8 - An Empire of Benevolence

Summary

Chapters 9 through 11 each present one of the three major thematic clusters of the grand allegory of Song history. “An Empire of Benevolence” details the premise that Song governance was based on “benevolence” (ren), a fundamental principle enshrined in the pre-Qin Confucian classics. Not surprisingly, this contention appears simultaneously with the political rise of Confucian literati during the Qingli period (1041–1048), and, in its mature form, postulated the reign of Emperor Renzong (r. 1023–1063) as the pinnacle of “benevolent governance” (renzheng). This historical view first appears in the 1090s when critics of Wang Anshi (1021–1086) and the New Policies developed the rhetorical position that the reforms had undermined the supposedly “benevolent” character of Emperor Renzong’s reign. This anti-New Policies rhetoric generated a historical periodization that valorized the Qingli and Yuanyou (1086–1094) administrations as kindred periods of benevolent governance. A crucial turning point came in 1125–1127 when the Jin invasions forced the new administration to embrace an anti-New Policies rhetoric as the only viable political and historical base upon which to ground the Restoration. Subsequently, Li Tao elevated the idea of the Renzong era as a golden period of literati governance into a dominant theme of Song history. By the end of the dynasty, development of this theme – that Wang Anshi had destroyed the spirit of benevolent literati governance under Renzong – would form a major structural principle of the grand allegory.