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

in which most regional regimes preferred to use pragmatic strategies in dealing with their surrounding rivals, with whom they could coexist and even “share” the Mandate of Heaven.

Sharing the Mandate: Power Balance and Pragmatism in Tenth-Century China

When China proper went through periods of political division, war and diplomacy constituted the main themes of interstate relations in a multistate environment in which various polities occasionally dealt with each other on an equal footing. As early as the Eastern Zhou (770–256 BCE) period, when the central authority of the Zhou kings declined, many vassal states contended for hegemony and developed multiform interstate relations by exchanging envoys and signing bilateral or multilateral treaties. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period (420–589), the Chinese courts to the south of Yangzi River and the non-Chinese powers in the north maintained diplomatic relations despite frequent military conflicts. Even under some unified empires, such as the Han (202 BCE–220 CE) and Tang, Chinese governments had to conduct “equal” relations with their foreign neighbors during times of weakness.³³ The Five Dynasties and Ten States period surely resembled those previous times, but manifested distinctive characteristics of its own era. As the Tang dynasty broke down, a plethora of regional leaders, all of whom were former governors of Tang, started to pursue their own political goals, some claiming to be emperors and seeking to inherit what they perceived as the grand imperial heritage of the Tang. Intense competition and warfare were inevitable among those contenders. In most cases, however, especially in the first half of the tenth century, potentates of regional regimes wanted to maintain the contemporary balance of power in which no single power possessed the strength to conquer the others, and thus adopted practical strategies in dealing with neighbors to pursue their self-interests. Among those claiming royal status, grand imperial pursuits and legitimation efforts within their own domains did not prevent a practical recognition of similar claims by others and a willingness