It was a gratifying scene. “How nice it is to have all the talents under heaven come within my reach!” Taizong exclaimed.
This merit-based selection system has become part of the Chinese tradition and the cornerstone of civil service recruitment policy in China.
LEGAL REFORM
Taizong firmly subscribed to the Confucian view that it is virtues, not harsh laws, that make a good society. During the early years of his reign, the criminal code was substantially revised and simplified from more than two thousand clauses to seven hundred, and harsh punishments were either abolished or reduced for many penal offenses. Officers who tortured prisoners to death would be charged with manslaughter.
The Tang court system had three levels: the county court, the provincial court, and the supreme court. Death penalties had to be approved by the supreme court and the emperor himself.
Twice Taizong ordered the execution of some officials, and twice he regretted his decision, only to find it was too late to rescind the order. To avoid miscarriages of justice, he ordered that even if the death penalty was approved, it had to be reviewed three times by different departments before being carried out. As a result, the number of death-row convicts declined significantly.
While Taizong encouraged honest criticism, he hated slanderers. An anti-false-accusation law was devised to deal with such people. The accuser would be punished according to the nature of his false accusation. For example, a man accused Wei Zheng of treason, a capital crime. Since his charge was absolutely unfounded, the man was beheaded.
Another general, who was an old associate of Taizong, accused Defense Minister Li Jing of plotting a rebellion, a crime punishable by death. But investigation proved Li Jing innocent. According to the law, the accuser faced the death penalty. Taizong commuted the death penalty to exile on account of the man’s earlier meritorious services but rejected his plea for more lenient treatment.
Having spent his formative years in the military, Taizong valued loyalty. He decreed that a servant who informed on his master would be put to death.
TACKLING CORRUPTION
Taizong abhorred corruption. Officials convicted of accepting bribes would be punished. Those convicted of serious corruption would be executed. On the day of execution, government officials were requested to witness the execution so that they might think twice before they were tempted to accept bribes.
The law prohibited prefectural and county officials from serving in their native places for fear that their relatives and friends might try to seek favor from them. Officials were prohibited from taking their parents or children over fifteen with them to their posts so as to prevent their families from becoming channels of bribery and favoritism. And officials couldn’t serve in places where they’d previously held positions for fear that they might be influenced by local interests. The term of office was limited to four years.
Dang Renhong, governor of Guangdong, an old associate of Taizong’s, was found guilty of taking bribes and levying taxes without authority. He was sentenced to death. But considering the man’s advanced age and meritorious services, Taizong decided just to dismiss him from office. Knowing such leniency would be at odds with the law, the emperor started a three-day fast as a gesture to ask Heaven to forgive him his merciful act.
Prime Minister Fang Xuanling admonished him to stop fasting. “As emperor, you have the power to grant him clemency. You are not doing it out of selfish motives. Why should you ask Heaven for forgiveness?”
Taizong replied, “The law is not my law but the law of the land.” He then issued a mea culpa apologizing for pardoning his old colleague.
The historian Wu Jing wrote a glowing passage about life under Taizong’s reign:
For fear of the emperor, officials were honest and cautious in exercising their power; nobles and local elite restrained themselves, not daring to encroach upon the rights of the common people.
Merchants were not robbed on their trips. The prisons were empty. Horses and cattle roamed the open country. Doors did not need to be locked. There were bumper harvests year after year. Travelers from the capital to the east coast did not need to carry provisions on their way. They would be generously supplied and well treated, sometimes even presented with gifts when they departed. There had been nothing like this since ancient times.
CONQUEST OF THE TURKS
Externally, Taizong’s most important victory was the conquest of the Turks. Descended from the ancient Huns, the Turks were a nomadic tribe living in Mongolia at the time. They’d been a constant threat to China’s northern borders. After being defeated by Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty, they were divided into Eastern and Western Turks. During the years of China’s civil war preceding Taizong’s reign, they grew powerful again.
Before launching his bid for power, Taizong’s father had to negotiate peace with the Eastern Turks by pledging to be a Turkic vassal. After the founding of the Tang dynasty, the Turks kept demanding more and more tribute from the new regime. The Tang court had to put up with their insolent envoys while Turkic troops repeatedly raided Chinese border areas, killing, looting, and making Chinese captives their slaves.
Shortly after Taizong succeeded to the throne, the Eastern Turks invaded China and came within twelve miles of the Tang capital, Chang’an. Taizong held a face-to-face meeting with the khan, sovereign of the Turks. After Taizong agreed to give them a large amount of gold, silver, and silk, the Turks signed a peace treaty and withdrew.
Vowing to wipe out the humiliation, Taizong embarked on a large-scale military buildup. In 630, the Chinese army launched surprise attacks against the Turks on three fronts simultaneously. The expedition was a resounding success. The Turkic forces were crushed. The khan was taken prisoner and brought to Chang’an. He was publicly denounced by Taizong but allowed to live.
Taizong permitted many surrendered Turks to resettle in China in the hope that if the nomads took up agriculture and were influenced by Chinese culture, they’d cease to be a threat. Unlike other Chinese emperors, who tended to discriminate against foreigners, Taizong let the Turks work in his government. More than a hundred Turkic noblemen joined the Tang army as officers and took an active part in Taizong’s expeditions in Central Asia and Korea, during which several ranking Turkic generals rendered outstanding services.
The khan was appointed as a senior general, but it was only a nominal post. A virtual captive, he was depressed, he wept often, and his health deteriorated. Once the khan was ordered by Taizong’s father to dance at a banquet to entertain the banqueters. He felt so humiliated that he died shortly afterward.
In 639, an assassination attempt was made on Taizong by a half brother of the khan, who was a junior officer in the Tang army. He and a handful of accomplices were overpowered by the palace guards and publicly beheaded. After the incident, all Turks, except for a few trusted senior officers, were required to leave China to settle in Mongolia.
SILK ROAD
At the time, the vast region now called the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Qinghai was divided into a number of tribal kingdoms, some allying with the Western Turks. Their territories covered what was known as the Silk Road, an important route along which merchants from the Roman Empire, Persia, and Central Asia traveled to China. But this route was often blocked by those tribes. Merchants were detained; their wares were confiscated; Chinese borders were frequently invaded by marauders. Having dealt with the problem of the Eastern Turks, Taizong decided to remove the threat on the Silk Road once and for all.
Between 635 and 648, Chinese troops successively conquered Tuyuhun, Gaochang (Karakhoja), Yanchi (Karashahr), Xueyantuo (Syr Tardush), and Qiuzi (Kucha), making them China’s vassals. The Western Turks were compelled to offer their submission. As a result, China took control of the vast area stretching from Dunhuang in modern Gansu to the western borders of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang.
Trade between China and Central Asia flourished. Silk, tea, medicine, ceramics, handicrafts, paper, and farm tools we
re exported, while jade, fur, horses, camels, lions, and cotton were imported.
At the request of various khanates in Central Asia, Taizong assumed the imposing title of “Heavenly Khan”—the suzerain of all Turks. In this capacity, he played the role of an arbiter for tribal khanates in Central Asia. When they had a dispute about horse-breeding territories, for instance, they came to Taizong, whose arbitration was thought to be fair by all parties. Every New Year, chiefs and noblemen from various tribes came to China to pay their respects. A meeting with Taizong was deemed a great honor.
The only blemish on Taizong’s shining military record was the failure of his war against the Korean kingdom of Koguryo, which had been meant to punish the country for invading a Chinese vassal state. But this didn’t affect China’s stature as a great world power.
WEDLOCK DIPLOMACY AND TIBETAN TIES
Wedlock diplomacy had a long history in China. Typically, a Chinese princess, a highly desirable status symbol, would be married to the king of some nomadic kingdom that bordered on China. It was a way of bringing peace to the border when China was relatively weak.
Taizong practiced wedlock diplomacy at a time when China was strong, because he felt that if a marital tie could turn foes into friends, it was worth the sacrifice of a Chinese princess. Compared with the cost of a wedding, the cost of war was too high. To conquer an enemy through marriage was undoubtedly better than to conquer it through war, for the children born of such a marriage would likely remain friendly to China.
Thus, a number of Tang princesses were married off to foreign kings and noblemen. The most notable union was the marriage between Princess Wencheng, Taizong’s adopted daughter, and Songtsen Gampo, the Tibetan king.
In 641, a large Chinese convoy accompanied the princess to Tibet, bringing with them Chinese foodstuffs, textiles, medicine, plants, grain, and vegetable seeds, as well as Chinese artisans, craftsmen, workers, farmers, and builders.
Tibetans traditionally lived in felt tents, but now they moved into houses after learning building techniques from the Chinese. They’d formerly worn furs, but now they put on silk garments and learned to weave. They’d never used a calendar, but now they adopted the lunar calendar, a boon to their farmers and herdsmen. The Chinese also instructed Tibetans in pottery, brewing, grain milling, papermaking, and the manufacture of farm tools. The princess brought with her a band of musicians and more than fifty musical instruments. They were much cherished by Tibetans.
Since Tibetans lacked a standard written language, Princess Wencheng persuaded her husband to send students to India to study Sanskrit and the ancient Khotan (Yudian) language with a view to developing a Tibetan alphabet and grammar from an Indian prototype.
The princess was a devout Buddhist. Under her influence, the Tibetan king embraced Buddhism. Today, a gilded and bejeweled statue of Buddha, a gift brought by the princess as her dowry, is still enshrined in the splendid Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Contact with the Tibetans led to the introduction of Tibetan horse-breeding skill and Tibetan handicraft into China. When polo was introduced from Tibet, it became a popular sport in the Tang court.
RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE
Trade thrived along the Silk Road to Central Asia, Persia, and Europe and along the sea route to Southeast Asia. Arabs, Jews, and Persians came to settle in China, bringing with them Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism.
Taizong was tolerant of religion. In 635, he greeted a Nestorian bishop from Persia, the first Christian missionary to come to China, and granted him permission to use the facilities of the imperial library to translate the Holy Bible. He also issued a decree that provided for the building of the first church in China, where the bishop preached. The Christian faith and Jesus were introduced to the Chinese for the first time. The modern Chinese hymnal has a hymn, “Gloria in Excelsis,” that dates back to the Tang dynasty.
Taizong said that no religion held a monopoly on truth since they all claimed to be saving people. Emotionally, however, he was closer to Taoism. He claimed that the founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu, whose family name was Li, was his ancestor. He considered Taoism to be indigenous to China while Buddhism, which was very popular in China, was alien.
“The problem with Buddhism,” Taizong commented, “is that while the believer is not sure of his future happiness, he is trapped by what he allegedly did in his previous life.”
His disapproving attitude didn’t prevent him from being interested in the adventures of a great Buddhist pilgrim named Xuanzang who, surmounting tremendous dangers and difficulties, traversed ten thousand miles to India to study Buddhist doctrine.
Xuanzang spent nineteen years abroad and returned to China in 645 to a hero’s welcome, bringing back more than six hundred Buddhist books. He wrote a book about his journey to what are today India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, and numerous other places. His legendary adventures are immortalized in the famous Ming novel Journey to the West.
Taizong met him and was impressed by the man’s erudition and personality. Subsequently, he wrote a flattering foreword to the Chinese version of Buddhist sutras translated by Xuanzang. And his views on Buddhism became more favorable.
Meanwhile, Islam gained wide acceptance in China’s northwestern border regions, surviving energetically to this day.
HOBBIES
Strong and energetic, Taizong enjoyed outdoor activities. He was fond of archery and was one of the best marksmen of his time. The bow he used was twice the normal size and strong enough to shoot through an iron door. His marksmanship saved his life many times on the battlefield.
He had a passion for horses, and his horsemanship was as good as his marksmanship. He commissioned an artist to carve his six favorite war stallions in bas-relief on stone and had them placed in his tomb. Their vivid images have been preserved to this day.
Hunting was his favorite sport, but the kind of hunting Taizong engaged in was an expensive proposition. It resembled military exercises in which soldiers surrounded a wide area of country and drove the game to the center, where hunters were waiting.
During the hunting excursion, Taizong and his companions, all excellent archers and swordsmen in colorful hunting outfits and accompanied by dogs and falcons, would go out early in the morning on horses draped in tiger skin and return late at night. Taizong would fight with wild animals at close range just for the thrill of fighting.
One day Taizong was attacked by a pack of wild boars. He shot dead four, but one nearly knocked over his horse. An aide jumped off his horse to come to his rescue but lost his own weapon and had to fight barehanded. It was Taizong who finally killed the boar with his sword.
“Why were you so scared?” he said, laughing at the man. “Did you see how I fight?”
The aide was not amused, though. “Your Majesty is the ruler of the country. Why did you risk your life to fight a beast? To show off your bravery?”
The man apparently didn’t appreciate Taizong’s penchant for hunting. In fact, Taizong wrote quite a few poems about his love for hunting, for horses, and for archery. Other topics touched on in his more than one hundred poems were the city scenes of Chang’an, natural beauty, court occasions, and philosophical reflections.
Taizong was also musically inclined. The music and dance performed at ancestral worship ceremonies, state banquets, and New Year celebrations symbolized the cultural and artistic achievements of the dynasty. According to Chinese tradition, each dynasty would compose its own music after it was founded. Taizong was closely involved in creating the Tang music, which incorporated a variety of Chinese and foreign musical elements.
He choreographed an elaborate court dance, eulogizing Tang’s military successes. It was performed regularly at palace dinner parties. A minister proposed that scenes of rebel leaders being captured be added to the dance. Taizong rejected the idea, saying that since quite a few of his former enemies were serving in his court, doing so would hurt their feelings. It wou
ld have the opposite effect of what dance and music were supposed to engender.
Taizong was also adept at calligraphy, which was considered a fine art in China. A good hand was a mark of social distinction and scholarship. Calligraphy by grand masters was earnestly copied and studied. Pieces of their handwriting were treasured works of art and Taizong was an ardent collector.
EMPRESS ZHANGSUN
Taizong had a wife, Empress Zhangsun, and seven concubines, who bore him fourteen sons and twenty-one daughters. He loved his wife dearly. They were married when he was fifteen and she was twelve. The empress was the daughter of a distinguished Sui general and was well educated, but when her husband asked her opinion on affairs of state, she’d say it was inappropriate for her to get involved in politics.
Her brother Zhangsun Wuji was Taizong’s boyhood friend and had played a major role in Taizong’s rise to power. When Wuji was appointed prime minister, the empress persuaded him to resign because she was concerned about nepotism.
She told Taizong, “Because of my marriage, many of my relatives are occupying high positions that they don’t deserve. Their positions are precarious. I hope you will not appoint any more of them for their own sakes.”
The empress was kind to all those in the palace’s employ. If she believed her husband had punished a eunuch or a maid without a good reason, she’d pretend to be as angry as he was and offer to look into the person’s offenses. She’d wait until her husband had calmed down before interceding on the person’s behalf, making sure there was no injustice done in her household.
She compiled a collection of stories about well-known virtuous women and well-known villainous women in history for all the court ladies to read.
The Ruler's Guide: China's Greatest Emperor and His Timeless Secrets of Success Page 10