Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages. Sanping Chen

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СКАЧАТЬ twentieth-century proponent of Pan-Turkism, as an ancient Turkic word for “wife.”¹⁶ In the meantime, the leading Chinese gentry families steadfastly refused to establish matrimonial relations with the imperial house. More strikingly, their rejection of the honor of an imperial marriage persisted for more than two centuries, lasting well into the late Tang era, despite the royal family's repeated initiatives (Xin Tangshu 119.4306, 172.5205–6; ZZTJ248.8036.¹⁷

      3. Clan relationship. The Tang represented a unique case in Chinese history in which the imperial house bestowed its own clan name, Li, not only on a few Hàn Chinese persons but more frequently on ethnic leaders and chieftains, be they Turk, Tangut, Uighur, Kitan, or Iranian/Persian. In the same study of the marriage practice of Tang royal princesses, Wang Tongling compiled a rather extensive table on this issue.¹⁸ As the Yuan dynasty historian Hu Sanxing particularly noted (ZZTJ 172.8879), the Zhuxie Shatuo Turkic tribe founded the Later Tang dynasty based largely on having received this imperial honor. I also add a rather revealing case missing in Wang Tongling's exhaustive table: As late as the Huichang period (841–46), the main business for a Kirghiz embassy, per an imperial edict by Emperor Wuzong (reign 840–46), was to register themselves with the imperial clan office (Xin Tang shu 217b.6150), highlighting the alleged common ancestry of the Kirghiz qaghan and the Tang house. In his detailed treatise on the collapse of the Uighur Empire, Michael Drompp has documented this interesting relationship.¹⁹ On the other hand, it is well documented and studied that the Tang imperial house made repeated efforts to suppress the leading gentry clans' social prestige and privilege (ZZTJ 195.6135–36, 200.6318.). I may even ascribe the emergence of the Chinese civil services examinations under the Sui and Tang to this distrust in old Hàn aristocratic clans.

      4. Clothing. It is well known that Tang fashions were under heavy foreign influence. Xiang Da's pioneering study on this subject has been followed up by many other authors.²⁰ As the famous Tang poet Yuan Zhen's social jeremiad Faqu (Quan Tang shi [Complete Anthology of Tang Poetry] 419.1025) described, the love of exotic style, custom, and makeup became feverish during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. While most modern authors emphasize the Iranian and Iranic connections and the influence coming from the Western Regions, I take note of the fact that much of this represented the Steppe heritage, including the nomadic groups' long history of playing the Western Regions card. As a particular example and in sharp contrast to the Tuoba emperor Xiaowen's wholesale sinicization drive, in which the emperor took personal responsibility for abolishing even the leisure dress of the Xianbei women (Wei shu 19.469 and 21.536), official records clearly state that most of the so-called regular dresses during the Tang were of the Tuoba military tradition (Jiu Tang shu [The Old History of the Tang Dynasty] 45.1938, 45.1951; Xin Tang shu 24.527–28; and Tang huiyao 31.577–78). However, as to how this was viewed by the traditional gentry, I note that the felt hat personally popularized by Zhangsun Wuji, Emperor Taizong's brother-in-law, was later labeled by the Confucian historians as “devilish” (Xin Tang shu 34.878). Another telltale case, according to an early Song dynasty source Tang yulin (Anecdotes of the Tang, 4.101) and corroborated by Xin Tang shu (125.4407), was Emperor Xuanzong's feeling of alienation merely because of his chief minister Zhang Yue's “Confucian dress.” These incidents again point to a gap between the Tang ruling class and the Confucian gentry in this regard.

      5. Social mores. Several notable customs practiced by the Li clansmen, such as breast-sucking and foot-kissing, betrayed the clan's non-Hàn cultural heritage. Again we owe these two important observations to Liu Pansui's already cited pioneering study, albeit Liu's citations are far from complete. The customs' origins are certainly worthy of further exploration, especially a possible relationship between foot-kissing and the well-known ancient Iranian custom of proskynesis documented by Greek authors from Herodotus on down, and particularly with respect to Alexander the Great. But to me the most famous (or notorious) custom was the Li clan's record on levirate and other scandalous matrimonial relations. The practice, as I point out in a later chapter, reflected a key northern legacy in the Tang house, namely the lack of clearly defined and recognized generational boundaries on the Steppe. In addition to the many well-known cases, I note the tomb inscription of the wife of the Türk general Ashina Zhong unearthed in the 1970s, which reveals yet another marriage of Emperor Taizong's with his former in-laws.²¹ The case was not reported anywhere in existing records, suggesting even more such incidents that were similarly suppressed in the official histories. As to how this would have been looked upon by the Confucian gentry, suffice it to say that when the Tang house's ethnicity finally became an open issue in the Southern Song, “violations of the Confucian standard governing a women's proper behaviour” was the first question raised.²²

      6. Another interesting cultural trait was the “Barbarian” childhood names fashionable among the Northern aristocracy, the Sui and Tang houses included. Both Sui emperors Wendi and Yangdi had such names: the father's childhood name was Nanluoyan (Taisho No. 2060, 667c) and the son's Ame (ZZTJ 179.5577). So did Yang Yong and Li Jiancheng, the two one-time crown princes, under the founding emperors of the Sui and Tang dynasties, respectively. The former's childhood name was Gandifa (ZZTJ 179.5575), which can be identified with a similar childhood name, Qizhifa, the “Xian-bei-ized” warlord Feng Ba of the Tuoba Wei period (Wei shu 97.2126). Li Jiancheng's childhood name was Pishamen (Xin Tang shu 79.3540). As shall be discussed later, these two princes shared more than having a “Barbarian” childhood name and being an unsuccessful heir apparent. There is good evidence that many of these names were of Buddhist origin, but the real point is their nonsinicized forms. For example, Sui Wendi's name Naluoyan was also the name of a Central Asian Türk chief (ZZTJ 212.6735). An intriguing story is that a passage in Jiu Tang shu (64.2415) indicated unmistakably that Emperor Taizong also had such a childhood name. But nowhere could this name be found in any records. One can only conclude that the emperor made sure his “Barbarian” name became an absolute imperial taboo. Another case is the childhood name Zhinu of Li Zhi the future emperor Gaozong (Jiu Tang shu 64.2415) His father's use of a proverb “Having borne a wolf…” to describe Li Zhi's character (ZZTJ 197.6208) leads me to submit that this seemingly Hàn name was but a corrupted or masked proto-Mongolian term for “wolf.” This term was well attested as the clan name Chinu, which became Lang, “wolf,” in Tuoba emperor Xiaowen's sinicization drive (Wei shu, 113.3013). As Peter Boodberg pointed out in “The Language of the T'o-pa Wei,” another likely attestation was the popular personal name Chounu.

      7. Yet another issue showing the marked contrast between the Tang imperial house and the Confucian gentry was the monarchs' extravagant patronage of the performing arts—music, dance, drama, and other entertainment—much to the horror of the Confucian moralists. Worse still, the Turco-Xianbei emperors often showed little reservation in bestowing on these artists, considered of the same social class as house slaves and prostitutes by the traditional Chinese gentry, prominent and prestigious titles. One such artist was even enfeoffed with a princedom by the Northern Qi (550–57), a precedent the Sui emperor Yangdi once wanted to follow to benefit his favorite and talented Kuchaean musician Bai Mingda, who would continue to serve the Tang with distinction (Sui shu [The History of the Sui Dynasty] 15.397). The first two Tang emperors were both criticized by Confucian ministers for giving similar appointments to these artists (Jiu Tang shu 62.2375–76, 74.2614–15; Xin Tang shu 98.3897, 99.3907–8; and ZZTJ 186.5834, 194.6095). The third, Emperor Gaozong, received similar criticism for according the artists undue privileges (Xin Tang shu 201.5728.). I further remark that Emperor Xuanzong was the last Tang emperor to show this passion for the performing arts. The emperor's biography by Xu Daoxun and Zhao Keyao, for instance, provides extensive details on this subject.²³ Interestingly and by no means coincidentally, the same royal fervor was not to be observed until the coming of the Shatuo Turkic regimes (ZZTJ 272.8904.).

      These items illustrate the Li clan's cultural identity in the eyes of the contemporary Chinese gentry class. In addition, I find the views on this subject of two other parties, namely the Türks and the Li clanspeople themselves, suggestive also.

      First, СКАЧАТЬ