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  • Tang China in Multi-Polar Asia: A History of Diplomacy and War by Zhenping Wang
  • Jennifer W. Jay (bio)
Zhenping Wang. Tang China in Multi-Polar Asia: A History of Diplomacy and War. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2013. xiv, 463 pp. Hardcover $65.00, isbn 978-0-8248-3644-3.

In this erudite study, Wang posits that from 618 to 906, Tang China existed in a multipolar East and Central Asia where fluidity characterized the regions and pragmatism shaped international relations among neighbors. Rejecting the traditional claim of centrality of Chinese power, he argues that the Turkic and Uighur empires in the northwest, the Korean states in the northeast, the Nanzhao kingdom in the southwest, and the Tibetan territories in the Western Regions and high grasslands challenged each other for military supremacy, but none among them, Tang China included, permanently held dominant influence over the region.1 Wang is meticulous in using primary sources—standard and institutional histories, classical and literary texts—to document the narrative of Tang China’s external relations from the defeat of the Sui dynasty (581–617) to its own collapse in 906.

Chapter 1 articulates multi-polarity at the north and northwest frontiers, where relations among Tang China, the Eastern Turkic empire (599–630), and the Western Turkic regime (603–658) were unstable and fluid as both the nomadic and sedentary states underwent external and internal crises. Tang used soft and hard power to seek domination over the north and northwest. To uproot his rivals and consolidate the Tang dynasty, the founding emperor Gaozu (r. 618–626) accepted a Turkic title and acknowledged the overlordship of the Eastern Turkic qaghans. Despite generous gifts, trade agreements, and nonaggression pacts, the Eastern Turks persisted in efforts to set up a regime in China until 630, when Taizong (r. 626–649) demolished the Eastern Turkic state through quiet diplomacy and fierce attacks. Crowned as the Heavenly Qaghan by the nomadic states, Taizong viewed himself as the ruler of both the Chinese (hua 華) and the nomads (rong 戎) in the north and northwest frontiers. But in the next century tension and rebellions terminated the overlord–vassal ties. Tang China also destroyed the Western Turkic regime whose qaghans had gained supremacy over the Silk Road oasis states. It then set up a loose-rein prefecture and assigned a Uighur chieftain to administer it, but by 694 the Uighurs had moved into Gansu, and half a century later had replaced the Western Turkic qaghans as the new overlords of the northwest. Rocked by the An Lushan rebellion of 755–763, Tang China paid the Uighurs handsomely for the military assistance that helped crush the rebels.

The next chapter takes us to the East Asian multi-polar region—Korea and southern Manchuria—where Tang’s military campaigns met with resistance from the four Korean states contending with each other at various times. Silla and Paekche requested Tang assistance to crush Koguryo, and it was the Silla–Tang alliance that conquered Paekche and Koguryo, thereby creating a unified Silla [End Page 302] (668-935) with military strength that posed a challenge to Tang China. Parhae (698-926), a kingdom set up in former Koguryo territory, attacked Tang and expanded into southern Manchuria. After the An Lushan rebellion broke out, Tang lost dominance over the northeast frontiers and recognized Parhae as a state.

In chapter 3 Wang examines multi-polarity involving Nanzhao (738-902) in Yunnan at the southwest frontiers, where tribal chieftains under Tang’s loose-rein administrative system sought assistance from Tibet to defend against Tang expeditionary forces. The expansionist ambitions of Nanzhao and Tibet clashed and unstable alliances intensified the violence and instability of the region. In 902 a minister massacred the Nanzhao ruler and put an end to the state, and four years later rival warlords wiped out Tang China and set up successive, short-lived dynasties (906-960).

The next chapter discusses the Western Regions and high grasslands as the fourth zone of multi-polarity, where Tang China, the Tibetan Tubo kingdom (618-846), the Uighur qaghanate (744-840), and the Kirghiz state (539-1219) engaged in diplomacy, marriage alliances, and military expeditions to replace each...

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