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Kingship in Early Medieval China Sinica Leidensia Kingship in Early Medieval China Sinica Leidensia Edited by Barend J. ter Haar In co-operation with P.K. Bol, D.R. Knechtges, E.S. Rawski, W.L. Idema, E. Zürcher, H.T. Zurndorfer VOLUME 83 Kingship in Early Medieval China By Andrew Eisenberg LEIDEN • BOSTON 2008 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Eisenberg, Andrew. Kingship in early medieval China / by Andrew Eisenberg. p. cm. — (Sinica leidensia) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-16381-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Monarchy—China—History. 2. China—Politics and government—221 B.C.–960 A.D. I. Title. II. Series. JQ1511.E38 2008 320.95109'02—dc22 2007050999 ISSN 0169-9563 ISBN 978 90 04 16381 2 Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Jack L. Dull, University of Washington, Seattle CONTENTS Diagrams and Tables .......................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ............................................................................ xi Chapter One Introduction: Interpretive Perspective ................. 1 Chapter Two Retired Emperorship: The Northern Wei Innovation ....................................................................................... 23 Chapter Three The Northern Wei Case Concluded: The Regency of the Empress Dowager Wenming, 476–490 ............ 61 Chapter Four The Collapse of the Northern Qi .......................... 93 Chapter Five The Northern Zhou Case ....................................... 127 Chapter Six The Xuanwu Men Incident of the Tang: Imperial Retirement Enters the Mainstream ............................................. 167 Chapter Seven The Xuanwu Men Legacy: Taizong’s Factionalization of the Position of Heir Apparent ..................... 195 Chapter Eight The Pervasive Factionalization of Taizong’s Court ............................................................................................... 213 Chapter Nine Taizong—An Emperor on the Run ...................... 239 Chapter Ten Conclusion ................................................................ 253 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 261 Index .................................................................................................... 271 DIAGRAMS AND TABLES Diagram I: Sketch of the Northern Wei Succession ............ 30 Diagram II: Ego’s Politically Relevant Descent Group From the Chinese Perspective ...................................... 34 Table I: Agnates and Coup Efforts in the Northern Wei ......................................................................... 37 Table II: Relative Share of Coup Attempts by Agnatic Categories 386–516 .............................................. 38 Table III: Survival Rates of Selected Imperial Agnates .... 42 Table IV: Relative Share of Coup Attempts by Agnatic Categories in the Liu Song Regime .................... 48–49 Diagram III: Comparative Succession Patterns of Contemporary South Chinese Regimes ............ 56 Diagram IV: Sketch of the Northern Qi Succession ............... 108 Table V: Agnates and Coup Efforts in the Northern Qi .......................................................... 111 Table VI: Agnates and Coup Efforts in the Northern Zhou ....................................................................... 164 Diagram V: Northern Zhou Imperial Succession ................. 165 Table VII: Tang Administrative Personnel, 623–629 ......... 183 Table VIII: Tang Administrative Personnel, 627–649 ......... 215 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Chapters II and VI are directly based on essays published in T’oung Pao as follows: “Retired Emperorship in Medieval China: The Northern Wei,” 77. 1–3 (1991): 49–87, and “Kingship, Power and the Hsüan-wu Men Incident of the T’ang,” 80. 4–5 (1994): 223–259, respectively. Permission to re-print the following material has been granted: Chapter VII originally appeared in Tang Yanjiu as “Installing an Heir: Factional Politics in the Court of Tang Taizong” 5 (1999): 247–268. Chapter IX originally appeared in T’ang Studies as “A Study in Court Factionalism: The Politics of Tang Taizong,” 20–21 (2002–03): 39–69. First, many thanks to Prof. Ronald G. Knapp, Professor Emeritus, SUNY New Paltz, for critiqueing the rough manuscript and providing advice and support throughout the publication process. I wish to thank the following individuals for their crucial assistance in computer editing: Ronnie S. Eisenberg and Samuel D. Eisenberg. Special thanks to Jeanette E. Eisenberg for the time and skill she put into the editing process. Prof. Cai Fangpei, University of Chicago, took time from his busy schedule to assist in installing the proper Chinese and Japanese language programming. My thanks to the senior scholars and colleagues in China who pro- vided advice, constructive criticism, and valuable scholarly references: Prof. He Ziquan, Professor Emeritus, Beijing Normal University; Prof. Tian Yuqing, Professor Emeritus, Peking University; Prof. Wu Zong’guo, Professor Emeritus, Peking University; Prof. Li Ping; Prof. Zhang Qingjie, Director, Shanxi Institute of Archeology; Prof. Mou Fasong, Wuhan University; Dr. Roger Covey, Tang Studies Foundation; Prof. Rong Xinjiang, Peking University; Prof. Luo Xin, Peking University; Prof. Wang Xiaofu, Peking University. My appreciation to Prof. Paul Kroll, University of Colorado, Boulder, and Prof. Michael Drompp, Rhodes College and to my colleagues in the T’ang Studies Society for their gracious support. Congratulations to Prof. Al Dien, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University and to my col- leagues in the Early Medieval China Group on the forthcoming fest- schrift in honor of Prof. Dien. I owe much to my colleagues at Northeastern Illinois University for fully supporting my sabbatical research requests which were crucial in xii acknowledgements bringing this book to completion. Also, this book could not have been undertaken without the support of the Center for East Asian Studies, University of Chicago. My thanks to Prof. Donald N. Levine, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, for permission to audit his gradu- ate seminar on Georg Simmel and Max Weber. Finally, to the Hon. You Shaozhong and the PRC Ministry of Education 1998 “Cultural Research Fellowship”, thank-you for your support. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION: INTERPRETIVE PERSPECTIVE This monograph is an interpretive discussion of classical Chinese politi- cal history from the late 300’s AD through the 650’s AD, covering the Northern Dynasties (Northern Wei, 386–534; Eastern Wei/Northern Qi, 534–577, the Western Wei/Northern Zhou, 534–580), and the early Tang. The historical discussion will open with a consideration of the peculiar imperial institution of ‘retired emperorship’ wherein a senior and a junior emperor reigned simultaneously. The explanation for implementing such a structure will directly lead us into a discussion of the politics of imperial succession and kinship politics, and from there into an overarching analysis of patterns of political action in these pre- modern imperial regimes. Indeed, as far as the Northern Dynasties were concerned, the politics of succession and kinship politics were so tightly enmeshed with the conduct of more general court politics as to be indis- tinguishable from each other. By the Tang period the political arena and its participants had become more complex and diversified in the context of a unified continental empire. The institution of retired emperorship and its related phenomenon of intensive court factional politics focused on the imperial succession is not limited to the Chinese cases, but can be found in pre-modern empires from around the world. This issue will be discussed in more detail in the concluding chapter, but both the early Japanese empire of the pre-Nara through Heian Periods as well as medi- eval French dynasties manifested similar patterns of political activity regarding retired emperorship, in fact, in a much more consistent fash- ion than in the Chinese case. Before entering into the specific historical discussion, which com- prises the body of this book, it is necessary to discuss the meaning of the term ‘pre-modern imperial regimes’ from a broad sociological perspective. These regimes were certainly governments that had hier- archical administrative structures and that performed many functions quite similar to that of modern state governments—the making of war and peace and building internal infrastructure (roads, canals). On the other hand, there is also a general sense that these pre-modern imperial regimes were also significantly distinct from the modern understanding 2 chapter one of how a state structures its administration and the functions performed by this structure. In this regard, it is appropriate
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