Li Deyu (787–850): Religion Und Politik in Der Tang-Zeit by Michael Höckelmann (review)

Li Deyu was one of the most prominent public figures of ninth-century Tang China, but his literary output has been neglected for too long, argues Michael Höckelmann in this welcome new study of a key political figure of the Tang. But the overarching theme of the book, as the reader can glean from the title, is not Li's literary work per se, but how we can fruitfully explore it to deepen our understanding of religion in the Tang (618–907) and its relation to the political sphere. The author also sets himself the task of using those findings to break open the concept of religion itself, to create a broader, more inclusive definition which will allow in the future a more genuine comparative study of cultures through the field of religion.

This large and complex issue is raised in the Introduction (chapter 1) and resumed in chapter 7 with an examination of connections between the terms "Religion, State and Orthodoxy." Together these two chapters bookend the philological heart of the study: thorough, full-length translations of prose texts from Li's oeuvre, presented side by side with the Chinese text, and organized thematically rather than chronologically. A "summary commentary" (Überblickskommentar,p. 23) accompanying each text guides the reader through the complex topics, while copious and detailed footnotes re-create for a modern reader as closely as possible the intertextual reading experience of Li Deyu's contemporaries. Together with its comprehensive treatment of the theoretical background, and the wide range of primary sources and recent scholarship used, this detailed approach to the texts places this book firmly in the tradition of German sinological scholarship.

The "Religious Biography" in chapter 2 is a refreshing new approach to what otherwise threatens to become a nianpu-style enumeration of facts in an introductory biography. Here Höckelmann provides the necessary background on Li Deyu's personal and official life to see if it is possible to differentiate between the public and private religious practices of a late Tang scholar-official, using only Li's prose works. The themes touched upon in this chapter also foreground the more detailed exploration in the subsequent chapters, for instance Li's strong stance against specialists in esoteric knowledge (fangshi) and licentious cults, the suppression of Buddhism in 845, and the issue of fate. Already at this early stage, the author deflates the expectations of those who hope to uncover with ease Li's views on religion using the writer's own prose oeuvre. With the exception of the two epitaphs for his wife and concubine, the other texts were all part of a specific genre with specific demands. They do not contain personal reflections on the nature of human relations with the extrahuman area (außermenschlichen Bereich), a key aspect of Höckelmann's working definition of religion (p. 223). Even the possibility that Li addresses the soul of the deceased directly in the epitaphs could then be interpreted as a perfunctory gesture demanded by the genre, although Höckelmann leaves open the possibility that here we can catch a glimpse of Li's inner life after all.

The persecution of foreign faiths in 845 forms an important part of chapter 3, and the book in general. Li Deyu was, as chief minister of emperor Wuzong at the time of the persecution, closely involved with policy making, and through association Li has often been labeled as anti-Buddhist. Höckelmann treads carefully on this issue, attempts to separate popular perception of the event from what we can actually glean from the sources, and offers new insights by broadening the scope of enquiry. Buddhism was the most visible of the various foreign faiths targeted in the edict of 845, but by linking the persecution to the foreign policy and events of the time, Höckelmann shows that...