After the death of Princess Taiping,Geshu Liancheng left Chang'an and continued westward to the Anxi Grand Prote ctorate.He was once an ice-cold weapon wielded by the empress regent Wu Zetian.He was one of many sh...After the death of Princess Taiping,Geshu Liancheng left Chang'an and continued westward to the Anxi Grand Prote ctorate.He was once an ice-cold weapon wielded by the empress regent Wu Zetian.He was one of many shadowy figures of the internal security system.They struck fear into the hearts of the lilylivered civil service.Their targets had included,among others,PrinceJing of Yue,the mighty general XuJingye,and the poet-bureaucrat Luo Binwang—anyone who dared challenge the sovereign.After the Shenlong Revolution,they were forced to find new masters:Geshu threw his lot in with Princess Taiping,while his comrade Yuwen Xin clandestinely offered his services to Li Longji while swearing allegiance to his father,the Prince of Xiang.展开更多
Abstract Dating back to at least the Han dynasty, calligraphy has been a powerful object of culture and a medium of elite education, document preparation, and character evaluation. Discourses surrounding rulers and ca...Abstract Dating back to at least the Han dynasty, calligraphy has been a powerful object of culture and a medium of elite education, document preparation, and character evaluation. Discourses surrounding rulers and calligraphy form an important sub-strand in materials on calligraphy, and these accounts often depict calligraphy as a vehicle capable of reflecting a ruler＇s moral character. This paper explores narratives that blame early Tang women power-holders, in particular, the Taiping and Anle Princesses, for borrowing and subsequently losing precious calligraphic items that were considered the authentic work of Wang Xizhi. The analysis focuses on the ways in which the different narratives describe the physical movement or location of the Wang Xizhi pieces in relation to contemporary rule and factional politics. The narratives interpret the calligraphic manuscripts as an example of the cultural inheritance, to which the ruler should properly relate in particular ways. In this way, the fate of the Wang Xizhi artifacts is understood in terms of the complex relationship between imperial power and the court＇s cultural legacy.展开更多
文摘After the death of Princess Taiping,Geshu Liancheng left Chang'an and continued westward to the Anxi Grand Prote ctorate.He was once an ice-cold weapon wielded by the empress regent Wu Zetian.He was one of many shadowy figures of the internal security system.They struck fear into the hearts of the lilylivered civil service.Their targets had included,among others,PrinceJing of Yue,the mighty general XuJingye,and the poet-bureaucrat Luo Binwang—anyone who dared challenge the sovereign.After the Shenlong Revolution,they were forced to find new masters:Geshu threw his lot in with Princess Taiping,while his comrade Yuwen Xin clandestinely offered his services to Li Longji while swearing allegiance to his father,the Prince of Xiang.
文摘Abstract Dating back to at least the Han dynasty, calligraphy has been a powerful object of culture and a medium of elite education, document preparation, and character evaluation. Discourses surrounding rulers and calligraphy form an important sub-strand in materials on calligraphy, and these accounts often depict calligraphy as a vehicle capable of reflecting a ruler＇s moral character. This paper explores narratives that blame early Tang women power-holders, in particular, the Taiping and Anle Princesses, for borrowing and subsequently losing precious calligraphic items that were considered the authentic work of Wang Xizhi. The analysis focuses on the ways in which the different narratives describe the physical movement or location of the Wang Xizhi pieces in relation to contemporary rule and factional politics. The narratives interpret the calligraphic manuscripts as an example of the cultural inheritance, to which the ruler should properly relate in particular ways. In this way, the fate of the Wang Xizhi artifacts is understood in terms of the complex relationship between imperial power and the court＇s cultural legacy.
