Persian Christians at the Chinese Court by R. Todd Godwin;

Author:R. Todd Godwin;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786723161
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2019-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Dezong's Court and Chancellor Li Mi

The opening within the Tang court of imperial charisma and agency to the Church of the East explored thus far can be understood further through an investigation of the rise and effect of Imperial Chancellor (Zaixiang [宰相]) Li Mi (722–89). For as Si Maguang indicates, Li Mi shaped the lives of the Tang's non-Han in a profound way in relation to the early court of Dezong by creating an elite space within the court for them.79 Recent scholarship emphasising Li Mi's influence on changes in Tang foreign policy under Dezong in terms of the opening of diplomatic relations with the Tibetan and Uighur empires allows Nakata's observations that the 787 Imperial Translation incident be studied not just in relation to eunuchs to be expanded upon.80 This confluence of forces would have given agency and leverage to the Church of the East and can be argued to have been part of its Heavenly Net/Imperial Chord rhetoric.

It is because of Si Maguang's remarks about Li Mi being a superstitious obscurantist that Li Mi's role in the court of Dezong has been overlooked.81 It is precisely this, however, that must be re-analysed in order for the way in which Li Mi aided the Tang Empire in moving beyond its crippling by the An Lushan Rebellion, and gave agency to the Church of the East as a body of Western-connected elites to be appreciated. Li Mi's religious views and his connections to imperial Daoism must first of all be understood as part and parcel of his influence on Dezong's court; Li Mi had taught Dezong Daoist studies from his youth and at the ‘Isles of the Blest Academy’.82 A lynchpin in the 50 years of experience in government service that Li Mi had accumulated by the time he became chancellor under Dezong, changing Dezong’ mind on this issue, was Li Mi's empirical know-how in dealing with the empire's border issues and viewing internal political difficulties as having intrinsic relations to border issues.83 Li Mi would have seen his service within Dezong's court as an expression of the Yellow Emperor philosophy central to his Daoism.

Setting Si Maguang's description of Li Mi's measures in 787 for dealing with the empire's non-Han next to the two other primary source sites set out below makes this clear:

Li Mi knew that among the migrants there were some who'd had long resided in Chang'an, even more than 40 years, many had had children and had purchased land and homes, doing business to the point of usury, living comfortably with no desire to return home, command and inspect and take the Hu businessmen who have property and stop their support. We will stop the support for all 4,000 of them. The migrants all go to the government and appeal to it, [and so] Li MI said: ‘all of this is due to the errors of the Chancellor, [for] how can it be that a foreign emissary resides at the imperial court for some ten years not

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.