Autorentext
Franciscus Verellen is Emeritus professor and former director of the École française d'Extrême-Orient.

Klappentext

Military governor, architect, alchemist and poet, Gao Pian (821-87) was one of the most intriguing characters to shape events in ninth-century China. His trajectory provides a step-by-step record of the late Tang empire's military, fiscal, and administrative unravelling. Utilising exceptionally rich sources, including documents from Gao Pian's secretariat, inscriptions, narrative and religious literature, and Gao Pian's own poetry, Franciscus Verellen challenges the official historians' portrait of Gao as an 'insubordinate minister' and Daoist zealot. In an innovative analysis, he argues that the life of this extraordinary general casts much-needed light on ideas of allegiance and disobedience, provincial governance, military affairs and religious life in the waning years of the Tang.

Inhalt

Introduction: China on the eve of the five dynasties; 1. War and poetry; 2. The Northwestern frontier; 3. The Southern man; 4. Protector of Annan; 5. Celestial peace; 6. Grace and might; 7. Brocade fortress; 8. The gathering storm; 9. Stone quarry; 10. From cassia grove; 11. Lord of Huai; 12. The widow's curse; postscript; Poems of Gao Pian (PGP); Appendix; A. Pei Xing's 'Path of heavenly might' inscription; B. Ch'oe Ch'iw n and his writings; C. Luo Yin's pamphlet bewitched in Guangling; D. The official narrative; Glossary of titles and institutions; Works cited; Index.