Northern Wei (386-534): A New Form of Empire in East Asia

Author: 

Scott Pearce

Publisher: 

Oxford University Press

Publication year: 

August, 2023

Abstract:
Emerging from collapse of the Han empire, the founders of Northern Wei had come south from the grasslands of Inner Asia to conquer the rich farmlands of the Yellow River plains. Northern Wei was, in fact, the first of the so-called "conquest dynasties" complex states seen repeatedly in East Asian history in which Inner Asian peoples ruled parts of the Chinese world.

An innovative contribution to East Asian and Chinese history of the medieval period, Northern Wei (386-534) combines received historical text and archaeological findings to examine the complex interactions between these originally distinct populations, and the way those interactions changed over time. Scott Pearce analyses traditions borrowed and adapted from the long-gone Han dynasty including government and taxation as well as the new cultural elements such as the use of armor for man and horse in the cavalry and the newly-invented stirrup. Further, this book discusses the fundamental change in the dynastic family, as empresses began to play an increasingly important role in the business of government. Though Northern Wei fell in the early sixth century, the nature of the state was thus fundamentally changed, in the Chinese world and East Asia as a whole; it had laid down a foundation from which a century later would emerge the world empire of Tang.

Table of Contents:

Prologue: Defining Our Arenas

Section I: On Sources
Chapter 1: The Emperor Taiwu and the Creation of History
Chapter 2: History Writing and Its Discontents

Section II: Origins
Chapter 3: Growth from out Decay
Chapter 4: Myths of Origin

Section III: A Dynasty Takes Shape
Chapter 5: The Interloper
Chapter 6: Establishing a State

Section IV: Creating an Empire
Chapter 7: The Way of War
Chapter 8: The World Shegui Entered
Chapter 9: The World Shegui Created
Chapter 10: Troubling Innovation

Section V: Pingcheng as Center of a World
Chapter 11: The Wei Army
Chapter 12: The Wolf Lord
Chapter 13: Hunting and Gathering in the Land of Dai

Section VI: End Games
Chapter 14: A Transitional Age
Chapter 15: The Two Buddhas
Chapter 16: To Luoyang
Chapter 17: Downfall of the Theater State

Summing Up; Looking Ahead