A Study On The Image Of Kingdom Of Nanzhao In The Minds Of Central Plain Scholars In The Tang Dynasty

Kingdom of Nanzhao was almost the minority regime in the southwest border area since the Tang Dynasty,and the Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty had frequent exchanges for more than 200 years,which promoted the cognition and image construction of Central Plain scholars in the Tang Dynasty towards Kingdom of Nanzhao,in turn,it had an important influence on the Tang Dynasty’s Kingdom of Nanzhao policy.But for a long time,scholars paid little attention to the image of Kingdom of Nanzhao in the Tang Dynasty,which became a weak link in the study of the history of Kingdom of Nanzhao and the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and Kingdom of Nanzhao.In view of this,this paper systematically studies the image of Kingdom of Nanzhao in the eyes of the Tang Dynasty scholars.The main contents and viewpoints are as follows:First,based on the relevant historical materials and the research results of later scholars,the article restores and outlines a more authentic and objective Kingdom of Nanzhao,as a post-analysis of the Tang Dynasty scholars in the Central Plains of Kingdom of Nanzhao image of the comparative frame of Reference and the whole Article’s research background.The main contents include: the lineage of Kingdom of Nanzhao,the two major transitions in the relationship between Kingdom of Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty,and the political,cultural and economic system formed by Kingdom of Nanzhao’s frequent contacts and learning from the Tang Dynasty.Secondly,the paper summarizes the two main ways of the Tang Dynasty Central Plain scholars’ cognition of Kingdom of Nanzhao: one is the peaceful exchange of emissaries,such as lo-shing,the leader of Kingdom of Nanzhao,paying tribute to the emperor,and the other is the enthronement of Tang emissaries to the throne of Kingdom of Nanzhao One kind is non-peaceful violent conflict,such as Xian Yu Zhongtong and Li Mi’s twice expedition to Kingdom of Nanzhao,Wang Diao looted Sichuan and so on.The author holds that these two ways were the main ways for the scholars in Central Plain to obtain information about Kingdom of Nanzhao and construct the image of Kingdom of Nanzhao in the Tang Dynasty,and that because ofthe repeated communication between Kingdom of Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty,it had an important influence on the image of Kingdom of Nanzhao in the minds of Central Plain scholars in the Tang Dynasty.Thirdly,the article focuses on the image of Kingdom of Nanzhao in the eyes of the scholars of Central Plain in the Tang Dynasty.Because the Tang Dynasty Central Plain scholars can access to different information,the understanding of Kingdom of Nanzhao and the construction of its image can be divided into two groups: First,most scholars in Central Plain learned the image of Kingdom of Nanzhao through Tang poetry,the largest and most popular cultural carrier and medium of the Tang Dynasty,including “Far away”,“Yan Famine”,“Easy to rebel”,rich in “Red cane cane”,“Obedience Wang Hua”and so on;Second,the image of Kingdom of Nanzhao,which a few Central Plain scholars have learned through other channels and media,is sometimes an example of “Serving the Tang dynasty with utmost care”,sometimes a place of military merit where “Fear of authority but do not care about morality”,or“Rich in goods”but “Lacking in wealth and goods”,there are even those who think Kingdom of Nanzhao is full of “Monsters”.Although the scholars in Central Plain had a better understanding of Kingdom of Nanzhao in the Tang Dynasty,their perception of Kingdom of Nanzhao was quite different from that of Kingdom of Nanzhao.Finally,the paper points out that the cognition bias of the scholars in Central Plain in Tang Dynasty to Kingdom of Nanzhao and the misunderstanding of the central government’s Kingdom of Nanzhao policy and governance Under different circumstances,the cognitive preference or the bad perception of Kingdom of Nanzhao’s image may result in the deviation of the Tang Dynasty’s policy of governing Kingdom of Nanzhao,or even such a serious mistake as “Rebelling against the Tang Dynasty and returning to the Tibet”.Generally speaking,most of the time,Kingdom of Nanzhao belonged to the Tang Dynasty,and the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and Kingdom of Nanzhao was generally close.The relationship between Kingdom of Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty should be viewed in a three-dimensional,interactive and developmental perspective.