Urbanization in Early and Medieval China: Gazetteers for the City of Suzhou

381 Pages·2015·8.898 MB·English

by  Olivia Milburn

Urbanization
in Early and
MEdiEval China

Urbanization
in Early and
Medieval China
Gazetteers for the City of Suzhou
translatEd and introdUCEd by Olivia Milburn
UnivErsity of Washington PrEss
Seattle and London
Publication of this book was made possible in part
by a grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation
for International Scholarly Exchange.
© 2015 by the University of Washington Press
Printed and bound in the United States of America
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19 18 17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
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UnivErsity of Washington PrEss
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library of CongrEss Cataloging-in-PUbliCation data
Urbanization in early and medieval China : gazetteers for the city of Suzhou /
translated and introduced by Olivia Milburn.
 pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-295-99460-4 (hard cover : acid-free paper) 1. Urbanization—China—Suzhou (Jiangsu
Sheng)—History—To 1500—Sources. 2. Suzhou (Jiangsu Sheng, China)—Description and travel—
Sources. 3. Urban landscape architecture—China—Suzhou (Jiangsu Sheng)—History—
To 1500—Sources. 4. Cities and towns, Ancient—China—History—Sources. 5. Cities and towns,
Medieval—China—History—Sources. 6. Suzhou (Jiangsu Sheng, China)—Gazetteers. 7. Ji Wudi
zhuan. 8. Lu, Guangwei, active 9th century. Wu di ji. 9. Zhu, Changwen, 1039–1098. Wu jun tu
jing xu ji. I. Milburn, Olivia.
ds797.56.s894U73 2015   951'.136—dc23    2014041600
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ansi z39.48–1984.∞
Contents
Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
A Note on Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Chronology of Chinese Dynasties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Three Gazetteers of Suzhou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Tales of the Lands of Wu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Record of the Lands of Wu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Supplementary Records to the “Illustrated Guide to Wu Commandery” . . 89
Commentary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Analysis and Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347

Illustrations
MaPs
1 The kingdom of Wu in the Spring and Autumn period . . . . . . . 40
2 Kuaiji Commandery in the Han dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3 Suzhou in the Han dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 Wu Commandery in the Tang dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5 Suzhou in the Tang dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6 Wu Commandery in the Northern Song dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7 Suzhou in the Northern Song Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8 “Map of Pingjiang” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
9 “Map of Pingjiang,” The Citadel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
10 “Map of Pingjiang,” Southern Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
11 “Map of Pingjiang,” Southwestern Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
12 “Map of Pingjiang,” Northwestern Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13 “Map of Pingjiang,” Northern Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
14 “Map of Pingjiang,” Northeastern Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
15 “Map of Pingjiang,” North-Central Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
16 “Map of Pingjiang,” Eastern Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
17 “Map of Pingjiang,” Southeastern Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
tablEs
1.1 Population of the Wu Region in the Early Imperial Era . . . 27
2.1 Individuals Mentioned in Record of the Lands of Wu
(by kingdom or dynasty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.1 Comparative Gazetteer Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
4.1 Suzhou Gates in the Han, Tang, and Northern
Song Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
vii
4.2 Landscape Features Recorded for the Wu Region . . . . . . .230
4.3 Dated Buildings Described in Tales of the Lands of Wu . . .232
4.4 Description of Ancient Sites: A Comparison . . . . . . . . .234
4.5 Religious Buildings in the Wu Region (by dynasty) . . . . .236
4.6 Buddhist Temple Construction in Wu Commandery
during the Liang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
4.7 Descriptions of Warfare in the Wu Region: A Comparison . .243
viii IlluSTraTIonS
a note on nomenclature
One term will appear extremely regularly throughout the course of this
book: Wu. This geographic designation was already in use before the uni-
fication of China. During the early imperial era, it continued to be used as
a geographic designation referring to the city of Suzhou and the surround-
ing region and as a temporal term indicating the time when Wu was an
independent kingdom. In order to prevent confusion, I have used this term
extremely carefully. In discussions of pre-unification times, the term “Wu”
refers to the ancient kingdom of Wu, inhabited by the non-Chinese Gouwu
people, which was destroyed in 473 bCE. This large and powerful southern
kingdom was a major player in events at the end of the Spring and Autumn
period. In this book, therefore, terms such as “the Wu region” refer to the
territory of the ancient kingdom of Wu, rather than just the city of Suzhou
and its immediate confines. In the early part of the Han dynasty “Wu” was
again used as the name of an important kingdom (ruled by a senior member
of the imperial family), but when this is the case, the time period will be
specified so that it will be clear that “Wu” refers to the Han dynasty king-
dom and not the pre-unification (that is, before 221 bCE) independent king-
dom of Wu. The Three Kingdoms era state of Wu will be referred to as the
Wu dynasty, an anachronistic term, but one that will serve to distinguish
this era from the pre-unification era. In the Han, Tang, and Northern Song
dynasties, “Wu” was used to designate the commandery in which the city of
Suzhou was located. The size of these commanderies varied considerably;
as the region became wealthier and more populous, the number of coun-
ties that made up Wu Commandery was periodically reduced. Over time,
Wu Commandery accounted for a smaller and smaller area of modern-day
Jiangsu. This being the case, each reference to Wu Commandery will include
a precise dynastic affiliation.
ix