Power and Politics in Tenth-Century China: The Former Shu Regime ...

us define the balance of power and the pragmatic attitude prevailing in the tenth century, as well as other characteristics of the national politics of the day, including the all-important impact of the Tang.

Admittedly, the Former Shu was unique in many aspects among the polities of the Five Dynasties. Its isolated location surrounded by a ring of mountains separated it from the heartland of China and consequently provided it with a unique opportunity for political autonomy, as revealed in chapter 1. But advantageous geographic conditions did not make Shu atypical. Inasmuch as Shu had to design appropriate strategies based on all available resources to survive this multistate period, it was no different from any other regional regime, especially those southern states facing pressure from both neighboring rivals and the northern dynasties.⁵¹ These pragmatic strategies were undoubtedly more a matter of choice, expedience, and opportunism than of location. Thus, although Shu bears its own distinct characteristics, it shares concerns and themes with other polities of the period. Indeed, it is precisely my purpose to situate the Former Shu within the historical contexts of both the Shu and its contemporary world, to trace both its unique development and its shared experience with other powers of the day, and to highlight the individuality of this regime as well as the common ground it shared with all the powers of the tenth century.

Last, the issue of source materials for this study deserves a brief discussion here. Although historical compilation efforts continued throughout the Five Dynasties period in both the northern and southern regimes, the materials left to later historians were still very limited due to the constant flux in dynasties and ongoing political division. Compared to the records of the “Five Dynasties,” which had been relatively well preserved into the early Song, those regarding the “Ten States” and other regional regimes were relatively scarce. The situation was even worse for regimes of the early tenth century.⁵² Thanks to the early Song historians, one can now trace the major outlines of the Former Shu and its rivals, though hardly satisfactorily, from official histories such as the old and new Histories of Tang and Histories of the Five Dynasties, especially the magisterial Zizhi tongjian compiled by Sima Guang.⁵³ Yet due