The Past and Future of the Anshi Rebellion: Reading Pu Liben's Background of the An Lushan Rebellion

The Anshi Rebellion is an important historical event in Chinese history, and in a short period of time, this event is a turning point in the decline and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty; if viewed from a long-term perspective, the Anshi Rebellion is regarded by some scholars as a node in the transformation of the entire ancient Chinese society. It can be seen that the status of the Anshi Rebellion is beyond doubt, and as the Tang Dynasty is a "world empire", the Anshi Rebellion also has a worldwide representation. But few books have been written on this important historical event. In the introduction to "Background of the An Lushan Rebellion," Pu Liben wrote, "Before that, there had been no monographs on the An Lushan Rebellion in China, Japan, or western academic circles. The book was written in the 1950s, and few domestic scholars could read it before the Cultural Revolution. Limited to domestic conditions, it is not convenient to consult the original works even now. Therefore, the significance of Ding Junnushi's translation of this book is very significant.

One

Let's start with the book. The book is clear and concise, divided into seven chapters and five appendices. The first chapter, "Introduction", explains two purposes, that is, to create a more vivid and interesting image of An Lushan than in the legend and reconstruct the historical background of the rise of An Lushan; second, to criticize the historical materials about An Lushan in the documents; and finally, to issue some official positions and place names translation.

Chapters two through seven are the main part of the book. This part of the content can be divided into three parts according to the structure of "total score". The first part, the second chapter, "The Origin and Debut of An Lushan". In this part, the author uses linguistics to analyze the translation of An Lushan's name, and at the same time examines the relevant historical materials, and then explores the family of An Lushan. Although this part is relatively simple, it is an important direction for the study of An Lushan in the domestic academic circles in recent years. For example, on the issue of "hybrid hu", Chen Yinke first paid attention to this issue, and Pu Liben deepened it on its basis. In recent years, Zhong Yan's "The Inner Asian Cultural Background of An Lushan and Other Miscellaneous Hus: On the Problem of the "Inner Asianization" of the Sogdians" (Studies in Chinese History, No. 1, 2005) and Xie Siwei's ""Hybrids" and "Hybrid Hu People" and "On the Origin of An Lushan" (Historical Research, No. 1, 2015) have two articles, one focusing on the ethnological perspective and the other focusing on the perspective of traditional literature examination, but both focus on the entry point of the problem on the origin of the An Lushan ethnic group on "miscellaneous Hu" and "hybrid Hu". It can be seen that Pu Liben's entry point for the examination of this problem is very prescient. Moreover, Pu Liben used linguistics to analyze the origin of the An Lushan family, which made a pioneering contribution to academic research. After Pu Liben, many of the treatises on this issue have begun from the perspective of translating his name, such as the above-mentioned article by Zhong Yan, as well as Rong Xinjiang's "An Lushan's Race, Religious Belief and the Basis of Its Rebellion" ("Medieval China and Sogdian Civilization", Sanlian Bookstore, 2014), and Shen Ruiwen's "An Lushan Fusan Kao" (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2015), all of which analyze the ethnic issue of An Lushan from a linguistic point of view.

Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 examine the development of the Tang Dynasty before the Outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion from four perspectives, namely, economic, political, military, and geographical. In this part, Pu Liben finds the context of historical evolution from the complicated historical narrative, and also finds the misunderstandings that the predecessors fell into. For example, he recognized that there was a linear view of history in previous studies. In order to reduce the Anshi Rebellion to the Peasants' War, some scholars believe that natural disasters will cause damage to the economy, and improper disaster relief policies will trigger peasant wars, and the Anshi Rebellion occurred in this context. Although this statement is logical and clear, it is not suitable for explaining the causes of the Anshi rebellion. Therefore, when studying the economic background, Pu Liben always insisted that there is no direct evidence in the historical data to prove that fiscal policy has caused civil unrest. Starting from the corruption of the upper echelons of society after the Wu Zhou Dynasty, Pu Liben studied a series of economic reforms of Xuanzong and the side effects brought about by them, which shows that he fully realized that the Anshi Rebellion was not an accidental event, but a product of the crisis of the Xuanzong Dynasty system and a historical necessity. This reminds me of Miyazaki's discussion of the Tang dynasty nobility in Miyazaki's "The Modern Age of the Orient", "Although they (the nobles) still boast of being a natural aristocratic class different from the Tang Dynasty, they have in fact become parasitic aristocrats under the protection of the Tang Dynasty that they themselves despise." Therefore, after the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the decline of the imperial family naturally led to the decline of parasitic aristocrats, and society entered the era of warlords and warlords" (included in "Miyazaki City's Examination of Asian History", translated by Zhang Xuefeng, Ma Yunchao, etc., Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2017, p. 217). Both authors note the corruption of the upper echelons in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, which led to changes in the state, except that Pu's period of attention is shorter than that of Miyazaki, but the depth of research is better than that of Miyazaki. Coincidentally, both articles were published in the 1950s, showing that eastern and western scholars took note of the great destructive effects of class corruption in the middle of the Tang Dynasty during the same period.

The political and military context that follows is the discussion under this system. In these two chapters, Pu Liben mentions that the abuse of power by the officials selected by Tang Xuanzong under the policy of centralization was largely an important reason for the Anshi Rebellion, and that the material basis needed for Xuanzong's military expansion was achieved by relying on Xuanzong's fiscal policy, and in this process, centrifugal forces arose between the central and local governments, which eventually turned into a separatist force. As for how this process has changed, it is the content of the author's sixth chapter, that is, about the special situation in Hebei. In fact, this part of the content mainly discusses when the independent sentiment of Hebei arose. Pu Liben opposed Gu Jiguang's view that hebei already had strong anti-Tang sentiments before the Anshi Rebellion, and proposed that the opposition between Hebei and Guanzhong had already formed in Northern Qi. From the sui emperor all the way to emperor Gaozong of Tang, he always sought to solve the problem of Hebei's alliance with Goryeo. In the 1990s, Taiwanese scholar Wu Guanghua proposed the concept of "Youzhou Regionalism" ("The Formation of Youzhou Regionalism in the Tang Dynasty", included in the Department of Chinese of Tamkang University, "Society and Culture of the Late Tang Dynasty", Student Bookstore, 1990) is a deepening argument on this issue, arguing that Youzhou regionalism has been formed before the Anshi Rebellion, and that there is a tendency to localize the Border Army and civilian officials in Youzhou; Feng Jinzhong believes that after the Anshi Rebellion, "under specific political and historical conditions, accompanied by' The formation of the Hebei story, the localization of the Hebei region eventually developed into regionalism" ("Tang Dynasty Hebei Fanzhen Studies", Beijing: Science Press, 2011); in recent years, under the initiative of the Japanese scholar Qi He ze Baozhi, the concept of "Youzhou Studies" has begun a broader discussion with scholars in the Beijing area, and I believe that there will be more detailed and detailed discussions on the special situation in Hebei in the future.

Although the last part of the book is titled "An Lushan Under the Dictatorship of Li Linfu", from the content point of view, it is more like a summary. Pu Liben believed that Li Linfu was the spokesman for Xuanzong's centralized policy at this time, and his death marked the real end of Xuanzong's era, because the country's apparent prosperity was based on political and economic reforms under the imperial system. Such a foundation is too fragile and too dependent on certain individuals. This kind of discussion goes deep into the problem of the imperial power system in ancient Chinese politics.

Two

The above summary of the main content can reflect the important position of the book in academic history. Rong Xinjiang wrote in the Preface to the Chinese Translation, "Today, although it seems that although the length is not long, it is indeed a political history of the early Tang Dynasty that has been whipped into the depths of the book, and has had a huge impact on the study of Western Tang history. This evaluation is very high, but some helplessness is in it, because he only mentions that the book has a major impact on the study of Western Tang history, and does not mention the role of the tang historiography in the mainland. This evaluation is largely due to the fact that "when this book was published, it was the era when China was basically isolated from Western academic circles, and few Chinese scholars were able to see this book." However, with the increasing level of domestic tang history research and the introduction of Western sinology treatises, the value of the book is gradually being discovered by domestic scholars. Li Biyan's Crisis and Reconstruction: The Tang Empire and Its Local Princes (Fudan University's 2011 doctoral dissertation) and Wang Bingwen's From Hudi to Rongxu: A Study of the Anshi Rebellion and the Huhua Problem in Hebei (Tsinghua University's 2015 doctoral dissertation) both consider the book to be pioneering and inspired in the study of the Anshi Rebellion.

After reading the book, the most intuitive feeling is that the whole book is like a giant octopus, the head of the octopus is the big theme of the Anshi chaos, each wrist is a major topic about the Anshi chaos, and the suction cup under the wrist is the specific research in the major topic. A more typical example is the discussion of the issue of the genus an Lushan, which is equivalent to the suction cup of an octopus, and behind this question is the question of "how An Lushan used his authority to form his own power" mentioned at the end of the sixth chapter. Apparently, Pu Liben thought that the An Lushan genus was a way. As for how the clan helped him form a force, Chen Yinke discussed it in the "Treatise on the Political History of the Tang Dynasty", and in recent years, Rong Xinjiang and Shen Ruiwen have also made a meticulous analysis in their treatises, and expanded their vision to the religious factors behind the clan. At the same time, the academic circles also made a detailed analysis of other conditions for An Lushan to form a force, and Cui Mingde proposed the conditions for an An Lushan's origins at seven points based on an Lushan's personal factors and the objective conditions provided by society (Journal of Yantai University, No. 1, 1992). These studies reflect the macroscopic and unique nature of the book. However, the negative effect of this feature is that the research on each part of the book is not meticulous, and there is still a lot of room for exploration. For example, in the chapter on economic background, the translator Ding Jun extended a doctoral dissertation, "A Study of the Financial Background of the Anshi Rebellion.".

As for the other problems in the book, Ding Jun cited a few points in the "Afterword", which will not be repeated here. In addition, the author found that some of the contents of the book could not withstand rigorous scrutiny, such as talking about Yang Guozhong's official robe being splashed with mud, and the author took it for granted that "even if such a thing really happened at that time, it could not be recorded on the spot, and it must have been 'recalled' after thinking of its ominous significance" (p. 45, p. 25) This unverified discussion somewhat reflects the influence of the Western narrative model on the author. This part of the content is to argue the impact of the author's ominous on the writing of history, but the selected historical materials do not accurately reflect the author's views. This historical material is from the Old Book of Tang and the Second Chronicle of Xuanzong, and "the part of the Old Book of Tang from Gaozu to Emperor Wenzong was written or copied directly from the History of the State, and the History of the State is also excerpted from the Records" (Huang Yongnian: Historiography of the Tang Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2015, p. 9). For the historical sources of the actual records or national history, Yue Chunzhi proposed four possibilities - "the submission of the various divisions, the living notes, the provision of the current political records, and the collection of historians themselves and the provision of personnel outside the museum" ("On the Personnel Setting and Historical Sources of the Tang Dynasty History Museum", Journal of Yantai Normal University, No. 3, 2003), as to which yang Guozhong is specifically still to be examined, it can be seen that the author's views are debatable.

Three

The opening paragraph mentions that the Anshi Rebellion is so important, why are there so few papers? Analyzing the reasons for this, it is natural to lead to the export problem of the study of the Anshi Chaos.

First of all, the incident is too significant, causing many scholars to think that the results of research are too much and are reluctant to do research on related topics. This may not be the case, but if you look at the Twentieth Century Tang Studies edited by Hu Ji, you will find that the early research mainly discussed the causes and effects of the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, and rarely involved other content. These results will make researchers feel afraid and difficult to judge new research directions. However, there are still scholars who have devoted themselves to research, and Li Songtao's "Research on Political Culture in the Early Tang Dynasty" (Taipei: Student Bookstore, 2009) cuts from the perspective of "race" and "culture" to analyze the causes of the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion. The representative who jumped out of the old research framework is Li Biyan's Crisis and Reconstruction, which points out that previous research has focused more on the background of the rebellion, and she hopes to sort out the development trend of various contradictions within the rebel army and the rebellion. (Crisis and Reconstruction, p. 2) Continuing the question that Li Biyan said, the historical records are basically historical narratives carried out from the standpoint of the Tang Dynasty, and the previous research results have held this position. This angle is also the gap in the study of the sages.

Secondly, the research is difficult, and the material is not easy to excavate. In The Background of the An Lushan Rebellion, when Pu Liben studied the political background, he initially envisioned a thorough analysis of the differences between all political figures as a whole and their social, economic, geographical, and other aspects. However, there is too little relevant material to meet expectations. Therefore, Pu Liben can only guess when discussing some issues. Considering that the work was written in the 1950s, the use of new historical materials is far less than it is today. In recent years, there has been a new trend in the study of the Anshi Rebellion. More than a decade ago, Leng Guodong used epitaphs to study the problem of "pseudo-numbers" and then explore the social mentality. ("The Use of "Pseudo-Numbers" in the Tang'an History Chaos and the Mentality of officials as Seen in the Epitaphs: The Imitation Problem of "Pseudo-Numbers"," Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties, Sui, and Tang Dynasty, Vol. 20, 2003) Recently, Qiu Luming also published a paper on this issue, "Epitaph Writing and Funeral Arrangements: A Glimpse of Politics and Society in the Anshi Chaos" (Tang Studies, Vol. 23, 2017). It can be seen that the use of epitaphs to study the Anshi Rebellion is a new direction, these studies are from the perspective of the lower classes, and they are all in the areas ruled by the Great Yan regime, so this kind of research can also be classified as the perspective transformation mentioned above to study the Anshi Rebellion.

Finally, the research method is outdated, and no new breakthroughs can be found. This is not only a question of analyzing and mastering historical materials, but also a question of whether this period of history can be studied more macroscopically. In domestic historical research, theoretical methods have always been relatively lacking, and the perspective of looking at history is often limited to a period or a region. If we change the perspective of academic history from vertical to horizontal, and look at the situation of the eastern neighbors, we will find that in recent years, the study of the Anshi rebellion in Japan has been linked to the problem of Inner Asia. Representative treatises have Moribu豊的 ソグド人の東方活動と東ユーラシア世界の歴史的展開》 and Mori An Takao's シルクロードと Tang Empire. Among them, Takao Mori yasu used the concept of conquest dynasty to study the Anshi Rebellion, and positively evaluated the war from the perspective of eurasian inland, which caused great controversy in academic circles. In recent years, domestic scholar Zhong Yan has also used the perspective of internal Asianization to study the Anshi Rebellion and obtained some results. Therefore, new theories and angles are also new breakthroughs in the study of the Anshi chaos.

Four

Finally, a translation of the book. Ding Jun's translation is very "authentic", such as the Chinese translation of parasitic horde (p. 26) The translation of "food tax group" makes the author's eyes shine, because from the literal meaning of English, it should be a parasitic group, but this translation will appear to be very fragmented in ancient Chinese history articles, and the Chinese translation is handled just right. Another example is the sentence "Since no one wants to be shortened to the soldier of the house", the corresponding original text is because of the way militia service was avoided(p. 65), it is clear that the translator understands that the militia service is the prefectural military system, and the word "simplified point" fully reflects the translator's high level of old Chinese. Although the overall level of translation is very high, there are subtle errors, and on page 52 of the Chinese translation, "Another problem criticized by financial officials is the problem of transit." The original text is another problem which was attacked by the financial experts was that of transport.(p. 32) It can be seen that in the original text, the person who attacked was the financial official, and this book translates the financial official as the victim, from the following content, because of Xuanzong's reform, the transportation problem was improved, so The original intention of Pu Liben should be that the financial official found the problem and played to Xuanzong, thus improving shipping, so there are some problems in the translation here. However, the translation of the book is relatively successful, it is very easy to read, and there is no "British Chinese" feeling.

A good book needs a good translator, and "The Background of an Lushan's Rebellion" is an example. No wonder Rong Xinjiang said in the preface: "Whether from the background of Tang history or from the perspective of professional English, Ding Jun is the best candidate to translate this book." "The publication of the translation of the book will certainly promote the study of the Anshi Chaos."