Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages. Sanping Chen

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СКАЧАТЬ 222.7123–24).

      The Tang's succession troubles and the “unstable institution” of the heir apparent were far from over after this. What is more, there would emerge much more frequent lateral successions than the almost unbroken lineal tradition of the early Tang. However, there were many gradual but important changes in the aspects and circumstances of succession struggles, some of which will be covered in later sections. For my major contention that the early Tang was a Särbo-Chinese regime with strong Turco-Mongol characteristics, the documentation of blood tanistry cases can stop at this point. The following sections will be devoted to various aspects and implications of the Tang succession struggles.

       The Oedipus Complex

      Arthur Wright first proposed that the Sui emperor Yangdi represented an instance of the Oedipus complex.⁵¹ Victor Xiong later repeated and in fact reinforced the case.⁵² In my view, the Oedipus complex depiction here has overstretched the sphere of psychoanalysis. It is obvious from my narration that acute father-son enmity and rivalry were characteristic of the first two centuries of the Tang. In addition to the Sui, one can easily trace the phenomenon back to the Tuoba Wei state and other earlier dynasties established by various tribal groups, as well as in the An Lushan-Shi Siming rebel regime (both leaders were murdered by their respective sons). Boodberg is more to the point: it was a much more general and wider phenomenon on the Steppe.

      Wright's Oedipus complex diagnosis would make this father-son adversary a rather personal trait of Emperor Yangdi. Even if the label stuck, it would have to be extended to so many other political figures of Steppe origin or background, both in China and elsewhere, that any utility of the term would appear lost. This father-son enmity was so typical of the Turco-Mongol culture that the vendetta against a dead father or the rush to reverse his policies can be clearly shown in a wide variety of cases, ranging from the Ghaznavid sultan Mas'ud in the Turco-Iranian world,⁵³ to the late Manchu monarchs such as Emperor Gaozong (Qian-long) of the Qing.⁵⁴ But if one invokes the Oedipal drive in the pretext of universal human traits, then in addition to losing the specificity, and hence the very reason for introducing the term, one would face the daunting task of explaining the relative scarcity of similar cases in the two Hàn dynasties as well as in other stable and prolonged native dynasties.

      It is my view that the so-called Oedipus complex is in effect a convenient way to bypass the real socioeconomic and politico-cultural issues. I note that even the Shakespearean play Hamlet, which has often been cited as a quintessential case of such a complex, may in fact have actual historical succession struggles in the background.⁵⁵

      As many modern researchers have concluded, contrary to conventional misconception, pastoral nomadism was a very complex way of life that required sophisticated planning and great effort. In contrast to agriculture, it in fact allowed a much smaller margin of error in decision making and very low tolerance of natural and man-made disasters, as a severe spring storm could easily wipe out one's entire stock in a matter of days. The highly mobile way of life, the relative low economic return on a per-acre basis, and the constant threat of tribal and other warfare meant that tribe and other polity leadership must be very personal and militaristic, without the luxury of a large, permanent, civil bureaucratic establishment. All these factors demanded that the leadership remained with young, industrious, and energetic figures who could respond quickly and forcefully to a change of or emergency in the environment and who would be able to lead the tribes into successful military campaigns.

      This leads to the notion that the socio-political life on the Steppe required a faster pace or metabolism in replenishing its leadership than in a sedentary agricultural society, which, with a large civil administration machine feeding on immense and reliable revenues from intensive farming, could afford to have unresponsive and politically uninterested elderly monarchs continue to occupy the throne (incidentally, this was exactly what became of Emperor Xuanzong, the last Turco-Xianbei monarch of the Tang). In my view this was the real root of the semilegendary Steppe tradition of regicide, ritualistic or real, found as far as the Khazar Empire, that a khan had a preordained time limit on his reign, after which he would be murdered.⁵⁶

      On this account we see also how Turco-Mongol traditions adapted, or shall we say mellowed, in their transition to the Central Kingdom. Unlike the harsh political realities on the Steppe where a khan normally would have to hang on until his natural or not so infrequently violent death, a sedentary society opened up a less draconian option: the position of a retired emperor, albeit as our examples have shown, life as such would seem not greatly more enviable than the Steppe alternative. Following the Turco-Xianbei traditions of its Northern dynasty predecessors, the Tang, especially in its first century and a half, had numerous such retired emperors, whereas none were found in more than four centuries of the two Hàn dynasties. This is one more reason why the early Tang should be more aptly called a Särbo-Chinese regime.

      I further observe that in subsequent major native dynasties, namely the Song and the Ming, only a handful more such cases were found, almost invariably the consequence of catastrophic military invasions from the north.⁵⁷ Only in the Qing dynasty did we find another case of a purely domestic nature, which curiously enough was allegedly prompted by the “filial wish” of Emperor Gaozong that his reign not exceed a preset limit, namely the length of the reign of his grandfather Emperor Shengzu.⁵⁸

      Having examined the father-son feature, the maternal aspect in the alleged Oedipus complex should also be reviewed to do it full justice. First, once the mother changed herself into a “surrogate father” in the sense that she became a contender for the throne, as in the case of Empress Wu Zetian, the mother-son relation would turn out much less romantic than the complex prescribes, one more indication of the phenomenon's politico-cultural rather than alleged psychosexual root. Also the supposed affection was evidently not always reciprocal, as political filicide by the mother was noted from the late Tuoba Wei period onward.

      Nevertheless, in comparison with the fate of the fathers, royal matriarchs did seem to fare a lot better, even in extreme cases such as Empress Wu Zetian and the grandmother of Emperor Xiaowen of the Tuoba Wei (ZZTJ 134.4187, 137.4302.). However, instead of the either too individual or too universal trait of Oedipal drive, I think a more plausible explanation lies elsewhere. In this regard classical historians would seem more down-to-earth than psychoanalysis-leaning modern authors when Hou Hàn shu (The History of the Late Hàn, 90.2979) provides the following hint in describing the Wuhuan's unmistakable Steppe traits of patricide and fratricide: “[They] kill their father and elder brothers when angry, but would never hurt their mother, for mothers have a clan whereas fathers and elder brothers do not [have someone to take] revenge for themselves.” Here we clearly see remnants of matriarchy at work, which in my view is a more realistic factor on the Steppe than a man's subconscious Oedipal desire for his mother, for this can also explain the Northern women's traditionally strong role, attested by their prominent social status in the Northern dynasties,⁵⁹ and culminating in Empress Wu becoming the first and only woman emperor in Chinese history, the latter of which could only happen in a Särbo-Chinese dynasty with deeply entrenched Turco-Mongol traditions. A Steppe mother's near-sacred status and complete dominance of her son in my view also provide a most natural explanation for the unprecedented Tuoba Wei custom of killing an heir apparent's birth mother before crowning the prince son. The case of Lady Gouyi of the Former Hàn dynasty (ZZTJ 22.744–45), from which the Tuoba custom had allegedly taken its cue, was evidently an exceptional, ad hoc measure. The case of Empress-dowager Hu, the first birth mother of a future Tuoba emperor to escape this fate, demonstrates that the draconian rule was not an unwarranted and overcautious precaution: by her complete domination of her emperor son and her final act of filicide (ZZTJ 152.4739), Empress-dowager Hu was blamed for the eventual collapse of the once powerful Tuoba regime in northern China.

       Other Aspects of the Tang Blood Tanistry

      The established Hàn tradition of having, at least formally, an heir apparent means СКАЧАТЬ