Sharing the Mandate: The Former Shu regime of Wang Jian in the late Tang and early Five Dynasties, 891--925

This dissertation is an exploration of the complicated national politics and intricate interstate relations of the divided tenth-century China, with a focus on Wang Jian's Former Shu, one of the prominent regional regimes in the late Tang and early Five Dynasties periods. This study examines how Wang Jian, a provincial military governor of Tang, rose to power from obscurity in the chaotic late ninth century and founded an empire in the Shu (today's Sichuan province) in the early tenth century. Depending on a powerful military, the strategic location of the Shu area, and astute diplomatic tactics in dealing with surrounding powers, the Former Shu under Wang Jian's rule successfully challenged the hegemonies of the most powerful regimes of the day from its base in the southwest. It was recognized as a political equal and treated as such by the contemporary northern powers, with whom the Former Shu shared the Mandate of Heaven both in rhetoric and in reality. As the achievements of the Former Shu demonstrate, the widely accepted predominance of the northern dynasties over the other states during the Five Dynasties period does not reflect the political reality, at least in the first half of the tenth century, when no single power possessed the capability of destroying other rivals and dominating the entire country. The constructive relationships between the Former Shu and other regimes discussed in this study define a unique political configuration of tenth-century China that was characterized by power balance and pragmatic coexistence among the "dynasties" and "states," which in most cases sensibly chose to "share" the Mandate and maneuvered to survive by interacting strategically with their neighboring powers.