East Asian History - ANU

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4LEWIS MAYOllived under the influence of the White Tigerand Sign of Metal. Some of these citizenswere Chinese, but many were of Indianextraction, surnamed in the Chinese fashion,according to their ethnic origin, Shindu, andmany could trace their origin to the nationsbordering the Oxus andJaxartes. Here wereprime grazing lands for horses, especiallyalong a river which still retained its archaicMongolian name ofTUmigen, meaning 'bonemarrow' in the Hsien-pi language. It was sonamed for the fertility of the lands thereabout.Here also were produced fine damasks,mats and wild horse-hides, not to mentionan excellent headache remedy. This Liangchouwas a true melting pot, a kind ofhomely symbol of the exotic to the Chinese,as Hawaii is to the American of the twentiethcentury. The hybrid music of Liang-chou, atonce foreign and familiar, since it was notentirely either, was in fashion in the earlyMiddle Ages of the Far East." Schafer, Thegolden peaches oj Samarkand, p.22.13 See Xin \Vudai shi :mli 1-\:;E [NewHistory of the Five Dynasties], juan 74(Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1974), p.914, foran account of the history of the Liangzhougarrison troops given by some of itsdescendants during a visit to the emperorMingzong * of the Latter Tang (HouTang 1£) dynasty in 933.14 Yang Jidong, "Zhang Yichao andDunhuang in the 9th century," p.l27.15 For an exhaustively documented andpenetrating analysis of the events surroundingZhang Yichao's capture of Liangzhouand subsequent power struggles, see RongXinjiang, Guiyi jun shi yanjiu, pp.155-61;see also Yang Jidong's excellent account ofthe issues in "Zhang Yichao and Dunhuangin the 9th century," pp.l26-7.16 See Xin Tang shu, juan 217b, p.6133.The CeJu yuangui reports that this informationwas communicated to the Tang courtby Zhang Yichao (see juan 973, p.11436).17 See Jiu Tang shu, juan 19a, p.660.18 SeeJiu \Vudaishifi.li 1-\:;E[OldHistoryof the Five Dynasties], juan 138 (\Vaiguoliezhuan 7f. WU if [Monograph on foreigncountriesD, 2 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju,1976), p.l842, which states that a whitefalcon (baihu B) was sent by theGanzhou Uyghurs to the emperor Mingzongof the Latter Tang dynasty in 933 (on 12August, according to James Hamilton).years prior to the goshawks' arrival in Chang'an) Yizong sent a detachmentof troops from central China to garrison the townl3 and rebuild its walls.Liangzhou was garrisoned jointly by Tang forces and those of Zhang Yichao,and became "the border city between the two sides." 14 The Tang institutedstrict border controls on those travelling eastward to Liangzhou, which thusbecame the site of an assertion of Tang authority against the conquests ofZhang Yichao.15 The birds, avatars of the overall strategic situation, originatedin mountains that directly adjoined this zone of contest.The appearance of the goshawks in Chang'an thus occurred within amatrix of tense and subtle political confrontations between Zhang and theTang court, a politiCS of gesture and ambiguity, in which relations of authoritywent unc1arified. Their passing from the ruling hand of Zhang Yichao to thatof the emperor Yizong was itself an ambiguous act. The transfer of authorityover the birds was at one level an act of deference and loyalty: the commandof distinguished birds was voluntarily given up to a superior power. But italso marked the limits ofYizong's powers of command in the Gansu corridor.The hawks were a gift, and Zhang enjoyed the honour and privilege of beingtheir donor, choosing to surrender the distinguished avian lives that were athis disposal, lives whose presence in his power was a direct sign and productof his command of armed force in the region.But the web of events and strategies acting on and through the goshawkswas not confined to the marking of military strength in the eastern Gansucorridor through a subtle manipulation of the protocols of fealty. Zhang'spowers of capture were under challenge by other capturing forces. At thebeginning of the year in which the goshawks reached Chang'an, Uyghurforces had taken the Turfan area from the Tibetans, establishing a newpolitical presence to the west of Dunhuang.16 Later in the same year, theUyghurs also killed the most powerful surviving Tibetan leader in theregion.17 The goshawks inhabited a world of continuous geo-politicalrealignment. The strategic balances which affected them and which theirjourney to Chang' an helped to effect shifted constantly. Indeed, their arrivalat the Tang court presaged that of Zhang himself: in the following year hewent to the capital as a hostage, replacing his older brother who had diedshortly before. In the ensuing period the Ganjun mountains and the wild livesthey contained fell out of the control of the successors of Zhang Yichao, andGansu corridor birds were subjected to new political forces. The next raptorfrom the region whose journey to a central Chinese capital survives ininstitutional memory was a white falcon sent by the Uyghurs of Ganzhou tothe court of emperor Mingzong of the Latter Tang.lsThe conquest of birds and the conquest of lands and lives by which it iseffected is subject to endless revision by later conquering acts. Theinvolvement of Gansu falcons and goshawks in political life thus forms anhistorical continuum, part of a wider engagement of hunting birds withpolitics in China and Inner Asia (and indeed Eurasia more generally) lastingup into the present century. But this is also an episodic history, constituted
BIRDS AND THE HAND OF POWER5as a succession of events rather than a structure of continuously reproducedauthority. The relationship of goshawks to political forces was characterisedby the irregular rhythms of seizure. The capture of prey, the capture of birdsthemselves and the strategies of diplomacy and warfare all involved formsof power defined by discontinuity and ceaseless readjustment to circumstances.The presence of the Ganjun shan goshawks in the records of the history ofthe Tang empire, which makes them some of the most exalted livesoriginating in the Gansu corridor during this period (and has ensured theirtransmission over time and across space so that they are written about inAustralia more than a thousand years after their deaths), marks the durabilityand intensity of their connections with imperial politics and its institutionalmemories. But this exalted individuality is a function of the sporadic andfragile nature of the power relations between hawks and human authority.It was also directly related to the specificities of an historical moment and thestrategic alignments which constituted it. The goshawks obtained their placein history from the uncertainties of conquest./Significantly, the emperor ordered that thebird be set free (see Mingzong's decree onhunting birds in the Cefu yuangui, juan168, p.2029, translated in note 62 below)'James Hamilton gives a French translationof the passage in Les Ouighours a !'epoquedes Cinq Dynasties (Paris: Presses Universitairesde France, 1955), p.76, stating that apair of falcons was given, evidentlyinterpreting the word !ian Mi as "pair." Lianhas been glossed by Schafer as a measureword for hawks sent as tribute, derivingfrom the bindings with which they werelashed to their perch (see "Falconry in T'angtimes," p.312, n.4).The Politics of Hawk ControlThe prominence of hawks, falcons and eagles in Eurasian political lifeover the past two millennia or so might be explained as a matter of politicalculture. Aristocracies, royal families and imperial dynasties (or their imitators,such as the rulers of Nazi Germany) practised hawking and falconry, it couldbe said, because hunting with birds functioned as a demonstration of martialstrength, a political theatre in which power could be organised anddisplayed. In this framework, hawks and falcons are part of a politics ofspectacles and signs, in which power "shows itself" through hunting birds.This analysis of falconry interlocks with a conception of birds of prey assymbols of power. The emblem of the eagle encapsulates the might of Rome;the Uyghurs have "Whirling Falcons" (Huihu @JU) as the official renderingof their name in Chinese.19 The capture and use of fierce birds in the huntis thought of as an attempt to deploy these symbols in the flesh, to mark morefully and perfectly the link between political power and the majesty of wingsand talons. Political involvement with birds is, according to this approach, anattempt by ruling forces to find and articulate an image of themselves.But a sociology of hunting can also be advanced to account for thisinterest in birds of prey. Hawking was shared pleasure in the violence ofpredatory birds, socially controlled and directed. Hawks helped to constituteelites, as elites possessed the power to acquire hunting birds and to use them,and gained an experience of their own cohesion by participating in thecollective joys of the hunt. The Ganjun shan goshawks would thus appearas part of a long-distance establishment of social solidarities, effected by acommon love of fine birds and their use. Hunting with birds crossed borders:Korean kings, Khitan chieftains, Uyghur qaghans, Tang emperors and19 See n.20 below for references to thegranting of the name "Whirling Falcons."
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