Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages. Sanping Chen

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СКАЧАТЬ from happening after the death of Emperor Taizong. Another episode was the promise by one of the players, Li Tai (Prince Wei), to kill off his son if he was appointed heir apparent, so that after his death the throne would go laterally to another son of Taizong (ZZTJ 197.6195). This promise did not sound so unnatural to Taizong's ears (and indeed, as we shall see, would be redeemed en masse by a great-grandson of his).

      Into the reign of the next emperor, and with the emergence of a strong woman, Wu Zetian, the focus of the succession struggle shifted somewhat from brotherly contest to acute parent-child enmity. Empress Wu showed little hesitation in having two heirs apparent, both her own sons, killed in 675 and 684 respectively (ZZTJ 202.6377, 203.6419.). A few modern authors,⁴⁴ who contrast her apparent lack of qualms with a mother's natural feelings and argue that one of the princes was perhaps not born of Empress Wu, do not seem to recognize the entrenched tradition of filicide in the Sui and Tang houses and Empress Wu's merciless killing of her own baby daughter and several grandchildren later in her life (ZZTJ 199.6286–87, 204.6467, 207.6557).

      What is more interesting is that, after having deposed two puppet emperors, both her own sons, and enthroned herself, Empress Wu had put both under house arrest with strict court supervision that effectively cut off all communication with the outside (ZZTJ 204.6473, 205.6490). The empress recognized that she would still have to pass on the throne to no one else but her blood offspring in the end (ZZTJ 204.6474–75, 206.6526–27). This awkward situation bears a striking resemblance to the Ottoman court's Kafes (cage) system.⁴⁵ This measure, perhaps in a less draconian form but nonetheless “violating fundamental human relations by incarcerating one's flesh and blood,” would be institutionized by Emperor Xuanzong and enforced at least beyond the year 833 (ZZTJ 244.7886).

      One may also note that the Ottoman Kafes was hardly unique to the Turkic political sphere: the later Ghaznavids in Afghanistan and Northern India also developed a similar policy after incessant succession struggles among the sultan's family members.⁴⁶ Corresponding to the birth control measures in the Kafes, a remarkable circumstance was the repeated attempts by Emperor Xuan-zong (then the crown prince) to abort his consort's pregnancy for fear of further antagonizing Princess Taiping (Jiu Tang shu 52.2184). One notes that the incident was recorded due largely to the fact that the pregnancy the future Emperor Xuanzong tried to terminate produced in the end none other than the future Emperor Suzong (reign 756–62).

      After the restoration (705) of the Tang dynasty under Empress Wu's son Emperor Zhongzong, we soon see another case of filicide in a succession struggle: the killing of Emperor Zhongzong's heir apparent, Prince Chongjun, after the latter's failed coup attempt against his father (ZZTJ 208.6611–12). But not long afterward the emperor in 710 fell victim of viricide/patricide as his empress and his daughter Princess Anle conspired to grab the imperial power for themselves (ZZTJ 209.6641–42).

      In a typical Turco-Mongol maneuver after the death of the khan, and against the age-old tradition of lineal succession in the Central Kingdom, Princess Taiping, sister of the deceased emperor, and her nephew Prince Longji, the future Emperor Xuanzong (and as some have claimed, the latter's seemingly unambitious father too), together plotted a successful coup to send Longji's father back to the throne. At this time, the principle of blood tanistry, namely letting the ablest heir of all succeed, was so entrenched in the Tang house, prevailing over the dizhang principle stipulating instead that the successor be the eldest heir born of the chief consort, that Longji's elder brother Chengqi steadfastly refused to be appointed the heir apparent to avoid an almost certain repetition of the Xuanwu Gate incident (ZZTJ 209.6650).

      Thus was created a most interesting triangular power structure between the emperor, his full sister Princess Taiping, and the young but capable Crown Prince Longji. The triumvirate showed deep rifts from the very beginning (ZZTJ 210.6656–57). Although Prince Longji, later Emperor Xuanzong, apparently made sure that not much was left in the history records that would cast doubt upon his filial relationship with his emperor father, there was ample evidence, for example, the story in ZZTJ (210.6673–74), showing that Emperor Ruizong did feel daunted by this intellectually and militarily gifted son, and the menace of patricide, which the Li boys (and girls) often showed little reluctance in plotting and executing, would seem a major factor in Emperor Ruizong's heavy dependence on his sister Princess Taiping against and as a way of balancing his son's power. No sooner had the son forced the aunt to commit suicide by a preemptive military move than the father decided to go into genuine retirement for good.

      In many aspects Emperor Xuanzong could be called the last Turco-Mongol or Turco-Xianbei monarch of the Tang ruling house. The military and political expansion continued and reached its zenith during his reign. The emperor also showed remarkable openness and reception to foreign cultures, music and dance in particular, which was eagerly and wholeheartedly imitated by an equally receptive populace, with various Hu (foreign) fashions and styles soon becoming the dominating vogue of the time (Jiu Tang shu 45.1957–58). Xuanzong's dependence on and trust in his non-Hàn ethnic generals were also unprecedented (which would eventually cause his fall from grace). It is indeed very tempting to compare the first half of his reign with that of the brilliant Manchu emperor Shengzu (Kangxi), the best emperor the Central Kingdom ever had, according to many. But this would be a little beyond the scope of this chapter.

      At issue here is that, just like Emperor Kangxi,⁴⁷ Emperor Xuanzong was dogged by the problem of succession and the choice of an heir apparent. What is most remarkable and revealing of his Turco-Xianbei heritage is that, in the spring of 737, the emperor had three of his sons, including his first heir apparent, killed in a single day (ZZTJ 214.6829). Such a resolute act of filicide, later indignantly denounced as a “breach of heavenly principles” by the Song dynasty historian Fan Zuyu,⁴⁸ would put Xuanzong on an equal footing with, say, the Ottoman sultan Selim I (Selim the Grim), who was believed to have, on November 20, 1514, killed three of his four sons,⁴⁹ leaving but one (Süleyman the Magnificent) to succeed him. It can be added that filicide also figured in the succession struggle during the Qing dynasty, in particular that carried out by the eventual successor to Emperor Kangxi, despite some modern authors' effort to whitewash or deny its occurrence.⁵⁰

      Emperor Xuanzong's radical measure, plus further act of filicide (ZZTJ 216.6916–17), did not relieve him in the end from the by now almost trademark Tang succession trouble. In the wake of the An Lushan Rebellion, another heir apparent son would part ways with Emperor Xuanzong and declare himself the new emperor (Emperor Suzong), handing his father a coup de grace (ZZTJ 218.6975–76, 218.6982.). Furthermore, after both had returned to the recovered Tang capital, the now retired Emperor Xuanzong would find himself nearly assassinated in a kidnap plot devised and executed by his son's most trusted courtier (ZZTJ 221.7094–95). With all his loyal ministers, attendants, and eunuchs dead or exiled, this retired emperor would eventually die a bitter, lonely, and helpless old man under virtual house arrest.

      Such an unceremonious exit of, in my view, the last Turco-Xianbei monarch of the Tang by no means spelled the end of the imperial house's Turco-Mongol-style succession problems. Indeed, even prior to that, Emperor Suzong had to overcome and kill another royal brother, Prince Yong (Li Lin), who, apparently at the encouragement of Emperor Xuanzong (ZZTJ 218.6983, 219.7007), began to harbor imperial ambitions too. A side note is that this episode of fratricide had profound effects on the life and career of the two greatest Tang poets, Li Bai (Li Po 701-ca. 762) and Du Fu (712–70): Li Bai signed on with the losing side of this fratricidal struggle for the throne, for which he almost received a death sentence. He was eventually exiled to Yelang, which was by far the most serious crisis in the poet's life (Xin Tang shu 202.5763). This in turn led Du Fu to write several immortal poems over his deep concern for his dear friend's fate.

      Despite further act of filicide, which saw one of his able sons, Prince Jianning, killed and the eldest, the future emperor Daizong gravely endangered (ZZTJ 219.7013.), Emperor Suzong would die, of natural cause or otherwise, amid the chaos of yet another fratricide СКАЧАТЬ