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11 - The Rhythms of Song History

from Part II - Narratives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Charles Hartman
Affiliation:
University at Albany, State University of New York
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Summary

The final chapter, “The Rhythms of Song History” demonstrates that the positive Taizu–Qingli–Yuanyou axis of political value and the negative “lineage of evil” axis fused to create an image of dynastic history as a perpetual oscillation between political and moral florescence and decline. This last chapter postulates that these undulating historiographical cycles reflect not the moral battles between Confucian good and evil but the truly historical, political struggles between two conceptions of the Song state, one a kind of technocratic patrimonialism, the other a Confucian institutionalism. Transitions between these two modalities of governance produced the historical revisionism that gave eventual rise to the grand allegory. These were the Qingli period, the Yuanyou period, the early (pre-Qin Gui) Shaoxing period (1131–1138), and the Jiading (1208–1224) period. All of these eras experienced either defensive or offensive wars that sparked domestic political upheavals, and these political conflicts then generated historiographical revisionism. This chapter, and the book, concludes with a one paragraph summary of the allegory written using the rhetoric of Song Confucianism and the same paragraph then translated into the language of modern social science. This juxtaposition demonstrates the continuing influence of the grand allegory until modern times.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Making of Song Dynasty History
Sources and Narratives, 960–1279 CE
, pp. 329 - 333
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • The Rhythms of Song History
  • Charles Hartman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Book: The Making of Song Dynasty History
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108877176.013
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  • The Rhythms of Song History
  • Charles Hartman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Book: The Making of Song Dynasty History
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108877176.013
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Rhythms of Song History
  • Charles Hartman, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Book: The Making of Song Dynasty History
  • Online publication: 24 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108877176.013
Available formats
×