Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors by Jonathan Karam Skaff

Author:Jonathan Karam Skaff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

B. Tang Covenants with Equal Powers

Unambiguous evidence of sworn covenants exists in Sui-Tang foreign relations only with the relatively equal powers of Tibet and the Türk empires. The Tang-Tibetan sworn covenants with surviving bilingual texts are the best documented and most studied. A representative case is the sixth treaty of 783 where both sides sought peace in order to shift troops to the interior to quell domestic unrest. The two parties agreed to a bilingual written pact that pledged mutual non-aggression along a carefully demarcated frontier. Three ceremonies were held to ritually ratify the covenant, one on the Hexi frontier and the other two in the respective capital cities. The frontier ceremony was held first. The numbers and standing positions of the two delegations were carefully negotiated to symbolize equality. Each side sent two thousand representatives and seven high officials. In the perceived “Chinese” part of the ceremony the fourteen high officials mounted the north side of a raised altar where the Tang envoys sacrificed a dog and white sheep and the Tibetans a wild ram. The blood of the sacrifices was mixed in a vessel and smeared on the lips, and followed by a recitation of the text of the covenant. Next in accordance with the perceived “Tibetan” custom, which actually demonstrates the growing influence of Buddhist rituals in Tibet, the two leaders of the Tang and Tibetan missions descended to circumambulate the altar, and entered a tent where they burned incense before a Buddhist image and swore an oath. The ceremony ended when the two leaders ascended the platform again to imbibe alcoholic beverages (JTS 135:3547; Pan 1992b, 137–56; Yoshiro 2000, 92–4). Both parties went to great pains to ratify the pact with solemn ceremonies symbolizing equality.

Several aspects of the Tang-Tibetan covenants are worthy of note. In terms of diplomatic history, these may be the earliest known bilingual treaty texts with formal ratification rituals in Eastern Eurasia, though precursors included covenants between the Di and Eastern Zhou states as early as the seventh century BCE (Di Cosmo 1999a, 948–9). In medieval Western Eurasia, the Byzantines and Sasanians had agreed to a bilingual fifty-year treaty with formal ratification involving an exchange of “sacred letters” in 561 (Blockley 1985, 63–75), almost two millennia after the earliest surviving example.21 Ritually, the Tang and Tibetan claims to distinctive native ratification rites appear to ignore a greater sharing of ceremonies. Frontier covenants sealed with animal sacrifices or burning incense and candles appeared in agreements involving Tibetan, Türk, and Tang military commanders mentioned above. Moreover, Yoshiro (2000) notes an increasing role of Buddhist rituals in the seven Tang-Tibetan treaties. Mutual interactions and accommodations in the borderland regions encouraged the sharing of ritual practices. Also illuminating is that long-term peace proved to be elusive. Although the purpose of the covenants was to eliminate mutual aggression, both sides on one occasion or another found pretexts to violate each truce. Repeated treaty violations also bedeviled Byzantine-Sasanian relations.

Like the better-known treaties, covenants between the Türks and Tang proved to be fragile.

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.