Origins, Ancestors, and Imperial Authority in Early Northern Wei Historiography
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Origins, Ancestors, and Imperial Authority in Early Northern Wei Historiography Nina Duthie Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2015 ©2015 Nina Duthie All rights reserved ABSTRACT Origins, Ancestors, and Imperial Authority in Early Northern Wei Historiography Nina Duthie In this dissertation, I explore Wei shu historiography on the early Northern Wei imperial state, which was founded by the Tuoba Xianbei in the late fourth century C.E. In examining the Wei shu narrative of the Northern Wei founding, I illuminate not only the representation of cultural and imperial authority in the reigns of the early Northern Wei emperors, but also investigate historiography on the pre-imperial Tuoba past. I argue that the Wei shu narrative of Tuoba origins and ancestors is constructed from the perspective of the moment of the Northern Wei founding. Or, to view it the other way around, the founding of the Northern Wei imperial state by Tuoba Gui signifies the culmination of the Wei shu narrative on the early Tuoba. This narrative of the early Tuoba past is of course teleological: Essentially everything in this phase of Tuoba historiography leads up to the moment of the Northern Wei imperial founding, including genealogical descent from a son of Huangdi, who is represented as the Xianbei progenitor, in a remote northern wilderness; the continuous succession of Tuoba rulers that followed; and the journeys that brought the Tuoba out of the wilderness and toward the geographical center. In focusing on the account of the inaugural reign of Tuoba Gui, the Northern Wei founder, and the record of his ritual practice as emperor, I have discovered tensions in Wei shu historiography that I believe signal toward some of the actual cultural contestation that attended the founding of the Northern Wei imperial state. The Wei shu historiography on Buddhism in the early Northern Wei then, I argue, presents an alternative source of authority, one that stands outside both an imperial Han inheritance and a culturally Tuoba tradition. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Part I Chapter 1: Origins and Cultural Authority: Ethnography and Historiography on the Early Xianbei 16 Part II Prologue: Other Origins of the Tuoba Xianbei 54 Chapter 2: Early Tuoba Imperial Ancestors and Territorial Migrations 66 Chapter 3: Ritual and Imperial Authority in the Founding of the Northern Wei 101 Chapter 4: Imperial Authority and Buddhism in the Early Northern Wei 144 Epilogue 177 Bibliography 184 i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is difficult to imagine writing a dissertation of this kind in an institution other than the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. EALAC granted me a firm foundation in the fields of Premodern Chinese literature and cultural history, and then allowed me to pursue a project that blurs disciplinary boundaries. I owe my deepest gratitude to my two advisors, Shang Wei and Robert Hymes, who both read this manuscript with thoughtfulness and care. Shang Wei graciously offered his guidance throughout the process of conceptualizing and writing this project, and his breadth of knowledge is a source of continual inspiration. Robert Hymes generously shared his expertise on social history of early medieval China, and offered astute recommendations for revision of the manuscript. I am also indebted to my other dissertation committee members Charles Holcombe, Michael Puett, and David Lurie, each of whom provided a unique critical perspective and much constructive advice. Al Dien provided comments on a presentation which was based on a draft of chapter 1. I am grateful to Haruo Shirane for generously dispensing sound advice throughout the course of my doctoral studies at Columbia University. I am also grateful to Wendy Swartz for her comments on an early proposal for this project and for her seminars on Shijing and early medieval poetry, and to Li Feng for his lively seminar on history and archaeology of early China. My classmates in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, especially Linda Rui Feng, Gregory Patterson, and Nan Ma Hartmann, shared their clever ii wit and warm companionship, and I am indebted to Linda for reading drafts of chapters even while preparing her own book manuscript for publication. Funding to support my dissertation research was provided by a Fulbright fellowship to Taiwan for the academic year 2010–2011. I would like to thank National Taiwan University for hosting a productive stay, and in particular Cheng Yu-yu in the Department of Chinese Literature and Chen Jo-shui in the Department of History. Adventures with my fellow Fulbrighters Veronica Wong, Kim Liao, and Erin Shigekawa exploring the cafes and bookshops of Taipei made the experience all the richer. At the dissertation writing stage, David Schaberg’s seminar on Zuo Zhuan that I audited at UCLA was immensely inspiring, and allowed me to think about historiography in ways both critical and creative. I am also most grateful to Jack Chen for several productive conversations about this dissertation project. My parents, Jan, Martin, and Eve, have been a constant source of support and motivation throughout my doctoral education. Finally, my gratitude is owed to Torquil, who intuitively believed in this project even at moments when it seemed to go astray. Thank you for patiently reading drafts of the manuscript and for cooking dinner almost every evening. iii Introduction The Project At the close of the fourth century (in 398 C.E.), Tuoba Gui , the ruler of the Tuoba Xianbei, proclaimed the founding of the (Northern) Wei imperial state and formally accepted the insignia of emperor, acceding as Taizu , Emperor Daowu , according to the Wei shu. Earlier that year, Tuoba Gui had fulfilled each of the requisite acts attendant at the founding of an imperial state. He formally accepted the mandate of heaven, held deliberations with his ministers on the name of the imperial state, built the new capital of Pingcheng, erected therein the ancestral temple and the altars of soil and grain, and further, instituted an array of new imperial rituals to be performed by the Tuoba emperors of the Northern Wei. The elevation of the Northern Wei from kingdom to imperium (Tuoba Gui had previously declared himself king of the Wei state, which thereby supplanted the predecessor state of Dai) signified both Tuoba Gui’s personal ambitions as ruler and his aspirations for the regime he led. The founding of the imperial Northern Wei state laid the groundwork for the eventual conquests of the surrounding states, and within only about four decades, by the mid-fifth century, the Northern Wei would effectively unify the north under its imperial rule. The focal point of this dissertation is the Wei shu narrative of the founding of the imperial Northern Wei state through the inaugural reign of Tuoba Gui, or Emperor Daowu. I explore the deeply interconnected issues of cultural and imperial authority at this moment of the Northern Wei founding, as represented in Wei shu historiography. 1 Through an examination of Wei shu accounts of Emperor Daowu’s practice of imperial ritual, tensions emerge in the text between an avowed adherence to Zhou–Han textual prescriptions and vestiges of culturally Tuoba traditional practice. Moreover, the accounts preserve a record of ritual performance that cannot be categorized as following either tradition. I not only investigate ritual practice in Emperor Daowu’s reign, but also trace the history of ritual practice through the ensuing reigns of the Northern Wei emperors. Although the focal point of my dissertation is the founding of the Northern Wei, this moment is refracted across Wei shu historiography on the early Tuoba, as it is from the perspective of the imperial Northern Wei founding that the origins, early history, and lineage of the Tuoba were constructed. Significantly, only at the inauguration of the Northern Wei imperial state were the five imperial ancestors enshrined as past emperors. The Wei shu narrative traces the Tuoba from their genealogical and territorial origins, throughout their journeys as they emerge from a wilderness, and into the formation of the Dai state. This phase of pre-imperial Tuoba history is written in the “Prefatory Annals” ( ) of the Wei shu, and aspects of this history are also incorporated into the “Lingzheng zhi” (“Treatise on Auspicious and Inauspicious Influences”). This project also moves forward in time from the moment of the Northern Wei imperial founding to examine Wei shu historiography on Buddhism during the reigns of the early Northern Wei emperors. I explore Buddhism as an alternative source of imperial authority, and trace the arc of the historiographical narrative from imperial accommodation through persecution and finally to restoration. I argue that this narrative illuminates issues of acculturation and cultural authority during the early Northern Wei, and also poses an interesting case of the writing and rewriting of history in the Wei shu. 2 The parameters of this dissertation therefore encompass the historiographical representation of the earliest history of the Tuoba clan through the reigns of the first five emperors of the Northern Wei imperial state. The Text The historiographical text that treats the Tuoba Xianbei and the Northern Wei is the Wei shu (, History of the Northern Wei). The history was compiled by Wei Shou (505–572 C.E.) under the command of the founding emperor of the Northern Qi, which had succeeded the Eastern Wei, in the mid-sixth century C.E., and the final text was presented in 554 C.E., though it subsequently underwent revision. The structure of the text, in one hundred and thirty chapters (), follows the composite annals–biography style (jizhuan ti ), and incorporates ten treatises (zhi ), two of which were innovations by Wei Shou.