study of the Fang La Rebellion," Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies 24 (1962-63): 17-63.
Introduction
15
every book in the library, each one to be kept in separate locations for safety. Catalogues were compiled not only of the books in the Imperial Library but also of the paintings, calligraphies, and antiquities kept in the palace. In II23 the Song celebrated the return of Yanjing, but its relationship with Jin became more and more strained. Jin, after all, had learned that the Song was not much of a military threat. The fall of Kaifeng was de scribed above. Because Qinzong's officials were very wary of the retired emperor, Huizong played no more than a minor role as the final events unfolded. During the summer of 1126, after he was forced back to Kaifeng, Huizong had to endure learning of the death or execution of many of his closest associates, who had been blamed for the failed mili tary policies. Qinzong rarely visited his father, and during the second siege of the capital the retired emperor was not allowed into the palace until after the outer walls of the city fell. The only action required of him in this period was to obey Qinzong's command that he lead the residents of the palace out of the city walls to the Jurchen camp. Conditions on the march north were difficult (see West's chapter). Huizong occasionally rode a horse, but apparently most of the time he traveled in an oxcart pulled by five oxen, driven by two Jurchens who did not speak Chinese. Huizong's two brothers, the princes ofYan and Yue, rode in an oxcart. Others less fortunate had to walk. Most were city dwellers who were not used to walking long distances; those who fell behind were beaten or killed. Young children were abandoned along the road when they could not keep up. While traveling, the captives were expected to prepare their own food. Each evening after camp was set up, rice was distributed on a per capita basis but people had to supply their own firewood and water to cook. Since they were not allowed out of the camp, they soon learned to pick up what water and wood they could find while they were traveling and to save it for the evening. Sometimes, in the vicinity of cities, peddlers came with food. On 4/r6, Huizong's brother Wu died, reportedly of starvation. Huizong had him laid out in a horse trough, which was so short that his feet stuck out. His request that the body be sent back for burial was refused, and it was cremated. Huizong took the urn of ashes with him the rest of the way. On 5/13, after a month and a half on the road, Huizong arrived in Yanjing. By this time, his ninth son, Gaozong, who was out of the capital during the siege, had been enthroned, though Huizong did not learn of this for some time.
PATRICIA E B REY Huizong's son-in-law, Cai Tiao
�{1t (fl. IIOo-30), who accompanied
him the entire way, reported that Huizong wrote more than a thousand poems during his exile. One surviving poem is linked explicitly to his period in Yanjing, as it was inscribed on the wall of a Buddhist temple there. With nine generations the great enterprise suddenly stops.
I was crazy not to listen to my upright officials' advice. Willingly I travel ten thousand Ii as a surrendered captive.
It'f.;�*-..f!� m!1-�ltJ1[ El l1t. *,� � � � ,* ,*
Just think how in my former country I was sad when the jade halls grew cool in autumn.s
Song forces, now with Gaozong to offer leadership, were proving stronger than Jin had expected, and after four months in the essentially Chinese city of Yanjing, the Jurchens decided to move Huizong and Qinzong farther north. Huizong arrived at the Jin Central Capital
it :t- (in modem Inner Mongolia) on II27/ IO/ 18. According to Cai Tiao,
at this stage of his captivity Huizong sometimes fell into depression, sleeping poorly and showing no interest in food. Books, however, came to offer him a way both to pass the time and to cope emotionally with his change in circumstances. Although his educational policies had down graded the study of history, he now found history books to be the most satisfying reading material. After less than a year in the Central Capital, Huizong and Qinzong and the rest of their party were moved north again, this time to the main Jurchen capital, the Supreme Capital They arrived there on
J:.. :t-
(in modem Inner Mongolia).
II28/8/2I, and a few days later were presented as
offerings at a sacrificial ceremony at the shrine dedicated to the Jin founder, Aguda Fiif 'it .tr, who had died in
II23. As they were led in, five
white flags identified the different members of the group as "the two captive Song emperors," "the captive mothers and wives of the rebel lious slave Zhao family," and so on. After the ceremony, the women were divided up. Three hundred women from Huizong's consorts on down were assigned to the palace laundry to work as palace slaves. Others were given to particular men. After Qinzong's empress returned from this ceremony, she commit ted suicide by drowning herself. The next day Huizong and Qinzong
8. Fu Xuancong f.f.�� et al. eds., Quan Song shi �*tt (Beijing: Beijing Daxue
chubanshe, 1991- ) , 1495.17070.
Introduction were given humiliating titles: Lord of Confused Virtue of Double Confusion
-t' tt 1*.. The
tt f,t "A' , and Lord
following day twenty doctors were
assigned to evaluate the imperial women, aborting any who were preg nant and treating those who were ill, in preparation for their entry into the palace. Only two months later, on
1128/10/26, Huizong, Qinzong, and the
others were forced to move north again to Hanzhou
'** 10('1
(in modern
Liaoning), a journey that took two months. In Hanzhou they were re united with
904 members of the imperial clan who had been moved
there earlier. During their stay in Hanzhou Huizong's favorite son, Kai, died. After about a year and a half there, the captives were transferred again, since even Hanzhou, it seems, was not far enough north to calm the Jurchens' fears that the former emperors might be rescued by Song loyalists. In
1130/7, the imperial party reached its ftnal destination,
1i.. 11 �
(thought to be near the northern border of Hei
longjiang). En route,
500 clansmen and 300 palace attendants were sent
Wuguo city
to other destinations. As a consequence, it was mostly Huizong's im mediate family that accompanied him to Wuguo. Not long after arriving in Wuguo, Huizong's Empress Zheng
�
died at age
52. Hllizong lived on in Wuguo another four years; he died in 1135 at age 54.
Cross-Cutting Issues The chapters in this volume do not pursue all of the issues brought to the fore by Huizong's reign. No one examines the Fang La Rebellion, the alliance with Jin, or Huizong's painting academy, to name only some of the topics extensively treated in the Chinese, Japanese, and Western secondary literature. What we do treat in depth are the many facets of Hllizong's performance as emperor, the political and institutional links that join Huizong's reign to those of his immediate predecessors, Shenzong and Zhezong, and the nature of the sources we can use to probe these issues. EXT E N D I N G T H E N E W P O L I C I E S
In contrast to the voluminous scholarship on the political, institutional, ftscal, and military sides of Wang Anshi's New Policies, very little re search has been done on the extensions of these policies during Huizong's reign. Several of the essays in this volume begin with Shen-
PATRICIA E B REY
18
zong's reign in order to explore the shifts in policies, attitudes, and ideas that occurred during the course of the six decades when Shenzong and his sons ruled. Peter Bol traces shifting conceptions of the ruler from Shenzong's reign to Gaozong's by analyzing the questions posed at the Palace Examination, a strategy that allows him to show shifts in the ways the throne presented itself to one of its major audiences. Asaf Gold schmidt shows how the medical services and pharmacies that were cre ated as part of the New Policies were extended and expanded during Huizong's reign. Tsuyoshi Kojima examines the school of Confucian learning associated with Wang Anshi and the forms that it took during Huizong's reign, particularly the preoccupation with certain numbers in ritual and musical theory. Although Wang Anshi usually is thought of as a hard-headed statecraft thinker, the school of learning associated with
him can help to explain facets of Huizong's reign that have often seemed to be anything but rational.
Ari Levine looks at factional discourse and factional practice from Shenzong's through Huizong's reign. He shows that throughout the period political actors claimed moral legitimacy for themselves and cas tigated their opponents as evil. Time and again advisors told rulers that the survival of the state depended on expelling the wicked and their factions from the court. Acrimony steadily intensified; the cycles of ri valry, hatred, and revenge became progressively more bitter until Cai Jing had won Huizong's wholehearted support and could expel the opposi tion wholesale. Paul Smith looks at continuity in the realm of foreign policy, taking the case of the northwest frontier, the area to the southwest of the Tangut state of Xia, inhabited largely by Tibetans. He demonstrates that many of the actors continued their roles from one administration to the next, including professional military strategists from military families and eunuchs who specialized in military affairs. Smith's evidence demon strates that we must take seriously Zhezong's and Huizong's commit ment to "continue the legacy." The authors discussed so far take one strand of the New Policies and trace it over time. John Chaffee, in his chapter, takes a different approach; he looks at Huizong's extension of the reform program as a set of poli cies. He shows first that they were tied to the career of Cai Jing and second that they were parts of a coherent vision. The reforms both raised and spent enormous sums of money. They aimed at both uni-
Introduction
19
versalism and benevolence aiding all students, all of the poor and probably aimed beyond the reach of the state. Yet the specific measures, such as the types of specialized schools, the resettlement of members of the imperial clan outside the capital, and the funding of both schools and clan centers through endowments of land, clearly reflect Cai Jing's ad ministrative goals and style. Whenever Cai was out of power the reforms were curtailed or canceled. T H E E M P E R O R AS P A T R O N
Chinese emperorship, in its grandest conceptions, entailed much more than political and military decision-making. From early times the ruler was conceived as a vital link between humankind and Heaven, able through his performance of ritual and his moral cultivation to affect the cosmos. Theoretically, his cultural power was enormous, as he had the potential to promote the good and true through his support for par ticular people, ideas, arts, and traditions. By Song times emperors had considerable leeway in the balance they gave to the more political and the more cultural side of emperorship. Huizong went further than most of his predecessors in developing the cultural side of emperorship, appar ently enjoying his roles as patron, artist, and sage. As patron, Huizong poured the vast resources of the throne into imperial support for particular fields of learning, religion, and art. Asaf Goldschmidt, in his chapter, argues that Huizong's initiatives had a positive impact on the quality of medical care available to people throughout the country. According to his analysis, by investing in the education of physicians, Huizong's government was able to attract bet ter-educated men into medicine. By devoting resources to charitable clinics and graveyards, the government was able to help fight epide mics. By establishing dispensaries that sold prepared prescriptions by the dose and by publishing guides that listed appropriate medications for specific diseases or symptoms, it made medical treatment more widely available. Joseph Lam documents Hllizong's investments in the reform of mu sic at court and, ultimately, throughout the realm. Huizong supported the proposals of the holy man and musical theorist Wei Hanjin, which took the imperial body to determine the central tone in a Daoist based musical system. Huizong also directed resources toward the
20
PATRICIA EB REY
creation of a new bureau responsible for the composition and per formance of the new music. In addition, he had new bells cast on which to play the new music. Huizong also lent imperial support to Daoism and to particular Daoist clerics. As Shin-yi Chao shows in her chapter, Huizong inter vened in Daoist liturgy and textual traditions in ways that had an im pact on Daoist traditions. There is no evidence that rival schools of medicine or music felt threatened by imperial patronage of particular teachings. In the case of imperial support for Divine Empyrean Dao ism, however, both Buddhist monasteries and Daoist priests belonging to other traditions had reason to resent the penetration of the central government to the local level. Granting favors to a particular school of Daoism was an intervention that other religious traditions did not welcome. T H E E M P E RO R AS A RT I S T
Many Song emperors were cultivated men, but none went as far as Huizong in mastering the three excellences: poetry, calligraphy, and painting. Deng Chun in the mid-twelfth century described Huizong as a painter of exceptional talent; the somewhat later author of the anony mous Xuanheyishi claimed that he was equally talented as a poet, callig rapher, and musician.9 Although the authors in this volume take much harder looks at exactly what survives of Huizong's artistic output, none of them casts serious doubt on Huizong's artistic abilities. Huizong as calligrapher is one of the themes I develop in my chapter. From 1104 on, Huizong arranged to have his calligraphy displayed for everyone to see on steles erected at schools or temples. The style of his "Slender Gold" 1t 1t calligraphy was so distinctive that those who caught a glance of it would recognize it instantly. Through his calli graphic style, he presented himself as a person in control-disciplined, capable of order and precision, yet at the same time original and able to perform familiar acts with flair.
9 . See William Hennessey, Proclaiming Harmony (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1981), 13-14; Deng Chun fl!4�, Huaji •• , ed. Pan Yungao ill! %, in Tuhuajianwen Zhi, Huaji Ill . JL B!'J ,i;; , • • (Changsha: Hunan me ishu chubanshe, 2000), 1.263-64.
Introduction
21
Maggie Bickford investigates Huizong's paintings by considering them as practical objects that were utilized as instruments of cultured rule, rather than as precious, decorative pictures produced by a self indulgent aesthete-emperor. She shows how functional concerns as well as aesthetic preferences shaped their style, their means of production, and their deployment. She raises questions of significant contiguities between Huizong's imperial initiatives in the arts and the modes of scholar-amateur painting that emerged during the late Northern Song. Huizong's poetry is less well known than his calligraphy and painting, but still stands out among the works of Song emperors. In his chapter Ronald Egan analyzes the
300
palace poems that are attributed to
Huizong. In order to bring out the cultural meaning of these poems, Egan compares them to earlier works in the genre, especially the sets of
.I.. Jt (ca. 751palace lady, Lady Blossom 1�� A.A.
one or two hundred poems by the Tang writer Wang Jian ca.
830)
and the Five Dynasties
Compared to their palace poems, Huizong's seem largely celebratory. Fewer than half of them deal with palace women and those that do tend to focus on their cultural accomplishments, virtue, or amusing pas times. In Huizong's poems virtually all traces of the palace plaint, so widespread in the earlier collections, have been eliminated. Other poems point to the emperor as a calligrapher, painter, or musician, or to auspicious events at court, ranging from military successes to news that the Yellow River had cleared, in the process idealizing the palace as the apex of enlightened worldly power. These poems, like the stone in scriptions analyzed in my chapter, show Huizong taking the initiative to create images of his rule as one marked by virtue, beauty, and Heaven's favor.
THE EMPEROR AS SAGE
The early literatures of both Confucianism and Daoism speak of the wonderful results of rule by sages. By Song times, emperors conven tionally were likened to sages
their pronouncements were "sage
words," their faces "sage countenances." Although the officials who used this conventional hyperbole need not have thought of the man on the throne as a sage, most held to the view that the more sage-like the ruler, the better he could rule. Huizong's interests in Daoism, in dreams and portents, his willingness to use his own body to recalibrate the musical scale, all suggest that he took seriously the notion of the
22
PATRICIA E B REY
ruler as a sage who, through his presence and correct gestures and words (that is, his correct performance of ritual) positively intervenes in the cosmos and thus brings peace and prosperity to the realm. Early in his reign Huizong experimented with music as a means through which the sage emperor could exert his influence throughout the realm, a subject examined here by both Lam and Kojima. As Kojima explains in his chapter, the numerology of music had cosmic dimensions, as the number three was held to offer a way to integrate the human realm and the natural order. The political language that Huizong deployed conveyed several facets of the emperor as sage. Peter Bol shows that the ruler represented by his Palace Examination questions was not an autocrat but rather the sage-king of antiquity who through his person effects positive change in society. Whereas the New Policies had tried to benefit society through changes in social and political policies, Huizong also wanted to make use of the magic of ritual. During his later years the questions that he posed indicate that he hoped Daoist masters had techniques that might help him toward these goals.
I see similar shifts in the concerns Huizong
conveyed in the edicts he had carved on stone. Huizong presented himself to his subjects as a ruler concerned with their welfare, who wanted to communicate direcdy to them his commitments to the legacy of his father and to the basic values of both Confucianism and Daoism. He could not call himself a sage, but he could allow Cai Jing to entide his engraved edict "the stele written by the great sage"
* 1: 11=Z�. As he
became more deeply immersed in Daoism he also wanted his subjects to know that Daoist divinities had communicated direcdy with him. Moreover, in his edict of
Iu8,
Huizong declared that he was reuniting
the Dao of the Confucians and the Dao of the Daoists, certainly a task for a sage. Cosmological issues also permeated Huizong's interests in the theory of medicine. As Goldschmidt shows in his chapter, by explaining the ancient
doctrines
underlying
medicine,
Huizong
was
re-enacting
the benefaction of the Yellow Emperor. Goldschmidt's chapter also brings out another side of the sage: his concern for the welfare of the people. Huizong's charitable programs, especially his clinics, pharmacies, and free graveyards, demonstrated both compassion and an under standing of the ways diseases spread. Moreover, it took a sage to fully comprehend the unity of the body, mind, and environment needed to attain true health. The sage can doctor both the cosmos and the
Introduction
23
body. The Yellow Emperor, after all, was not only the ideal Sage Ruler, but also the founding figure of medical theory. Thus, Huizong's pref aces to his medical works illuminate the sage as a person who under stands the regularities of the Five Phases and the transformations of the Six Qi. Another understanding of the sage ruler was as the "true lord" of Daoism. As Shin-yi Chao shows in her chapter, Huizong took seri ously Daoist teachings about the hierarchies of the heavens and the ability of heavenly divinities to incarnate themselves multiple times on earth. Yet, when the emperor learned that he himself was an incarna tion of a high god, he did not become more aloof, on the model of a Daoist high god. Rather, like a devotee, he used his powers as a patron to support an expansion of the Daoist church and to help promulgate Its texts. •
D ISTINGUISHING THE PERSON FROM THE ROLE
As our work on Huizong and his court progressed, we became more comfortable with our understandings of Huizong the emperor. Al though a few of us cautiously resort to locutions such as the Huizong reign or the Huizong court, unsure what should be attributed to Huizong and what to other members of his government, most of us have abandoned the traditional stereotype of Huizong as politically unengaged, complacently allowing Cai Jing, Wang Fu, or other power ful figures to make the real decisions. John Chaffee, for instance, argues that Huizong personally was committed to the goals of the reform program, seeing in it filial fulfillment of the aims of his father. Although he does not downplay the barrage of advice Huizong received, he sees Hllizong's own terrified reaction to the comet behind his temporary cancellation of the program, not someone else's manipulation. Similarly, Paul Smith portrays Huizong as responding enthusiastically to Wang Hou's proposals for a northwest campaign and caring deeply about its outcome. Ukewise, Joseph Lam, rather than seeing Huizong as de luded by Wei Hanjin's mumbo-jumbo, views him as a man interested in music and aware of how court music could contribute to his perfor mance as a ruler. Perhaps the strongest argument for seeing Huizong behind much of what issued forth from his court is that we can detect both consistent patterns and change over time. Huizong repeatedly tried to extend
24
PATRICIA EB REY
policies more systematically throughout the country. He repeatedly re sponded positively to men claiming expertise in ways to tap extraordi nary powers. He repeatedly supported the idea that government institu tions should be universal, extended to all of his subjects. Several authors also saw a shift in Huizong's attitudes between the first and second decades of his reign. As issues related to "continuing the legacy" di minished in importance, Huizong was more and more drawn toward the more cosmic, sage-like dimensions of rulership in which Shenzong had shown little interest. As a consequence, he took on larger, more ambi tious projects, ranging from building a Hall of Enlightenment and the Genyue garden, to assigning scholars to compile new encyclopedic works for medicine and ritual, to cataloguing the imperial library. None of this should imply that we found it easy to say with confidence what Huizong thought. Over the centuries many have wondered whether Huizong believed the cosmological and religious ideas attrib uted to him. Did he really think that auspicious omens indicated Heaven's favor, or that Lin Lingsu was in communication with high Daoist gods? No matter how many of the poems, prefaces, and "imperial brush" edicts we attribute to Huizong himself, recovering Huizong's own thinking remains a challenge because of the force of convention in most genres of court writing. Although no one in this volume pretends to know what was in Huizong's mind, several authors try to show that the ideas implicit in his words and actions were far from exceptional in his day, even among the highly educated. Daoism, as many scholars recently have shown, was in Song times a flourishing religion and several new teachings attracted large followings. Shin-yi Chao characterizes Huizong as a religious man. Like other lay followers of Daoism, Huizong may have at times misun derstood or even garbled some of the ideas, but taking seriously Daoist gods and heavens was not in Song times a sign of delusion. Both Tsu yoshi Kojima and Joseph Lam take a similar approach to the cosmo logical ideas connected to Huizong's musical program: these ideas were not weird in the context of established music theory of the time. The problem is not in imputing such ideas to Huizong, but inferring from them that he was credulous or muddle-headed. Chinese traditions of criticism in the fields of poetry, calligraphy, and painting emphasized the way the creator of a work of art expresses himself through it. An edict may represent the emperor's political agenda even if he gave only vague instructions on how it should be worded, but
j
Introduction
25
a poem cannot express his momentary emotional response if someone else came up with its most striking images. Similarly, given that brush work was believed to convey the ideas and moral character of the cal ligrapher or painter, paintings or calligraphies done to one's order could not fully substitute for those one did oneself. By this line of reasoning, if we could say for sure which works of art were products of Huizong's brush in the narrowest sense of the term, those works would offer us the best access to his personality, character, and emotional reactions to life around him. In this volume, Maggie Bickford is the one who takes up this issue most fully. A central question in painting connoisseurship, even in Song times, was whether a painting was in fact by the artist to whom it was attributed, or whether it was a copy, forgery, or studio work. Here Bickford takes the position that we cannot discover Huizong the indi vidual person in the surviving paintings attributed to him, only Huizong the emperor, since he multiplied the works of his imperial hand by acting through the hands of others. On the other hand, as I argue in my chapter, we can detect aspects of Huizong's personality and intentions in the unusual style of regular script calligraphy that he created, the Slender Gold style. This was a style that hid fleeting feelings but conveyed con trol, flair, and a desire to stand out. NA RRAT I V E S O U R C E S
All scholars who do research on the late Northern Song have been frustrated at times by the textual sources available to them. The political narrative for this period is not nearly as rich as for the previous half-century (1050-1100) or the succeeding century (1130-1230) . In part this is because few collected works by men active during this period survive. In addition there is no narrative of court politics that approaches the detail of the Xu iiZhi tongjian changbian It 1t n; ii � -k .� or the jialryan yilai xinian yaolu Jt � )';,( *- .. .f � � . At least as important, however, is the pervasive bias in the sources that do survive, many of which depict the main personalities of the politics of this period as cardboard cutouts, without nuance or complexity. All of the authors of essays here struggle with these issues and make the best use they can of the available sources. Levine sketches the impact of intense factionalism on our ability to reconstruct the political history of this period. Kojima points to poor survival of works by scholars of New Learning, whose
PATRI CIA E B REY writings were largely excluded from the historical record, and our need to reconstruct their ideas from fragmentary sources. Chao contrasts the treatments of Lin Lingsu in the Song History and in a Daoist hagiography that implies that if Huizong had only put more faith in Lin, the Northern Song would never have fallen to the Jurchens. Two of the chapters in this volume concentrate on analysis of textual sources. Charles Harttnan shows how political judgments made during the Huizong period itself and subsequent decades shaped the biogra phies in the Song History. He takes the case of the biography of Cai Jing. After explaining how the Southern Song historiographical office went about putting together the successive histories that would have included earlier drafts of this biography, he analyzes the construction of the ex isting text. Through techniques of comparative textual philology, he shows that drafters of the earliest biographies of Cai drew their main sources from contemporary political tracts that had been written to denounce Cai and his policies. Thus, these mid-twelfth-century biogra phies reflect the view of the time that held Cai responsible for the fall of Northern Song and cast him in an exceedingly negative light. Harttnan also shows that officials who worked with Cai Jing but later went on to play positive roles in the early Southern Song were written out of Cai Jing's biography lest they subvert its moral message. With the dominance of the Daoxue 3t � movement in the thirteenth century, the tone of the biographies shifted once again. In addition to being held politically re sponsible for the failed policies of the Huizong era, Cai Jing now also became a negative prototype of the supposed moral corruption of the period. Hartman concludes that this Song History biography image of Cai Jing as an exemplar of the evil minister, combined with the near total destruction of his own writings, illustrates the historiographical problems of the late Northern Song and renders an unbiased judgment on Cai's role in that period almost impossible. Images of Huizong in the centuries after his death owe much to in formal writings, including ones we would class as historical fiction, a subject that Stephen West takes up in his chapter. As he shows, these images are as complex and multi-layered as the formal products of state historiography bureaus. In Dongjing meng hua lu, Huizong is portrayed affectionately, in the context of the pleasure his appearances brought to the crowds he drew. That he dazzled through the material splendor of the throne added to his appeal. In accounts of his transport north and his
Introduction
27
captivity, these images are inverted. In his chapter here, West gives spe cial attention to the story of Huizong's final years as recounted in the
Na'!Jinjiwen � :lt � 8!'l .
The account of Huizong's journey begins with
recognizable topography, but after Yanjing it becomes progressively more nightmarish, both weird and threatening. In exposing the structure of this account as a tale of retribution, West exposes the deep affinities between storytelling and works of putative fact; in doing so he reveals the blurred boundaries between fiction and history as genres.
The editors of this volume made no effort to get
all of the authors to
agree on the stance to take toward Huizong and his reign. In cases where authors appeared to disagree on the facts, the editors have attempted to resolve differences, but when the differences were ones of approach or interpretation, we let each author speak with the voice that he or she found most appropriate. An attentive reader will notice, for instance, that Chaffee and Levine do not have the same take on Cai Jing. Throughout his reign Huizong deployed state resources on a grand scale in projects as varied as collecting art, deploying armies, and mandating free graveyards. Some of us were impressed by the ambition and goals of these projects; others saw imperial manipulation and micromanagement. For instance, Paul Smith, seeing the military ventures as one phase in long-term de fense policies, has a much more negative view of Huizong's
willingness
to expend state resources than does Asaf Goldschmidt, who regards Huizong's charitable initiatives as manifestations of an impressively progressive government. We attribute such differences in part to our different vantage points
Huizong's reign looks different when one is
thinking of the history of public health than that of defense policy. At the same time, we do not want to dismiss these differences as inconsequen tial, since they provoke our continued exertions to address afresh the problems of Huizong and the late Northern Song period. Here, rather than attempt to achieve a synthesis that evens out
all of our differences
in approach and concerns, the editors decided to organize this volume in a way that does not conceal the tensions among them. The two or
three chapters under each of the headings in our table of contents tackle similar issues in different ways and raise new questions when read together.
P A RT I
Court Politics and Policies
C HAPTER
I
Huizong, Cai Jing, and the Politics of Reform John Chaffee
This chapter aims to investigate the politics of reform at the end of the Northern Song, a topic that has largely been neglected in past studies. So powerful is the narrative of condemnation that pervades both the ma jority of sources for the period and the dominant historical tradition through the succeeding centuries that the reforms are often ignored, brought up only when they serve to illustrate the tyranny and rapacity of eai Jing 1J :t. (1046-U26), the chief villain in the account. Many modem historians, by contrast, have been drawn to the refonns as the most in teresting aspect of Huizong's • * reign (UOI-26), but their focus has been upon the individual reforms themselves, so they have generally had little to say about the reforms as a whole. In contrast to the New Policies of Wang Anshi ..I.�.ki (1021-86) and Shenzong # * (r. 1067-85) in the 1070s, which have been intensively studied, eai Jing's reforms have been viewed as a kind of poor cousin, individually interesting but possessing neither the plausibility nor the grand vision that distinguished the earlier reforms. Although this view is understandable, the resulting neglect of eai's reforms is unfortunate, for as I hope to show, the eai Jing reforms were broadly conceived and implemented as a package, at least in their early years. There were important differences between the two refonn pro grams, to be sure. Although the New Policies made important changes in schools and the examination system, their primary focus was on the
J O H N CHAF FEE
32 economy
agriculture, commerce, and taxation
and rural society. 1
Cai's reforms likewise had major economic aspects, namely concerning taxation, monopolies, and currency reforms. But the most ambitious undertakings were in education
the creation of an empire-wide system
of tiered schools that subsumed the functions of the examination system and the establishment of a host of new educational institutions and in two areas unaddressed by the New Policies. These were the creation of two huge residential complexes outside of Kaifeng for the ever-growing imperial clan, and the establishment of new relief institu tions for the very poor: poorhouses, hospitals, and cemeteries. Whatever the differences between the two reform programs, the later reformers clearly felt that they were involved in the same great project. In initiating his program, Huizong repeatedly emphasized that he was emulating not only his father, Shenzong, but also his brother Zhezong
1'lf *
(r. 1085-IIOO), who during his period of personal rule from 1094 to
1100 had restored a number of reform policies that had been curtailed during the Yuanyou
7t:ft period (1085-93). This sense of continuity was
distilled into the notion of the "continuing legacy"
M ))it., first formulated
by Zhezong, who in 1098 had chosen Shaosheng
!.{J �,
or "continuing
sagacity," as his reign name, and was cited frequently by Huizong.2 This sense of connection was not limited to reform, however; as Paul Smith argues elsewhere in this volume, it was also integral to Huizong's ag gressive foreign policy and to his determination to clamp down on po litical opponents. Because my subject is the politics of reform, the substance of the reforms themselves
will receive scant attention in this chapter. I will
consider, rather, the history of their enactment, retrenchments, restora tions, and finally abolition, and the specific roles of Huizong and Cai Jing. I will argue that the reforms were first and foremost the personal
The best treatment of these in English is Paul Smith, "Shen-tsung's Reign (1068-8S)," draft chapter for the Cambridge History ojChina, SA (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming), sections 3-4. The New Policies are succincdy summa rized in Peter K Bol, 'This Culture ojOurs':· Intellectual Transitions in rang and Sung China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), 246-53. 2. Halryu dacidian �l3-* laJ#f. (CD-ROM; Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 2002) explains that shaoshu, which I have translated as "continuing legacy," refers specifically to the reform inheritance of Shenzong. Zhezong not only named his reign period Shaosheng, he also named Zhang Dun as grand councilor in order to pursue the con tinuing legacy of the Xining and Yuanfeng reforms. I.
Huizong, Cai Jing, and the Politics ifReform
33
undertaking of Huizong, who saw them as his "continuing legacy," but that they then became personified by Cai, so that the fortunes of reform came closely to parallel his own. One of the challenges of this project has been how to deal with the notorious historiographical biases in the sources for the period as a whole, but especially concerning Cai Jing, a matter analyzed in depth by Charles Hartman elsewhere in this volume. Because my attention has
I have simply ignored many of the inflammatory charges directed against Cai and his followers. More positively, I have
been on the reforms,
used official documents wherever possible, since these are most likely to avoid textual biases.
I pay close attention to sequences of events, espe
cially concerning the details of the specific reforms. Finally, the chapter focuses on the rises and falls in Cai Jing's career, specifically his elevation
1102, his dismissals in 1106 and 1109, which were followed by restorations in 1107 and 1112, and finally his dismissal in 1120, which marked the end of the reforms. These changes provide to the grand councilors hip in
useful junctures not only for examining the fate of the reforms but also for unearthing the issues that gave rise to them.
The Initiation ofRiform (II02) By the seventh month of 1102, Huizong was just completing the second year of his personal rule. Through most of that period his government had been guided by the grand councilors Han Zhongyan
1109)
and especially Zeng Bu
'it � (1035-1107),
#,t It (1038-
who tried to steer a
conciliatory course between the bitterly divided proponents of reform and their opponents, the Yuanyou party or faction. Whether due to the wily manipulations of Cai Jing, as his detractors argue, or to general in transigence on both sides, this attempt had broken down by mid-
1102.3 Han was dismissed in the fifth month and Zeng in the sixth, to be replaced by Cai, who was appointed on the fifth day of the seventh month. This was more than simply a change in personnel. Acting on intentions that were implicit in his selection, at the beginning of that year, of Chongning
'* .
or "esteeming the [Xi]ning
,.� .
era"
(1068-
77), Huizong was determined to continue the reform work of his father. 3. See the account by Ari Levine, "Hui-tsung's Reign (noo-n26)," draft chapter for the
Cambridge History of China, voL 5A.
J O H N C HAFFEE
34
Cai Jing's Song History biography provides the following account of his appointment interview with the emperor: "In the past, Shenzong changed the laws and issued new edicts; but in the end he was not able to carry them through. The previous emperor continued on this project. Yet both had to deal with intervention. As it stands, our national destiny is still not fulfilled. We would like to carry on the work of our father and brother, but from what we have seen at court this will be nigh impossible. Now that you are our right-hand man, what advice can you give us?" Bowing,
# * �IJ � � 10f )IX �ie.? J
Jing answered, "I would give even my life to repay your majesty."4
.:2:. 1M, 7t '*" $lie., Til it � � , IIJ Jt � ;t . JOC �J:.i! X. }{. ie. ,to , :y- 4iJ{ � *, !j{ . ?t.
r
While in this interview Huizong spoke to the general nature of the project, in Cai's edict of appointment, issued the same day, Huizong clearly indicated the challenge facing it, namely the opposition of re form opponents. The edict begins with an idyllic portrait of gover nance in the Xioing period: "They relaxed service [obligations] and rested the farmers. They honored the Classics so as to produce scholars, settled the etiquette for the suburban sacrifices and temples, restored the harmony between righteousness and profit, and linked the gov ernance of selection and schools." But then, "crooked scholars and vulgar Ru it did not know roots and branches. Powerful families and huge factions together forced changes." Promising a reliance on the ancient customs of past masters, filial thought, and public discussion, Huizong concludes by invoking King Wu i(..I.. of the early Zhou and Cao Can fr � of the early Western Han.5 These references carried a message. King Wu "manifested the meritorious deeds of the father Wen." Cao Can as a grand councilor under Han Gaozu gained lasting renown for his success at upholding the regulations JJL of his predecessor
SS 472: 13723. Translation adapted from William O. Hennessey, trans., Proclaiming Harmof!)l (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1981), 16-17. CB-SB 20.2b, cites a variant text from the Song biannian tong/ian ;fUri-+ii�. The two 4.
major differences are that it names the palace screen from behind which the Empress Dowagers Gao
,1i
and Xiang fa] conducted their regencies as the source of resistance,
and it does not provide Cai's dramatic response. 5. Xu Zirning, Song zaifll biannian III xiaobll (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), II: 700-701
(hereafter 20.2b.
Song zaifll). Most of the edict can also be found in fSBM 13I.IOb and in CB-SB
Huizong, CaiJing, and the Politics ifR.ejorm Xiao He
�1iiJ.
35
Ruler and minister are therefore joined, by history, in
their common purpose. On 7/11, six days after Cai's appointment, Huizong took a critical step toward enacting the program of reform, namely by creating an Advisory Office
�� �
under the personal supervision of Cai. This was modeled
explicitly on the Finance Commission in early Xining, an extraordinary body that coordinated the implementation of the New Policies. like the Finance Commission, the Advisory Office was intended to provide both the coordination and the political muscle necessary for overcoming bu reaucratic resistance within the established organs of governance. The edict establishing the office does not spell out exactly what would be done, but it does make clear what Huizong considered to be the problem. It begins with general principles that again stress the importance of continuing Shenzong's work: We have heard that those who rule the world make governance and instruction their priority, and that those who respect filial thought make continuing the work of their predecessors a matter of urgency. Now, regulations and their uses
'* flt] #:1 � r * JlX ± Jt 1111 i! � ;t.. J; :f ,� * JlX • ,t; l! * � '�" It *1 ilii Jfl .z-ff 1- �, .fft ilii -1t.z-ff 1- 1--..
reside in law, while implementation and activity reside among men.
It then goes on to offer a broad catalogue of the ills facing the empire: In particular, the imperial clan is multiplying, and those who are not officials are still numerous. Clerks are superfluous and unrestrained, creating great difficul ties for those attending to them. Accumulation in the villages is meager, and traveling merchants uncommon on the roads. A sense of modesty is rare, while the hasty rush [for position] is common. Customs are degenerate, while rec ommendations and selection suffer from the vice of selfishness. The benefits of salt have yet to be realized, and taxes have yet to be levied. Unnecessary ex penses are still numerous, and the worthy and vulgar are hard to distinguish.
iJL $ � l--1it ilii . 't * � � . � JPt: i� ilii ).t.* � •. • ;ft � 4� £ rgj , ;tlj*�i! �l!�. ,t.Jf;; lt ,*, 1tit't4J . �1�iti�, At*:fA � . • i'�-fl, M.��-'f.
When a poor year produces famine, people suddenly become refugees.
� " l1! � , 't�Jft;¥Jt, ��;!f.�.
Finally, stressing the importance of order and method, and the need for men of extraordinary talent, it creates the office and appoints Cai as supervisor.6 6.
SHY zhiguan 5-J2a-b; ]SBM 132.Ia-b; CB-SB 2o.3a-b.
J O H N CHAFFEE The following month, on 8/4, the organization of the Advisory Office was announced and staff were appointed. The Office was divided into seven functional units: the imperial clan * 1: , supernumerary officials 'it: If , national expenditure IJ ffl , taxation JI.t f!ii\:. , itinerant merchants j!lj *, salt '" if , and livestock management � ttl . Three examining editors It -tt If were assigned to each unit, and seven consultants t- -tf If were appointed, presumably to help general coordination and oversight. In addition, the Bureau of Military Affairs established its own Advisory Office with a consultant and an editor. 7 The twenty-seven appointees to the Advisory Office (seven con sultants and twenty editors, for livestock management had only two appointees) are listed in Table I.I. The consultants were of higher rank than the editors and are also better represented in historical records, though little can be deduced from that fact (it could be that the traumas of the late 1120S curtailed the careers and therefore the historical prominence of those who had been editors). It is also noteworthy that of the thirteen for whom I have been able to find evidence of native place (five consultants and eight editors), aI/were from either the southeast or Sichuan. Since Cai Jing himself was a native of Fujian, the southern character of this reform, like that of the New Policies, is clear. But the most striking feature of this group is the modesty of their bureaucratic positions. There were no assisting councilors or senior censors, and just one minister. With the exception of Zhang Shangying and Wu Juhou, the consultants were all rank 6 officials, while the editors were overwhelm ingly from ranks 7 and 8, or the lower echelons of the administrative officials. Since this was a body with enormous power able to make drastic changes throughout the government it would appear that Cai was determined to use bright but junior officials loyal to him and without vested interests of their own. The only two obvious exceptions were Zhang and Wu, who, with Liu Geng, were initially named by Huizong, with the others then being nominated by Cai;8 as we shall see, Zhang was to become a bitter opponent of Cai a few years later. SHY zhiguan 5·13a-b. 8. jSBM 132.Ib-2a. This is a revealing memorial from Cai Jing, which, though dated 8/5 T e. , must have been written immediately before this memorial. In it he comments on an edict he had received that had laid out the seven areas important for governance Jtz:k.:t and on the appointment of Wu Juhou, Zhang Shangying, and Liu Geng as consultants. Cai suggests the additional appointments of Fan Zhixu, Wang Hanzhi, 7.
Huizong, CaiJing, and the Politics if Reform
37
Once established, the Advisory Office lost little time in proceeding with reform legislation.9 As we can see in Table 1.2 (at the end of this chapter), various major reform initiatives were launched in the latter half of 1102. On 7/12, even before the creation of the Office but after Cai's appointment, the tea monopoly was extended to the southeast.lO On 8/20, charity clinics .!Jt:- � � were mandated for all prefectures and counties, thereby initiating the welfare program. Two days later, Cai submitted his massive ten-point educational reform memorial, which was accepted. Its provisions included the replacement of the examina tions with an empire-wide system of schools, each organized into three halls or levels, with students advancing from county to prefectural schools to the Biyong � $., or Outer Hall of the Imperial University, to the university proper, and with the university graduates receiving jinshi degrees.!! Thus it fundamentally altered the institutions at the center of literati life. In the eleventh month Cai turned his attention to the imperial clan, proposing two large residential complexes in the western and southern capitals (Luoyang � � and Yingtianfu J.i*.. lft) to house those clan members distantly related to the emperor, especially those from the Taizu :tAR and Weiwang ;t.!. branches of the clan.!2 In the twelfth month, Cai signaled plans for the changes in the tea monopoly, though the major change the creation of a monopoly for southeastern tea was not enacted for another year.!3 Finally, the Hired Service Sys tem � R� of New Policies fame was revived, though using the regu lations that had been in effect during the Shaosheng era.
Li Xun, and Ye Di and proposes that three editors be named to each of the functional areas, both measures contained in the SflY measure. 9. See ]SBM 132.1b-5a for the steady stream of proposals that emanated from the Office on a wide variety of reform legislation over the succeeding two years. 10. SflY shihuo 24.34b-35a. II. SflY chongru 2.7h-9a. These reforms have been much studied. Two standard English-language references for them are Thomas H. C. Lee, Government Education and Examinations in Sung China (Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1985), esp. pp. 64-65, 126-27, 256-57; and John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates ofLearning in Sung China: A Social History ofExaminations, new ed. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 77-84. 12. SflY dixi 5.15b-18a; SflY zhiguan 20.34a. 13. SflY shihuo 65.30, 31h-32b, 34b.
J O H N C HAFFEE Table 1.1 Advisory Office Staff, II02
Name
Title
Rank
Biographical references
Consultants Wu Juhou
;"'/l;4 Zhang Shangying
� ;6j �
Minister of revenue (Hubu
2b
Hanlin academician (Hanlin
3a
shangshu I' � f.6 t")
xueshi �#* ±) Vice minister of punishments (shangshu Xingbu shilang
6a or b
Fan Zhixu
Imperial diarist (qiju sheren
6b
Wang Hanzhi
Vice chamberlain for ceremonials
6a
Ye Di
Director of the Granary Bureau (shangshu Cangbu langzhong
6b
Vice director of the Minisrry of Personnel (shangshu Libuyuan
7a
Vice director for the Left Office of the Department of State Affairs (shangshu Zuosiyuan
6b
Liu Geng
nlJ' i€. ftJi
.!. il.z.. ��
Li Xun
�Ji] Zeng Xiaowen VI :tti (Military Advisors Office)
Index 2: II52; SS 343 Index 3: 2404
f.6 "' :1foj � 1t t�)
� /l;*A.)
(taichang shaoqing :k f .y' �)
Index 2: 1762; SS 362 Index I: 357; SS 347 Index 5: 3234
f.6 .. * � t� 'f)
wailang f.6 .. � � � 71- t�)
or 7a
Index 4: 2826; SS 312
7a
Index 3: 2222
wailang f.6 " £ � � 71- t�) Editors
Qiang Junming 5l it II,ij
Li Shi
Vice director for Imperial Manufactories (Shaofu
jiancheng .y' J{f � �)
;l
3f-lt
Recorder of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices (faichangsi
Bao Yiqing
Court gentleman for instruction
8b
Li Yan
Gentleman for closing court
7b
Index 2: 880
Gentleman for closing court
7b
Index 13= 2679; SS 348
Wu Chu
Gentleman for discussion
7b
Jia Anguo
Gentleman for discussion
7b
.feM;� 3f- JJi.
Tao Jiefu
•
Zhubu :k f � .:t. i4)
(xua,!/iaolang ��H�) (chaosanlang .tJHtt t�)
IIfiJ � Jl ;"'{$
� � 1fJ
(chengyilang ;ifc. tIV�)
Index 3: 1795
Huizong, Cai Jing, and the Politics ofReform
39
Table 1.1, cont. Biographical references
Title
Rank
WangJue
Gentleman for closing court
7b
Cui Biao
Court gentleman consultant
8b
An Kang
Gentleman for discussion
7b
Yu Fang
Gentleman for discussion
7b
Lin Shu
8a
Han Dunli
Court gentleman for comprehensive duty (tongzhilang ii i! ��) Grand master for closing court
6b
Index 5: 4178
Zeng Shen
Grand master for court service
6b
Index 4: 2812
Yu Shou
Gentleman for closing court
7b
Feng Chen
Grand master for closing court
6b
Li Deng
Gentleman for closing court
7b
Lii Cong
Gentleman for rendering service
9b
Qiao Fang
Gentleman for attendance
Name
I f:
.�
�:;t
Jt F�
#. -ili
.ft• .;!. f 1t
�4t
��1&
Uengyilang ""tl ��)
(chaosan daifu fJlJft**)
(chaoftng daifu tJJ .. **)
Index 1: 238
Index 4: 3196
4-*-l
g i*
*�
Shen Xi
;*- �
Cao You t � (Military Advisory Office)
(chengwulang jfil1.iE. #;..;r 18: ,* , #*.ij� ::1 '::' + A A. ,1Q e. . ;fJJ *- 1" lf *'-�. �� wt�!l � '*- k Jt 3':/]. 1 02
Yet even if Li Tao is correct, the campaign made excellent political theater, especially back at court where Cai Jing led the Hundred Officers in solemn congratulations and ordered the prisoner Zangzhengpuge presented to the capital. For in contrast to Wang Shao's original vision, strategic imperatives in particular the need to pre-empt Tangut terri torial aspirations had by the Daguan (or Grand Perspective) era be come secondary to the use of war as a vehicle of self-promotion and even (for the emperor) self-realization. As a result the benefits to the partici pants were far out of proportion to the difficulty or importance of the battles themselves. Take, for example, the case of Liu Zhongwu, an experienced frontier commander who had distinguished himself against the Tanguts and Tibetans ever since the Xining era. 1 03 Although Tong Guan had claimed credit for ordering Liu to span the Yellow River at Xigecheng, it was in fact Liu, drawing on his first-hand knowledge of the terrain between Xige and Qingtang, who conceived of and built the bridge; Liu, not Longza, who induced Zangzhengpuge to surrender; and Liu, not Tong Guan, who first entered Xige and took Zongzhengpuge's surrender. All this was discovered when Huizong dispatched an emissary to present the gift of a golden bowl to Zangzhengpuge's captor. Once the truth was revealed, Huizong summoned Liu to the capital, where he not only personally lauded Liu for "taking the Xige prince's surrender and settling all of Henan," but also granted military offices to all nine of his sons.1 04 If Zangzhengpuge was as innocuous as Li Tao suggests, then Liu Zhongwu and his sons were well rewarded indeed. In keeping with past precedent, courtiers sitting in the capital were also commended for "recapturing Taozhou and Xigecheng": Military Affairs Director Zhang Kangguo 1lhl m1 , Assistant Director Zheng Juzhong �,% � not yet the critic of military activism he would be come in I118 and state councilors He Zhizhong {or � � , Liang Zimei 102. ]5BM 140.13b-14a. 103. For riu Zhongwu's biographies, see Dongdu shilue 104.4b-5b and 55 35°.11081-82. 104. ]5BM 140.14b-15a and the Dongdu shilue and 55 biographies.
Imdentism as Political Capital
* .:r J,., and Lin Shu
123
;#.. � were all promoted to the second or third
rungs of the stipendiary ladder. lOS Special imperial commendation was reserved for Cai Jing, then in his second of three terms as grand coun cilor; for in Huizong's view it was Cai Jing who enabled him to fulfill his filial obligation to Shenzong, by silencing all critics of the sacred He huang annexation: Previously my Divine Ancestor initiated the opening of Wusheng [i.e., Xizhou] and the delineation of the western frontier. Although at that time not even Lintao [i.e., Taozhou] had been recovered, he established a single circuit in order to bring all [the constituent regions] under a common name and to show that this great and sacred design must be brought to success . . . . In nurturing this plan [We have] relied on my grand councilor. If he had not banished the doubting
multitudes fF * tIf�, then how could [We] havefullY realized [Our)forebear's ambition to spread Our mqjesry among the caitiffs bryond the borders? In Our eye it is fitting that he should occupy the position of highest merit. [Italics added.] 1} .f\ #* * Ilt' A.
. � . � � . • * . �. * � « , � � - � � . � � � � • • I � � lPt . . . . .. tt �:t l' � �Q If . %' �F fF * tIf� � d1 1i- � 7'c:. .t: JiX.�� 71- II . .(.f. m 'f .£ ik. "* It ii: % � . 106 -
Yet despite Huizong's special praise for Cai Jing, no one benefited more from the Henan offensive than Tong Guan, whose victory over the Qiang catapulted him to control of the Song military apparatus, gained him international renown, and enabled him to equal if not eclipse Cai Jing in imperial esteem. For while Cai Jing catered to the emperor's domestic and aesthetic interests, Tong Guan promoted Huizong's con tinuing dream of fulfilling his father's irredentist vision. As Tibetan queller in Hehuang in 1108, as commander against the Tanguts in 1119, as strategist for the Yan-Yun initiative from 1118 on, and as the court's salvation against Fang La in 1121, Tong Guan was Huizong's personal commander in chief. In return, Huizong became Tong Guan's closest patron, raising him to unprecedented levels of power and prestige de spite Cai Jing's objections. As the biographical notice by the Dongdu shilue author Wang Cheng (d. ca. 1200) attests, Tong Guan invested the merit earned for his victory against Zangzhengpuge in a swift and successful bid to monopolize 105. ]SBM 140.15a. 106. ]SBM 140.13b. Sanchao beiming huibian 50.Ia-4a dates Cai Jing's three terms as gtand councilor as II02-5, II07-9, and 1III-I9.
124
PAUL JAKOV S M ITH
military authority.l07 In this Tong was aided by his sovereign, who per mitted Tong to appoint field commanders and their staff through direct imperial edict � � , without going through Cai Jing and the civil service. So close did Tong Guan and Huizong become that the emperor vowed to promote Tong to the very top stipendiary grade in the civil service mJ M1l"=" � . On his first attempt Cai Jing's vitriol successively aborted the promotion: "That a eunuch like Guan should have supreme military authority in his grasp is already excessive. How could it be right for him to obtain the grand councilor's 1t *'1 rank as well?" 1t J'A 'ii" ::It � ip �l! #-. 1�dQ .l. iJf 't 1l�?108 Cai's intervention generated open animosity between the two men, but over time his influence over Tong Guan's career ebbed. In mid-IIII Cai not yet restored to his third term as grand councilor sent a re tainer to represent his objections to Huizong's choice of Tong Guan as co-envoy (with ZhengJuzhong) on a diplomatic mission to the Liao. "To send a eunuch as envoy suggests that there are no real men in the Middle Kingdom. This is tantamount to inviting the caitiffs to spy on us." But this time Huizong was not to be swayed: "Because Tong Guan's repu tation as the one who conquered Qingtang resounds among the Four Barbarians, the caitiff chieftain wishes to meet him. If that's what they want, then why can't we use this opportunity to spy on them?"1 09 Cai Jing may have been partly correct, for one source reports that members of the Khitan court contemptuously sneered that "the southern court so lacks men of talent that it sends us this castrato � � as an em issary." But it was on this very mission that Tong Guan encountered the Liao defector Ma Zhi Jf� lit (later renamed Zhao Liangsi ;til It �), whose seductive plan to help Song capture the Sixteen Prefectures spawned the Yan-Yun initiative. 1 10 Even while stealthily harboring Ma Zhi like a secret weapon to be unsheathed in I118 Tong Guan beguiled Huizong with his own stratagem to finish what Chong E and Li Xian had failed to do under Shenzong, by recapturing, walling, and rearming strategic points along the northern frontier with the Xi Xia. In return, Huizong success-
107. Dongdu shilue 12I.la-b. Wang Cheng'S account mirrors the material anthologized in Sanchao beimeng huibian 52.1a-6a. 108. Dongdu shilue I2ub. 109. Dongdu shilue I2ub. lIO. Huang Song shichao gangyao 17.395; Sanchao beimeng huibian 52.3b.
Irredentism as Political Capital
125
fully promoted Tong to the top rank in the civil service, which as the emperor acknowledged, made him equivalent to the grand councilor. Moreover, because his rank was now so high, Huizong also reorganized Tong Guan's assignments accordingly, to make him generalissimo
� �1t
of Shaanxi, Hedong, and Hebei circuits and concurrent acting
controller of the Bureau of Military Affairs
ll4R � � FiG •. Thus even as
Huizong allowed Cai Jing to control the civil service, he personally en couraged Tong Guan to ride the Hehuang annexation to supremacy over the Northern Song military. l 1 1
Conclusion: Hehuang, Political Culture, and the Fall ofthe Northern Song My aim in this chapter has been to highlight the role of the Hehuang invasion as a vehicle for the enactment of political ambition. The He huang campaigns generated enormous political capital, the interest on which lubricated the political careers of Wang Shao under Shen zong; Zhang Dun and Cai Bian under Zhezong; and Cai Jing, Wang Hou, and Tong Guan under Huizong. Moreover, the Hehuang cam paigns remind us that emperors mattered. However much statesmen might encourage their sovereign to eschew "the many bothersome de tails of government" in favor of rectifying their hearts, as Sima Guang urged Shenzong, emperors were active political agents with minds and wills of their own.ll 2 For Shenzong, there was no more crucial way to exercise his will than by redefining the international map through ex pansion and irredentist war, a project that Wang Shao convinced him should properly begin in Hehuang. Nothing in the historical record suggests that his sons Zhezong and Huizong were equally fixated on conquest per se, but they were clearly imbued with a strong sense of filial obligation to their father, from whom they also seem to have inherited an independent streak. Thus the more ftrmly that conserva tive statesmen and dowager empresses pressed the young heirs to reject their father's
expansionist vision, the more
stubbornly Hehuang
III. Dongdu shilue 12I.1b-2a. 112. See Anthony William Sariti, "Monarchy, Bureaucracy, and Absolutism in the Political Thought of Ssu-ma Kuang," Journal ofAsian Studies 32.1 (1972): 53-76.
1 26
PAUL JAKOV SM ITH
emerged as an arena in which to distinguish themselves as filial sons while exercising sovereign autonomy on their own. Nor did the rewards of Amdo flow only to emperors and civilians. The Hehuang annexation, individually and as part of the larger project of frontier expansion, helped to revive the fortunes of that class of hereditary military families that had been shunted to the side in the aftermath of the Shanyuan settlement of 1005. The Chongs of Luoyang, the Wangs Ounwan and Shan) and Lius (Zhongwu and his sons) of Qinzhou (Gansu, Tianshuishi), and the Yaos (especially Yao Xiong) of Wuyuan (in territory on the Yellow River now lost to the Khitan) all gained renewed prominence in Hehuang, as part of a larger group of military lineages to prosper from the irredentist projects of Shenzong and his sons. l 13 Yet renewed prominence for military lineages did not necessarily entail renewed autonomy for the military as a whole, since the general staff had to share authority with another cohort of benefi the eunuchs. Shenzong
ciaries from activism and frontier expansion
promoted eunuch imperial agents like Li Xian and Wang Zhongzheng
.I. 'f .if..
to positions of unprecedented military authority in Hehuang
and elsewhere in his frontier campaigns, prompting a trend that so much else in Shenzong's reign
like
culminated in Huizong's sponsor
ship of Tong Guan as his supreme commander in the field and the eunuchjinshi Liang Shicheng
� trli A (?-II26)
as his principal power
broker at court.114 But the annexation of Hehuang could not have been completed without the suppression of policy debate
that "banishment of the
doubting multitudes" that Shenzong had denied Wang Anshi, but for which Huizong prized Cai Jing. It is this stifling of debate that so worried the Sichuanese commoner An Yaochen in
IllS, as the Hehuang
adventure was about to give way to the next "great game," the im pending pact to ally with the Jurchen against the Liao in return for Jurchen permission to take possession of the swath of Sixteen Prefec-
II3. For the Chongs, see 55 335; for the others, see 55 349 and 350, devoted to prominent military lineages under Shenzong and his sons. II4. For contemporary observations on eunuch military power from Shenzong's reign to the fall of the Northern Song, see Chai Degeng, 189-92. Wang Cheng surveys the biographies of powerful Northern Song eunuchs in Dongdu shilue,juan 120 and 121.
Irredentism as Political Capital
127
tures generically designated as Yan-Yun. 115 In his memorial (which never directly mentions Hehuang), An Yaochen seeks to persuade Huizong to re-establish the Shanyuan equilibrium that the 40-year Tibetan campaign had helped to erode. In An's view, Shanyuan exem plified the basic objective of frontier policy, which should be to preserve domestic stability at all costs so as to neutralize the impact of events abroad. But it is this principle that Huizong was blinded to by dangerous political currents, most crucially the suppression of remonstrance and political debate: Accepting remonstrance is the gtandest virtue of the sovereign. When remon strance is enacted and criticisms heard, then the benefits flow down to the people, and all under heaven enjoy peaceful repose together, to the advantage of the realm. This servant has heard that at the beginning of his reign, His Majesty let remonstrance flow [like water], even prefacing his rescript demanding re monstrance with the caveat that "even if what is said is wrong, I will not subject [the remonstrator] to punishments." As a result, brave and frank-speaking men did their utmost to investigate matters with simple loyalty. But then crafty in dividuals blocked the route of remonstrance and usurped the awesome powers [of the state], deceiving his majesty into charging [remonstrators] with the crimes of libel. As a result His Majesty has long let the slander of those who oppose investigation be turned against all under heaven. Since then, officials responsible for commenting on affairs memorialize in the morning and are demoted in the evening. Consequently all the men of the subcelestial realm have muzzled their tongues and closed their mouths, regarding speech as taboo.116
'*" J.. z1.t :)t!A##J�. �1ti;4tJlll -f i:fr#�, � r � "� � �z;!1(. . �l. flZl1�. � fifJ f� r�f,ipZ;fJJ-1Jt�-knii.t., 'f r .>"i i; z"* E:1 'i; i1i1 � 'f JOC � ;I}o � .' #k *i�z± if '*- m ���.� .t . i1i1 ·� AAik#-. an, �*��,
� *� � r ;l}o �U_z � . �* � r . a�z.�� r � � . � . � * � .Z � .fJl* 7 Jlf.. � rzA.. .*t ,* #- o , YA a �1t.
An feared that this muzzling of critical debate was about to lead the
nation to disaster, for "these days everyone outside the court is saying that Tong Guan has linked up with eai Jing" to ally with the Jurchen against the Liao. But saying and remonstrating were two different mat ters; out of fear of the eunuchs and the imperially sanctioned suppression II5. An Yaochen's memorial is preserved in Sanchao beimeng huibian 2.Ia-IOa and ex cerpted in SS 35I.III05-6. An also inveighs against the undue influence of Tong Guan and the eunuch establishment on frontier policy. II6. Sanchao beimeng huibian 2.Ib--2a.
PAUL JAKOV SMITH
128
of dissent, officials dared not speak frankly to His Majesty. Even tough-minded and determined remonstrance officials who loved their sovereign and worried for the realm were silenced, for "as soon as their memorials arrive at court they are charged with violating the law. As a result, no one under heaven says a word, but instead dare turn their bitterness against His Majesty."117 In the end, then, the fate of the realm depended on Huizong's resolve to reopen the avenues of policy debate, so that all might see that the only reason the snarling dog-barbarians "are now wagging their tails and begging to become our neighbor is not be cause they are awed by us, but simply because there is not yet a suitable opportunity for them to exploit on the border."118 Events were to prove An Yaochen correct. In
1122,
after years of
negotiating over Yan-Yun as Jurchen warriors carved out vast swaths of the dwindling Liao domain, Tong Guan's expeditionary army, fortified by an edict prohibiting debate, was humiliated and routed by the sup posedly impotent Liao forces. 119 When emboldened Jurchen armies advanced on Tong Guan's stronghold in Taiyuan three years later "as if there were no defenders," Huizong apologized to his nation for ob structing "the road to remonstrance" 1: � and abdicated the throne to his eldest son.1 20 But it was too late for remonstrance to save the dynasty. In January 1127 Kaifeng fell to the Jurchen, who bundled both emperors and their entourage to their northern exile in the spring. Huizong's po litical tions
raison d'etre
to bring to fruition his father's territorial aspira
had backfired, adding half the Song domain to the category of
terra irredenta. What role did the Hehuang annexation, completed fifteen years earlier, play in the tragedy of dynastic collapse? As the opening wedge for repudiation of the Shanyuan system of geopolitical stability, He huang served as the tinder that helped ignite irredentist passions and keep them burning through the dampening periods of conservative retrenchment.
Like
another pillar
Shenzong and the New Policies Sichuan
of territorial
expansion
under
the annexation of southwestern
the Hehuang conquest demonstrated that given time enough
II7. Ibid., 2.8b. II8. Ibid., 2.8b, 3a. II9. Ibid.,juan 7 and II. The first official to challenge the gag order, which is dated the 5th month, was immediately placed in the cangue: ibid., 8.Ia-Ga. 120. Ibid., 25.9a-IOb.
11TCdentism as Political Capital
129
and massive resources, Song armies could lay notional claim to new ter ritories by dislodging indigenous populations from their native settle ments, fending off their guerrilla defenders, and buying off their chief tains with emoluments and titles.121 But Song expansionists concluded too much from their illusory, cartographic success in the mountains of Amdo, which they played up at court and announced to imperial an cestors with due pomp and ceremony. For victory in Hehuang meant little when it came to doing battle with the sophisticated armies of the northern frontier: Song forces under Shenzong and his sons never gained more than a stalemate against the Tanguts, when they were not thor oughly humiliated, and Song incompetence against the Jurchen surprised even their foe. From the perspective of military organization, the most significant role Hehuang played in the fall of the Northern Song was to facilitate the devolution of military authority from the court to a single individual in the field. The problem was not that Tong Guan was that individual, for despite transforming his anny into a vast political machine, Tong Guan was still one of Huizong's few effective commanders. It was rather that by abrogating military responsibility to a single supreme commander, Huizong and his court lulled themselves into reveling in the theatrics of war without giving due thought to what waging war entailed. Thus by the time of the Yan-Yun initiative, all the refonns championed by Huizong's father as the cornerstone of "strengthening the military" especially the revitalization of the general command through the "cohesive squad measure" -¥f *-" � and the imposition of regular military drill on all baqjia units in Kaifeng and north China had fallen into disuse.122 Despite 50 years of expansionist wars abroad, the Song court was utterly un prepared to defend itself and its people at home. This deterioration of Song defenses shocked even the Jurchen commander Wolibu #� � , who on attacking the capital of Kaifeng in II26/I told a Song emissary
121. On the annexation of southwestern Sichuan, see Richard von Glahn, The Country
of Streams and Grottoes: Expansion, Settlement, and the Civili�ng of the Sichuan Frontier in Song Times (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Council on East Asian Studies, 1987) . 122. For discussions of the deterioration of military preparedness under Huizong's reign, see the entries by Cai Tiao and Li Gang in Sanchao beimeng huibian 27ha-6a and 45.5a-7a, confinned by Wang Zengyu £ f It, Songchao bingzhi chutan * .fJJ * "J ;;n � (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1983), 89-95.
130
PAUL JAKOV SMITH
that had the southern court put up any kind of defense at all, his forces could never have crossed the Yellow River to stage their assault. 123 Finally, as a test case for how to pursue an unpopular war by sup pressing political debate, the Hehuang annexation not only smoothed the way for Huizong to pursue the ill-fated Yan-Yun initiative, it also made political muzzling a cornerstone of the management of frontier affairs in the Southern Song as well. Twelve years after the fall of the Northern Song, when the survival of the new southern regime finally seemed as sured, Grand Councilor Qin Gui
*"1t (I09O-II55)
and Huizong's son
Gaozong once again prohibited political debate, this time not to promote war but rather to silence the irredentist opponents of peace. 1 24 None of this is meant to suggest that the Hehuang annexation led directly and inexorably to the fall of the Northern Song; as a factor in dynastic collapse, Hehuang stands out more as a symptom than as a cause. And it may well stand out most clearly as a symptom of the futility of Shenzong's irredentist ambition, an ambition that could claim He huang as its only triumph. That at least seems to be the opinion of Qian Gai
�A, supply commissioner �� $11t of Shaanxi in the last year of the
Northern Song:
The territories around Huang and Shan [prefectures] beyond the River have brought absolutely no benefit to the court, and do not repay their yearly cost. With respect to our efforts to save the realm tF � , they bring only trouble. It would be best to reach out to the descendants of the Qingtang line and set them up so that they can pacify and take possession of their old tribes.125 ;;r 7� �t �
��� . �& � � �1 � a . � • . & tF � & . � * * • • �.� � ��
� � Jt {s ��. Events, as it happened, granted Qian's request, as Jurchen and Mongol rule put Hehuang beyond Chinese intervention for the next two and a half centuries.
123. Sanchao beimeng huibian 27.lb. 124. Ibid., 184.5b-6b; 186.5b-6a (II38/IO and II38/II). For more on Qin Gui's sup pression of debate, see Charles Harunan, "The Making of a Villain: Ch'in Kuei and Tao hsiieh," HarvardJournal ofAsiatic Studies 58.1 (1998): 59-146. 125. SHYfanyi 6.4Ib.
,
j
C HAPTER 3
Terms ofEstrangement Factional Discourse in the Early Huizong Reign, IIOO-II04 Ari Daniel Levine
Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. -George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language"
The Brutalization rifPolitical Practice) I06f)-II04 In historiographic hindsight, the first five years of Emperor Huizong's reign represented the endgame of a factional conflict that had divided the imperial bureaucracy for more than three decades.! From 1069 to 1104, a series of alternating coalitional regimes fought bitterly for power and This chapter has been adapted from parts of chap. 5 of my doctoral dissertation, "A House in Darkness: The Politics of Histoty and the Language of Politics in the Late Northern Song, I068-1I04" (Columbia University, 2002). Many thanks to my advisor, Robert Hymes, for his insightful comments on this chapter. I would also like to express my gratitude to the other members of my dissertation committee-Peter Bol, Paul Smith, Conrad Schirokauer, and Shang Wei-for astutely critiquing this and other chapters and apdy suggesting revisions and reinterpretations. Charles Harttnan deserves kudos for his perceptive comments as this paper's discussant. I am also indebted to Patricia Ebrey and Charles Harttnan for their thorough, detailed, and constructive comments on the fInal version of this chapter. 1.
ARI DAN I E L LEVIN E
132
patronage at court. Councilors and remonstrators formed factional as sociations
C:t;
M :t), packing the bureaucracy with like-minded sub
ordinates in order to consolidate and leverage their authority over the formulation and implementation of state policy. Throughout the three imperial reigns and two regencies of the late Northern Song, the upper echelons of the imperial bureaucracy were divided into two loosely bounded court coalitions: re formists and anti-reformists.2 The leaders of these opposing factions articulated distinctive and divergent visions of statecraft, devising institutional mechanisms to enhance bureaucratic efficacy, increase state revenue, and uplift public morality.3 After each monarchical transition, new emperors and regents ap pointed new coalitional regimes, which implemented a slate of policy initiatives that superseded the political program of the preceding min istry. Once they had consolidated their authority over state policy and the imperial bureaucracy, a series of grand councilors
"* lfil
used in
creasingly brutal and systematic means to exclude their opposition from court. By controlling loyal subordinates in the Censorate Remonstrance Bureau
�F1t,
,fJtp 3t �
and
factious councilors asserted a measure of
ideological control over the staffing of the metropolitan bureaucracy.4 With each change of factional ministerial regimes, political purges
2. In Chinese secondary scholarship, these coalitions have generally been referred to as the "new faction" tIT:t and the "old faction" li :t . The "new faction" was considered to be "new" tIT in the same sense as the "New Policies" tlTj};; or the "New Learning" tIT* of Wang Anshi. This homology is rather strained in English, and so the by-now standard terms "reformists" and "anti-reformists" will have to suffice, for lack of a better alternative. 3. Focusing upon the politics of discourse does not entail severing political history and political culture from their intellectual contexts, and I believe that such an interpretive strategy is ill-advised. For an analysis of the divergent political programs of Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, see Peter K Bol, "Government, Society, and State: On the Political Visions of Ssu-ma Kuang and Wang An-shih," in Robert P. Hymes and Conrad Schiro kauer, eds., Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 151-67. 4. For a concise study of the Censorate and Remonstrance Bureau in the late Northern Song and early Southern Song, see Diao Zhongrnin q .t �, "Lun Song Zhe zong zhi Gaozong shiqi zhi taijian zhidu" � � � * .i. � * * ��"'���Jt, Sichuan daxue xuebao (shehui kexue ban) � nl :k. **_ (�± "#*11&.) 1999.6: 61-69. See also Shen Songqin i:t.tAfh, ''Bei Song taijian zhidu yu dangzheng" :It/* ... � �� Jt � :t �, Ushi .
yan/iu � � 1'Jf � 1998.4: 27-44.
Terms ifEstrangement
133
escalated in scope, culminating in the partisan proscriptions of the early Huizong reign. When Huizong acceded to the throne in 1100/1, this factional conflict had riven the imperial court for the preceding 30 years. During the reigns of his father and brother, Emperors Shenzong (r. 1068-85) and Zhezong (r. 1085-1100, personal rule 1093-1100), the imperial bureaucracy had become sharply polarized over policy and personnel debates. The origins of the factional conflict can be traced back to the early years of the Shenzong reign, when Grand Councilor Wang Anshi .£�� (1021-86) silenced and marginalized the opposition to his New Policies $.JT�.5 Those who challenged Wang's state activist program either resigned from court in frustration or were demoted to posts in regional admin istration. Heading the reformist-dominated regime that succeeded Wang Anshi, Cai Que JJ __ (1037-93) continued to enforce bureaucratic compliance to the New Policies and to exclude the anti-reformist op position from court. Shenzong's untimely death in 1085 enabled Empress Dowager Xuanren � 1::.1\.. If; (1021-93, regent 1085-93), a longtime adversary of the New Policies, to realign the political landscape as she and her allies saw fit.6 Sima Guang � .� 7'e. (1019-86), the standard-bearer of the anti reform opposition, ascended to the councilorship after a lengthy period in exile. During the Xuanren regency, Sima's ministerial coalition de moted the reformist leaders and rank-and-fIle to prefectural-level posts. With its opposition excluded from power, the anti-reformists abolished the New Policies one by one by 1086. A series of anti-reform ministries monopolized power at court in the following years, which witnessed the brutalization of political practice. In 1089, several anti-reformist remonstrators staged a literary in quisition against Cai Que, the exiled leader of the reformist coali-
5. For an expanded narrative of the New Policies era, see Paul J. Smith, "Shen-tsung and the New Policies," in the Cambridge History of China, vol. 5, part I (Cambridge: Cam bridge University Press, forthcoming). 6. Empress Dowager Xuanren (surnamed Gao) was Emperor Yingzong's consort. In the following section, I will refer to her regency, between 1085 and 1093, as the "Xuanren regency." For a detailed political narrative of the Xuanren regency and Zhezong's per sonal rule, see Ari Daniel Levine, "Che-tsung's Reign and the Age of Faction," in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 5, part I.
134
ARI DAN I E L LEVIN E
tion.7 Accused of casting aspersions on the legitimacy of the Xuanren regency in a cycle of poems, Cai was banished to the malarial frontier of Lingnan 4Ji � (modern-day Guangdong and Guangxi provinces), where he died several years later. The pronouncement of this virtual death sentence upon a leader of the opposition represented a break with the comparative civility of past political practices. At the inception of the Song dynasty, Emperor Taizu (r. 960-76) had issued an injunction against the legal execution and corporal punishment of high officials, but this tradition of restraint could be circumvented by shipping ministerial offenders off to the far south of the empire, where it was hoped they would die. 8 After Cai Que's deportation to Lingnan, the spiral of vengeance expanded with each successive ministerial transition. After Empress Dowager Xuanren died in 1093, Emperor Zhezong began his personal rule, rehabilitating the reformists and reappointing them to the Council of State after a lengthy period of exile. Practicing the politics of revenge, the ministry of Zhang Dun "-if. (1035-1105) replayed the purge of 1085 measure for measure by systematically demoting the anti-reformists to prefectural administration. Silencing criticism at court, Zhang and his ministerial coalition adopted a pragmatic and gradualist approach to resuscitating the New Policies. Once their domination of the imperial bureaucracy and control of state policy was assured, the re formists raised the stakes of the factional conflict, visiting the suffering of Cai Que tenfold upon his former persecutors. In the Korean Affairs Institute � .:;t � inquisition of 1097, several of the remaining leaders of the anti-reform coalition were indicted on trumped-up charges of sedi tion and treason, and later placed under administrative detention in Lingnan. Furthermore, an official blacklist named the names of 37 members of the anti-reform ministry, all of whom were deprived of of ficial honors and status and their descendants similarly barred from bureaucratic service. By the end of the 1090S, partisan purges and pro scriptions had become standard operating procedure for incoming fac tional ministerial regimes.
For an exhaustive treatment of the poetic inquisition against Cai Que, see Jin Zhongshu � 'f �, "Chegaiting shian yanjiu" '* .l..f'tt�.(;Jf�, Chenggong daxue lishixi lishi xuebao h\ "1J * * li3t � li3t*�l 2 (1975): 33-89. 8 . James T. C. Uu, "An Administrative Cycle in Chinese History: The Case of Northern Sung Emperors," Journal ofAsian Studies 21.2 (February 1962): 139. 7.
Terms ifEstrangement After Zhezong suddenly died heirless in
135
1100/1,
the ensuing mon
archical transition jeopardized the reform faction's political dominance. In the interregnum, Empress Dowager Qinsheng
it?t. :k.. Jf; (1045-1101),
Shenzong's consort, became regent and arranged for Huizong's acces sion to the throne, overriding Zhang Dun's nomination of another im perial prince. 9 An era of factional reconciliation was inaugurated by imperial edict, as centrism and moderation were decreed to be the guiding principles of governance. The second-generation anti-reformist Han Zhongyan Zeng Bu
-** .'t � (1038-1109)
and the reformer-turned-moderate
if A\1 (1035-n07) were appointed
as dual grand councilors to
lead a bifactional unity miniStry.lO The regent sanctioned the rehabilita tion of the surviving anti-reformists to ministerial and remonstrance positions, ending their marginalization
from
court politics.
prominent reformists as Zhang Dun and his lieutenant Cai Bian
(1058-1117) were
Such
1J -t
sacked from the Council of State, under pressure from
hostile remonstrators. Dominating the Censorate and Remonstrance Bureau, voluble remonstrators such as Chen Guan Zou Hao
Ft I.fi (1057-1122) and
��i� (1060-nn) clamored for a complete rollback of the New
Policies and a return to the anti-reformist governance of the Xuanren regency
(1085-93). Yet, after 30 years of conflict, factional enmity ran too
deep to be conciliated from above. Han Zhongyan and Zeng Bu strug gled for power, while their supporters contended for control of the metropolitan bureaucracy. Zeng proved politically unacceptable to both sides in the factional conflict, for he was considered a renegade by mainstream reformists, and an unreconstructed reformist by opposition remonstrators. In order to survive as grand councilor, Zeng moved to silence anti-reformist censors and remonstrance officials, and the court drifted further in the direction of reformism.
9. In the following section, I will refer to this short period, between lIOO/! and lIOI/!,
as the "Qinsheng regency." For a more detailed account of this period, see Ari Daniel Levine, "The Reigns of Hui-tsung and Ch'in-tsung and the Fall of the Northern Sung," in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 5, part I. For the court debates over Huizong's suc cession, see CB 53°.12356-58. ro. For a recent study of Zeng Bu's pivotal political role in both the Zhezong and Huizong reigns, see Luo Jiaxiang � � *, "Zeng Bu yu Bei Song Zhezong, Huizong zhengzhi shiqi de zhengju yanbian" ., >1\1 � JU1�. {g * , .frt * K � at j\,Ij lJ9 KJ.Q ij( � , Huazhong keji daxue xuebao (shehui kexue ban) '* 'f #.:tt * **tII. (�± -t"#* JI&.) 200302:
51-57·
ARI DAN I E L LEVI N E When the empress dowager died in 1I0I/!, Huizong began his per sonal rule, resolving to restore the reformist governance of Emperors Shenzong and Zhezong, his father and older brother. A reformist chal lenger undermined the fragile bifactional ministry of Zeng Bu and Han Zhongyan. Cai Bian's older brother Cai Jing
1J :t.
(1040-1126), a long
time member of Zhezong's reformist inner circle, soon won the em peror's unconditional trust, breaking through the political gridlock that had prevailed during the Qinsheng regency.l l A high-ranking lieutenant of Cai Que and Zhang Dun during the 1080s and 10 9 0S, Cai Jing out maneuvered his rivals to ascend to the councilors hip in 1102/5. Once in command of the Council of State, Cai pushed aside all who opposed him, prosecuting them for the political crime of factionalism. With Huizong's
support,
Cai Jing consolidated his
ministerial
authority, moving swiftly to silence his opponents and to revive reformist governance. He created a reform apparatus, the Advisory
�1l ,5J , modeled after Wang Anshi's Finance Planning Com mission -=- ,5J 1* J!. ,5J , to centralize authority over the formulation, im Office
plementation, and expansion of the New Policies.12 Between 1102 and 1104, Cai Jing instigated the most extensive political purges in the history of the Northern Song. Three separate factional blacklists
l' Ji, naming
Cai's personal and political enemies, were issued as edicts and inscribed upon steles erected within the palace precincts and throughout the empire. 13 In the process, more than 300 anti-reformists and their de scendants were banned from officeholding. The entire anti-reform opposition Zeng Bu
along with the reformist ex-councilors Zhang Dun and was exiled en masse to the fringes of the empire, where many
of them died under administrative detention.
II. In traditional historiography, Cai Jing has been maligned as a cynical opportunist
and far worse. In the Song shi *, .Jt and earlier official and unofficial histories of the late Northern Song, Cai was classified as a "treacherous minister" if Il. , and blamed for the collapse of the Northern Song. For a textual history of his condemnatory Song shi biog raphy, see Charles Hartman's chapter in this volume. 12. For analyses of Cai Jing's policy program, see the chapters by Peter Bol and John Chaffee in this volume. For an earlier study of Cai Jing's reform apparatus, see Lin Tianwei M-kif, "Cai Jing yu Jiangyisi" � '* $i!."ijl.� � , Shihuoyuekan 1tJt } H� 6·4 (1971): 1 37-43· 1 3 . The most thorough Western-language account of the II02-4 factional proscrip
tions is Helmolt Vittinghoff, Proskription und Intrigue gegen Yuan:Ju-parteiganger (Bern: Herbert Lang, 1975).
Terms ofEstrangement
137
Accomplished by 1104, the wholesale expulsion of the opposition inaugurated an era of relative political stability at court. After elimi nating his opposition, Cai Jing constructed a stable reformist ministerial regime and built an enduring political patronage network. Educational reforms created an empire-wide network of government schools, which channeled reformists directly into the imperial bureaucracy, thereby enhancing the reform ministry's ideological control of the rank and-ftle.14 The silencing and marginalization of political and ideological dissent enabled the Cai Jing ministry to revive and extend the New Policies and to pursue an expansionist strategy on the northwestern frontier.15 Reformist domination of Huizong's court was not seriously challenged until the emperor's abdication in the midst of the military and diplomatic crises of 1126-27, wl:tich precipitated the calamitous fall of the dynasty.
Factional Discourse and the Political Imagination 0/the Late Northern Song Yet, even as political practices intensified in brutality from 1068 to 1104, the language of factional politics remained a relatively stable discursive enterprise.16 Through a close reading of the surviving corpus of historical
14. In John Chaffee's analysis, Ts'ai Ching's educational refonns were designed for the purpose of "propagating the refonners' political vision while chastising his enemies." See John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates ofLearning in Sung China, new ed. (Albany: State Uni versity of New York Press, 1995), 77-80. For a detailed assessment of the Cai Jing ministry's educational and bureaucratic recruitment policies, see also Kondo Kazunari .m:Ri � "Sai Kei no kaky6 gakk6 seisaku" � * 0)#*-" �Jt J(. Tqyoshi kenkyii .t ¥ �;jf1t 53-1 (1995): 25-49· 15. For an analysis of the Cai Jing ministry's fiscal policies, see John Chaffee's chapter in this volume. For a concise treatment of Huizong's fiscal policies, see Wang Zengyu .I. f lt, "Bei Song wanqi zhengzhi jianlun" ;It. >ltI!t JIIJ Jt � ;iil 1il1/, Zhongguoshiyanjiu tF eq �;jf1t 1994+ 82-87. Also see Huang Chunyan 1t��, "Lun Bei Song Cai Jing jingji gaige" 1iI1/;lt. >It � *��lk$, Shanghai shifan daxue xuebao (shehui kexue ban) J:.1lj,�Je.* " " _ (�1."'#"JI&.) 31.5: 37-44. For an examination of the connections between Huizong's Qingtang campaigns and court politics, see Paul Smith's essay in this volume. 16. For a recent study of the impact of factional politics upon Northern Song literati and literary production, see Shen Songqin i1c>rA l!J, Bei Song wenrenyu dangzheng: Zhongguo shidafu quntiyanjiu Zhiyi ;It. >It j:,A.� :t -¥-: tF I!l ± *-}( J¥.#-;jf 1t.z (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1998). -
,
-
ARI DANIEL LEVI N E texts, the "language" of the late Northern Song political conflict can be reconstructedP This factional discourse was a set of vocabularies, defi nitions, and usages that political practitioners employed to define and interpret factional discourse and practice.18 Analyzing the history of the language of politics necessitates not only a reconstruction of authorial intentions, but also the contexts in which political rhetoric was inter preted by its intended audience of monarchs and ministers.19 From the Shenzong reign to the Huizong reign, councilors and remonstrators employed a common language in order to articulate contending claims to political legitimacy. Their rhetoric was predicated upon shared interpretations of political practice and shared conceptions of ethico-political ideals. Political practitioners of the late Northern Song employed ethical criteria to define political legitimacy and to
17. My definition of a language of politics rests upon that of J. G. A. Pocock, who maintained: "The language of politics . . . is rhetoric, the language in which men speak for all the purposes and in all the ways which men may be found ar ticulating and communicating as part of the activity and the culture of politics." See J. G. A. Pocock, Politics, Language, and Time: Essays on Political Thought and History (New York: Atheneum, 1972), 17. For the first application of Pocock's concept to Song intellectual history, see Robert P. Hymes and Conrad Schirokauer, "Intro duction," in Hymes and Schirokauer, eds., Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Song Dynasty China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993),
5-9· 18 . Throughout the factional conflict, both the reformists and anti-reformists employed different sets of discourses to justify their political positions and to persuade monarchs to assent to their policy agendas. A reconstruction of these other languages of politics is beyond the scope of this chapter. For reasons of semantic and conceptual clarity, I will refer to the language of factional politics as "factional discourse," not as "political discourse," a term that has broader connotations. By "factional dis course," I mean the rhetoric by and through which political practitioners defined, described, and interpreted practices of political association and forms of political orgaruzaoon. 19. In a later essay, Pocock argued: "to situate the text (and the author) in a context is necessary in order to reconstitute the text as a historical event . . . it seems evident that the primary component of this context has to be language. There exists a language, or a complex of more than one language, with which things can be said or illocutionary acts reformed, within which (it is the next step to add) they must be performed." See J. G. A. Pocock, "Texts as Events: Reflections on the History of Political Thought," in Kevin Sharpe and Steven N. Zwicker, eds., The Politics of Discourse: The Uterature and History of Seventeenth-Century England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 25. .
.
Terms ofEstrangement
13 9
demarcate the boundaries of the political community. Employing a binary moralistic vocabulary, what I will term a "dichotomizing dis course," rhetoricians claimed ethico-political legitimacy for themselves and their comrades while simultaneously denying it to their adversar ies.2° This is not to say, however, that political practices are essentially reducible to discourse
they are most certainly not. Political rhetoric
was an important dimension of political practice, but it was not the only one. For the political actors of the late Northern Song, political rhetoric represented an attempt to persuade the ruler to make policy and per sonnel choices that would properly delineate the boundaries of the le gitimate political community. These rhetorical and representational conflicts had enormous repercussions in the sphere of political practice, influencing everything from policy-making to personnel decisions to criminal prosecution. Defined in all-or-nothing ethical terms, the concepts of factions and factionalism were central to these discursive representations of political action and organization. In the political imagination of the Northern Song, factions were conceived of as ethi cally and politically illegitimate associations, which usurped monarchical authority and undermined the foundations of the polity.21 Rhetoricians urged their ruler to discern and expel factions from court, while categorically denying that they themselves were factious. Regarded as the exclusive province of "petty men"
I
J, A.. ,
factions were invariably
:tA associations. In the political imagination of the late Northern Song, "superior men" � .:r- could and described as "selfish" or "private"
would not form factional associations, since they were portrayed as exemplars of the political virtue of "public-mindedness" or "the public good"
-A'. At least in public discourse, the
authors of court memorials
and the speakers of political utterances rarely if ever applied the term
20. For the term "dichotomizing discourse," I am indebted to James Clifford, The Predicament ofCulture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988), 268. 21. Lynn Hunt has noted a similar discursive phenomenon in the French Revolution, in which "leading political figures never called themselves politicians; they served 'the public good' (Ia chose publique), not a narrow 'partisan spirit' (esprit de parti). Politics and politicking were consistendy identified with narrowness, meanness, divisiveness, factionalism, opportunism, egoism, and selfishness." See her Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 3.
ARI DAN I E L LEVI N E "faction" to describe their own court coalitions, reserving it exclusively for their adversaries.22 Even as the court was divided by an escalating factional conflict, political practitioners portrayed themselves as ethical exemplars acting alone in selfless service to the state, while accusing their adversaries of the crime of factionalism. When they attempted to persuade emperors and regents to expel their opponents and promote their allies, rhetoricians described their con temporaries in all-or-nothing moralistic terms. The vocabulary of fac tional discourse consisted of overlapping sets of binary oppositions, which rhetoricians used to dichotomize individual political practitioners into two rival camps: "us" and "them." Through this dichotomizing discourse, they implored the ruler to exercise his or her powers of discriminative judgment, to expel factions of "petty men." At the same time, they at least tacidy claimed that they and their allies were "superior men" who were legitimate political practitioners. In memorials and ut terances, rhetoricians described their contemporaries with reference to a series of moralistic binaries, distinguishing the "loyal"
.t
from the
-if; the "righteous" ..iE. from the "wicked" �; the "good" 6l and "benevolent" 5 from the "evil" .� ; the "public-minded" � from the "selfish" {A; the "worthy" I" from the "unworthy" :f )!j ; the "upright" & from the "obsequious" �. The rhetoric of politics served
"treacherous"
to sharpen the boundaries of the political community, which was imag ined to be divided between ethically legitimate and illegitimate political actors: "superior men" and "petty men." In the political imagination of the late Northern Song, these moralistic conceptions of the political community were surprisingly resistant to sudden alterations in ministerial regimes and official ideology, and fac tional discourse remained a relatively stable field throughout the late
22. After Ouyang Xiu's
��1� "Essay on Factions" !lJl J:1ii1J ofI044 was used against
its author and his affiliates, political practitioners of the Northern Song would never again publicly acknowledge that they had fonned a faction. For a treatment of Ouyang Xiu's faction theory, see chap. 4 of Levine, "A House in Darkness." See also James T. C. Liu, OU-:JangHsiu:AnEleventh-CenturyNeo-Co,!/ucianist (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967), 4 i:: Jk. :t , 71'- 111 -t-it. Ft�$g �i:: .'t 'f , liAtltHt . . . . � !l. � .'t � *:T JI:. . . . . 7j � !l. � � i:: PlT � , A.;ff *' 1.D, .k Jt � �. � t. -¥-.if. #PfiJ. 39
In indicting Zeng Bu for political crimes, Qian Yu deployed the same dichotomizing discourse anti-reform remonstrators had used against Zhang Dun a year earlier. Qian equated the anti-reformists with "treachery" if and "factiousness" 1.' while associating the reformists with "loyalty" .t and "worthiness" J- . Pressuring Huizong to exercise his powers of discriminative judgment, Qian urged the ruler to purge this "disloyal minister" from the councilorship, thereby restoring 38. For an amply documented, albeit condemnatory, analysis of the rise of eai Jing, see Luo, Bei Song dangzhengyanjiu, 276-86. 39· ]SBM I30.2oa.
Terms rfEstrangement moral balance to the imperial court and the empire at large. Soon thereafter, Zeng Bu was dismissed as grand councilor and demoted to the provinces, and officially banished to Lingnan in 1102/9.40 With Zeng eliminated from the Council of State, Cai ling's appointment as grand councilor of the right in 1102/7 was all but assured. During Cai's seventeen years as grand councilor, political stability was ensured at Huizong's court under an enduring reformist ministerial regime. The factional proscriptions of 1102-4 extended and systematized the bans and blacklists of the 1090S, banning the political opposition from officeholding and exiling them to the fringes of the empire. Breaking with past political practice, Cai ensured that all potential con tenders for power were not just marginalized or indicted on an ad hoc basis but systematically and permanently excluded from the imperial bureaucracy. Following Cai ling's rehabilitation and ascent to the coun cilorship, the political persecution of the so-called "Yuanyou" faction (Yuaf!Jou dang j(.:ft :t ) became the first order of business for his new ministerial regime. Once Cai's opponents had been decreed to be a fac tion in political rhetoric, their elimination could be readily accomplished in political practice. The emperor and his newly appointed grand councilor openly dis cussed imposing a new series of partisan proscriptions. After Cai ling's first audience with Huizong in 1102/5, a memorial was presented to the throne denouncing the anti-reform ministry of the Xuanren Regency. Probably written by Cai ling, this memorial urged Huizong to exercise his powers of discriminative judgment by assenting to the expulsion of these "petty men" from court: Your servant maintains that if the crimes of the empire are not properly labeled, then there will be no way for the benevolent people of the empire to make themselves apparent. Shenzong reigned for nineteen years, and the policies and institutions he established were all based on those of the ancient kings. When the ministers of the Yuanyou era controlled governance, they created chaos and confusion, and they entirely formed a treacherous clique that deluded the emperor. . . . They were all men who had committed crimes against Shenzong. The Shaosheng era revived the policies of Shenzong, and although the Yuanyou faction had been banished, upon Your Majesty's ascension to the throne, you cherished them with benevolent virtue and allowed
40. ]5BM 130.2Ia.
ARI DANIEL LEVI N E them to be reinstated. The reform faction held numerous posts, but they con nived with one another . . . no one could defend against them. Inside and outside court, they responded to one another. Growing and spreading like weeds, the harm they incurred was extreme. El. 8fl k r z � , � � :f ..iE., JlIJ k r Z-!-, �
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Rhetorically associating the anti-reformists with "treachery" and "cliquishness," eai or one of his supporters implored Huizong to acknowledge and punish their crimes against the state to ensure the legitimacy of his personal rule. The author of this memorial attempted to convince the monarch that the anti-reformists who had gained a foothold at court during the Qinsheng regency were an ethically ille gitimate political association who had slandered the reformists and the reforming legacy of Shenzong. If Huizong aspired to emulate the ancient sage-kings by employing superior men at court, names had to be named so that the guilty and the innocent, the righteous and the wicked, could be properly discerned. A second memorial beseeched the emperor to order an investigation of the anti-reformists, so that their crimes could be made manifest to the empire. The author claimed that factionalism had been the most heinous crime of the ministers of the Xuanren regency and the remonstrators of the Qinsheng regency. By punishing these men for their political crimes, Huizong could continue Shenzong's unfinished work, the ethical revival of the empire: At present, the names of the treacherous faction are available, and the relevant documents are clear. Of those who debated policy and those who administered policy, those who spoke for them and those who concurred with them, their crimes range from petty to grave, and the seriousness of their crimes from shallow to profound. Let the authorities investigate and categorize them, en acting their banishment in a manner appropriate to their individual crimes. . . . Of the loyal ministers and good gentlemen of the empire, each will devote all their hearts to the ruler and not worry that other people will harm them. In this way we can illuminate the flourishing virtue and great enterprises of Shenzong will be brought to fruition, and accomplish Your Majesty's filial
41. ]5BM 121.Ia.
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desire to continue his policies. Then the empire can be ordered through inaction. 4'-"*f:t "*'1 .t Jt.1.±., � $: it: 11ij . � tl�*, � �t�*, � l\ .:.t.17�* , �-t:t r1Q �-:t, � ��"i", tt � i� )� . 1t� � �#", 1& �'Hti!, 1t� 't Jt. � . . . .
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The author of this memorial concluded that prosecuting the anti reformists as enemies of the state would enable Huizong to accomplish three goals at once: to rectify the boundaries of the ethico-political order, to ensure the ethical uniformity of the political elite, and to bring Shenzong's political legacy to fruition. He insisted that these investiga tions and punishments would not be motivated by revenge or partisan ship, but by the utmost in ethical rigor. The author claimed that this was not a mass political persecution, but rather an investigation of former officials on a case-by-case basis. After the expulsion and dispersal of this treacherous faction of petty men was accomplished, he argued that the imperial court would become the exclusive preserve of ethical practi tioners, ending the factional conflict once and for
all.
Several more memorials followed, in which specific names and events replaced abstract ethical categories. Offering a revisionist interpretation of the recent past, a nameless official singled out the remonstrators of the Qinsheng regency for punishment. According to the memorial's author, the first year of the Huizong reign had witnessed the rehabilitation of a faction of "petty men," who began to sabotage the state as they had once before during the anti-reform ministry of the 1080s. One memorial equated the Xuanren and Qinsheng regencies, describing them as dark ages in which legitimate governance had been usurped by disloyal ministers and nefarious remonstrators:
[Your servant] observes that the former court expelled and banished Sirna Guang et al. for their deviant opinions and their harm to governance. The grand councilors [at the time] discussed and promulgated these actions both inside and outside court, and all the empire knew [of this]. When Your Majesty ftrst ascended the throne but before You assumed full supervision over all matters, those who controlled the state were unable to employ public-minded heatts and just intentions . . . . In recent days, you have again called on people to speak out, which has led to chaos and confusion. Your ignorant servant wishes that Your Majesty would clearly order the grand councilors to discuss this 42. ]5BM I2ub.
154
ARI DAN I E L LEVIN E
publicly and clearly evaluate the situation. 1kYL ;\:' -#J � 1f &J ,� 7'e. �, J{. ;t, $Jt. *- if � 7IJ 4t% 'F 71', :k """F ·jHu. :;f f.t """F I!P1i..zAJJ , �a44t� #\.t�, 't � .t if , � �� � '� -f :t" . . . � El -Pi-;f{iJ..:t , It.f. nt *" . if .�1k � f.t """F El}) Wf.j, � Jt *- if , 1t� *'�"tl, tf�.H.43
This memorial's author asserted that if Huizong had not recently begun his personal rule, anti-reformist ministers and remonstrators would have certainly precipitated the collapse of the ethico-political order with their "deviant opinions" -* :t . Attacking the opposition for blurring the boundaries between right and wrong, this remonstrator pronounced that those who had submitted anti-reformist remonstrance were undeniably guilty of the crime of factionalism: [Your servant] observes that at the end of the Yuanfu era [ca. lIOO] , in the days of the regency, the great ministers of the Yuanyou era took advantage of the opportunity to administer affairs. Of the men who had been charged and prosecuted during the Shaosheng era, either they were restored to their old official status or they undeservingly received official appointments . . , . They did their utmost to unify their faction behind their deviant ideas. We depended upon Your Majesty to investigate their malfeasance, and to vigorously grasp the way of righteousness, so that the laws and institutions of Shenzong may be preserved, and the basic enterprise of the imperial progenitors may be furthered for a myriad generations of order. 5l 't -m YL :k.. 11-.t*, J.loJ1i � ltJt.t El , :k.. � *- if * M rn • . • � � � M , � � * �.tA, � . � � � , ���� 1�. . . . t(tff�:t� � J{.�, fM.t """F � YL � � , :/] #iEl!, 1,!j';�#:t�Jt, �.g l1. ' 'J,. 44 1� :f.tL b ;F � if.; , PQ -L!C Z 10 . ' ,
In the author's view, the restoration of Shenzong's reforms required the pre-emptive purge of those remonstrators who had recently en deavored to abolish them. He insisted that ends would justify means, as blacklists and bans were necessary to restore legitimacy to the ethico-political order. Whereas previous factional discourse had acknowledged that factionalism had been a recurrent problem through out history, the rhetoric of the Chongning purges promised a final solution. In the utopian language of reformist remonstrators, an ever lasting age of ideal governance awaited Huizong in the near future, if he committed himself to exercising his powers of discriminative judgment in the present. 43. ]5BM 12I.2a. 44. ]5BM I2I.2b.
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Huizong responded to these memorials by promulgating an edict that expelled these enemies of the state, whether living or deceased, from the political community. More than 50 leading members of the anti-reform faction among them the former grand councilors Sima Guang, Lii Gongzhu g � i- (1018-89), Lii Dafang g *- 7i (1027-97), Liu Zhi 11 " (1030-97), and Fan Chunren (1027-1101) were stripped of all honors and prestige titles they had received posthumously.45 Denied the honorific status and privileges to which deceased officials were en titled, these men were effectively excluded from membership in the bureaucratic elite. Their symbolic exhumation was intended to rectify their crimes for posterity, so that history would remember them as treacherous ministers. It is possible that before his fall from the councilorship, Zeng Bu was no longer presenting himself as a conciliator and had abetted Cai Jing in his suppression of the anti-reformists. Li Tao * � (III5-84), the com piler of the Xu ;;jzhi tongjian changbian t.t 'if 5i; iiHIt -k �, attributed the authorship of the following imperial edict, which issued a blanket con demnation against the Yuanyou ministry, to Zeng Bu: Fonnerly, during the Yuanyou era, powerful ministers monopolized the state, commanding a faction of wickedness. They slandered the Former Emperor [i.e., Shenzong], and His benevolent governance and good policies were carelessly changed. In the Shaosheng era, [Zhezong] assumed the reins of governance, and He clearly saw through this iniquitous group, expelling and banishing them, punishing them to the full extent of the law. . . . When they were summoned back to court, they joined together in scheming, becoming even more strongly tied to each other. They took avenging their enmities and grievances as their task. . . . They were united in their goal of transforming the policies and insti tutions of the Xining and Yuanfeng eras and reviving the governance of the Yuanyou era. {f.(utAt, � I'ZAi*�, 1�4i mJ f�. �1t7l::..�!J" -!Jtlt i£., !t � � � � ?t ,fJs4tJt#l, fl!JJLjf.� , Jf �5i.Li:, J!-.iE�*,J. . . . � qtlJt .g � "tt.m�, aii *��, � � qtJJf I!/ , ihX �1I..tt * :r}] *Il.-f11Ir.. tl< � * . . . . ;6 � .�� .. 7t � zi£. Ji, � 7t:.f,6ZJt i1Q -ft e.. .46 .
-
In the official reformist version of recent history, the anti-reformists had turned the world upside down by forming a disloyal and treacherous factional regime during the Xuanren regency. This edict's author asserted
45. ]SBM 121.2b-4b. 46. ]SBM 121. 5b-6a.
ARI DAN I E L LEVI N E that the anti-reformists had tarnished Shenzong's legacy by prematurely abolishing the New Policies before they could succeed in ethically transforming the empire. In the coming proscriptions, the surviving members of the anti reform coalitions of both regencies were to be incriminated alongside their fallen comrades. In the imperial edict that revoked posthumous honors for the ministers of the Yuanyou era (granted a year before by the Qinsheng regency), those who had urged these honors were singled out for punishment. Such anti-reformist remonstrators as Chen Ci sheng and Feng Ji, who had heeded the call for upright remonstrance a year earlier, were dismissed from office altogether. Furthermore, other remonstrators of the Qinsheng regency, including Chen Guan and Gong Guai, were condemned for trying to revive anti-reformist governance and for disseminating seditious discourse. In the radically transformed political landscape of Cai Jing's councilorship, the alleged crimes of these anti-reformists could not go unpunished. In the words of Huizong's edict against them: They relied on their clique to flatter and cajole, yet maintained that they them selves were upright and sincere, and they did not consult the opinion of other officials. They harbored grievances, pursued success, insisted on the false, and neglected their duty to serve their ruler. When their crimes are investigated, how is death a sufficient punishment? J'A JJjJ J;t. "t81t, m ��&., t1i1 � ;fi';f{-±"MiI. .l. r*J 'll m � , *�1t-1f , t1i1 .� *:#�.l. . 41t� � .'i. , M1if�t�?47
The emperor pronounced that these remonstrators had inverted the moral categories of political practice, turning black into white by falsely accusing innocent reformists of political crimes while falsely proclaiming their own legitimacy. Exiling these alleged slanderers would re-establish the ethico-political standards that they had recently attempted to invert. Cai Jing's ministry swiftly implemented institutional mechanisms to prosecute the anti-reformist remonstrators of the Qinsheng regency for the political crime of slander. A year after these strident denunciations of the reformists and the New Policies were submitted to the throne, these documents were used as ammunition against their authors. In the final months of the Zeng Bu ministry, initial efforts were made to
47. ]5BM I2l.4b.
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investigate all remonstrance submitted during the Qinsheng regency. In 1101/8, an anonymous remonstrator loyal to Zeng, or perhaps the grand councilor himself, reported that anti-reformist remonstrators had been investigated and punished: "[Your servant] humbly observes that those who slandered the former court and agitated to change policies and in stitutions, their crimes deserving more than death, have now all been demoted and publicly criticized" 1:k.. YL � EJ iii iJJ;t .m , fh.ti � Jt, � � z.�i.ZA., tt. ;:�fjtjl£ i1Ti � J9:Z .48 A year later, the Cai Jing ministry went a step beyond the classification of dissent, by criminalizing all political dissenters of the recent past and excluding all opposition figures from the imperial bureaucracy. In 1102/9, all of the officials who had responded to the court's call for upright remonstrance during the Qinsheng regency were classified into seven ethical categories: three grades of "righteousness" .if.. and four grades of "wickedness" *�.49 Of 583 men who had submitted remon strance, only 41 were certified as politically acceptable to the current ministerial regime, and the remaining 542 were accused of various grades of unethical political rhetoric. The ranks of the "righteous" were stocked largely with the names of obscure regional administrators and other political nonentities with possible reformist sympathies. As might be expected, these 542 "wicked" remonstrators included both major and minor figures who had served in the Censorate and Remon strance Bureau during the Qinsheng regency, along with hundreds of mid-level functionaries and regional administrators. 50 By identifying those who had evinced antipathies toward the New Policies and the reformists, this remonstrance investigation had the overt purpose of ensuring ethical uniformity within the imperial bureaucracy, but this entailed the imposition of rigid ideological and political conformity in practice. •
48. f5BM 12pb. 49. In order of appearance, these seven categories were: "superior in righteousness" iEJ:., "middling in righteousness" iE 'f , "inferior in righteousness" iE r, "extremely superior in wickedness" *fIJ:.:t.:g:, "superior in wickedness" *fIJ:., "middling in wick edness" *fI 'f , and "inferior in wickedness" *fir. See f5BM 123.3a-8b. 50. For a closer analysis of the names on this list of classified remonstrance, and an exposition of the anomalies therein, see Luo, "Lun Bei Song Huizong tongzhi chuqi de zhengju yanbian," 154.
ARI DAN I E L LEVI N E The classification and investigation of prior memorials was not an unprecedented phenomenon in late Northern Song political history. During the 1080s and 1090S, the anti-reformist ministerial regime of the Xuanren regency had established and re-established the Investigation and Prosecution Bureau ifj:J.!.p/f, later revived by the Zhang Dun min istry under Zhezong's personal rule, to prosecute their adversaries for having authored slanderous memorials. What was new about this par ticular occurrence of remonstrance investigation were . the extreme punishments that awaited those accused of slander. In 1102/11, those who had been classified into the two most extreme grades of "wicked ness," 80 men in all, were exiled to remote prefectures on the fringes of the empire. 51 The classification of past remonstrance, and the banish ments that accompanied it, also foreshadowed the factional blacklists to come. At the same time eai Jing was punishing the anti-reformist remon strators of the Qinsheng regency, he was also blacklisting the earlier generation of anti-reformists. In 1102/9, the first partisan blacklist :t 11was imposed, officially proscribing 117 men, naming nearly every official who had served in the highest echelons of the anti-reformist ministerial regime of the Xuanren regency. Whether dead or alive, every state councilor of the Yuanyou (1085-93) era was named to the list, as was every prominent academic and remonstrance official. 52 The names of the guilty were inscribed into a stele erected outside the Gate of Rectified Ritual iE.:.ft r, of the imperial palace and were written personally by Huizong in his renowned calligraphy.53 The blacklisted were summarily 51. ]SBM 123.8b-Ioa. 52. Among the 22 state councilors were Wen Yanbo :;t jf -hlf: (1006---97), Sima Guang, Lii Gongzhu, Lii Dafang, Liu Zhi, Liang Tao !¥: ;#; (1054-97), Wang Yansou £ jf � (1043---93), Fan Chunren, and Wang Gui £ # (1019-85). Among the 35 subordinate officials were Su Shi .� � (1036-1101), Fan Zuyu t€A!1.� (1041-98), Kong Wenzhong � :;t 1'1' (1037-87), Zhu Guangting *,- 7t .lit (1037---94), Sun Jue � f: (1028-90), Liu Anshi f1�1lt (1048-1I25),Jia Yi 1t � (n.d.), Wang Di £� (n.d.), Zou Hao, and Zhang Shunmin 7l# � (n.d.). 53. For an investigation of Huizong's imperial brush inscriptions, see Patricia Ebrey's chapter in this volume. The actual extent of Huizong's involvement in the factional proscriptions is unknown, given the extensive revision of the historical record to portray him as a benevolent monarch led dangerously astray by treacherous ministers. It remains debatable whether the emperor was actively involved in the blacklist or simply manipulated by Cai Jing, but no tangible evidence has survived to prove either
Terms ifEstrangement
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dismissed from bureaucratic service, forbidden from entering the capital, and many were placed under heavy surveillance and virtual house arrest in their native places. 54 A group of officials memorialized the throne urging Huizong to prosecute anti-reform partisans of the Qinsheng Regency along with those of the Xuanren regency: As for the men who did such things as forming factions and altering and de stroying policies and institutions during the early Yuanyou era, they have re cently been prosecuted by the court. As for the men who did such things as forming factions, altering and destroying policies and institutions, and reviving the Yuanyou faction during the late Yuanfu era [ca. IIOO] , we humbly submit the request that you investigate and prosecute them. iiAf;Z;fJJ#A:t�, � J:lt�
4 .A, .����ff, � � �.z*# A :t �, � � �4, « & � � . A, 1k � tf ��{t.55
This memorial deemed that factionalism had been the chief crime of these anti-reformists, rendering the ministerial regimes of both regencies illegitimate in the extreme. In the factional discourse of the early Huizong reign, political associations were imagined and described as inherently destructive. It was imagined that factious malefactors could be expelled through systematic punishment, which was deemed appropriate for officials who had forsaken the prime political virtue of pub lic-mindedness. By the middle of 1103, the opposition had been effectively marginalized, and the majority of the blacklisted anti reformists had been banished to the far south. As if the widespread fallout from the first blacklist had been insuf ficient to destroy the anti-reform coalition, a second edition was promulgated in 1103/9. 56 Ninety-eight men (nearly half of them de ceased) were named as members of the ''Yuanyou faction," including every one of eai Jing's major adversaries and omitting some minor figures who had been included in the first blacklist. In the words of the memorial that prompted this edict, the erection of a blacklist stele within the palace precincts had been insufficient as an admonition for posterity. Henceforth, blacklist steles would be established throughout theory. For an analysis of the tangled textual history of the Huizong reign's official historiography, see chap. 2 of Levine, "A House in Darkness." 54. f5RM 12I.ub. 55. f5RM 12I.9h. 56. f5RM 12I.I5b-qa.
160
ARI DAN I E L LEVI N E
every circuit and prefecture of the empire, thereby identifying this "treacherous faction" and distinguishing them from the rest of the bu reaucratic elite for the indefinite future: When a commissioner was recently dispatched from the capital district, there were among the officials of Chenzhou some who questioned him concerning the names on the Yuanyou faction's stele at the Gate of Rectified Ritual. Even though the court has promulgated their names, going so far as to carve them with imperial calligraphy, this is not yet completely known. Your Majesty has made rewards and punishments with enlightened lucidity. Whether this deviant faction of treacherous ministers is living or dead, their enumerated crimes and evil deeds have been graded and personally splashed by the imperial brush, and carved into stone, as a warning to the disloyal ministers of the empire. . . . [Your servant] implores Your Majesty to promulgate an enlightened pronouncement, arraying all the names of the treacherous faction which have been inscribed with imperial calligraphy upon the Gate of Rectified Ritual, and to disseminate it to the offices of the highest officials in exterior circuits and prefectures, who should set up steles with an inscribed record, to manifest [their names] for a myriad generations. it ili 1tJf.f� , f.t 1+1 ± A. ;ff J';.U,t;it r, � .i17t�.6:t �*l-t r", If :-t. � *l -t fJJ�. l' �t r, .f. #-.f!r * .ilj �, JlIJ � :it �P -I!!.. fi': r � aJi 1" -fU . � If J.:t, � r"' 1f?!, � � � � .� , �il.��, R. -Z f1�, J'X � � r If .:r � .t .z iX., . . . � � # f.f 1f tfr , .J!- 71j � :t, J'x .f!r " .ilj � j,t;it r, *l-Z, r3ft 1+1 �, #-J:i � ��a, iI.. � f1lG, J'X iF � 1l!:Y
The empire-wide identification of the anti-reform coalition was intended to be a final act of enlightened distinction, permanently branding these men as a faction. As these steles were erected across the empire, the members of the anti-reform coalition continued to be deported. Issued in 1104/6, the third and final partisan blacklist represented the grand councilor's final attempt to marginalize the political opposition. Carved into stone in steles erected across the empire and upon the west wall of the palace precincts, the names of 309 former officials were permanently condemned as "wicked and "treacherous." 58 These in cluded the usual suspects from the first two blacklists: the prominent members of the ministerial regime of the Xuanren regency and the anti-reformist remonstrators of the Qinsheng regency. To these names were added 200 more supernumeraries, drawn from the lower reaches of
57. ]5BM 12I.15h. 58. ]5BM 122.9b-I3a.
Terms 0/Estrangement the bureaucracy. 59 A brief imperial edict prefaced the list, condemning these men as members of a "treacherous faction," equating those officials who served in both regencies. And while the first and second blacklists had consisted solely of known anti-reformists, in the third edition those named as the "treacherous faction of Yuanyou" closely overlapped with Cai Jing's personal enemies list. 60 They included prominent members of the reform coalition who had either challenged Cai for the councilorship or had refused to join his ministry, among them Zeng Bu and Zhang Dun, who were singled out for their "ministerial disloyalty." By including the names of his major reformist rivals on the third and fmal blacklist, Cai Jing succeeded in liquidating all potential rivals for power from within his own faction. With the ranks of anti reformists forcibly relocated to Ungnan, alongside his one-time re formist colleagues on the Council of State, Cai succeeded in eliminating all who had opposed his ascent to the councilorship. FurthemlOre, the descendants and
kin of the ''Yuanyou faction" were
permanently banned from service in the metropolitan bureaucracy and prohibited by a series of imperial edicts from entering the capital's gates.61 In an edict of 1103/3, the sons and grandsons of the blacklisted anti-reformists were similarly maligned. According to the moralistic language of this pronouncement, the inherited wickedness of anti reformist descendants justified their punishment: "As for all the sons and younger brothers of the factions of the Yuanyou era and the late Yuanfu era, whether they are officeholders or not, they all are ordered to reside
59. The names of many of these men are now difficult to discern, and biographical information on hundreds of them is slight at best. Two Southern Song commentators have claimed that a majority of those blacklisted in 1102-4 did not rightfully belong there. In his HuiZhu lu #-f:., Wang Mingqing .I. aJI it (II27-ca. 1215) doubted whether all the men named to the Chongning blacklists deserved to be labeled as the "Yuanyou faction," arguing that many of these 300-plus men included "those who had vigorously argued against Yuanyou governance in the past" ;t � a iJ je.:fit.z..Jl.t :::t . See Wang Mingqing, HuiZhu lu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1961), houlu ft* 1.64-5. According to the late twelfth-century memoirist Fei Gun " -t" only 78 (or 98) out of the 309 men on the Chongning blacklists were truly members of the "Yuanyou faction," and the list included the "wicked" *It alongside the "righteous" .iE. See Fei Gun, Liangxi manzhi t.fE � il .t: (reprinted-Taibei: Guangwen shuju, 1969), 3.5b-6a. 60. Luo, Bei Song dangzhengyar!Jiu, 301-5. For an in-depth analysis of the 1104 blacklist, see also Vittinghoff, Proskription und Intrigue. 61. ]SBM 121.7b-8a, I2a-I2b, 15a-15b.
ARI DANIEL LEVINE externally, and not to violate the gate towers [of the capital] ." "" 7t ;fi;
& 7t ��*. A a � _ , � M � � & � , �+4�� % ft , � �.11 U!& r .62 In a related effort to prevent the contamination of imperial bloodlines, a subsequent edict universally prohibited imperial clansmen from marrying the children or grandchildren of blacklisted members of the ''Yuanyou faction."63 The full effect of these dictates against office holding and marriage cannot be gauged with any certainty, and it is quite possible that the extreme discourse employed to justify the Chongning proscriptions might well have exceeded the actual brutality of political practice. Moreover, as the subsequent section will demonstrate, the blacklists were abolished in II06, before the survival and integrity of the anti-reformist lineages were jeopardized any further. The ideological and biological descendants of the ''Yuanyou faction" persisted into the Southern Song, and the "Lesser Yuanyou" ,J' .71:At ministry of Zhao Ding � JllJrI- (I085-II47) dominated the court of Emperor Gaozong (r. II27-62) in the mid-II30s.64 When the age of faction (I068-II04) is analyzed as a coherent arc of historical change, the partisan proscriptions of the early Huizong reign represented not only the most brutal phase of the late Northern Song factional conflict but also its endgame. Cai Jing had conclusively ended the struggle for power at court between the reformists and anti reformists by systematically marginalizing the former. Even so, one can only surmise whether these proscriptions and prohibitions were ever rigorously or widely enforced. While many major figures of the anti reform coalition (not to mention two reformist councilors) died in Lingnan, many anti-reformists and their descendants survived into the Southern Song. The Chongning proscriptions should not be anachro nistically interpreted as twentieth-century forms of political warfare, but they did represent the most virulent outbreak of factionalism in Northern Song history. During the early years of the Huizong reign, the escalation of this political conflict was justified with dichotomizing rhetoric. Maligned as
62. ]SBM 12I.12a-I2b. 63. ]SBM 122.14a-14b. 64 . For a detailed political narrative of the Gaozong reign, see Teraji Jun -t J1!!. lt, Nan Sii shoki seiji rekishi kenkyii � *- fJ] Jtt] ift � J1l.. !t 1ff � (Hiroshima: Keisuisha, 1988).
Terms rifEstrangement treacherous ministers, the anti-reformists of the Xuanren and Qinsheng regencies, as well as several prominent reformists, were accused of slanderous discourse, perfidious practices, and ethico-political illegiti macy. Blacklists and bans were described as the ultimate exercise of Huizong's powers of discriminative judgment. Once identified as un ethical political practitioners, those blacklisted as the ''Yuanyou faction" were excluded from the political community by proscription and de portation. Yet, this disjuncture in political practice did not result in any corresponding break within factional discourse. In the language of factional politics, political associations were imagined as inherently de structive to the ethico-political order; the preservation of the state required expelling these malefactors. In this regard, the edicts and memorials of the early Huizong reign were virtually indistinguishable from those of the 1070s, 1080s, or 1090S. From the Shenzong reign to the Huizong reign, from the ministry of Wang Anshi to that of Cai Jing, the factional conflict was fought with similar vocabularies.
The Aftermath ofthe Factional Proscriptions, IIO�7 No matter how permanently they had been intended to stand as a warning to "petty men" throughout the empire, the factional blacklist steles were demolished less than two years after the third series of pro scriptions was promulgated. The political purges of the early Chongning era had been intended to harmonize and stabilize the realm, but such idealistic visions of everlasting order were invalidated by a cosmological portent of disaster. After a long-tailed comet was sighted in 1106/1, a terrified Huizong read this as a sign of heavenly disapproval of his ministers, their policies, and their proscription of the opposition. Ac cording to the Huizong's "Basic Annals" ;f.. R. in the Song shi *- 3t, the emperor immediately ordered the destruction of the Yuanyou blacklist steles; an edict announced that the banished would be restored to the ranks of officialdom, and that (presumably "upright") remonstrators would no longer be censured or obstructed.65 Soon thereafter, Huizong promulgated an empire-wide amnesty and lifted the prohibitions against 65. For a telegraphic account of these events, see 55 20.375. The most detailed source about these matters is Zhao Tingzhi's ;t!�.t (I04o-n07) official obituary {t�, por tions of which were copied into ]5BM 13I.na-I2a. In his chapter in this volume, John Chaffee analyzes this source in greater depth.
ARI DANIEL LEVINE the blacklisted members of the ''Yuanyou faction." The emperor man dated the abolition of several of the revived New Policies and signaled his displeasure with Cai Jing by dismissing him from the counci1orship in
II06/2.66 But the emperor's hasty rollback of the Chongning proscriptions and
the reformist policy program did not initiate a tectonic shift in court politics as the coming of the Qinsheng regency once had. Nor did it usher in a renewed period of factional conflict between reformists and anti-reformists. As far as the documentary record
will show, the year of
the comet did not spur Huizong to reappoint anti-reformists to the Council of State or to promote partisan reconciliation at court. The Cai Jing ministry's proscriptions of
II02-4
had succeeded in excluding the
anti-reformists from the imperial bureaucracy, and their relaxation did not lead to the rehabilitation or reemployment of the anti-reform faction. In
IIo6-7, these sudden and belated shifts in policy and personnel came
too late to dislodge Cai Jing's patronage network from the upper reaches of the bureaucracy, and the reformists continued to monopolize authority in his absence. To make a long story short, Cai Jing's loyal
II07/ I, and he retained until II20, when he was
subordinates arranged for his reinstatement in the councilorship (with brief interruptions)
elderly and losing his vision. Cai succeeded in forging a symbiotic rela tionship with the emperor that endured almost until the very end of the Northern Song. Compared to the tumultuous years between
1068
and
II04,
the re
mainder of the Huizong reign represented an era of relative political stability at court. Despite occasional flare-ups, the conflict between re formists and anti-reformists was effectively over, and the opposition to the reformists and their policies was no longer based within the imperial bureaucracy itself. The progenitors of the True Way Learning
l! �
movement, who had been affiliated with the anti-reform coalition, re turned to their localities as private citizens and scholars, or were em ployed as teachers in the expanded state educational system. During the
IIIOS
and
II20S,
the institutional locus of opposition to the Cai Jing
ministry was the Imperial University
;k. � , which
became a hotbed of
66. For a thorough account of the policy changes of the Huizong reign and the re curring dismissals and rehabilitations of Cai Jing, see John Chaffee's chapter in this volume.
Terms ofEstrangement dissent in the final years of the Northern Song. The imperial court was not refactionalized until the dire circumstances of the Song-Jin wars di vided the imperial court between hawks and doves.67 Other chapters in this volume will demonstrate that the IIIOS and II20S witnessed trans formations in political and court culture that diverged dramatically from the first five years of Huizong's reign. In terms of political practice, these decades were a different world from the age of faction, which was effectively over after the final blacklist of II04.
Marryrology and Demonology: The Chongning Factional Proscriptions in Song HistoriograpkJ Historical revisionism has complicated the task of assessing the casualty count and the long-term impact of the Chongning factional proscrip tions. The narrative shape of this chapter has been determined by the composition, distribution, and survival of historical texts that cover the early Huizong reign. Portions of the documentary record of Huizong's reign were either lost or destroyed during or after the Jurchen sack of Kaifeng in II27, giving Southern Song court historiographers no choice but to reconstruct the history of the Huizong reign from disparate textual fragments. Due to the paucity of the documentary record, the compila tion of the Veritable Records -t� of the Huizong reign occupied Southern Song court historiographers for several decades, from the late II30S until II77.68 During the compilation process, any documents that might have portrayed the achievements of Huizong's ministers in a positive light were systematically excluded from the Veritable Records of Emperor Huizong and from the subsequent State History Jt of the four reigns of the late Northern Song. Sections of these works of official history were incorporated into the Song shi, the standard dynastic history, and into the unofficial chronicles that have survived to the present. Since the Veritable Records and State History of the late Northern Song reigns are no longer extant, historians have long relied upon Li Tao's
67. For a study of the factional disputes of II26-27, see Luo Jiaxiang iIi � #, "Jing kang danglun yu Jingkang zhi nan' " � .. :t � �"� "-Z-�," Huazhong shifan daxue xuebao * '1' trr �:k**� 2002.3: 74-80. 68. For a textual history of the long gestation process of the Veritable Records rfEmperor Huizong, see chap. 2 of Levine, "A House in Darkness."
ARI DANIEL LEVI N E
166 privately compiled
Xu iiZhi tongjian changbian (u83)
as the principal
chronicle of Northern Song political history. However, the extant ver sion of this text extends only as far as the month after Huizong's en thronement. A fraction of entries from the Xu iiZhi tongjian changbian has been collected and classified in a shorter topical compilation, Yang
lIi 1+ It (1241-71) Xu iiZhi tongjian changbianjishi benmo t.t 1t �� l&�-k � .*C. "*** (ca. 1220), which compresses the official court histories of the Northern Song. In this text, as well as the Song shi itself, Zhongliang's
the narrative of the Chongning proscriptions was polarized to eulogize the victimized and condemn their victimizers. The same dichotomizing discourse that had once been employed by ministers and remonstrators in the late Northern Song continued to operate in the Southern Song, when the factional conflict's historians imposed retroactive moral judgments upon the political practitioners and associations of the past. I have argued elsewhere that the discourse and practice of Southern Song and Yuan official historiography involved the articulation of competing claims to political legitimacy. 69 When the final version of Northern Song political history was completed, after a protracted and contested period of gestation, Huizong's reform ministry was retroactively excluded from membership in the political community. Blaming Cai Jing and his fellow reformists for the collapse of the Northern Song in
U26-27,
remembered as the "Calamity of Jingkang"
� llz�, the court historians of the Gaozong and Xiaozong (r. 116289) reigns condemned a series of reformist regimes from Wang Anshi to
Cai Jing as illegitimate. These compilers of the documentary record maligned the reformists as constituting a "treacherous faction" of "petty men," while portraying the so-called Yuanyou faction as an as sociation of "superior men" who nobly defended the state from internal and external enemies, only to fall victim to factional proscriptions. Since Gaozong was the only one of Huizong's sons to have escaped Jurchen captivity, the deposed emperor could not be allowed to bear the blame for the fall of Kaifeng, but his ministers could be portrayed as scapegoats for dynastic collapse. Thus, the "Calamity of Jingkang,"
69. For a discussion of the ways in which Southern Song and Yuan official historians revised the narrative of the late Northern Song factional conflict, see chaps. 2 and 3 of Levine, "A House in Darkness."
Terms ofEstrangement which ended the Northern Song, was read back into the history of the Shenzong and Zhezong reigns, as court historians constructed a teleo logical narrative of the age of faction. The persecution of the ''Yuanyou faction" during the early Hllizong reign constitutes one strand of this manipulated narrative of late Northern Song history. During the Southern Song and Yuan, the tables were turned and historical verdicts were reversed: those whom the Cai Jing ministry had accused of fac tional treachery were now eulogized as virtuous martyrs, and Huizong's reformist ministers were demonized for the treasonous crime of factionalism. Perhaps the greatest of their transgressions, aside from the "Calamity of Jingkang" itself, were the Chongning proscriptions, which had made martyrs of the anti-reformists and demons of the reformists who persecuted them. While historians who study the Hllizong reign can attempt to correct for the biases of their Southern Song and Yuan predecessors, their moralistic judgments pervade the very fabric of historiography, turning primary sources into secondary sources. Even if scholars discard these moralistic categories of historical analysis, and refrain from making judgments about "superior men" and "petty men," the documentary record has been shaped in such a way as to highlight these binary moral distinctions through the composition and distribution of the corpus of primary sources. While it is certainly possible to avoid condemning the Cai Jing regime, it is equally possible that the actual damage done by the Chongning factional proscriptions has been overestimated for narrative purposes. While many on Cai's enemies list died after being deported to Lingnan, many of the biological and ideological heirs of the anti-reform movement survived into the Southern Song. A social history of the Chongning blacklists, drawing upon such sources as funerary inscrip tions and genealogies, is beyond the scope of this chapter, but certainly deserves further research.
Conclusions Throughout the late Northern Song, as factions battled one another for power at court, the language of politics remained a relatively stable field of discourse. Political utterances and texts from the early Huizong reign would have been immediately comprehensible to councilors and remonstrators of the Shenzong reign or the Xuanren regency. The key terms of this "language of politics" were consistently employed for
168
ARI DANIEL LEVIN E
more than three decades by political rhetoricians to demarcate the le gitimate boundaries of the political community. Factional discourse was premised upon an impermeable boundary between legitimate and illegitimate political practitioners. The vocabularies of political practi tioners consisted of sets of paired binary terms, which distinguished the "righteous" from the "wicked," the "loyal" from the "treacherous," the "altruistic" from the "selfish." By rhetorically linking their adver saries with these negative moral qualities and accusing them of unethical political practices, the authors of memorials denied them political legitimacy. Councilors and remonstrators urged their monarchs to exercise their powers of discriminative judgment, insisting that the very survival of the state depended upon eliminating illegitimate political actors from court. If these nefarious factions were permitted to remain at court, the established boundaries of the ethico-political order would be blurred, the state would be subverted, and monarchical authority would be usurped. On the other hand, if these treacherous ministers were purged from the political community, ethical unanimity would be achieved at court, and the empire would undergo a moral revitalization from the top down and from the center outwards. Through the Qinsheng regency and the early years of Huizong's personal rule, remonstrators shared these basic assumptions, conceiving of the political community and political practices in terms of binary oppositions. However, in the language of factional politics, one term in this dis criminative vocabulary lacked an oppositional counterpart: the word "faction" itself. Rhetorically linked with negative adjectives such as "treacherous" and "wicked," factions were exclusively conceived of as illegitimate political associations. Whether reformists or anti-reformists, remonstrators and councilors invariably indicted their adversaries of the crime of factionalism. In factional discourse (in publicly-circulated texts, at least), factions were invariably described as inherently destructive to the ethico-political order. Factious ministers were charged with forsaking the ideal of "public-mindedness" and "loyalty" to embrace "selfishness" and "treachery," to have engaged in "sycophancy" in order to "delude the ruler." Endowed with malicious natures, unethical political practi tioners were impelled to usurp authority and engage in illegitimate activities such as factional collusion. In the political imagination of the late Northern Song, since rulers were considered to be extremely fallible,
----------------------......
---------------
Terms ofEstrangement susceptible to sycophants and malefactors, the ethico-political order would always be vulnerable to factionalism. Only an enlightened ruler who could discern the "righteous" from the "wicked" could prevent factions from increasing in influence. If monarchs did not discern and purge them from court, these malign associations would ultimately de stroy the polity from within. Throughout the factional conflict, political utterances and memorials were written within this intellectual context. In both reformist and anti-reformist remonstrance, emperors and regents were urged to identify and eliminate factions before they undermined the state beyond all hope of redemption. Purged members of the opposition were accused of engaging in factional treachery, and ministerial regimes employed increasingly harsh and systematic methods to punish them. All the while, the escalation of political proscriptions was justified to the ruler by employing the same political language. In the political imagination of the late Northern Song, factions were exclusively described as malign and illegitimate political associations. And even as the political landscape was dominated by contending ministerial coalitions, concerted political action was invariably associated with treachery and sycophancy. While these two court coalitions engaged in a protracted struggle for dominance, they did not describe themselves as factions, only their enemies. In political theory and political discourse, "petty men" formed factions to deceive the ruler and subvert the state, while "superior men" acted independently to serve the ruler and defend the state. Nefarious ministers formed factions for selfish gain, while model ministers tirelessly served the public good. Throughout the fac tional conflict, opposing political associations were invariably con demned as factions, while political practitioners proclaimed their innocence of these charges. Political coalitions dominated the imperial court, but political practitioners could only conceive of concerted political action as unethical and illegitimate. Over the course of three decades of factional conflict, the language of politics did not expand to encompass alternative ways of imagining the political community or alternative ways of describing political associa tions. Perhaps the political theorists and rhetoricians of the late Northern Song shared a conception of the essential unity of values and politics that set the boundaries of factional discourse. Peter Bol has suggested that the totalizing political visions of both Wang Anshi and Sima Guang shared a conception of the unity of ethical values and political institutions, and it
170
ARI DAN I E L LEVI NE
is arguable that the political rhetoric of their ideological and political heirs was predicated upon this ideal.70 Hence, members of both minis terial coalitions rhetorically associated themselves with the ethico political virtue of "the public good," persuading monarchs and regents that excluding the "selfish" and "factious" opposition would lead to the moral revitalization and unification of court, bureaucracy, society, and polity. Yet, from 1070 to II04, the discourse of factionalism was insuffi ciently elastic for political practitioners to accommodate themselves to the realities of factional politics. When rhetoricians used a shared language of politics to justify the brutalization of political practice, a disjuncture opened up between political discourse and practice. While their rhetoric had the effect of sharpening the ethical boundaries of the political order between "superior men" and "petty men," no such divisions separated the political languages of reforniists and anti reformists. From the onset of the late Northern Song factional conflict to its conclusion, the rules of engagement had changed, but the terms of estrangement had not.
70. See Bol, "Government, Society, and State," 183-87. For an analysis of the efforts of reform ministries from Wang Anshi to Cai Qing to morally transform society through political institutions and state policy, see also Peter Bol's chapter in this volume.
j
1 I
P A RT I I
Imperial Ideology
C HAPTER 4
Emperors Can Claim Antiquity Too Emperorship and Autocracy Under the New Policies Peter K. Bol
There is a view that China's political history has been marked by au tocracy. As Cheng Minsheng writes, "It is [still held to be] a basic his torical truth that the course of China's feudal history was, from start to finish, one of ever increasing autocracy, centralization, and despotism."l Moreover, the idea of a regrettable shift toward autocratic rulership has been seen as the foremost political outcome of the Tang-Song transition. The emperor, primus interpares in Tang, became the last aris tocrat in Song, a Mongol khan in Yuan, a despot who arbitrarily beat and executed officials in the Ming, and such a powerful figure in the Qing that servitors performed an elaborate obeisance in his presence. Yet even
This essay develops issues I raised in a paper for the first Huizong workshop at the University of Washington, 2000, and published as "Whither the Emperor? Emperor Huizong, the New Policies, and the Tang-Song Transition," Journal ofSong Yuan Studies 31 (2001). Comments by Paul Smith, Philip Kuhn, John Chaffee, Kojima Tsuyoshi, and others have also benefited this essay. I . Cheng Minsheng :U. � !l , "Lun Songdai shidafu zhengzhi dui huangquan de xianzhi" �* 1.1(. ± :k �jfi�1t xfi f!!J Ftt -$.) , in Songshiyanjiu lunwenji * 3t ��� � if; (Ningxia: Ningxia renmin chubanshe, 1993), 16r. Cheng's point is to argue that shidafu were sometimes able to restrict and weaken imperial autocracy.
174
PETER K . B O L
those who explained the rise of autocracy as a consequence of the disappearance of aristocracy and rise of meritocracy who argued in effect that the civil administrative leadership chosen on the basis of merit through an examination system lacked the social status necessary to constrain imperial power saw this as a dissonant note in the Tang Song transition.2 After all, autocracy seems a bit out of place in a better educated society; with an elite defined by education; with great increases in the production of wealth; in a world in which foreign states had greater power than ever before and foreign policy had to acknowledge a multi-state world; where government was more sophisticated than ever before; and where thinkers were interested in theories that gave them a totalizing perspective on politics, culture, and society. The autocratic thesis needs to be challenged, but it would be foolish to deny that there was an emperor who was surrounded by symbols of his ultimate and unique authority. Huizong's reign provides us with an in terestingly complicated case for study. He was not a founding emperor, whom we would expect to have a great amount of personal authority; he was something of a dilettante, whom we would expect to be at the mercy of his ministers; and yet his reign is marked by signs of autocratic rule. On the one hand, the court insisted on policies intended to impose uniformity on mass and elite society. "Making morality uniform and the customs the same" � It.�� Jlt{� applied to both farmers and literati. On the other hand, it went beyond ignoring and banishing critics to suppressing them harshly: blacklisting and exiling leading opponents and suppressing the teachings and writings of their spokesmen. In addition there were signs that the court was catering to the imperial whim rather than restraining it. True, Huizong's self-indulgences were not unprece dented: other dynasties had built expensive imperial gardens. His reli gious policy was not entirely new either: others had attempted to sup press Buddhism. But how often had an emperor suppressed Buddhism in order to patronize a Daoism led by a sect that proclaimed him the son of the divine Jade Emperor, as Huizong did? It is important, if we are to use Huizong to address larger historical questions, to decide whether we wish to see him and his reign as idio-
2. Miyazaki Ichisada '&' �-;jl;t, Tqyoteki no kinsei ,iUf tI-J 0) it i!t (Tokyo: Kyuiku
taimususha, 1950).
Emperors Can Claim Antiquity Too
175
syncratic and aberrant, a consequence of his whim and personality rather than of plans and an agenda. By his own proclamations and by the sub stance of his reign's policies, the Huizong reign can be shown to be an effort to continue the work of his father Shenzong (r. 1067-85) and his brother Zhezong (under regency 1085-93; reigning in his own right 1093-IIOO) and the New Policies agenda to which they had subscribed. If we see him in this light, then we might also see that the Southern Song rejection of Huizong and his court had less to do with the unique aspects of his reign than with the political program his reign continued to defend.3 It is out of the conviction that the Huizong era was of a piece with previous eras that I think his conduct of the emperorship can tell us something about what was happening to emperorship after the Tang order and its oligarchy of great clans fell. Given that so much else was changing between the eighth century and the twelfth, we have every reason to suppose that emperorship was changing as well. Huizong presents an opportunity to see whether "autocracy" provides us with the most useful way of understanding the outcome.
The Question ifAutocra0' In Western scholarship perhaps because the autocracy thesis is still commonplace revisionist attempts to address the question of autoc racy have been infrequent at best. But it is hard to identify a Song emperor other than the founders (except perhaps Huizong) who be haved autocratically. In fact a more striking feature of Song political life was the powerful grand councilor, such as Huizong's Cai Jing 1}.. :r. (1046-II26), who dominated the court for an extended period. James T. C. Liu once dealt with this phenomenon by substituting "absolutism" for autocracy and describing such grand councilors as the emperor's surrogates.4
3. For a fuller account of the Huizong reign as one part of the New Policies period see Bol, ''Whither the Emperor? Emperor Huizong, the New Policies, and the Tang-Song Transition," JOHrnal ofSong YHan StHdies 31 (2001): 103-34. 4. James T. C. Liu, China THrning Inward: Intel/ectHal-Political Changes in the EarlY Twelfth CentHry (Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1988).
176
PETER K . B O L
In China and Japan the question of whether Song gave rise to au tocracy is still very much a matter of debate. Some have assumed autocracy and asked how it came about. Liu Jingzhen, for example, ar gues that autocracy was a consequence of the first two emperors' efforts to centralize authority.S Other scholars have challenged the characteri zation of the Song political system as autocratic. Teraji Jun, for example, in calling for a reconceptualization of political history, envisions the emperor as a central part of the administrative system, not as something apart from it.6 Kondo Kazunari and others argue that the characteristic of the Song political system is not autocracy but "scholar-official (shidqfu) government," made possible by the existence of the examination system as a means of validating political authority.7 Wang Ruilai has developed this extensively in an in-depth study of the Zhenzong reign (997-1021). Wang's argument is that over the long run, the emperor shifted from being a figure with administrative power to one with symbolic power, tightly constrained by the system he was part of, even ifhe did not always act according to the ideals his ministers urged upon him. In an inspired analogy, Wang proposes that we envision the emperor not as the top of a pyramid but as a keystone in an arch, whose successful functioning de pended on his staying in his place.8 Cheng Minsheng has pointed to the
5. Not unlike Wang Ruilai (see below), Liu finds a change with the third emperor, Zhenzong. Liu argues, however, that this was not an institutional change but a failure of personality: Zhenzong lacked the personal qualities necessary to function as an autocrat. He contented himself with symbols and let ministers and the empress gain power. Renzong, the fourth emperor, increased his power by acting as the arbiter between scholar-official factions. All in all I am not sure that this account demonstrates the in stitution of autocratic rule in practice. See Liu Jingzhen 'Ht fl , Bei Song qianqi huangdi he tamen de quanli :It. *- � M .t i" :fu-N!.1I"l tr.J � fJ (Taipei: Daoxiang chuban she, 1996). 6. Teraji Jun -4f �lt, "Sodai seijishi kenkyii Mho shiron" *- 1-1;.ifiif; 3t �� 7J)};; � �, in Satake Yasuhiko 1ti.1t* fl , ed., So Genjidaishi no kihon mondai *-7tnt1-l;.0)�*" ro' JI! (Tokyo: Kyiiko shoin, 1996) 3: 69-91. 7. Kondo Kazunari .iU.:jjj. - A, "Sodai shidaifu seiji no tokushoku" *- 1-1;. ± :kAifiif; O) # @. , in Iwanami koza sekai rekishi: Chuka no bunretsu to saisei, san-jusan seiki -*i.t�& i!t ..fr- !l 3t 9: t *o)?7'" � t .jlHt, ..::.. � + ..::.. i!t � (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1999) 9: 305-26. 8. Wang Ruilai I � *, SOdai no kotei kenryoku to shidaifu seiji *-1-1;.O).t i"lff. fJ t ± :k AJi if; (Tokyo: Kyiiko shoin, 2001), esp. 493-512. See also Wang Ruilai, "Lun Songdai xiangquan" � ;!U-l;. �I'I �, Lishiyanjiu !l3t�� 1985-2: 106-20; and Wang Ruilai, "Lun Songdai huangquan" � *- 1-1;. .t �, Lishiyanjiu !l 3t � � 1989.1: 144-60.
Emperors Can Claim Antiquiry Too
177
ways in which literati officials effectively constrained the emperor.9 Alan Wood has shown that Neo-Confucianism was not at all the handmaiden of autocratic rule it has been claimed to be. 1 0 This is not to say that there are not strong defenders of the autocratic thesis, who argue, for example, that social integration in China is dependent on and deeply informed by a consistently autocratic mode of governance. 1 1 If there is to be a debate over autocracy, it ought to be part of a larger argument about the changing nature of elite society. There is general agreement that in Tang, at least into the eighth century, the na tional elite was defined ideally by a combination of honor, status, and culture, where honor was derived from official rank (for which there were multiple hierarchical ranking systems), status was derived from membership in a clan whose pedigree was recognized by the court (through a national clan list), and culture was defined by a mastery of court texts and literary practices which could be tested through exami nation. In the Tang imperial view, political, social, and cultural worth were supposed to be measured by the state system Tang had created. In an effort to end the sometimes chaotic centuries of northern and southern dynasties, Tang inculcated in society a dependence on hierar chical authority that simply increased when the elite was no longer led by an oligarchy of great clans and that in fact pervaded the rest of Chinese history and society.
An increasing number of scholars around the world
working on middle-period history argue that elite society changed fun damentally when the shi were transformed from a national elite of official families to a national elite of educated families whose officeholding was occasional and whose family fortunes in practice depended on networks for maintaining local dominance in the places where their families had settled.
A
Northern Song literatus could have understood that the Song was
different from the Tang in its sociopolitical structure without concluding
9. Cheng Minsheng, "Lun Songdai shidafu zhengzhi dui huangquan de xianzhi." 10. Alan T. Wood, Umits to Autocrary: From Sung Neo-Confucianism to a Doctrine ofPolitical Rights (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1995). II. Chiigokushi kenkyiikai t � z A.
In short loyalty to his predecessors means restoring his predecessors' policies for the imperial clan, education, commerce, expansion of the borders, and political and social morality. But there is a problem: ''Yet why is it that morality is still difficult to make clear and social customs are not unified?" � i1ii It.�z� R}] , Jlt1.a.z� , f.ir-It?35 This first ques tion of Huizong's reign echoes the questions of the past but makes the emperor the agent of change and the attitudes of society the obstacle to change. The question from. no6, based on the Institutes of Zhou, is similar. It begins with the early Zhou as a model for governing the empire, but then switches to the Shenzong reign and focuses on the emperor as the pri mary agent in the attempt to emulate the Former Kings. -
We observe that the great success of early Zhou was due to the fact that it nurtured men with goodness and literati were selected [for office] through the local [schools] , it stopped disorder with armed force, and the soldiers came from 35. SHY xuanju 7.3Ia-b.
Emperors Can Claim Antiquiry Too
193
the farmers. With the Eight Policies [for society] and the Eight Controls [for government], it established the state and aided the king. With the Nine Occu pations [for the population], the Nine Levies [on the population], and the Nine Standards [for moderating expenditures], it increased wealth and brought prosperity to the populace. Extending upwards, it kept the sun, moon, and planets on their paths; reaching downwards, it nurtured the myriad things. But we are distant from antiquity, and mankind has long not understood all this. Our father, Shenzong, did take the Former Kings as his model. He brought renewal to men of talent, forming them with a school system; he brought his populace into mutual association, instructing them in military ways. He con trolled the offices of government, directed the officials, employed the populace, collected taxes, and moderated expenditure. He matched the achievements of Zhou. Along the way there was slander, and the reforms were almost completely stopped. We have inherited his extraordinary achievement and for several years have labored night and day to put them into effect in the empire. [Now today] what is good and bad is obvious yet the populace has not yet fully changed. National goals are set yet the literati are not obedient. The rules are clear yet policies have not been entirely successful. Why is this? . . . JOC� A %J z�, Jlx -!--J.A. .ri1 ± 1iJ £�, JlX j\ � �L .ri1 **-#l., JlX Am: ' A��*� � ..f.. ,JlX :k.� ' :k.� ' :k. i\. t j!;f� � . �T J:.J}'J -bliJlx 1f, .it#""f J}.J )t !f1J JlX lt. * *f!j{.l!, A.z� a}) 7-.. t- . ��;f'*, ilm:7t...f.. . 1ttr $.. # , .i!zyx * �, 'ht$.. � , �zYx*m:. 5{; 't Jft �If Il. ' 1:r )t � ' M.j!;fAA" .ri1 � rr z, � %J � . #. tp � �� , �;;' $ � .�. JOC �jf(�#7t..�!I" »l.�1t�, *.ri1#}z :k ""f . � ..f# tt , *.� a}) .ri1 � � E � , II k � .ri1 ± �i!lt, m:�� .ri1Jt� :k.A;t, iljf.iT�?36 '
Once again the problem is with the objects of transformation: society and the literati. Huizong himself is the one who is making all the effort, as if his person is the government. The Zhou founders were successful, but what must he do to stop opposition? In the next examination, in IIo9, the question announces a kind of answer: Ritual and Music. The Former Kings instituted rituals once order was achieved [domestically] and music once there was success [in foreign wars] in order to be in accord with the transformations of heaven and earth. The number of Ritual was five; they ap plied them through the Seven Instructions [to inculcate virtue in the populace] and manifested them through Eight Policies [for society]. [For the Rites] there were canons, there were offices. [With the Rites] they determined degrees of 36. Ibid., 7.3Ib-32a. The various policies and functions are enumerated in the Rites of
Zholl (Tian gllan � i', Dazai *- !f).
PETER K. B O L
194
kinship, settled doubtful cases, sorted out differences, and clarified right and wrong. And thus the distinctions between great and small and noble and humble were fixed. The number of Music was six, it was given pattern with the Five Tones and spread through the Eight Pitches. [For the Musics] there were orders, there were duties. [With the Musics] they harmonized the states, made the people cooperative, and gave pleasure to men from afar, and moved all things. And thus the spirits were in harmony with humanity and all creation. We continue the legacy of my ancestors. We transmit it, but We also innovate, thus to follow the Former Kings and continue the will of Our father. Tell me, Gendemen, how can I accomplish this? Ritual and Music have been long abandoned, and we are far from antiquity. If you try to change customs radically, the populace will be upset. Some say that the Three Kings did not imitate one another, or the music of today is similar to that of antiquity, why change it? Does this mean then that we can never come close to the way the sages served spirits and ordered men, the way they altered mores and changed customs? Today Music has been finished, yet people are not yet transformed; proposals have made for Ritual, but a system has not yet been promulgated. Examine antiquity in light of modem experience and state it for us in detail. 1t*;e.!. � � i1i1 ,*1
;,ft, �}])&. i1i1 11< * , J-X ��Jt.t1t.. ;ft.ttUi., �.t-c�, � .tAJlt, ;ff � ;ff ., � g,ut , � *l� ' �IJ � � ' fl}bt IlF, fRft :k J '' Jll: .t �� . *.ttb,"" X .t1i.*, ".tA.:t, ;ff * ;ffJlt, ,fu � fI ' i� � � ' -ptltA. ' fh4h, fRft#� A.4hJ-X ,fu. 1OC�*�!1. * i*?!t l! i1i1 11It '"' 'it 1: .&. Jt. ,rA fA. .'J * , Zhongguo daojiao 1994·3: 47-48, on Shenxiao temples. Many local histories record conversions of Buddhist tem ples in prefectures with multiple Daoist temples. 55· jSBM 127·5a-7a. 56. See SS 21.399. 57. Wu Shushan j\:m-!-, Shaanxijinshi Zhi ffl.. e!s � ;f; .to (SKSLXB ed.), buyi A.37a, gives the height of the part inscribed in Huizong's hand as 4 feet 5 inches, but from the rubbing in Yao Sheng kl1., "Yaoxian shike wenzi lue zhi" kl !9.f: ;f; M x *4.to , Kaogu 1965.3: 147, that would account for about only 4/is of the whole. Its width is given as 3 feet 5 inches.
Huizong's Stone Inscriptions
253
emblem, cloud-seal" script used for the poem by Lin Lingsu �*� -t at the top (Fig. 6.5). The lower part is written in a very personal style, re cording Huizong's experiences: In the last month of winter in the Dingyou year of Zhenghe
[III7] ,
on the
evening of the full moon, Heavenly Spirits again descended to Kunning hall. When compared to the time in the middle month of summer, this occasion was even more numinous and unusual. Colored light and stars lit up the beams and rafters. Amid thunder and lightning, [the spirits] came with hairpins, pen dants, streamers, and halberds, impossible to fully list. There was marvelous music, its sounds chilling. Amid auspicious clouds and unusual fragrances they could be perceived momentarily before dispersing, as they exited through the northwest. Suddenly among the tables there was a twenty-eight character poem in dragon-emblem, cloud-seal script. The vocabulary was as marvelous as spirits and immortals, beyond the ability of humans to imitate. Before the ink was dry, I looked at it closely. Chu Hui, the Senior Officer of the Western Terrace, had signed the end of it. Chu Hui is none other than the Feathered Guest, Ijn I.ing su, who is the Senior Officer of the Western Terrace of the Royal Headquarters of the Exalted Supreme Divine Empyrean ] ade Purity Right Extreme, the first among the regions of Heaven's administrations of the immortals. At this time he was far away in Penetrating Truth Temple sleeping deeply, yet he was able in the night to reach the spirit realm like this. The next day when questioned about this incident, he smiled but did not answer. Thus I knew that the great Dao definitely cannot be communicated in words
which
requires more than images and
sounds to be conveyed to people, for it lies in the conjunction of ideas. Ac cordingly I have engraved this on stone to record the facts. Written in the Hall of
Jt-fu T � *�I(t;t � 7 , :k:ff.ft,*#-Jtf.�, �l:.� 'F f;., :f � ;t ·tt �J 7t. £ -t �M j.ft�:f*, i& fi 1! �, �A.f.�+t�, �a " .1i1-1t*, � "iiJ" . *. itlr-kY*, Jt.�it!l\, � t' � :ft, #* 7} tt, � tiJ � ;lt. .1i1 -t. . $#-JL � fl." �lff. "f" t' * it, =- -t A*, Jt.� � # 1.l!�-kY, it -1f i!t1� "f �x � "I * ,.J': �iHdt, -tf. .1i1 :ft� . .5l lr � * -k � fl. � l; , t" 4f.rtJt.1t. � l; IlP 4'-� ;pJ :t;# :f -t . :f -t ;t � .L # 'Jt .li it .!. Jf.t . ;6�� * -k�,:k l' 1.l! ���-I!!.. k*�.rti! .)t. 't !§lt-Jil, 'F 1t .1i1 .it :f �JI:.. if El it Jt. �15l., � .1i1 � $. Jl'HI1:kl! -.F A. it #-fJ f! , /!l � "iiJ" �x "t 14, 4t.rt A. ;t -t- o1ii e. . I!I 'i It -b, �Me. Jt. 't -i;- . 'F � El � -fu � t" .58 Harmony Revealed on a day in the middle of the month.
.
58. Yao Sheng, ''Yaoxian shike wenzi lue zhi," 147. The inscription is also transcribed in Shaonxijinshi Zhi buyi I.37a-b, but there the date is inexplicably changed to the last month of summer rather than winter. The transcription given here in two cases uses the more common form of a variant character.
PATRICIA EB REY
254
Slightly later, Huizong wrote a more general inscription explain ing the benefits he saw to promotion of Divine Empyrean Daoism (Fig. 6.6). It had a title by Cai Shu 1'f , Cai Jing's son, and was erected in the capital in IlI8 and in the prefectures in I1I9. At least three copies have survived. From published versions of those erected in Guangdong, Fu jian, and Shandong, it seems quite plausible that they were all based on rubbings of the same original stele. All three even have similar decorative borders of cloud patterns resembling ancient bronze designs.59 This stele also deserves to be translated in full: Imperially composed and written out: By embodying the Dao, one can come close to the spirits; by employing it, one can assist Heaven and Earth, by extending it, one can bring order to the realm and the country, can make it so all the people of the world attain the truth of peace, quiet, and constancy and rise to the realms of goodness and longevity. In my view, this Dao is something people deftnitely have, but they have strayed from it for so long that they must be taught about it before it will flourish. Thus I wish to reform the habits of this late age and return to the pure customs of great annqUlty. •
•
From consulting the doctrines of the Daoists and contemplating the marvels of the inftnitesimal I can state the following: The Great Sovereign of Long Life and the Great Sovereign of Qinghua embody the marvels of the Dao, stand above the myriad things, control the Divine Empyrean, and supervise the myriad countries. Unsurpassed blessings, even I will receive, but the lifespans of the people below are the real responsibility of the bright spirits. Thus, I issued an edict to the realm to establish Divine Empyrean] ade Clarity Longevity Temples in order to make reverent offerings, beginning in the capital, in order to show our great reverence and instruct and transform. After several years like this, there will be massive, pervasive response. Recently on the three
59. Compare the illustrations in Beijing tushuguan cang shike taben huibian 42: 101 of the one from Guangdong, Zheng Zhenman ���i� and Ding Hesheng T # 1.. [Kenneth Dean], Po/ian zongjiao beiming huibian #I� $ �4� -t � (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chuban she, 1995), unnumbered plate near the front, for the one from Fujian, and Zhongguo gudai beitie taben 'f II * R 4 ojQ; :ki ;f.. (Beijing: Beijing University Library and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001), 128-29, for the one from Shandong. On the size of the Fujian one, see also Chen Qiren f� * 1=-, Minzhongjinshi /ue r"" 'f 11.ki� (SKSLXB ed.), 8.7b. Full-size reproductions, in page format, have been published in Shoseki meihin siikan .,. J!# ..t £ t: flJ (Tokyo: Nigensha, 1970), vol. 156; and Songchao huangdi mobao *- � Jl *" .� W, ed. Huang Jinxin -:t111t (Lidai diwang mobao, Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue, 1998), 95-121.
Huizong's Stone Inscriptions
255
origin days and the eight festival days, we have performed the Chong
�f
rites,
beginning the pure service. On wind horses and cloud carriages, the spirits come to look after us and enjoy the offerings. Thunder
will
will be heard and
lightning will light up the heavens. Of the group of immortals who come flying though space, some will toss down jeweled swords, some registers, dazzling observers, who
will sprinkle jade
will gain insight into the origins of the
transformations. High civil and military officials will all see and hear it, and sighing that there had never before been such events, they will see that it is all recorded. Alas! The reason I have been promoting Daoism and the gods have been caring for the mandate and giving assistance is that the Way had been cut off for several thousand years since the ancient sage-kings. That it can be seen again today is rightly called splendid. Heaven is about to make this culture of ours flourish and confer it on me, so shouldn't the good fortune of my people be rectified today? Announce to everyone in the realm the message that my intentions should not be disregarded. I order that this edict be carved on a stele at the Divine Empyrean Jade Clarity Longevity Temple in the capital and that copies of the stele be distributed throughout the realm, following the precedent of the Dazhong xiangfu [reign period of Zhenzong,
1008-16]. Copies of the stone
$p� $pt' : l!::1t, �Z la 1MI-J )! t" , Yiyuan duoying I I (1981): 40-47, at 46. 83. Chuang Shang-yen, "The Slender-Gold Calligraphy of Emperor Sung Hui Tsung," National Palace Museum Bulletin 2 (1967): 1-9. 84. I am indebted to Qianshen Bai for demonstrating this to me. 85. Yang Renkai, "Song Huizong Zhao Ji shufa yishu suofan," 4-10.
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(Fig. 6.16).86 Shui Laiyou also sees some influence from Huang Tingjian, pointing to Huang's Bo Yi Shu Qi miao bei 1a � .r.lt � /.fjJ4, a work in standard script much more regular than Huang Tingjian's more famous running script (see Fig. 6.17). Shui also suggests that Huizong carried over into his calligraphy certain of the brush strokes that he learned for fIne-line painting.87 Even if we can detect in Huizong's calligraphy traces of the models he copied in his youth, however, he was clearly not trying to announce allegiance to any earlier calligrapher through his writing style. Tseng Yuho sees the signifIcance of his style in its origi nality, concluding, "His writing shows him an innovative individualist and intellectually independent, a man who understood personal expres sion and originality." 88 Peter Sturman makes this point even more forcefully, stating that its "purpose is to appear unprecedented and unique."89 Certainly innovation was not frowned on in the art circles of Huizong's youth.90
86. A rubbing of this stele is found in Beijing tushuguan cang shike taben huibian, 40: 67· 87. Shui, Zhao Ji de shufayishu, 40. 88. Tseng Yuho, A History ofChinese Calligraphy (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1993), 182. 89. Peter C. Sturman, Mi Fu: StyJe and the Arl ofCalligraphy in NOrlhern Song China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 189-90. Although I agree that Huizong was not aiming to suggest historical precedent, I am less comfortable with the second part of Sturman's interpretation of Huizong's Slender Gold style, which connects it to "orna mental," "unusual, barely legible scripts" with names like "Immortal" (xianren), "Phoe nix" (Juan), "Unicorn" (qiJin), and so on, that "were auspicious in nature and semimagical in function." Not only is the Slender Gold style exceptionally legible, but Sturman does not point to any visual connections between these scripts and Huizong's Slender Gold style. The only examples he cites, those in Tseng's chapter on magical scripts, are ex tremely varied, none of them having much obvious connection to Huizong's style. There are at least as many very plump characters as very thin ones, and the line-thin ones are entirely curvilinear, without the sharp corners and hooks of Huizong's writing. He offers no evidence that pronounced hooks and stops were viewed as more auspicious than understated ones. 90. Calligraphers like Huang Tingjian and Mi Fu *- '1tf (I052-II07) were praised for creating their own distinctive styles. Su Shi credited Yan Zhenqing with creating a style "entirely his own" and all at once transforming all earlier models. With regard to his own calligraphy, Su took pride in expressing "new meaning" and not following "in the foot steps" of earlier men. Ronald C. Egan, "Ou-yang Hsiu and Su Shih on Calligraphy," HarvardJournaJ ofAsiatic Studies 49.2 (1989): 365-419, at 413.
Huizong's Stone Inscriptions It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that Huizong was aiming to demonstrate his originality in creating a distinctive script. But why make it distinctive in the ways that he chose? When I look at Huizong's Slender Gold style calligraphy, I see on the one hand concern with order, precision, discipline, and control, and on the other concern with ele gance, style, refmement, and flair. That these would have been the atttibutes Huizong was trying to convey is entirely plausible, if we remember that Huizong had developed the Slender Gold style in his youth. His calligraphic style may have been fully formed before he took the throne, but we have no securely dated works before was
1104,
when he
22. As a prince, Huizong made efforts to present himself as a man of
cultivated tastes, as several anecdotes describe his few years as a prince outside the palace as a time when he associated with art collectors and studied painting and calligraphy. 91 During his first few years on the throne Huizong had to demonstrate both that he was his own man, not a creature of his councilors, and also that he was not too absorbed in aesthetic concerns to manage the bureaucracy, in other words, that he was capable of method, precision, and discipline.92 By perfecting a dis tinctive but highly disciplined style, Huizong was presenting himself as a person of creativity and flair who was also methodical and in contro1.93 He may also have consciously or unconsciously wanted to announce his distance from leading men of the political opposition, most notably Su Shi, whose enormous influence had irritated Huizong from the begin ning of his reign.94 Whatever Huizong's reasons for developing such a distinctive calli graphic style, by
1104
he was confident enough in the impression he
made when writing in this style that he was willing to have steles dis playing his style erected throughout the country. A relatively young emperor's calligraphy had thus been made as public as possible. The
91. E.g., HuiZhu lu houlu 7.176; Tiewei shan congtan 1.5-6, 4.78. 92. On doubts raised about Huizong at the time of his accession, see Ren Chong yue ***, SongHuiifJng, SongQinzong *-f#t*, *M.:. * (Changchun: Jilin wenshi, 1998), 6-9· 93. Wang Pingchuan .l.. .if )11 and Zhao Menglin ,;t!f-�, Song Huizong shufa quanji *-f#t * ;t iJ;; � t. (Beijing: Chaohua chubanshe, 2002), 3, stress that the degree of con trol required by this script type made it difficult for others to copy successfully. 94. Zeng Bu 'it AP, Zeng Buyilu 'it AP4*, in Ouxiang lingshi _:f-*�, ed. Miao Quansun ��� (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1998), 9.20b.
266
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identification between Huizong and his calligraphy in the public con sciousness thus became much stronger than that of any earlier Song emperor, and people took note when the coins issued during Huizong's reign also appeared to reproduce his handwriting (Fig. 6.18).
Schools and Temples as Sitesfor Huizong's Steles How viewers of the time responded to Huizong's steles would have been shaped not only by what the steles said and the style of their calligraphy, but also by where they were placed. In Huizong's own time, those who stood in front of one of his steles generally did so within the compound of a government school, office complex, or state-supported temple. No one would have to confront Huizong's Daoist and Confucian steles at the same time, as they were never placed together. Both temples and schools were established sites for steles, and viewers would often have looked at his steles in the same compound where other steles stood as well. Huizong's steles may have been treated in a distinctive way, but they are unlikely to have been the only steles in the vicinity. Consider the case of local government schools. In II09 it was reported that there were over 167,000 students in prefectural and county schools, so the audiences for steles placed at them was huge. County schools were mostly new with Huizong, and so would not have had earlier steles, but prefectural schools had been around since early in the dynasty, and most would have had other steles, including one with Zhenzong's praise of Confucius, which he had ordered the schools to erect in 1013. 95 These had his words, but not always his calligraphy. These steles were popular enough that long after the end of Zhenzong's reign, schools continued to erect them. A few, in the hands of several different calligraphers, still survive.96 Not all steles at schools were initiated by the central government. As an example of the sorts of steles that would have been in a prefectural 95. The original of this stele had been erected at Qufu in 1008, during Zhenzong's trip east to give thanks for the Heavenly Letter. Although there is no evidence that every prefecture did in fact set up this stele, some Southern Song local histories listed it, and even more would have had it in Huizong's day. See Baqiongshijinshi buzheng 88.la-2b; Quan Song wefl �*� (Chengdu: Bashu, 1988- ), 263-142; Yuhai 3I.25a-26b. On the Heavenly Letter, see Cahill, "Taoism at the Sung Court." 96. See Beijing tushuguan cang shike taben huibian 38: 18, 38: 23, 40: 1I3, 41: 1I9.
Huizong's Stone Inscriptions
school compound in Huizong's time, consider the case of Wuxing � � Qiangsu). The local history ofWuxing, completed in 1201, made an effort to record all local steles.97 By Huizong's reign, besides Zhenzong's stele in praise of Confucius, the prefectural school already had two other steles associated with earlier emperors. One recorded an edict by the Tang emperor Xuanzong enfeoffing Confucius, copied out by a descendant of Wang Xizhi. This stele was erected in 769 on local initiative, not imperial command. In addition, in 1040 a poem that Renzong had written for a prefect had been carved on stone and erected at the school, probably by the prefect or his friends.98 The steles without imperial connections in cluded the record of the establishment of the shrine for Confucius from the early Tang, written by a local official.99 In the 1040s, a stele was erected with a record of the school written by the prominent literatus Zhang Fangping 5*--)j if (1007-91) and written out by his contemporary, better known for his calligraphy, Cai Xiang ?J .. (1017-67). 100 The school also had two titles in the hand of the calligrapher Shi Yannian ;G � -f (994-1041), one a name plaque for a particular hall, the "Pavilion of the Classics and Histories" �£ 3t M , the other for the entire complex, the "Prefectural School Established by Decree" th � 1"" *' .101 Finally, early in Huizong's reign, in II07, a stone was re-inscribed with a record of the land owned by the school.102 In Wuxing, although the Biyong stele was, as ordered, placed at the prefectural school, the stele on the Eight Conducts promotion system was instead placed at the prefectural offices.103 This site was also rich in 97. Wuxing zhi,juan 18. Many of the surviving Song and Yuan local histories make no effort to record steles, and some of those that do record them do not seem to have done so systematically. Some record only local authors, for instance. 98. Ibid., 18.1a-2a. 99. Ibid., 18·3a. 100. Ibid., 18.5a. This text is preserved in Zhang Fangping's collected works. See Zhang Fangping �7J-t, Lequanji * � ;f; (SKQS ed.), 3Hb-6b. 101. Wuxing Zhi 18.6b. 102. Ibid. 103. Ibid., 18.2b. How exceptional this was is unclear. In 1261, when the Jiankang local history was compiled, the prefectural school had one of Huizong's steles (the Il18 one), but there was a copy of the Eight Conducts stele in a counry schooL Zhou Yinghe %J �1;-, Jiankang Zhi (fingdiniJ ��,to (-!";t) (1261) (SYDFZCS ed.), 4.7a-8a. The 1345 Zhang Xuan �ii,JinJingxinzhi (Zhizheng) 1tftwr ,to (�.iE.) (SYDFZCS ed.), 12.89b, says all the prefectural and county schools had the Eight Conducts stele.
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268
steles. In 1043 Renzong had ordered prefectures to erect a stele recording
his father Zhenzong's admonitions to civil officials, and two years later had similarly ordered them to erect its mate, a stele with Zhenzong's
admonitions to military officials. Both of these were at the Wuxing prefectural offices.104 In addition, just north of the prefectural residence was the Pavilion of the Marvels of Ink prefect Sun Jue
.I -!&.f,
built in
1072
by the
� f: (1028---90) to house inscribed stones that were lying
abandoned in the region. Su Shi visited later that year and agreed to write a commemorative record, which was in turn duly inscribed on stone. lOS
Inside this pavilion were some
20 inscribed stones, ranging from centu
ries-old funerary and temple steles, including two in the calligraphy of
Ali � � (709-85), and one with a text by Bo Juyi a Jl; 1J (772-846), to six lyrics by Su Shi from 1091.106
Yan Zhenqing
How would the presence of these earlier steles have influenced the way people who entered these compounds approached Huizong's ste les? First, viewers would have been reminded that stone inscriptions formed a distinct genre with its own expectations and conventions. Most stone inscriptions were in some sense commemorative; they took a positive tone, praising a project completed, extolling the virtues of a god or a deceased person, exhorting people to positive moral action, or re cording an agreement. There were also conventions about their physical appearance, including the use of turtles for their bases, decorative tops, and the careful placement of the text over the tall rectangular surface of the stele.107 By seeing Huizong's steles among other steles, viewers would notice their similarities and differences as physical objects. From surviving rubbings, it is evident that Huizong's steles were better than average as examples of carving art.
All
had decorative borders, with designs of
104. Wuxing Zhi 18.2a. The text of the fIrst admonition is recorded in Qian Yueyou itf1t�, Un'an Zhi (Xianchun) � � .t, (�i-,") (SYDFZCS ed.), 42.2a. 105. Wuxing Zhi 13.6a-b; Su Shi ,ij. $\, Su Shi wenji ,ij. $\5C. " (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1986), 11·354-55· 106, Wuxing Zhi 18.2b-5b. 107. On stele conventions, see also Robert E, Harrist, Jr., "Reading Chinese Callig raphy," in Robert E. Harrist, Jr. and Wen C. Fong, eds., The Embodied Image: Chinese Cal ligrapf?yfrom theJohn B. Elliott Collection (princeton: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1999), 9-11.
Huizong's Stone Inscriptions flowers, clouds, dragons, and the like, generally very fmely done. Just as readily apparent, they were large. The three steles Huizong had erected at schools averaged ten to twelve feet tall, dwarfing the more typical six- to seven-foot steles. I 08 At Wuxing and presumably many other places, government schools and offices had three kinds of steles: ones with imperial associations, ones linked to nationally famous literati like Su Shi and Cai Xiang, and ones of more limited local significance. But no two prefectural schools would have had the same set of steles. Huizong thus could control to some extent what one of his steles looked like, but he could not control how it would appear to someone entering the compound where it was located, who would not necessarily view it as the most valuable, elegant, or historically resonant stele there. Controlling the culture of steles in every prefecture was beyond the capacity of the central government. Buddhist and Daoist temples were also established sites for the erection of steles. Like government schools, each temple had its own distinct history, and therefore no two temples would have identical sets of steles. This was particularly true of the temples Huizong had des ignated as Divine Empyrean temples. A few, undoubtedly, were newly built, but most were converted from other temples, usually Buddhist ones. In Piling, it was a temple believed to date back before the Tang that was converted.109 In Fuzhou, Fujian, it was the Kaiyuan Buddhist temple, established by the government in Tang times.l I O In Jinling, by contrast, it was a relatively newly-built Buddhist temple, dating back only to 1082. I I I Old steles were most likely retained, even if they were moved to less prominent places. The three steles that survive in
lOS. Huizong's steles were substantially larger than most steles erected by local ini tiative, but not out of line with steles erected in the name of the emperor elsewhere. Some Qing epigraphers were meticulous in recording the sizes of stone inscriptions, and from their records, it is clear that Huizong's steles would not have seemed unreasonably large for imperial steles. The majority of the steles erected at the command of Song emperors were ten or more feet high. A typical imperial stele would be the one commissioned to mark Zhenzong's performance of the feng and shan sacrifices, eleven feet four inches tall (Jinshi cuibian 127.36b). The largest I found recorded is the stele erected at the temple by the Song imperial tombs in 1034, which was eighteen feet tall (ibid., 132.Sb). 109. Piling Zhi 2p3a. lIO. Liang Kejia * !. � , Sanshan Zhi ..=. J.r ,t, (SYDFZCS ed.), 7975, 7979. III. Jinling xinzhi II.S6b.
PATRICIA EB REY
270
prefectural Divine Empyrean temples are not as large as the three in government schools, perhaps to be more in keeping with the typical size of steles at temples, letting the emperor take a more modest posture. In the refurbished temples, Huizong's steles would have been given pride of place. The account in the local history of Guiji, written in
1201,
makes this clear. It begins its description of the temple by noting that "The imperially composed temple stele was placed above the Dharma Hall, where a red lacquered storied pavilion was built to reverently pro
.. �
� J:.,
jl �.
� The rest of the -it *- ii- � M tect it" ,flip 1l -g- 4 complex was extensive, and its grounds were maintained by imperial soldiers. The main hall had statues of the two main deities, the Sovereign of Long Life and the Sovereign of Qinghua, each with two attendant Perfected Ones, paintings of immortals on its walls, and a full set of 24 items of processional paraphernalia. There was a pavilion for dispensing talisman water, a lecture hall, a scripture hall, a treasury, and so on. On five specified festivals each year, ceremonies were held at the temple, with up to
1,200
people participating. On these occasions, imperial in
cense would be sent along with prayers on green or red paper.112 It would have been the people attending these ceremonies who were most likely to see the steles in Huizong's hand and either read them or listen to someone else relate their contents. Did local communities welcome the opportunity to erect steles with Huizong's words and calligraphy? Certainly there is no sign that local communities resented instructions to erect them or that they got rid of them after his abdication. Local histories most commonly treat them as sources of local pride, but since these were written decades if not cen turies after his death, one could imagine that as they became historical relics, people looked at them differently. Therefore, better evidence that people of the time welcomed them is that they not only took the trouble to erect the steles that Huizong called for, but often did other ones as well, solely on their own initiative. Local histories record quite a few of these. For instance, a circuit official in
1114
erected a stele with two
1109, and on the own commentary on them.ll3 In 1117 a prefect had a
edicts, one by Shenzong and one by Huizong from reverse offered his
stone carving made from an imperial brush instruction that he had
II2. Shi Su �-$, Guiji Zhi (Jiatai) ... � ,t, (.,t�) (SYDFZCS ed.), 7.qb-I8b. II3. Shanif/ojinshi zhi 18.6a-9a.
Huizong's Stone Inscriptions
received.114 In another prefecture someone erected a stele with poems that Huizong wrote to the Daoist official Xu Zhichang, a local resi dent. ll 5 Two of these sorts of steles that survive in rubbings are in Huizong's Slender Gold calligraphy. One has the title "Imperial Brush Hand Edict" surrounded by incised dragons above a brief edict confer ring privileges on a Daoist master returning home (Figs. 6.19-20). It ends with both a seal and a cipher.116 Edicts did not have to be hand-drafted to merit carving on stone. Particularly common were steles made to display an imperial edict granting a title to a local god. These usually have the character chi th, "decreed," large in size, as it was in actual paper edicts. Some of these edict steles are in regular script, others in running script. ll7 Leafing through the rubbings of steles from Huizong's reign pub lished by the Beijing Library provides a different sort of evidence that people at the local level were eager to have stone-carved evidence of the involvement of the emperor in local affairs. Quite a few inscriptions for temples or schools begin with a reference to the emperor. For instance, an 1102 stele for a county school in Anhui begins "The Son of Heaven, thinking of how to expand Emperor Shenzong's Three Halls system for cultivating scholars . . . . " 118
U4. Zhang Jin ,*- it, Siming tujing (Qiandao) � B)j Iil �� (ft:l!) (I169) (SYDFZCS ed.), 2·5b. u5. Piling Zhi 29.lb. u6. For the other one, see Shui, Zhao Ji de shufayishu, 2S; and Wang and Zhao, Song Huizong shufa quauji, 155-56. 117. Regular script ones include an I100 stele from Shandong, an I104 one from Si chuan, and an I125 one from Henan. Beijing tushuguan cang shike taben huibian 41: 22, 41: 104, 42: 15S. Running script ones include an IIo3 one from Guangxi, an IllS one from Shandong, and an 1II9 one from Henan. Beijing tushuguan cang shike taben huibian 41: 94, 42: 95; Taishan shike daquan 331. lIS. Beijing tushuguan cang shike taben huibian 41: 79. For other examples, an I103 stele for a prefectural school in Henan begins: "The Son of Heaven is gready cultivating the po litical policies of the Xining and Yuanfeng periods" (41: 96); an I103 stele in Hebei, in general praise of Huizong's school policies, starts: "The year after the emperor took the throne . . ." (41: 97); the IIo9 stele for a Daoist temple in Hunan begins by saying that in 1107 the Son of Heaven sacrificed to Shenzong in the Hall of Light and extended benefits to everywhere within the four seas (41: 172); an 1112 stele for a popular temple in Shaanxi begins: "The emperor has reigned for thirteen years" and goes on to discuss his ac complishments in reviving ritual (42: 13).
PAT RICIA EB REY Taking these sorts of steles together, it is evident that at the local level people sought visual and material connection to the emperor. In this light, Huizong's penchant for sending prefectures and counties rubbings of his steles was politically astute. He was exploiting local desire for recognition from the center toward his end of winning people over to the New Policies or to Daoism. His very distinctive calligraphy aided his efforts because it personalized the object, tying it not just to the dynasty or imperial institution, but to Huizong the person.
A major theme of this chapter has been that reproducing an emperor's words on stone is not a minor variation on reproducing them on paper, but a fundamentally different act. That Huizong adopted this practice on a large scale tells us important things about him as a political actor and also about the political and cultural environment in which he operated. What do we learn about Huizong as a political actor? One reasonable inference is that Huizong was confident that both his writing and his calligraphy would be admired. Like other emperors, he frequently commissioned other writers to compose commemorative texts to be inscribed on stone. However, when officials suggested that compositions that he had already written be inscribed in stone in his own calligraphy, he did not resist. He certainly was aware of the long-established view that both character and personality are revealed in writing, in both the choice of words in an essay or poem and in the way one fonned characters with the brush. He would have known that if his subjects thought his writing mediocre, they might also begin to doubt his character. That from early in his reign he had no qualms about letting his writing be seen suggests either that he began the reign with considerable confidence in these matters, or that he acquired it soon thereafter as his leading officials volubly praised his efforts. In many ways the stone inscriptions with Daoist messages are more revealing of Huizong as a political actor than the ones on Confucian subjects because they seem to be rooted in deeply held beliefs, beliefs he wished to convey even at the risk of offending the Confucians trained in his schools. One could have hypothesized that Huizong was just going along with his grand councilors in erecting Confucian steles, but such an interpretation does not seem plausible for his Daoist steles. That
Huizong's Stone Inscriptions
273
Huizong had these steles erected is strong evidence that he was making crucial decisions himself. Did these steles accomplish their purposes? Did the Confucian steles convince their audience that Huizong was committed to a Confucian agenda? Or the Daoist steles that Daoist divinities were favoring the Song rulers? To pose the question this way is to privilege the literal messages carried by the words over the more general messages of the calligraphic style and the act of giving to his subjects something tied closely to his person. The messages about Huizong carried by his cal ligraphy could have been received even by readers of the steles resistant to the explicit policy messages. The steles are better seen as parts of public relations campaigns that worked on several levels at once. These campaigns also had more concrete components, such as the construction of hundreds of new schools and the increase in stipends to students enrolled at the schools. It is true that, like advertising copywriters today, Huizong may sometimes have misjudged what would go over well with his audience perhaps they were not as swayed by references to his fa ther as he expected them to be. But Huizong did think it was worth having hundreds of steles carved in order to try to reach local educated men. If all he achieved was to show them that he valued them, this might have made the effort worthwhile. Perhaps the best evidence that erecting steles had political value is that later emperors adopted the practice. Although Huizong's school system was curtailed and Divine Empyrean temples were abandoned by his son Gaozong (r. II27-62), Gaozong readily followed his lead in seeing to it that steles with his calligraphy were erected around the country.119 Gao zong and his successor, Xiaozong, both had edicts inscribed on stone. In addition, each also had works that could simply be viewed as calligra phy carved. In Gaozong's case, his transcription of the Classic rf Filial Piety was widely found at government schools. In addition, most
II9. On Gaozong as a calligrapher, see Julia K Murray, Ma Hezhi and the Illustration of the "Book of Odes (princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), II-15, 21-31; and Murray, "The Role of Art in Southern Sung Dynastic Revival," Bulletin ofSung and Yuan Studies 18 (1986): 41-59. On the calligraphy of the Southern Song emperors more generally, see Hui-liang Chu, "Imperial Calligraphy of the Southern Sung," in Alfreda Murck and Wen C. Fong, eds., Words and Images: Chinese Poetry, Calligrap0t, and Painting (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991), 289-312. "
274
PATRICIA BB RBY
local schools erected a "Pavilion for the Imperial Calligraphy" to treat the calligraphy they received from Gaozong with proper reverence, includ ing rubbings of his transcriptions of the six classics, inscribed on stone at the National Academy in the capital. 120 Even if Huizong's steles had a historical impact in their day and on the practices of later Song emperors, it is worth noting that as monuments these stones proved to be far from permanent. Their attrition was probably not any greater than that of other steles erected in Song times, but it is still notable that of the hundreds that were erected in Huizong's day, only a few dozen survived to be recorded by Qing epigraphers, and even fewer are extant today. In 1890, the editors of a book on the in scribed stones of Wuxing went through the inscribed stones recorded in the 1201 local history of Wuxing; they had to mark n6 "stone missing," and could mark only two as "stone present." 121
120. For an example, see Piling zht; 29.1a-2b. 121. Lu Xinyuan f!'� ifY" Wuxingjinshizhi �1'f� ;& .-t (SKSLXB ed.), 6.4bff.
C HA P T E R 7
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health Asaf Goldschmidt
Besides his well-known interests in the fine arts, Huizong took a per sonal interest in medicine and did more to advance the field of medicine than had any earlier emperor. He initiated new policies designed to enhance public health and the status of physicians, such as providing medicine to the poor and expanding medical education. In addition, he produced treatises on medicine and the cosmological doctrines under lying it. At the end of the preface that he wrote to his huge medical formulary Medical Enryclopedia: A SagelY Benefaction of the Zhenghe Reign Period (Zhenghe sheng ji zong lu .i&. :fP � m � � , in short, Medical Enryclopedia), Huizong stated how he thought medicine should be learned and practiced:
Besides the abbreviations listed on p. xiv, the following abbreviations are used in the notes for this chapter: SDZLJ Song da zhaolingji *- :k -m�� (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962). SYQYJK Songyiqianytjikao *- �X lit lUi;;t, 4 vols. (faibei: Guting, 1969). ZGYJTK Zhongguo yiji tongkao tf i1 lUi i!;;t, 5 vols. (Shanghai: Shanghai zhongyiyao daxue, 1993). I thank Nathan Sivin, Patricia Ebrey, and Maggie Bickford for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this chapter. All errors or omissions are my responsi bility alone.
ASAF G O L D S C H M I D T When Zhang Zhongjing of the Han dynasty wrote the
Disorders,
Treatise on Cold Damage
he intermixed formulas in it. When Sun Simiao of the Tang dynasty
compiled the Prescriptions Worth a Thousand, he followed it with a supplement [that is, the
-t � .x. �].
One might say that otherwise [that is, without the formulas
included in these books] their successors would have been unable to make use of their skills and knowledge. While these two explored the art of prescription, they also had exceptional insights outside this
art.
But only when they looked down at
the followers of Qi Bo and debated them can we speak of their knowing the Dao [of medicine] . I have written the
General Register to meet an urgent need of this world and to
be used in curing the people's diseases.! But it is no more than a "fish trap and rabbit snare" designed to catch the Way of medicine.2 Let future generations throughout the realm focus on forgetting the trap and the snare and obtaining [mastery of medicine] themselves. As quickly and easily as nodding the head or changing the expression on one's face, let them master the constant [relations] of the Five Phases and manipulate the changes of the Six Qi.3 Thus they can physiognomize heaven and earth and nourish the myriad things. And if they can succeed to the extent of returning souls and reviving all those who should live,
i�� 1+-l'1t ( 11 �� ) , ,1Q#i::.. /lX �. Jt�.��1t ( -t � � ) , rfJ Mz/lX .x.. /IX � � -iP � Jl'1i!!: � � .If] Jt $T. t!\ i::..'::"A.. * , � T � $Ti::.. 1*J * -I/!... -1t�.� � JL T � $Ti::.. 7�. r_ Jo:t 1ai::.. i!.i. ,1Q �i::.. ll , "*'iif � �I1i!. J1Ht ( fit� ) :#/lX .�,i!!: .If] , rfJ a � * . # J!lfi!i::.. � 3f.z-.Jf. :k rfti!!: ltJt.�:#.t, �3f,1Q m �l*. 1Rl1(Pi::.. fkt � �i::.. surely that is no small matter. In the future it will come!
I. "General Register" is a direct translation of the Chinese term. It refers to the grand formulary Huizong commissioned and closely supervised, the Medical Encyclopedia. In the text, Huizong uses the character 11:, which I have translated as "written," since similar language is used to refer to the books by Zhang Zhongjing and Sun Simiao. We do not know if Huizong himself participated in the compilation, we only know for certain that he commissioned it and supervised its compilation. 2. Here Huizong alludes to Zhuangi} section 26, where the "fish trap and rabbit snare" are referred to as the mere means to attain a goal, with no independent value. 3. I leave qi ft. without translation since there is no satisfactory translation for the term in English. We might define qi or at least sum up its use in Chinese writing about nature by about 350 BeE-as simultaneously "what makes things happen in stuff," "stuff that makes things happen," or "stuff in which things happen." Given these somewhat vague definitions, the reader is advised to consult Nathan Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, Science, Medicine, & Technology in East Asia 2 (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1987), 46--53, for a more complete discussion of the topic.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
277
Jt , fir .EAt�it, II � ft.�1t.. I'A �Q 3d1/!., I'A f;f It 411 . .f.*D.. *;;tr1ii � 'f !t ::t, � �Il1*� . .l.M-�*- ::t � !4 In this preface, Huizong compares himself to two of the most famous doctors in Chinese history, Zhang Zhongjing (150-219 CE) of the Han dynasty and Sun Simiao (581-682) of the Tang. Like them, he wrote a book of medicinal formulas that was intended to serve as the basis for treating disorders in clinical practice or, in Huizong's words, as the "means for attaining the Way of medicine." This comparison is all the more striking because prior to Huizong's reign, medicine was not con sidered to be a worthy art for the elite, let alone for the emperor.s To Huizong, the art of medicine goes beyond prescribing drugs. In order to attain the Dao of medicine, physicians have to understand the doctrines of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon (Huangdi neijing -}f * I*J �), with its dialogues between the Yel10w Emperor and Qi Bo. They must assimilate both cosmological and medical doctrines until they become second na ture. Only when they can apply these doctrines with the ease of "nodding the head" are they true physicians. To improve physicians' medical knowledge, Huizong introduced enhancements to the existing medical education and examination system and prepared new texts, but he also complemented these lofty enterprises by establishing down-to-earth public health institutions that aided the common people. In this chapter I demonstrate that Huizong's initiatives had a signifi cant impact on many facets of medicine. In the first section, I show how Huizong's government attempted to alter the status of medicine by es tablishing a new medical school and adding official medical positions, thereby luring the sons of the elite to study and practice medicine. In the second section, I discuss Huizong's impact on public health. To promote the health of the people and to prevent the outbreak of epidemics, he created charity poorhouses, public hospitals to serve the common
4. Zhenghe shengji zong lu Jt;fu ����, preface. The preface also appears in SYQYjK, 797-98; ZGYJTK, 5272-73- I am grateful to Nathan Sivin for his help in translating this passage. 5. Hymes claims that during the Song, medicine was a very unlikely choice for the sons of elite families or imperial officials, and it was not until the Yuan dynasty (12761368) that medicine became an accepted and more common occupation among men of elite pedigree. See Robert Hymes, "Not Quite Gendemen? Doctors in Sung and Yuan,"
Chinese Science 8 (1987): 9-76.
ASAF G O LD S C H M I D T people, paupers' cemeteries for those who could not afford burial costs, and public pharmacies to provide regulated medications at stable prices. Taken together, these four institutions constituted an attempt to improve public health and to lessen the impact of epidemics by supplying food and shelter to the poor, treating those who were most susceptible to diseases, burying those who posed the greatest danger of spreading contagion, and increasing the availability of drugs. Huizong's impact on medicine as described in the first two sections involved mostly administrative changes in the government offices and institutions related to medicine. The specific features of these programs may well have been designed by education officials or senior central government officials, such as eai Jing, rather than by Huizong himself, though he approved them. Moreover, because of limitations in the available sources, these sections focus more on the intentions implicit in Huizong's medical policy than on the results. Huizong's deep personal interest in medicine is, however, amply documented in the third section of this chapter, which concentrates on Huizong's writings on medicine. There I discuss the reasons that led Huizong to write a medical treatise and to oversee the compilation of an enormous formulary.
Medical Schools and the Status rfPhysicians One of Huizong's greatest contributions to medicine was to expand medical education. Before his time there were two main means of transmitting medical knowledge. The first was direct transmission from a master to a disciple. Generally the disciple lived with his master and as sisted him for many years, until the master decided it was time to hand down his written knowledge to the disciple and to allow him not only to memorize but also to copy down his medical texts.6 The elite regarded this apprentice-like form of learning as unacceptable for a gentle man. Han Yu #:t (768-824) wrote, "Healers, musicians, and the other
6. For extensive discussion of this form of transmission of medical knowledge in China, see Nathan Sivin, "Text and Experience in Classical Chinese Medicine," in Don Bates, ed., Epistemology and the Scholar!J Medical Traditions (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer sity Press, 1995), 177-204; Wu Yiyi, "A Medical Line of Many Masters: A Prosopog raphical Study of Liu Wansu & His Disciples from the Jin to the Early Ming," Chinese Science II (1994): 36-65.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
279
people of the hundred occupations do not disdain being one another's masters [and disciples). Regarding gentlemen, if one even as much as mentions the words 'master' or 'disciple,' then everybody will ridicule him."? The second form of transmission of medical knowledge was via a state medical service that trained qualified candidates. This fornl of transmission originated during the Tang dynasty and was systematized during the early Song. It was not a preferred path for the sons of the elite either, since it did not provide them with prestige or rank associated with or comparable to the civil service.8 What Huizong added to these established routes was a medical school designed to attract the sons of the elite. This school was modeled on the National University :k. * and, like it, was under the authority of the Directorate of Education 11 -=J-Ii. Although Huizong established this medical school as part of a larger education program, it also seems to reflect Huizong's particular concerns with medicine. Huizong was troubled by the inadequate proficiency of practicing physicians, who were competent in neither the doctrines of the ancient medical classics nor in their application in clinical practice. In his view, the low status of medicine deterred the sons of the elite from pursuing medical careers, leaving the field to less competent candidates. In his preface to the
Medical Enryclopedia: A SagelY Benefaction if the Zhenghe Reign Period Ji�I1 ?t. ���, Huizong wrote: I [the emperor] feel pain and pity over the stasis of the great way and how it accumulated [faulty] common customs. I acutely feel for the prolonged illnesses of my people, and I am pained by the undisciplined practices of incompetent doctors whose study is not extensive and whose knowledge is unenlightened. They ignore the regularities of the Five Phases and the transformations of the Six Qi, and they do not search for their hidden meaning [and application in medicine]. No one attempts to estimate their further implications [regarding medicine] . By ignoring small details such as the temperature and its changes, they may cause great harm to the patient. In cases of excess [of qtJ condition, they supplement [the patient's qtJ; in cases of insufficient qi, they further drain [the level of qtJ. They recklessly apply therapies, prescribing herbs and minerals without order or pattern. Half of their
7. Han Yu .. ;t, Han Changli xianshengji " £ �jcA... " (SBBy), 12.139.
8. For further discussion. see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. VI: 6, Medicine, ed. Nathan Sivin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), !O1-5.
280
ASAF G O LD S C H M I DT
JIJUOO :k. lt z.;f, iJ.i.. 1G-z� 7C . M �Z)Jl. � , Jt-lz*1t, *.1Ffktf. �.1F·t!-JW., .EAt zit, �1t.z1t., � i: Jt. F! . �.Jt.it. El � El �, ��zla4f, .!Z{:�, � Z -t Jl.. ili1 �iit:t liz, :f Ji.:t�j1Z. * ;t JfJ � , 1f. �atti!. :1d£:t-f, "f • •� �!9
patients die before their time. How can this be regarded as success!
According to Huizong's testimony, the majority of doctors did not understand the basic cosmological doctrines that provided the theo retical foundation for medicine, doctrines such as yin-yang � �, the Six Qi r- ft., and the Five Phases liAt. Consequently, their treatment often did more harm than good, at times even killing the patient. 1 0 During the early years of his reign, Huizong appointed the Advisory Office � � � to look into the matter (see the chapters by Chaffee and Levine in this volume). The officials of the Advisory Office submitted a memorial to the court in 1103 advocating several changes in medical education: We, your humble officials, have studied the Xining reign period [1068-77] and the following three decades. During this time the government ordered the es tablishment of the Imperial Medical Service to educate [medical] students. They were assigned to treat diseases of [students of] the Three Schoolsll [of the Directorate of Education] and various military personnel. They helped them dramatically. However, [the school] did not reach everybody and was not established throughout the empire. This institution is still functioning.
9. Zhenghe shengji zonglu Jt:ful:���, preface. The preface also appears in SYQYjK, 797-98; ZGYJTK, 5272-7310. The claim that uneducated doctors harmed patients was very common during the Song. The best example is provided by Xu Shuwei "tf-,J'Jt.f;l (I079-II54), who in II32 compiled the first book of medical case histories (Shanghanjiushi lun {l�1t. +�), in which each of his cases begins with a description of such failure in treatment, which he either corrects or explains why the patient will die. For additional information on these doctrines and their application to medicine, see Sivin, TraditionalMedicine, 43-94; Manfred Porkert, The Theoretical Foundations ofChinese Medicine: Systems ofComspondence (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1974), 9-106. II. The Three Schools is a Northern Song dynasty term referring to the three major schools operated by the Directorate of Education II -=f IIi.: the National University .k"f!, the Military School ;i1(.*, and the Law School '*"f!. See Gong Yanming . � II,ij , Songdaiguanzhi cidian )lU� 't $1 at � (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), 358.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health At present, there is no means to encourage or promote all the medical workers.12 Generally, the social class of people engaged in this occupation is not high. literati consider medicine as a disgraceful [occupation] . Therefore, emi nent scholars with extensive knowledge do not study medicine nor value its practice. (Z l- >i :t � . i!l!-=-1�. It � � � :t. " ��.!l Jt . * � -=-*,
jf��ffl. � .t lki4. f.t\*-�:ffHt :k r, Mli!Jt :f:.iE.(f.. � El , PJT lr .. ..L* lr � l!z�. �Jtil,t.� � � . ±A.PJT�. it����til,t. i\' rJ;J Jt :f:. 13
The authors of this memorial believed that the existing system of medical education was satisfactory for teaching medicine, since the students successfully treated fellow students studying at other imperial schools as well as some military personnel. The scope of the existing system of medical education, however, was too limited. The majority of medical schools were located in the capital and thus other regions had limited means for training physicians. Moreover, the status of medicine was too low to attract the best possible candidates. The authors were disturbed by the fact that members of the literate elite despised medicine as an occupation. The term these officials use to denote doctors ("medical workers" -I..:L) implies that they considered doctors to be technicians proficient in applying medical treatment rather than scholars. The bureaucratic positions held by these "medical workers" were rela tively low in rank in comparison to graduates of other imperial schools and consequently were not attractive to members of the scholarly elite.14 The ideal doctor, unlike these so-called medical workers, would speak the language of his upper-class patients and explain illnesses by reference to cosmological doctrines that were part of the patients' conception of the world and the body. In order to remedy these deficiencies, the officials of the Advisory Office recommended the establishment of a new medical school. To place this initiative in context, I need to review the status of medical education during the early years of the Northern Song dynasty.
12. This sentence is ambiguous and can be read in two different fashions. It can either mean that there is no method to promote the graduates of the Imperial Medical Service within the imperial bureaucracy, or that there is no way to encourage gentlemen to be come medical practitioners. 13. SHY chongru 3.nb. 14. Chen Yuanpeng f!7tJPJ, liang Song de "shangyi shiren"yu "ruyi" R'J *- 69 rlJ I- ± A.. �-ftl- (Taibei: Guoli Taiwan daxue wenshi congkan, 1997), 183.
ASAF G O LD S C H M I D T
M E D I CA L E D U CAT I O N I N T H E EARLY S O N G
The increasing urbanization of China in Song times, as well as the shift in population to the south, required a new approach toward public health and medical care.15 Unlike earlier dynasties, the Song government from its early years concerned itself with supplying qualified physicians to care for the population. In 963, the founding emperor, Taizu, realized that the qualifications of many doctors in the prestigious Hanlin Medical Institute were inadequate. Consequently, he examined their medical and clinical knowledge in the hope of weeding out unqualified doctors. In 987, Taizong, in an attempt to bolster the ranks of the Hanlin physicians, unsuccessfully tried to recruit qualified physicians from among the common people.16 During the Qingli Reforms (1041-48), the role of medicine was re-examined. Fan Zhongyan tit 1'i'i-t- (989-1052), the most prominent reformer during this era, proposed a comprehensive plan for improv ing medical care through education and testing. He observed that "at present, the capital's population stands at one million, but only several thousand doctors can be counted. [Moreover,] the majority of them have picked up [their skill] in the streets, rather than being taught by a master."17 Attempting to address this shortage, Fan encouraged failed candidates for the civil service to pursue a medical career. "If you cannot serve as a good minister, then serve as a good physician" was Fan's motto.18 Because of these convictions, Fan promoted the establishment of an office designed to concentrate solely on medical education.19
15. For a discussion of epidemics during the Song and their impact on medical policy and public health, see Asaf Goldschmidt, "The Transformations of Chinese Medicine During the Northern Song Dynasty (A.D. 96O-II27)" (ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1999), 21-71. 16. For the examination of Hanlin officials by Taizu, see CB 4.26.b and 55 1.16. For the search for qualified doctors by Taizong, see Song Taizong shi lu 41.2a; and 55 5.81. For further discussion, see Zhang Ruixian � J,t 'f and Yuan Xiurong :.t � � , "Bei Song chunian de taiyishu xiaokao" ;It. *- ;fJJ -+ :k. .. :i- .J'::f, ZhonJ!Jijiaoyu 2 (1994): 41-42. • � (SBCK ed.), 17. Fan Zhongyan t€. 1'1'i-t-, Fan wenzhengji-Zouyi t€. j:iE � 2·4oa. 18. Wu Zeng � 'if , Nenggai zhai manlu �� �x. " il � (CSJC ed.), 13.332. 19. Fan wenzhengJi-Zouyi 2.40a-b. 0
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health The first medical school during the Song was set up in 1044, when Emperor Renzong (r. 1023-63) adopted Fan's proposal to establish a bureau devoted to medical education. Subsequently, the government established the Imperial Medical Service ± .. It}, under the authority of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices ± 't -t , to concentrate on medical education.2o Initially, the Imperial Medical Service offered medical edu cation to anyone who applied to study, requiring neither examinations nor recommendations. Prominent medical practitioners lectured there, including the chief stewards of the Palace Medical Service iJfJ M "�. The total number of students was approximately 200 over a ten-year period.21 Though we have no specific records, it is possible to speculate that the establishment of the Imperial Medical Service gradually helped to increase the number of qualified physicians in the capital prefecture. Its effect outside of the capital, however, was limited. In 1045 most of the Qingli reformers' programs were repealed, but the Imperial Medical Service was retained.22
T H E EXPAN S I O N A N D S Y S T E M AT I ZAT I O N O F M E D I C A L E D U C AT I O N
Starting in 1060, the government took steps toward systematizing and solidifying medical education and introducing an examination system. Concurrently, the government extended the medical education and 20. SHY zhiguan 22.35a. The Imperial Medical Service replaced the existing Imperial Medical Office k -I- ;f , a remnant from the Tang dynasty that concentrated on medical issues but not on education. The SHY includes a reference that claims that the change in name and designation occurred as early as 992 CE (SHY zhiguan 22.35b). However, recent scholars agree that it must be either an error or just a change in the office tide since other available records indicate that medical education did not begin until the 1040s. See Zhang Ruixian 9:.�t- and Yuan Xiurong :i � � t "Bei Song chunian de taiyishu xiaokao" Jt. *:';n 4- fl-J k -l- ;f .J - :t, Zhongyijiaoyu 2 (1994): 41; Iiang Jun t¥- �, Zhongguo gudaiyi zheng shilue l' � ;5" 1�-I-Jlt3t� (Urumqi: Nei Menggu renmin, 1995), 99; Zhang Ruixian ��t-, "Shilun Bei Song zhengfu yu yixue de guanxi" �1IfiJJt. *Jlt.!it�-I- * fI-J n;] � (ph.D. dissertation, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 1988), 13-14. 21. See Zhang Ruixian, "Shilun Bei Song zhengfu yu yixue de guanxi," 14. 22. For further discussion, see John Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: A Social History ofExaminations (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 66-69·
ASAF G O L D S C H M I D T examination system to the local level. These moves aimed to increase the number of physicians with systematic medical knowledge of both clas sical doctrines and clinical techniques. Originally, the Imperial Medical Service imposed no quota on the number of students attending classes, since the demand for physicians was great and the number of candidates low. This changed in 1060, when the government imposed new regulations. The student quota was set at
120 and an elaborate application process was introduced. Each pro spective student, who had to be at least fifteen years of age, filled out registration forms including details about his family. He then had to obtain a recommendation from an official serving in a medical position.23 Before starting studies at the Imperial Medical Service, students had to undergo a year of general education at the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and to pass an exam.24 These new regulations added prestige to medical education and actually increased the number of candidates pursuing it.25 Once admitted to the Imperial Medical Service, students were divided into nine fields of study. The vast majority of them, however, studied general medicine.26 The curriculum of the Imperial Medical Service stressed classical medicine.
r*J �
All
and the
Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon -i' '*" Yellow Emperor's Canon if Eighty-one Problems -i' '*" A 1- -
students studied the
.. ��. In addition to these two treatises, the curriculum also included the
Imperial Grace Formulary if the Great Peace [and Prosperous State} Reign Period :k. if- ?t. .t 7i and the Origins and Symptoms if Medical Disorders 1t � if§.. 1��. Once the students began their narrow specialization, additional textbooks, such as materia medica *1? collections, were added.27 The next major change in medical education came during the reign of Shenzong (r.
1068-85). In 1076, the Imperial Medical Service became an
23. SHY zhiguan 22.36b. 24. SHY zhiguan 22.36a-b. 25. See Gong Chun :t�, ''Wang Anshi bianfa yu Bei Song de yixue jiaoyu" J. � k �)t;W3t. * i¥.J . *�"1L Zhonghuayishi zazhi 3 (1955): 169-75. 26. This information is based on SHY zhiguan 22.36a-b. For a detailed discussion of the changes in medical education during the mid- and later Northern Song, see Gong Chun, ''Wang Anshi bianfa yu Bei Song de yixue jiaoyu." 27. SHY zhiguan 22.36a.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health independent office no longer under the authority of the Court of Impe rial Sacrifices. This did not last long, since within a few years it came under the authority of the Ritual Academy :k. 't it Ff£ .28 During this pe riod the number of students increased to 300, and acu-moxa therapy was introduced as a separate specialized field of study. Also in 1076, Wang Anshi introduced the Three Hall System :=,, -%- )1::, already in use at the National University, to the Imperial Medical Service.29 The 40 students in the Upper Hall were promoted from the 60 in the Inner Hall, who in turn were promoted from 200 in the Outer Hall. The introduction of this promotion system into medical education was another significant step toward raising physicians' status in the eyes of civil service candidates. This process culminated during the reign of Huizong, who established a new medical school that was equal in standards and prestige of the other schools under the Directorate of Education.
T H E E S TA B L I S H M E N T O F T H E M E D I CA L S C H O O L
Huizong's perception of a gap between what medical practice might be and what it was underlay his approach toward medical education and the social status of medicine. The officials of the Advisory Office who pre sented the problem to the throne also proposed a possible solution: At the present we wish [to recommend] the establishment of a Medical School to train and educate superior physicians
J:.. " .30 We
have studied the estab-
28. 55 157.3689; CB 27I.IIa; 5HY zhiguan 22.37. See also Zhang Ruixian and Yuan Xiurong, "Song Shenzong shiqi Taiyi ju jiaoyu de fazhan." 29. In this system, the National University and later schools at all levels in the empire were divided into three grades or halls, hence the name. Promotion from grade to grade depended upon periodic examinations. For further information on the Three Hall Sys tem, see Chaffee, Thorny Gates, 77-84. For the implementation of the Three Hall System in medicine, see 55 157.3689. For further discussion on the topic, see Gong Chun, ''Wang Anshi bianfa yu Bei Song de yixue jiaoyu"; Zhang Ruixian and Yuan Xiurong "Song Shenzong shiqi Taiyi ju jiaoyu de fazhan." 30. The officials of the Advisory Office used the term "superior physician" to dis tinguish the graduates of the Medical School from the "medical workers" mentioned earlier in the edict, referring to contemporary doctors (see translation earlier in this chapter). For further discussion on the different references to physicians in historical literature and their implications, see Zhang Zongdong 7*- if- #t, ''Yisheng chenwei kao" -I- 1.. fA: �:if, Zhonghuayishi zazhi 20·3 (1990): 138-47.
286
ASAF G O LD S C H M I DT
lishment of the Imperial Medical Service during the Xining [1068-77] and Yuanfeng [1078-85] reign periods, when it was placed under the supervision of the Office of Imperial Sacrifices. At present we recommend the establishment of a different school, the Medical School, designed to foster superior physicians. It will be difficult to accomplish this task if we leave the school under the supervision of the Office of Imperial Sacrifice. We wish to make it comparable to the Three Schools [the National University, the Military School, and the Law School] and accordingly place it under the supervision of the Directorate of Education. It should also adopt the [Three Hall] System used in the Three
4'� �IJ if -l * . tt-l-J:. -I . tJJ � ,.� . 7t � if Ai . '-X #;t 't � . 4' f!Jt �1 � -I * . tt-l-J:. -I . J.ft.,X �#;t 't �. �ft. .=.. * . ## Iil .:r J:i:. �.=.. * Z�1 .3 1
Schools.
Following these recommendations, Huizong, in II03, established the Medical School _., placing it under the Directorate of Education.32 For the fIrst time graduates of a government medical school were guaranteed civil service appointments.33 like its precursor, the Medical School served 300 students, now divided into three halls. The method of examinations was similar to that of the National University. The teaching staff included four permanent positions of erudites and a head for each of the three halls.34 Early in III5, Huizong ordered each prefecture and district to establish a local branch of the Medical School, modeled on the central school. Later that year he ordered that all the erudites of the local schools be replaced by medical erudites. He also instructed the local schools to include separate classrooms. These schools were to be at tached to the regular prefectural or county schools.35 The Three Hall system, the curriculum, and the required textbooks were to be similar to
31. SHY chongru 3.nb. 32. During the second half of the eleventh century, the Directorate of Education oversaw the operations of the most important and prestigious schools: the National University, the Military School, the Law School, and the Biyong School. For further discussion of the Directorate, see Thomas H. C. Lee, Government Education and Examina tions in Sung China (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1985), 58-62. 33. SHY chongru 3.13b. A partial translation appears in Hymes, "Not Quite Gentle men?," 70.
34. SHY chongru 3.I2a. 35. SHY chongf1l 3.I7b. See also, jSBM 135.9b-IOa.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
the central Medical School, but the examination system differed in that it stressed the student's proficiency in the Confucian c1assics.36 Like other schools established by Huizong, the Medical School ex isted for less than twenty years. Even during this short span of time, it was abolished and re-established three times, probably for many of the same reasons that the other schools were (see Chaffee's chapter in this volume).37 The Curriculum ofthe Medical Schoo/. From the outset, the Medical School had a set curriculum and sequence of examinations. The school had three major branches of medical studies and thirteen specialized fields. The three branches were: internal and general medicine -}j n�, acu-moxa therapy �,38 and external medicine �#. The thirteen fields were sub-
36. SHY chongru 3.18b-19a. See also Gong Chun :t t.t, Zhongguo lidai weisheng i!lZhiji yixue jiaqyu 'f � 1f. 1� 4ft ± n � &. .. '" � 1.f (Xi'an: Shijie tushu chubanshe, 1998), 66-67· 37. The chronology of the Medical School is as follows: The government estab lished the Medical School in II03/9. On II06/I/I4, an instruction came down to close the schools of literature, calligraphy, mathematics, and medicine and to attach them to the existing schools of the Directorate of Education. The reasons for these actions are not detailed in the records (SHY zhiguan 28.17a). On II07/2/17, an order came down to reopen the Medical School (SS 20.377). In IlIO, an edict was issued that medical students should enter the Imperial Medical Office, and to discontinue the Medical School (SS 20.384 and 157.3687; ]SBM 135.9a). On IlI3/4/1, an order came down to re-establish the Medical School (SS 21.391; SHY zhiguan 22.38b). In IlI5/I, branches of the Medical School were established in various prefectures (SS 21.394; SHY chongtu 3.17b. See also ]SBM 135.9b). In II17, the Medical School was transferred under the authority of the Libu (SHY chongru 3.21a). In II20, the Medical School in the capital was abolished. Local branches of the Medical School continued to flourish (fSBM 135.IOa; SHY chongru p6a). 38. The term "acu-moxa therapy" refers to a group of traditional Chinese clinical techniques designed to stimulate specific loci on the human body in order to obtain a desired therapeutic effect. Acupuncture and moxibustion are the most popular but not the only techniques in this therapeutic approach. Acupuncture is based on inserting needles of various gauges and lengths into the skin at specific loci. Moxibustion is based on burning tinder made of Chinese mugwort (Artemisia argyi or Artemisia vulgaris) next to a locus or on it. The Chinese term for moxibustion is ai :>t. For comprehensive discussions of acu-moxa techniques and doctrines, see Lu Gwei-djen and Joseph Needham, Celestial Lancets: A History & Rationale ofAcupuncture and Moxa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 69-153, 170-84; and Sivin, Traditional Medicine, 258-64.
288
ASAF G O LD S C HMIDT
divisions of the three branches. Internal and general medicine was divided into internal medicine *- -,;;1 � , pediatrics IJ' -,;;1 � , and convul sive and paralytic diseases J1t#. Acu-moxa therapy was divided into acupuncture � , moxibustion k , stomatology and dentistry t1 11; , laryngology ,,� �, ophthalmology Oil, and otology .Jf . External medicine was divided into surface lesions ttJJf, orthopedics 1�4Jf, injuries from weapons 1ttt, and interdiction . #c .39 The teaching material in the Medical School included major canonical works as well as clinical texts. All the books were newly published, gov ernment-sponsored editions of ancient medical works, including: the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon BasicQuestions 1ft '*' J*J �if -t r " the Yellow Emperor's Canon if Eighry-one Problems, the Origins and Symptoms ifMedical Disorders l. lc\ � ,7.f" the Jiqyou Era Materia Medica l. ;fi; *- $ , and the Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand -t 1t � -,;;1 .40 Each of the three major branches of study required additional texts. Students of the in ternal and general medicine branch were also required to study the Pulse Canon ��!i and the Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders. The students of the acu-moxa therapy branch were also required to study the Yellow Emperor's "A-B " Canon ifAcu-moxa 1ft '*' -=- � �t k �!i and Nagarjuna's Discussions on Ophthalmology ff.;f.. �.41 The students of the external medicine branch were also required to study the Yellow Emperor's (�-B " Canon ifAcu-moxa and the Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand.42 The inclusion of these books in its curriculum supports the claim that the Medical School stressed the teaching of medical classics. These medical classics included the best available theoretical treatises on both medical doctrines and their application in clinical practice. This approach should have provided the students with a firm grasp of the foundations of medicine, which was then supplemented with the more specialized texts assigned to each branch of study. ..
39. SHY chongru 3·nb-I2a. 40. For a discussion regarding the revision and printing of medical books during the Northern Song, see Goldschmidt, "The Transformations of Chinese Medicine," 56-68, 136-44, 198-2°3, 207-12. 41. There are variant titles; see Li Jingwei 4-�� et al., Zhongyi do cidian 'f " k.-� (Beijing: Renmin weisheng, 1995), 391, 1352. 42. 55 157.3689; SHY chongru 3.I2a-b.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
289
The course of study at the Medical School, like that of the Imperial Medical Service before it, included clinical experience. Students from the major universities in the capital were referred to the medical students for treatment when they were ill. The medical students were evaluated based on their diagnosis, choice of treatment and its application, and, of course, on the outcome of the treatment.43
Examinations in the MedicalSchoo!.
The Medical School established in 1103
made extensive use of examinations. Besides entrance examinations
;fif]ii\, there were progress exams, one given by the school lL. ii\ and one given by an imperially dispatched examiner �ii\. In order to succeed in the entrance examination, the candidate had to show basic medical knowledge by answering a number of hypothetical questions regarding diagnosis or therapy of possible medical cases.44 The head of the Medical School himself wrote the questions for the school's examinations, which were given every three months. Two parts of the exam tested the students' knowledge of the medical classics; the third part tested their analytical and clinical skills. The examination given by an imperially dispatched examiner resembled the school's ex amination but consisted of only two parts, one on knowledge of the medical classics and one on clinical skills. The results of the examination by the school and of the examination by the imperially dispatched ex aminer were used to determine students' placement in the Inner Hall or the Upper Hall. The exams included three types of questions: written elucidation questions, elucidation about the meaning of medical texts, and therapeutic questions on hypothetical cases, with emphasis on the last. Students who did well in questions about diagnosing hypothetical cases were supposed to receive priority in promotion. In order to evaluate students' clinical skills, their success in caring for patients was examined.45
43. SS 157.3885; SHY chongru 3-I3b. 44. SHY chongru 3.I2b-13b. For further discussion, see Zhang Ruixian, "Song Huizong shiqi de teshu yixue jiaoyu sheshi-'yixue'" * .fti. * ,* jlJj � �1lIt ff * � 1f "tt � "ff .. ," Zhongyijiaqyu 3 (1989): 41· 45 . SHY chongru 3.12b-13b. See also Liang Jun, Zhongguo gudai yizheng shilue, 101. For additional information on medical examinations in general, see Joseph Need ham, "China and the Origin of Qualifying Examinations in Medicine," in Joseph Needham, Clerks and Craftsmen in China and the West (Cambridge: Cambridge University
ASAP G O L D S C H M I D T
Regulations issued in the years 1111 and 1113 show that local medical officers had been placed under the control of the newly established Office of Educational Intendants tl** :f: . This was an attempt to include all examinations civil service examinations and other special examinations to recruit technical officers under the control of the Directorate of Education and the Office of Educational Intendants.46 •
Official Positions for Graduates if the Medical Schoo!. In order to raise the status of medicine and physicians, Huizong's court changed the titles of medical positions to resemble those of the civil service. During the first century of the Song, physicians often were given military ranks.47 During the Zhenghe reign period (1111-17) , the government established a num ber of unique titles, replacing the military ranks, to be assigned to doctors and graduates of the Medical School. This measure sent a clear message to the officials and the graduates of the Imperial schools that medicine was an independent field of knowledge worthy of being endowed with its own titles.48 The new titles, and their old military equivalents, are listed in Table 7.1. During the same period, the government also increased the number of medical positions, thus ensuring that graduates of the Medical School would be assigned medical positions. In 1114, a court official reported that "we, your officials, humbly observe that at present the number of officials serving at the Medical Institute $ff �*-* l' has expanded many fold since the Xining [1068-77] and Yuanfeng [1078-85] reign periods." The official then provided specific examples detailing how the govern ment increased the number of officials in specific official medical
Press, 1970), 340-78; an updated version appears in Needham, Medicine, 95-II3. For examples of typical questions and answers used in medical examinations during the Song dynasty, see He Daren tor k #:: , Taiyiju zhuke chengwen :k. " J.ii it#:f.I 5c. (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1991). 46. 5HY chongru 3.14a-b. 47. These titles were also long associated with eunuchs and inner court staff and were not considered "regular bureaucratic post" lfl* 1' ; they commanded rather low political respect. I am grateful for this comment brought up by the anonymous reviewer of this chapter. 48. 55 169.4059. For further discussion, see Zhang Ruixian, "Shilun Bei Song zhengfu yu yixue de guanxi," 40-41; Yi Buyang J& :.r-4Ji and Yi Tian J& �, "Songdai yishi de pin yu jie" *- 1� " Uiji {f.J .fc, �ffl, Zhongyiyao xuebao 2 (1982): 61-62.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health Table 7.1 New Medical Tides Enhancing the Prestige of Physicians New tide tJrffl
Old tide li ffl
Grand Master of Health and Peace
;fn�kJ;.
Grand Master of Perfect Health
A;fnkJ;.
Grand Master of Complete Peace
A�kJ;.
Grand Master of Complete Wholeness A� kJ;. Grand Master of Preservation and Harmony 1lf; ;fnkJ;. Grand Master of Preservation and Peace 1lf;�kJ;. Excellent Physician of the Medical Institute �#- It .. Gendeman for Health and Peace
Commissioner of the Armory
:+: aJf.1t
Commissioner of West Office of Embroidery ,!ft �t� ft Monopoly Exchange Commissioner
� Jh ft
Commissioner of the Medical Institute �#. .. l' ft
1lf;���
Gendeman for Perfect Health
A;fn��
Gendeman for Complete Peace
A���
Gendeman for Complete Wholeness A��� Gendeman for Preservation and Harmony 1lf;;fn �� Gendeman for Preservation and Peace 1lf;� �� Incumbent Physician of the Medical Institute �#-".if..
Vice Commissioner of the Armory
:+: aJf.1tft
Vice Commissioner of West Office of Embroidery ,!ft t.t �1t� Monopoly Exchange Vice Commissioner � Jh 1t ft Vice Commissioner of the Medical Institute �#''' 't 1tft
SOURCE: SS 169.4°59.
positions. For example, the number of commissioners of the Medical Institute ... 't1t increased from 6 to 33; the number of aides to the imperial physician k ", � increased from 6 to 48. Altogether the number of medical officials in the Medical Institute reached 732.49 49. SHY zhiguon 36.I02a. For further discussion of medical tides and their ranks, see
Miyashita Saburo 1: r .:.. �� , "So-Gen no iryo" *- ;it IT) .. . , in Yabuuchi Kiyoshi
ASAF G O L D S C H M I D T
A N I N N O VAT I V E T I T L E : L I T E RA T U S P H Y S I C IA N
The establishment of the Medical School, the designation of new official ranks for physicians that went along with it, and the increase in the number of medical officials may not have been enough to raise the status of medicine and induce the sons of the elite to study medicine. In 1113, the court tried a new way to draw candidates from the ranks of the elite by coining an innovative term for doctors, literati Physicians or �i 1� •.50 In an imperial edict dated 1II3/4/9 the court states: In the early stages of the establishment of the School, we emphasized the desire to expand the acquisition of literati physicians. We humbly saw that in various prefectures there are students in the Inner and Outer Halls who always thor oughly understand medical skills. We have instructed all instructors at the pre fectures that they should wisely understand that their responsibility is to the court. Thus, they should repeatedly promote those candidates whose name and surname have been reported to the throne by school officials.
�tf: -i!:.AJJ , ��
.� ••. • �. � � 4tf: � *.� ••••. +. ffl.��.e � t
tVJ.tf: � . Jl.-M.-Z Btl � r .51
There is more than meets the eye in this edict. The "School" refers to the Medical School, but to whom does the term "literati physicians" re fer? When the author of the edict notes that the students of the prefec-
• flit, ed., 50-Genjidai no kagaku gijutsu shi ;lut ot 1-\;'0)#"'#.#r� (Kyoto: Kyoto daigaku jinbun kagaku kenkyusho, 1967), 134-35. 50. The combination of these two characters, 1t"', does not appear in any official histories up to and including the 55. The only time it appears in the official dynastic histories is in the History ofthe Yuan Dynasty, where it appears twice. Furthermore, neither the CB nor the ZiZhi tong/ian includes this combination of characters. Although surviving records do not state that applying the term royi to graduates of Medical School was a new policy, the appearance of such an innovative and compelling reference to physicians could not have arisen accidentally. According to Joseph Needham (Medicine, 42) this term became popular when well-educated scholars turned to study medicine during the Yuan and on to the Ming dynasties. Robert Hymes ("Not Quite Gentlemen?," 64-66) claims more specifically that it was the diminishing number of opportunities to teach that may have been crucial in leading scholars to choose the medical path and become royi. However, based on the two following quotations it seems that it was during Huizong's reign that this term was invented, even if its impact was not immediate. 51. 5HY chongro 3.14b-15a.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
29 3
tural schools' Inner and Outer Halls are proficient in medicine, he could not be referring to medical students, since the government ordered the establishment of local Medical Schools in the prefectures only in III5. It seems that he refers to students who study in the mainstream course of Confucian education who were also proficient in medicine. Those are the students targeted as candidates for the Medical School in the capital and designated to become literati physicians. 52 In 1117, the term "literati physicians" is mentioned once again in an official record. This time, however, the connection to the Medical School is much more pronounced. In a memorial dated III?/8/10, an official stated that: I humbly observe in its education of gentlemen, the Medical School, set up by the court, makes those who study Confucian arts also gain proficiency in medical canons [literally, the
Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon] , understand diagnosis
and treatment, and apply them to disease [in the clinical realm] . I call them
If * 1: , 1:k.�jJ�tJ!.� .*�.±�� � ������, � �., ��#*�. �z� • . � *
Literati Physicians; their benefits are extremely great.
.t -l!!.. . 53
The character ru 1:t implies learning, usually Confucian learning. Thus the authors of both the edict and the memorial linked Confucian scholarship with medicine and medical practice. This marriage of Confucianism and medicine, initiated during Huizong's reign, lasted from that time to the present. Although some present-day scholars have attempted to show that this marriage predates Huizong, their evidence is weak. From Huizong's reign onward, the usage of the term "literati physicians" became increasingly common. Accordingly, we fmd increasing numbers of references in both literary and medical works dating to the Southern Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties.54
52. See Chen Yuanpeng, Liang Song de ''shangyi shiren "yu "ruy� " 186-87. 53. SHY chongru 3 .20b . 54. See Zhang Ruixian, "Rujia wenhua xiang yixue shentou de tujing zhiyi: shilun liang Song 'Ruyi' de chansheng" 1t�� 1�fo) -I-*i�it fI!J it�-z- : ��� * "11-1-" fI!J A. ± , Tiardin ZhonlJi xuryuan xuebao 2 (1990): 23-24. For further discussion of the various titles of doctors following the Song, see Chao Yuan-ling, "Medicine and Society in Late Imperial China: A Study of Physicians in Su-zhou" (ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1995), chap. 3, esp. 174-77. -
ASAF G O LD S C HM I DT
294
In addition to all these measures meant to attract members of the elite to the study of medicine, Huizong added another unique measure aimed at familiarizing regular students with medical doctrines. In III7, Huizong wrote that "Confucians use [the Dao] to order the world, and gentlemen use [the Dao] to repair the body." After discussing the importance of other traditions of knowledge, such as the Study of Huanglao if ::t z * and the diversity of the meaning of Dao throughout the ages, Huizong ordered that "all the students in all the schools in the empire, according to their affiliation, should add one great and one small canon [to their curriculum] from those listed below. The great canons are the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon (Huangdi neijiniJ and the Dao De Jing. The small canons are the ZhuangiJ and the LieiJ."55 In another record from the same year, we have a similar claim that the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon became part of the curriculum in all the imperial schools. 56 These records suggest that Huizong ordered the addition to the curriculum of the general education system the most important classic of medicine, the one that serves, even to the present, as the doctrinal foundation of medicine, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon. The books added with it remind us of Huizong's commitment to Daoism, discussed further by Shin-yi Chao in her chapter.57
Public Health Initiatives During Huizong's Reign Western discussions of the history of public health often begin with the Hippocratic treatise Airs, Waters, Places (ca. fifth century BCE) , in which diseases are divided into "endemic," which were always present, and "epidemic," which occurred only occasionally and excessively. 58 When discussing public health as an organized governmental activity, historians of medicine generally begin with the Western Renaissance. This is despite the fact that isolation as a means of protection from epidemics began in Italy in the fourteenth century, when a number of 55. SDZLJ 224.864.
56. Gong Chun, Zhongguo lidai weisheng i!lZhijiyixuejiaoyu, 64; SHY chongru 4.IOb-na. 57. For details on Daoism in general during the Song dynasty, see Lowell Skar, "Ritual Movements, Deity Cults and the Transformation of Daoism in Song and Yuan Times," in Livia Kohn, ed., Daoism Handbook (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 413-63. 58. Dorothy Porter, "Public Health," in W. F. Bynum and Roy Porter, eds., Companion Encyclopedia ofthe History ofMedicine (London: Routledge, 1993), 1232.
-
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
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----
295
city-states introduced quarantine to protect themselves against the major epidemic of bubonic plague that began in 1346, commonly known as the Black Death.59 This initiative, however, did not involve public sanitation or therapy. Although private and religious groups most often founded public health institutions in China, during certain eras governments also made important contributions. When epidemics or other natural calamities struck, the government enacted relief measures, usually in the form of dispensing drugs and providing financial aid to affected areas. At times, it also set up institutions that aided the poor in normal times by providing shelter, food, and sometimes drugs. The reign of Huizong provides an early example of the imperial establishment of a public health system aimed at limiting epidemics. Huizong's public health institutions in cluded public hospitals, paupers' cemeteries, and poorhouses. The first two institutions promoted public health by providing medical services for the indigent and burial for the needy as well as for travelers from far places. The rationale behind these institutions was probably twofold. On the one hand, they constituted yet another attempt to provide relief for the poor. On the other hand, based on surviving records, they were designed to prevent contagion and the outbreak of epidemics. Another institution related to public health was the Imperial Pharmacy, designed to sell drugs and in times of catastrophe to dispense them free of charge. As I have shown elsewhere, epidemics played a major role in shaping medical policy in the mid-eleventh century; so the establishment of such institutions should not come as a surprise.60 P U B L I C H EA L T H P R I O R ' TO HUIZONG S REIGN
The earliest mention we have of hospices with dispensaries dates back to the Southern Qi dynasty (late fifth century). The first reference to a government hospital dates not much later, to the Northern Wei dynasty (early sixth century). 61 During the Tang, both religious institutions 59. Ibid., 1233· 60. Goldschmidt ''The Transformations of Chinese Medicine," 21-71. 61. Needham, Medicine, 54.
ASAF G O LD S C HM I DT
and the government were involved in poor relief and public health op erations. The increasingly elaborate programs of Buddhist monasteries, which were more dominant than government institutions, provided lodging facilities as well as food and drugs for the indigent. These reli gious programs, called Compassionate Fields Houses .� Il1 f.1t , were funded mostly by income derived from land donated by the faithful or expropriated by the emperor and allocated for that purpose. The Tang government got involved in poor relief mostly at times of crisis, but also subsidized some private philanthropic institutions on a regular basis.62 Charity clinics or hospitals established during the Tang dynasty were called literally Patients' Buildings � � and were often associated with the privately operated Compassionate Fields Houses. 63 These clinics treated the indigent, but it is unclear who qualified for treatment or what kind of treatment patients received. The earliest Song relief institutions can be traced roughly to the first half of the eleventh century.64 They were a continuation of Tang dynasty practices but with a new name, Blessed Field Houses #! Il1 f.1t, a name probably associated with Buddhism in that it resembles the Tang dynasty name. This institution operated on a very small scale. In addition to poor relief, the government engaged in other welfare activities on an ad hoc basis, such as establishing public cemeteries in certain regions or distributing medicines to the poor in times of catastrophes and epidemics. Poor relief underwent a major change during the early Song dynasty. It was transformed from a mostly private and often religious endeavor into one in which the government played an ever-increasing role. The Song government continued to provide disaster relief, but in addition established relief institutions that functioned on a regular basis and not solely during catastrophes.65
62. Ibid., 54-55; Hugh Scogin, "Poor Relief in Northern Sung China," Oriens Extremis 25 (1978): 30-3I. 63. The first record of the name bingfang #i� appears during the years 713-42. See Tang huiyao (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1998), 49.862-63. 64. Scogin, "Poor Relief," 3I. 65. Discussion of these poor-relief institutions can be found in ibid.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
297
T H E W E L FA R E A N D P U B L I C H E A L T H '
SYSTEM DURING H U I Z O N G S REIGN
During Huizong's reign, the government instituted a new system for poor relief, entitled the Poorhouse System Jk -l- �, literally the Reside and Support System.66 In two edicts, dating to the years IIo6 and III2, Huizong stated: At the present widows and widowers, the orphaned and sole survivors, all have the Poorhouse System. (The state] uses it to aid the poor. But, what if they are sick and have no medicine or doctor? To solve this we are establishing the Peace and Relief Hospitals. To deal with poor men who die and have no [means of] burial, we are establishing the Paupers' Cemetery. My mind is deeply with the
4'.• -*��.
�;t J.k • .t�. J';.< l-f iH\ . *, * .1Q • • . JN � .t � � ��. it .1Q :f Jf. . JN � .t � � ;' III . JOC.t;t �H\ i* � .67
people.
The widows and widowers, the orphaned and sole survivors, have the Poor houses to be used for rest and relief. The sick have the Hospitals for their Peace and Relief.68 Those who have died have the Paupers' Cemeteries for burial. This is the foundation of the kingly way [Dao] . I have ordered the implementation of
. .•-*-�\.�. ;t Fit J';'< J.k •. * �;ff ;t� J';'< �if.l . ?t;ff ;t 1II J';'< Jf. . .£l!.t*-tI!... �4'J!.{l. . .1Q � :f * � .69
this system, but officials have not followed my orders
The language Huizong uses here suggests that he perceived the three institutions as complementary parts of a single integrated system.7o The
66. The term "Poorhouse System" is adopted here since it seems that the Song government and Huizong in particular conceptualized a system made of three different and specialized institutions. 67. SDZLj 186.680. 68. Huizong is using here the characters of the institutions in reverse order to show their meaning and functions. 69. SDZLj 186.681. 70. Hugh Scogin ("Poor Relief," 32, 34) claims that the Song government established a new system of welfare institutions referred to collectively under the term Poorhouse System }!.j.;:t;. He further claims that the "charity clinic," or the Peace and Relief Hospital, was an ad hoc health care measure functioning outside the system. However, edicts by Huizong cited above, along with additional edicts (also recorded in the SDZLj, chapter 186), suggest that Huizong conceptualized the system as a whole and not as a poorhouse with ad hoc health care measures. Scogin also claims that the Peace and Relief Hospital was not a concern of the emperor, tying its development and demise to the rocky career of eai Jing (1046-1126), who served as grand councilor during the reign of
ASAF G O LD S C HM I DT Poorhouse System included three separate institutions. The first was the Poorhouse % -tF.1t , a hospice designed to provide shelter and food to the indigent.71 The second was the Peace and Relief Hospital ���, a charity clinic designed to provide free medical care for those who could not afford medical treatment. The third was the Paupers' Cemetery � if IE , literally translated as the Left Out of Favor Funerary Park, an insti tution that provided free burial plots and services for both the poor and for travelers who died away from home without anyone to take care of their funeral arrangements.72 During Huizong's reign, the Poorhouse System was expanded, and the government established new facilities throughout the empire.73 The government financed this new Poorhouse System primarily by confis cating property of the heirless dead.74 This new financial foundation enabled the system to aid more people than its Tang and Song fore runners had. In addition, the new system functioned on a year-round basis, unlike its precursors, which operated only in emergencies. How-
Huizong ("Poor Relief," 41). Similar claims are made by Angela Ki Che Leung, "Organized Medicine in Ming-Qing China: State and Private Medical Institutions in the Lower Yangzi Region," Late Imperial China 8.1 (1987): 136; Paul R. Katz, Demon Hordes and Burning Boats: The Cult of Marshal Wen in Late Imperial China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 46. However, a closer analysis proves this alleged lack of direct interest to be incorrect. As is discussed elsewhere in this chapter, Huizong personally wrote several edicts discussing the importance and the goals of the public health and relief system initiated by his government. These edicts show that Huizongwas concerned about the state of public health among the common people in the empire. In these edicts he specifies the target population of each institution and how he foresaw its function. 71. There is a distinction between two terms when referring to "poorhouse,"fa it; and yuan �. According to Scogin ("Poor Relief," 33) the former refers to a system or ap proach, while the latter implies the existence of a specific facility. Prior to 1106 the term "Poorhouse System" Jl;", 5t. was used as a general term meaning either the system or the facility, depending on whether the relief functions of the facility were listed or not. From 1106 the term "Poorhouse" Jl;"'� was used for the facility (SHY shihuo 68.132b). 72. The imperial agency of the Left Out of Favor Funerary Park i& if III does not appear in Charles Hucker, A Dictionary ofOfficial Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985). For clarity I follow the title "Paupers' Cemetery" proposed by Scogin, "Poor Relief." 73. For further discussion of the topic, see Scogin, "Poor Relief," 33-34. 74. SHY shihuo 68.I28b, 130a-b.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
299
ever, the system did not always function ideally. In one surviving record the author complained that the system had outrun its sources of in come,75 Poorhouses. The Poorhouses were designed to provide food, clothing, and shelter to the needy, who were defIned as the aged poor, widows, orphans, abandoned children, and all those otherwise unable to care for themselves. The forms of aid varied according to local conditions and the age of the person.76 Generally, each adult was to be allotted one sheng 7t of rice, approximately 0.7 liter, and ten cash per day, with children receiving half as much,77 During the winter months, an addi tional fIve cash per day was allotted for fuel. Over the years, the Poor houses also provided residents with clothing, bedding, utensils, and at times even mosquito nets. The scope of relief operations was widened during the winter when the need for shelter became more acute, espe cially in northern China.78 Peace and Reliif Hospitals. The Peace and Relief Hospitals had a more direct effect on public health than did the poorhouses. These charity clinics or infIrmaries, established in 1102, were modeled on the clinic founded by Su Shi (1036-1101) in Hangzhou. In 1089, Su was appointed the prefect of Hangzhou. Confronted with poverty and a high rate of disease, he dispatched offIcials to distribute medicine. Soon thereafter he established what may have been China's fIrst specialized charity clinic, titled the Peace and Happiness Hospital � * #. Su funded the clinic mostly from private funds,79 According to surviving records, during a three-year span of operation, the clinic treated without charge more than 1,000 poor patients.80 During Huizong's reign, Su Shi's privately run
75. Ibid., 68.136b· 76. Ibid., 68.132b-I33b. 77. Ibid., 68.137a. For metric conversion, see Wu Chengluo �jfff � (Shanghai: Shanghai zhongyi xueyuan, 1993), 9-13.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
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heat, dampness, fire, dryness, and coldness. This doctrine provides a pattern that interrelates the doctrines of yin-yang and Five Phases with the seasons and the 60-years-based Chinese calendar. According to this doctrine, as long as all the seasonal changes and characteristics appear at their proper time, the body should correspond to them. However, when climatic factors appear off schedule, for example a heat wave in the middle of winter or a snowstorm in summer, these untimely changes promote diseases. Huizong was a major advocate of the Phase Energetic doctrine, per ceiving it as the foundation of pathology.149 It is only natural that a text he supervised included sections on the topic. This theory depicts the natural world as a cycle of changes all organized in strict order. Whenever there is deviation from normal climatic cycles, disease can ensue. The fact that the discussions of the theory, as well as how deviations cause disorder, occupied the first two chapters of the book indicates its im portance. ISO It provides a computational and divinatory way to determine imbalances between the body and its changing environment. One of the most important characteristics of the MedicalEnryclopedia is that throughout the text, classical doctrine is interwoven with the dis cussion of formulas. If we compare the MedicalEnryclopedia to the Imperial Grace Formulary, which was published I25 years earlier, we see that in the earlier formulary the formulas are categorized according to symptoms. l SI In contrast, in the Medical Enryclopedia, in addition to the traditional categorization according to manifestation types, we see another catego rization according to visceral systems of functions. The integration of the classical doctrine goes beyond the organization of the contents of the text. In the discussion of each formula the authors meticulously added information about effects on the visceral systems of functions as well as about the Five Phases doctrine. 149. Liao Yuqun et al., Zhongguo kexuejishu shi:yixuejuan, 318. 150. Examples of some applications of classical doctrines, including Phase Energetics, in the Medical Enryclopedia are provided by Hu Longcai �JHt ;;f and Zhang Wen'gao � X � , "Shengji zong lu kanglao fangfa juyu" � ����it���.�, Shandong Zhongyi xueyuan xuebao 11.3 (1987): 36-38. 151. The Imperial Grace Formulary was the most influential formulary of the early Northern Song. The complete title of this formulary, completed in 992 by a group of officials headed by Wang Huaiyin .I.·It�, is the Imperial Grace Formulary ofthe Great Peace
and Prosperous Rezgn Period (Taiping sheng huifang ;k .if- � .t �).
322
ASAP G O LD S C H M I D T
Conclusion Given the information and evidence presented above, including many edicts issued by Huizong, it is apparent that he was highly involved in the formulation of medical policy and was not merely following his minis ters' initiatives. But how deeply was he involved in designing and im plementing these policies? Moreover, did he perceive all of these mea sures and institutions as part of one grand scheme? In order to answer these questions, there is still one additional piece of evidence to be presented. It is Huizong's own summary of his medical policy at the end of his preface to the Canon if Sage!J Benifaction. After discussing the doctrines that form the foundation of medicine and the way they should be applied to understanding the body and disease, Huizong concluded in grand style, "The divine physician will never ad minister drugs to a disease that is already fully manifested."152 This sen tence alludes to one of the most famous passages in the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon and seems like a fitting conclusion to the preface. 153 The preface, however, does not end there, and the following short passage seems disjointed from the rest of it. In the passage, Huizong provides an overview of his achievements in medicine. He even goes as far as stating that this is the correct way to govern a state: In conclusion, in order to implement the art of the Way [that is, correct gov erning], I supported the upright and the honest and discarded the crooked and the dishonest. I established [medical] schools and set up official positions [for medicine]; so scores of gentlemen could be educated [in it] . [I appointed] offi cials who distribute grain rations without being requested, who save the sick, and who bury those who died. Then, I promulgated [these actions] via government decrees and deposited it at government offices. This need not be discussed again.
� 7i 4jtAtlt*T, .fiIl .iE r1Q *�, 2 ��'t, jf � ± r1Q�., Jt�%, ��*, r1Q .Jt Jti:"?l. J111 A!lZjf�:�, �tfAf a) , J(:. :f {l4t.154 Following this passage by Huizong comes Wu Ti's annotation and clarification of Huizong's words. These notes provide the final evidence that Huizong did indeed see all these seemingly disparate measures as part of an overarching policy to change the face of medicine: 152. Shengjijing, 9; SYQYjK, 797-98; ZGYJTK, 2209-10. 153. Huangdi neijing suwen 1( * rJ;j �* r.." 2.32. 154· Shengjzjing, 9; SYQYjK, 797-98; ZGYJTK, 2209-10.
Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health
323
The art of the Way [that is, correct governance] is under the heavens. Only Your Majesty, the august emperor, has implemented it. It can be seen in your laws and moral standards. For example you supported the upright and discarded the crooked, thereby benevolently aiding and supporting the well-balanced con struction of the upright. You established [medical] schools and set up official positions [for medicine], so scores of gentlemen could be educated [in medicine] . Then, you established the [medical] schools both in the center and the periphery. There are Poor houses that distribute food without being requested, there are the Peace and Relief Hospitals that treat diseases, and there are Paupers' Cemeteries that bury the dead. For managing these institutions there is a system, for controlling them
l! #t.t.tt. *-. r. tit X '*' f� r lf Jlx #t�t.t. Jt. JL;#-�Jt.t r t ��.iE r1iJ **�, JloJ1.::. if.l �.iE.t .f � � . 2*�'t , "If � ± r1iJ �-I-, Jllj r*J �1-.t* 2 � . lf Jk-l-JlX .t .%, lf ��JlX affl*, lf � if JlX Jf Jt.i:"1i. �t.tlf �, � .t lf 't , 1i1 tF .&. �I-.155
there are officials, extending from the center to the periphery. ..
This evidence, coming at the end of the preface he' composed for his own book, amply testifies to Huizong's view of his personal involvement in medicine and public health. His investment was so profound that he regarded enacting public health policies and bestowing medical educa tion on gentlemen and officials as the foundation of good governance. Huizong completed his attempt to transform medicine, in my mind, once he finished his textual project and provided new means for students and physicians to understand medicine the ancient cosmological doctrines reintroduced in his book and their clinical application in the formulary he commissioned.
155. Wu Ti's annotation of the preface, Shengjijing, 15.
C HAPTER 8
Huizong and the Divine Empyrean Palace �f /�" 'l: Temple Network Shin-yi Chao
From its genesis in the second century CE, organized Daoist religion was woven into the fabric of statecraft and emperorship. Indeed, its or ganization and priesthood have been seen as a spiritual reconstruction of the "lost cosmic unity of the Han." l Early Daoist scriptures predicted the coming of a messiah, or "the true lord of the great peace" :k. -t � �, who would descend and bring prosperity to the earthly realm.2 Daoist I am immensely grateful for the advice and help I received from Daniel L. Overmyer, Patricia Ebrey, Maggie Bickford, Vincent Goossaert, Stephen Eskildsen, and Kevin N. Clark. Any errors and shortcomings that remain are my own. 1. Anna Seidel, "Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments-Taoist Roots in the Apocrypha," in Michel Strickmann, ed., Tantric and Taoist Studies: In Honor of R A. Stein (Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, 1983), 2: 291. 2. See Sunayama Minoru, "Ri K6 kara K6 Kenshi e: seireki yongo seki ni okeru shiik6 .. It 1m Ji. i!t" R. t: s tt � * � lr9 teki hanran to kokka shiiky6" :t- 51. iJ' c., ;Itil.z.. ....-ifft &' �L t I!l � * �, ShUkan Tqyogaku 26 (1971): 1-27; Anna Seidel, 'The Image of the Perfect Ruler in Early Taoist Messianism: Lao-tzu and Li Hung," History of Rli/igion 9 (1969-70): 216-47; Seidel, "Taoist Messianism," Numen 31.2 (1983): 161-74; Richard B. Mather, "K'ou Ch'ien-chih and the Taoist Theocracy at the Northern Wei Court, 425-451," in Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, eds., Facets ofTaoism: Essqys in Chinese Rli/igion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 103-22. An early Taoist text advocating mes sianic messages is the Taipingjing ;k. f'� (Classic of great peace), ed. Wang Ming .I.. a,ij (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1976 [1960]). For research on the Classic ofGreat Peace in English, see Max Kaltenmark, "The Ideology of the T'ai-p 'ing ching," in Welch and Seidel, eds., Facets of Taoism, 19-52; see also Barbara Kandel, Taiping Jing: The Origin and Transmission of The
Huizong and the Divine Empyrean Palace Temple Network
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patriarchs were often ready to glorify the ruler in power as the long-awaited true lord and to offer their support as well as divine assent. 3 Monarchs rarely refused such recognition. In fact, some of them sought to prove their mandate by making the most out of the popularity of Daoism; the famous example of the royal house of the Tang dynasty (618-84, 705-907) claiming to be descendants of Laozi quickly comes to mind.4 Song sovereigns also sought legitimacy for their rule from Daoism when needed. Taizong (r. 976-97), who as cended the throne after bypassing the late emperor's four sons (two of them adults), claimed to receive spiritual sanction for his enthronement from the oracles given by a divine general, the Aiding Sage � � . 5
Scripture on General Welfare The History ofAn Unqfficial Text (Hamburg: Gesellschaft fur Natur- und Volkerkunde Ostasiens, 1979). 3. Examples can be found in the "Shi Lao zhi" ff::t;t (Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism), in Weishu •• , which has been extensively studied by Tsukamoto Zeruyli �..f.. � 1i- in his Gisho ShakurOshi no kenkyu •• ff::t.t O) .IiJf � (Kyoto: Bukkyo bunka kenkyiijo shuppanbu, 1961). See also John Lagerway, "Taoist Ritual Space and Dynastic Legitimacy," Cahiers d'itudes chinoises 8 (1995): 87-94; and Terry Kleeman, Great Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese MillennialKingdom (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998). 4. For a survey of Taoism as an instrument of legitimacy for political rulers, see John Lagerway, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 253-64. For the use of Chinese religion in general for political ends by both monarchs and the rebels, see C. K Yang, Religion in Chinese Society: A Stucfy of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), 104-243. 5. The legitimacy of Taizong's unusual succession has generated debates among scholars. For a recent concise discussion of this incident, see Deng Guangming, "Song Taizong jiwei zhaoshu zhi mi" *- k * I!p 1.2: � .. �.:P!, in Deng Guangming Zhishi conggao iF If< j& iii ;t . � (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1997), 475-513; and John W. Chaffee, Branches ofHeaven: A History of the Imperial Clan of Sung China (Cambridge: Harvard Uni versity Asia Center, 1999), 26-27. Under Taizong's order, Wang Qinruo 14k%', then grand councilor, documented the divine revelations of the Aiding Sage in Yisheng baode zhuan � � ,lMi it- (HY 1275; the abbreviation HY serves as the prefix to the serial numbers assigned to texts of the Daozang l!�, in Daoiflng iimuyinde l!� 1" � 5 J 1' .
[Combined Indices to the Authors and Titles of Books in Two Collections of Taoist Literature), Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series, no. 25, by Weng Tu-chieh [Reprint, Taipei: Chinese Materials and Research Aids Service, 1966) . For discussions of this particular divine sanction episode, see Edward Davis, Society and the Supernatural of Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 200I), 67-86.
S H I N -YI CHAO Zhenzong (r. 997-1022), who gradually developed a sense of humiliation about the treaty that he had signed with the Khitan kingdom in the north, Liao it, "discovered" that a Heavenly Text 7:.. .. had been bestowed on him and that the imperial house was of divine origin.6 The benefits of a close relationship between the state and religion were not one-sided. Sovereigns supported, subsidized, and sometimes proselytized Daoism through imperial resources.7 For the Song mon archy, the imperial promotion of Daoism reached its apex during the reign of Huizong (r. 1101-25). 8 He launched projects to codify Daoist liturgy, to canonize extant Daoist texts and produce new ones, and to recruit Daoist priests and priestesses for his court. He annotated the Daodejing, the primary guideline of Daoist philosophy, and conscien tiously popularized his commentary. His medical and school projects also involved paoist elements in varying degrees.9 As this chapter will show, he actually intended to develop a new Daoist school based on the Divine Empyrean :# 1It ritual movement. In its concluding remarks on Huizong's biography, the Songshi, the official history of the Song dynasty, remarked that the emperor "overindulged himself in believing in emp tiness [i.e., Daoism]" �� 11; Jt . , and his religious devotion along
6. For a critical survey and analysis of the religio-political scenario of Zhenzong's court surrounding the Heavenly Text affair, see Suzanne Cahill, "Taoists at the Sung Court: The Heavenly Text Affair of 1008," Bulletin ojSung Yuan Studies 16 (1980): 23-44. See also Sun Kekuan .n.Jt:t, Song Yuan Daqjiao zhifazhan �U(.j!�:�.AiJtl (Taizhong: Donghai, 1965), 71-92. 7, For the imperial promotion of Daoism from the eighth to the seventeenth centu ries, see Ren Jiyu * m ;t et al" eds" Zhongguo Daqjiao shi 'f il i!� � (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin, 1990), 266-87, 464-88, 588-612, 8, Ebrey chronicles Huizong's activities elevating Daoism in her "Taoism and Art at the Court of Song Huizong," in Stephen Little, ed" Taoism and the Arts ojChina (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), 94-III, Another comprehensive study on this topic is Jin Zhongshu it 'f �, "Lun Bei Song monian zhi chongshang Daojiao" 'iit' ;lt. *' *,..f1:.. * � i!�, in Conference of Song History, ed" Songshiyanjiuji *, �.Iff � � (Taipei: Guoli bianyi guan, 1975-76), 7: 291-392, 8: 207-78, 9, I will discuss the Daoist elements in Huizong's medical projects below, See also Goldschmidt's chapter in this volume, For the Daoist elements in his school projects, see my article, "Daoist Examinations and Daoist Schools During the Northern Song Dy nasty," Journal oj Chinese Religions 31 (2003): 1-37,
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with the many activities inspired by it directly contributed to the collapse of the Northern Song.lO Nevertheless, even a cursory survey of these Daoism-promotion projects reveals that they clearly went beyond religious devotion. Huizong's involvement in religious affairs extended to the political or administrative level. Through the projects he initiated, the secular ruler was able to govern the spiritual realm of Daoism: he directly intervened in its liturgical, theological, and textual sectors to manipulate the religion from within. He could accomplish this only because he was both an emperor and a well-learned practitioner of Daoism. The apex of Huizong's promotion of Daoism undoubtedly was the project intended to develop the Divine Empyrean ritual into a new order, an order in which he was the cultic leader and the cultic ideal. The Divine Empyrean cosmology and liturgy were introduced to him by his religious adviser, Lin Lingsu #. � -! (I076?-II20),11 who dominated court Dao ism from 1115 to 1119. 1 2 To promote the Divine Empyrean teaching, Huizong established a temple network across the country, formally called the Divine Empyrean Jade Purity Longevity Palaces :off 1t .li �t � "* 1: , but usually abbreviated as the Divine Empyrean Palaces, as the infra structure of the campaign. This chapter will explore this temple network and will show that, as a result of the collaboration between the monarch and courtiers, the Divine Empyrean temples functioned as a manifesta tion of emperorship to commoners as well as to officials. The network, the center of local Divine Empyrean worship, served as an instrument by which local officials could demonstrate their loyalty to the central court. In addition, it also functioned as a means through which the emperor further extended his control over local officials and put his personal stamp on state orthodoxy. The Divine Empyrean temple network testi fies both to Huizong's religious policy and to his emperorship.
10. SS 22.418. II. Un composed a poem before his presumed death in H20, in which he indicated his age was 45 sui; see the Mirror (HY 296), 53-I3b.
12. Traditional sources disagree about when Un rose in Huizong's favor. Tang Daijian Ji-fe.M detennined it should be III5 ("Songshi 'Un Ungsu zhuan' buzheng" *- � ;#' f: 1." 14:ijj�, Shijie zongjiaoyanjiu 49.3 [1992] : 23-28, esp. 25).
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Huizong, Lin Lingsu) and Divine Empyrean Daoism Huizong demonstrated a particular interest in recruiting Daoist masters. From the earliest days of his reign, he warmly patronized esteemed priests of established schools 13 as he painstakingly sought individuals with exceptional SkillS.14 It took him more than a decade of ceaseless effort to find the person who fulfilled his expectation of an ideal secre tary of religious affairs, one who could "quiet the minds of the multi tude" �}]Il� r .15 This was Lin Lingsu, a native ofWenzhou iii �'H and a master of the Shenxiao ritualS.16 Lin developed the imperial promotion 13. For example, Liu Hunkang f1i£'* (I035-II08), the twenty-fifth patriarch of the Highest Clarity (Shangqing J:.. it) school on Mt. Mao *" al! , a Daoist order that emerged in the fourth century. Huizong corresponded with Liu and showered him and his mon astery on Mt. Mao with gifts and subsidies. See Ebrey, "Taoism and Art," 99; and Caro line Gyss-Vermande, "Lettres de Song Huizong au maitre du Maoshan Liu Hunkang, ou Ie patronage imperial comme pratique de devotion," in Jean-Pierre Dieny, ed., Hommage a Kwong Hing Foon, Etudes d'histoire culturelle de la Chine (paris: College de France, In stitut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, 1995), 239-53. (I thank Vincent Goossaert for bringing this article to my attention.) Another example, the twenty-ninth and thirtieth patriarchs of the Heavenly Master (Tianshi 3idifi) school on Mt. Dragon and Tiger (Longhu shan 1thtal!), received honorable titles from Huizong. See Han Tianshi shijia � k �il!:"� (HY 1451), pb. 14. In seeking anchorites and miracle-workers, Huizong invited Yu Xiangu -r1Jdt in II07 (Yang Zhongliang �1t Ill , [Xu] ZiZhi tongjian changbianjishi benmo [�] lf i{;ii� -k .� R. *** [Taipei: Wenhai, 1967], 127.13 [3841]; hereafter, JSBM), and Wang Laozhi .I.*.'t and Wang Zixi .I.fI-* in III3 (Chen Bangzhan ft. *� �, Songshijishi bemo ;;;: .Jt R.*** [Beijing: Zhonghua, 1977], 5I.5II). After Lin Lingsu came to the court, Hui zong still continued to welcome seers from the provinces, for example, Liu Dong 'H i in III6 (jSBM 127.14 [3844]). Figures not mentioned in traditional history records included Chen Nan ft.oM'J (MitTOr [HY 296], 49.15a), and more (MitTOr, 51.4b, 5b; 52.4a, 6b, 7b, 15b, 16b). 15. "At the time [when Lin Lingsu came to the court], his majesty had advocated Daoism for almost ten years. He was especially concerned with the lack of a person [who could] quiet the minds of the multitude" (jSBM 127.2-3 [3820-21]). 16. For studies on Lin Lingsu, see Michel Strickmann, "Sodai no raigi: Shinsho undo to Doka nanshii ni tsuite no ryakusetsu" ;;;: 1-\:. (7) 1; {l: ;f,'f lIth t it � � $ t: -::> \" -C (7) �1lf., ToM shiik(yo 46 (1975): 15-28; idem, "The Longest Taoist Scripture," History oj Religions 17 (1978): 331-54; Matsumoto Koichi ;f'A *� , "Sodai no raiho" ;;;: 1-\:. (7) 1; �, Shakai bunka shigaku 17 (1979): 45-65; and Tang Daijian, "Songshi 'Lin Lingsu zhuan' buzheng," Shijie zong;iaoyan;iu 49 (1992): 23-28. -
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of Daoism to its fullest extent, despite the fact that he wielded power for less than five short years. It is generally agreed that Lin was a master in an emerging ritual movement called the Thunder Rites 1; � , which appeared with increasing frequency from the tenth century onward in south east China (Lin's native region). 17 Even the Songshi, a source hostile to Lin, reluctantly acknowledged the efficacy of Lin's Five Thunder ritual in rainmaking. 18 Nevertheless, initially Lin captured Huizong's attention not by producing rain on demand, but through his elaboration of the Divine Empyrean liturgical exegesis. The Songshi recorded Lin's Shenxiao discourse in brief to the following effect.19 The Divine Em pyrean was the highest level of the nine empyreans IL It of heaven. The Divine Empyrean Pure Jade Monarch :# It .L �t � I was the legitimate son of the Supreme Emperor J:. ,*". His title � was Grand Lord of Long Life -k 1.. *.. '*" ;ft , and he governed the south. However it was his younger brother, Sovereign Green Florescence 1f * '*" ;ft , who was taking care of the administration for him because he had descended in reincarnated form as a ruler in Song China. This earthly reincarnation was, as it turned out, none other than Huizong. Lin Lingsu, too, was a reincarnated divinity from the Divine Empyrean administration manor At, whose name was Chuhui � � . Lin, in addition, identified many other courtiers as reincarnations of divine officials, including Cai Jing JJ.. � (1046-1126), the current grand councilor, and Tong Guan i: 1t (?-1I26), the eunuch who was so powerful that he was mockingly nick named the "grand counciloress" � Aij . Lin was in fact tactful enough to include the emperor's favorite consort, Lady Liu, in this long list of diVIne personages. Lin quickly became influential and powerful in the court. He con vinced the emperor to suppress Buddhism,20 allegedly in revenge for the insulting treatment he had received from Buddhist monks when he lodged in their temples as a wandering celibate. He was also known for •
17. Lowell Skar, "Administering Thunder: A Thirteenth-Century Memorial Deliberating the Thunder Rites," Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 9 (1990--91): 159-202, esp. 159. 18. SS 462.13529. 19. Ibid. 20. Liu Hunkang already had talked disparagingly about Buddhism to Huizong (]SBM 127.12.3480).
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rewarding even the slightest kindness he received during this humble period by bestowing official positions upon those who had helped him.21 He gave monthly lectures in the Palace, which Daoists, officials, and the emperor himself attended. The lectures received a great deal of promo tion. The Daoist audience could receive banquet food, new garments, and subsidies. Selected students in government schools in the capital were assigned to attend. This was actually regarded as a short cut to a prominent career since they would be introduced individually by name to Lin and the emperor at the lectures.22 State and Confucian historiography, the Songshi for example, accused Lin of being a malevolent influence who led Huizong into the hands of religious fanatics, wasted state resources in temple construction and re ligious activities, and, last but not least, demoralized the court.23 How ever, Daoists in the next two centuries, notably Zhao Daoyi �l! (fl. 1294-13°7), evaluated Lin entirely differently. Zhao was the first and primary compiler of the largest hagiographical collection in the Daoist canon, the 53-chapter Ushi zhenxian tidao tongjian 1i.1lt A 1.4 fltl! i! � (A comprehensive mirror on successive generations of perfected tran scendents and those who realize the Dao, HY 296; hereafter the Mirror). The Mirror, along with its two sequels (HY 297 and 298), was first com pleted in the early Yuan period, although the appended text dates to more than a century later.24 It contains rich material but was lightly used for an obvious reason: the inherent bias and flattering nature of hagi ography. However, it is exactly from this so-called bias that we see the opinions, interpretations, and evaluations of Lin Lingsu circulating in contemporary Daoist circles. Zhao devoted half of the final chapter of the Mirror to Lin Lingsu, while most of the other chapters treated a dozen or so figures.25 He began the hagiography of Lin by relating various unusual signs before and at the time of Lin's birth. These signs included his mother's dream
21. Lu You ftiij., Laoxue an biji �*�*�(. (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1977), 3.30. 22. 55 344.10945. 23. 55 462.13529. 24. Boltz, A 5UT7Jey ofTaoist Literature, Tenth to 5eventeenth Centuries (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, and Center for Chinese Studies, 1987), 56-57. 25. Lin's biography, in length, was second only to that of the founding Heavenly Master Zhang Daoling &li!fk, who had a chapter all to himself (chap. 18).
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during an unusually long pregnancy (24 months) of being covered in red clouds preceding his conception; a divine person entering her bed chamber before labor; golden radiance filling the room upon his birth; and the child's complete silence until the age of five, when a mythical Daoist paid a visit. Although varying in details, these all are typical ele ments in hagiographies of sect patriarchs or deified personalities.26 This account of miracles serves as an indicator of Lin's revered status in Daoism up to the turn of the fourteenth century when the Mirror took shape.27 The Mirror continues to relate that as a young man, I.in was smart and diligent. He even impressed Su Shi ,� $\:. (1°36-1101), one of the most renowned literati-officials of the Northern Song, with his brilliance,28 At the age of 30 SUt�29 Lin traveled to western Luo � (Sichuan)30 and met a Daoist with the surname of Zhao ;t!. Several years later, Zhao predicted that he would soon die and left all his belongings to Lin, including a work in three volumes of nineteen chapters � , written in fine print, containing incomprehensible heavenly characters f!::.. l.. The book bore the title The Jade Book of the HeavenlY Altar of the Divine Empyrean #' � f!::.. 4 J:,. t' and contained methods for making rain and employing ghosts and spirits.
26. For example, see the Hantianshi shijia � :k �1lt� (HY 1451). Unusual phenomena occurred during the birth or childhood of many generations of the Heavenly Masters. 27. Qiu Chuji AltJt (Il43-1227), the renowned patriarch of the Complete Perfec tion � � Daoism, also revered Lin Lingsu highly; see Xuanftng qinghui lu I Ji{.,f:i'� HY 176, 6a. By early Ming times, the general attitude toward Lin had shifted in Daoist circles. Zhang Yuchu � * ;fJJ (1361-1410), the forty-third Heavenly Master, for example, did not even mention Lin Lingsu in the line of patriarchs in his account of the lineage of the Divine Empyrean order (Daomen shigui l! r, +�JL HY 1222, LIla). 28. According to some accounts, Lin leaned toward the Old Party. In one partiuclar anecdote, he bowed to the stele that bore the names of the ''Yuanyou partisans" of the Old Party (Yuanyou dangbei :1t1;G:t�) and explained to Huizong that he did so because they were all incarnations of stars. See Ding Chuanjing T 14 '*, Songren yishi huibian *A.� . � � (Beijing: Shangwu 1958 [1935]), 20.1037. 29. He would have been 28 or 29 years old in Western calculation. Thus, the trip likely took place in Il04 or Il05. 30. The place-name used here is xi luo i5s�. While Xiluo could be the name of a town in Shanxi, Luo by itself was a prefecture in Sichuan. Zhao Yushi's ,!Ii � * (Il72-1228) Bintui lu 1; i!� said that the encounter between Lin and Zhao occurred in Sichuan (Baibu congshu jicheng ed. [Taipei:Yiwen, 1967], 1.5a). Therefore, I take xi to be an ad jective and xiluo to mean the western part of the Luo prefecture.
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Armed with the powerful secrets in the Jade Book, Lin was able, according to the Mirror, to capture evil spirits, cure illnesses, keep away the plague, and destroy the temples of the popular deities 1�Ji. Then, a year later, I.in unexpectedly encountered again the supposedly dead Daoist Zhao. Zhao then unveiled his identity as Zhao Sheng ;t! 1t, the cele brated disciple of the first Heavenly Master, Zhang Daoling of the second century CE.31 Zhao Sheng told Lin to keep secret the "Jade Book of the Five Thunders" (referring to TheJade Book ifthe Heaven!JAltarifthe Divine Empyrean). Zhao also revealed Lin's destiny to become the Chief Judge of Thunderclaps for the Lord of the Divine Empyrean Teaching ;ff � �.i. il lt -k *'1 l' and to rescue from disaster the Sovereign of Eastern Florescence .t. "* ,*";f;, a reference that later was connected to Huizong.32 Meanwhile, Huizong, the Mi1Tor conveyed, had a dream in 1106 about ascending to the Divine Empyrean Manor in heaven at the re quest of the Jade Emperor. He came to the Jade Pivot Court (Yushu yuan J,.�fi£), that is, the Bureau of Thunder, where he saw many of ficials at work. One official came out to greet him telling the emperor that this was his old residence i" /l; and asking him to sit on the east seat (that is, the host's seat) to wait for the Jade Emperor to send for him. Shortly thereafter, the Jade Emperor received Huizong and admon ished him to "seriously attend to state affairs, remove the malicious ministers, use the loyal and talented ones, and hold up the royal lineage and the country." On his way out, Huizong came across a Daoist daoren ltA in a blue outfit �:iM.. -,," � lt'jft;f{� *,Utt. � 1t�, � it fJT �, �Hijtff 't . �:ft tt1*" *�Ji � . Jt 't fJT �Ji, 1t -,," �it, . -"" ltf *, � -"" it�, -3-Jl-� Btl , M- � * Ji . -tfL M-F, xftJJ*. '/t. ("� It'jft;f{ �.�* � ��fJT��.tff 't � * -tM"
The tone of the edict was serious and its enforcement no less so. The next month (m8/3), the prefect of Jianchang � & (Sichuan province), Chen Bing Ft #-, was removed from his position for building the Divine Empyrean temple insincerely and for punishing Daoist priests,82 a charge
82. SS 21.399.
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brought against him by Huang Baoguang if -i 7'G , an attendant censor it,fip �, whom the Songshi deemed to be otherwise a man of dignity.83 Huang brought the same accusation against three other local administrators, all of whom were suspended from their positions 1+ It. Iiu Ji f1&. Uinshi 1097), who governed Yanling �F! county, Kaifeng MJ .jt , was demoted after Zhao Ting :M! � , a fiscal commissioner "'lfi�,84 reported him for not building the Divine Empyrean temple according to government regulation.85 If this amounted to a battle be tween the emperor's personal interests, enforced in the form of state power, and individual officials motivated by their consciences, the latter clearly lost the first confrontation, and it was their colleagues who turned them in. The solidarity of the shi, if it existed in the first place, was easily undermined by imperial power. In imposing the temple project, or any other imperial projects, on local administration, the authority of the emperor expanded. Daoist priests also could report local officials for neglecting Divine Empyrean Palace matters. eai Juhou Jj. /b Jf, who was governor of Yingtian, Henan, at the time, was accused by Daoists of building the Divine Empyrean Palace in a swamp and was transferred to Ruzhou i"k ?'N (in present-day Henan).86 Zong Ze * i"f (1059-1128), for another example, had offended some Daoists earlier. They seized the chance to report Zong to the court for building the Palace improperly during his tenure as prefect of Dengzhou * ?'�I (in present-day Shandong).
83. SS 348.11030. 84. While fiscal commissioners were primarily responsible for taxation and other fiscal matters, they were also the investigators for the emperors during the Song period (Xu Huailin 1f'ltlll*, "Bei Song zhuanyun shi zhidu luelun" ;It. ***j{{t��, in Deng Guangming ill Jl it et al., eds., Songshiyanjiu lunwenji * 3t 1ff � � ;,t � [Henan: Henan renmin, 1984], 287-318, esp. 331-32). Kracke notes that together with judicial commis sioners (tidian xin;gu gongshi .j,tl!;1ftJ�J';/] {t), fiscal commissioners led the Circuit In tendants Evaluation Bureau (Zhuanyun shi fu tidian xingyu keji yuan **j{{t.i�.j,tl!;1ftJ ��*F;t), an office established in 1049, to conduct personnel evaluations under their jurisdictions. See E. A. Kracke, Jr., Civil Service in Earjy Sung China, 96o-I067, Harvard Yenching Institute Monographs 13 (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1968), 44. See also Hucker, A Dictionary ofOfficial Titles in Imperial China (Reprint-Taipei: SMC, 1995 [1985]), 186. 85. SS 448.13200. 86. SS 356.11210.
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Zong was already semi-retired and living in the countryside of Dongyang .t. � (Zhejiang) at the time, but he was still punished by dismissal from his nominal assignment Ji. and forced relocation to Zhenjiang ��.!. .87 The duties of the prefects did not end at building the Divine Empy rean temples. The temples, after being built, were placed under their direct jurisdiction instead of under that of local Daoist registrars J! ..iE.. . 88 Nevertheless, day-to-day temple affairs required abbots in residence, positions which would soon be filled by the graduates of the government Daoist schools that Huizong had launched two years earlier. At the court, in IIl8/7, Huizong assigned his trusted courtiers to attend to his project. The appointments included CaiJing, ZhengJuzhong, and Yu Shen �iJ to be the palace commissioner 1; 1t and Wang Fu and Cai Xiao, among others, to be the vice palace commissioner ,%IJ 1t of the Divine Empyrean Palace, and the next month, he announced the completion of the Divine Empyrean Palaces. 89 From that point on, the Divine Empyrean Palace project moved into full gear.
The Function ofLocal Divine Empyrean Palace After a year of painstaking effort through decrees, rewards, and pun ishments, the court finally felt confident enough to announce the com pletion of the Divine Empyrean Palace network. Huizong promptly proceeded to make it into a fully functional religious agent for his Shenxiao Daoism. He announced, in IlI8/8, that the graduates of the recently established government Daoist schools could fill the positions of the supervisors and vice-supervisors of local Divine Empyrean 87. SS 22.404; see also Zong's biography by Yu Ao ��, collected in Zong Zhongjianji * .t AA 1t< (SKQS ed), 7·5b. 88. SHY I27.IO. 89. SS 22.404. For a translation of the edict, see Ebrey's article in this volume. Never theless, new local Divine Empyrean temples continued to be added to the network. The Nengren jj�1.::. Buddhist Temple in Changzhou of 1+1 (in present-day Jiangsu), for ex ample, was not converted into the Divine Empyrean Palace until the Xuanhe era (Sun Du -If,Jt, "Changzhou Yongqing chanyuan xingzao ji" of 1'''' *..f:;jf.'*�.it�(., in Hongqing jushiji �.f:% ± 1t< [SKQS ed.), 22.17a). And in Pingding + Jt 1'�1 prefecture (in pre sent-day Shanxi), the Palace was not finished until 1124 (Shanxi tongzhi ..4 tEi llL .t. [SKQS ed.), 170.55a).
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Palaces. The next month, the state granted the Divine Empyrean Palaces the Daodejing with the emperor's own commentary to be engraved on stone in the temples.90 The following month, Daoists were ordered by imperial edict to receive ordination 1: � at Divine Empyrean Palaces in the capital or in the counties.91 Huizong clearly intended to make the temple network the basis for his Divine Empyrean Daoism in order to recruit clergy to be led by his academically trained lieutenants, and they would all be exposed to the achievement of Huizong, their "lord of teachings," in Daoist philosophy. Outside the temples, the hatchets � , were erected in the same manner prescribed for Confucius temples �Ji...f.. :Jt. 5t � .£ 1fJ .ft. fJe..92 Steles were also erected. The Daode jing with Huizong's commentary was engraved on stone at the temple and, beginning in 1II9, Huizong's imperial brush inscription "Record of the Divine Empyrean Palace" was engraved as well.93 The stone inscription certainly could remind the locals of the divine sanction that the sovereign's authority had received. In addition, Huizong ordered prefects in prominent locations to compose records for the Divine Empyrean Palaces in their own jurisdictions as, for example, in the case of the one in Zhenjiang prefecture.94 The central altar of a Divine Empyrean Palace enshrined the statues of Great Lord of Long Life and his younger brother, Sovereign Green Florescence. The two brothers embodied the core religio-political func tion of Divine Empyrean Daoism. They manifested to visitors, especially scholar-officials who were required by imperial order to go to pay their respects, the divinity of their current emperor.95 In the main hall surrounding the sanctuary, a set of ceremonial pro tocols m.1l bestowed by the court were exhibited on four shelves, two on each side. On the east side, on the first shell, the following items were
90. ]SBM 127;ua.3837. 91. SHY daoshi 2.3. 92• ]SBM 127.ua.3835. 93. The inscription is translated by Ebrey elsewhere in this volume. 94. Wang Zao, Fuxiji 20.5-8. 95. On this topic, see Patricia Ebrey, "The Emperor and the Local Community in the Song Period," in Satake Yasuhiko, ed., Chugokii no rekishi sekai-togo no shisutemu to ta kugenteki hatten (Tokyo: Tokyo toritsu daigaku shuppan kai, 2002), 373-402.
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displayed from east to west: a brocade umbrella i$ . , a red tasseled staff ,� ifj , a precious canopy f ..l., a pearl flag .41t, a five brightness fan 1i a,ij �, and a banner hoisted on a feather-decked mast �; and on the second shell, also from east to west: a silk dust-remover �.� �, a narrow flag �, two crane-feather fans ��, a gold ax 1t�, and a scepter -!til;!:. The west side hosted symmetrically the same objects except that a jade ax .L 1r replaced the gold ax.96 This imperially be stowed set of ritual objects certainly enhanced the majesty of the temple in the eyes of the audience. On top of this, it supplied one more direct link between the central court and the provincial temples, and further more, it regulated the design of the Empyrean Palace down to the ar rangement of the halls. From the steles outside, to the sanctuary, to the decor of the main hall, the entire panoply of a Divine Empyrean palace brought to mind the divinity and majesty of the emperor in his far away capital. The Divine Empyrean Palaces also housed the therapeutic agencies of the state, the Humane Aid Pavilions. On III9/6/3, Huizong issued the following edict:97 I, Your Emperor, regard the Dao to be merciful toward the world. Isn't it from the starting point of the Dao that my people are made free from suffering illness, injury, or early death? Talismans, registers, incantations, and prayers are indeed efficacious for curing illness and vanquishing virulent plague. In previous times, residents of the capital using these means surely benefited from them. I have always desired to extend this to the entire realm and widely distribute them to aid the people. This is what I wish to achieve now. All prefectural administrations should install the Humane Aid Pavilion in a space three pillars wide in a corner of the Divine Empyrean Palaces. Select three to five charm-water Daoists or lay people who have mastered such techniques to practice the teachings according to the rituals and give out charm-water from dawn until noon. They must be concentrated and purified to remove evil and dispel plagues. Whatever the specialists need, the official clerks will supply to them in full. Do not harass them and cause them to double their already vexed labor. Meanwhile, assign an official clerk and a Daoist official to look them over, record their meritorious deeds, and make evaluations every twenty days. At the end of the year, report to the supervising transport intendants and investigation
96. Laoxue an biji 9.82 (Taipei: Shanwu, 1966). 97. Song da zhaolingji 219.843.
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commissioners with veritable records, and there shall be awards. Those who have made mistakes or are insincere, and expecting gratuitous reward for no merit will be treated without pardon according to the legal code. This is to allow all commoners to receive concrete benevolence from me, to enter the realm of longevity together, and to keep peace. J1�Y).l!.tf.;ff 7C. """f , 1t�4z�.:1dl
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7. In Quan Tangshi this poem is also found among Lady Blossom's works (where it is no. 149, Quan Tangshi 798.8980). I take this secondary attribution to be erroneous. See my discussion of the problems with various versions of her corpus below. 8. Adopting the variant paishou .f{J -t- in this line.
Huizong's Palace Poems no. 40 She boasts that she sings and dances better than the others, And resents not winning the ruler's favor to be summoned frequendy out. Through the night they renovate an apartment in the ladies quarters The carpets and blinds are replaced all at once. An aparunent is being readied for a new favorite, and this serves only to exacerbate the proud
subject's jealousy and frustration.
After Wang Jian probably the most celebrated author of palace poems was the woman Lady Blossom (Huarui furen). We know little about her life and even her identity is questionable. It is generally thought that she was the concubine of Meng Chang �7� (9 19-65), ruler of the Later Shu during the Five Dynasties period, selected by him for her beauty and literary talent. Later, when Meng Chang was captured and put to death, Lady Blossom is said to have gained favor with his conqueror, the founder of the Song dynasty, and to have been brought into his harem. The heir apparent (Taizong), displeased with this, eventually had her killed in a hunting "accident." This identification of Lady Blossom is affirmed in the most recent and fullest study of her and her poetry, written by Xu Shiwen .ft #.... 5t and published in 1992.9 But this identification had already been challenged in a study written in the 1940S by Pu Jiangqing iM �.:r. it. On the basis of internal evidence in the poems, Pu argued that they are most likely to have been written slightly earlier, at the court of the Former Shu (901-25). 1 0 It has long been known that there was a Lady Blossom at that court too, who was the consort of the founder, Wang Jian .I. � (not to be confused with the Tang poet of the same name), and mother ofJian's successor, Wang Yan .!.. �it . 11 Pu Jiangqing thinks that this earlier woman was more probably the author of the "Lady Blossom" poems, or that she and
9. Xu Shiwen, Huareigongcijianzhu 1�ti 1: 16) l ii: (Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, 1992). 10. Pu Jiangqing iiff � it, "Huarui furen gongci kaozheng" 1� ti *- A. 1: 16) ;f � (1947), reprinted in Pu Jiangqing wenlu iiff � it *-* (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1958), 47-101, see esp. 79-80. II. See, e.g., Cai Tao �it, Tiewei shan congtan -' 111 J.r "it (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983), 6.108---9 .
37°
RONALD EGAN
others may have jointly authored them. While most scholars argue for authorship by one or the other Lady Blossom, it is also possible that the "Lady Blossom" corpus that we have today combines poems by the two ladies. What is clear is that in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries a corpus of palace poems attributed to "Lady Blossom" came to enjoy considerable repute. The poems must have been known to Emperor Huizong, as Wang Jian's poems also surely were. During the Xining period (1068-77), Wang Anguo ..I. � � , younger brother of Wang Anshi, came across a tattered manuscript of them in an imperial library. He copied out 3 2 of the poems and spoke of them to his older brother, noting what a shame it was that Wang Jian's palace poems were so well known, but that these, which were equally accomplished, were ne glected and forgotten. Two other officials, Wang Gui ..I.{i and Feng Jing ;.� 1{.. , are said to have joined in the effort to promote Lady Blos som's works, with the result that soon they "circulated widely in the world." 12 We know from two early sources that the original manu script that Anguo came across contained 100 poems, or close to it ("80 or 9 0" by one account, and exactly 100 by another). 13 Why Anguo copied out only 3 2 we do not know. But to judge from references to the corpus and quotations of it that are widespread by the early Southern Song, it is clear that the version that "circulated widely" contained the full complement of poems, not just the 3 2 that Anguo first recopied.14 It is very likely, then, that the entire corpus was known to Huizong when he devoted himself to the task of producing his own palace poems, and, indeed, tripling the size of what had evidently become a conventional number of pieces in a palace poem series. It should be noted here that the version of Lady Blossom's palace poems found in Quan Tangshi �J!tt is particularly unreliable. There, its size is swollen to 157 pieces, being based on Ming editions that mistakenly include many poems that were actually written by earlier authors (such as Wang Jian), as well as
12. Hu Zi t}] H-, Tiaoxiyuyin conghua {t iAi.�, r! . �, houji 40.333. 13. Liu Ban lint, riu Ban shihua lint�t�, in Song shihua quanbian *-�t���, ed. Wu Wenzhi �xn; (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1998), I: 28.447; and Chen Shidao f! /iiji l!, Chen Shidao shihua f! /iijil!�t�, in Song shihua quanbian 2: P017. See also Pu Jiangqing's discussion of these accounts of Lady Blossom's works, 69-70. 14. See Pu Jiangqing, "Huarui furen gangci kaozheng," 90-91.
Huizong's Palace Poems
371
other pieces whose provenance is unclear but that are not attested in Song editions. Xu Shiwen's study includes a collated text of the authentic 100 poems, together with annotations and a translation into Modern Chinese. It is his text and piece numbers that I use below. But I also provide secondary piece numbers (in parentheses) to the Quan Tangshi version of Lady Blossom's works, since that is so much more widely available than Xu Shiwen's volume. Chen Shidao Ft tiifi it (1053-1101) uncritically asserts that Lady Blos som "modeled" her palace poems on the well-known work of Wang Jian. 1 5 While everyone who wrote palace poems after Wang Jian was in fluenced to some degree by the conventions and parameters of his 100 poems, Lady Blossom's verses occasionally explore sentiments and subjects in ways that set them apart from the Tang prototype. One of the ways they do this is by presenting to the reader aspects of palace life that are arguably less predictable than those we ordinarily find in Wang Jian's poems. There is a concentration of detail and surprising particulars in Lady Blossom's poems that is distinctive. We do not need to account for this by saying that Lady Blossom wrote from personal experience, whereas Wang Jian wrote, by his own admission, from hearsay. Personal experience is no guarantee that the poems that result from it will be any more convincing or "authentic" than those written second-hand. But in Lady Blossom's case, she evidently took full ad vantage of her life behind palace walls to include in her poems specifics of goings-on there that would have been difficult for an outsider to imagine. Two examples are given here: no. 34 (81) The water-pump lifts water up the palace wail, A trickling sound is heard from the eaves in the palace of repose. To enhance the sweetness of our Sage's pillowed slumber, Through chilled nights they create this sound of a distant mountain stream.
:1]I ;t iift : .fa if- .til Fit ... JiI. � � ;t A. ��, Guoli Taiwan daxue meishushiyar!Jiujikan m j:. � � * * 1.. 1# 3t.&Jf� ;f. I'll (Taibei: Guoli Taiwan daxue, Meishushi yanjiusuo, 1998), 83-84. 29. On a theory of formalized and restricted communication, such as music, see Maurice Bloch, "Symbols, Song, Dance, and Features of Articulation: Is Religion an Extreme Form of Traditional Authority?" in Bloch, Ritua4 History andPower: 5elected Papers in Anthropology (London: Athlone, 1989), 22-33.
JOSEPH S. C.
LAM
documented Chinese civilization. 3D Confucianism became a state ideol ogy during the early Han, and since then ritual and music became un challengeable means of governance. Extensively described in the classics and court documents, the historical and cultural forces behind the Dashengyue campaign were unmistakable. As formal and public worship of Heaven, Earth, imperial ancestors, and other deities, state sacrifices were large-scale, complex, and auspi cious rites tJ ;jf performed by the emperor or his delegates according to codified liturgies on specified days and at sacred sites. For example, the liturgy of the state sacrifice to Heaven included a relatively fixed se quence of court and ritual activities that began with a formal an nouncement of the performance schedule and ended with celebratory events such as a state banquet and/ or an amnesty)! The central event of a state sacrifice was, however, the sacrificial ceremony �: a ceremony that was performed in formalized stages, namely the welcoming of the gods to the site of the performance; the offerings of jade, silk, wine, and sacrificial victims to the deities being honored; the burning of ritual utensils; and the farewell to the deities. State sacrifices were performed with yqyue; much of Huizong's Dashengyue was practiced and discussed as such. Promoted by Con fucians, yqyue was ideally and broadly conceived not only as musical expressions that emulated ancient and exemplary compositions such as the Shao � and Wu iff "iif J'A � .\.;, � ?; i:z � , � 1f
l! �. � -c �t , JOC�JtZ � /t. , Jt. � E1 : ;#" , Il. , x , ;i(., ;ft, � , .iE , l:\ , \.; JJtJ /t. � .>tt� .1i1 :f �L *, . I?t � �t, JtZ�1i., Jt. � E1 : 1}t 1'i'l.t had requested earlier. To guide the music reform, Li compiled Yuezuan � �, a treatise on tuning and temperament standards, Zhongru
definitions, and histories of music and musical instruments, procedures for the musicians' examinations, and training programs. Li's compilation is a typical product of court music reforms, which often involved com plex ideas and facts, and needed verbal clarification. Concrete results soon emerged. In
1006/8,
Zhenzong attended a
performance of the reformed music and musical instruments, in which the musicians played duets and trios on the instruments to highlight their accurate tuning and temperament standard. Zhenzong was quite pleased with the performance, for he had just acquired a "perfected" tool of governance and had viewed evidence of his officials performing their duties. As a result, Northern Song court music operated smoothly in the following three decades. Then, in
1034/8, Yan Su
� Ii (961-104°), a supervisor of the Court
of Imperial Sacrifices, reported to Renzong, Zhenzong's successor, that court music of the time was in disarray. 66 Typically, such reports emerged during the early years of a new reign. Although the immediate purpose of such reports might be musical, their fundamental motive was to request the new emperor to become an active ruler. 67 Thus, Renzong ordered leading musical scholar-officials, namely Yan Su, Song Qi
*- ;f� (998-1061), Li Sui :f. r.t, and Li Zhao, to launch a music
reform, which turned out to be a war of theories and personalities among the officials. In
1035/2, Yan presented a performance of 51
state
sacrificial songs with musical instruments that he had adjusted to Wang
66. SS 126-27.2947-72. 67. Renzong ascended to the Song throne as a child in 1022; only after 1033, when Empress Dowager Zhangxian 1:,it died, did he actually begin to rule. See SS 242.8614.
422
J O S E P H S . C . LAM
Pu's tuning and temperament standard.68 Li Zhao rejected Yan's solu tion, criticizing Wang's standard as five semitones higher than that of ancient music, and denouncing Yan's adjusted musical instruments as deficient. Sounds of the large instruments, such as the single bell, were overpowering, Li commented, while those of the small ones, such as the constituent chimes in the stone-chimes, sounded stifled; none were in struments of moderate measures. Like the conflicts that followed, the disagreements between Li Zhao and Yan Su were not only musical and personal, but also political and intellectual; they represented the officials' individual efforts to serve the empire. To demonstrate his position, Li Zhao requested and got court per mission to implement what he claimed was an ancient and accurate tuning and temperament standard. In 1035/5, he presented bell-chimes and stone-chimes of twelve constituent pitches, featuring a tuning and temperament standard that was four semitones lower than that which was currently used. Both the standard and reduced instruments evoked strong objection. Feng Yuan ;,�7t (975-1037), for example, argued that there was no reason why the bell-chimes and stone-chimes featured only twelve pitches, citing the existence of mouth-organs £. of thirteen pipes and se Gt zithers of twenty-five strings. He also asserted that the four octave pitches were needed to bar the musical "usurpation" from ap pearing.69 Feng, however, could not stop Li's advance. Exercising his imperial power, Renzong ordered that Li's reduced bell-chimes and stone-chimes be used until definitive answers were found. Thus, the reform continued, and more debates, research, and ex periments resulted, exposing issues of musical instruments, dances, cosmological considerations, and performance practices. To clarify the issues, Renzong had the Jingyouyuesui xinjing * 1;t; * flitJT�£ compiled. And in the eleventh month of 1035, Li Zhao's music and musical in struments premiered at the Round-Mound Altar at the south of the capital. This performance, however, only led to more musical-political personal skirmishes. In 1036/9, Ruan Yi I?t:i!, who, like Hu Yuan �}j J.t (993-1059), was summoned to court as a result of the 1035 search for music masters, memorialized, repeating his proposal to adopt the 68. SS 126.2948-49. 69. SS 126.2950.
Huizong's Dashengyue
423
measurements specified in Zhouli and complaining that his theories had so far been ignored. In 1036/10, Ding Du T Jt (990-1053) offered his theories on the use of millet grains in deriving tuning and temperament standards, attacking those proposed by Ruan Yi, Hu Yuan, and Li Zhao as erroneous and not worthy of implementation. As criticism accumu lated, Renzong's support for Ii Zhao dwindled. Thus, when Censor Han Qi #Hi- (1008-75) recommended suspension of Ii's music in 1038/5, Renzong acquiesced and ordered: "All should revert to the old practices; whatever Ii Zhao produced should not be used again."70 The emperor's order, however, seems not to have erased Ii Zhao's influence totally. In 1050, new music that apparently used none of the four octave pitches was composed for the Mingtang state sacrifice, and provided an excuse for the Hanlin scholar Wang Yaochen .I. ;t fl. (1001-56) to sharply criticize the use of musical modes in the new compositions.71 All of them used only the huangzhong mode, and thus, in Wang's mind, they contradicted the notion that the music honoring different deities should feature rotating modes. For example, the music honoring the Green Deity -t ,*" , Wang argued, should use the w'!Jigong mode. If Wang's criticism had any effects, they were not reported. However, Wang's criticism shows how strong officials used classical theories as excuses to influence the emperor. In any case, in 1050/9, Renzong ordered an audition of newly com posed music for the Mingtang state sacrifice. At the end of the rehearsal, Renzong lamented an obvious failure of his emperorship. He wanted to have proper music created so that he could use it to honor Heaven and the imperial ancestors and to demonstrate his own virtues; although music was performed, there was no guarantee that it was proper. Ren zong then ordered further discussions and instructed Hu Yuan to rectify whatever errors remained. Thus, Renzong effectively launched another round of music reform. Indeed, in the first month of 1051, he ordered the army to cut stones to be used in making more stone-chimes, and he directed officials to search for ancient measures that had been preserved among the common people. In the following month, he demanded a discussion about the titles of the music compositions being performed then. In 1051/12, 70. 55 126.2962. 71. 55 126.2963-64.
J O S E P H S . C . LAM
Renzong ordered a rehearsal, featuring musical instruments made ac cording to the newly formulated measurements. Debates, experiments, and construction of musical instruments continued until 1053, when the censor Li Dui *" Jt analyzed the situation, and requested a compro mise:72 The court has been revising music for a number of years. Now when the empire is in a time of insufficient funds, the court [still] spends a lot of money on the music reform. [Expensive] instruments have been made, [but] the court wants to change them into something else. Although the emperor has ordered top-level officials Ri:J ;{f to discuss the issues, they have not produced any appropriate solutions. I request that the court mixes the new and the old musical instruments and adjusts their tones; use whatever instruments that produce proper and harmonious sounds. -Wlht.�� � it.f, 'f il tl.t Il �1:.. Bt, ttt t -!,l. 2-fltJi\* ,
5l��� ).\ , J!t4rRi:J ;{f :k. If ��, fl\*-$i� � � � 'f . 1t )'X Wf Ji\it���!l * � � -t-:tx ��, 1!!�iii' ll110: #:t � m 1:...
Li's request was a pragmatic one, but he missed the point, because music reform was not only a matter of instruments and sounds. As nothing conclusive followed, criticisms began to appear that the con tested state of the empire was caused by the unstable situation of court music. Refuting the criticisms, which rendered music a negative force and an inauspicious omen,73 Renzong charged: "Music had not followed ancient principles for a long time. The recent flooding and drought re sulted from the merits and demerits of governmental measures. How could they be the result of the current state of court music?" *.i::. .>F � � -5 , 1t
#, :Jt-!--r�. 1k4i�x -- � i'Jf Jl:. :t 1'F -f" i!IT
.� -f"-tt It. lt. J';{ !l '* g �El:M. MiJt.!-� .;JF # .:JF 1�
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By 1105/7, the set of nine tripods / grand single bells proposed by Wei was fmally completed. It was an event that promptly led to other musical actions. In the next month, the musician in chief, Liu Bing, success fully requested a purge of vernacular musical instruments in the court 84. 55 128.2999·
432
J O S E P H S . C . LAM
orchestras of the time. He wanted to make them proper so that they could be used to play the newly composed music. A rehearsal soon followed, and it began with the playing of three pieces of the old music. Before the playing had concluded, however, Huizong had it stopped, declaring that the music sounded like weeping, echoing what Taizu had said in 966. Then the new music was played, and Huizong liked what he heard, a reaction that prompted the attending officials to congratulate him. This exchange was a discourse of imperial power and official loyalty. Theoretically, the music was efficacious be cause it realized classical theories and emulated ancient practices. In practice, it was authenticated by the emperor's acceptance. By con gratulating the emperor for the success of the newly created music, the officials pledged their obedience, flattering the emperor as a meritorious ruler proper music, the theorist believed, only appeared during op portune times of benevolent rulers. Two months later, the new music formally premiered at the imperial birthday celebration. As the scholar-officials offered toasts to the em peror, the Songshi reports, auspicious cranes flew in from the northeast, circled over the imperial terrace where the music was being performed, and sang their approval before flying away.85 Delighted by this auspicious omen, Huizong proudly wrote an edict explaining the reasons and goals for his launching of a new music. Naming it the Dashengyue, he ordered its use in state sacrifices, replacing pre-existing state sacrificial songs. The edict reads:86 When the Dao takes shape, it rises. This is a fact that the early sage-kings un derstood. Thus, they coordinated the Dao with measurements and numbers and embodied it with sounds and literature. The resultant music thus flows with Heaven and Earth. . . . I, Your Emperor, inherited the empire, and the deities and ancestors de scended from heaven [to help. Thus] the land marked by the four seas is peaceful, and the crops mature regularly. People living in lands as far south as Yelang xiangke lt �� *:for and as far west as Jishi qinghai � .-b -k iJ§: are all obedient. Ritual and music should be instituted at this opportune time, which occurs once in a hundred years . . . .
85. See Peter C. Sturman, "Cranes Above Kaifeng: The Auspicious Image at the Court of Huizong," Ars Orientans 20 (1990): 33-68. 86. ]5BM 135.4b-5a.
Huizong's Dashengyue
433
Recently, the court found a hermit [i.e., Wei Hanjin] who emerged from the lowly ranks of foot soldiers, and acquired ancient musical instruments in the land where I received the mandate to rule. As now is an opportune time [to institute music, I have offered] my body to set the measurements, and ordered the casting of the tripods / large bells to establish a tuning and temperament standard, according to which musical instruments were made. [When the newly composed music was] performed on the terrace of the palace hall, the sounds produced with the [newly created] eight categories of musical instruments were harmonious. This is a result not of my own merits but of the ancestors' accumulated virtues and Heaven's help. In the past, Yao had the Zhang, Shun had the Shao. The sage-kings of the Three Eras had different musics and titles. Now, [I] emulate models practiced a thousand years ago, and establish the music of our generation. I thus name it Dashengyue. I will have it performed at the altars and shrines to honor the deities and spirits, to hamIOnize the nations, and to share it with all under Heaven. This is a great [development], is it not? The old music should not be used any more. l! � i1i1 ..t., 7\:. .f.. tt .t, tAf"ltit, .f"�"tt, $.. � � kJl!!. M i/,i. $ � :f 1t � * . IDtrlQiJ*4-- � , # k Ft ll, �if§,*�, -fttJIIJiA . .w � -1t �� #�, �*�.:b -tif§, J%] :f "'�; � � .t� , Ef -ff" JI:.. tt\ -t- l:lt lt, l!�-1t if. i!::t, 1!f '* l!..t ±; f" 1;t *.tllt , � � ]t .t a f" 1: 1r .t *�. it at .t iI: , itA jJ- �Jt, "/r} ltA �#, � * ltA $� a , �tAf" nt., A.:t J? .t�. A;fll. * � ;¥. .t1*, ..t. '*" � A2 , :! IDt .t -ft �! 1H't. lf tl, # If :k �; .=.. 1�.t.f.. , # � J't. � . � 1!. -t � r1Q A - 1�.t$�, il: J!h � a 7d� . IDt��Jt3(�tm, * .>V:Af, �P � *�, � k r #.t, :! :f � �? $.. � � o/J Jf) . .
.
And to administer this new court music and its performers, Huizong created the Dashengfu (Bureau of the Music of Great Brilliance), an act of emperorship that underscored his individuality and understanding of music. By establishing this unprecedented court office, Huizong not only defied the institutional tradition of entrusting ritual and music to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices but also highlighted his personal under standing of music as something distinctive from ritual. A full-scale office, the Dashengfu was staffed by one musician in chief *- � � , two music managers � � , one music officer *- � �, four composers WJ# ��, and other supportive personnel for the production of scores, musical in struments, and other musical needs. Thus, the Dashengyue campaign proceeded into high gear. In 1106/9, the emperor ordered that the new state sacrificial music should be performed not only at the imperial altars and temples but also throughout the empire. Implementation of the order, however, could progress step by step. Performance of the Dashengyue should begin in
434
J O S E P H S . C . LAM
the capital and spread from there to the three regional capitals of Luoyang, Nanjing, and Beijing, to their suburbs ll!1 � and to the military regions �M. Realizing the emperor's commitment to music, career-minded scholar-officials began to present various proposals to the court, claim ing that their theories would help achieve the emperor's goal. Without doubt, they were also trying to advance their own careers by drawing the emperor's attention to themselves. Peng Ji jj It, a jinshi, for example, presented his music treatise to argue that because the Song dynasty was built with the virtue of fire, its state sacrificial music should highlight the zhilfire tone, while suppressing theyu/water tone. Wu Shi �at, a vice director in the Ministry of Rites, found the arguments convincing and requested the court to summon Pengo He came; how his music worked with the court is, however, not recorded. By 1108, Liu Shen fH! also successfully presented his music of the Zhi tone, which was rehearsed by musicians from both the Dashengfu and the Entertainment Music Of fice. Huizong ordered the rehearsals, arguing that without the Zhi andjue compositions, his state sacrificial music could neither harmonize with the Dao nor change people'S customs. With this rehearsal, it should be noted, Huizong began to control not only state sacrificial music of the court, but also itsYalryue. Then, Huizong issued a series of edicts to solidify his control. In the fifth month of 1109, Huizong ordered that whenever he visited the na tional university and hosted banquets there, the Dashengyue should be performed. Until then, vernacular music, including music performed with dramatic acting, had been used. In 1110/4, Huizong granted a court request that courtyard orchestras be used in the state sacrifices honor ing Ganshengdi � 1.. * and the imperial ancestors of Xizu and Taizu. With this grant and the use of the courtyard orchestras, Huizong ac centuated the imperial status of the Dashengyue and the deities being honored. In 1110/6, Huizong commanded that national university students be selected and trained to perform the civil and military dances at state sacrifices. This edict was resisted, a fact that significantly pinpoints the ways in which music provided a means for the emperor and the officials to negotiate with one another, expressing their intellectual and social concerns. Song scholar-officials resisted because they found training alongside the socially low musician-dancers � .:L to be undignified.
Huizong's Dashengyue
435
Eventually, a compromise was reached: only those university students who volunteered would learn the ritual music and dance. In order to theoretically support the recent musical changes, in 1110/8 Huizong ordered Uu Bing to compile a music treatise. This was the Dasheng yueshu of 20 chapters, which addressed a wide range of topics, including numerological and cosmological attributes of the Dashengyue, the merits of Wei Hanjin's theory, and Huizong's goal of creating a musical legacy for posterity. This treatise was distributed throughout the empire to promote the Dashengyue, and to spread Huizong's musical presence. Results soon emerged; these included, for example, the use of proper music at the scholars' annual banquets ht �t t: in the provinces. By that time, the state sacrificial repertory of Dashengyue appeared to have approached maturity, and further codification of technical par ticulars became necessary. Thus, in 1113/4, the Office of Rites presented to the court detailed prescriptions on the use of the courtyard and terrace orchestras during the state sacrifices. Those performing in ceremonies at which the emperor personally officiated were to have more instruments and were to be arranged in more elaborate patterns. Figure 10.5 demon strates the physical arrangement of a courtyard orchestra for a state sac rifice at which the emperor officiated.87 In the meantime, Huizong began to work on the yatryue repertory of Dashengyue. In 1113 /5 a rehearsal of banquet music took place in the Hall of Esteemed Governance * Jlt�. After the rehearsal, Huizong decreed that from then on, the Entertainment Music Office should practice only the new banquet music of Dashengyue; all other pre-existing banquet music should be banned. This order was not easy to implement. In order to provide the ap propriate musical instruments for the new music, the Dashengfu ad justed, constructed, and distributed to the responsible offices ocarinas, flutes, mouth-organs, stone-chimes, and other musical instruments. To teach the musicians the ways in which the new/adjusted musical in struments could be used, the office produced notated scores and illus trative diagrams, two sets of which were distributed, respectively, to the Entertainment Music Office, the Imperial Military Band, and the
87· Yang Yinliu, Zhongguo gudazjif!Jue shigao, 398-99.
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Huizong's Dashengyue
437
Kaifeng municipal music office. The musicians were ordered to follow the instructions closely. Anyone who dared to adjust the tuning or de signs of the new instruments would be punished. All vernacular musics and instruments that had heretofore been in use, such as the Shifan + .. dances and small flutes, were banned. Anyone who violated the bans or performed with prohibited instruments and tones would be punished. These measures were draconian, but they were imperial means of gov ernance sanctioned by the classics.88 Three months later, in III3/8, the Dashengfu reported that they had revised court banquet music using the proposed "central tones," and that they had remedied the lack of music in the Zhi and jue modes and in struments of earth, stone, and gourds. Upon receiving this news, Huizong decreed that the Dashengyue be promulgated throughout the empire. This rather vague edict was followed by another in the next month, specifying the use of the new banquet music at the National University. To help promulgate the banquet music and to ensure that musicians throughout the empire would not use the wrong modes and cause un desirable effects, Liu Bing requested a codification of the seasonal use of musical modes. Citing the authority of the ''Yueling'' fl � chapter of the Liji, Liu argued that during the summer months, music of Zhi tone should be promoted, while those of shang and yu should be banned; if the latter two tones were improperly used, Liu commented, they would lead to war and crime. Responding to Liu's argument, Huizong ordered the Dashengfu to produce and distribute instructional aids to the musicians. This exchange between Huizong and Liu Bing did not, however, solve the complicated issue of musical modes, and debates continued. In III4/I, the Dashengfu requested that musical modes of vernacular banquet music be adjusted according to the classical theory of monthly rotation of modes. And in III6/I, Huizong ordered the Dashengfu to compile and distribute charts for manipulating the 84 musical modes; he also instructed Liu Bing to compile Yatryue xinshu .t: *.iJf"t' to explain the new banquet music. This series of actions regarding vernacular banquet music amounted to a forceful and intrusive exercise of imperial power, one that had •
•
88. I�ji, 5-170.
J O S E P H S . C . LAM neither precedence nor subsequence in Chinese music history the only exception appears to be the exclusive perfonnance of the eight model revolutionary operas $. 4r tt lR j� during the Cultural Revolution. Unlike state sacrificial and court banquet music, which were performed only in the court, vernacular banquet music was performed all over the empire, involving all sorts of musicians and audiences with diverse mu sical traditions and social status. Thus, to force all vernacular banquet music to operate according to classical and intellectual theories was a tall order. To what extent Huizong succeeded is not clear. The authoritarian nature of his effort is, however, unmistakable. Around this time, Huizong's Dashengyue campaign reached a turning point; the music activities that occurred after 1116 concerned mosdy practical or minor matters. In 1116/10, for example, the court requested the composition of songs to celebrate the appearance of auspicious animals and objects in recent years. In IIIl /2, Pei Zongyuan II * 7(. , a music manager, requested permission to teach the singing of ancient poems in the Dashengfu. In the following month, the Ritual Office requested that the military dancers perform only with the props of axes � and shields -f ; until then they had featured spears and shields. The office also wanted to suspend the use of the twelve large bells with the courtyard orchestra, arguing that such use was not an anclent practice. Other activities involved mosdy the music for the Mingtang state sacrifice.89 To provide for the musical needs of the state sacrifice, many musical instruments were made in 1116 and 1I1l. As the need for musical instruments abated, debates on theoretical matters emerged. In IIIl/10, the Secretariat t .. :-iJ' adjusted the theoretical mode ofyingzhong that Huizong once proposed, specifying correspondences between the mu sical modes and ritual details in the state sacrifice, and provoking per sonal rivalries. In this context, Cai You �1&' (1077-1126), the head of the Dashengfu of the late IIIOS, openly attacked what appeared to him to be errors by other theorists and performers. In 1118/8, he criticized the use of nanlii as gong in the Mingtang music, arguing that huangzhong should be used instead. In 1119, he presented his theories of tai :k and shao j,' classification of tones and proposed a number of changes in the use and design of musical instruments. •
•
89. 55 101.2472-73.
Huizong's Dashengyue
439
Cai wanted to undo Liu Bing's legacy, charging that the latter had subjectively and erroneously created two types of huangzhong pitch and had faked the music of the Zhi andyue modes, which, Cai admitted, was nevertheless beautiful and harmonious. In order to compete musically and personally, Cai and Tian Wei, his music collaborator, worked to create what they claimed to be the authentic music of the Zhi and yue modes. Time was against Cai and his music, however. With the dis missal of Cai Jing in H20, the court stopped the operation of the Da shengfu musical instrument factory and laid off the composers, as was the case with so many other measures associated with Cai's tenure (see Chaffee's chapter). Five years later, the Jurchens attacked the capital, and more musicians were dismissed. Then, as the Northern Song em pire collapsed in H26, and Huizong was sent to the north as a captive of the Jurchens, the Dashengfu ceased to exist and the Dashengyue soon vanished.
Assessing the Performance of Huizong and His Officials What has survived is the impression that the Dashengyue was an inaus picious music produced by corrupt officials and devious music theorists. The name of Wei Hanjin became a target of ridicule. Blaming the music or ridiculing Wei, however, glosses over the fact that the Dashengyue and its campaign were deeply rooted in the traditions of Chinese em perors and officials. What rendered the music and its campaign unique phenomena in Chinese history and culture is the fact that together they constituted a spectacular performance. In sharp contrast to the music reforms of Renzong, Shenzong, and Zhezong, in which the emperors failed to control the officials and stop their infighting, Huizong and his officials perfectly complemented one another. Together, they made a perfect ensemble, manipulating music as an orthodox expression of emperorship and officialdom in personalized, effective, and perhaps exceSS1ve ways. Cai Jing, the dominant official of the time, appeared to be a key player who performed only backstage in the Dashengyue campaign. 90 He prompted Huizong to pursue ritual and musical reforms and recom•
90. See Hartman's chapter in this volume; and 55 231.13721-28.
J O S E P H S . C . LAM mended to him the two key figures of the Dashengyue campaign, namely Wei Hanjin and Liu Bing. Through his control of the court personnel, Cai probably benefited, one way or another, from the career advancement of his proteges, the making of numerous musical in struments, and the training of musicians, all of which entailed great expense. Wei Hanjin, the peculiar music theorist who is historically perhaps the most notorious actor in the Dashengyue campaign, performed more prominently, but for a shorter period of time.91 He played not only the role of a deviant theorist, but also those of an extraordinary music master, an opportunist, a political-musical puppet, and a scapegoat for the collapse of the Northern Song. He blended biography, music facts, cultural myths, historical claims, contemporary concerns, and imperial desire into a musical performance of official service that had no match in imperial China. Wei appeared to be a music master of extraordinary skills, and the
Songshi
has preserved fascinating anecdotes about him . Wei was a
branded
� soldier from Sichuan province, who claimed that he had
learned the music theories of tripods / grand single bells from a Tang dynasty immortal
1.l!A.
Once, traveling through a mountain pass, he
heard the sound of water and was immediately able to tell that there was jade underneath the water. He then took off his clothes, dived into the water, and re-emerged with a piece of rock that turned out to be jade . Shortly before his death in late II05 or early I106, he predicted that within 30 years, the world would be in disarray
and, sure enough, the
Northern Song collapsed in 1126. Wei had a long career as a music theorist, as he was first recom mended to the court during the Huangyou years (1049-54). He made no impact then, as he was dismissed by Ruan Yi, who was in charge of reforming music at the time. In 1102, upon Cai Jing's recommendation, Wei was summoned to court again, and this time he drew imperial at tention. Though discredited by most scholar-officials of the time as convoluted and odd, Wei's theories were put into action in II04. And in
91. 55 461.13525-26. See also Li Wenyu 3f-3t.��, "Dashengfu kaoliie" * h\ JIl;;f�, Cixuejikan 1OJ * * f1 2/2 (1935): 7-32; Ling Jingyan ;� -;t-�, "Song Wei Hanjin yue yu Dashengfu" >Ii: 4t# it * � *- h\ JIl, in Zhugongdiao lianzhongfu Xiefenshi wencun ;if 1; WIJ fl'J � FIt f.Ji � :£: 3t.# (Ji'nan: Qilu shushe, 1988), 259-94.
Huizong's Dashengyue
441
II05/8, he was awarded the prestigious title of Xuhe chongxian baf(Ying xiansheng JI-fp if M f � 7t 1.. ; his music treatise was copied and dis tributed nationally. Not long after the award, however, he died, cutting short his involvement with the Dashengyue campaign. He was a player for only three years (II02-5). As evidenced by his memorial quoted above,92 Wei performed bril liantly as the "right" music master for Huizong's court. He had, verifiably or not, the "right" cultural qualifications, namely the extraordinary skills attributed to him His theories worked by postulating what the young, ambitious, and egoistic Huizong wanted to hear. That Wei theorized opportunistically is suggested by a number of circumstantial facts. His IIo4 argument that the 24-year-old Huizong had reached just the right stage of biological growth and thus had the right digital measurements for establishing the desired lengths of the huangzhong pitch pipes seems to be theoretically and contextually too convenient. As a friend of Cai Jing, Wei could not have been ignorant of contemporary court debates about music; and, had Wei stayed in the capital or maintained contact with court officials after his appearance in Renzong's court, he would have been in a position to anticipate what Huizong and his dominant officials wanted to hear (Wei's whereabouts between the 1050S and II02 is un known). There is no evidence that Wei had formulated his peculiar theories before II02. Had he formulated them before that year, they could not have been ignored and Wei did not appear to have been a person who would keep his theories a secret. The association between huangzhong and the imperial digits is simply too potent an idea to have been ignored in imperial China. No other theorist in Chinese music history directly connected physical measurements of pitch pipes with physical parts of emperors, even though the correlation between rulers and the huangzhong/gong tones is a fundamental concept in classical Chinese music theory. If Wei acted opportunistically and politically, he was not alone. He was recommended by Cai Jing, whose motives must have been both personal and political. He obviously gained political credit for advancing Wei. Huizong also benefited from this arrangement, because it allowed him to act as a strong emperor and gave him the trigger to overhaul court .
92. See Wei's memorial on p. 429.
442
J O SEPH S . C . LAM
music in the way he wanted. Huizong, however, acted shrewdly. He did not ask Wei to lead the music campaign; there is no evidence that Wei ever supervised any aspect of the project or composed or performed music. Judging from a secret exchange between Wei and Cai, the for mer's theories were not even literally implemented.93 Wei once told Cai that only 30 to 40 percent of what he had proposed was implemented in the Dashengyue repertories and musical instruments that were produced under Liu Bing's direction. In the future, Wei advised, Ren Zongyao, his student, should be summoned to correct the music; Ren was eventually appointed a music manager in the Dashengfu during the latter part of the Zhenghe period, but he was ostracized by Cai You and was in no posi tion to make any difference. In other words, Wei was as much a puppet, needed for a political musical campaign, as a music master. This is clear from Huizong's 1105 edict, in which he interpreted Wei's "appearance" as a sign that it was an opportune time to reform court music. Again in his 1110 preface to Liu Bing's Dashengyueshu, Huizong explicitly described the significance of Wei's appearance. Above all, Huizong used Wei's peculiar theory as the excuse to dismiss the learned but abstract theories of music scholar-officials such as Chen Yang and Hu Yuan, who constituted a conservative force that Huizong had to address. Being a practic ing artist sensitive to the sonic features and meanings of music, Hui zong saw in Wei's theories a way out of the intellectual-musical political conundrum. In the context of court debates and politics, the theories were unchallengeable because they persuaded by means of classical notions about sage-kings and ancient practices, and because they forced a solution to the complex and convoluted problem of tuning and temperament with an imperial and "natural" authority, namely Huizong's fingers. Whether Huizong realized it or not, Wei's theories also rendered it possible for the court musicians to bypass those pedantic theories and to do what was musically feasible. Anyone who practiced music would know that intellectual theory and musical practice seldom match per fectly. Music theories are abstract and verbal, while music practice is 93. SS 462.13526; Wan Yi � *, "Songdai huangzhong di gaizuo ji Dasheng huang zhong di yingxiang" *- 1-1;. ��tfr!J i1k 1t&*,l �itfr!JfJW, Yillj'lIeya'!iill {N�./OJf � 1993, no. 1: 73-78.
Huizong's Dashengyue
443
pragmatic and performative. Words and sounds do not, and cannot, substitute one for the other. Classical Chinese music theory, which ex plains music with cosmological and moral perspectives, tends to produce prescriptions that cannot be implemented easily in music compositions and performances. Thus, Huizong's court musicians found it convenient to accept the emperor as the final arbiter in deciding tuning and temperament stan dards. The musicians would have known that they could adjust the measurements to make the pitch pipes as needed. They also would have known that there was little chance that their unofficial adjustments would ever be noticed.94 The emperor's digital measurements were not announced publicly, and Wei Hanjin did not actually supervise musi cians' music and musical activities. A case in point is Liu Bing's musical actions. He only implemented Wei's theories selectively. In III?, he did not even follow Huizong's secret command of making a flute according to Wei Hanjin's theories.95 Had Wei lived longer, would he have performed differently? He might have participated more in the actual operation of the Dashengyue campaign, but there is a limit to what he could have done. A commoner for most of his life, he might not have had the skills required for com posing, performing, and administering court music, especially state sac rificial music. Witnessing state sacrifices and court functions from afar, a commoner would have had only limited knowledge and experience of imperial ritual and music, which were court monopolies. A commoner would not have had the know-how and experience to oversee effectively the administration of court music, which involved a multitude of officers and musicians. In II05, Wei was already a 90-plus-year-old man; he would hardly have the years to learn to become an effective music official. He probably coveted neither the time to learn to become an official nor the position; he had already performed as well as he could, and he had been rewarded bountifully. His brief moment of success secured him a role in
94. It is obvious that court musicians would infrequendy deviate from music orders of emperors and officials, and that is why the latter would always blame the former for musical-political failures. Qing historians, for example, put some of the blame for Huizong's musical "failure" on the court musicians; see LUlii zhengyi it g .i£..A, (Shangwu wanyou wenku ed.), 87.5597-98. 95. SS 128.2999·
444
J O SEPH S . C . LAM
the Dashengyue campaign and a place in Chinese music history. His peculiar theories allowed Huizong, Cai Jing, and other officials to pursue what they wanted for the empire and for themselves: the court musicians made music, and the traditional historians found someone to blame for the fall of the Northern Song. Wei's loyal service sharply contrasts with that of Liu Bing, which is more clearly recorded.96 Supervising the Dashengyue campaign, direct ing the making of musical instruments, and composing music, Liu per fonned more as a music official-theorist and less as a politician or op portunist. In 1105, the second year of the formal operation of the Dashengyue campaign, Liu was in the prime of life and had the knowl edge, experience, and vitality to lead the project. Since receiving hisjinshi degree during the Yuanfu period of 1098-99, he had worked through many court positions and had accrued prestigious titles, which included: erudite in the national university, music director, minister of works, minister of revenue, Xuanhedian academician, and Grand Master for Splendid Happiness 7t.�*- �. Liu came from a learned family with a special interest in music and ritual; his elder brother, Liu Wei f1 :J:.t, was known for his musical expertise; their younger brother, Liu Huan f1 �, memorialized in 1112 a request to use proper music in the scholars' annual banquets in the provinces. Liu Bing was a close collaborator of Cai Jing. Upon Cai's recom mendation, Liu first became the music director of the Dashengyue campaign, and then a director of the Ritual Office ��101 of the Zheng he period. As a ritual official, Liu examined the ancient bronze ritual vessels that Huizong collected, and used them as models to design those of his time. As a music official, Liu supervised the making of the mu sical instruments and the composition and performance of the Da shengyue. In addition, he compiled three musical-historical treatises: Dashengyueshu *- It � .. , Dashengyaf!Jue *- It � � , and Dingshu II!- ", none of which have survived; brief summaries are, however, preserved in the Songshi and the Song huryao. 97 Though based on Wei's peculiar theories, the writings attested to Liu's perfonnance as a scholar. More over, he was not without his own theoretical ideas; he substituted his own system of huangzhong as the "central sound" for Wei's classification 96. 55 356.II206-7· 97. 55 129.3003-12; 5HYyue 2.31-32, 3-26-28, 4.1-2, 5-18-26.
Huizong's Dashengyue
445
of musical tones. Judging from the summaries that have been preserved, Liu was nevertheless a traditional musician-theorist. Like his colleagues, he cited the classics in his treatises and discussed established topics of music theory, such as modal and pitch correlation with the trigrams, seasons, physical directions, and other non-sonic entities. Unlike many scholar-theorist-officials, Liu's accomplishment in musicianship appears to be irrefutable. As reported by Cai Tao, the tunes of Zhishao .fa;f� and Jueshao � ;f� of the early llIOS, created under Liu's supervision, were popular, and evoked jealousy among musicians of the Entertainment Music Office. Liu Bing was last heard of in 1117, when Huizong dreamed about the inaccuracy of the contemporaneous tuning and temperament standard and then ordered Liu to adjust the standard with a new measurement of his imperial fingers. Soon after that, Liu's court career ended. He be came entangled with the indictment against Wang Cai .!.. � (fl. IIIOS),98 and was banished to Qiongzhou Jt. 1'I·j , where he died at the age of 57. Liu's fall was not unique; in Huizong's court, officials frequently rose and fell. By that time, Cai You, Cai Jing's eldest son and a favorite official of Huizong, had taken leadership of the Dashengyue campaign, creating new music and rectifying what he perceived to be erroneous. Cai in troduced musical changes for political and personal reasons; his actions, however, might not have been without musical grounds. Cai was a performer himself: to please Huizong, he would put on makeup and costumes to perform with actors in the emperor's private parties, en tertaining him with vernacular and amatory shows.99
Silencing Huizong's Dashengyue What Cai sang vanished long ago. No notated music of the Dashengyue has been preserved, rendering many questions unanswerable at present. What was composed or performed under the supervision of Liu Bing or Cai You? How did the compositions actually sound? How were they performed by the socially marginalized musician-dancers? How were the performers trained? How did the average Song commoner respond? 98. SS 328.10584. 99· SS 472.13731.
J O SEPH S . C . LAM Why did the reform leave so few musical traces? The questions go on and on. Nevertheless, judging from the few preserved lyrics of state sacrificial songs that were created during the campaign, it is clear that the Dashengyue was musically distinctive. Realizing the court's obsession with emulating ancient music and with the "return to antiquity," the Dashengyue compositions apparently followed classical prescriptions. As shown in Figure 10.1, the ''Welcoming the Deities" of the state sac rificial music honoring Confucius had four stanzas,100 each of which featured a different musical mode. The lyrics of the song were cast in the classical structure of eight four-word phrases. The banquet music repertory of the Dashengyue is more elusive. While some ci lyrics of the Dashengfu poets, such as Zhou Bangyan %J *� � (10 5 6-1121),101 Jiang Han �.J:. � (fl. 1120-30s), and Chao Rulli £�;ft (1046-I1I3) have been preserved, little is known beyond the fact that those lyrics lauded Huizong and the splendor of his reign. For the time being, even the much-discussed Dashengyue tunes ofjue and Zhi tones can only be imagined through the works of Jiang Kui (ca. 11 55ca. 1221), the Southern Song poet-composer. As described in the preface to his "Zhizhao" .fa�, jiang's understanding of the Dashengyue was already more nostalgic than factual.102 (See Music Example 2.) 103 If the Dashengyue compositions had been as expressive as was Jiang Kui's music, they should have appealed to many Northern Song audi ences, connecting them together as members of the same culture and society. Many people participated in the extensive Dashengyue campaign: craftsmen who constructed the musical instruments; workers who pro vided the costumes, props, and other equipment needed for the per formances; composers who made the tunes; poets who wrote the lyrics; musician-dancers who performed; and officials and commoners who witnessed, actively or passively, the events of the campaign and per formances of the music.
100. 55 137.3236-37. 101. Murakoshi Kiyomi #�-Jtfit 1.1(. .�� � t- � .;Jf � (ph.D. dissertation, Zhongguo yishu yanjiuyuan, Beijing, 2000), 16-34· lOS. For arguments that the Dashengyu promoted the appearance of a relatively stable tuning and temperament standard in Chinese music since the Northern Song, see ibid., II-15; Wan Yi, "Songdai huangzhong di gaizuo ji Dasheng huangzhong di yingxiang," 7S; and Yang Yinliu, Zhongguo gudaiyinyue shigao, 426.
J O S E P H S . C . LAM
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Music Example 2, Jiang Kill, "Zhishao" \'iang Yinliu and Yin Falu, SongJiang Baishi chuangzuo gequyanjiu [Beijing: Yinyue chubanshe, 1957], 62-63) As the tide rises I cross the Xiling waters, The flat boat can hardly hold an unemployed scholar. How long have I been away That the millet has spread like this? I now have tired of the wanderer's road, All I have gained is a heart full of ideas for poetry. I remember the South, When I let my sail drop to the sand Again this time it is so. Those winding mountains in Yan I meet again and feel the love of old friends.
;til @/ .jp i& � I't i�
�f.Hl�JS± -!-1Hlf.'Iat $.i4(ti4(t-kuJII:. ��q.1tt-
t. A.1l- :fJlt-t+ ,f.,
ic.'I!iI. � it+R.i:7' � JII:. .{t ilJt.
�iU'J '" Jt � �II JL
{i!t � � .�*- (1605; reprinted-Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), 49.479. TIlls example underscores the danger of using convenient post-Song compilations to research Song history.
C HARLES HARTMAN The text of VILA, B, and D is largely identical between Dongdu shilue and Songshi. VILB represents a compressed version of a fuller recounting of these events that is preserved in Li Tao and another source from the 1170s. The text of VILA, B, and D was thus certainly part of the Qinzong shilu biography of eai JingY However, neither the Dongdu shilue nor these other twelfth-century narratives contain the passage at VILe (printed in italics in the translation above), which purports to record an exchange between Huizong and his new grand councilor on the day that eai's appointment edict was promulgated. This passage at VILe is narrative and anecdotal in tone. It breaks the chronological flow and reinforces the notion, adumbrated in VILB, that eai Jing was appointed solely for his knowledge and devotion to the New Policies, not for any inherent administrative talent or ability. It serves to confirm and emphasize eai's commitment to the New Policies and functions in his Songshi biography as a transition to the following Section VIII, which is a long catalogue of eai's policies and the hardships they provoked. However, this dramatic passage at VILe does not occur in Song historical texts until the daoxue "outline and detail" ?� � compilations of the mid-thirteenth century.38 Even if this passage is "genuine" in the sense that it derives from twelfth-century history office material that has simply not found its way into surviving portions of Li Tao, Li Bing, or other sources its strategic placement in
37. The story relates how Huizong decided to use Cai Jing as gtand councilor after viewing a chart presented by one Deng Xunwu fII iil] i\ (I055-1II9). Deng's chart was constructed to show Huizong that opponents of the New Policies dominated upper-level government positions and that Cai Jing's elevation to the councilorship could address this imbalance. For Li Tao's narrative, see ]SBM 130.14b-15a. For another account see Li Bing :$- i£J , Dingwei lu T '*-�, completed in II72, as quoted in Xu Ziming � ro 1lJ3 , Song zaifu biannian lu *- * tm �-+� (ca. 1220; reprinted-Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), II.70I-2. The Dongdu shilue contains a longer version of this incident in the biogtaphy of Deng Xunwu, Dongdu shilue 98.2b-3a. 38. Chen Jun F.t � (ca. II65-1236+), Huangchao biannian gangmu beryao .i .t'l .*, -+� I'l ffti-* (Song edition Of I229; reprinted-Taibei: Chengwen, 1966), 26.qb-18a (pp. 1210II). The passage also occurs in another anonymous daoxue work of the mid-thirteenth century known as the Xu Songbiannian iiZhi tongjian !.t *- .� -+1t #3ii� in 18juan, a work that has not been printed since the Yuan. For the passage, see Xu Song biannian iiZhi tongjian (Yuan ed.; reprinted-Siku quanshu cunmu congshu 1m J.f±t"# I'l l: t" [Ji'nan: Qi Lu shushe, 1997]), 15.5b. The passage in question is also quoted from this latter source in the notes at CB-SB 20.2b-3a.
A Textual History ifCaifing's Biography in the Songshi
539
the Songshi biography transforms its meaning from a passage that illus trates eai's commitment to the New Policies, and to Huizong personally, to one that foreshadows the catastrophes that will ensue from eai's im plementation of those policies. As an example of the second group material without trace in the Dongdu shilue that appears wholly added to the Songshi one may consider the two accounts at VIA and VI.B: [VI.A] Tong Guan went to the Wu region in his capacity as palace servitor to search for calligraphy, paintings, and other rarities. He stayed in Hangzhou for several months, and eai Jing traveled with him without cease day and night. Every day Guan sent all the painted screens, fans, and other items they acquired to the Palace. Furthermore, he appended descriptions and reports that reached the emperor; and in this way the emperor came to take notice of eai Jing. [VI.B] Also, Fan Zhixu, a scholar in the Imperial University, had long been friends with Xu Zhichang, an official of the central Taoist registry. Zhichang had gained access to the palace of the Yuanfu Empress through his talisman water. Zhixu had an especially close bond with him and told him every day what he was thinking, maintaining that nothing was going to happen unless eai Jing was made councilor. As a result, the palace ladies and eunuchs were united in their praise of eai Jing. Zhixu was promoted to remonstrator on the right, and eai Jing rose to become prefect of Dingzhou.
The first of these back-to-back anecdotes relates how the eunuch Tong Guan i:1r (1054-1126) , who had been assigned to collect paintings and calligraphy for the emperor in the Yangtze delta, spent several months traveling with eai Jing in the Hangzhou area assembling screens and fans for the imperial collection. The anecdote is important in the general framework of the Songshi biography because it introduces the topic of eai's close collaboration with eunuchs, especially Tong Guan, a major theme in the eventual catalogue of charges against him. However, there is, to my knowledge, no trace of this story in any Song text; and both traditional and modern scholars have called the chronology of the event into question.39
39. CB-SB 18.I7b and Gu Jichen . -E .$., Songshi bishi zhiyi jf;: � J;t. * 'If � (Beijing: Shumu wenxian, 1987), 517-18. The basic problem is that Tong Guan was appointed to the Yangtze delta in lIo213, but Cai Jing had already left Hangzhou to assume his ap pointment as prefect of Dingzhou in 1I0l/12.
540
CHARLES HARTMAN
Section VI.B relates a parallel story about how eai's influence spread within the palace. The academician Fan Zhixu ;€. JtJi was on good terms with the Taoist master Xu Zhichang tt �l1 't , whose own skills had gained him access to the quarters of the Empress Uu (I079-III3), consort of the recendy deceased Zhezong. Fan presumed upon this relationship to have Xu promote the merits of eai Jing among the palace ladies and eunuchs, with the result that Fan was promoted and eai was appointed prefect of Dingzhou ;t 1�'1 , the fIrst step of his re habilitation that would culminate in the grand councilorship in 1102. There is likewise, to my knowledge, no textual parallel for this story in any Song text. However, the gist of the tale is contained in the Zhui! yulei *- .:r-� � of Zhu Xi, where Fan and Xu are fellow natives of Jianyang Jt � in Fujian and where Fan, after Xu introduces him to Huizong, direcdy memorializes the emperor proposing eai as grand councilor.40 Whatever the historicity of Zhu Xi's account, the absence of this event from Song historical sources, even the daoxue histories, and the divergences between the Zhu Xi and Songshi versions suggest this tale is a thirteenth- or fourteenth-century addition to eai's biog raphy. In short, neither of the anecdotes in VI.A and VI.B have textual parallels in other Song sources. Both are probably post-twelfth century insertions into the Sichao guoshi version of eai's biography intended thematically to emphasize eai's supposed close associations with eunuchs. We move now to discuss those passages printed in bold typeface in Appendix I and characterized as "foundation texts." As Appendix II demonstrates, there are Song parallel passages for much of eai's Songshi biography. In contrast to passages marked in italics, which are probably later additions to twelfth-century text, the majority of passages printed in bold typeface are "bedrock," text whose original provenance can be identifIed as passages that antedate the offIcial biographies of eai Jing in the Qinzong shilu and the Sichao guoshi. Most of these passages are common to both the Dongdu shilue and Songshi, thus suggesting they belong to these early strata of the text. These passages are of particular interest, not only because of their early date but also because careful examination of them can reveal the attitude of the mid-twelfth-century historians toward eai Jing. Lacking the usual post-mortem biographical 40.
Zhu Xi, ZhuiJyulei (1271; reprinted-Beijing: Zhonghua, 1986), 3128-29.
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sources, these were the primary texts that Gong Maoliang, Hong Mai, and Li Tao selected to manipulate and fashion into a biography for Cai. These passages can be divided into three groups for analysis: first, con temporary edicts and memorials directed against Cai (VIlLA; XILA; XIV.B and C; XIX.B); second, anti-Cai anecdotes and memoirs from private histories (ILB; lILA; XILB; XX.B); and third, Li Tao's own evaluation of Cai (XXII). Passages from the first category show that the official historians looked to contemporary memorials written against Cai not only for language but also for many of the general themes of his biography. Analyzed thematically, there is a stark congruence between these memorials and Cai's biography both in the Dongdu shilue and the Songshi. This fact itself is of supreme importance. It demonstrates that the twelfth-century historians first framed Cai's life using the language and viewpoint of his political adversaries and detractors. Among the earliest of these is the long memorial by one Fang Chen 7.f#, written in 1107 after the beginning of Cai's second term as councilor. Although the biographers do not lift the language of this tract, Fang's memorial had already laid out many of the charges that later appear in the Dongdu shilue and Songshi: Cai's concentration of military forces around the capital is contrary to Song policy (IX.C); his manipulation of the impe rial secretariat (XVI); his opulence (XII); his destruction of the salt merchants (VIILA.6); and his persecution of the Yuaf!JIou parti sans (XI).41 Section XIV contains two extensive quotations of memorials written against Cai in connection with his second removal from the counci lorship in 1109-10. Neither of these texts is included in the Dongdu shilue, although the second is mentioned in passing. The Songshi attributes the first of these quotations (XIV.B) to a memorial by the student Chen Chaolao Ft .m ::t- dated 1109/6. The passage contains a list of fourteen 3 -character phrases that purport to sum up Cai's "evils." As befits a 41. For the full memorial, see Wang Mingqing J:. II}J it (II27-1214+), HuiZhu lu .ff ,f: � (HuiZhu qianlu, II66; HuiZhu houlu, II94; HuiZhu sanlu, II95; HuiZhuyulu, II97) (reprinted-Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1961), houlu 3-109-12. For extracts, see Xu Ziming, Song zaifu biannian lu 11.723-26. Wang Mingqing's entry relates that the text of Fang's memorial was delivered to Li Tao for inclusion in the Changbian; but it does not survive among the collected fragments of the Changbian from this period; see CB-SB 27.12b-14b, which reprints Wang's text in the footnotes.
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student composition, many of the phrases are classical citations: "pro faning the Supreme Thearch, deceiving his Lord and Father, forging a secret alliance, squandering money and resources, changing laws and standards, disregarding imperial edicts," and so on. Chen's list con cludes his memorial, dated n09/6, in which he provided detailed charges for these fourteen categories of malfeasance and raised the at tacks against Cai to a rhetorical level much above that of Fang Chen's memorial of n Ol. 42 The second passage (XIV.C) derives from a me morial dated 1110/5 by the Censor Zhang Kegong � Jt -A' and is com posed in a parallel prose style that is carried over directly into the Songshi text: "He made light with imperial benefice and so pillaged the resources of state; he made use of office and salary and so traded in private favors." The rhetoric of this text continues in the vein of Chen Chaolao and made official the escalation of the political and rhetorical attack on Cai.43 These themes and others are also prominent in the last of the me morials the official historians drew upon to describe Cai and his poli cies. The Censor Sun Di's memorial of n26/2, a text widely quoted in twelfth-century sources, was instrumental in ousting Cai from power for the last time.44 We should recall in this context Hong Mai's decision to involve the same Sun Di in the composition of Cai's biography for the Qinzong shilu of n68. The Songshi mentions Sun's memorial (XXI) , and both the Dongdu shilue and Songshi take language directly from it (XILA). The importance of this memorial in the development of Cai's persona cannot be overestimated, because Sun Di was the first to place primary responsibility for the Jurchen invasions on Cai Jing. Although there are few verbal traces of Sun's memorial in the existing Cai biog-
42 . For the full text of Chen Chaolao's memorial, see Huibian 50.498-500. Cf. also Xu Ziming, Song zaifu biannian lu 12.751, where this list is quoted from the an notation to the Changbian, and CB-SB 28.15b-16a. 43. For Zhang's memorial see Huibian 50.496-97. The passage translated above was incorporated into the appointment notice that dismissed Cai from the councilorship in IIIO/5; see Xu Ziming, Song zaifu biannian lu 12.749; and CB-SB 29.IIb-13b. 44. For Sun's text in twelfth-century sources, see Wang Zao .x. i� (I079-II54), Jing kangyaolu �k .$:*� (CS]C ed.), 3-46-47; Zhongxingyishi as quoted in Xu Ziming, Song zaifu biannian lu 13.836-37; Huibian 39.389---91 ; ]SBM 148.7b-8b. A major factor contrib uting to the popularity of this text was its powerful parallel prose, at which Sun Di was an acknowledged master.
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raphies, Sun's 1126 text already contained an evaluation of Cai's person ality, his policies, and his place in Song history that the later biographies fully develop. In his memorial, Sun presents himself as the voice of public opinion, whose anger at Cai for the Jurchen invasions must be assuaged. Sun argues that Cai simply used the New Policies as a cover to impose an oppressive government, whose ultimate purpose was his own enrich ment. In the process, he destroyed the legitimate institutions of the state. Under the cover of promoting Daoism, "he promoted an atmosphere that encouraged extreme opulence, such that the accumulated public and private wealth of the realm was swept away without a trace" (language used at XILA). He corrupted the memorial system and promoted fac tionalism and cronyism. He was corrupt: he took bribes and sold offices. This corruption extended to his entire family. He has been the worst "nefarious minister" in history. His rule has been so bad it upset the yin":)'ang balance and caused droughts and floods that laid waste the countryside, encouraged banditry, and decimated the population. "And so the Ti of the north have taken advantage of this void to drum forward their advance, as if they walk through an area devoid of people!" Sun Di concludes by calling for Cai's execution. We move now to the second category of "foundation texts," passages taken directly from anecdote books and memoirs. Both the Dongdu shilue and the Songshi, after the opening preliminaries, proceed immedi ately to relate an incident from 1086/12 when Cai was mayor of Kai feng (lLB). As soon as Sima Guang took office as grand councilor, he ordered a reversal of the hired services policy Jii �9:.5J;; , a key provision of Wang Anshi's New Policies, and a return to the previous practice of requisitioned local services 1:. �9:.�. He also set a rather unrealistic time limit of five days for the transition. Cai was the only official to meet this deadline, successfully converting the entire capital city without a single objection. When he informed Sima Guang, the councilor replied, "If everyone takes to the program as you have, there's no reason we can't carry it offl" Several lines later, both texts continue (lILA), "In 1094 Zhang Dun once again wished to change the local service policy and put the matter to deliberation; but there was no decision for some time. Cai Jing said to him, 'Just take the policy that was set during the Xining period. What's to discuss?' Zhang Dun agreed, and the hired services were established once again." To ensure the point will not be missed, the Songshi inserts
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a follow-up passage that is not in Dongdu shilue (III.B), "Sima Guang and Zhang Dun had opposing views on the two local service policies. Within a space of ten years Cai Jing completely reversed himself on the issue. He inclined toward Sima's position then toward Zhang's position in order to help himself in each case. From this, the careful reader will be able to observe how nefarious he was." Placed at the beginning of his biography, and reinforced in the Songshi text by this inserted enhancing passage, the anecdote about his policy reversal plants an initial impression of Cai as unprincipled, mercurial, opportunistic, and ruthless. However, both the language and this pairing of the two separate incidents come straight from the Henan Shaoshi we'!iian lu M � .g� 1\ Bt!) JL� completed by Shao Bowen .g� 1{:J j1\ (1057-1134), son of the daoxue forebear Shao Yong .g� $ (1011-77) in 113I. As is well known, this work is extremely biased against the New Policies.45 The choice of Shao Bowen's account of these matters signals to the careful reader once again that the framers of Cai's biography have chosen to frame his life in the language and terms of his steadfast opponents. A second example of material taken from anecdote books and mem oirs illustrates yet another aspect of the growth of Cai's negative persona: the rush of erstwhile allies to dissociate themselves from Cai following 1126. Section XX.B describes Cai's last period as grand councilor, which began in 1124/12. Both Dongdu shilue and Songshi describe an aged and almost blind figure who has delegated total authority to his son Cai Tao � 1t. The biographies describe Cai Tao's abuse of this authority in vivid terms: "Whenever he appeared at court, hordes of officials greeted him whispering into his ears, and dozens of clerks followed behind clutching his documents and ftles; and he took advantage of this situa tion to engage in all manner of illicit and nefarious schemes." This
45. Shao Bowen, Henan Shaoshi wC'!Jian lu (II31; reprinted-Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983), II.II9. Another version of the story occurs in the Dingwci lu, as quoted in Xu Zirning, Song zaifu biannian lu II.703-4. Li Tao called attention to several inconsistencies in Shao Bowen's account of the I086 meeting between Sima Guang and Cai Jing, but accepts the basic facts of the encounter; see CB 367.15a-17a. Cai Jing himself referred to the incident in a later memorial of I096/2; see SHY shihuo 14.IOa-b. The Cai Jing biographies, how ever, follow Shao Bowen's original, not Li Tao's revised version of the encounter, yet more evidence that Li Tao probably had minimal impact on the final Sichaoguoshi version of Cai Jing's biography.
i
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characterization, however, comes directly from the brush of Zhu Sheng fei *-_.1F (1082-II44), whose political memoirs, entitled Xiushui xiar!Ju lu �7� flJ JS�, were composed in the late II30s.46 Zhu Shengfei, grand councilor from II32/9 through II34/9, is a good example of an official who began his career during the Cai Jing years, obtaining his jinshi in II03. For Zhu to have attained the rank of grand councilor by II32, he must have had an active career during the Huizong period. Yet neither his biography in the Songshi nor the documents in the Song huryao contain a single mention of his activities during this period.47 I have elsewhere discussed the problem of the wholesale "washing" of sources that transpired during the II30S and II40S in efforts to camou flage responsibility for the debacle of 1126.48 Zhu Shengfei's memoirs are a good example of the rush to blame Cai Jing for the Northern Song fall and to extend blame to other members of the Cai family during pe riods when Cai would obviously have been too ill to shoulder the full blame himself. The third and final example of "foundation text" is perhaps the most interesting, given the association ofLi Tao with the development of Cai Jing's biography. Section XXII, which closes the biography in both the Dongdu shilue and the Songshi versions, is written in the tone and style of the "historian's comment," a standard genre of Chinese history writing since Sima Qian. The passage occurs in the Xu ZiZhi tongjian changbian jishi benmo It 1f if; 1& C -k _ R. .. *' *' of Yang Zhongliang lIi 1+ It (ca. II7o-ca. 1230), where it is quoted, presumably verbatim,
46. For this passage in Zhu Shengfei's memoirs, see Hllibian 50.496 and ]SBM 13I.20b-21a, also CB-SB 48.16b-I7a. For the date of the Xillshlli xiat!ill lll, see Chen Lesu, "Sanchao beimeng hllibian kao," 291--92. The work survives only in extracts. Cai Tao had been dismissed from office on 1123/9/13, when critics charged his scholarship was het erodox because his Xiqing shihlla i1!l it"tt� relied too heavily on Su Shi and Huang Tingjian; see SHY zhigllan 69.13a. However, apparently he returned to power shortly thereafter. An edict, once again dismissing him from office, dated 1125/4/21, employs language identical to the second foundation text at Section XX.B describing his in volvement with the Xuanhe Depository � fc> J-f; see SHY zhigllan 69.I7b-18a. 47. 55 362.11315-19. For a text that places Zhu Shengfei in academic office about 1120, see Hong Mai, Rongzhai sllibi (reprinted-Shanghai: Guji, 1978), 790. 48. Hartman, '''!be Making of a Villain: Qin Gui and Tao-hsiieh," 86-105.
CHARLES HARTMAN from the lost portions of Li Tao's commentary to the Changbian.49 This text, translated in the left column below, represents Li Tao's own verdict on eai Jing.50 The passage is a carefully balanced and formulated summation of eai's personality and his place in history. Although its viewpoints are largely identical to those expressed in the contemporary memorials against eai, its language is more evenhanded. Both the Dongdu shilue and the Songshi, however, take extensive liberties with Li's original. The Dongdu shilue especially, translated in the right column below, rewrites the passage extensively, omitting and adding material. This fact is yet another indication that Hong Mai ignored Li Tao's contributions to the bio graphical section of the Sichao guoshi. The Songshi confines itself largely to omitting material, adding only one sentence that emphasizes the discord among members of the eai family. By natural temperament, Cai Jing was crafty and duplicitouS.51 He made bad use of his intelligence to control others. 52 When he was in the presence of the Sovereign, he was constantly on the alert, focused solely on devising plans to secure his own position. From beginning to end he advanced but one policy: he maintained that [Huizong] should transcend the restraints of convention and
Cai Jing was by nature crafty and deceitful.
His extravagance was unbounded. He exhausted the resources of
49. For a study of Yang Zhongliang's compilation and its relationship to the Changbian, see Charles Hartman, "Bibliographic Notes on Sung Historical Works: Topical Narratives from the Long Draft Continuation That Aids Administration (Hsu T�-chih t'ung-chien ch'ang-pien chi-shih pen mo If lf jiii!4Ik$R.***-) by Yang Chung-liang #HI' It and Related Texts," Journal ofSung-Yuan Studies 28 (1998): 177-200. 50. JSBM 13I.22a-b, which is certainly the best text; cf. also CB-SB 55.1a-4a and Chen Jun, Huangchao be!Jao, 30.13a-b (pp. 1419-20). 51. Note that the Songshi alters Li Tao's "crafty and duplicitous" F1t� to the more malevolent "evil and duplicitous" � �. 52. The beginning of Li Tao's text (ff: :k lfF1t�, JiF t' "A �A.) contains a strong allusion to the biography of Zhang Tang � iIi in the "harsh officials" Iii � section of the Shiji (i� �A. � -tt, JiF t' ''A �A.); see Sima Qian, Shiji (reprinted-Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959), 122.3138. With this allusion, Li Tao sets the tone for the entire passage to follow and signals in advance his verdict on Cai Jing.
A Textual History of Cai Jing's Biograpf?y in the Songshi exhaust the resources of the nine provinces and the four seas in order to enrich himself.53 Although Huizong enriched and ennobled him, yet deep down he realized that he was a nefarious flatterer who could not be entrusted with the state. Therefore, he repeatedly promoted and then demoted him; and he selected those with whom eai did not get along, such as Zhao Tingzhi, Zhang Shangying, Liu Zhengfu, Zheng Juzhong, and Wang Fu, and one after the other appointed them as grand councilors to keep him in check. Whenever eai Jing heard that he was about to be dismissed, he would rush to the palace for an audience, kowtow and beseech and bemoan, without a trace of the integrity and honor of a grand councilor. When the Yanshan campaign began and his son eai You was already under way, eai Jing sent him off with a poem whose obvious message was that the matter was impossible. He hoped thereby to extricate himself should the outcome prove unsuccessful.54
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the four seas and nine provinces in order to enrich himself.
Although Huizong favored him and made him councilor, he nevertheless repeatedly promoted and then demoted him.
Whenever eai Jing heard that he was about to be dismissed, he would insist on an audience with Huizong, kowtow and entreat and bemoan, without a trace of the integrity and honor of a grand councilor. When the northern affair began, Jing was its primary advocate. During the Yanshan campaign, his son You was already under way, and eai Jing sent him off with a poem that cautioned against stirring up hostilities. He hoped thereby to absolve himself should the outcome prove unsuccessful.
53. This passage alludes to the Xin Tang shu 1Jf It .. biography of the early Tang of ficial Dou Jing 'f *, who criticized another official for being "as wasteful as Emperor Yang of the Sui, who exhausted the four seas in order to enrich himself' (1Iu�*.1}, � � il;: ro *-); see Song Qi and Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tang shu (1060; reprinted-Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975), 95.3848. U Tao therefore creates an implicit comparison between Huizong and Sui Yangdi. 54. This paragraph refers to a poem that Cai Jing sent to Cai You during the course of the military campaign to recover Yanzhou from the Uao in 1122. The failure of this
CHARLES HARTMAN [Songshi adds: When they saw profit, they forgot honor, to the point where older and younger brother were like two constellations at opposite ends of the sky, and father and son were like the states of Qin in the northwest and Yue in the southeast.] In his later years, his house was turned into a government office, and those eager for profit and advancement loitered around his
In his later years, his house was turned into a government office, and flatterers and those eager for advancement waited around his
campaign set in motion the Jurchen invasions that culminated in the fall of the Northern Song in u26. The poem survives and its authenticity is beyond doubt, being quoted in Huibian 7.60 from the BeizhengJishi j!:. -f,!. R. " written by Cai Tao himself. For a German translation, see Trauzettel, Ts'ai ching als Typus, 170. The poem is widely quoted and commented upon in twelfth-century sources: Wu Zeng -* f (d. U70+), Nenggaizhai maniu �t�.t.il* (U57; quoted in Huibian 7.60); Hu Zi tJj1f, TiaoxiY1!)'in conghua houji � iA: i.�, rt; * #; it " (u67; reprinted-Taibei: Shijie, 1966), 36.696; Zeng Minxing f �1t (d. Il75), Duxing zazhi 4J;jM. ••-t (Il75; CS]C ed.), 5.38; and Chen Yanxiao ft. j!j , Gengxi shihua nt iA: �t#; (Il90?; SKQS ed.), I.20a. Two of these sources (WU Zeng and Hu Zi) agree with Li Tao that Cai Jing wrote the poem, which expresses grave reservations about the viability of the undertaking, as a hedge to extricate himself should the venture later prove unsuccessful. The other two, however, accept the poem on its merits as evidence that the Yanshan campaign was ill-conceived, since even Cai Jing had reservations; and some later scholars support this view (cf. Wang Wan, as cited in Cheng Fangkun JtJI:;7"Jf Uinshi 1723], Quan Min shihua � /lkHt#; [SKQS ed.], 3.21b-22a). Another important and little-known text brought to my attention by Pat Ebrey demonstrates that Cai Jing strongly and consistently opposed the northern military venture and thus also supports the benign interpretation of the poem; see Zhou Hui %l j.f (II27-98+), Qingbo biezhi i·ht �1 .-t (Il94; CS]C ed.), I.I24-25. Given the unsettled interpretation of this poem in the twelfth century, it seems unusual that Li Tao would choose to foreground this incident in his evaluation and come down so strongly in favor of the malevolent reading of the poem. Furthermore, the gratuitous, added preface in the Dongdu shiiue to this passage (''When the northern affair began, Jing was its primary ad vocate" j!:. -,.:t.. � -t!!., ;y. -t f!§l.:t..) likewise seems out of character with the general his torical understanding in the late twelfth century that Wang Fu, Tong Guan, and Cai You were the major instigators of the attack on Yanshan. These facts suggest the possibility that even Yang Zhongliang's ]SBM text of Li Tao's appraisal may not represent Li's original version.
A Textual History if Cai Jing's Biograpry in the Songshi gate. Even his porters and servants lined up to obtain good appointments. He viewed the regulations and standards of government as so much empty verbiage. The discerning were personally troubled by him. But his mentality, one that fretted over the slightest loss, spread everywhere and formed intertwining roots that no power could dislodge. In the end, the strife he caused and the damage he did to the country brought untold disaster to the ancestral altars. Although he died a condemned man, everyone still considered it was a pity that he never suffered the full consequences of the law.
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gate. The number of even his porters and servants who obtained good appointments cannot be counted. The regulations and standards of government thereby suffered great lnJury. •
•
In the end, this was a disaster for the ancestral altars.
The three texts vary most in how they handle the delicate question of the relationship between Cai Jing and Huizong. In Li Tao's original text, the two share a nuanced, symbiotic relationship. Cai Jing encourages Huizong toward opulence; Huizong rewards Cai Jing with the council orship but distrusts him and enlists others to thwart his authoritarian ambitions. A major difference is that, in Li Tao, Cai Jing encourages Huizong's own inherent tendency toward opulence; the Dongdu shilue omits Huizong as agent and makes Cai Jing's own greed the subject. In the former, Cai Jing encourages the emperor to make himself rich; in the latter, Cai Jing enriches himself. The Songshi preserves Li Tao's opening largely intact. But, with selective editing, the ensuing passage in the Songshi becomes: "The em peror knew he was nefarious, and so repeatedly dismissed then ap pointed him; moreover, he selected those with whom he did not get along as grand councilors in order to keep him in check." The major ef fect of this editing is to remove the agency of Huizong and to advance Cai Jing from "nefarious flatterer" to all-encompassing "nefarious." It is no longer Huizong who enriched Cai Jing, who secretly understood him and who did not trust him to run the empire. This drastic reduc tion of Huizong's role was necessary because, in the Songshi biography, it is Cai's manipulation of Huizong through the members of his clique ,
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that enabled his triple return to the councilorship (see Section XIILB). It is significant that Li Tao's critique of Cai mentions neither his clique nor his family, but focuses solely on the man himself. The Songsht� fol lowing the Dongdu shilue, also omits the long list of grand councilors who opposed Cai, because this list destroys the image of Cai's mono lithic control over the Huizong government. In other words, for Li Tao, the relationship between Huizong and Cai Jing was a symbiotic one. The Songshi and the Dongdu shilue diminish the agency of Huizong and thereby increase the culpability, the "nefariousness," of Cai Jing. Li Tao's synopsis continues to focus on the personality of Cai Jing, his craven behavior before Huizong, his egocentric concern for his own welfare, his nepotism and disregard for regulations. The end of the pas sage describes how these personal tendencies of Cai spread to the rest of society and so led to the demise of the Northern Song. Here, once again, the Songshi omits a key phrase ("The discerning were personally troubled by him''), a textual omission that reduces the culpability of others who, like Huizong, knew of Cai Jing's corrosive effect yet were unable or un willing to stop it. In short, Li Tao's original verdict presents Cai as a product of Huizong's own greed and vacillation and the weakness of late Northern Song society. The derivative works manipulate Li's text to present Cai as a self-created incarnation of evil, personally and solely re sponsible for the fall of the Northern Song. It remains to say several words about the relationship of thirteenth century daoxue inspired histories and the Songshi text of Cai's biogra phy. We know little about what changes were made to the Sichaoguoshi between the time of its completion in 1186 and its transfer to the Mongols in 1275. As we have seen, there is some evidence of daoxue influence on Cai's biography even before 1186. However, as a glance at Appendix II shows, there is a close convergence between the topics covered in both the Dongdu shilue and Songshi versions and the "out line" � entries in Chen Jun's Huangchao biannian gangmu beryao, printed in 1229. There is also considerable overlap between these topics and the chapter divisions in Yang Zhongliang's Xu ZiZhi tongjian changbian jishi benmo, completed about 1210. The causality here is hard to establish: did the thematic choices of the Dongdu shi lue and the Si chao guoshi influence these later historians? Or, is the present Songshi text the product of revisions made in the waning years of the Song to bring it into accord with these daoxue histories? The topic is complex and awaits a detailed bibliographical examination of the thirteenth-
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century daoxue histories. Suffice it to note that many of the passages that are not in the Dongdu shilue of 1186 do appear in the daoxue histo ries of the first half of the thirteenth century. This fact does not suggest that these passages, printed in italics in Appendix I, are forgeries but rather that a keener, daoxue sense of Northern Song history guided the thirteenth-century historians in their choice of which passages to ex tract and foreground from the twelfth-century Changbian and Sichao guoshi.
Conclusion Referring again to Fig. 12.1, we may conclude by noting that the de velopment of Cai Jing's biography can be divided into three stages, with each stage culminating in the compilation of a major historical work. The first stage, completed with the Qinzong rili in 1166, made the initial gathering of primary documents. In Cai's case, the official his torians were compelled, in the absence of the standard post-mortem private biographies, to compile a rough biography from original me morials and private memoirs of the period, written not by Cai but by his political enemies. His biography never recovered, nor was it ever expected to recover, from this initial deficiency. The second stage is marked by ostensible attempts to broaden the field of documentation. But, as Hong Mai's attempt to involve Sun Di reveals, in Cai Jing's case, these attempts were probably nothing more than camouflage to con firm the existing historical verdict that blamed Cai Jing for the fall of the Northern Song. Although Li Tao essentially agreed with this verdict, his attempts to deepen its historical base and elevate the rhetoric against Cai above the diatribes of 1126 had only a minimal impact on the Sichao guoshi text of 1186, which was, in the case of Cai Jing, probably close to the present Dongdu shilue version. The third stage, culminating in the present Songshi text, is marked by the increasing identification of Cai as a ne farious minister, a pure stereotype against whom to compare later Song autocratic councilors. For it is in this period, basically the thirteenth century, and probably quite early in the century, that the notion of a succession of "nefarious ministers" becomes a major theme of Song historians. I have in another article examined the life of Qin Gui and the ma nipulation of historical sources that was necessary to bring his life into line with this developing stereotype of the "nefarious minister." The
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present chapter reveals that much less effort was required to bring Cai Jing into this category. Unlike Qin Gui, who was responsible for much of the stability of the Southern Song, even in his own lifetime Cai Jing had been portrayed as the man who lost the Northern Song. It was therefore quite easy to typecast him as the prototypical "nefarious min ister." But the present chapter shows that, although this portrayal was no difficult historical undertaking, it nevertheless still occurred in stages. The process was not complete until the notion of a succession of "ne farious ministers," with Cai Jing as its head, became established. For the concept of a succession to become operative, one needs not one, not two, but at least three members of the category. This notion took hold following the failure of the Zhao Ruyu � i-k .� (1140-9 6) govern ment and the advent of Han Tuozhou #1Jt lf (11 51-12°7) during the Qingyuan period (119 5-1201). The finished portrait of Cai Jing, as mani fested in his Songshi biography, is a product of the historical imagination that followed in the political wake of those events Cai Jing, Qin Gui, Han Tuozhou . . . .
:
A Textual History ofCaiJing's Biograp1!J in the Songshi
553
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