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Form and Matter ~SIX~ Form and Matter Archaizing Reform in Sixth,Century China + Scott Pearce A drama unfolded in the city of Chang' an on the first day of the first month 1 2 of a year roughly corresponding to A.D. 557. The stage was the Great Gate of a rundown palace in the city/ inhabited heretofore by the last puppet lord of the old Wei ~ dynasty. The audience was a throng of officials who stood in the courtyard before the gate. The main actor, who in his brief stint on the throne would never amount to more than a puppet himself, was Yu­ wenJue X :1;, 542-57), a fourteen-year-old son ofYuwen Tai X~' 506-56), the frontiersman who two decades earlier had suddenly appeared with an army in Guanzhong lUI the "Land within the P:;tsses." T ai had now died. But he had breathed new life into these ancient loesslands. On this New Year's Day, his ambitions would be realized with his boy's en- thronement as ruler of a revived Zhou dynasty. The House of Yuan had ruled the states now known as the Northern Wei ~t~ (386-534) and the Western Wei Q§;,il (534-56) for over a century. Its final end, however, could have come as no great surprise. Two weeks be­ fore, the "respectful emperor," Gong Di $ (r. 554-56), had shown his re­ spect for the power behind the throne by bestowing on Yuwen T ai' s heir the meaning-laden title "Duke ofZhou" JW] 0. On the day before YuwenJue's 150 SCOTT PEARCE accession, the throne was formally abdicated. These are the words put into poor Gong Di's mouth: I have heard that the Mandate of August Heaven is not constant; it simply cleaves to virtue. Thus, Yao ~abdicated to Shun f,f-, and Shun abdicated to Yu ~.This was what was right f.or the time. Heaven disdains my Wei regime and has sent forth disasters to denounce it. There are none among you who do not know this. Al­ though I am not sagacious, how could I dare not respectfully accept4 the Mandate of Heaven or stand in the way of those who do have virtue? Following the ancient model of Tang~ and Yu ~ (i.e., Yao and Shun], I shall now abdicate the throne to Zhou, announcing this broadly to all, near and far. 5 ~M~*Z$~mm·m•m•o~~~frr-·frr-~~·~~~ilio* •u•m·••~~·m•~R~o~-~~·ftRW*$·M~• 8o~-~~·~·~mm~··~~~--o On the day of the grand event, which would retroactively be designated as the first day of a new year, Yuwen Jue was presented to the host of offi­ cials who stood in the courtyard before the Great Gate. Having made a burnt offering to Heaven, he assumed the ancient title of the Zhou lords, "heavenly king" (tianwang 7( .:E); his late father, Yuwen Tai, was posthu­ mously entitled "King Wen" )( .:f.. Omens now appeared, and a series of offerings was made, beginning the next day with an offering to Heaven at the 35-foot-high, three-tiered round altar that stood to the south of Chang'an's walls.6 The Yuwen had reached into the dusty attic of the Chinese past to take on the garb of ancient culture heroes, the great founders of the much revered Zhou dynasty, King Wen and his son, the Duke ofZhou. Nor were they content simply to wear other men's robes. A fanciful genealogy was drawn up, tracing the non-Chinese Yuwen back to the Divine Husbandman (Shennong :f$ In a legendary ruler associated with the Tibetan Qiang ft people, who had been allies and marriage partners of the Zhou.7 When enfeoffed as Duke of Zhou, Yuwen Jue had received the region of Qiyang tl!SZ: ~~ (modern Qishan in Shaanxi), the very place from which the Zhou had first emerged.8 Such royal theatrics are to be taken for granted, in China and in the world at large. The right to rule-which is, at the onset at least, the same thing as the right to seize rulership-rests not simply on coercion but on a capacity to manipulate ideas and symbols. This chapter explores the envi-.
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