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Northern Song Reflections on the Tang University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2013 Northern Song Reflections on the angT Jeffrey Rice University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian History Commons, and the Asian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Rice, Jeffrey, "Northern Song Reflections on the ang"T (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 920. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/920 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/920 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Northern Song Reflections on the angT Abstract NORTHERN SONG REFLECTIONS ON THE TANG Jeffrey Rice Victor Mair In the mid-eleventh century Chinese intellectuals argued about history, and left their competing narratives to us in print. They contested how history should be written, and what relevant lessons ought to be adapted to the changing society of Song 宋 (960-1279) dynasty China. They were particularly concerned with the history of the long-lasting Tang 唐 (618-907) dynasty. They revised the official history of the Tang on a variety of levels: they used primary sources differently to analyze evidence, developed a new literary language to write historical prose, employed editorial critiques differently to draw political morals by analogy to historical events, and harnessed new print technology to disseminate their views to a wider audience. This dissertation analyzes the revisions to the history of the Tang produced in the eleventh century on each of these levels: historiography, linguistics, politics, and print culture. These elements all functioned to reinvent the ancient ideal of the Confucian scholar in terms that advanced the interests of the burgeoning class of literati officials in Northern Song China. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group East Asian Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Victor H. Mair Keywords Chinese, historiography, linguistics, Song dynasty, Tang dynasty Subject Categories Asian History | Asian Studies This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/920 Acknowledgment I would like to thank my adviser Victor Mair, who encouraged me to pursue my interests, and to explore the variety of subjects and disciplines which that entailed. I would also like to thank Paul Goldin and Tina Lu, whose experience and expertise as teachers and as researchers of classical Chinese texts were an immense help to me in developing my skills in both of these fields. Paul Smith in his class on Song dynasty history was a great inspiration to me in the early stages of developing this research project, and he continued to provide me with ample food for thought throughout the development of the project. Anthony Kroch introduced me to the field of historical syntax and encouraged me to study with Shengli Feng, who gave generously of his time in welcoming me to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he was a great mentor in the application of current syntactic theory to the study of classical Chinese. This dissertation would not have been possible without the institutional support of the University of Pennsylvania, and I am also grateful to the Chiang Ching-Kuo foundation for their generous dissertation completion fellowship. In addition, I would like to acknowledge the camaraderie of my colleagues in the department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations: Aurelia Campbell, Maddie Wilcox, Kate Baldanza, Brian Miller, Daniel Sou, Sijie Ren, Brian Vivier, and Ori Tavor. I would also like to thank my parents, whose experiences in East Asia inspired me to travel and explore the language and civilization of China, and to Adam Stehle, who was by my side through the writing of this dissertation. ii Abstract NORTHERN SONG REFLECTIONS ON THE TANG Jeffrey Rice Victor Mair In the mid-eleventh century Chinese intellectuals argued about history, and left their competing narratives to us in print. They contested how history should be written, and what relevant lessons ought to be adapted to the changing society of Song 宋 (960-1279) dynasty China. They were particularly concerned with the history of the long-lasting Tang 唐 (618-907) dynasty. They revised the official history of the Tang on a variety of levels: they used primary sources differently to analyze evidence, developed a new literary language to write historical prose, employed editorial critiques differently to draw political morals by analogy to historical events, and harnessed new print technology to disseminate their views to a wider audience. This dissertation analyzes the revisions to the history of the Tang produced in the eleventh century on each of these levels: historiography, linguistics, politics, and print culture. These elements all functioned to reinvent the ancient ideal of the Confucian scholar in terms that advanced the interests of the burgeoning class of literati officials in Northern Song China. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgment.................................................................................................................ii Abstract...............................................................................................................................iii List of Tables........................................................................................................................v Chapter 1: Northern Song Reflections on the Tang.............................................................1 1.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................1 1.2 Overview of Methods and Goals...............................................................................9 1.3 Preliminary Conclusions.........................................................................................17 Chapter 2: Historical Narrative and the Institutions and Sources for the Writing of Dynastic Histories in Medieval China...............................................................................18 2.1 The textual history of the first National History of the Tang..................................21 2.2 Secondary research on Song historiography...........................................................26 2.3 Extant Primary Sources Used in this Study............................................................28 2.4 Conclusions.............................................................................................................59 Chapter 3: Linguistics, Historiography and the Language of Guwen 古文 Ancient Style Prose...................................................................................................................................61 3.1 The Ancient Style Movement from Han Yu to Ouyang Xiu...................................62 3.2 Syntax and the Language of the New Tang History................................................77 3.3 Eleventh-century ancient style and the writing of Han Yu....................................111 3.4 Sociolinguistics and Historical Syntax..................................................................121 3.5 Conclusions...........................................................................................................125 Chapter 4: The Politics of Writing Tang History in the 11th Century, From Qingli (1041- 1049) to Chongning (1102-1106).....................................................................................127 4.1 The Moral and Political Roles of Chinese History ..............................................128 4.2 Tang Taizong in Song Historical Criticism...........................................................134 4.3 Historical Analogism.............................................................................................137 4.4 Political Conflict in Historical Criticism...............................................................140 Chapter 5: The Work of History in the Age of Print........................................................173 5.1 The Growth of Commercial Printing in China......................................................174 5.2 The History of the Book in the West.....................................................................182 5.3 Similar effects of printing in China and in the West.............................................187 List of Abbreviations........................................................................................................200 Appendix 1.......................................................................................................................201 Appendix 2 ......................................................................................................................202 Appendix 3.......................................................................................................................206 Appendix 4.......................................................................................................................213 Bibliography....................................................................................................................218 Primary Sources..........................................................................................................218 Secondary Sources......................................................................................................219 Index................................................................................................................................258
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