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Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China edited by Fredrick Brandauer and Chun-Chieh Huang was exactly the book I was hoping it would be. It was a great collection of essays looking at the way Emperors were able to affect cultural change, through religion and orthodoxy, and where they failed and why. It was a very interesting collection of essays that came out of a joint American and Taiwanese conference in the early 90s. It contained lots of helpful notes for my Empress Wu essay, include an entire article about Empress Wu and feminism, what she did to help the position of women in China over all, and what she did to help herself. I did not read all the essays, but there were several that were really interesting.
The first "Determining Orthodoxy: Imperial Roles" by Jack Dull looked at the question of whether an Emperor can control what was considered orthodox. He took the specific examples of texts used in the Imperial examinations and how successful these different attempts were. It was interesting that he also identified the Tang as a time of flexible orthodoxy that was used by the Emperors to try and establish their own views, which were mostly in favour of Taoism. However Dull concluded that without the support of the elite these attempts were mostly doomed to failure. In particular he gave the example of Hsuan Tsung's attempts to introduce a separate Taoist scholar exam, which no one seemed interested in participating in.
Chen Jo-Shui wrote an interesting article on "Empress Wu and Proto-Feminist Sentiments in T'ang China. She thought that Wu had a feminist impulse to better not just herself but the position of women in society as a whole. She gave examples of this from the time before Empress Wu became Emperor, such as including women in rituals, increasing the mourning time for mothers when fathers were still alive, and through inventing new receiving rites upon becoming Empress. Chen wrote how Wu did all these things following a very traditional interpretation of women, using a very orthodox argument, for her actions, which is very interesting. I think it also interesting to note that these actions of Wu's that Chen saw as proto-feminist did not continue into her own dynasty, with the exception of women being included in the Ming Tang. It would seem to be that if Wu had motives, besides bringing herself to power then these actions should have continued after she had achieved her power. As they did not they seem to me more focused on herself rather than women in general. But that doesn't necessarily mean she did not also wish to improve the status of women.
Huang Chi-Chiang wrote and interesting essay, "Imperial Rulership and Buddhism in the Early Northern Sung". He looked at the huge Imperial influence on Buddhism at this time. The Sung has traditionally been viewed as a time of decline for Buddhism, but this did not seem to be the case from Huang's arguments. It seemed that there were visits from Indian monks, and new translation efforts, pilgrimages to India to collect more sutras as well as ordination and temple building. One interesting statistic on the ordination was that there was allowed 1 monk for every 300 people and 1 nun for every 100 people. I find it hard to believe that there were three times as many nuns as monks. And I also find myself asking why this was the case? Was it to get rid of unwanted women? Were less women interested in becoming nuns? Was it because monks got out of too many things, taxes, corvee labour, and therefore needed greater regulation, whereas these things did not matter as much for women? It was also interesting that there were imperial edicts issued that forbade Monks and Nuns from being ordained from the same alter, they were also forbidden from intermingling, performing rites together, teaching and preaching. The Song Emperor saw the Buddhist monastic practice as improper mingling of the sexes. I thought this was a rather interesting example of how Buddhist attitudes towards sexual equality were greater than those of society during this time. Or if not society, then the official view, as society itself is often further forward than the official view.
In the conclusion by Huang he looked at how culture and the Emperor, or the state, were interlinked. Huang stated how this was not the case in the West where they were seen as separate things. (Though I'm not so sure that would be true say of the idea of American Democracy). But it was interesting to see how the idea of the Emperor as a wise, sage like ruler affected the views of culture at the time. Especially as the culture itself was such a fluid and changing dynamic. But as he said the Emperor, with varying degrees of success, was able to sponsor, promote and legitimise cultural practice. It was also nice to see a book which included Wu as an Emperor, and put her actions in the context of other emperor's rather than viewing her simply as a usurper or Empress.
The first "Determining Orthodoxy: Imperial Roles" by Jack Dull looked at the question of whether an Emperor can control what was considered orthodox. He took the specific examples of texts used in the Imperial examinations and how successful these different attempts were. It was interesting that he also identified the Tang as a time of flexible orthodoxy that was used by the Emperors to try and establish their own views, which were mostly in favour of Taoism. However Dull concluded that without the support of the elite these attempts were mostly doomed to failure. In particular he gave the example of Hsuan Tsung's attempts to introduce a separate Taoist scholar exam, which no one seemed interested in participating in.
Chen Jo-Shui wrote an interesting article on "Empress Wu and Proto-Feminist Sentiments in T'ang China. She thought that Wu had a feminist impulse to better not just herself but the position of women in society as a whole. She gave examples of this from the time before Empress Wu became Emperor, such as including women in rituals, increasing the mourning time for mothers when fathers were still alive, and through inventing new receiving rites upon becoming Empress. Chen wrote how Wu did all these things following a very traditional interpretation of women, using a very orthodox argument, for her actions, which is very interesting. I think it also interesting to note that these actions of Wu's that Chen saw as proto-feminist did not continue into her own dynasty, with the exception of women being included in the Ming Tang. It would seem to be that if Wu had motives, besides bringing herself to power then these actions should have continued after she had achieved her power. As they did not they seem to me more focused on herself rather than women in general. But that doesn't necessarily mean she did not also wish to improve the status of women.
Huang Chi-Chiang wrote and interesting essay, "Imperial Rulership and Buddhism in the Early Northern Sung". He looked at the huge Imperial influence on Buddhism at this time. The Sung has traditionally been viewed as a time of decline for Buddhism, but this did not seem to be the case from Huang's arguments. It seemed that there were visits from Indian monks, and new translation efforts, pilgrimages to India to collect more sutras as well as ordination and temple building. One interesting statistic on the ordination was that there was allowed 1 monk for every 300 people and 1 nun for every 100 people. I find it hard to believe that there were three times as many nuns as monks. And I also find myself asking why this was the case? Was it to get rid of unwanted women? Were less women interested in becoming nuns? Was it because monks got out of too many things, taxes, corvee labour, and therefore needed greater regulation, whereas these things did not matter as much for women? It was also interesting that there were imperial edicts issued that forbade Monks and Nuns from being ordained from the same alter, they were also forbidden from intermingling, performing rites together, teaching and preaching. The Song Emperor saw the Buddhist monastic practice as improper mingling of the sexes. I thought this was a rather interesting example of how Buddhist attitudes towards sexual equality were greater than those of society during this time. Or if not society, then the official view, as society itself is often further forward than the official view.
In the conclusion by Huang he looked at how culture and the Emperor, or the state, were interlinked. Huang stated how this was not the case in the West where they were seen as separate things. (Though I'm not so sure that would be true say of the idea of American Democracy). But it was interesting to see how the idea of the Emperor as a wise, sage like ruler affected the views of culture at the time. Especially as the culture itself was such a fluid and changing dynamic. But as he said the Emperor, with varying degrees of success, was able to sponsor, promote and legitimise cultural practice. It was also nice to see a book which included Wu as an Emperor, and put her actions in the context of other emperor's rather than viewing her simply as a usurper or Empress.