Xiaofei Tian

From the Eastern Jin through the early Tang (317–649)

Literature of the fourth century The Eastern Jin (317–420): an overview In 317, Sima Rui (276–322), a member of the Jin royal family, assumed the title of the king of Jin in the old Wu capital, Jiankang, and acted as the new regent of the Jin regime. In the following year Sima Rui formally took the throne as the Jin emperor and would be known to posterity as Emperor Yuan. Jiankang was to the southeast of the former Jin capital, Luoyang; hence, in the tradition of the Zhou and Han dynasties, the regime founded by Sima Rui was designated the Eastern Jin. The territory of the Eastern Jin was much diminished, with the North fallen under the rule of rival states, and the southwest (modern Sichuan) dominated by the Cheng-Han kingdom until 347; but territorial reduction is not necessarily proportionate to intellectual vigor and cultural splendor. The Eastern Jin and the ensuing four dynasties in the South – Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen – represent a richness of cultural accomplishment on a scale unparalleled in pre-Tang China. Jiankang was to grow into a thriving metropolis, the world’s most populated city in the early sixth century, with a population twice that of Constantinople, and, above all, a dazzling cultural and intellectual center that lasted until a northern dynasty, the Sui, united China in 589 and ordered the city razed to the ground. During this period of division commonly referred to as the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the south, for the first time in Chinese history, ceased being a periphery to the Chinese heartland in the Yellow River valley.

Representing Kingship and Imagining Empire in Southern Dynasties Court Poetry

Before the fifth century, the imperial identity of a ruler seems to have disabled him as a writer rather than encouraged him to be more prolific. Literary production gradually became centered in the court by the mid-fifth century, and a distinct feature of Southern Dynasties literature is the phenomenon that emperors and princes joined with their courtiers in the act of writing poetry on social occasions. This paper focuses on a number of poems by Emperor Wen of the Song (r. 424-453), Yan Yanzhi (384-456), Xie Tiao (464-499), Shen Yue (441-513), and Liu Xiaochuo (481-539) that represent kingship and empire and thereby become a means of disseminating and implementing imperial power. In particular, it examines the physical and discursive construction of the capital Jiankang. We see thereby that Southern Dynasties court poetry was instrumental in the performance of sovereignty and the envisioning of the new, southern empire. Avant le Ve siecle, le fait d’acceder au titre d’empereur semble avoir reduit ceux a qui cela arrivait a l’incapacite en tant qu’auteurs, plutot que de les encourager a une prolixite accrue. Vers le milieu du Ve siecle en revanche, la production litteraire tendit a se concentrer sur la cour, et l’un des traits particuliers de la litterature des dynasties du Sud est de voir empereurs et princes se joindre a leurs courtisans pour composer des poemes lors de reunions amicales. Le present article se concentre sur un certain nombre de poemes de Song Wendi (r. 424-453), Yan Yanzhi (384-456), Xie Tiao (464-499), Shen Yue (441-513) et Liu Xiaochuo (481-539) qui sont autant de representations de la royaute et de l’empire, et de ce fait ont servi a propager et realiser le pouvoir imperial. Est en particulier examinee la construction physique et discursive de la capitale, Jiankang. Tout cela montre le role-cle joue par la poesie de cour sous les dynasties du Sud dans l’exercice de la souverainete et la vision d’un nouvel empire meridional.