| There is a remarkable phenomenon in the period of Sixteen Kingdoms (during304to439in northern China):a number of minority kings named themselves "Tianwang"(heavenly king). Since the Qin and Han dynasties, Chinese ruler has used "Huangdi"(emperor) which is created by First Emperor of Qin as their official title, so the "Tianwang" is somewhat exceptional. Some of elder scholars have no interest in this question, they try explaining it in the dimension of Cultural inferiority and power structure. Or others take a special king as an example to find answer in Buddhism. These opinions are a bit rough, so they can not interpret the popular of "Tianwang". Also someone come up with impact of the North clan culture, but this idea has not been confirmed. If we browse basic historical data such as Book of Jin(completed in Tang dynasty), Taiping Imperial Encyclopaedia(completed in Song dynasty), Book of Wei(completed in North Qi dynasty), History as a Mirror(completed in Song dynasty), we will find that the difference between Shi Le and Shi Hu when they become "Tianwang" of their country seems implying the original source of "Tianwang" is not in Chinese culture and Buddhism, but in the North clan political culture, and certain historical data can prove it. For the non-Chinese culture source, lots of people in sixteen kingdoms did not understand "Tianwang". Shi Hu is a key figure about this issue, because he is the first one to formulate the system of "Tianwang", although his means is not good, many latecomers benefit from him. Most of North groups which enter into China have their own customs, but finally they are conquered by the broad and profound Chinese culture so that they could get orthodox to rule north China better. So, Shi Hu uses "The system of YinZhou" to polish his "Tianwang", this title is given good sense of Chinese and minority group culture. Pu group (Di people, an ancient nation in China) once obeyed to Shi Hu, and when they created their own country, they imitated Shi Hu and called their king "Tianwang" too. As time goes by, this "Tianwang" model has been applied more and more mature, on the ruins of QianQin Empire, a lot of minority kings practice it. During the period of Sixteen Kingdoms, many minority nations enter into Chinese land and establish states, if we study deeply on this topic, we will find "Tianwang" title reflecting a kind of cultural fusion between Han and non-Han people. It is a normal phenomenon on that background, especially when some non-Han monarchs want to control their land better they often struggle to make decision between keeping vulgar and Chinesization. But,"Tianwang" title is different from "Huangdi" title, and the latter has a long history and strong tradition, so the former’s fame is weaker. Though ancient confusion scholars think the top ruler of XiaShangZhou dynasty name their king "Wang", and some classic books call the emperor of Zhou dynasty "Tianwang", namely, son of heaven. Therefore,"Tianwang" title is one of choices, if opportunity comes, this title will be abandoned, such as Helian Bobo’s behavior when he occupied Chang An. Moreover, all the countries of sixteen kingdoms are left out of orthodoxy, so there is no detailed wring material about "Tianwang" title, its origin and development was submerged in the currents of history. |
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