Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China (review)

98 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1996 Frederick P. Brandauer and Chün-chieh Huang. Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1994. xviii, 312 pp. Hardcover $40.00. isbn 0-295-97374-9. Ofthe more than three hundred emperors, including one woman emperor, and numerous regents who ruled China, few in practice came close to the Confucian ideal ofan emperor as a moral example and cultural leader. But, as noted by coeditor Frederick Brandauer, this benevolent and upright ideal ofthe emperor is held by the contributors ofthis conference volume, whose stated objective is to investigate the images ofimperial rulership and the reality of cultural change in traditional China. The coeditors and authors are senior scholars from the disciplines ofhistory, literature, religion, and philosophy; their combined expertise covers two thousand years of Chinese civilization. The primary focus ofthe first three essays is the Han period. The late Jack Dull singles out four "great moments" ofhistory during which the emperor might have played a role in shaping orthodoxy: Wudi ofthe Han, Taizong and Xuanzong of the Tang, and Renzong of the Yuan. The emperors in the first and third cases were effective in determining orthodoxy, but the other two failed. Stephen Durrani's study ofSima Qian's work shows that the emperor's image -making and image-debunking took three stages: the emperor's self-image, the voice of official historiography, and the hindsight ofthe historian. Using a literary approach, Durrant demonstrates that Sima Qian's portrayal of the first emperor ofthe Qin incorporated sarcasm and irony through textual juxtaposition, characterization , and sequencing ofevents. Sima Qian's criticism ofthe emperor's failure to recognize virtue and wisdom was also leveled at Wudi, the Han ruler responsible for Sima's castration. David Knechtges considers this same Wudi to be the first ruler to be interested in literature. He asserts that Wudi's personal interest and endorsement, although guided by his educated advisers, nevertheless played a significant role in elevating and "institutionalizing" thefu (rhyme prose) and the new music by incorporating both into the existing culture. In the only essay focused on the Tang dynasty, Jo-shui Chen examines Empress Wu Zetian, who stands out as the only woman emperor in Chinese history who ruled both in name and in fact. Chen is concerned with the feminist aspects ofher rule, in particular the measures adopted to enhance the position ofwomen. Chen asserts that after Wu Zetian's daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and daugh-© 1996 by University ter failed to emulate her political achievements in the decade that followed her ofHawai ? Pressdeath, her legacy offeminist politics leftlittle imprint on Chinese political life. Thomas Lee's article is primarily on Song academies but also touches on Yuan and Ming developments. From the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, the Reviews 99 academies served to integrate state and local society as they prepared candidates for the civil service examination. Founders and directors of academies fulfilled a local need for education, but their academies also sought to identify with and integrate into the mainstream educational goal ofthe government. Academy leaders wanted to influence the state and rulership by appealing to the Confucian ideal and morality in government. Chi-chiang Huang's article shows that the imperial patronage ofBuddhism made a mark on the culture ofthe Northern Song. He argues that the early Song emperors displayed an ambivalence in their attitude toward Buddhism. While appropriating Buddhist concepts that portrayed the emperor as a universal king, they limited the ordination ofmonks and restricted the construction ofBuddhist monuments. Huang Chün-chieh's essay discusses Zhu Xi's interpretation of H (principle) as an underlying component ofmoral persuasion in imperial rulership. Zhu Xi believed that rulers from the Qin's first emperor down to his own time had abandoned Confucian thinking and deviated from principle, thus accounting for the moral decline ofthe period. The ruler's education must play a crucial role in restoring principle to culture, society, and the state. In his study ofthe Shuihu zhuan, a late Ming novel set at the end ofthe Northern Song, Frederick Brandauer compares earlier versions with the currently standard edition by Jin...