Unbounded Loyalty: Frontier Crossings in Liao China

279 Pages·2007·8.12 MB·English

by  Naomi Standen

Chinese history
(Continued from front fl ap) Of related interest u
unbounded
n
U
DONORS of LONGMEN
b
boundaries can be seen in human terms, nbounded Loyalty investigates how
at the level of individual choice, in fi ve Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese o frontiers worked before the modern na-
case studies that follow. The work con- Buddhist Sculpture loyalty tion-state was invented. The perspective
u
cludes with a summary of the stages by Amy McNair is that of the people in the borderlands
n
which the meanings of zhong changed who shifted their allegiance from the
2007, est. 232 pages, illus.
through the tenth century and in the d post-Tang regimes in North China to the
Cloth ISBN 978-0-8248-2994-0
historiography of the period, and discus- new Liao empire (907–1125). Naomi
e
sion of the implications for our under- Donors of Longmen is the fi rst work in a Western language to recre- Standen offers new ways of thinking
d
standing of territoriality, identity, and ate the history of the Longmen Grottoes, one of China’s great stone about borders, loyalty, and identity
morality and the relationships between sculpture treasure houses. Based on wide reading of both Asian and in premodern China. She takes as her
them before the eleventh century. Western-language scholarship and careful analysis of the architecture, l starting point the recognition that, at the
epigraphy, and iconography of the site, Amy McNair provides a rich o time, “China” did not exist as a coherent
Frontier
Unbounded Loyalty sheds fresh light on and detailed examination of the dynamics of faith, politics, and money entity, neither politically nor geographi-
y
the Tang-Song transition by focusing on at Longmen from the fi fth to the eighth centuries. cally, neither ethnically nor ideologically.
the much-neglected tenth century and a Political borders were not the fi xed geo-
Crossings
by treating the Liao as the preeminent graphical divisions of the modern world,
OUR GREAT QING l
Tang successor state. It fi lls several im- but a function of relationships between
t
portant gaps in scholarship on premod- The Mongols, Buddhism, and the State in Late leaders and followers. When local lead-
in Liao
ern China as well as uncovering new Imperial China y ers changed allegiance, the borderline
questions regarding the early modern Johan Elverskog moved with them. Cultural identity did
period. It will be regarded as critically not determine people’s actions: Ethnicity
China
2006, est. 272 pages, illus.
important to all scholars of the Tang, did not exist. In this context, she argues,
Cloth ISBN 978-0-8248-3021-2
Liao, Five Dynasties, and Song periods collaboration, resistance, and accom-
and will be read widely by those work- Although it is generally believed that the Manchus controlled the modation were not meaningful concepts,
ing on Chinese history from the Han to Mongols through their patronage of Tibetan Buddhism, scant atten- and tenth-century understandings of
the Qing. tion has been paid to the Mongol view of the Qing imperial project. In loyalty were broad and various.
contrast to other accounts of Manchu rule, Our Great Qing focuses not
only on what images the metropole wished to project into Mongolia, Standen begins by setting out a revised
but also on what images the Mongols acknowledged themselves. vocabulary for discussing the choices
N S
AOMI TANDEN is Lecturer in Chinese and actions of frontier crossers and
history at the University of Newcastle examining the development of ideas of
Jacket photo: Tomb door panel excavated from Shaanxi Province,
upon Tyne. loyalty, or zhong, from their origins to
Five Dynasties period (907–960). Used with permission of
their radical redefi nition by eleventh-
the owner, Mr. Stephen Selby.
century historians. She then considers
Cover design by Santos Barbasa Jr.
NAOMI the practice of loyalty by tracing the
relationship between allegiance and
University of Hawai‘i Press
STANDEN borderlines from around 900 until the
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888 STANDEN conclusion of the treaty of Shanyuan in
1005. The meaning of borders and
(Continued on back fl ap)
www.uhpress.hawaii.edu
jack mech.indd 1 10/25/06 11:23:38 AM
Unbounded Loyalty

Frontier Crossing in Liao China
Naomi Standen
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
© 2007 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in
12 11 10 09 08 07 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Standen, Naomi, 1965–
Unbounded loyalty : frontier crossings in Liao China / Naomi Standen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8248-2983-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10 0-8248-2983-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. China—History—Liao dynasty, 947–1125. 2. China—Boundaries—History.
3. Ethnicity—China—History—To 1500. I. Title. II. Title: Frontier crossings in
Liao China.
DS751.74.S73 2007
911'.5109021—dc22
2006022251
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on
acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Council on Library Resources
Designed by University of Hawai‘i Press production staff
Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
For Sam and Zoë,
This is what Mum does at work

Contents
Maps, Figures, and Tables ix
Preface xi
introduction 1
Part I Borders, Boundaries, and Frontier Crossers:
Concepts and Background
chapter 1
You Can’t Get There from Here: Rethinking Categories 15
chapter 2
Fed or Dead: Notions and Uses of Loyalty (zhong) 41
chapter 3
Crossing Boundaries and Shifting Borders:
The First-generation Liao Southerners 64
Part II Working for the Liao: Life Stories
chapter 4
Loyalties in the Borderlands: The Founder and the Confucian 107
chapter 5
An Emerging Boundary: Two Approaches to Serving the Liao 124
chapter 6
Drawing the Line: Rede¤nitions of Loyalty 149
conclusion
Locating Borders: Then, Now, and In Between 172
vii
viii Contents
Appendix: Frontier Crossings 187
Abbreviations 211
Notes 213
Glossary 241
Bibliography 251
Index 271
Maps, Figures, Tables
Map 1: The frontier zone, 907 70
Map 2: Liao, Taiyuan Jin, and Later Liang, 914 73
Map 3: Liao and Later Tang, 925 75
Map 4: Liao and Later Tang, 929 76
Map 5: Liao and Later Jin, 938 80
Map 6: Liao and Later Jin, 943 82
Map 7: Liao and Later Han, 948 85
Map 8: Liao, Later Zhou, and Northern Han, 952 87
Map 9: Liao, Later Zhou, and Northern Han, 959 90
Map 10: Liao and Song, 979 93
Map 11: Liao, Song, and Xia after the treaty of Shanyuan, 1005 95
Figure 1: The ¤liation of the Liao shi 36
Figure 2: The development of types of loyalty in Chinese politics 44
Table 1: Rulers of Liao, Five Dynasties, and Song,
with the Ten Kingdoms 4
Table 2: Crossings to Liao, 900–1004 66
Table 3: Military and civilian crossings, 900–1004 98
Table 4: “Han” and “non-Han” crossings, 900–1004 103
ix