Kuizhou
Kui Prefecture, Kuizhou Circuit, or Kuizhou (
Geography
Kuizhou (Kui Prefecture) was located in the
History
Kui Prefecture (Kuizhou) was an area typical of many in the southern part of the Tang Empire which experienced an increase in population and development as a result of the disasters beginning with and following the
Early background
The Kuizhou area was held by the Han dynasty. During this time, it was known as Baidi, or White Emperor, in English. A poetic tradition developed in Tang and later times of referencing Kuizhou by mentioning Baidi (Murck, 271). However, the area was only on the fringe of the Han empire, and after the fall of the Han dynasty long remained outside of the main area of Chinese culture. Historical records are incomplete.
Early military operations
At the founding of the Tang empire, Kui Prefecture was known as Xin Prefecture (信州, or Xinzhou).
Outskirts of Tang empire and place of exile
Later, Di Zhixun, father of Di Renjie, born 630, served as prefect of Kui Prefecture. Di Renjie was one of the officials from parts of China which were not the traditional areas for recruitment of top leadership positions which Wu Zetian promoted, during her interregnum. He served her twice as chancellor.
In about 787, imperial chancellor
Zhu Pu, who twice served as imperial chancellor for Emperor Tang Zhaozong (867 – 904, and the second-to-last Tang dynasty emperor), was demoted and exiled sent into exile to serve as military advisor in Kui Prefecture, in 897.
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era
The
During the Later Tang, Kuizhou was part of Meng Zhixiang's political breakaway, which eventually resulted in the formation of the Later Shu state. During this time Kuizhou was usually subordinate to a larger political division. In the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Meng Zhixiang and Wang Jian were involved in operations which were in part centered in Kuizhou, which became the capital of Ningjiang Circuit (寧江).
End of Tang dynasty
Wang Jian (847–918) began his career serving in the Tang army, but with the dissolution of the Tang empire, became the founding emperor of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms state of Former Shu (907–925), which was one of the Ten Kingdoms. Wang conquered in 903, four years before the demise of Tang, in 907.
Former Shu
Kuizhou was part of Former Shu, founded by Wang Jian as part of the aftermath of the dissolution of the Tang dynasty: Wang was in control of Kuizhou in 907, when the Tang dynasty formally is considered to have ended. Kuizhou was part of Later Tang (one of the Five Dynasties which succeeded each other in control to the north of China), after its conquest of Former Shu, in a southern extension of power.
Attack by Zhao Kuangning
Kui Prefecture, however, would not prove easy to hold. In 904, the warlord
Attack by Gao Jixing
In 914, Gao Jixing launched a fleet and headed west up the Yangtze, attempting to capture four prefectures which had become Former Shu territory — Kuizhou, Wanzhou (萬州), Zhongzhou (忠州), and Fu zhou(涪州), all in modern Chongqing). However, when he attacked Kui first, he was defeated by the Former Shu prefect of Kui, Wang Chengxian (王成先), and withdrew with heavy losses.
Jingnan, Later Tang, and Later Shu
Gao Conghui, whose career apexed as ruler of the Ten Kingdoms state of Jingnan, conquered Kuizhou, in about 926.
Meng Zhixiang (874–934) was a Later Tang general who was later considered to be the founder the state of Later Shu (935–965). His son Meng Renyi would be created Prince of Kui, in 950, shortly before the establishment of the Song dynasty in 960, which would eventually result in the reunification of China as one state.
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (960 to 1279) retained Kui as a distinct political entity, and available quantitative and other data serve to illustrate the changes in population of Kuizhou and its relative status in terms of education and recruitment of officials into the national government, at several points of time during this period: data include census figures for population, records from the imperial civil service examinations, and other writings. The population figures for the time bear some interpretation because they are recorded by number of households, and the average number of persons per household and number of persons without a household is not certainly known, and was also subject to change. Other factors are also operative in terms of interpreting the data, similar to the case of other census figures. Also, some imprecision due to rounding of figures may be noted.
Population
Around the year 1100, the population of Kuizhou is enumerated at 250,000 households; in 1162, 387,000 households are recorded; in 1223, 208,000 households are reported (according to Kracke, 255 and 257).
Education and regional representation in government
A major function of the Song educational system and its accompanying formal award of graduate degrees to successful candidates was to recruit personnel to fill important and powerful governmental positions in the imperial bureaucracy. Thus, the available figures for Kuizhou versus other regions of the Song empire illustrate to some degree the relative regional quality of education and regional representation in Song governance for Kuizhou. Figures are available for certain years for the number of graduates awarded the jinshi degree (somewhat equivalent to a modern Doctor of Literature). In some cases, the number of candidates is also known for certain years. E. A. Kracke, Jr., analyzing the data concludes that regions of the Yangzi delta and the Sichuan basin are far more proportionally represented than are regions such as Kuizhou (Kracke, 255). Sima Guang and Ouyang Xiu show supporting conclusions (Kracke, 254).
Yuan dynasty
Eventually, the Song dynasty was completely defeated by the Mongol Empire, which then itself came to be divided into several regional parts, one of which organized as the Yuan dynasty of China. During the course of the destruction of the Song and subsequent reorganization vast changes in the political structure included the end of the role of Kuizhou as a distinct and important formal part of the organized Chinese political structure. However Guizhou was formally made a province only in 1413, and Marco Polo, in 1298, does mention Kuizhou as an existing province.[1]
Poetry and Culture
Kuizhou, also known as Kui Prefecture, was an important location in regard to the
Li Bai
Li Bai (also known by various name variants) was a famous Tang poet who was famous for his Kuizhou poetry. After being pardoned and recalled from exile for his role in the Anshi affair, in 756, returning down the Yangzi River, Li stopped at Baidicheng, in Kuizhou, which was the occasion of his writing his famous poem "Departing from Baidi in the Morning".
Du Fu
The famous Tang poet Du Fu (712-770) wrote hundreds of poems in Kuizhou, where he resided towards the end of his life (766-early 768). One famous poem which Du Fu wrote in Kuizhou was the influential poem "Autumn Day in Kui Prefecture". Du Fu was one of the refugees from the north who escaped from the turmoil of the Anshi disturbances, and ended up in Kui Prefecture for a time (Murck, 23-24; and, Hinton, 191). At the time, educated Han Chinese persons were a distinct minority in the area of Kuizhou, and what local Chinese language was spoken there among the majority languages had strong dialectical features, including distinct vocabulary differences, as Du Fu points out through his poetry.
See also
- "Autumn Day in Kui Prefecture"
- Baidicheng, about the town, or city
- Eight Views of Xiaoxiang, a series of images relevant to Kuizhou
- History of the administrative divisions of China before 1912, overview including Kuizhou
- Qutang Gorge, geographic topicality
- Simians (Chinese poetry), discussing monkeys, gibbons, and other primate species associated with Kuizhou
References
Citations
- ^ Chapter 130, « Cuigiu ».
Works
- ISBN 9780374105365.
- Haeger, John Winthrop, ed., (1975).Crisis and Prosperity in Sung China. Rainbow-Bridge Book Co./University of Arizona Press.
- Kracke, E. A., Jr. (1967 [1957]). "Region, Family, and Individual in the Chinese Examination System", in Chinese Thoughts & Institutions, John K. Fairbank, editor. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
- Murck, Alfreda (2000). Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent. Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London: Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute. ISBN 0-674-00782-4.
- ISBN 0-500-05090-2
External links
- Text of Du Fu's "Autumn Day in Kui Prefecture on Ctext.org
- Text of Du Fu's "Autumn Day in Kui Prefecture" at zh.wikisource