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STOCKHOLM
Bulletin No. 68
Stockholm 1996
THE MUSEUM
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STOCKHOLM
Bulletin No. 68
Stockholm 1996
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Table ofContents
Hans Bielenstein:The Six Dynasties,Vol. I 5
Amy McNair:The Fengxiansi Shrine and Longmen in the 670s 325
THE SIX DYNASTIES
VOL. I
by
Hans Bielenstein
INTRODUCTION
The period ofthe Six Dynastiesis the last major unexplored era in Chinese his
tory. It is a time of turmoil, with foreign dynasties in the north and six generally
unimpressiveChinesedynastiesinthesouth.Scholarshavelargelyavoidedthiscomplex
period. I have therefore attempted to fill the gap and to write a detailed political his
toryofthesouth.Thenorth is onlyreferred towherereferencesandbackgroundinfor
mation are needed.
I concentrate deliberately on political history, since its reconstruction mustbethe
first step toward the understanding ofany age.The beliefthat, for instance, economic
or intellectualhistory canbewritten without athorough knowledge ofthe underlying
political events is, to my mind, a fallacy.
It is the task ofthe scholar to master his sources, evaluate their truthfulness, and
draw his conclusions. For my text-critical approach, see my Restoration of the Han
Dynasty, vol.I, pp.20–81. In that process, the scholarmustavoid any generalizations
whichspringfromhisinspirationbutarenotbasedonfacts.Neithermusthebeswayed
by ideologies, be they Marxism , Confucianism , or any currently advocated Centrism .
In otherwords,he mustworkfromthesourcesup andnotfromhisimaginationdown.
Volume I ofthis workwillthereforepresentthefacts tothe extentI havebeen ableto
establish them , tedious though this at times may be. By necessity, I have to give much
space tomilitary events.Volume II will offermy analysis ofthesefactsin an attemptto
find outwhathappened in the deeper sense, andwhatthe Chinese dynastic historians
with their stereotype annalistic approach were unable to see.
The sources for the periodofthe Six Dynasties are the relevantdynastic histories.
I use the Po-na edition, Shanghai 1920–1922, which in each case reproduces the earli
est extent version.All ofthese have their idiosyncracies.
TheSan-kuochihwascompiledbyCh'enShou (233–297),whodevoted30chapters
to the state ofWei(Wei shu), 15 chapters to the state ofShu-Han (Shu shu ), and 20
chapters to the state ofWu (Wu shu). P'ei Sung-chih (372–451) wrote a commentary
to this work. It differs from earliercommentaries to the Shih chi,Han shu, and Hou
Han shu in that it does not elucidate the text but quotes information from other and
since then lost histories. To Ch'en Shou, the Wei was the legitimate dynasty, and he
uses the proper imperial vocabulary for that state only. The Shu-Han comes second,
whose sovereigns are at least referred to as "rulers” (chu).TheWu is last. Its monarchs
are insultingly designated by their personal names, i.e. these are not tabooed as is the
case forWei and Shu-Han. By andlarge, the Wu shu is a poorhistory,scantin facts and
almost devoid ofexact dates.
The compilation of the Chin shu on the basis of earlier works was ordered by
EmperorT'ai-tsung ofT'ang in 646 and carried out by a committee ofscholars under
Fang Hsüan-ling (578–648), Ch’u Sui-ling (596–658), and Hsü Ching-tsung (592–
672).ThisisthefirstChinesedynastichistorywrittenby acommittee,whichhenceforth
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becametherule.Appendedtothishistoryare30 chapterscalledthe Tsai-chi (Records)
which give invaluable information on northern states under foreign rulers. The
subsequent Liu Sung, Southern Ch'i, Liang, Northern Wei, and Northern Chou his
toriesupdate thatinformation.')Allin all,the Chinshuisanimportanthistory,although
it shows signs ofhaste including wrong dates.
The Sung shu for the Liu Sung dynasty was written by Shen Yüeh (441-513)
during Liang times.
TheNan Ch'ishuwasbegunby HsiaoTzu-hsien (489–537) andcompletedbyhis
sonHsiaoTzu-k'o in Liangtimes.LiketheSungshu,thishistoryisflawedbyerrors and
misprints.
The Liangshu wasbegun in Ch'en timesby Hsiao Ch'a (533–606). Emperor T'ai
tsung ofT'ang ordered Ch'a's son Ssu-lien (d.637) and others to complete it.
ThesameHsiaoCh’aalsobeganthecompilationoftheCh'enshu.Itwascompleted
on EmperorT'ai-tsung's orders by a commission under Hsiao Ssu-lien.
The Wei shu for the history ofthe T'o-pa dynasty was written in Northern Ch'i
timesbyWei Shou (506–572) and subsequently revised and in parts reconstructed. It
isimportanti.a.because ofit's biographies forsouthern emperorsfrom the founderof
Liu SungtothefounderofLiang.Noneofthe southernhistories returnsthatcourtesy.
Thesouthernsovereigns are, ofcourse,notreferredto as emperorsbutbytheir
person
al names and occasionally as "rulers” (chu).These biographies are useful counterparts
to the more biased accounts given by thesouthern historians. For the northern states
preceding the NorthernWei, the Wei shu has no new information, and text references
to that period are therefore superfluous.
The Pei ch'i shu was begun by LiTe-lin (531-591) and completed by his son Po
yao (565-648) atT'ai-tsung's behest.
The Choushu was orderedbyT'ai-tsung ofT'angand compiledby Ling-huTe-fen
(583-666) and others. It was later substantially amended.This history has the fullest
account on the three Later Liang emperors.
T'ai-tsung also ordered two abbreviated histories to be written for the south and
north, the Nan shih and Pei shih. Both were compiled by commissions headed by Li
Yen-shou (627–649).The Nan shih covers the period ofthe southern dynasties from
the Liu Sung through the Ch'en, the Pei shih the northern states from Wei through
Sui.Theseworksoccasionallygiveinformationnotavailableelsewhere,includingdates,
and also have a few biographies for men who were omitted by their predecessors.
However, especiallythe Nanshih is marredbythe inclusion ofanecdotes andmarvels,
andboth have numerous copying errors.
Finally, forthe conquest ofCh'en bythe Sui, the Suishu has useful information. It
was compiled onT'ai-tsung's orders by a commission underWei Cheng (580–643).
There is a fair amount of overlapping between these dynastic histories, and the
different emphasis given is useful to the modern scholar.
Each history is, ofcourse, biased for its own dynasty.The Wu shu (2:16a) claims,
forinstance,thatwhen EmperorWen ofWei reachedtheYangtze in 224 he said about
Sun Ch'üan: "There is a man there (whose actions) cannot yet be foreseen”.That is a
most unlikely remark and most certainly made up on Sun Ch'uan'sbehalf.
Some ofthe histories observe T'ang dynasty taboos. The cyclical character ping
used for dates, is by Chin shu, Liangshu, Ch'en shu, Chou shu, Pei shih, and Sui shu
1.SeeRogers,Chronicle,pp. 15–18.ThereconstructedShih-liukuoch'un-ch'iuis ofnointerestforthis study.
Seeibid.pp. 18-21.
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written withthe homophoneching.?)Thiswasbecausethe fatherofKao -tsu (founder
oftheT'ang) had a given name which hadpingas it's phonetic.
TheSungshu and Nan Ch'i shu, following the Chinese tradition of referring to
theirbarbarianneighboursbyderogatoryterms,calledtheT'o-paSo-lu.Thismeans "So
Slaves”, SoreferringtothewaytheT'o-paworetheir hair.Conversely,theT'o-pacalled
the southern Chinese Tao-yi, meaning "Island Barbarians”.This term is taken from the
" Tribute ofYü” ofthe Book ofDocuments (Shu ching) ") The Liangshu, on the other
hand refers to theT'o-pa as theWei.
Analyticalliterature,whetherintheEastorWest,israreonthepoliticalhistoryofthe
SixDynasties.Iwillavoidpolemicsasmuchaspossibleandletthesourcesspeakforthemselves.
Myreferencestosecondaryworkswillthereforebefew.Specialmentionmustbemade,however,
ofthreescholars.RafedeCrespignyhasbeentheWesternpioneerinthestudyoftheWu
State, and he has many valuable publications to his credit. Wolfram Eberhard's Das
Toba-ReichNordchinasisthe onlymajorworkontheNorthernWei.Otto Frankemade
the attempt ata generalhistoryofthe entire period, forboth the south andthe north,
in his Geschichte des Chinesischen Reiches, vol.II. It was a heroic undertaking and as
such deserves our gratitude. Unfortunately, it is a flawed history. Franke is too often
uncriticalandcredulousintheuseoftheChinesesources.Whereheshouldbesuspicious,
he is not. He accepts figuresforthe sizes ofarmies andworkforces, forenemieskilled,
for families transferred etc. which should not be trusted. Where Chinese population
figures, when properly understood, are useful, he rejects them . He quotes as genuine
speechwhathasbeeninventedbythedynastichistorian, acceptsclichésandanecdotes
as facts,andmakesnoallowanceforbias.Hetreatsthe Tzu -chiht'ung-chienasaprimary
source, when it is no more than a secondary. He is also influenced by the Chinese
concept ofthe Confucian State and capriciously judges the rulers and politicians by
that standard.This makes him laud the ConfucianTibetan ruler ofthe Former Ch'in,
EmperorFu Chien,andtobeambivalentabouttheBuddhistruleroftheLiang,Emperor
Wu.Franke'shistoryisthereforebynomeansdefinitiveandmustbeusedwith caution.
AlldatesinthesourcesareconvertedtotheJuliancalendar.Althoughthetitlesofthe
emperorsweregrantedposthumously,Iusethemfortheirlifetimes.Theywerefewand
stereotype,sothatseveralemperorsduringtheperiodunderdiscussionhavethesametitles.
Consequently,therewereinthesouthalonenolessthan 4 EmperorsWu,3EmperorsMing,
and2EmperorsYüan,Chien -wen,Hsiao-wu,Wen,andChing4) respectively.
I frequently refer to the names ofmodern Chinese provinces for the purpose of
geographical identification.
Thegenealogiesdo notshow all membersoftherulinghouses, onlythosewho are
relevantto this history.All sons ofthe southern emperors are, however, listed, ifnotin
the genealogies then in the appendices.
2.Attimes,thehistorieslapse andwriteping.
3.SeeKarlgren,TheBookofDocuments,p.14,and"GlossesontheBooksofDocuments”,p.146,gloss 1352.
4.Including Sun Hsiu ofWu.
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