6 - Political Precedents and the Origins of Historical Narrative

Summary

Chapter 7 begins the second, “Narratives,” half of The Making of Song Dynasty History, and defines and explains the historical evolution of the “grand allegory” of Song history. As a prelude to this discussion, this chapter explains how this allegorical narrative originated in a distinctively Confucian political discourse that began in the mid-eleventh century and matured over the course of the dynasty. It focuses on “precedents” (gushi) and their relation to the “policies of the ancestors” (zuzong zhi fa). “Precedents” were an important tool in the rhetorical arsenal of Song policy makers and a vital component of Song political discourse. In brief, a “precedent” invoked a prior historical event as justification for a proposed present course of political action. Although “precedents” could be cited from any earlier period, increasingly, as the dynasty progressed, “precedents” came from Song (post-960) history. The most politically useful of these evolved into a collection of actual but often quasi-historical events that came to be known as the “policies of the ancestors.” Both official and private compilations of these “precedents” circulated and came to constitute an unofficial corpus of events that were held to reflect the dynasty’s positive political values. Ensuing chapters deconstruct the “grand allegory” into three thematic clusters, all of which derive from this political discourse and its recourse to such “precedents.”