Abstract
For a multi-ethnic political entity, whether it is an empire or a nation-state, the key to survival is an inclusive order under which multiple ethnic groups with different heritages coexist peacefully. Historical writing on ethnic groups and interactions among them is an important part of this order. To demonstrate this point, this paper offers an examination of three different historical narratives of Princess Wencheng, the heroine of a “peace-making marriage” of the Tang Empire (AD 618–907), who married Songtsen Gampo, the king of Tubo (the ancient name of Tibet). In the first narrative, which is from Chinese classical literature, Princess Wencheng was treated as an insignificant figure and the text paid much more attention to the ceremony of the “peace-making marriage” than to the princess’s individual traits. In the second narrative, which is from Tibetan ancient literature, the princess was portrayed as the incarnation of “Green Tara”, a tantric deity in Tibetan Buddhism, and supposedly possessed goddess qualities and magical powers. This striking difference reflects the different views about the world and its ideal order of the two ancient civilizations. The third narrative, which was shaped by the nationalist discourse during the first part of the 20th century, depicted a new image of Princess Wencheng, gradually transforming her into a “transmitter of technology.” This paper offers a detailed analysis of this evolution and, furthermore, a critical comment on the historical writing done under the guidance of the so-called “progressive view of history”. Our conclusion provides a theoretical discussion of the structural dilemma for modern China as a multi-ethnic nation-state.
In the knowledge of contemporary ordinary Chinese about “ethnic history,” “Princess Wencheng” is one of the best-known historical figures. In the history textbooks of Chinese basic education, materials about ethnic history appear only in Volume 2 of Chinese History for Seventh-Grade Students, including ethnic relations in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Liao, Song, Xia, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, and the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Among these materials, Princess Wencheng is the most frequently mentioned figure. The textbook describes the deeds of Songtsen Gampo (the king of Tubo) and Princess Wencheng in both large and small fonts, and the part in small font about Princess Wencheng is vivid and rich: Princess Wencheng had read lots of poetry since childhood and was a talented lady. She married the king of Tubo and took books, grains, vegetable seeds, and a large number of handicraftsmen with her to Tubo. Since then, people in Tubo have been able to plough fields, grow vegetables, raise silkworms, reel silk, and make textiles and embroidery. The people there used to take the time when wheat ripens as the beginning of a year. Princess Wencheng taught them to use the calendar. She also brought the custom of drinking tea to Tubo (Course Materials Research Institute, History Course Materials Research and Development Center, 2001: 23–24).
Based on this empirical observation, this paper involves a larger academic issue, namely, the historical writing on ethnic groups of a multi-ethnic political body.
Problem consciousness: Historical writing on ethnic groups of a multi-ethnic political body
Whether for an “empire” (“帝国”) or a modern “nation-state” (“民族—国家”), the core element of the formation and survival of a “multi-ethnic political body” 2 lies in a set of orders that can settle ethnic groups differing in politics and cultural traditions appropriately. The dominant part of this order is a series of political, legal, and administrative systems that stipulate the rights and obligations between central governments and various ethnic groups. Meanwhile, an implicit mechanism also exists that is reflected in the identity definitions and cultural hierarchies of ethnic groups. “Historical writing on ethnic groups” is an important dimension of this hidden mechanism.
“Historical writing” discusses the nature of historical research. It regards “writing” as a historical practice (Certeau, 2012: 2) and assumes that there is no pure “historical truth” and that all recorded “history” inevitably involves the deliberate selection, organization, and reconstruction of “historical materials” imprinted with features of a specific era and its cultural background. As a result, recorded history implies historians' hopes toward ideal education and mobilization (Certeau, 2012: 12). Therefore, when we talk about “historical writing”, what we are actually discussing is a “paradigm”, under which certain past events are recorded. This paradigm stipulates which characters or events are important and worth recording, as well as how to interpret their meaning. As a special type of historical writing, “historical writing on ethnic groups” (“民族史书写”) is about the paradigm on how to record and describe the past of a group of people defined as an “ethnic group” (“民族”). The way a group of people record and tell their history reflects their cosmology, cultural outlook, moral system, and behavioral norms. And records of their relationships with other groups reflect their understanding of their position in a pluralistic system.
Based on this discussion, this paper defines “historical writing on ethnic groups” as an important dimension of the construction and maintenance of the order of a multi-ethnic political body. The traditional imperial system has strong tolerance for diverse groups of people. This tolerance is reflected in both the compatibility of pluralistic political systems and the acceptance of diverse historical narratives. Groups with different cultures enjoy more autonomous positions in the imperial system, and therefore are more likely to write histories from their own worldviews. With deepened or weakened exchanges among peoples and the integration of empires, similarities and differences between different groups will change, and their respective historical writings will influence each other.
Since the rise of modern nationalism, with the nation-state gradually becoming a world norm, the foundation of the coexistence of diversified political systems and historical writings within a sovereign state has long since crumbled. All modern countries are trying to establish a unified administrative system and a unique “national history” (“国族史”) that covers all citizens within the boundaries of their territories. Most discussions about so-called “modern historical writing” (Duara, 2013: 244) are conducted based on this background (Berger et al., 1999: 3). As Duara (2013: 249) argued, “claims to nationality and concomitant claims to rights and duties came to be justified on historical grounds”. In this sense, “nationalism” (“民族主义”) has a natural affinity with historical writing. Although the object of historical writing is something in the past (possibly a very ancient past), its goal is to reshape modern people’s historical consciousness, which is exactly the top priority of nation-building.
A traditional multi-ethnic empire faces enormous challenges brought about by the transition to a nation-state system. Benedict Anderson described it as “stretching the short, tight skin of the nation over the gigantic body of the empire” (Anderson, 1991: 86). Apart from the implementation of the political and cultural integration reform, a key factor for the success of the transformation is the reinterpretation and repositioning of historical relations between diverse populations in the territory so as to match the state framed by the territorial boundary.
Based on what is discussed above, this paper takes the image creation and narrative strategy of Princess Wencheng in historical documents of different periods and languages as its research subject, exploring the paradigm of historical writing on ethnic groups and the meaning of it in establishing the internal order of multi-ethnic China under the empire and nation-state systems. The following contents consist three parts. The first part, including two sections, illustrates two different images of Princess Wencheng constructed in the ancient historical documents written in Chinese and Tibetan, and makes an analysis of the historical views reflected in these narratives. The second part, including two sections, presents a third image of Princess Wencheng, which emerged in the Chinese historical works in the first half of 20th century, and makes a discussion of the political and social backgrounds underlying this new narrative. The third part aims to do some theoretical exploration, making a critical comment on the historical writing done under the guidance of the progressive view of history and providing an explanation of the structural dilemma for modern China as a multi-ethnic nation-state.
Two ancient images of Princess Wencheng
Records about Princess Wencheng and her peace-making marriage with Tubo can be found in ancient documents in both Chinese and Tibetan, but the characters and storylines presented in the two texts are quite different.
The “Princess of Peace” with a vague face: Princess Wencheng in Chinese literature
Among ancient Chinese literary works, records about “Princess Wencheng’s peace-making marriage with Tubo” exist mainly in the political documents of the Tang Dynasty, including The General Code (Tong Dian), Evolution of the Tang’s System Reform (Tang Hui Yao), the old and new versions of History of the Tang Dynasty, Encyclopedia of Historical Records before the Song Dynasty (Tai Ping Yu Lan), A Collection of Ancient Historical Documents before the Song Dynasty (Ce Fu Yuan Gui), and History as a Mirror (Zi Zhi Tong Jian). Relevant records in these books are highly consistent.
Taking the Biography of Tubo in Old History of the Tang Dynasty as an example, only a short paragraph is related to this event directly: In the 15th year during Reign Taizong of the Tang Empire, the Emperor married Princess Wencheng to Songtsen Gampo and ordered Daozong Li, the Minister of Rites, to escort the princess to Tubo and host the wedding ceremony. Songtsen Gampo led his troop to Bohai Lake and welcomed the princess and Daozong personally. Upon seeing Daozong, Songtsen Gampo gave a salute as the son-in-law of Emperor Taizong. He highly praised the great Tang’s gorgeous attire and elegant etiquette, his every move revealing a sense of shame. He returned to his place together with the princess and said to all his subjects: “Ancestors of mine have never married a princess of the great Tang, but today I have Princess Wencheng as my wife, and it’s a great honor to Tubo. I will build a palace for her to show to the future generation.” Therefore, a palace was built for the princess to live in. The princess never liked the way Tubo people colored their faces with red, so Songtsen Gampo banned this custom from then on. He gradually came to appreciate the Tang’s dress style, taking off his furred clothes and putting on silk garments. What’s more, he encouraged his subjects to read The Book of History and The Book of Songs and invited prominent scholars from Tang to teach them (Liu, 2000: 5221–5222). Emperor Taizong recovered the East Liao with great triumph. Songtsen Gampo sent envoys to present a golden goose as a gift. Xuance Wang, a missionary from the Tang, was captured by Tianzhu (state situated in the middle part of India in medieval times) on his way to the Western Regions. As required by Emperor Taizong, Songtsen Gampo sent troops to attack Tianzhu and saved Xuance Wang. When Taizong passed away, Songtsen Gampo presented 15 kinds of gold and silver jewelry in front of Taizong’s memorial tablet. Successive Emperor Gaozong appointed Songtsen Gampo as the emperor’s son-in-law and the leader of Xihai prefecture (in today’s Qinghai province). Songtsen Gampo wrote a letter pledging his loyalty. Songtsen Gampo invited craftsmen to Tubo to introduce skills of sericulture, wine making, paper making, and so on (Liu, 2000: 5222).
Although “Songtsen Gampo” is the main character in these sentences, we can assume that these events happened as a result of Princess Wencheng’s peace-making marriage with Tubo.
The second paragraph indirectly related to Princess Wencheng appears in the letters between the Tang and Tubo, in which she is mentioned as a historical figure. The story happened during the time when another princess of peace, Princess Jincheng, entered Tubo in 710, the fourth year during Reign Zhongzong. Sentences like “Emperor Taizong’s deeds have contributed to and deeply influenced the good relationship between the Tang and Tubo…And all this began with Princess Wencheng’s peace-making marriage with Songtsen Gampo…” can be found in a piece of document issued by Emperor Zhongzong (Liu, 2000: 5227). In 729, the 17th year during Reign Xuanzong, when the Tang and Tubo were in peace negotiations, a senior official of Tubo submitted a piece of document to Xuanzong and said: “We are fully aware that our good relationship is a result of the deeds of Princess Wencheng and Princess Jincheng” (Liu, 2000: 5231).
So far, all records mentioning Princess Wencheng in Old History of the Tang Dynasty have been listed above. Among these words, no material about Princess Wencheng’s appearance, character, talent, preferences, or personal views on the marriage can be found, and there is no description of her journey to Tubo or her married life. That is to say, Princess Wencheng was never mentioned as an individual in Chinese historical documents, but merely as one of many “Princesses of Peace”, 3 a symbolic image.
In addition to official history, the only description related to Princess Wencheng in ancient Chinese literature appears in the Biography of Senior Monks Who Went to Western Regions for Scriptures, written by Jing Yi, a monk of the Tang Empire. The following content can be found in a description of Dharma Master Xuanzhao’s life: During Dharma Master Xuanzhao’s travel far away to the North, he passed through Tubo and met Princess Wencheng, who hosted him warmly and saw him off. … Years later, the Emperor recalled Master back to the capital. On his way home, he passed through Tubo and met Princess Wencheng again. He gave his sincere regards to the princess and then continued his travel (Yi, 1988: 10).
Apart from this paragraph, no more material about Princess Wencheng can be found in Chinese literature until the Qing Dynasty. It is particularly noteworthy that there are 170 poems in Complete Tang Poems (Quan Tang Shi) with the theme of “peace-making marriage”, the majority of which are about Zhaojun Wang, a famous beautiful woman of the Han Empire (220 BC – AD 8), who married the chief of Xiongnu (the nomadic people in northern Asia). There are also dozens of poems praising Princesses of Peace of the Tang Empire, such as Princess Jincheng, Princess Ningguo, and so on. However, no poems with Princess Wencheng as the leading role can be found (Wang, 2007: 21–23, 32–36). After the Tang Dynasty, with the continual changes of regimes in the Central Plain and Tibetan Plateau as well as the “religionization” of the ties between the Central Empire and Tibet after the Yuan Dynasty, images of Princess Wencheng gradually disappeared from the river of history. No poems or other literary works about Princess Wencheng can be found until the late Republic of China, indicating that Princess Wencheng is not that famous in the field of ancient Chinese literature.
The “Incarnation of Green Tara” with wisdom and supernatural power: The “Rgya-Mo-Bzav” in Tibetan literature
As discussed above, Princess Wencheng is not a prominent figure in Chinese literary works. In Tibetan historical works, on the other hand, the image of “Rgya-Mo-Bzav”, literally meaning “the goddess from the Central Empire”, herein referring to Princess Wencheng, is particularly rich and vivid. It is fair to say that the important position of Princess Wencheng in the relationship between Central Empire and Tibet was formed and developed in Tibetan literature.
The story of Rgya-Mo-Bzav, which takes up a large proportion of the historical records about Tubo in Tibetan history books, is a story full of twists and turns, myths and legends, in which the plot of “marrying Princess Wencheng” constitutes the core narrative. Its outline is as follows: One day, with the light of God, Songtsen Gampo saw a beautiful and mysterious princess, who was Princess Wencheng. So, he sent Mgar, a minister of Tubo, with a mission to the Tang to make a marriage proposal. Since Princess Wencheng was versatile and well known, when Mgar arrived at Chang’an City, the capital of the Tang Empire, envoys from four other states, namely Rgya-gar (Tibetan name for ancient India), Stag-gzig (Tibetan name for Persia), Hor (Tibetan name sometimes refers to Mongolians, sometimes refers to the nomadic people living to the north-east of the Tibetan Plateau), and Khrom ge-sar (Tibetan name for an ancient kingdom on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau), also came to Chang’an to make proposals. Facing this situation, the Emperor decided to organize a “wisdom test” to determine whom the princess should marry. He presented the envoys with seven challenges, including threading a ribbon through a nine-turning zigzag Jade, distinguishing directions at night, competing in eating sheep and drinking wine, identifying mother-child relationships in horses and chickens, and identifying the Princess from four hundred young women of similar appearance. Because of his wisdom, Mgar won in all seven tests and thus won Princess Wencheng for Tubo. Princess Wencheng was the most favored daughter of the Tang Emperor, who gave her a rich dowry containing a precious statue of Sakyamuni, thousands of books on Buddhism, law, literature, medicine, farming, animal husbandry, calendars, calculation, and construction, gold and silver jewelry, silk satin, and other valuables. In addition, the princess also brought radish and turnip seeds to Tubo. Along the path to Tubo, Princess Wencheng and her entourage built statues of Buddha, wrote Buddhist scriptures on rocks, made water mills, and tamed reindeers to plough. After a long journey, they finally arrived at Tubo. Before entering the territory, she first did a geographical observation, finding that the shape of Tubo’s territory was just like that of Brag-srin-mo (an indigenous demoness) lying on her back, which made it necessary to build temples to suppress her. Princess Wencheng presided over the construction of the Ramoche Temple and enshrined the statue of Sakyamuni in it. Together with another wife of Songtsen Gambo, the Princess Chizun (Bal-Mo-Bzav) from Bal-bovi-yul (the Tibetan name for ancient Nepal), Princess Wencheng assisted Songtsen Gambo with national affairs and contributed significantly to the development of Buddhism in Tubo. 4
Main characters in this rich and vivid story were given sacred identities. Songtsen Gambo is not only a great ruler, but also the embodiment of Avalokitesvara (one of the most important deities in Buddhism). Princess Wencheng is more than just a princess from the Tang, but also the incarnation of Green Tara (a female deity in Tibetan Buddhism), characterized by wisdom and compassion.
The Tibetan historical literature recorded many deified traits of Rgya-Mo-Bzav. First of all, from the perspective of physical characteristics, “her skin is green but has a red face, and her breath smells like lotus blossoms” (Sonam, 1981: 108). Second, concerning quality and talent, she “thoroughly knows all literature and history” (Sonam, 1981: 86), which is directly reflected in her acquaintance with the theory of five elements and divination, and the geographic observation she did when she came to Tubo. In addition, the story of “Princess Wencheng Entering Lhasa from All Sides” is the most vivid description of her magical power: Minister Mgar announced to all citizens of Tubo that Princess Wencheng had supernatural power, and no one knew which road she would take to come here. So, all the roads in the mountains and rivers must be made unimpeded to welcome her. … People from all sides of Ra-sa (old name of Lhasa) said that they had seen Princess Wencheng in person when she arrived. People living in the South said that the princess came down along the Grib-phu River. … People living in the east said that she passed by the ferry of Mkhar-sna-gdong-du River in the east, and this is where the name Rgya-mo-rab-kha (meaning “Princess Ferry”) comes from. People living in the north said that they greeted the princess in the north of the Sgo-phu village, so the village is also called “Lha-bsu” (meaning “welcoming princess”). And people living in the west said that the princess came down from the Stod-lung Pass and went through the valley between Sbal-ba-tshal Mountain and Gru-gsum Dune (Atisha, 1989: 199–200).
What is particularly interesting is that, as far as the source of historical materials is concerned, the image of Princess Wencheng in the history textbooks of middle schools quoted at the beginning of the paper is not based on Chinese literature, but instead follows Tibetan historical records of mysterious stories and legends. The description stating that “Princess Wencheng had read lots of poetry since childhood and was a talented lady” in the history textbook is a modern interpretation of “thoroughly knows all literature and history” in ancient Tibetan records. And the list of the various crafts and skills the princess carried to Tubo comes from the exaggerated description of the “Princess’s dowry” in Tibetan historical records.
Two paradigms of ancient historical writing
The logic of historical writing is, of course, not that simple. Two different images of Princess Wencheng are based not only on differences in history materials but, more importantly, on differences in the worldviews and paradigms of historical writing.
History books in Chinese: Narrating frontiers from the perspective of Huaxia
The civilization of Huaxia (the ancient name for Han, the dominant ethnic group of China) has a profound tradition of historical writing, which not only left enormous historical documents, but also forms a unique paradigm. Academic discussions about the writing of Chinese history have been conducted extensively, so this paper will focus on the discussion of the writing of ethnic history.
“Ethnic history” (“民族史”) is a concept formed under the discipline system of modern social science. If we try to find its roots in ancient Chinese history, we can take the Biographies of Si Yi (四夷传) in the official history books as its original form. The term “Si Yi”, meaning “four remote and barbarian groups” was used generally by Huaxia people to refer to peripheral alien ethnic groups in four directions. The concept is not based on empirical observation, but reflects Huaxia’s view of itself as the center of the world. Therefore, apart from recording historical facts about the Si Yi’s customs and their interactions with Huaxia, a more important goal of the Biographies of Si Yi was to locate these remote groups in a system centered on Huaxia, and therefore, constructs the order of “Huaxia–Barbarian”. Thus, the Biographies of Si Yi have always followed a specific writing paradigm.
This paradigm is reflected in several aspects of the narrative. Hu (2017: 115–162) pointed out that in the official history books, the Biographies of Si Yi were always positioned in the last part of the books, and the narrative structure and strategy of each group’s history followed a fixed pattern. Wang (2009: 13–16, 77–93) found that besides the overall structural arrangement, there were a number of “patterned plots” in the Biographies of Si Yi, such as the “Heroes' Migration to the frontiers”, designed to describe the hierarchical relationship between Huaxia and the people living in the borderland. Wang (1968: 34–62) studied the “theory of foreign relations” reflected in the Biographies of Si Yi, and summarized its key as “the idea of superiority”, holding that this idea, or its persistence, is the basis for Huaxia to interpret the relationship between itself and other remote groups.
The record of “Princess Wencheng and her peace-making marriage with Tubo” in Chinese historical literature is a reflection of this typical writing method. This narrative describes in detail the ceremony of “Songtsen Gampo welcoming the princess”, but the focus lies not on the individuals Princess Wencheng or Songtsen Gampo, but rather on the hierarchical relations between the Tang and Tubo. For example, “welcome … personally” and “gave a salute as the son-in-law of Emperor Taizong” reflect political hierarchy between the Tang and Tubo, and “highly praised the great Tang’s gorgeous attire and elegant etiquette” and “gradually appreciated Tang’s dress style” define their relative cultural hierarchy.
In fact, these kinds of narrative come up not only in the description of Princess Wencheng’s arrival at Tubo, but also occur in some other comparable scenes. In the Old History of the Tang Dynasty, a similar episode is the story of Princess Ningguo and her peace-making marriage with Huihe, an ethnic group of ancient China in the north-west direction. During the Anshi Rebellion in the second half of the 8th century CE, Bilge Khan, the ruler of Huihe, sent troops to help the newly inaugurated Emperor Suzong to suppress the rebellion and regain the capital, so Suzong betrothed his young daughter, Princess Ningguo, to Bilge Khan to build a long-term relationship with Huihe. Suzong’s cousin, Prince Yu Li, was appointed as envoy to escort the princess to Huihe. The history book recorded the scene in which Yu Li met with Bilge Khan: When Yu Li arrived at Huihe, he saw Bilge Khan sitting solemnly in a golden robe. Bilge Khan asked: “What’s your relationship with the Emperor?” Yu Li answered, standing upright, “I am the cousin of Emperor Suzong.” Bilge Khan challenged: “How dare you ignore the etiquette and refuse to salute me?” Yu Li replied, “Emperor Suzong appreciates your contribution and marries his daughter to you to show his gratitude. Anyone who marries a princess is subject to the Emperor. Now the beautiful and talented Princess Ningguo came all this way to marry you, and you’ve become the son-in-law of Emperor Suzong. How dare you sit there without saluting our Emperor?” On hearing this, Bilge Khan rose immediately and gave a salute. The next day, Bilge Khan crowned Princess Ningguo the Queen of Huihe and said, “The Tang Emperor has given me a true goodness” (Liu, 2000: 5200–5201).
It is notable that in this patterned plot, the indicator used to construct the Huaxia–Barbarian order is the content related to rites and rituals, rather than the “production technology” mentioned at the beginning of this paper. In this historical narrative, the role of Princess of Peace, including that of Princess Wencheng, is a part of the hierarchical system of imperial civilization.
History books in Tibetan: Myths and legends under the “Buddhist worldview”
Tibetan civilization has quite a different tradition of historiography compared with Huaxia civilization. Its core is a set of spatial images and causal chains based on the Buddhist worldview. The “historical writing paradigm based on this worldview” was formed at the beginning of the second propagation of Buddhism in the 11th century. Later, it gradually consolidated and evolved into the dominant paradigm of Tibetan historiography before modern times (Qunpei, 2009; Zhang, 2013).
Historical narration based on the Buddhist worldview has some important characteristics. First, it is based on a framework about world origin and its spatial structure from the contents of the Buddhist sutra. For example, the famous Tibetan historical book, Records of Tibetan Monarchs (Bsod Nams Rgyal Mtshan, Rgyal Rabs Gsal Bavi Me Long) (Sonam, 1981), begins with a description of a grand system. In this system, the space we live in is just a small speck of dust in the world, but within this space, there are many civilizations existing simultaneously. These civilizations have their own characteristics in real politics; in the meantime, they occupy corresponding positions in the transcendental Buddhist order: At first, the world was empty and boundless. Wind blew from all directions and tangled together, forming a wind wheel…great and powerful. Above it gathered water and sea was formed. …There was a golden base, as flat as a palm. …Mount Sumeru, comprised of various treasures, was situated there, like the axis of a water mill produced naturally. … On the east side of Mount Sumeru was a continent called Purva-videha, in the shape of a semicircle. On the south side was Jambu-dvipa, in the shape of a scapula. On the west side was Apara-godaniya, in the shape of a circle. On the north side was Uttara-kuru, in the shape of a square. … Among these continents, Jambu-dvipa was the most extraordinary one. … In the center of Jambu-dvipa was Rgya-gar (Tibetan name of ancient India), which was the land full of treasures, like a roof hung with colorful silk fabrics. Sog-po (Tibetan name of Mongolia) and Livi-yul (Tibetan name of an ancient kingdom located in today’s Xinjiang in China), like transportation vehicles, were the land exporting goods and wealth. Hor (Tibetan name of the nomadic people living to the north-east of Tibet Plateau) and Rgya-nag (Tibetan name of the empire in the Central Plains), like a blooming lotus, was the land full of wonders and fantasy. Tubo among the snow mountains was like a female devil lying on her back. It was a land benighted with ignorance, with a steep rock valley, numerous ghosts and evil spirits, and dark mountains (Sonam, 1981: 3–5).
Third, it explains important historical events and characters as existing within the causal chain of Buddhism. For example, the statue of Sakyamuni, which was brought to Tubo as part of Princess Wencheng’s dowry, is a link in the causal chain that stretches back through millennia and runs through three realms. According to Tibetan historical records, when Sakyamuni was about to pass away, the gods cooperated and built two full-sized statues of 8-year-old and 12-year-old Sakyamuni. Sakyamuni personally presided over the opening ceremony of the two statues and declared: “My statues will last forever, just as I am with the world forever. Heresies will be suppressed by them and Buddha Dharma will be immortal. The place where the statues stand will be the center of the world.” After the two statues were completed, they had been transferred several times and enshrined in different places. At last, the 8-year-old statue was invited to Bal-yul (Nepal), where it benefited all sentient beings for two thousand years. The 12-year-old statue was invited to Ryal nag (Central Empire), where Buddha Dharma thrived and everything went well (Atisha, 1989: 17–37). This precious 12-year-old full-sized Sakyamuni statue, as Princess Wencheng’s “dowry”, was brought to Tubo from Chang’an, while the 8-year-old statue was the “dowry” of Princess Chizun and brought to Tubo from Bal-yul at the same time. The focus of this causal chain is not to emphasize the preciousness of the two Buddha statues. More importantly, it places Tubo and other related civilizations (such as Central Empire and Nepal) in a world built by Buddhism and makes their relations clear.
The Buddhist worldview constructs the basic framework of Tibetan historiography, and the narratives of any character and event are meaningful only when put in this framework. Therefore, to be understood, the story of Rgya-Mo-Bzav (Goddess from the Central Empire) in Tibetan history books should be analyzed in this light. According to the Buddhist worldview, the identity of Rgya-Mo-Bzav is the incarnation of Green Tara; this is the core of the story, which is isomorphic with Tubo’s self-positioning in the system of the Buddhist world. On this basis, Rgya-Mo-Bzav’s deeds of bringing the precious Sakyamuni statue to Tubo, observing the terrain of Tubo to decide the locations of important temples, and directing the construction of Ramoche Temple, which was closely related to the promotion of Buddhism in Tubo, should be regarded as the merits of Green Tara assisting Avalokitesvara to domesticate Tubo and enlighten its people. Other episodes such as five states fighting for the marriage in Chang’an, Emperor Taizong testing the marriage envoys seven times, and the princess bringing a rich dowry, although seemingly unrelated to the Buddhist narrative, can still not be separated from this framework and should instead be regarded as auxiliary plots supporting the identity of Green Tara. Specifically, in the Tibetan context, the reason Princess Wencheng was famous and received proposals from many kings was that she was the incarnation of Green Tara, not that she was the Princess of the Tang Empire. The reason Rgya-Mo-Bzav brought books, treasures, and vegetable seeds to Tubo was that she was the smart and compassionate Green Tara, not that the Tang Empire had a more advanced material civilization.
In this sense, the narratives about Rgya-Mo-Bzav in Tibetan historical records also express the shaping of the ideal order between Central Empire and Tibet, although this is an order different from the worldview of Huaxia.
The encounter between Princess Wencheng and Rgya-Mo-Bzav: Tibetan historical materials enter the Chinese world
As mentioned above, ancient Chinese and Tibetan history books each tell a story about Princess Wencheng, each presenting its own understanding of the universe and the multi-civilization system. Since there was limited communication between the historical writings in the two languages for a long time, this has not troubled ancient historians. 5 This is the embodiment of the pluralism and inclusiveness of the empire in the writing of ethnic history.
After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, this situation began to change, and the image of Rgya-Mo-Bzav in the Tibetan world gradually entered the Chinese world via various indirect routes. This was not only related to the enhanced control of Tibet by the central government during the Qing Dynasty, but also the inevitable result of the frontier integration project in the transition from an empire to a nation-state of modern China.
Mongolian historical records as a medium
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Mongolian tribes converted to Tibetan Buddhism for the second time, which had a profound impact on the cultural traditions of Mongolian society. A result was that the Mongolian historical book, Mongolia Origin (Meng Gu Yuan Liu), which was written in the first year of the reign of Kangxi (1661), drew on the framework of the Buddhist worldview in Tibetan history books, tracing the ethnic origin and Khan lineage of the Mongols to Tubo and Tianzhu.
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From this perspective, the first two volumes of this history book (eight volumes in total) basically retell the contents of the “ancient history” and “Tubo history” in Tibetan history books. The second volume contains the complete plot of “marrying Princess Wencheng”.
7
In the 42nd year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign (1777), a Chinese version translated by the Qing imperial court was published, and it was named The Official Mongolia Origin (Qin Ding Meng Gu Yuan Liu). The Chinese version was translated from the “court fine manuscript”, which came into being after copying the manuscript collected by a Khalkha Mongolian noble twice. Compared with the original version, the fine manuscript version deleted some contents, including the long story of Mgar proposing to Princess Wencheng in Chang’an for his king (Wulan, 1997). As for this story, it was recorded briefly as follows: Khan thought that to help all creatures on the snow mountain with benevolence, there must be a sutra. Two rays of light were sent out from the eyes of the Buddha statue which came into being naturally. Khan looked at it. …a light shone on Princess Wencheng, the daughter of Emperor Taizong of Tang. …at the age of sixteen, she was dignified and understood Buddhist sutra well, with a beautiful face, Bodhisattva-like appearance, a flawless body and sandalwood-like breath. …he sent an envoy to propose to Princess Wencheng. Emperor Taizong accepted the proposal and presented the statue of Sakyamuni that the princess enshrined every day, many arithmetic books, and thirteen precious history books. The emperor also gave away various treasures, antiques, beautiful silks, and coppers (Sagang, 1969: Volume II).
As for the contents lacking in the “court fine manuscript” (that is, tales like “Five states fighting for the marriage”, “Seven tests for marriage envoys”, “The Princess’s dowries”, and “the Princess observing the terrain of Tubo”), it is impossible to judge from the current materials whether they were deleted by the noble when he copied the manuscript or by translators organized by the Qing court when they recopied it. 8 However, the fact that they were artificially deleted seems to indicate that the intellectuals at that time did not recognize the historical value of the contents, but regarded them as nonsense that needed to be deleted.
Local chronicles of Tibet as a medium
As the Qing court’s rule over Tibet became increasingly institutionalized, some court officials began to be stationed in Tibet. They also became the first batch of authors of Chinese monographs on the geography and history of Tibet. Having lived in Tibet for a long time, they had an understanding of the widespread story of the Rgya-Mo-Bzav in Tibet, which was written into their local annals selectively.
For example, the book The Records about Tibet (Xi Zang Zhi) is an early local chronicle of Tibet written in Chinese by an unknown author. It includes 33 items, such as “Deeds”, “Borders”, “Temples”, “Times”, “Property”, “Calendars”, “Customs”, “Indigenous chiefs”, “Military systems”, and “Taxes”, in the typical style of Chinese local annals. In the “Temples” and “Calendars”, the author, adopting a mythological Tibetan historical narrative, recorded a large number of deeds of the “Princess of Tang”. Jokhang Temple…built during the Tang Dynasty, situated in the east and facing towards the west. …In the central chapel is the full-sized statue of Jowo Sakyamuni. Some said he came from the Central Plain with the Princess of Tang and became a Buddha in Tibet at the age of 12, while some said the statue was cast in the Central Empire and brought here. On the left of the hall are the statues of the Princess of Tang, Songtsen Gampo, and the princess from Nepal. In the southeast of the temple, there is Bailamo Palace, where Bailamo is worshiped. It was said to be the incarnation of the Princess of Tang, so people revered it. …The Princess of Tang worshiped Buddhism in her late years and converted to it, so the door of the temple faced the west. …Ramoche Temple was about half a kilometer north of Jokhang Temple. The temple was built by the Princess of Tang and situated in the west. It faces east because of the homesickness of the princess. The Buddha statue in the temple is named Jowo Mikyo Dorje. Some said he was the brother of Sakyamuni who became a Buddha at the age of eight, while some said it carried the body of the Princess of Tang inside. …the Potala Palace is on a rocky mountain. …there are three golden palaces, built by the Princess of Tang (Editorial Office of Tibetan Studies, 1982: 14–15). Tibetans did not know the dating method of Tian Gan, but they knew Di Zhi and Chinese zodiac. …the record of date was according to the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and soil, the same with the Almanac. There was no error in the calculation about the eclipse of the sun and the moon. It was said that the method of reckoning and divination was passed down by the Princess of Tang (Editorial Office of Tibetan Studies, 1982: 22–23).
Foreign literature as a medium
In the early years of the Republic of China, works about Tibet written by foreign explorers or colonial officials began to be translated into Chinese. The most famous one is Tibet, Past and Present, written by British colonial official Sir Charles Bell. The English version was published in Oxford in 1924, and the Chinese version, translated by Tingzhang Gong, was published by the Commercial Press in 1930.
In the chapter “Early History”, the author refers to many Tibetan history books, including History of Buddhism by Bu Dun (Bu ston chos vbyung), The Blue Annals (Deb ther Sngon po), Records of Tibetan Monarchs (Rgyal rabs gsal bavi me long), and Records of Ladakh Monarchs (La dwags Rgyal rabs), and he quotes a lot of their contents. The contents related to Princess Wencheng (“the Chinese queen” in this book) are as follows: We come in the seventh century to King Song-tsen Gam-po and the dawn of Tibetan civilization. …His armies conquered Upper Burma and Western China. The Emperor of China was forced to yield a princess in marriage to the conqueror, who also took to wife a princess from Nepal. The two queens, being Buddhists, converted the young king to their faith, and he used all his influence to spread Buddhism in Tibet. … For the Chinese queen had discovered by astrology that Tibet was “like a female demon lying on her back”. So, the monasteries were built in those parts of Tibet which corresponded with the arms and hands, and with the legs and feet of the demon, whose power was thereby lessened (Bell, 1924: 23). The Chinese queen introduced butter, cheese, and barley-beer, and the people were taught how to make pottery works and water-mills (Bell, 1924: 25).
It is worth noting that in the above passages, Bell’s statement about Tibet”s butter, cheese, and tea coming from the Central Plains is not a quote from the Tibetan history books he refers to, but perhaps from the folklore he heard in Lhasa. 9
Chinese translation of Tibetan books
The above approaches all made indirect contributions to the introduction of the Rgya-Mo-Bzav in the Tibetan historical records into the Chinese world. It was not until the founding of the Nanjing National Government that the Chinese translation of Tibetan historical books was truly accomplished.
In 1929, the journal Frontier Politics (Bian Zheng) published a long text, “Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo Marrying Princess Wencheng”, signed “Written by Bozha Sang of Tibet, Translated by Weicang Li of Kangding” (Sang, 1929). The content was the story that Tubo official Mgar went to Chang’an to propose, and relying on his intelligence and talent, defeated the other four envoys to win Princess Wencheng for Tubo. Later, this translation was reprinted in three other journals, New Asia in 1931, The Monthly of Tibetan Panchen’s Office in Nanjing in 1931, and The Monthly of the Office for Propaganda and Civilization in the Western Borderland in 1937.
The plan for the systematic translation of Tibetan historical books into Chinese was initiated by Naiqiang Ren, a famous history and geography scholar in the Republican period. In 1940, after finishing several historical and geographic works about the area of Xikang (a province to the east of Tibet), he intended to make a study of the history of Tubo. However, he found that in the old and new History of the Tang Dynasty “Besides the brief records of some border wars, there is no more information about the condition of Tubo”. He lamented: Today’s translation collection is prosperous with numerous Eastern and Western masterworks, yet nobody translates the voluminous classics in our western border and isn’t this morbid? The special masterworks of a people represent the culture of the people, and the cultural traits can be seen through these works. Ruling Tibet for nearly three hundred years without any translation of Tibetan books, isn’t it unsurprising that China cannot manage Tibet well? (Ren, 1940: 6)
The new image of Princess Wencheng in modern times
Although the rich contents on Rgya-Mo-Bzav in Tibetan history books began to enter the Chinese world in the early and middle Qing Dynasty, these historical materials were not taken seriously for a long time, for two reasons. First, as described in the second section of this article, Princess Wencheng was not an important figure in the narrative system of Chinese historical materials. Until the Qing Dynasty, her popularity in the Chinese world may not have been high. Second, after the collapse of the Tubo Dynasty, there was no unified secular regime on the Tibetan plateau. Since the Yuan Dynasty, Tibet had been under the political system of the Central Empire, but its relationship with the court was based on religion. The patron-lama relationship replaced the uncle-nephew one formed during the Tang Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, the religious ties were further strengthened. The Qing emperor was regarded as the incarnation of Manjusri Bodhisattva, and the Qing court assumed the role of the patrons and protector of Tibetan Buddhism. Under this new, strong, and effective bond, the marriage bond between the secular regimes in history has been forgotten, or at least not considered to be of great significance.
The change took place in the process of China’s transition from an empire to a modern nation-state. In the new world system, the special and interpersonal bond of patron-lama could no longer support modern China’s claim of sovereignty over the frontier areas. Therefore, the late Qing and Republican governments initiated the reform of “frontier integration”. In accordance with the blueprint for nation-state, they tried to incorporate the land and population within the territory into the same administrative and cultural system. In an effort to build the new order, they undoubtedly would explore the historical resources. On the Tibet issue, Tingzhang Gong translated the English work of Bell, and Naiqiang Ren promoted the Chinese translation of Tibetan books, which reflected the efforts of the Chinese intellectual elites to seek and explore Tibet-related knowledge. In this context, Princess Wencheng, the earliest founder of the order between Central Empire and Tibet, became an important link. The Chinese intellectual elites realized the importance of this character in Tibet’s ethnic history and began to consciously explore, shape, and spread it. Under these circumstances, the Tibetan texts entered the Chinese world through various channels and began to be valued and included in the material library of the “writing of ethnic history” in the new era.
Evaluating the materials in Tibetan history books
For the Chinese intellectual elites in the 20th century, the rich information about Rgya-Mo-Bzav in the Tibetan historical records has undoubtedly been a great treasure. However, the materials are full of myths and legends, so if they want to use them, they first need to judge the values of these historical documents. In this regard, as the promoter of the Chinese translation of Tibetan books, Naiqiang Ren can be regarded as a pioneer. In the serials of Liqian Liu’s translation, there is an annotation by Naiqiang Ren attached to the chapter “Marrying Princess Wencheng”. It is an early attempt of Chinese historians to combine the Chinese and Tibetan history records to verify “Princess Wencheng’s peace marriage with Tubo”. In this article, the author’s basic strategy was to recognize the authenticity of the records of relevant events in both Chinese and Tibetan history books, and if there were inconsistencies between the two, he would explain and rectify them with emotional appeals and reasonable deductions. The ultimate goal was to integrate the two materials and make them confirm each other. In order to achieve this goal, the author had to make a tortuous interpretation of some mythological plots in Tibetan historical records. Among them, the interpretation of “why Princess Wencheng mastered astronomy and divination when she was a teenage girl” is the most distinctive: The princess was born when the Tang Empire had just become prosperous and the world was still in chaos. In troubled times, people tended to learn divination or martial arts so as to protect themselves. Emperor Taizong’s sister, Princess Langya, could direct troops and fight. Therefore, it was ordinary for Taizong’s daughter to learn divination. The strange thing was why the princess was named “Wencheng”. Titles like “Wencheng” and “Wuli” were given to alchemists by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty and seldom used by later generations. And the literal meaning was not applied to common conditions. The reason why the princess used this name must be that she was good at divination (Ren, 1941: 57). There are few stories about Princess Wencheng in the Chinese history books, while in the Tibetan books there are a lot. Therefore, we combine the two to make up for Chinese history and correct some mistakes in the Tibetan history. Although there is no clear evidence for the record, the discerning readers will not call it pointless speculations (Ren, 1941: 57).
Using the materials in Tibetan history books
As a historical scholar, although Naiqiang Ren coordinated the “first formal meeting” of Chinese and Tibetan historical materials in a rather unusual way, he insisted on demonstrating the authenticity of Tibetan materials before using them. In contrast, many non-professionals, who cared about border politics during the Republican Period, were less cautious. Instead, driven by patriotism, they tended to treat these materials as a tool. The article The Influence of the Tang Dynasty on Tibetan Culture published in the journal New Asia (1936) by Hetian Ma, a famous official, on the border politics, provided a typical case for this kind of selection and processing strategy.
This is an article with seemingly rich evidence and rigorous discussion, and almost all arguments have their sources. The full text is divided into nine parts: “Buddhism,” “Confucianism”, “Calendar”, “Law and Politics”, “Agriculture and Industry”, “Food, Clothing and Housing”, “Art”, “Medicine”, and “Literature”. These nine parts describe how the Tang culture was introduced into Tibet through Princess Wencheng. Except that materials discussing Confucianism are from the Chinese history book, New History of the Tang Dynasty, materials discussing the other subjects are all from Tibetan historical documents and folklore, including the following:
In Mongolia Origin, Songtsen Gampo sent his envoy to Chang’an to propose to Princess Wencheng for him, and brought precious Buddha statues to Tubo. In Local Annals of Tibet (Wei Zang Tong Zhi), Princess Wencheng played a role in the building of Potala, Jokhang Temple, and Ramoche Temple. In Research on Tibet (Xi Zang Kao), the Tibetan calendar was passed down by Princess Wencheng. In Bozha Sang’s Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo Marrying Princess Wencheng, Emperor Taizong presented the precious statue of Sakyamuni as a dowry for Princess Wencheng and the princess carried a large number of grains, recipes, prescriptions, silk, satins, and various treasures into Tubo. In Bell’s Tibet, Past and Present, Princess Wencheng was good at astrology and observed Tubo’s terrain; she introduced butter, cheese, and wine to Tubo, taught local people to make pottery and water mills, and translated Chinese medical books. The grandson of Songtsen Gampo introduced tea from the Central Plains.
On the basis of these pieces of “evidence”, the author eloquently proved that each aspect of the Tibetan culture was deeply influenced by the Central Empire, and that Princess Wencheng made great contributions to it.
Apart from the material source, a more important question is: how are the materials from the Tibetan historical records selected? First of all, like Naiqiang Ren, Hetian Ma generally organized his article according to the logic of modern social science rather than the Buddhist worldview. Among all nine aspects that he discussed, Buddhism is regarded as a kind of culture, parallel to Confucianism, agriculture, literature and art, rather than a basic framework to understand the world. It is interesting that Ma mentioned in the article that the Tibetans called Princess Wencheng “Mother of Tibetan Buddhism” and further argued that, “she was actually the mother not of Buddhism but of Tibetan culture” (Ma, 1936: 15). From Green Tara to Mother of Tibetan Buddhism, this replacement of the concept reflects the conversion from the Buddhist perspective to the modern perspective of cultural diffusion, whether it was deliberate or not.
Second, as for specific materials, the most quoted contents are the lists of all kinds of books and things Princess Wencheng brought from Chang’an to Tubo as her dowry. It is worth noting that the most significant dowry item in the Tibetan context, the full-sized statue of 12-year-old Sakyamuni, did not receive special attention. On the contrary, the materials and knowledge concerning living, production, technology, and science were emphasized and mentioned a lot, including cereals, recipes, prescriptions, silk, tea, butter, cheese, wine, pottery, water mills, medicine, and astrology. In fact, the image of “transmitter of technology” mentioned at the beginning of this paper had come into being in Ma’s article. 10
The image of Princess Wencheng in literature
At the end of the Republic of China, alongside the growing significance of the relationship between the central government and Tibet, a focus on Princess Wencheng went beyond historians and frontier officers. Thus, literary works about her began to appear.
In 1941, the fortnightly Gentility (Si Wen) issued a verse entitled Ode to Princess Wencheng (Zeng, 1941), which was the earliest literary work about Princess Wencheng in Chinese. Some of this work is quoted here: Her highness’s birth graced the royal family. She was tender but strong, clean and clear. Her breath was fragrant, and her body was slim. Her eyesight fell on the world, and her soul was single-minded… When she got married, she was welcomed in presentable rites. Her husband admired her gorgeousness, and felt ashamed of his own kingdom. Thus, he rendered tribes into cities and tents into palaces. He dressed himself in silk and complimented her in a mincing way.… The undesirable custom of painting mud on the face disappeared, and the beautiful appearance of girls came up. The princess’s body lived in her palace, but her light illuminated the whole land. Books replaced knot-tying, agriculture opened the badlands. Children began to learn at school, and laws and regulations were made. Scholars were sent to India, and Buddhism was introduced (Zeng, 1941: 18–19).
More notably, in the preface to this ode, the author included a judgment of Princess Wencheng’s personal destiny. He first bemoaned her misfortune, arguing that although Songtsen Gampo respected her a lot, he was the monarch of barbarians after all. Therefore, “the princess cannot be gratified by the marriage and must lament the huge difference between Tang and Tubo”. But later he changed his tune, praising her “immortal contribution” to the cultural progress in Tubo, and remedied the previous judgment by saying, “Why doubt her personal affection? Why feel sorry for her fate?” (Zeng, 1941: 18). Thus, he became positive about her value of life. This shows that Zeng’s judgment of Princess Wencheng’s personal destiny does not concern the so-called “historical facts”. His judgment reflects his expectation of the ideal internal order of China within the modern context. In this expectation, Princess Wencheng became a transmitter of advanced technology and culture.
In 1948, the play Princess Wencheng, written by Gangbai Lin, an opera writer and teacher at the National Art College, was published. This script was based on the story of “Welcoming Princess Wencheng” in A History of Tibetan Politics and Religions translated by Liqian Liu (Lin, 1948: 1–2). It is the first play about Princess Wencheng in Chinese.
The basic structure and main plots of the play are in general the same as the story told in Tibetan records apart from the definition of Princess Wencheng’s identity as the incarnation of Green Tara. Besides this, there are two other notable alterations. One is the scene in which Tubo’s envoy Mgar proposes marriage to the princess in Chang’an. Lin kept the background of five states fighting for the marriage but replaced the story of the seven tests with Princess Wencheng herself welcoming all the envoys and choosing Tubo on her own. And more importantly, the reason why the princess made this decision was that Mgar expressed fully how the people of Tubo appreciated the Great Tang's culture and how he wished her highness could help them to develop. This change of plot not only shifted the leading role from Mgar to Princess Wencheng, reversing the initiative of the peace-making marriage in Tibetan legends, but also defined the character of Princess Wencheng as the envoy transmitting the Great Tang’s culture and technology into Tubo.
The other change is the plot of the princess’s geographical observation of Tubo. The following lines are about the construction plans Princess Wencheng proposed to Songtsen Gampo, pointing at the map of Tubo: Look, there is iron around Gar-pa Jo-mo-ze-ze, copper around the rocky mountain called Ra-ga, silver around Bluff La-dong and gold around Lcags-kha mountain. All have their value. Look at these places. 12 viharas should be built on the frontier. Besides, the construction of streets and roads in and around Lhasa may be started as early as possible. These are construction plans. About home affairs, we have to improve the lives of the poor herdsman and farmers. The craftsmen from the Great Tang could teach them crafts. We can hand out the seeds of cereals and vegetables that I have brought from home to the farmers to boost crop yield. Every subject should be able to make a living. The farmers have their lands. Sources of income are to be broadened. Tibet will gain prosperity in this way. Oh, and we may ask the scholars from the Great Tang to open lectures and select the first-class youths to learn and study. Tibetans should also have cultural life and become people of liberty, of golden heart, of wisdom and ideals (Lin, 1948: 172–173).
Hetian Ma’s article (1936) and Gangbai Lin’s play (1948) reflected the main narrating strategy that the elites of the Republic used in rebuilding Princess Wencheng: it was based on the Tibetan stories but reorganized and retold within a modern structure. Specifically, the basic structure of Tibetan narrative, the Buddhist worldview, was deserted. The princess’s identity as Green Tara and the causal chain of the Sakyamuni statue were not absorbed into the new narrative in Chinese. Meanwhile, the contents concerning science, technology, and economic production within the modern context gained great attention. This is demonstrated by the emphasis on the means, tools, and crafts of production in the princess’s dowry as well as the technical interpretation of plots which do not concern science, technology or economic production at all in the original context.
Thus, in the 1940s, the image of Princess Wencheng as “a transmitter of technology” was created, which established the basis upon which the modern Chinese understand this historical figure as well as the relationship between the Central Empire and Tibet in history. Although discussions differed after 1949 on Princess Wencheng and her peace-making marriage, this image was handed down and became the key dimension when narrating this figure in the modern writing of Chinese ethnic history. 11
Discussion: The progressive view of history and historical writing on ethnic groups in modern China
This paper has introduced three narratives about Princess Wencheng in Chinese and Tibetan literature. Two of them came from the ancient literature, showing us the different ways that ancient people from the Central Empire and Tibet understood the universe and cultural orders. The former was a Huaxia-centered system under the order of Confucianism. The latter was a polycentric system under the order of Buddhism. The third narrative was based on a nationalist view of history from the modern world. It shows modern China’s efforts to rebuild the inner order of a multi-ethnic political body under the nation-state system. This new order deserted the cultural index constructed by “gorgeous attire and elegant etiquette” in traditional historiography and extracted a new technological index composed of calendar, agriculture, crafts, medicine, and livelihood.
To understand the deep meaning of this technological index, we have to locate it within the large background of China’s modern transition. In this section, I will conduct an expanding discussion, including two themes: (a) the structural dilemma faced by modern China as a multi-ethnic nation-state, and (b) the key role of social evolutionism and its influence on the historical writing of ethnic groups.
The structural dilemma faced by modern multi-ethnic China
The nation-state system is the basic structure of the modern world, though since its birth it has been accompanied by a paradox: on the one hand, nation-states pursue their inner homogeneity, facilitating the idea of “one nation, one state”, thus posing challenges to the legitimacy of the multi-ethnic political body; on the other hand, in the real world there exists no single-ethnic state, and to some extent all current political entities are multi-ethnic states. This disparity between reality and ideal has become the basis of endless regional political conflicts and wars in modern times.
For modern China, which evolved from a multi-ethnic empire, this disparity seems extremely severe. Its inner diversity is based on several structural foundations, including natural or historical differences in ecology, economy, language, and religion. In the imperial system, the cultural order of Confucianism maintained a balance between diversity and unification. However, as China turned to the nation-state system, tensions arose. The relations between minorities and majority as well as the relations between minorities and the state have to be redefined. Such is the basic framework of understanding the issue of nationalism and ethnicity in modern China.
The main focus of this paper, historical writing on ethnic groups, is an important aspect of the tension. The key question here is how to define the historical roles of minorities and majority as well as their historical ties with modern China. For this question, the tension between diversity and unification becomes a structural dilemma. On the one hand, modern China needs a unified structure to interpret the events of peace, war, integration and competition among the multiple ethnicities in history and make this consistent with the current territory of China. In response to this need, a Han-oriented position and “Hanization” structure were the easiest ways to achieve such unity. On the other hand, nationalism accompanied the nation-state system, and equality of all ethnicities became a key factor in modern political thought, which has challenged the ranking relations between minorities and majority. Furthermore, when competing with the Western powers, Huaxia has lost its central position in the world, and thus the traditional Huaxia–Barbarian system could not last. All these factors put the modern historical writing on ethnic groups from a Han-oriented position into a severe dilemma of morality and legitimacy.
By studying the ethnic history works during the Republic of China period, we find that the Chinese intellectual elites addressed this challenge with social evolutionism and the corresponding progressive view of history. Progress and evolution are exactly the specific historical ideas behind the Princess Wencheng’s image of “a transmitter of technology”.
The progressive view of history and historical writing on ethnic groups
The progressive view of history is a relatively broad perspective. Similar perspectives are the linear view and the evolutionary view. In practice, the progressive view could be presented as an extremely grand theoretical framework, summarizing whole stages of human society’s development as “totem society – patriarchal society – military society”, for example (Jenks, 1981; Yang, 1986). This perspective also covers micro phenomena, such as human society growing from small to large or objects growing from simple to complex. Most importantly, from this view, evolution also carried moral meaning. In other words, evolution has its own will and objectives, which could surpass the moral differentiation between good and evil in a traditional moral system and become a supreme ethic (Wang, 2010: 53–56).
This way of understanding history provided China’s historical writers on ethnic groups with a possible new means of constructing order. Since the world is taken as a one-way line, each society and each group has its position along the line, and thus relations between China and other states could be determined by their relative positions, as could the relations among the multiple groups within China.
To be specific, although the relations based on the hierarchical system of Huaxia–Barbarian do not exist, the evolutionary level based on the historical development stages could function similarly. On the evolutionary line indexed by production mode, social form, and culture degree, the ethnic Han is in an advanced position, while the minorities fall behind and the West stands at the forefront, representing the common goal of both Han and minorities. More importantly, these historical positions are decided by “objective rules”, the moral priority of which cracks the dilemma of the Han-oriented position and provides legitimacy for the route of “Hanization” of the relatively unenlightened minorities. Furthermore, within the structure of social evolutionism, a society is like a living body, so if its inner compositions are complicated, it will be more inclined towards self-renewal. Hence, multi-ethnic China’s inner diversity entitles her to some advantages of evolution. Ethnic integration resulting from wars, migration, and intermarriage in history all represent evolution, and thus are progressive, which in fact promotes the evolving potential of China as an integral entity.
This idea guided the historical writing on ethnic groups during the period of Republic of China, implicit or not. In 1922, Qichao Liang, in The Study of Ethnics in Chinese History, explicitly summarized the study of Chinese ethnic history with two questions: How many procedures are required for the Chinese nation to assimilate the other ethnics? And why is Chinese assimilation so well developed (Liang, 1922: 32)? Since the late 1920s, several monographs entitled Chinese Ethnic History have been published (Lin, 1936; Lv, 1934; Song, 1935; Wang, 1928). The authors of these monographs have come from vastly different academic backgrounds, and their structures and narratives all have their own features, but all of them conformed to social evolutionism in that they all explored the evolutions of ethnic groups by confronting, competing, and integrating.
After 1949, in multi-ethnic China the historical writing on ethnic groups began a new chapter. In the 1950s, the new China carried out two relevant projects: ethnic classification (min zu shi bie) and a massive survey of the society and history of all of the ethnic groups (she hui li shi diao cha). The final product of the former project was a list of 56 ethnic groups that covered 99.9% of the Chinese population. 12 For the latter the social natures of all the ethnic groups in China was judged on the basis of Marxist materialism. To some extent, these two projects represent the efforts to coordinate diversity and unification under the new political system. On the one hand, ethnic classification and corresponding brief history of each ethnic group institutionally confirmed the diversity of multi-ethnic China, which may be counted as a correction of excessive emphasis on unification in the Republic. On the other hand, however, the survey rendered all ethnic groups in the social development stage defined by Marxist historical materialism. A new framework of interpretation was established and the advanced role of ethnic Han was again confirmed by the progressive view of history.
From this point of view, the tension between diversity and unification for modern China has not been truly released after 1949. Although the progressive view provides a solution to historical writing on ethnic groups, it is fundamentally flawed. Technically, the new narrative system of Chinese ethnic history it constructs is Occidentalism though it is not Han-oriented. It sets the West as the beacon, and on this basis, rejects civilized China as a historical entity. Currently, this view has gradually been discarded. “Discovering history in China” (Cohen, 1984) has become a consensus in the area of China study. For multi-ethnic China, if the West’s beacon role is denied, that of the ethnic Han faces the same fate. In fact, it is one example of this new trend that the current official version of Princess Wencheng is faced with growing challenges 13 among Tibetan intellectuals and general public.
In the late 1980s, Xiaotong Fei (1989) proposed the theoretical framework of the “pluralistic unity of the Chinese nation,” which could be counted as Chinese scholars” efforts to jump out of the progressive view of history, responding to the structural dilemma of the inner order of multi-ethnic China. The two keywords, “pluralistic” and “unity”, reflect Fei’s insight on the pivot of Chinese ethnic history writing. But technically, this theory provides only the beginning of a structural discussion. Its significance lies in its consciousness of the problems rather than solving them. 14
In this respect, the structural dilemma of ethnic history writing that emerged more than a century ago is still not perfectly solved today. After the old narrative mode of “Huaxia–Barbarians” lost its legitimacy, under the nation-state system, modern China has to re-harmonize a historical narrative of multi-ethnic China by balancing diversity and unity. 15 It is a goal far from achieved.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We deeply appreciate the advice from Jingdong Qu, Hong Hu, Bin Wei, Zhongliang Qin, and other mentors and friends for the writing and revision of this paper. We composed and published the paper at our own risk.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.