What Did Su Che See in the North? Publishing Regulations, State Security, and Political Culture in Song China

AbstractThis article investigates two kinds of publishing regulations issued during the Song Dynasty, those governing cross-border smuggling of written texts and those on texts relating to border affairs. It argues that the Song court's and Song officials' anxiety about the smuggling of state documents into the surrounding empires was foremost an expression of their concern over the circulation of state documents among literate elites inside Song territory. The analysis of cross-border smuggling focuses on alleged smuggling "to the north," i.e., to the empires bordering on the Song Empire's northern frontier. In order to substantiate the systematic connections made among Song publishing regulations, official and elite constructions of "the north" and elite political culture, the author contrasts prohibitions on the cross-border smuggling of texts to those governing other goods and compares publishing regulations in The Tang Code and The Classified Laws of the Qingyuan Period of ca. 1202. Cette étude s'intéresse à deux sortes de règlements sur les publications promulgués par les Song: ceux qui régissaient la contrebande transfrontalière des textes écrits et ceux qui concernaient les textes relatifs aux affaires frontalières. L'argument développé est que l'inquiétude de la cour et des fonctionnaires des Song relativement à la contrebande des documents d'État au profit des empires voisins reflétait avant tout leurs craintes concernant la circulation des documents gouvernementaux au sein des élites lettrées sur le territoire même des Song. L'analyse de la contrebande transfrontalière se concentre sur la prétendue contrebande vers "le Nord", autrement dit les empires jouxtant les Song sur leur frontière nord. L'auteur justifie les rapports qu'elle établit systématiquement entre les règlements Song sur les publications, la construction de la notion de "Nord" au sein de la bureaucratie et de l'élite lettrée, et la culture politique de l'élite, en comparant les prohibitions relatives à la contrebande transfrontalière des textes et celles concernant d'autres produits, et compare les règlements sur les publication dans le Code des Tang et dans la Législation classifiée de l'ère Qingyuan (vers 1202).

Download Full-text

Chinese Historiography in the Age of Maturity, 960–1368

10.1093/oso/9780199236428.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Charles Hartman

Keyword(s):

South China ◽

Song Dynasty ◽

Political Power ◽

Examination System ◽

Economic Expansion ◽

New Class ◽

The Song Dynasty ◽

The North ◽

System A ◽

Age Of Maturity

This chapter looks at how the Song dynasty (960–1279) reconsolidated central power and eliminated the provincial regimes that had developed in the wake of Tang decentralization. During the first thirty years after 960, they fostered astute policies that promoted and took advantage of continuing economic expansion. To administer their new polity, the Song emperors recruited through the examination system a new class of bureaucratic elite that Western writings on China often call the ‘literati’. The aristocrats of Tang had given way to the merchants and bureaucrats of Song. However, although the Song expanded Chinese economic and political power into South China, it never completed the conquest of all the traditional Chinese lands in the north. The Song coexisted with a series of alien or conquest dynasties to its north and west.

Download Full-text

A Buddhist Response to Ancient-style Learning: Qisong's Conception of Political Order

T oung Pao ◽

10.1163/156853211x592570 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 97 (1-3) ◽

pp. 1-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Douglas Skonicki

Keyword(s):

Political Culture ◽

Political Theory ◽

Political Thought ◽

Song Dynasty ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Political Order ◽

The Political ◽

The Song Dynasty ◽

The Creation

AbstractThis article focuses on the political thought of the Song-dynasty Chan monk Qisong (1007-1072). In opposition to earlier studies, which have tended to view Qisong's political theorizing simply as an offshoot of his philosophical syncretism, it is contended here that his political arguments played an important role in his refutation of the Ancient-style Learning movement's attacks against Buddhism. As is well known, several Song-dynasty proponents of Ancient-style Learning impugned Buddhism for the negative impact it exerted on Chinese social and political culture. Qisong responded to their attacks by crafting a comprehensive political theory, which sought to demonstrate not only that Ancient-style Learning thinkers had misunderstood the dao and proper governance, but also that Buddhist institutions were indispensable to the creation of political order.

Download Full-text