by Chen Jack W
the Daming Palace—in particular, the difficulty of imperial pleasure and
the realization of sagely rulership. Just as Taizong’s rhapsody has to be
understood within a broader historical context, an understanding of “The
Imperial Capital Poems” necessitates revisiting larger issues of territoriali-
zation and imperial sacrifice. This last chapter will discuss the poem-cycle
against the backdrop of Taizong’s abortive performances of the exalted
Feng and Shan 封禪 sacrifices, showing how the poems represent a work-
ing out of the complexities at the heart of ritual sovereignty.
Much of the study is devoted to close readings of specific works, where
attention to historical detail and to literary rhetoric play the central role
in coming to an understanding of Taizong’s imperial authorship. I have
reserved my more general observations for the conclusion, where I discuss
not only how poetry has been part of the discourse of sovereignty in
China, but how the idea of sovereignty has itself long been beholden to
the cultural practices of poetry.
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O N E
Reading the Reign of Tang Taizong
(r. 626 – 49 )
In this first chapter, I provide an interpretative overview of Tang Tai-
zong’s reign. To date, there has been a small industry of biographical stud-
ies in Chinese, Japanese, and English, all of which stand as testimony to
Taizong’s enduring reputation and historical importance.1 Most of these
studies cover approximately the same ground, looking at Taizong’s life
through the lens of major historical events and his many achievements.
While I touch on Taizong’s important accomplishments and noteworthy
deeds, my focus will lie mainly in the historiographic representation of
Taizong’s reign and the reception of his reign in later periods. Taizong
did not have a naïve view of history and indeed could be seen as the main
force behind the state co-optation of historiography that would come to
define historical writing after the Tang. To understand Taizong, there-
fore, one must first understand the construction of his image in the his-
torical sources, some of which Taizong may have directly influenced.
—————
1. These include the following: Siu, L’Oeuvre de T’ang T’ai-tsong; Fitzgerald, Son of Heaven; Tanigawa, Tō no Taisō; Wechsler, “T’ai-tsung (Reign 626–49) the Consolidator”; Zhao Keyao and Xu Daoxun, Tang Taizong zhuan; Yuan Yingguang and Wang Jieyun, Tang Taizong zhuan; Hu Rulei, Li Shimin zhuan; Zheng Yingde, Tang Taizong benzhuan; and Zheng Xuemeng, et al., Li Shimin pingzhuan.
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14
Reading the Reign of Tang Taizong
Li Shimin’s Early Years
The man who would one day be known as Taizong was born Li Shimin in
the Qingshan Palace 慶善宮 at Wugong 武功 (located in present-day
Shaanxi province).2 Li Shimin was the second son of Li Yuan 李淵
(566–635), who was a high-ranking Sui dynasty general and enfeoffed as
the Duke of Tang 唐國公. This title was hereditary and was first be-
stowed posthumously upon Shimin’s great-grandfather, Li Hu 李虎
(fl. sixth century).3 According to the Tang histories, the genealogy of the
Li clan could be traced back to the third century figure Li Gao 李暠, who
founded the minor state of Western Liang 西涼 (400–421) and ruled as
King Wuzhao 武昭王 (r. 400–417).4 If true, this would mean that the
Tang ruling family had its origins in a family whose lineage could be
traced back to Li Guang 李廣 (d. 129 bc), a famous Han dynasty general
who was himself the descendant of a general who served during the early
years of the Han.5
However, the work of the modern historian Chen Yinque (or Yinke)
陳寅恪 has shown that Li Hu and the imperial Tang house were proba-
bly not descendants of the prominent northern Li clans, but, in all likeli-
hood, were descended from Sino-Turkish ancestors who had adopted or
were granted the Li surname in more recent times.6 Whatever the case
may have been, by the time of Li Yuan, the Li clan was well-connected
and prestigious enough to have married into some of the leading northern
families of the Northern Zhou and Sui dynasties.7
—————
2. I have based my account primarily on the three major historical sources for the Tang: the imperial annals of his reign in Jiu Tang shu, 2.21–3.64; and Xin Tang shu, 2.23–49; as well as the chronicle account in Sima Guang 司馬光 (1019–86), comp., Zizhi tongjian, 192.6030–199.6270.
3. See Linghu Defen 令狐德棻 (583–661), comp., Zhou shu, 16.272. Li Hu was one of the Northern Zhou’s “Eight Pillars of State” 八國柱, which refers to the eight leading generals who carried out the founding of that dynasty.
4. For Li Gao’s biography, see Jin shu, 57.2257–67.
5. For Li Guang’s biography, see Sima Tan 司馬談 (d. ca. 110 bc) and Sima Qian 司馬遷
(ca. 145 bc–ca. 86 bc), comps., Shi ji, 2nd ed., 109.2867–78.
6. See Chen Yinque, “Tongzhi jieji zhi shizu ji qi shengjiang,” in Tangdai zhengzhishi shulungao, pp. 1–49.
7. See Wechsler, “Founding of the T’ang Dynasty,” p. 151.
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Reading the Reign of Tang Taizong
15
When Li Shimin was born, a fortune-teller supposedly remarked upon
seeing the infant, “[The child has] the carriage of a dragon or phoenix and
the visage of the sun in heaven. When he is close to twenty years of age, he
will certainly be able to save the world and bring peace to the people” 龍
鳳之姿，天日之表，其年將二十，必能濟世安民矣.8 His name
“Shimin” 世民 was thus chosen by his father to reflect the great destiny
foretold in the augury. Yet, despite Li Yuan’s fatherly pride, he also real-
ized that the augury foretold the overthrow of the Sui dynasty at the
hands of his own son. Fearing that Shimin would be killed, Li Yuan
sought to silence the fortune-teller, but the man mysteriously disappeared.
As a young man, Li Shimin was noted for his bravery, martial abilities,
and strategic cunning. The Tang histories record two anecdotes attesting
to this.9 The first is the story of how Shimin, as a youth of sixteen sui (or fifteen years), personally rescued Sui Yangdi 隋煬帝 (r. 604–17) when
the emperor found himself surrounded by Eastern Turk (Tujue 突厥)
forces at Yanmen 鴈門 Commandery.10 Shimin told Yun Dingxing 雲定
興, the military officer in charge of the relief forces, to space out the
troops over several tens of li, and by day to allow the Turkish forces to see the Sui banners and at night to hear the clamor of the drums, so that the
enemy would think that a massive force had arrived. Shimin’s ploy
worked, and the Turks withdrew without a fight. This episode is now
known as the “Siege of Yanmen” 雁門之圍.
The second anecdote tells of how Shimin, now eighteen sui (seventeen
years old), rescued
his father when Li Yuan was in charge of the Taiyuan
Garrison 太原府 and the forces of the bandit Wei Dao’er 魏刀兒 (who
styled himself Lishanfei 歷山飛) attacked the region. Attempting to repel
the bandits, Li Yuan found himself deep within the enemy army’s ranks,
but was saved by Shimin, who rode alone into battle and pulled his father
out. It is worth noting that, while the Jiu Tang shu account goes on to ex-
plicitly state how Li Yuan and Shimin together inflicted a great defeat
upon Wei Dao’er’s rebel forces, the Xin Tang shu version does not men-
—————
8. Jiu Tang shu, 2.21. The same comment, with slightly different wording, is recorded in Xin Tang shu, 2.23.
9. Jiu Tang shu, 2.21–22; Xin Tang shu, 2.23–24. Also see Xiong, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, pp. 63–64.
10. Yanmen is a commandery located in the north of modern Shanxi province, Dai county.
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16
Reading the Reign of Tang Taizong
tion Li Yuan in the subsequent victory. The dynastic histories, which do
not always agree on their accounts, tend to exalt the achievements of Li
Shimin at the expense of his father. The Wei Dao’er anecdote already
suggests that Shimin was the superior warrior. Moreover, what the variant
account in the Xin Tang shu suggests is that Li Yuan, once rescued by his
son, did not play a role in the subsequent fighting against the rebels.
The Taiyuan Uprising
and the Founding of the Tang
Once we come to the standard accounts of the Tang campaign against the
Sui, we find a definite historiographic bias towards the future Taizong,
while portraying his father as fearful, indecisive, and overly cautious. In-
deed, Li Shimin has generally been perceived as the dynastic co-founder
because of this historiographic bias. A contemporary account of the pe-
riod, the Da Tang chuangye qiju zhu 大唐創業起居注 ( Diary of the
Founding of the Great Tang), which was written by Wen Daya 溫大雅 (d.
ca. 635), presents a much more flattering depiction of Li Yuan, while di-
minishing the role of Taizong.11
The years leading up to the Taiyuan Uprising were filled with social
disorder, violence, and calamitous conditions for the general populace.12
Rebellions were rife throughout the empire, and near the end of Yangdi’s
reign, a children’s rhyme ( tongyao 童謠) foretelling the fall of the Sui at
the hands of a person surnamed “Li” began to circulate throughout the
empire. Different versions of the rhyme have been preserved; the follow-
ing version was recorded in the “Treatise on the Five Phases” 五行志 of
the Sui shu 隋書 ( History of the Sui Dynasty):
—————
11. Wen Daya, Da Tang chuangye qiju zhu. Also see Bingham, “Wen Ta-ya, The First Recorder of T’ang History,” pp. 368–74.
12. For a very detailed account of this period, see Yuan Gang, Sui Yangdi zhuan, pp. 544–
663. Also see Bingham, Founding of the T’ang Dynasty, pp. 61–81, 130–39; Wright, Sui Dynasty, pp. 182–97; and Xiong, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, pp. 51–71.
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Reading the Reign of Tang Taizong
17
A peach tree, a plum tree,
桃李子，
The great swan circles round Yang mountain,
鴻鵠遶陽山，13
Wheeling in flight amidst flowers and trees.
宛轉花林裡。
Do not be too reckless in your speech,
莫浪語，
Who will say “you may”?
誰道許。14
As with many such tongyao, each of the lines conceals political import, ei-
ther through synecdochal gesture or punning allusion. The first line al-
ludes to the surname “Li” in the image of the “plum” ( li 李), which is then
juxtaposed with the image of the great swan, a figure long-associated with
far-reaching ambitions. The swan encircles “Yang mountain,” which is an
obvious punning figure for the Sui emperor, whose surname was Yang 楊,
and then descends to sport among the flowers and trees, which may be a
figure for the imperial park. The fourth line, which cautions against im-
prudent speech, is identified in the same entry in the Sui shu monograph
as a riddling allusion to the rebel Li Mi 李密 (582–619), whose single-
character personal name means “secret.”15 The last line is identified by the
Sui shu as an allusion to the man who would, in 618, lead the conspiracy
to assassinate Yangdi: none other than Yuwen Huaji 宇文化及 (d. 619),
son of the trusted Sui general Yuwen Shu 宇文述 (d. 616). Huaji would
found the short-lived state of Xu 許, hence the line, “Who will say ‘you
may’?” 誰道許.16
Although Yangdi instigated a campaign of terror against any possible
rival with the Li surname, he still relied heavily on Li Yuan to help quell
—————
13. The “great swan” is a symbol of vast political ambition. The Lüshi chunqiu has the following explanation of the figure: “As for the ‘spirit of the steeds Ji and Ao, or the aims of the great swan, what these present as analogies of the human heart is their sincere intentions” 夫驥驁之氣，鴻鵠之志，有諭乎人心者誠也. See Lü Buwei 呂不韋 (d. 235
bc), comp., Lüshi chunqiu xin jiaoshi, 26.1.1697.
14. In Wei Zheng 魏徵 (580–643) et al., comps., Sui shu, 22.639. As Woodbridge Bingham has discussed, there are four main versions: a four-line version in the Diary of the Founding of the Great Tang; a five-line version in the Sui shu; a ( possibly truncated) two-line version in the Jiu Tang shu; and a five-line version in the Zizhi tongjian. See Bingham, “Rise of Li in a Ballad Prophecy,” pp. 272–80.
15. Li Mi was formerly associated with the rebel Yang Xuangan 楊玄感 (d. 613), whose
own father, the mighty general Yang Su 楊素 (d. 606), had been executed under Yangdi’s orders. Li Mi’s biography is found in Sui shu, 70.1624–33. For Yang Su’s biography, see Sui shu, 48.1281–96. For Yang Xuangan’s biography, see Sui shu, 70.1615–19.
16. For Yuwen Huaji’s biography, see Sui shu, 85.1888–92.
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18
Reading the Reign of Tang Taizong
rebellions and protect the regions west of the capital Daxingcheng 大興
城. Li Yuan, for his loyalty and military successes, was rewarded with an
appointment to the Taiyuan Garrison at Jinyang 晉陽. According to the
standard account in the histories, it was here that the future Taizong first
met and began to conspire with Liu Wenjing 劉文靜 (568–619), an offi-
cial formerly in charge of Jinyang but now imprisoned for his close rela-
tionship (as an in-law) with the rebel Li Mi.
Seeing the rapidly deteriorating situation of the Sui empire and the ad-
vantageous position of the Taiyuan region, Shimin began to gather troops
and stock provisions for an uprising, attracting crowds of devoted follow-
ers from among both the bandits and the local military elite. However, he
was afraid
that Li Yuan, a loyal official and related to the Sui house by
marriage, would refuse to take advantage of the situation. In 617, Shimin
decided to spur his father into action. Through Liu Wenjing, Shimin won
the support of Pei Ji 裴寂 (570–629 or 573–632), an intimate of Li Yuan
and Assistant Supervisor 副監 of Jinyang Palace 晉陽宮 (one of Yangdi’s
detached palaces).17 Pei Ji then had some of Yangdi’s palace women smug-
gled out of the palace and presented to the unknowing Li Yuan. After Li
Yuan had enjoyed the women, Pei Ji prostrated himself and revealed how
Shimin had tricked Li Yuan into committing an act punishable by execu-
tion. With no other choice, Li Yuan acquiesced to the rebellion.
Taizong’s deception of his father creates an interesting tangle of prob-
lems relating to filiality, loyalty, and sovereign authority, all of it centered
on the violation of the imperial harem. The harem was many things in re-
ality, but on a symbolic level, it represented the site of the ruler’s domestic
and sexual authority, a mastery of the imperial household that, by exten-
sion, signified his sovereignty over the empire itself.18 The emperor is em-
peror when he stands as both father and husband in his own house. To
cuckold the ruler, as Li Yuan is led to do, is an arrogation of the privileges
of the emperor that strikes at the domestic—and sexual—metaphor of
sovereignty itself. The crime of the king’s cuckold is punishable by death
because it is both an act of symbolic incest (sleeping with the imperial
parent’s wives) and an act of symbolic regicide (usurping the place of the
ruler). Yet what further complicates this is how Shimin manipulates his
—————
17. For Pei Ji’s biography, see Jiu Tang shu, 57.2285–89; and Xin Tang shu, 88.3736–40.
18. Here I draw upon the discussion of harems in Grosrichard, Sultan’s Court, pp. 123–46.
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Reading the Reign of Tang Taizong
19
father into the commission of this crime. As his unwitting father’s pander,
Shimin is himself engaged in a symbolic act of patricide, placing his father