11 - Deeper Structures of Song Governance

Summary

Chapter 11, “Deeper Structures of Song Governance,” argues that the perennial task of imperial governance was to forge a functional union of the state’s inner and outer capacities by converging the technocratic and literati foci of governance. There were two models for achieving this goal. The institutionalist model, favored by committed Confucians because it depended on a fixed system of hierarchically ordered agencies administered by the civil bureaucracy, was administratively complex, difficult to maintain, and inherently unstable. The other alternative was an informal alliance between a powerful, often the sole, chief councilor, acting as imperial surrogate, and the senior empress, as de facto leaders respectively of the outer and inner courts. This union, by bridging the inner/outer divide, harnessed the full range of inner/outer state capacity and enabled the creation of fluid, ad hoc agencies that could span this divide to achieve specific, targeted administrative tasks. The four great autocrats of Southern Song – Qin Gui 秦檜 (1090–1155), Han Tuozhou 韓侂冑 (1152–1207), Shi Miyuan 史彌遠 (1164–1233), and Jia Sidao 賈似道 (1213–1275) – all fit this pattern. This chapter concludes with some suggestions for how this technocratic–Confucian continuum model of the deeper structure of Song governance may apply to other dynasties during the Chinese imperial period.