| Chapter 1: | Poetry and Political Thought |
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An Lushan’s invading army was a coalition of his own and Tongra forces, with Khitan, Xi, and Shiwei tribal forces. The accelerating militarization of Tang politics was fueled by the need for increasingly strong defensive deployments along the frontier regions of the empire. Although never a threat to the survival of the dynasty during this period, relationships with the many and diverse peoples around China’s periphery were far from stable. The Tang, according to circumstance, had to employ strategies of diplomacy, including the use of dynastic marriages and military intimidation, either to maintain the tributary status of these tribes and kingdoms or to neutralize them. At various times, punitive missions were carried out against the Tibetans, the Turgesh, the Arabs, the Turks, and the Uighurs in Central Asia and the far west; against the Khitan and the Xi in the north and northeast; and against the Parhae in southern Manchuria and northern Korea. In 745, two Tang princesses given as consorts to the Khitan and Xi kings were murdered as these tribes launched a rebellion against the Tang. Though nascent threats were in all cases contained, it was rarely without difficulty, and the borderlands were a subject of constant vigilance. The maintenance of the status quo required expenditures of enormous sums of money. These realities, too, figure prominently in several of the poems studied here. The most famous passage of “Traveling from the Capital” is the section in which Du Fu draws a picture of a court dominated by powerful clans that includes an image of the palace guard clearly derived from the reality at the time of military fragmentation and the proliferation of guard units devoted to particular political factions.49 “Northern Expedition,” “Pengya,” and “Qiang Village” all refer directly to the invasions and wars as causes of the political and economic turmoil of the day. The critique again suggests the ideal that makes it meaningful, prompting questions concerning the proper place of Tang China in a world in which it is surrounded by hostile powers: How much of a role should non-Chinese generals and officials be allowed to play in Chinese politics? What should be the ideal diplomatic and security stance of the Tang empire vis-à-vis the surrounding tribes and kingdoms?