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Home , 157 BC, Ban Biao, Ban Gu, Battle of Chengpu, Feizi, Gu (poison)

Forging Legacy: The Pact between Empire and in Ancient

Achim Mittag (Tu¨bingen)

PRELUDE

Throughout pre-modern China there has been a close interconnection between ‘empire’ and ‘historiography’, meaning that one could not do with- out the other and vice versa. What is meant here by ‘empire’ was more than a political and social order, or, if political and social, was always part of a larger cosmic order commonly expressed by the idea of All-under-Heaven (tianxia). Toward one side, as concerns the often noted state-centeredness of Chinese historiography, the interconnection between ‘empire’ and ‘historiography’ is rather evident; one only needs to make reference to the Twenty-Five Dynastic Histories (Ershiwushi) as the spine of traditional Chinese historiography, the greater part of which was compiled under the auspices of the Bureau of Historiography (shiguan) set up in ad 629. And earlier ‘standard histories’ (zhengshi) as well were either oYcially commissioned, compiled by state- employed historians, or written by historians who, in one way or the other, were part of or dependent on the imperial state. It is, however, the other side of the ‘empire’/‘historiography’ interconnec- tion, the dependence of tianxia upon the historians, which interests us here, in particular the question in what way historiography and historical thinking contributed to bringing about and sustaining the imperial order which emerged with the founding of the Chinese empire in 221 bc. To address this broad question, we will focus our inquiry in two ways: Firstly, by limiting our discussion to those three issues which my ‘partner-in- crime’ from the Roman side, Fritz-Heiner Mutschler, has discussed in his paper, i.e. (1) the monarchical structure of the state, (2) the role of war and peace, and (3) the general concept of the course of history. Secondly, by limiting our sources to three representative texts, which came into existence within a period of roughly 200 years, from c.100 bc–c. ad 100; 144 Achim Mittag the Wrst and third being the Wrst two and most eminent of the Twenty-Five Dynastic Histories, i.e. Qian’s (c.145–90/85 bc) (The Records of the Grand Historian) and Gu’s (32–92) (History of the Former Han). Our second text is not a historical work in a narrow sense—the ‘Prefaces’ to the Book of Odes (Shijing).1 Its selection here is grounded on the fact that it is the epitome of the distinctively historical approach to understanding and interpreting the Odes, an approach which became the hallmark of the Odes exegesis ever since,2 with far-reaching repercussions for the Chinese concep- tion of poetry in general. The question of the ‘Prefaces’ authorship, known as ‘the number one controversy’ of Chinese textual criticism, has plagued scores of native scholars and exegetes until today. We will leave this thorny issue aside instantly, yet need to remark that despite all controversies, there is nevertheless a broad consensus that the received recension of ‘Prefaces’ went through the hands of Hong (1st cent. ad), a scholar who lived in the age of transition from the late Western Han to the early Eastern Han (c.50 bc–ad 50). Indeed, the ‘Prefaces’ abound with references to this transitional period (see below), thereby highlighting the change that historiography and histor- ical thinking underwent in the two centuries from and . This change in the Weld of historiography is paralleled by a profound change of the current beliefs, which—following —has been depicted as a change of ‘Modernist’ to ‘Reformist’ attitudes and policies. SuYce it here to say that the ‘Modernist’ outlook took imperial rulership, exemplarily embodied by Qin Shihuangdi (r. 247–221–210 bc), as its model. It prevailed in the pivotal reign of Emperor Wudi (r. 141–), which was the longest of all Han emperors. Yet already in its late years, under the necessity of retrenching the expansionist drive into , the pendu- lum swung into the direction of ‘Reformist’ thought. Preferably projected onto the (Zhougong, 11th cent. bc), ‘Reformist’ policies came into full swing from Emperor Yuandi (r. 49–33 bc) onward, laying the ground for the rise of the ‘usurper’ Mang (r. ad 9–23) and his later ubiquitously denounced (see also Michael Nylan’s paper in this volume).3 The paper is rounded oV by some concluding remarks, which take up the notion of ‘pact’ used in the title.

1 Hereafter Odes; when referring to individual odes no italics are used. The odes and ‘Prefaces’ are only referred to by the numbers of the 306 odes; for the titles, see under ‘Shijing’ in the Glossary.—The ‘Prefaces’ consist of the so-called ‘Great Preface’ and the ‘Small Prefaces’; the latter containing the individual ‘Prefaces’ to each of the 311 odes. For an English translation, see Legge, iv. [34–81].—According to traditional scholarship, the Odes date from the 12th to the 6th cent. bc and their compilation was made by . For further information, see Michael Loewe, ‘Shih ching’, in: id. 1993, 415–23. 2 See Van Zoeren 1991, 80–115. 3 Loewe 1974, esp. 11–14; Loewe 1986a, 103–10. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 145

1. SIMA QIAN’S SHI JI 4

The Shi ji is the cooperative work of father and son; initiated by (d. 110 bc), it was to the greater part authored and completed by his son Sima Qian. The work set the model of a dynastic history in its four diVerent parts: benji or ji, ‘Fundamental Chronicles’; biao, ‘Tables’, shu (later on zhi), ‘Trea- tises’, and liezhuan or zhuan, ‘Arrayed Accounts’, or ‘Biographies’, since this part, aside from surveys of the foreign states and peoples with whom China entertained relations, consists of biographies of people of all walks of life.5 Yet the Shi ji is unique among the Twenty-Five Dynastic Histories in that it is conceived as a universal history, with a temporal scope that ranges over 2,000 years, from the (Huangdi) down to Sima Qian’s own time. Moreover, in the ‘Treatises’ the subject matter ranges from ritual, music, and astronomy to the calendar, waterways, and taxation. Another universal aspect can be seen in Sima Qian’s pursuit to encompass the entire knowledge as handed down in the Six Classics, the pertaining commentarial literature, and the copious writings of the Six Schools of Thought (liujia). In the recently burgeoning Shi ji research literature much attention has been paid to the Shi ji’s conglomerate nature: storylines are dispersed and sometimes divergent, even conXicting versions of one and the same event are presented at diVerent places.6 It appears to me that to some extent these discrepancies, inconsistencies, and unbalanced judgments are just owed to the fact that perceptions, notions, and concepts changed over the time span of roughly Wfty years in which the Shi ji was compiled, the very period in which the Han empire reached its zenith.7 More important for our reading and studying the Shi ji is the imaginary fault line which divides the Shi ji’s historical narratives in two halves: in the one half we hear the exuberant voice of the Grand Historian, who boasts of his ascendancy from the Zhou Scribe Yi and asserts himself to be herald of His Majesty’s glorious reign,

4 For references to translations and major monographic research studies, see F.-H. Mutschler’s paper, n. 22. In addition, I would like to gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to many friends and colleagues of the international Shi ji studies community, notably Michael Nylan, Dorothee Schaab-Hanke, Hans van Ess, Martin Kern, Yuri Pines, and Hermann-Josef Ro¨llicke; their work and their insights helped me immensely in my eVorts to come to grips with the Shi ji. 5 Another part of the Shi ji, the ‘Hereditary Houses’ (shijia; chaps. 31–60), which, among others, contains the accounts of the major territorial states in the pre-imperial period, is missing from most of the later dynastic histories. It should further be noted that a few dynastic histories also lack ‘Treatises’ and/or ‘Tables’. 6 See e.g. Hardy 1999, 73–85. 7 A striking example of this change of notions and their meanings is the term ru, ‘Confucian’ or ‘scholar’; see Cheng 2001. 146 Achim Mittag whereas in the other half, this voice has transformed into an embittered critic of Wudi and his entourage, a voice that belongs to a man, who in his prime of life experienced the disastrous development of the dynasty’s fortunes after 104 bc and who himself was shrugged oV, humiliated, and eventually castrated. As this imaginary fault line often fades away or becomes blurred so that the two authorial voices mix and mingle, it is no easy task to assess Sima Qian’s attitude towards one particular historical Wgure or one particular event. With these cautions we now turn to the Shi ji’s treatment of the three issues speciWed above.

(a) On the monarchical structure

Sima Qian’s aspiration to emulate Confucius as the epitome of early Chinese historical thinking is hardly concealed in the Shi ji’s last, autobiographical chapter; as to the structure of the work, it becomes nowhere more apparent than with regard to the ‘Fundamental Chronicles’. Serving as a guiding thread for the entire Shi ji, they create a uniWed history that is organized around and tied together by the succession of one monarch to the other. As Mark Edward Lewis has pointedly remarked, ‘[t]his reads the uniWed empire created by Qin back into the beginning of history and assumes that this undivided ‘‘sover- eignty’’ passed from king to king or dynasty to dynasty without break from the Yellow Emperor to Emperor [Wudi].’8 In Sima Qian’s understanding, Confucius’ central aim in compiling the (Chunqiu; hereafter Annals) was the preservation of the idea of Zhou kingship. Hence, the conception of the Shi ji as being modeled upon the Annals substantially adds to the impression conveyed throughout the Shi ji that the Qin/Han empire did not establish a fundamen- tally new political order, but rather perpetuated the one being inherited from early times. This picture of an uninterrupted succession from the Yellow Emperor down to the Han is markedly diVerent from Ban Gu’s and later historians’ view of history, who regarded the as illegitimate and hence conceived a rupture after the ’s demise in 256 bc (see below). In contrast, Sima Qian had no doubts about accepting Qin as the legitimate successor of Zhou.9

8 Lewis 1999, 310. 9 Pines 2005/6. This does not mean, however, that Sima Qian was unaware of the sweeping institutional changes that the establishment of the imperial order had brought about—an awareness which is reXected by a major stylistic break in the ‘Fundamental Chronicle’ of Qin Shihuangdi, which occurs with uniWcation in 221 bc; see Durrant 1994, 31. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 147

It should be noted that by expanding the historical horizon up to the Yellow Emperor, Sima Qian went farther back in time than Confucius and the early Confucian ‘School’. SigniWcantly, the Yellow Emperor is accorded an eminent role in the Shi ji: under him the bureaucratic government is inaugurated by appointing four oYcials in charge of ‘governing the people’ (zhi min).10 Additionally, the Yellow Emperor occupies the nodal point of all genealogical lineages, by which the ‘Wve sage rulers’, the ruling houses of the Three Dynasties (Xia—Shang—Zhou), and the Qin dynasty were being joined together.11 The house of Han is conspicuously left out from this genealogical super-system since Sima Qian considered Bang, the founder of the posthumously known as Emperor Gaozu (r. 206/202–195 bc), as having arisen ‘from the lanes of the common people’12—an ‘error’ which was later corrected by Ban Gu (see below under 3.a).

(b) On the role of war and peace

The ‘classic’ Chinese text of warfare is found in the Shangshu (Book of Documents; henceforth: Documents). Purported to give an account of the battle of Muye (c.1045 bc), in which the Zhou triumphed over the Shang, it consists in fact only of King Wu’s (Wuwang, r. 1049/45–1043 bc) speech in the morning of the battle, addressed to the oYcers of his own army and the commanders of the allied troops. However, the Documents as a whole are more concerned with the state-building project as begun by Yao, Shun, and the Great Yu, and completed by the early Zhou rulers. This contrasts with the Zuo Commentary of the Annals (), in which warfare ranks as a major theme, yet conceived as ‘a warfare of the mind’,13 focused on ‘the man who perceived, calculated, and decided, while those who actually carried arms and spilled blood were reduced to secondary roles’.14 Hence, descriptions of the battle Wghting are rather brief, even the one given as part of the lengthiest account of a battle, i.e. the battle of Chengpu in 632 bc.15 The Shi ji accentuates this habit of representing warfare. A case in point is the civil war between (d. 202 bc) and Liu Bang. Their campaigns are largely reported as matter-of-fact records of often puzzling movements of army units forth and back on the large checkerboard of the Central Plains and the adjacent regions. These records, however, are augmented by elaborate

10 Shi ji 1/9. 11 Shi ji 1/10–45 and 3/488–500. 12 Shi ji 16/760. 13 Lewis 1990, 104. 14 Ibid. 98. 15 Cf. Watson 1989, 50. For a translation of the accounts of the battle of Chengpu, see ibid. 50–64. 148 Achim Mittag narrative passages that bring to life the two protagonists and their closest companions-in-arms, often by scenes that are staged beyond the battleWeld such as the famous Hongmen banquet or Xiang Yu’s encampment at Gaixia before the Wnal battle—just to name the two best-known episodes.16 From the staggering Wgures of the body count that the Shi ji report for the hundred years before the uniWcation in 221 bc,17 one gets an idea of the immense losses and destructions caused by the ceaseless warfare among the few remaining large territorial states. Yet these Wgures are without mean- ing apart from the heroes of Sima Qian’s narratives, their strategic wisdom and heroic deeds—mostly audacious and strong-willed characters Wxed upon an aspiring aim in their lives (zhi or yi), who, however, in the end fail or are subdued. Among generals and military leaders Sima Qian Wnds some great protagonists exhibiting such a ‘nobility of failure’—to borrow Ivan Morris’s propitious term; with one notable exception all of them die by their own hand, most by cutting their throats with a sword.18 The biographies of these heroic Wgures count among the masterpieces of because of the colorful portrayals of the characters and the vivid narrative prose which skillfully employs a variety of dramatizing eVects. A special case in this category concerns Ling (d. 74 bc), who, after a heroic Wght against an enemy badly outnumbering his troops, surrendered to the in 99 bc.19 It is him whom Sima Qian pleaded to pardon, which inXicted Emperor Wudi’s wrath on the Grand Historian.

(c) On the general concept of the course of history

As Professor Mutschler has already pointed out, there is not one guiding concept of the course of history which binds all the dispersed storylines in the Shi ji together into one comprehensive whole. Although the topic would require an elaborate discussion, I will limit myself to six aspects of Sima Qian’s sense of the past. (1) Coming closest to a ‘comprehensive whole’ is—as noted above—the idea of an uninterrupted chain of sovereign rulers from the Yellow Emperor to

16 Translated in Watson 1961, i. 49–55 and 70–1. 17 When only summing up the reported casualties inXicted by the Qin army upon hostile armies in the hundred-odd years following the Qin ruler’s assumption of the title of ‘king’ in 325 bc until 221 bc, the number amounts to 1.4 million; adopted, with a diVerent time frame, from Bodde 1986, 99. 18 Bai , chap. 73; Meng Tian, chap. 88; Xiang Yu, chap. 7; , chap. 93; , chap. 109. The one exception concerns the Prince of Xinling who drank himself to death (chap. 76). 19 See van Ess 2003, 26–8, with a comparison of the diVering accounts in Shi ji, chap. 109 and Han shu, chap. 54. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 149 the Three Dynasties and up to Sima Qian’s own age. Thus, from the earliest beginnings—no divine creation—history Xowed in rather straight lines, without any major interruption. There is also no teleological concept inter- preting history as moving toward the advent of the house of Han, such as postulated by the Eastern Han commentator of the Gongyang Commentary of the Annals (Gongyang zhuan), He Xiu (ad 129–82).20 Thus, from Sima Qian’s perspective, much in the house of Han’s rise to power depended upon contingencies. Herein lies one reason for the Shi ji’s scandalization in the Eastern Han dynasty (see below under 3.). (2) There is a kind of a ‘technical’ periodization dependent on the source materials available to Sima Qian. Accordingly, we can distinguish four periods; the Wrst period covering the far ancient history from the Yellow Emperor up to the year 841 bc, from whence onward the Grand Historian was able to provide a year-by-year chronology (chap. 14). Acknowledging the dearth of reliable sources for the far distant period,21 Sima Qian could rely upon the Six Classics and the writings of the Hundred Schools of Thought for the age of the (legendary) ‘sage rulers’ Yao and Shun and the Three Dynasties, encompassing the second period from 841 to c.300 bc. For the third period from c.300 to 150 bc, there were ample documents and records available, but their preservation, as Sima Qian reminds us by the words of his father, was precarious.22 Finally, the fourth and last period, abundantly documented by archival materials and historical records, covers the roughly seventy years, to which the Grand Historian and his father were themselves eye-witnesses. (3) Apart from this ‘technical’ periodization, mention must be made of Sima Qian’s reXections on the sequence of the Wve major dynasties—Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han. Probably drawing on a concept propounded by (c.179–c.115 bc), Sima explains the sequence of the Three Dynasties as a succession of the virtues of good faith (zhong), reverence (jing), and reWnement (wen); the pursuit of each virtue being prone to a vice which aggravates over time and ultimately generates the rise of a new guiding virtue. According to the Grand Historian, the Qin, in the attempt to rectify the excesses of the Zhou dynasty’s valorization of ‘reWnement’ by strict laws and harsh punishments, rashly fell into the other extreme so that it was upon the Han to change and remedy this evil course. Sima Qian concludes that therefore the Han had rightly obtained the .23 As has been convincingly argued, this discussion might have primarily been intended to criticize Emperor Wudi.24 Moreover, in the Shi ji such reXections

20 Cheng 1986. 21 Shi ji 1/46. 22 Ibid. 130/3295. 23 Ibid. 8/175; translated and commented upon by Li 1994, 402. 24 See Li 1994, 402 f. 150 Achim Mittag on the larger historical process remain on the surface level without aVecting the shape of the historical accounts. The same holds true for the cyclical concept of dynastic change based on the Five Elements (wuxing: wood, metal, Wre, water, earth).25 Moreover, this concept only became politically relevant through Wang Mang’s ascension to the throne in ad 9, and it was only thereafter that it attained a greater impact on historical thinking and writing (see below under 3.). (4) For Sima Qian, the ultimate rationale behind the succession of mon- archs and dynasties was that Heaven (tian) had willed it. This becomes manifest in the Grand Historian’s reXections on the rise of Liu Bang to the Han founding emperor.26 In this remarkable mini-essay, Sima Qian argues that in the past—here the Grand Historian refers to the Xia, Shang, Zhou, and Qin dynasties—the rise of new dynasties had been the outcome of a long process during which the founding king himself or the founding king’s house had accumulated ‘goodness’ (shan) and ‘merit’ (gong). In the case of Qin this process, whereby Qin Shihuangdi had eventually found the approval of Heaven, had gone on over centuries.27 As the Grand Historian observes, this pattern changed in the recent past when ‘within the space of Wve years [i.e. 207–202 bc] the command of the empire changed hands three times’28— an observation by which Sima Qian is much bewildered: ‘Since the birth of humankind there have never before been such rapid changes of rulership!’29 (5) In accordance with his famous maxim, ‘To comprehensively inquire into the changes from the past to the present’ (tong gujin zhi bian),30 the Grand Historian was keenly interested in how human beings, living under diVerent circumstances, acted according to the expediency that these circum- stances demanded. Thus, for Sima Qian there was no ‘classical age’ which already contained, as in a nutshell, all historical lessons for all generations to come. This becomes manifest in a comment on the Qin dynasty’s legacy, where the Grand Historian engages in the pre-Qin discussion about the lessons and values of the remote and the near past. Giving emphasis to the view associated with Xunzi (c.310–218 bc) that one should take for one’s

25 For the origin of this concept with Zou (X. 3rd cent. bc) and its development in Han political theory, see Loewe 2004, chap. 14, 457–95. 26 Shi ji 16/759–60; translated in Watson 1961, i. 120–1. 27 This point is elaborated at greater length in another mini-essay in Shi ji 15/685; for a discussion, see Pines 2005/6. 28 Shi ji 16/759. The notion of three changes, apart from Xiang Yu’s and Liu Bang’s seizing power, probably refers to the enthronement of the Second Emperor’s nephew Ziying as ‘king’ (wang) instead of ‘emperor’ (di). 29 Adopted from Watson 1961, i. 120. 30 Han shu 62/2735. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 151 model the kings of recent ages, Sima Qian provocatively asks, ‘Why must one learn only from ancient times?’31 Getting closer in time to his own age, it is the reign of Emperor Wendi (r. 180–157 bc), referred to by Professor Mutschler in his comparative analysis, which, in the eyes of the Grand Historian, carries all signs of a Golden Age. It should be remembered, however, that Sima Qian’s lavish praise of Wendi’s reign as a time when the ruler’s virtue (de) was of the highest order32 had a special critical intention, namely to pose an idealized age vis-a`- vis the present age under Emperor Wudi. (6) Finally, we must draw attention to a time concept, which in a way is incongruent with the other concepts and periodizations discussed so far. This is the 500-year cycle according to which a ‘sage’ (sheng) appears once every 500 years to renew the kingly rule. First mentioned by Mencius (Mengzi 7B.38 and 2B.13), the Grand Historian, in the Shi ji’s Wnal, autobiographical chap- ter, takes it up as a thought pattern referred to by his father but infers that he—Sima Qian—claims the mantle to continue Confucius’ mission of pre- serving ‘this culture of Ours’ (siwen; cf. Lunyu 9.5).33 Although this time concept had no visible inXuence on the organization of the Shi ji as a whole, its impact on the self-understanding of Sima Qian and, in his wake, on the self-understanding of the Chinese historians’ caste in general, can hardly be overestimated.34

2. THE ‘PREFACES’ TO THE ODES

To appreciate the ‘Prefaces’ as an eminently historical work, one should point out that there are only a small number of odes which, by their contents, can be matched to historical events or known historical Wgures.35 This applies, in particular, to a group of about a dozen odes of the Da Ya (‘Major Elegantiae’) section (Odes 235–65), which deal with the Zhou tribe, from its mythical origins to the conquest of the Shang in the mid-eleventh century bc and to the ‘restoration’ under King Xuan (r. 827/825–782 bc). ClassiWed as the earliest examples of the genre of ‘historical poetry’ (shishi), these odes have been described as a rudimentary epic dubbed the ‘Weniad’.36 Yet, for the

31 Shi ji 15/686. 32 Ibid. 10/437; Watson 1961, i. 366. 33 Shi ji 130/1336; translated and commented upon by Li 1994, 360. 34 Mittag (1997a), 266–9. 35 By rather loose criteria, there are about 40 Feng and Ya odes which can be dated; see and Feng 1956, i. 36–81. 36 Wang 1982. 152 Achim Mittag bulk of the Odes neither time nor place can be determined. Although some spadework in placing the Odes into a historical context had certainly been done earlier, notably within the pre-Qin Mao commentarial tradition, it was by the ‘Prefaces’ that these eVorts were systematized so that the Odes eventu- ally became to be understood as one of the ‘Three Histories’ (san shi) allegedly authored by Confucius; the other two being the Documents and the Annals.37 As already noted above, the authorship of the ‘Prefaces’ is, and will con- tinue to be, controversial. Nevertheless, since the ‘Prefaces’, as we will see, abound with ‘Reformist’ concepts and propositions, it can be made suY- ciently plausible that they, if not authored, were expanded and revised in the transitional period from Western to Eastern Han (i.e. c.50 bc–ad 50), against the historical backdrop of the rise of ‘Reformist’ ideas and the subsequent rise of Wang Mang as the paragon of ‘Reformism’. In this context it is noteworthy that, as an authoritative source of wisdom, the Odes gained prominence in court discussions through Kuang Heng (d. 30 or 29 bc), statesman and a leading proponent of ‘Reformist’ views.38 Yet it was not prior to Wang Mang that the exegetical tradition of the Mao Odes (Mao Shi), to which the ‘Prefaces’ belong, gained oYcial recognition.39 In fact, there are several outstanding features by which the ‘Prefaces’ clearly resonate with the contemporary discourse dominated by Wang Mang’s eVorts at legitimizing his regency and his eventual seizure of the throne; perhaps the three most important ones concern the following: (a) The exaltation of the Duke of Zhou,40 to whom Wang Mang was consistently likened.41 (b) The elevation of the opening two sections of the Odes, the ‘Zhounan’ and ‘Shaonan’ sections, to the status of a ‘normative canon’ (zhengjing); its twenty-Wve odes being interpreted as testifying to the ‘transformative inXu- ence’ of King Wen’s (Wenwang, r. 1056–1050 bc) moral-spiritual leadership (Wenwang zhi hua) in the lands south (nan) of the .42 It is this

37 According to Wang Tong (584–618); see Wenzhongzi, ‘Wang Dao’, 1a (Baizi quanshu edn.). 38 Loewe 1974, 154–92; 2000, 213–15. In all three memorials cited in Kuang Heng’s biog- raphy (Han shu 81/ 3333–44), citations from the Odes Wgure prominently. 39 In ad 4; see Dubs, iii. 192–3. 40 Thus, the Duke is identiWed as author of Ode 154 ‘Qi ’, which is said to have ‘laid out the founding of the royal house’ ( wang ye). In addition, he was attributed the Wrst and the last of the Wfteen sections of the Guofeng odes, the ‘Zhounan’ and ‘Bin’ odes (Nos. 1–11 and 154– 60, respectively). 41 Loewe 1974, 290–3. 42 Cf. ‘Prefaces’ Nos. 1, 7, 9–11, 18, 20, 23, 25. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 153 region where the territory lay with which Wang Mang had been enfeoVed, i.e. Xindu (), and which he eagerly sought to further develop.43 (c) Our third point also relates to the ‘Zhounan’ and ‘Shaonan’ Odes: the interpretation of the last ode of each of these two sections as a Heavenly ‘response’ (ying) to the perfect government of the early Western Zhou kings (Nos. 11, 25).44 The same idea of Heaven responding to the worldly aVairs by portents was exploited by Wang Mang in his eVorts to legitimize his ascension to the throne.45 It is further noteworthy that certain interpretations singularly oVered by the ‘Prefaces’ and the Mao commentary to the Odes were variously referred to in the political discourse of the Wang Mang interregnum.46 Leaving an in- depth inquiry into the ‘Prefaces’ historicity to a later point of time, we will now turn to our three topics as treated in the ‘Prefaces’.

(a) On the monarchical structure

Whereas the Annals is a chronicle of the minor state of Lu only and whereas the Documents relate broadly the history of Yao and Shun and that of the Three Dynasties, the ‘Prefaces’ present the Odes as forming one single history solely dedicated to the Zhou dynasty, a history that spans over half a millen- nium, from the dynasty’s rise in the eleventh century bc down to the year 599 bc. It is the history of the ‘Middle Kingdom’ (Zhongguo; cf. Nos. 167, 177), the Zhou realm surrounded by barbarian peoples.47 Within the realm there is diversity—an idea which is given prominent expression by the division of the

43 Wang Mang’s policy of developing the southern regions is highlighted by his construction of the famous North–South Road (ziwu dao) cutting across the Qinling Mountain into the upper Han valley in ad 5; see Han shu 99A/4076; Dubs, iii. 212. 44 According to this interpretation, the Odes 11 and 25 should be understood as songs praising the appearance of fortuitous animals, a unicorn (lin) and a zouyu, a white tiger with black spots, respectively. 45 This idea was fully set forth in a book documenting forty-two cases of Portents Signaling the Bestowal of Heaven’s Mandate ( ming), which Wang Mang, following his ascension of the throne, ordered to be compiled and distributed empire-wide; cf. Dubs, iii. 288–94. 46 A case in point is the memorial by which Wang Mang’s daughter was recommended for marriage to Emperor Ping (r. ad 1–6): By characterizing the daughter as having ‘a graceful appearance’ (yaotiao zhi rong ; Han shu 99A/4052; Dubs, iii. 157–8), the memorial alludes to Ode 1 ‘Guan ju’, stanza 1, line 3. This allusion deserves our attention since the ‘Preface’s and the Mao Shi commentary’s interpretation of that ode as relating to a ‘graceful’ girl’s selection for marriage to a prince is quite diVerent from the interpretations in the other early Shijing commentarial traditions; cf. Mittag 1997b, 35–41, esp. 38, n. 23. 47 It should be noted, however, that it is a highly fragmented history with stupendous lacunas in terms of both the historical and geographical coverage. 154 Achim Mittag

Odes’ Wrst part, the Guofeng (‘Airs of the States’), into Wfteen sections repre- senting diVerent regions of the realm.48 A basic assumption throughout the ‘Prefaces’ is that in the various sections of the Odes—the Wfteen Guofeng sections, the Xiao Ya (‘Minor Elegantiae’), and Da Ya, respectively—the odes are arranged according to a strict chrono- logical order. By and large, it is by this chronological order that the moral purport of each ode is determined. Thus, those odes believed to ‘sing the praises of’ (mei) a king’s or prince’s good government are reserved to the Zhou founding era or the early ages of the states represented among the Guofeng. Analogously, those odes allegedly ‘directed against’ or ‘satirizing’ (ci) folly and vice of any ruler are attributed to later times, be it to the two proverbially bad late Western Zhou kings Li (r. 879–842 bc) and You (r. 782–771 bc), or to King Ping (r. 771–720 bc), who transferred the capital to and thereby ended the Western Zhou dynasty, or be it to the various rulers of the Eastern Zhou states and princedoms.49 This organizational framework established by the ‘Prefaces’ adds enormous symbolic weight to the monarchical structure. Thus, the chain of the succes- sive Zhou kings is construed as constituting the quintessential principle of the body politic and hence determining the waxing and waning of the realm.50 The key notion in this context is de, ‘moral-spiritual power’. As the house of Zhou had amassed ‘moral-spiritual power’ over generations (Nos. 236–7, 239, 241), Wenwang and his son Wuwang, both personally blessed with ‘illustri- ous’, ‘marvelous’, and ‘sagely’ moral-spiritual power (mingde, lingde, shengde; Nos. 236, 243), were eventually conferred the Heavenly Mandate (tianming). This accumulated stock of ‘moral-spiritual power’ was abundant enough to last over several generations even though an incipient decline had already set in after the Western Zhou founding era (No. 11). The two concepts of the Heavenly Mandate and the ‘moral-spiritual power’ de accumulated by an individual’s virtuous conduct and nurtured within a family over generations clearly relate to the political discourse of the Western to Eastern Han transitional period. In fact, it was again under Wang Mang that these two concepts rose to prominence. Having hardly occurred in the political discourse prior to a memorial of the above-mentioned Kuang Heng,51 the doctrine of the Heavenly Mandate was vigorously invoked by Wang Mang.52 Yet no less important was the ‘usurper’s’ claim to descent from

48 Cf. Dorofeeva-Lichtmann 1991. 49 Note that the ‘Prefaces’ use several other categories apart from mei and ci. 50 It should, however, be noted that this chain is construed by only seven out of more than three dozen Zhou kings. 51 Han shu 81/3338; trans. Loewe 2004, 443. 52 Loewe 2000, 214 and id. 2004, 443 V. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 155 the (legendary) sage .53 Last but not least, Wang Mang inaug- urated the ritual of conferring the ‘nine distinctions’ (jiuxi) as a mode of attaining public acknowledgment of his having accumulated extraordinary ‘moral-spiritual power’54—a ritual which in post-Han China became a con- stituent part of the throne abdication ritual known as shanrang. These various ideological and ritual inventions worked to the eVect of solemnizing the imperial and monarchical order. The ‘Prefaces’ clearly adhere to this tendency toward solemnization. As a consequence, the Zhou kingship model as conceived by the ‘Prefaces’ incorrigibly carries the stain of the brand of imperial ideology which developed under ‘Reformist’ thought and matured under Wang Mang.

(b) On the role of war and peace

After the triumphal, yet not all-decisive victory over the Xiongnu in 119 bc, the topic of war and peace became the single most important and controver- sial issue in Han politics. By the way this topic is treated in the ‘Prefaces’, its inclination toward ‘Reformist’ ideas gets even more distinctive. At several instances throughout the ‘Prefaces’ the notion of ‘great peace’ (taiping; Nos. 171; 247–8, 267) or ‘harmonious peace’ (heping; No. 8) is evoked. Although originating in pre-Qin writings (; Zhuangzi), this notion developed into a concept of a world order of ubiquitous peace by the late Western Han. It was only then that a Book of the Great Peace (Taiping jing), allegedly revealed by Heaven, was presented to the throne. Subsequently, Emperor Aidi (r. 7–) took the title of ‘Emperor of the Great Peace’ (Taiping huangdi).55 Some years later, in ad 5, Wang Mang, after having settled border conXicts in the north, east, and south, is recorded as having brought about ‘great peace’.56 By evoking the notion of taiping, the ‘Prefaces’ strike a note of yearning for a peaceful world. If this is so, the ‘Reformist’ attitude toward war and peace which permeates the ‘Prefaces’ can be further substantiated by three add- itional observations as follows. Firstly, in the ‘Prefaces’ the Zhou dynasty’s founding and its southward expansionist drive are consistently depicted in terms of a moral endeavor;57 yet the ‘Prefaces’ are conspicuously silent about heroic deeds such as the

53 Dubs, iii. 278–9. 54 Ibid. 196 V. 55 Demie´ville 1986, 817. 56 Han shu 99A/4077; Dubs, iii. 213. 57 The only exception is ‘Preface’ No. 244, which speaks of the ‘work of conquest’, which Wuwang brought to completion. 156 Achim Mittag crushing defeats of the peoples of and Chong inXicted by Wenwang or Wuwang’s victorious battle at Muye.58 Secondly, the ‘Prefaces’ seek to present Wenwang and Wuwang as monarchs apprehensive of defending the endangered ‘Middle Kingdom’ against barbar- ian assaults such as by the Kun in the west and the Xianyun in the north.59 Yet it is the Duke of Zhou who is depicted as the ideal Weld-commander (No. 156). Apart from these cases, there are only a few instances where the ‘Prefaces’ positively evaluate the use of military forces and/or laud the re- spective ruler in command; all these instances concern campaigns against belligerent foreign tribes, either ‘to punish’ (fa; zheng; tao; Nos. 177–8, 128, respectively) or ‘expulse’ (rang; No. 50) them, or ‘to rescue’ (jiu; No. 64) an endangered state within the realm. Thirdly, clearly outnumbering the odes just referred to above, there are a number of odes which the ‘Prefaces’ interpret as laments by troops on service in the Weld for long (Nos. 33, 232–4), as laments over the disruptive eVects thereof on partnership, marriage, and the children’s obligations to care for their parents (Nos. 94, 110, 121, 205), and at large on society and the moral order (Nos. 93, 95), or as criticism directed against a monarch or prince for waging protracted wars, keeping troops stationed far away for long, and neglecting the needs of the common people (Nos. 62, 66, 68, 124, 133). In the focus of such criticism is King You (Nos. 205, 232–4), upon whom the ‘Prefaces’ places the greatest blame for the Western Zhou dynasty’s demise, followed by King Ping (Nos. 66, 68). In sum, by projecting the idea of ‘great peace’, adopting a critical stance toward protracted campaigns, and advocating vigorous, yet limited military strikes in case of foreign aggressions, the ‘Prefaces’ echo those contemporary ‘Reformist’ voices which had Wrst been raised in response to the extremely costly campaigns against (Ferghana) in 104–100 bc. Having eventu- ally gained the upper hand, these voices eVected a fundamental change of Han foreign policy towards the Xiongnu and the , which resulted in the indictment of the expansionist, venturesome policy under Wudi in favor of new forms of settled colonialism and other administrative and diplomatic measures aimed at avoiding long and expensive campaigns.60 If our observation of a broad congruence between the ‘Prefaces’ and those ‘Reformist’ voices is not wholly mistaken, one is even tempted to interpret certain ‘Prefaces’ as political comments on historical Wgures and historical

58 Cf. Odes 241 ‘ yi’, stanzas 5–8, and 236 ‘Da ming’, stanzas 7–8, respectively. 59 Cf. ‘Prefaces’ Nos. 167–9, according to which the three odes form a sequel of songs being sung on the occasion of sending oV the troops and on their return. 60 Loewe 1974, 211–51 (chap. 7). Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 157 events from the late years of Wudi’s reign. This is in particular the case with the comparatively long ‘Preface’ to Ode 79 ‘Qing ren’, which interprets this ode as criticizing a general who, ‘being fond of gain’ (hao li) and despised by the ruler, was sent with an army to guard the northern frontier, but who at the end of the day Xed to the enemy. Yet the ‘Preface’ hastens to add that the ode is not only censuring the general, but also the ruler for his inapt way of procuring the general’s retirement. The whole ‘Preface’ in question reads as a scathing comment directed against Wudi and the brother of one of his consorts, , who had led the aforementioned campaigns into Fer- ghana, yet pressed on to be given another command and Wnally surrendered to the Xiongnu in 90 bc.

(c) On the conception of the course of history

As to the course of history, the key idea espoused by the ‘Prefaces’ is what has later been termed the ‘dynastic cycle’.61 The trajectory along this ‘dynastic cycle’ is by and large determined by the moral-spiritual power of each monarch. Thus, this cycle is marked by a strong beginning under the three sage rulers of the early Zhou, Wenwang, Wuwang, and the Duke of Zhou,62 followed by a slight, yet steadily augmenting decline over a long period. According to the ‘Prefaces’, there are no odes preserved for this period, except several odes attributed to the reign of King Li (Nos. 253–7), with whom this decline hit its low point. Thereafter, King Xuan achieved a ‘restoration’ (zhongxing; literally, ‘mid-term upheaval’; Odes 177–90, 258–63), before an abrupt decline under the ‘bad last emperor’, King You (Odes 191–234, 264–5) set in again, which precipitated the dynasty’s demise under King Ping (Odes 65–74). Besides this model of a ‘dynastic cycle’, another important time concept espoused by the ‘Prefaces’ is the emotional attachment to, or the yearning for, the ‘past’ or ‘good old days’ (si gu; Nos. 210–11, 213, 216, 221–2, 231). This idealized period, of course, refers to the glorious age of the Zhou founding era, which was so much adored by proponents of ‘Reformist’ views. In no few cases, the ‘Prefaces’ also apply the interpretational pattern of the ode’s poet criticizing the present by eulogizing the ideal past (e.g. Nos. 73, 80, 103). Finally, there is, akin to the idealization of the past, the concept of melan- choly caused by the sight of the ruins of a once magniWcent city. This concept

61 For a critical review of the ‘dynastic cycle’, see Bielenstein 1978. 62 Odes 1–25, 154–60, 161–76, and 235–52, 258–63. 158 Achim Mittag is introduced in the ‘Preface’ to Ode 65 ‘Shu li,’ which has ever since been regarded as the ‘classic’ paradigm of Ruinenmelancholie.63

3. BAN GU’S HAN SHU

We now turn to the Han shu, the dynastic history of the Western Han written by Ban Gu. Similar to Sima Qian, Ban Gu continued and enlarged an earlier work by his father (ad 3–54), which had been intended as a continuation of the Shi ji. In contrast to the Shi ji, the Han shu is by and large limited to the history of the Western Han period, including the rise and fall of Wang Mang and his Xin dynasty.64 This restriction to one single period set the precedent for all later ‘standard histories’. However, this basic aspect, important as it is, only partly explains why in premodern China Ban Gu, and not Sima Qian, came to be regarded as the master-historian par excellence;65 another important aspect was the criticism early voiced against Sima Qian and his Shi ji. Already by the time of Ban Gu, the Shi ji was held liable for denigrating the house of Han and thus perilously undermining its authority; hence being denounced as a ‘book full of slander’ (bang shu).66 In contrast, the Han shu pays heed to bolstering the Han dynasty’s claim to the Heavenly Mandate and validating its historical role as the legitimate successor of the Zhou dynasty. As to the historical background of the Han shu’s composition (c.ad 50–90), suYce it to say that the ‘Reformist’ outlook continued to hold sway, with some modiWcations and new developments. Most noteworthy in this respect is the emergence of the aforementioned Dong Zhongshu (c.179–c.115 bc) as the leading authority in Confucian political thought and the Wgurehead of the ‘Reformist’ imperial ideology.67 This is signaled by the fact that in the Han shu

63 SigniWcantly, the ode was interpreted diVerently by the other exegetical traditions, in particular the Han and the Lu Schools. Moreover, even the Mao Shi commentary does not clearly support the ‘Preface’s’ reading of the ode along the lines of Ruinenmelancholie. It seems likely that this particular reading was modeled after the beautiful scene of the Viscomte Ji’s singing a mournful at the sight of the ruined Shang capital, which is contained in Shi ji 38/ 1620–1. 64 It should be noted, however, that the Han shu in some chapters such as the ‘Table of Men from all Ages’ (‘Gujin ren biao’; chap. 20) or the ‘Treatise on the Five Elements’ (‘Wuxing zhi’; chap. 27A–C) pursues a universalist perspective. 65 There were, of course, exceptions from this general opinion; the most notable being Zheng Qiao (1104–62). 66 Li 1994, 368. 67 For a thoughtful attempt at reconstructing Dong’s biography, see Arbuckle 1991; for some problematic issues revolving around Dong, who is conventionally known as the founder of imperial , see Cheng 1998/9. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 159

Dong Zhongshu is given a lengthy biography (chap. 56), whereas he is only brieXy mentioned in the Shi ji (chap. 121). Above all, Dong Zhongshu’s name has ever been associated not only with the conception of extensive correl- ations between Heaven’s will, the various processes of nature, and the good or evil conduct of man, but also with a powerful reformulation of the Five Elements theory.68 According to this theory, the Five Elements succeed to one another by ‘production’ (xiangsheng xu), instead of by ‘conquest’ (xiang- sheng* xu), as had previously been maintained.69 Entering the political discourse in the last decades of the Western Han, this new theory became inXuential with Wang Mang’s adoption of the patron element Earth for his newly founded Xin dynasty in ad 9, followed by the adoption of the patron element Fire for the house of Han after its restoration by Emperor Guangwu (r. 25–57) in ad 26.70

(a) On the monarchical structure

In spite of the Han shu’s limitation to the Western Han dynasty only, Ban Gu followed the Shi ji’s precedent in dividing the ‘Fundamental Chronicles’ in twelve chapters, strictly dedicating one chapter to each ruler recognized as legitimate. This lent the ‘Fundamental Chronicles’ normative force; hence- forth inclusion or exclusion of any monarch’s reign from this part of a dynastic history decided on its historical legitimacy. By this criterion, the Dowager Empress Lu¨ (r. 188–), treated in the third chapter of the ‘Fundamental Chronicles’,71 ruled as a legitimate monarch; not so, however, the two infant emperors set up by her, nor Liu He who in 74 bc was deposed after only twenty-seven days of his enthronement. Yet an even more prominent diVerence vis-a`-vis the Shi ji concerns the Han shu’s mystiWcation of Liu Bang, i.e. the Han founding emperor Gaozu. This is achieved by various means; the most important one being the claim of Liu Bang’s descent from the dragon-tamer Liu Lei, who had allegedly descended from the sage emperor Yao. Next comes several records of prodigious omens by which Liu Bang’s birth, adolescence, and beginning adulthood are sur-

68 It is generally acknowledged, however, that those chapters on the Five Elements, which are contained in the Chunqiu fanlu attributed to Dong Zhongshu, were certainly added later; see Loewe 2004, 472–7. 69 For the diVerent sequences of the Five Elements, see Loewe 2004, 477–82. 70 Loewe 2004, 515–17. 71 Han shu 3/95–104. In contrast to Shi ji, Huidi (r. 195–188 bc), son of Gaozu and the Empress Lu¨, is dedicated a ‘Fundamental Chronicle’ on his own (chap. 2), while in Shi ji his unspectacular reign is treated together with that of the Dowager Empress Lu¨ in one chapter (chap. 9). 160 Achim Mittag rounded.72 Finally, there is a prophesy of Qin’s demise and succession by Han, which is related in the form of the famous story of Liu Bang’s killing a large snake symbolizing the ‘white emperor’ (i.e. the Qin emperor).73 All these mystifying elements were already contained in an essay by Ban Gu’s father Biao. Entitled ‘On the Kingly Mandate’ (‘Wang ming lun’), this essay has been judged as ‘perhaps the most complete and clear statement of political principles that had yet appeared in Chinese literature’.74 Directed against Wang Mang’s claim to have legitimately succeeded to the Han dynasty, it in fact appropriated the former’s key idea of elevating the monarch to the nodal position of linking the body politic to the cosmic order.75 Yet Ban Biao’s essay would have lost half its meaning unless its arguments had been Xeshed out in the Han shu on a large scale.

(b) On the role of war and peace

In the turmoils of the last years of Wang Mang’s reign the supremacy that the Han had exerted over the western regions since the days of Wudi crumbled. Although the Xiongnu tribes, the Han’s Wercest enemy in the northern and northwestern border regions, later on split into the northern and the southern Xiongnu in ad 50, control was not regained until the last decade of the Wrst century ad, after an able Protector-General of the western regions had been installed—none other than Ban Gu’s brother Chao (d. ad 102).76 Ban Gu’s keen interest in central Asia aVairs was further fostered by his personal experiences of taking part in a victorious campaign against the Xiongnu in ad 89. This heightened interest found expression in the Han shu by a considerable expansion of the account concerning the Xiongnu (chap. 94A–B) and the inclusion of a new ‘Account of the Western Regions’ (‘Xiyu zhuan’, chap. 96A–B). As to Ban Gu’s attitude concerning the crucial question of how to deal with the Xiongnu and other belligerent tribes, it is perhaps best described as having aYnities with that of the early Han statesman Jia Yi (200–168 bc), who had forcefully advocated a double-headed strategy of rapprochement and

72 This includes the account of a dragon’s appearance on the occasion of his mother’s conception; the information on his bodily marks, a dragon-shaped forehead and seventy-two black moles on his left thigh; and the records of auspicious physiognomizations of him and his wife, the future Empress Lu¨. See Han shu 1A/1–8; Dubs, i. 28–33. 73 Han shu 1A/8; Dubs, i. 34–7. 74 Loewe 1986b, 735. 75 Cf. Michael Nylan’s paper included in this volume. 76 For an overview, see Bielenstein 1986, 264–70. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 161

‘punitive’ campaigns. Jia Yi’s respective memorial is quoted at length in his Han shu biography.77 This is further corroborated by Ban Gu’s discussion of military aVairs in the ‘Treatise of Penal Law’ (‘Xingfa zhi’), which, as we should note in passing, counts among the Han shu’s historiographic innovations. There Ban Gu deWnes the role of the military as ‘the means to maintain intact what [other- wise] would have been destroyed and to safeguard continuation of what [otherwise] would have been cut oV, to rescue from turmoil and chaos and to extinguish harm and evil’78—a deWnition which shows that Ban Gu was realistic enough to acknowledge the necessity of the military alongside the Confucian ideal of ruling by ‘educating (the common people) by cultural reWnement and virtuous conduct’ (jiao yi wende).79 Discussing Wve diVerent ways of sustaining an army in the past, Ban Gu clearly gives preference to a system of conscript soldiers sustained either by light taxes and levies or the conscripts’ home villages themselves, which had presumably been in eVect in the Western Zhou and under the two Wrst ‘hegemons’ (ba) in the seventh century bc. At the same time, Ban Gu criticizes the keeping of large and drilled but costly armies by the territorial states in the Warring States period (403–221 bc). The message of this historical survey is evident—to give support to the ‘Reformist’ policy of colonial settlements while indirectly criticizing Wudi’s expansionist policy. Whereas in his ‘eulogy’, Ban Gu lavishly praises Wudi’s reign as ‘a grand endeavor that attained to the fame of the Three Dynasties’,80 this kind of concealed criticism is repeated at various other places, where Ban Gu is not hesitant about disclosing the exhaustion of resources in the last years of Wudi’s reign due to unending campaigns, with serious consequences for the entire realm in terms of growing banditry and famines which caused the common people ‘to eat again human Xesh’.

(c) On the concept of the course of history

As to this topic, things are much clearer as compared to the Shi ji. Mainly, there are two cyclical time concepts in the Han shu that give structure to its numerous historical accounts and narratives; one being (1) the ‘dynastic cycle’ and the other (2) the cycle of the Five Elements. We presently turn to these two cyclical concepts. Firstly, the Han shu presents the history of the Western Han by and large along the ‘dynastic cycle’ as laid out in the ‘Prefaces’ of the Odes. There is,

77 Han shu 48/2230 V. Note that Jia Yi’s memorials are missing in his Shi ji biography (chap. 84). 78 Han shu 23/1089. 79 Ibid. 23/1081. 80 Ibid. 6/212; cited after Dubs, ii. 120. 162 Achim Mittag similar to the Zhou founding era, a strong beginning under Gaozu and his two sons, Huidi and Wendi, albeit interrupted by the regency of the Dowager Empress Lu¨ and an aborted coup d’e´tat by the Lu¨ clan. The waning of the Han house’s fortunes was marked by three further crises: The Rebellion of the Seven Kings under Emperor Jing (154 bc), the revolt of the King of Huainan, which was brought to an end in 122 bc, and Wnally the troubles that broke out at the end of Wudi’s reign between his consorts and their families (92–90 bc). These years were so marred with internal strife and economic crisis that the sentiment of the Han dynasty’s imminent demise arose. Only a ‘restoration’ (zhongxing) could possibly save the Han house from its downfall. Such a ‘restoration’ was achieved under Xuandi (r. 74–49 bc), who clearly is Ban Gu’s favored monarch. As Ban Gu concludes in his ‘eulogy’, ‘[Xuandi’s] achieve- ments gloriWed his ancestors and his signal services are transmitted to his descendants’.81 In contrast to the Western Zhou’s rapid deterioration follow- ing its ‘restoration’, a gradual moral and physical degeneration set in after Xuandi, which extended over the reigns of Yuandi, Chengdi (r. 33–7 bc), Aidi, and Pingdi, accompanied by a rapidly growing number of recorded portents, prodigies, and calamities.82 In ad 9 Wang Mang eventually dismissed the infant emperor and ascended the throne himself. Secondly, as noted above, Ban Gu adopted from his father’s essay ‘On the Kingly Mandate’ the theory of the Five Elements succeeding one another by ‘production’, according to which the house of Han ruled under the patron element Fire, as had the sage emperor Yao. This theory of cyclical succession had three interesting implications for the historical outlook developed in the Han shu:

. it bolstered the claim of the imperial Liu clan to descend from Yao; . since Yao preceded Shun, it outrivaled Wang Mang’s powerful claim of descending from Shun and ruling under Shun’s patron element Earth; . It ‘proved’ the Han dynasty’s direct succession of the gloriWed Zhou dynasty, thereby eliminating Qin, the paradigm of ‘Modernist’ policies, from the succession of legitimate dynasties. The explanation of dynastic change as a movement in large cycles determined by the Five Elements was for Ban Gu a principal matter. The conception that ranked with it was the idea of ubiquitous correspondences between the celestial and terrestrial processes, the human aVairs, and, most importantly, the conduct of the monarch himself. As is enunciated in an edict by Wendi, ‘The good or bad government of the world depends upon Ourself.’ It adds that, ‘When the lord of men is not virtuous and his dispositions in his

81 Han shu 8/275; Dubs, ii. 265. 82 See Dubs, ii. 286–7, 362–5. Empire and Historiography in Ancient China 163 government are not equable, Heaven then informs him [of that fact] by a calamitous visitation.’83 Unsurprisingly, the Han shu thus abounds with records of omens and portents, unusual phenomena and strange events. Moreover, Ban Gu makes even an attempt at systematizing these heavenly responses to human behavior in the extensive ‘Treatise of the Five Elements’, which occupies a central place in the Han shu.84 Its key idea that all was connected with everything became pervasive in the post-Han period; it contributed heavily to the concept that history Xows in cycles.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Our question at the outset of this paper—how did the Han dynasty histori- ography contribute to sustain the imperial order—has led us along an un- trodden path. Instead of taking the usual route from Sima Qian’s Shi ji directly to Ban Gu’s Han shu, we made a detour via the ‘Prefaces’ of the Odes—indisputably an eminent work of early Chinese historical thinking since it prepared the ground for the historicization of the Odes. More im- portant in our present context is that the ‘Prefaces’ conceivably served as the prototype of the dynastic history model inaugurated by the Han shu, and the ‘Prefaces’ did so in terms of the three aspects at which we looked in more detail, namely (1) by creating a uniWed history for one single dynasty (in case of the ‘Prefaces’, the history of the Zhou dynasty); (2) by giving priority to ‘moral transformation’ (jiaohua) and bolstering the preponderance of the ‘civil government’ (wen) over the ‘military’ (wu); and (3) by Wrmly establish- ing the concept of the ‘dynastic cycle’. Looking at the Shi ji and Han shu from the perspective of the emerging ‘empire’-oriented historiography inchoately articulated by the ‘Prefaces’, the diVerences between the two Wrst dynastic histories become even more dis- tinctive. With subscribing to the Five Elements theory, which itself was embedded in the conception of ubiquitous correspondences, the Han shu became part of the emerging imperial ideology, which was paramount throughout medieval China (i.e. c.200–600)—the ‘pact’ between ‘empire’ and ‘history’ was thus concluded. In modern China this ‘pact’ came under attack from two sides. In the early twentieth century, it was Liang Qichao (1873–1929) who blamed it for having prevented the writing of a grand master-narrative centered on the

83 Shi ji 10/422; Han shu 4/116; cited from Dubs, i. 240–1. 84 Loewe 2004, 487–90. 164 Achim Mittag nation-state, and toward the end of the twentieth century an eminent Western sinologist identiWed it as the chief culprit for all that went wrong with China: ‘The tyranny of Chinese history and the history of Chinese tyranny are monsters that have long fed on each other.’85 Refraining from commenting on these two views here, I just want to conclude by pointing out that both critics take the close interconnection between ‘empire’ and ‘historiography’ in imperial China as predetermined and Wxed, yet in fact it must be seen as something which was not static but changed over time, being subject to negotiations time and again.

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