Molded by Culture: Memories of the Wang Family from Taiyuan in Northern Song Genres and Networks

Abstract

Molded by Culture:Memories of the Wang Family from Taiyuan in Northern Song Genres and Networks Amelia Ying Qin 秦穎 The large-scale social and cultural changes of the Northern Song transformed the lives of individuals and had the potential to shape the arc of a family's history. In the case of one particular military family, the Wangs 王 from Taiyuan 太原, these transformations, and the way they were commemorated, call for interpretation on two distinct levels: the historical and the historiographic. First, the lives of individual family members and the trajectory of their family history, having been shaped by the social, political, and cultural context of the Northern Song, reflected the influences of large-scale historical shifts. Second, these sociocultural transformations were also selectively amplified by various genres of textual representations of these same individuals in extant sources, which were themselves molded in different ways, by the dominant value orientations of the time and the dispositions of those who recorded them. As a result, the memories of these particular Wangs, which were constructed in various textual sources, reflected the cultural perspectives and expectations that their authors projected onto these subjects in narratives about their lives and aspirations. Thus, in the extant corpus of writings about multiple generations of the Wangs from Taiyuan, a wide range of variables—who chose to [End Page 33] write about these individuals, in what genre, for what audience, from what perspective, within what kind of social and political context—formed a complex of representations that were molded by the culture of the era and were both produced and consumed within Northern Song textual genres and social networks. Over time, both the Wang family's trajectory, and the memories and images of these men in extant sources, were shaped by the dominant values of culture (wen 文). In reflecting upon the influence of large-scale cultural rhetoric and practices on the writing of micro-history of individual lives, this article offers a preliminary exploration of the intricate intertwining of memory, representation, and culture. From wu to wen: The Sociopolitical Context The Northern Song underwent a series of social, political, and cultural changes that marked the beginning of the early modern period of Chinese history.1 The expansion of the examination and national education systems brought unprecedented numbers of degree holders into the civil bureaucracy, while scholars (shi 士), a new elite group of literati, rose to sociopolitical prominence. Meanwhile, the imperial court, especially in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, was troubled by constant political struggles and factional conflicts. Many of these political, institutional, and structural changes, Peter Lorge argues, cannot be viewed in isolation from the dynasty's military culture and martial endeavors.2 Emperor Taizu's 太祖 (r. 960–976) military conquests [End Page 34] and political negotiations brought an end to more than a century of warfare and disunion and consolidated his power, laying the foundation for the Song.3 In large part due to his own military failures and political insecurities, Emperor Taizong 太宗 (r. 976–997) came to strategically rely on civil officials who were recruited through the expanded examination system.4 As the court intentionally placed the control of military power under a civil government system, rulers, bureaucrats, literati, and historians combined their efforts, in both the rhetoric and the practice of Song political and cultural production, to actively restore "this culture of ours" (siwen 斯文) and to promote the value of the cultural (wen 文) over that of the martial (wu 武).5 The early Southern Song historian Li You 李攸 recorded Emperor Taizong as stating: "Although the ruler conquers and secures [his kingdom] through military merit, in the end he must succeed in the governance [of the state] through civil virtues" 王 者雖以武功克定, 終須以文德致治.6 Rather than emphasizing the state's martial capabilities, the cultural and political rhetoric of the court prioritized the transforming influence of wen through education and Confucian learning. Emperor Zhenzong 真宗 (r. 997–1022) was depicted in the Song shi 宋史 as retrospectively applying the rhetoric of wen to both his uncle Taizu and father Taizong, who had "drastically changed corrupt customs and esteemed 'this culture of ours'" 丕變弊俗, 崇尚斯文.7 Thus, after the military consolidation of the empire, the first three Song rulers adopted a rhetoric promoting fundamental cultural values...