Court and Region in Medieval China: The Case of Tang Bianzhou

T oung Pao ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 102 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 74-120
Author(s):  
Anthony DeBlasi
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Imperial Capital ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Civil Service Examinations

Although Bianzhou (modern Kaifeng) is well known as the imperial capital of the Northern Song dynasty, its history prior to the tenth century reveals much about the political fortunes of the Tang dynasty, especially after the An Lushan rebellion. A careful analysis of the backgrounds of the Military Commissioners appointed to govern the region indicates that following an initial period of instability, the Tang court was able to maintain control over this strategically vital transportation hub late into the ninth century and to repeatedly appoint commissioners who had passed the civil-service examinations. This experience helps explain the continuing optimism of Tang elites about the dynasty’s prospects and made Bianzhou itself an important example for the educated elite of why civil values were essential to good government and the survival of the Tang dynasty.
Si Bianzhou (actuel Kaifeng) est bien connu comme capitale impériale des Song du Nord, son histoire avant le Xe siècle nous en apprend beaucoup sur le destin politique des Tang, particulièrement après la rébellion de An Lushan. L’analyse minutieuse du parcours des commissaires militaires successivement nommés à la tête de la région révèle qu’après une période initiale d’instabilité, la cour des Tang a été en mesure jusque tard dans le IXe siècle de maintenir son contrôle sur ce qui était un nœud stratégique de communications et d’y poster l’un après l’autre des commissaires passés par la voie des examens civils. L’expérience contribue à expliquer l’optimisme persistant des élites des Tang concernant l’avenir du régime, le cas de Bianzhou étant à leurs yeux un exemple important des raisons pour lesquelles les valeurs civiles demeuraient essentielles à la qualité du gouvernement et à la survie de la dynastie.


scholarly journals Fu-lin dances in medieval Chinese art - Byzantine or imaginary?

2019 ◽  
pp. 69-94
Author(s):  
Angeliki Liveri
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
Northern Song Dynasty ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Written Descriptions

Chinese artists, active from the Tang dynasty to Northern Song dynasty, created famous paintings including Fu-lin musical and dancing scenes; as e. g. Yan Liben, Wu Daozi and Li Gonglin. The most of these works are unfortunately lost; thus, we have information only from written descriptions to reconstruct them. Some researchers identify Fu-lin with the Byzantines; others disagree with this interpretation. Therefore, it is worthwhile to study whether the musical and dance motifs that referred to Fu-lin and were used by the above mentioned Chinese artists and literati can be identified with Byzantine elements and their performers with Byzantines ones.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Chu Ming-kin
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Examination System ◽  
Recruitment Process ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Civil Service Examinations ◽  
Selection Of

An emperor does not rule a country alone. He needs to recruit officials to assist in governing the realm. The Song founder inherited a civil service examinations system originating in the Sui dynasty (581–618) that rose to prominence in the Tang dynasty (618–907), whose chief purpose became the selection of deserving candidates for public service. Yet the extent to which the examination system could select genuinely capable and morally upright officials was always in question, since it evaluated candidates based primarily on written work, not personal conduct. In reaction, some officials in the Northern Song (960–1127) argued that government schools should play some role in the official recruitment process to better guarantee the moral comportment of students. Fan Zhongyan ...

Redefining Good Government: Shifting Paradigms in Song Dynasty (960-1279) Discourse on "Fengjian"

T oung Pao ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 97 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 301-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaeyoon Song
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Southern Song ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
Constitutional Discourse

AbstractThis article describes changing political visions of the Chinese literati during the two halves of the Song dynasty, as reflected in their discourse on the fengjian (classical enfeoffment) system of antiquity. In the aftermath of the An Lushan rebellion (755-763), a group of political thinkers criticized that system as an ungrounded historical anachronism. This idea gained currency among a majority of the Northern Song statesmen and literati who supported the centralization project of the founding emperors. With the fall of the Northern Song, the ancient fengjian doctrine resurfaced as a sustained constitutional discourse on government. Contesting the imperial vision of centralization and interventionism, Southern Song literati redefined good government for their time.

scholarly journals THE TEA ROAD: FROM CHINA TO UZBEKISTAN (7-15TH CENTURIES)

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 4913-4924
Author(s):  
Mahfuza Bahriddinovna Mamatova
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
The People ◽  
Ferghana Valley ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Tea Drinking ◽  
Made In China

Five thousand years ago, the first tea was made in China. Only from the beginning of the Middle Ages people of neighboring countries of China recognized tea and until the Tang Dynasty, tea drinking was not widespread. Beginning of the 7th century tea brought Central Asia with the Tea Road. From this period he stretched from China to India. At the centre of this path was Central Asia, the ancient cities of Uzbekistan namely after Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent and the Ferghana Valley. It was the northeastern Tea Road that connected China with Central Asia and was much more ancient than other directions of this route. In the 7-15th centuries The Tea Road developed in different historical periods. During the Tang Dynasty in China, Sogdian merchants brought tea to Central Asia. During the Song Dynasty, it was traded by Central Asian merchants and opened their tea shops in China. The Samanid rulers were the patrons of the tea trade. Under the Ming and Timuridsempire, an intensive ambassadorial-diplomatic relationship between China and Central Asia was strengthened. During this period, among the various goods, the main article of Chinese exports was tea, which was exchanged for thoroughbred horses brought from Central Asia. Since the time of the Tang Dynasty, bilateral trade has been established with Central Asia, and as part of the Tea Road, there were several main and a number of experimental routes along which tea went to Central Asia. In these paths, there were customs points - cities that played an important role in China's trade and economic ties with Central Asia. Today, tea is considered a favourite drink of the peoples of Central Asia, including Uzbekistan. Green tea is imported to Uzbekistan from China and it has become a national drink for the people of Uzbekistan.

Women Rulers in Imperial China

NAN Nü ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith McMahon
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Women Rulers ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Imperial China

“Women Rulers in Imperial China”is about the history and characteristics of rule by women in China from the Han dynasty to the Qing, especially focusing on the Tang dynasty ruler Wu Zetian (625-705) and the Song dynasty Empress Liu. The usual reason that allowed a woman to rule was the illness, incapacity, or death of her emperor-husband and the extreme youth of his son the successor. In such situations, the precedent was for a woman to govern temporarily as regent and, when the heir apparent became old enough, hand power to him. But many women ruled without being recognized as regent, and many did not hand power to the son once he was old enough, or even if they did, still continued to exert power. In the most extreme case, Wu Zetian declared herself emperor of her own dynasty. She was the climax of the long history of women rulers. Women after her avoided being compared to her but retained many of her methods of legitimization, such as the patronage of art and religion, the use of cosmic titles and vocabulary, and occasional gestures of impersonating a male emperor. When women ruled, it was an in-between time when notions and language about something that was not supposed to be nevertheless took shape and tested the limits of what could be made acceptable.

Of the Water Gate on the Ancient City Wall of China

2014 ◽  
Vol 1030-1032 ◽  
pp. 823-826
Author(s):  
He Qun Li ◽  
Yan Li Wu
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Sluice Gate ◽  
City Wall ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Water Gate ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

On the ancient city wall of China, the water gate used to been built. Probably before the Tang Dynasty, it always took the shape of hole in order to drain and prevent others from entering city. From the Song Dynasty on, for the sake of navigation, the majority of water gates became the sluice gate that could go up and down.

Transitions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Heine
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Social Influences ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
Commercial Network

Chapter 2 examines political factors and social influences that contributed to the construction of the Legend of Living Buddhas, a benchmark for the institutional and artistic shift from Chinese Chan to Japanese Zen. It aims to answer the question of how the Zen monastic institution managed to gain a wide following of religious leaders and their disciples as well as lay followers, especially Song-dynasty literati, after struggling for centuries to grow in China beginning with the historical background of the Tang dynasty. Stressing the commercial network of maritime routes linking China and Japan, along with cultural as well as commercial connections that inspired monks to make the daring trip across the waters, the chapter shows how transnational relationships formed between creative priests from both countries, particularly in regard to the mythology of Living Buddhas.

Translation officials of the Tang central government in medieval China

Interpreting ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Lung
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Job Duties

The article documents and differentiates two kinds of translation officials in the central government of the Tang dynasty (618–906 AD) in medieval China: translators in the Court of Diplomatic Reception (Yiyu 譯語) and translators in the Secretariat (Fanshu Yiyu 蕃書譯語). The distinction between them is essential because they are often mentioned in the scholarly literature indiscriminately. Given the scarcity of historical records and the absence of focused discussions about translators in Tang times, their differences were usually either toned down as minimal or misinterpreted by modern scholarship over the past decade. Although some researchers have recently made reference to the two translator titles and agreed that their translation and interpreting duties were somewhat different, the nature of these differences has not been clearly established. Analysis of standard historical records suggests that, in fact, these two types of translators had distinct job duties. Translators in the Court of Diplomatic Reception interpreted primarily for foreign envoys, while the Secretariat’s translators chiefly translated state letters from foreign envoys. This article presents evidence to substantiate this observation and explain why such an apparently straightforward categorization has not been put forward thus far.

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