An Eleventh‐Century View of Chinese Ethnic Policy: Sima Guang on the Fall of Western Jin

Abstract

Abstract At the start of the fourth century, China's Western Jin dynasty (265–317 AD) faced insurrection from non‐Chinese ethnic groups that resided as its internal clients. It fell to these barbarian usurpers in 317. Throughout the eleventh century, the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) felt its sovereignty endangered by foreign states to the north. Parallels between the ethnic policies of Western Jin and Northern Song emerge from the representation of Western Jin's dynastic fortunes that the eleventh‐century statesman and historian Sima Guang (1019–1086) offered in his famous chronicle, Zizhi tongjian (A Comprehensive Mirror to Aid Government). The present article takes that text as its focus. It examines the textual and ideological spin that Sima Guang gave his account of fourth‐century ethnic tensions. It argues that his characterisation of the barbarians that threatened Western Jin resonated with his response to eleventh‐century foreign relations. And it shows that for Sima Guang the integrity of the Chinese imperial state, and even Chinese identity, was at stake.