Description
Book SynopsisEthnic Identity in Tang China is the first work in any language to explore comprehensively the construction of ethnicity during the dynasty that reigned over China for roughly three centuries, from 618 to 907. Often viewed as one of the most cosmopolitan regimes in China''s past, the Tang had roots in Inner Asia, and its rulers continued to have complex relationships with a population that included Turks, Tibetans, Japanese, Koreans, Southeast Asians, Persians, and Arabs.
Marc S. Abramson''s rich portrait of this complex, multiethnic empire draws on political writings, religious texts, and other cultural artifacts, as well as comparative examples from other empires and frontiers. Abramson argues that various constituencies, ranging from Confucian elites to Buddhist monks to barbarian generals, sought to define ethnic boundaries for various reasons but often in part out of discomfort with the ambiguity of their own ethnic and cultural identity. The Tang court, meanwhile,
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"The author has ranged far and wide, plucking nuggets of material from dynastic histories, gazetteers, contemporary scholarly treatises, memorials to the emperor, poetry, and artwork. This is a groundbreaking book." * Peter B. Golden, Rutgers University *
"Striving to be objective and balanced, the author presents a fascinating look into the ways the Han Chinese conceptualized their non-Han ethnic Other, and vice versa. The concluding argument, that Tang China marks a key shift from ethnic pluralism to a model of Chinese cultural exclusivity, is a thought-provoking one." * Choice *
