The Imperial Capitals of China by Arthur Cotterell

Author:Arthur Cotterell [COTTERELL, ARTHUR]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS008000
ISBN: 9781468306057
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2012-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

Almost Paradise: Northern Song Kaifeng

Two huge frolicking dragons, covered with blue cloth and stuffed with straw, were placed on the left and the right of the palace gates. Each dragon was dotted with thousands of lanterns and candles. When these were lit, the writhing dragons appeared as if they were flying.

THE COLLAPSE OF TANG AUTHORITY LED TO THE FORMATION OF the Ten Kingdoms. The first of these independent states emerged in the lower Yangzi River valley, where accelerating economic development was stimulated by maritime trade along the south China coast. The half-century of stability achieved by their rulers contributed greatly to the distinctive character of the Song empire, whose foundation is dated to 960.

If many of the features of the Song are linked with economic events in the south, others are tied to the upheavals of north China. There the constant and ultimately overwhelming pressure on the northern frontier had been exacerbated by the internal conflicts of the final decades of Tang rule. It was not just the rebel occupation of Chang’an in 880, or the physical dismantlement of the city by Zhu Wen in 907, that signaled the eclipse of northwestern China as a political center, but rather the continued struggle between regional military commanders who established in turn each of the Five Dynasties. These so-called “imperial” houses were the Liang, Later Tang, Jin, Han, and Zhou; their wars of succession only added to the problem of national defense.

The first of the thirteen emperors that the Five Dynasties produced was Zhu Wen, a powerful northeastern general who dethroned the last Tang emperor and adopted Liang as his dynastic name. The Northern Song historian Ouyang Xiu believed that the Liang emperors were not usurpers since they followed on from the Tang dynasty and for sixteen years ruled north China. Yet Ouyang Xiu’s Historical Records of the Five Dynasties is in reality a description of the negative side of military government. He does not mince his words in drawing attention to its political and administrative shortcomings: “Because the rulers of the Five Dynasties all came from the ranks of military men, their fierce officers and men were free to appropriate land and titles for themselves. How is this different from having wolves shepherd men?” As he pointed out, the lack of popular support for any of the Five Dynasties meant that the military coup replaced the peasant rebellion as the primary route to imperial power.

Zhu Wen and his successors were no more than throw-backs to the warlord era that accompanied the disintegration of the Han empire at the beginning of the third century. They were quite incapable of taking China forward, and compared badly with the other rulers of the Ten Kingdoms. Zhu Wen had begun his rise to power as a lieutenant of the rebel Huang Chao. After Huang Chao’s defeat, he allied himself with the officials against the eunuchs and was rewarded with a northeastern governorship. His murder of the last Tang emperor left Zhu Wen supreme in north China.

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