【Article/Observer Network Columnist Chunzhou】
Mentioning Tang Taizong Li Shimin in Chinese history, I think everyone will not feel strange.
From helping his father Taiyuan to raise an army, pacifying all the princes, and then to Dingding Chang'an, launching the xuanwumen revolution and achieving the rule of Zhenguan. He marched three times against Goryeo, fought against the Eastern Turks, pacified Tuguhun, unified Gaochang, and was the "Heavenly Khan" of the Huaxia family, laying the foundation for the creation of a world empire in the Tang Dynasty.
At the same time, in our traditional historical theory, Tang Taizong was also a diligent and loving Ming Emperor. He broadened his speech, expanded the ruling class of civil officials, promulgated the "Law of Zhenguan" of Leniency and Prudent Conduct, practiced the concept of the rule of the people, nobles and gentle rulers, and was a hero with outstanding merits in the ancient Chinese imperial period.
If we expand our horizons and focus on the world, what kind of evaluation, memory and writing does the great Tang Taizong have in the history of world civilization? How do scholars from all over the world with exotic eyes view this famous Chinese monarch?
From the perspective of academic maps, the Western Tang Dynasty history center first promoted Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. A series of famous masterpieces have been produced here - Pu Liben and his masterpiece "Background of the An Lushan Rebellion", Cui Ruide's "Financial Management of the Tang Dynasty", "History of Official Cultivation in the Tang Dynasty", and his editor-in-chief's "Cambridge History of China's Sui and Tang Dynasties", And Mai Dawei's "The State and Scholars of Tang Dynasty China", and so on.
Unlike the United Kingdom, the study of Sui and Tang history in North America presents a scene of blossoming everywhere. Stanford University's Rui Wo shou's profound exploration of Buddhism, Cornell University's Peterson's study of Tang Dynasty feudal towns, and Illinois's Urbana-Champaign Wei and Yi Peixia's study of Tang Dynasty etiquette and scholar clans are all distinctive.
After the war in Japanese Sinology, the two universities in Kyoto and Tokyo launched a series of discussions on the issue of the periodization of ancient Chinese history. The study of Sui and Tang history also unfolds in this context. Representative figures of the Kyoto School, such as Hunan Naito, Fumio Okazaki, Ichidori Miyazaki, Kiyoshi Utsunomiya, Naoshi Miyagawa, and Yoshio Kawakatsu, advocated grasping Chinese history with the inherent laws of China's historical development. Among them, Naito Hunan's "Theory of medieval aristocracy" and "Theory of Tang and Song Reform" are the most famous. The Tokyo School was influenced by the Marxist materialist view of history, represented by Kukichi Shiratori, Shigeru Kato, Naonori Maeda, and Tseiyo Nishishima.
Race, religion and culture have always been the areas of special emphasis of overseas sinology, so when analyzing the historical merits and political characteristics of the Taizong period, these aspects have been particularly noticed by Western scholars. Here are a few examples:
Grusey's Empire of the Steppes argues that the tang dynasty was most obviously characterized by imperial expansion. Through a series of major battles, its territory even exceeded that of the Han Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty established Chinese suzerainty in Central Asia and established long-term governorates in Pyongyang, Korea, and Hanoi, Vietnam. At that time, only the Empire of the Muslim Arabs in the Middle East could match it. Because of The Great Achievements of Tang Taizong, an unpredictable China, a heroic and epic China, appeared in amazing Asia... Now the Han Chinese have conquered nomadic tribes and rewritten the history of civilization that has continued for thousands of years.
In World Civilization, Sterns recorded: "The Tang Dynasty established an empire much larger than the previous Han Dynasty, with a territory far greater than the size of today's China. "Weber is even more unsparing praise" As the true founder of China's territory and culture, the Tang Dynasty has stood through the ages. ”
These Western scholars mainly highlight li Shimin's historical contributions to national boundaries and ethnic interactions from the comparison of world historical evolution.
In the Cambridge History of China's Sui and Tang Dynasties, Cui Ruide's evaluation also includes the harmonious relationship between monarchs and subjects in the Taizong period. He believed that for later generations of Chinese literati, Emperor Taizong represented a flourishing era in which the martial arts and martial arts were ideally combined: the country was governed by an energetic but intelligent and cautious emperor who firmly controlled his empire while always humbly and patiently listening to his courtiers, who were themselves eminent figures. Emperor Taizong's style of governance was admired not only because of its achievements, but also because it was close to the Confucian ideal of accepting and loving the people as the foundation of governance, and because it expressed the relationship between kings and subjects.
The evaluation of the American scholar Fitzgerald is more literary:
Tang Taizong seemed to be like a figure of destiny, and nothing seemed impossible for him. He is the savior of society, the restorer of unity and peace, the cohesive of the Han nation, and the guide of world civilization. His personality was so strong and powerful that he influenced all the characters he had been with and became a legend in the eyes of future generations. Among the emperors of China, no one can compare with them. ”
Although Chinese and foreign scholars have different perspectives and emphases on Tang Taizong's evaluation, they are largely based on the understanding of their own national conditions to compare the Tang Dynasty in the Taizong era. However, for the historical achievements created by Li Shimin, ancient and modern China and abroad have almost mythical and unanimous pursuit.
It is said that Daisaku Ikeda and Toynbee even had this witty conversation:
"Your Excellency, if you were given a chance, which dynasty would you like to live in in China's five-thousand-year-long history?"
Toynbee replied, "If that were the case, I would choose the Tang Dynasty." ”
Being able to travel back to the Tang Empire founded by Emperor Taizong and become Toynbee's vision deeply reflects the charm of that great era.
Another scholar worth mentioning is Fei Zizhi, who was the first Western scholar to write a biography for Emperor Taizong. In a related work, he wrote:
In an era of great inconvenience to traffic that I had never experienced before, Chinese how to build and sustain a great empire that was as big as the Roman Empire at its height. Moreover, under a strong unified central government, the empire was able to renew itself constantly, despite the constant change of dynasties, never losing cultural consistency, historical continuity, and racial homogeneity. Among these great achievements, Li Shimin played a role in changing the history of the Eastern world.
Why did Medieval China succeed in recovering, and why did the Eastern Roman Empire fail? Fei Zizhi believes that Tang Taizong is the answer to this question - the Tang Dynasty is a powerful regime that china has regained after more than two centuries of division and decline, and the architect who revived the empire is Tang Taizong.
Step Chart (Partial)
Fei Zizhi painstakingly chose Tang Taizong to study, and the intention behind it was to show how the Tang Empire defused the threat of hostile forces and the challenge of separatist forces through the writing of Tang Taizong's biography, and then completely changed the European stereotype of corruption and incompetence in Ming and Qing China.
Quoting the views of the Chinese scholar Tong Ling, in order to show Li Shimin's heroism, Fei Zizhi deliberately chose the "Battle of Shuishui" for a colorful depiction:
Although the Battle of Shuishui is completely unknown to the Western world, its importance can be compared with the Battle of Akshm. If the Battle of Akshm determined the unification and expansion of the Roman Empire, then European and American readers will certainly think of the great significance of the Battle of Shuishui in the process of China's unification.
Lu Weiyi, the author of the Harvard History of China, begins his book "World Empire: The Tang Dynasty" and calls it the last powerful Chinese dynasty, because since the Tang Dynasty the Central Plains Dynasty has had difficulty resisting the control of the northern nomads. Lu Weiyi believes that although the Li family claims to be the true successor of the extinct Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty is more of a combination of the elements of the so-called Yidi or Banyidi dynasties that ruled northern China in the 5th and 6th centuries. Understanding this Hu factor in the blood of the Tang dynasty emperors is crucial to understanding the history of the Tang Dynasty.
In addition to affirming Li Shimin's historical merits, Lu Weiyi also criticized Emperor Taizong's ruling strategy and way of governing the country in his later years: "The timely death of Emperor Taizong in 649 saved him from repeating the mistakes of the previous emperor who invaded the Korean Peninsula, the Sui Emperor. The words were full of ridiculous brushstrokes.
In contrast, Japanese scholars' understanding of Tang Taizong should be carried out within the framework of the formation of east Asian cultural circles and the establishment of The Japanese legal system.
The tang dynasty's open and inclusive cultural policy promoted the vigorous development of cultural undertakings, and its politics, laws, state systems, and culture and art had an extremely profound impact on neighboring countries. Tang Taizong's contribution was indispensable, and the first time the Japanese sent Tang envoys to China, that is, in The Fourth Year of Zhenguan.
Taking law as an example, the Japanese scholar Ren Ida Sheng said: "The Tang Law of the seventh century is no less than the Carolina Law of the Holy Roman Empire in the sixteenth century, and it is also comparable to the German code of the seventeenth century." "After the Great Modernization Reform in Japan, the Omi Order and the Great Treasure Law Order were compiled, and the title was much the same as the Zhenguan Order. Kuwahara mentioned: "From the Yuliang Dynasty to the Ping'an Dynasty, the laws of the era of our dynasty were based on the Tang laws in both form and spirit. ”
As for the historical memory of Tang Taizong in the hearts of Japanese people, Mr. Tanigawa Michio's book "Tang Taizong" represents a voice. Tanigawa gave a strong praise to Li Shimin's "wisdom and not adultery" temperament. At the end of the section on the Change of Xuanwu Gate, he believes that the real Era of the Tang Empire begins from now on. Especially after Li Shimin completed martial arts and became the "Heavenly Khan".
Michio Tanigawa jumped out of the conventional perspective of Li Shimin's Wei Zhengjun and his subjects, focusing on the concept of "the selflessness of the Son of Heaven", which is also related to his theory of the Hao clan community and the Japanese academic community's pursuit of the "morality" of the Medieval nobility.
"Another way" is the discussion of Tang Taizong in the book "Splendid World Empire" of the Tang Dynasty published by Kodansha, although he also included the Tang Empire in the study of the entire history of East Asia, but he raised questions about Li Shimin and the prosperous world he created, he believed that this was a kind of writing of the "Zhenguan Politicians" to maintain the political image of Emperor Taizong, and suspected that Emperor Taizong had tampered with the Notes on Living to maintain his historical status as a holy monarch.
He even believed that Tang Taizong was not stronger than Yang Guang in terms of grasping the ability to conceive and act on the future, as well as in terms of learning and literary literacy, and found that the population and economy of the Taizong period were not stronger than those of the Sui Dynasty through comparison. The presentation of this view also breaks people's stereotypes:
Emperor Taizong ordered Fang Xuanling and others to compile a new legal form, which was completed in the first month of the eleventh year of Zhenguan (637). The new decree removed the cumbersome parts of the sui kai emperor to tang wude decrees, and a system that became a model for later generations was born. However, in this system carefully formulated by Laoshen Feisi, there is actually a considerable part of the overlap with the things of the Sui Dynasty.
The beginning of the Tang Dynasty military system can first be traced back to the military government system known as the "Hun Riding Mansion" in the early Sui Dynasty, and to the tenth year of Zhenguan, that is, the year before the promulgation of the Zhenguan Law, the "Folding Chong Fu" was used as the military government. Although the names are different, this "Folding ChongFu" of Tang is actually a complete replica of the "YingyangFu" system established by the Sui Emperor.
After Wei Zheng's death in the seventeenth year of Zhenguan (643), no one was able to stop Tang Taizong's actions anymore. As a result, Tang Taizong failed to make a calm judgment on the issue of succession and the issue of sending troops to Goguryeo, which became a stain on his later years.
As a result, the reign of Emperor Taizong, who had just begun to devote himself to the implementation of the New Deal, came to an end in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649). At this time, the Tang Dynasty was still very weak in terms of economic power, which was far from the peak of the Sui Dynasty, and there were still many outstanding issues in the political field at that time. Therefore, I think that the image of the "rule of chastity" that people in later generations talk about may not be consistent with the reality at that time.
This is also a different kind of historical theory...
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