tang dynasty times

The Persian Prince Pirooz

 

Sometime around the year 670, a shining prince-- the son of the last Sassanid King-- arrived in the Tang capital. He was there to beg for protection from the Arab invaders who now ocuppied his country. Exhausted and covered in dust from the journey, the young prince-- who was barely out of boyhood--was led into the Great Hall. It had taken him the best part of a decade to arrive. In fact, he never believed he would actually make it; imagining instead being murdered or perhaps dying from cold and exhaustion somewhere en route over the towering mountains and terrifying deserts through which he had passed on his way East.

Somehow, though, he did make it, and arriving at dusk, just before the gates of the great city were secured shut for the night, a regiment of guards from the Chinese Emperor's Palace arrived to escort him through the city.

And what a city it was.

When he was a child, his father had told him much about the great capital to the East-- larger and richer than even Rome or Byzantium. Rome, of course, had been sacked two centuries before, and Byzantium was itself in decline. And then there was his own glorious empire-- it still brought tears to his eyes just thinking of it. The Sassanid Empire had been the greatest empire on earth-- rivaled only by Byzantium to the West and China to the East, but it now lay in ruins. His family all dead, his heritage scattered like the sands of the desert blown here and there in the wind.

When the Arabs had invaded, he and his family-- along with a great entourage of supporters-- had fled eastward. Born in 226 a.d. the ancient Persian Sassanid Empire had once stretched from the Levant and Constantinople in the West to the Indian subcontinent in the East and had encompassed all of present-day Iraq, Armenia and Afghanistan; as well as much of Turkey, Syria, Arabia and Pakistan. These lands-- as well as the Persian colonies in Central Asia-- were all part of the great Persian sphere of influence; whose emperors were held as equals by both the Roman  and the Chinese emperors.

For 400 years, they had been called Shahanshah-- or, the "King of Kings." And, theirs was the last great Persian empire prior to the invasion of the Arabs and the beginnings of Islam. Zoorastrians by religion, it was a Kingdom ruled by a federation of aristocratic families whose splendid cultural achievements would be taken up by their Arab conquerers with gusto. In fact, much of what later came to be known as Islamic culture-- from calligraphy and poetry to garden design and architecture-- was borrowed largely from the Sassanian empire.

When the Arab conquerers stormed the Persian capital of Ctesiphon in 637, such were their numbers that his Father's only choice had been to flee. From Ctesiphon, located on the Tigris, just a bit downstream from Baghdad (founded about 150 years later), on horseback they had raced East in the hope of gathering support for their cause. None of the great families, however, had agreed to help them mount an army to oust the Arab invaders, and by the time they had reached Merv, on the Eastern edge of their empire, they were spent.

It was there that the greatest tragedy of all happened. His Father had been murdered-- right in front of his own eyes. And what had been perhaps the greatest blow was that he had been murdered by a commoner. Robbed and murdered for his purse, the great Shahanshah, Yazdgerd III, had been killed by a miller. It was 651, and they had been in flight for some 14 years. 

So, that had been that. With their cause now dead, the aristocratic and ruling families who had followed them East decided to stay and put down roots in Merv, as well as in the nearby Persian areas of Sogdiana, Tashkent and Khotan. Our young Prince, however, would always live with a price on his head. He, therefore, required protection. He thought and thought, but there seemed nowhere to turn-- until he remembered his sister. Before he was born, she had already been married off to the great Tang Emperor to the East. And, so he had set out East--to China.

It was the heyday of the Silk Road, so he had just followed the well-worn path of other Persians before him. First into Sogdiana and then crossing the Pamirs, he had had to make it across the unending stretch of sand of the deserts of inner Asia. Skirting the southern edges of the Taklamakan Desert, first he traveled to Kashgar; then on to Yarkand, Khotan, and all the way to Dunhuang. From there, it had just been a matter of descending down off the plateau and heading East, toward the capital.   

Persian peoples dominated the entire route. The great middle men of the Silk Road, Persian communities (and most notably the Sogdians) had greeted him in every town he passed through along the way. From Merv to Chang'an, whenever he stopped, he had stayed in Persian inns, eaten Persian foods and had spoken in the refined Persian language of the Court-- and he was, for the most part-- understood.

He would be further stunned to see of his country's influence in China proper as well. It gave him heart. Yes, theirs had been the greatest civilization of the world-- for even the Chinese thought so.

The Chinese capital, though, he had to admit, had surpassed even the Persian capital during its height. As French scholar Michel Beurdeley has noted, “the title of Middle Kingdom was richly deserved by China during the Tang dynasty,” as the high civilization and celebrated cosmopolitanism of the Tang dynasty truly had no precedent anywhere on earth prior to that time-- not even Byzantium saw such a rich display of goods and peoples.

While the Tang capital of Chang'an was the largest, most international city in the world of the time, the Second Capital of Loyang was no less impressive. Both cities were inhabited by traders, entertainers and religious teachers and students from places as far-flung as Syria, Oman, Iran, Khotan, Sogdiana, Turkestan, Tibet, India, Champa, Funan, Korea, and Japan, just to name a few. There were Mosques, Jewish, Manichean and Zoroastrian temples, Nestorian churches, as well as Buddhist monasteries of all sects, some of which were great centers of scholarship. Most surprising (considering the inward turn China would take in the coming centuries) was how stunningly exotic and open the city was.

It was a city where wealthy ladies adorned their cheeks with crimson laq from Vietnam and anointed their bodies with perfumed oils of Cambodia; where aristocrats kept falcons from Korea, parrots from the jungles of Java and lapdogs from Samarkand. Sleeping in Turkish felt tents was the latest fashion as were the dance moves from Sogdiana. And, the music. The capital saw glorious performances by dancers from Central Asia and India showing dances of such beauty that the famed Tang poets of the time composed poem after poem about them. Grape wine had also come into fashion and was served in glass ewers from Persia. There were lychees from Canton and those oh-so famous peaches of Samarkand.

Of all the foreign fashions, the influence of Iran was without a doubt most significant of all. During the Tang, anything Persian-- from music and dancing, to clothes, hairstyles and the game of Polo-- enjoyed huge popularity at Court and among the aristocracy-- indeed, they were considered to be the very height of fashion. This surprising turn in history came about as part of the Tang Dynasty’s political and military incursions further and further West, into Central Asia (to the land of their prized “blood sweating” stallions and jade) as well as into the Middle East (where beautiful glass and the mineral cobalt was secured).

It was the Iranian Sogdian peoples who held the greatest influence. They were the great merchants, traders and entertainers of the legendary silk road. Known in Chinese as hu jen 胡人, their cultural influence among the Chinese aristocrats was remarkable. It is written in the Tang histories that “the food of the aristocrats was hu food, their music hu music, and their women clothed in the most exotic hu robes that money could buy.” Indeed, in the words of one Japanese scholar, the Tang capital of Chang'an was “painted entirely in the colors of hu.”      

And so our Persian Prince was pleasantly surprised. Such was the Chinese Emperor's great appreciation of the accomplishments of the Persian civilization that upon their first meeting they declared themselves brothers. Born and raised the song of a King, the Prince knew not to make eye-contact with the Son of Heaven, and instead fell to his knees. The great Emperor rose to his feet and stepping off his dais, he bent down to bid the young Prince to his feet.

"You've come a long way. Have no more fears. For you are my brother and this is your new home."

Prince Pirooz was to spend the rest of his days within China. He is said to have learned Kung Fu and then went on to become a general in the army. Sent West to fight their mutual enemies the Arabs, the Persian Prince used his remaining money and resources to make whatever trouble he could. He had probably given up all hope of re-taking his empire-- still it must have felt good to win a battle or two. The Tang chronicles state that when the Chinese emperor died, Pirooz and his son Narseh were allowed to be stationed along the western border garrisons by the new Chinese emperor. Immediately, they started clashes against the Umayyad Arabs. Soliciting the aid of Turkish tribes, Prince Pirooz spent the rest of his days fighting the Arabs along China's Western corridor. 

He died around 700 in the West, still fighting the Arabs wherever he could. His son-- who also begame a respected general in the Chinese army, wrote this in his diary (from Frank Wong's article which is pretty much the only thing around online about Prince Pirooz):

Pirooz requested only a simple burial and the Chinese emperor approved. The entire exiled court was in attendance along with the Chinese emperor. The Chinese emperor held Pirooz's shaking hands. Pirooz looked west and said: "I have done what I could for my homeland (Persia) and I have no regrets." Then, he looked east and said: "I am grateful to China, my new homeland." Then he looked at his immediate family and all the Persians in attendance and said: "Contribute your talents and devote it to the emperor. We are no longer Persians. We are now Chinese." Then, he died peacefully. A beautiful horse was made to gallop around his coffin 33 times before burial, because this was the number of military victories he had during his lifetime. Pirooz was a great Chinese general and great Persian prince devoted and loyal to his people.

And so our Prince died in one of the most remote regions on earth; fighting his enemies till the very end. He was buried facing West.

**

One of Iran's great contemporary playwrights, Bahram Beyzaie, wrote a very popular play about the murder of the last Sassanian King (Pirooz's father) called the Death of Yazdgard. Put on just after the Revolution in Iran, it was not well-received by the authorities. Still it was made into a film and has been staged several times outside Iran (as recently as 2006, in fact). The play, which is compared to in significance to that of A Streetcar Named Desire or Death of a Salesman, basically explores issues of invasion (on many levels) and good kingship. This article about the Darvag performance in Berkeley and San Francisco is really interesting, especially about how they had to purge the play for any references about the ancient Arab invasion, because "we didn't want to cause any misunderstandings-- especially after 9-11."

Walter Meego Meant To Be by le-pere-de-colombe

The Road to Oxiana

 

--from the archives (why the battle of talas is my favorite battle)

The almond groves of Samarqand,
Bokhara, where red lilies blow.
And Oxus, by whose yellow sand
The grave white-turbaned merchants go --Oscar Wilde

1000 years before the infamous "Great Game," which was the name given to the intense rivalry that existed at the turn of the century between Czarist Russia and Victorian England for supremacy in Central Asia, there was another "Great Game." This older rivalry occurred between the Chinese, the Arabs, the Tibetans, and Turkish peoples.

And the region they were fighting for, you ask? Well, it was the same old stretch of land-- a stretch of land that has somehow remained right smack in the middle of everything for 1000 years.

To the East was China, and such was China's greatness under the Tang dynasty that none save the Arabs to the West were said to rival her. Rome had long been overrun, and for all intents and purposes Byzantium was in a state of great decline. The Arabs-- in what was a stunning rise to power-- after toppling the Persian Sassanian dynasty in 637, had next turned their attention to those lands to the East.

Despite the astonishing speed at which the countries of the Middle East came under the power of the Arabs and Islam, the nations of Central Asia, which had long been part of the Persian sphere of influence, proved to be a much tougher nut to crack. As the Arabs made increasing encroachments into areas long considered by the Chinese as being part of their sphere of influence (particularly that of Transoxiana) the Chinese and Arabs saw increased fighting occur along China's Western borders.

The Chinese, however, also had the Tibetan Empire (which had reached its zenith during Tang times) to the southwest and various nomadic peoples (such as the Turkish Uighurs and Mongols) with their shifting alliances and shifting moods to the north to contend with as well. Perhaps what is most surprising, as Susan Whitfield points our in her fascinating book, Life Along the Silk Road, is that these empires and super-powers clashed in places that were not only thousands of miles from their home bases, but were in some of the most remote spots on earth. The battles almost exclusively occurred on frozen mountain terrain or in desolate and burning deserts.

Of course, skirmishes like this continue down to today. I mean, we still see India, China, and Pakistan (among others) wrestling for control of a Himalayan peak 17,000 feet above sea level or some stretch of highway in the desert. You cannot help but think to yourself, if they really want that glacier that badly, why not give it to them? But, regiments of Indian, Chinese and Pakistani soldiers remain stationed high up in the mountains year-round. It is for strategic reasons, they are told, in strategic foreign policy that is as old as the silk road.

It is the terrain that perhaps more than anything defines Central Asia. In addition to being dominated by some of the highest mountain ranges on earth, the area is also home to some of the most deadly deserts and lifeless basin areas as well. Completely landlocked, it is a land of great extremes. Through this rough terrain, two great rivers flow north-- down from the mountains into the Aral Sea. These rivers are the lifeblood of the people.

To the West, forming a natural border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; and then between Tajikistan and Afghanistan is the Amu Darya. The river is known locally as the Jayhoun, which is thought to be derived from Gihon-- one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden of the Bible. We in the West know the river by its Classical Greek name, the Oxus. The other river, the Syr Darya flows the great length of Central Asia from the Krgyz Republic; briefly into Uzbekistan and then through Kazakhstan. This river is also commonly referred to by its ancient Greek name, the Jaxartes-- being perhaps most famous as the northernmost point of Alexander the Great's conquests in the East.

From ancient Greek times, the land between the rivers was known as Transoxiana-- or Oxiana.

It was not far from the Syr Darya River that the decisive Battle of Talas took place. Occurring in 751, the five day battle is one of the most important battles of the East (and yet few in the West have even heard of it!). The Arabs in their push Eastward (into lands previously held by the Persians) were seriously encroaching on China's strategic Silk Road Garrisons. Something had to be done, so the Emperor sent out his best forces under the leadership of the famed Korean commander Gao Xianshi. Known as Lord of the Mountains, Commander Gao had made a career out of inflicting defeat on China's enemies to the West. Inflicting defeat on Turks, Tibetans and Arabs, the battles were fought almost exclusively in the dazzlingly high Pamir Mountains.

Neither side wanted war-- as war would interrupt what had for centuries been the incredibly lucrative trade of luxury items that passed through Transoxiana. Silk was the most famous item traded, but passing from the West through Oxiana on its way East was the lucrative trade in furs, amber, honey and walrus ivory from Eastern Europe. Plus they each had other enemies to contend with as well. Sending emissaries to visit each other's capitals to negotiate, there is little doubt that neither side wanted war--- and yet they were on an inevitable collision course.

The underlying cause of the Battle actually had nothing whatsoever to do with Chinese-Arab relations, but rather was caused by tensions with Tibet and a local feud between two small Central Asian Kingdoms. The Tibetans at the time not only had a highly sophisticated culture but they also had a strong military-- a military which was on the move. They had caused China no end of troubles with their incursions further and further North (into areas long considered under Chinese suzerainty). To stave off any further ambitions, China established alliances with the Kingdoms to their rear in Kashmir and in the Pamirs. But, things came to a head when the King of the Kingdom of Gilgit announced himself as being pro-Tibetan. The Chinese had had enough and sent in their Commander of the Mountains, Gao Xianshi.

Swooping down on the enemy in a surprise attack, he destroyed the bridges into the Kingdom thereby cutting off help expected from the Tibetans, and before any allies could arrive to fight alongside them, Gao had cut off the heads of the King and his advisers. And that was that. Commander Gao became the Military Governor of the region, including Kucha and Kashmir and from that base, China kept a hand in all that went on in the area. (This battle forms the backdrop of Susan Whitfield's second Tale in her book, Life Along the Silk Road).

It seemed that an uneasy alliance between the Tibetans and Chinese, as well as the Chinese and Arabs had been formed, until a petty feud between two Kings further North in Transoxiana brought things to a head again. This time, it wasn't just the Tibetans either, but the Arabs who were also said to have played a role, when the King of Ferghana was deposed with the alleged help of both the Tibetans and Arabs. The deposed King escaped to Kucha were he requested help from his old ally Commander Gao who was still there as Military Governor. In the process of re-installing the King, Gao led massacres in three towns in Sogdiana, which were increasingly closer to the Arab-controlled regions.

Sensing the time had come to put the Chinese in their place, the Abbassid Governor in Khorasan mobilized his army. Marching from Merv, they crossed the Oxus, heading straight for Kashgar. The two Titans finally crossed paths on the banks of the Talas River, in Kyrgystan. During the encounter, the Arabs achieved a stunning victory which they credit to superior strategy. The Chinese, for their part, blame defection of their allies part way through the battle.

While it was neither excessively long or bloody, the Battle of Talas remains the battle people talk about. Arab sites give it an almost jihad-ish flavor as the battle which caused the "infidels to take flight." And both sides seem to agree that if the Battle had gone the other way, it would have been China , not Islam which would have been the great influence Central Asia. For with this battle, the lines were finally drawn in the sand: Turkestan belonged to the Arabs, and China thereafter withdrew to its garrisons in the Tarim Basin.   

Nobody, of course, thinks that this one battle was the sole reason for the Chinese withdraw East of the Pamirs, but it became what was the last nail in the coffin of the Tang dynasty as the event that heralded on the infamous An Lushan Rebellion (755-763)-- see my post here for more on the man who would rock the empire.

It is said to have been the only time in history that the Arabs and Chinese fought, but the Battle of Talas was to have a profound impact on world history. As mentioned above, Chinese expansion West was firmly stopped at the Pamirs, and Central Asia would forever after be influenced by Arab and Islamic (Persian) culture. In addition, at the battle's end, Chinese paper-making artisans were kidnapped and brought back to the new Abbasid capital at Baghdad. At last, the mysteries of paper-making were unlocked. It was thanks to this technical know-how that the Arab empire embarked on what was a huge cultural enterprise to translate and propagate Greek philosophy, mathematics, and medicine.

Without this Arab effort, the great riches of Classical Greek culture would have been lost forever as Medieval Europe had turned its back on its classical past. The work of Aristotle was most famously preserved under the Arabs, but so too was Euclidean geometry and Alexandrian astronomy. Knowledge was not only preserved, but was also refined and re-worked into the great body of knowledge and culture which was propagated during the Arab golden age. For example. classical mathematical theory formed the basis of algebra, which was pioneered during the Golden Age of the Abbasinian dynasty.

Whether intentional or not, French philosophers (and your occasional Japanese academic) again and again urge us not to forget the pivotal role the Abbasids in Baghdad (with great Persian influence)-- as well as the Muslim philosophers and scholars of al-Andalus-- had on the Renaissance that occurred in Europe not long after. From the East, the Arabs received the technical achievements of the Chinese and Indians, and from the West, they took the body of Western Classical culture. They then dedicated themselves to preserving and expanding this body of knowledge. It was philosophers like Averroes and Avicenna who kept the light of philosophy and mathematics, physics and medicine burning brightly in what was a great cauldron of intellectual activity centered around Baghdad.

It seems at times-- whether one is interested in the achievements of the East or of the West-- that all roads truly lead to Oxiana; as Oxiana, perhaps more than anywhere on earth, has been a land that has stood at the crossroads of civilizations.

silk road diplomacy

"the very immortals can be moved; their virtue and honor and strength are greater than ours are, / and yet with sacrifices and offerings for endearment, / with libations and with savor men turn back even the immortals / in supplication, when any man does wrong and transgresses” (Iliad, IX 497-501)

You have to admit it stands to reason that the gods would indeed be moved in this version of Homeric destiny-- so guided by the human prayers and curses that forever bound together Troy, Rome and Carthage.

And knowing that their prayers had wings, the ancients also knew that to be truly great one must be able to defeat a great enemy-- so the Greeks praised Troy's strengths to high heaven-- as did Polybius, the Carthiginians'. This is not to argue that war itself was somehow more noble in ancient times, but rather that there is a possibility that how you understand your enemies in the end matters. That is to say that there are more or less noble ways of both going to war but also more or less noble ways of creating and "spinning" battle narratives-- and that these differences could be significant.

As my dear Caesar says, those who seek to promote war often ignore history.

And how much easier to do so in a world where you can go about life forgetting your country is even at war in the first place. To me, this is connected to having a very dfferent kind of concept over destiny; a concept which does not seem to include the Homeric notion of ordinary human influence. We still go to war but that idea of going up against a respected opponent is missing completely as the other side is dehumanized. Perhaps the ultimate symbol of this kind of modern prayerless destiny are the unmanned, robotic bombings which are remotely carried out by staff in an office building somewhere outside of Las Vegas and Langley. This is a policy which not only does Obama embrace but something with which he "virtually" kicked off his reign. (For the moral aspect of the policy, see the transcripts of this philosopher's zone program on political violence; and for a quick overview on the historical back ground, see the comment by the always brilliant, Patrick S O'Donnell here; also highly recommended is the Jane Mayer article from the New Yorker linked below).

It is a far cry from the days of Troy, when the Kings and elite oftentimes at least actually went into battle.

Along these lines classicist Mary Beard remarked recently as well that,

The bigger problem here is how we understand Virtue and Evil. It suits the cheaper side of political debate and media hype to imagine that somehow all the virtues (or vices) come together, as a package: a good person will be good across the board, a bad one similarly bad. It's a view with a long pedigree (and Aristotle has got a lot to answer for), but it crudifies political culture, is almost always a gross oversimplification and it undermines our capacity to deal with racism, terrorism, discrimination or whatever.

**

So if historical memory and the promotion of war are on one side of the coin, don't you think that communication and diplomacy are on the other?

I am a great fan of the writing of William Dalrymple. Not all that long ago he had another great article in the Guardian about the future of travel writing. One paragraph in particular caught my attention:

"It's no accident that the mess inflicted on the world by the last US administration was done by a group of men who had hardly travelled, and relied for information on policy documents and the reports of journalists sitting interviewing middle-class contacts in capital cities. A good travel writer can give you the warp and weft of everyday life, the generalities of people's existence that are rarely reflected in journalism, and hardly touched on by any other discipline. Despite the internet and the revolution in communications, there is still no substitute."

Indeed, reading this I thought that with the further and further cutting back ("outsourcing") of the old diplomatic corps really US policy is probably being decided mainly by a cabal of monoglots and cultural provincials. Whereas in contrast, the more I read about silk road history, the more I have been amazed by the way kings and leaders seemed to surround themselves with polyglot and multicultural advisors, spouses and elite. From al-Andalus to Chang'an, there were stunningly cosmopolitan and polyglot rulers.

The thing is, people quite simply do not always universally behave the same way and you cannot know this unless you go and see it! Or at the very least, you need people with such first-hand experience and language skills to advise you.... To wit: Vietnam.

This is why I appreciate Parag Khanna's work so much (though I don't agree with all his conclusions). A polylingual, the man has traveled pretty much everywhere on the planet. Hence, when he speaks, real experience talking to people informs his opinions. I am greatly looking forward to his upcoming book, the Future of Diplomacy.

Yes, two-way communication in the relevant languages really does matter.

Here is the other side from a war (Israel-Palestine Conflict) that very much has been played out-- for better or worse-- according to the old rules of the Game (though it seems drones are much used in that conflict as well; indeed, my friend Tina tells me that they were probably used in the incident named by the Slate.com author thereby confusing his argument?).

Some may say, there will always be warfare and it is in our benefit to make what is a necessary evil as efficient as possible. Others will counter that one needs to take the long view when it comes to political violence (and that includes the ethical implications).

Afterall, "historical provincialism" applies forward in time as well-- right into a short-sightedness.

**

Here is a link to the Jane Mayer article on predator drones and Pakistan.

And this on the  historical background of Asymetric Warfare and China.

reflections of the silk road (in Japan)

 

It is said that sometimes as many as 500 camels would make up the great silk road caravans that journeyed east-west across what is some of the most daunting terrain on earth. Indeed, it is the terrain itself that perhaps more than anything defines these lands through which the caravans passed. In addition to being dominated by some of the highest mountain ranges on earth-- the Pamirs, the Karakoram, the Himalaya, the Kunlun--- the area is also home to some of the most deadly deserts and lifeless basin areas as well. Completely landlocked, it was a journey of great extremes.

The silk road...

**

A victim of the atomic bomb blast (hibakusha 被爆者) at Hiroshima, Ikuo Hirayama is one of Japan's greatest living nihonga painters. Last night, flipping through a book containing some of his most famous paintings, a description of a time in his youth when the artist had hit a very low place in his life caught my attention. Suffering from sickness caused by radiation exposure, Hirayama had grown physically weak. And, in this debilitated state, he became emotionally distraught over his lack of success as a painter. "If I were to collapse now," he wrote, "none of my paintings would ever be known to the world-- nothing of myself would be left behind." He then vowed that he would not give up hope until he had achieved at least one painting that truly expressed what was in his own heart as well as the spirit of the times in which he was a part.

It was around this time that the image of the legendary translator of the silk road, the Chinese monk Xuanzang came to him in the form of his first great artistic success, the Transmission of Buddhism.

More powerful than what must have been great anxiety and fear over the hardship of making such a hazardous journey was Xuanzang's strong commitment to transmit the Buddhist teachings. Overcoming all his fears was his hope and prayers for a better and more peaceful future for humankind. It was this hope which gave the young Hirayama the start for his own personal journey （「平山郁夫の世界」より）

 

And what a journey his life has taken. From his painting of the great Chinese monk, Hirayama would embark on a lifetime devoted to painting and writing about the Silk Road. Not just as a painter, but in his capacity as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador, Hirayama has traveled and painted the silk road for some 50 years. From his work in Afganistan to UNESCO symposiums and children's projects, he is known for his vision of a "silk road" style cooperation and mutual flourishing between peoples.

Last week, I was working on a translation of an interview with one of Japan's greatest living composers. Like Yo Yo Ma, Miki Minoru is best known for his work on silk road music. When asked why he holds up the silk road as a symbol of mutual cooperation and peaceful coexistence, Miki had this to say:

The Silk Road was a uniquely peaceful trade route. Connecting Rome with Chang’an, it was a route that served to promote peaceful exchanges and mutual cooperation between Eastern and Western countries. It is interesting that while in Asia the Silk Road holds great interest and dreams, in the west it seems to be mainly of interest to archaeologists. As a person who fundamentally rejects the current uninteresting state of affairs whereby as the world Westernizes we are seeing more and more of a mono-culture, what I can do in my own projects is to choose artists whose own sense of identity is not that of “international.” Having said that, however, in my Japanese or Asian music projects, there are countless cases in which we utilize technologies or know-how produced by the West. Also, because of Japan’s own history of waves of influence by the refined culture of China, within my own identity as a Japanese, this great East Asian cultural flowering—together with my own personal approach--has been essential in my larger scale artistic activities.

Like Miki Minoru, I too have been surprised by the gap in how the silk road is understood in different places around the world. But rather than east versus west, I think that in fact all of the countries that once stood along the ancient silk road have a more or less similar view of the ancient trade route's symbolic value as an alternative possibility to international relations and globalization. Indeed, from Europe to Japan, UNESCO holds its Silk Road symposiums with this aim of promoting what they call "two-way dialogues" in the form of harmonious cultural and trade exchanges.

Especially in Japan, the Silk Road is often held up as a symbolic alternative to globalism-as -mono-culturalization. UNESCO's Eiji Hattori remarks that the opposite of this idea of the Silk Road is that of empire or colonialism. 

Miki, in his interview has a better description, I think, in which he says that while there will always be inbalances of power between different peoples over the stretch of time, when that inbalance of power tilts too far in one direction that it is this overwheming dominance of one group over another that has shown itself to have tremendous power in generating the kind of hate that leads to violence. And, it is his belief that it is only through harmonious exchanges and collaborative efforts between people that genuine peace can be established.

Yo Yo Ma said much the same thing in an interview he did for Wisconsin's public radio program East Meets West. Calling the Silk Road the "Internet of Antiquity," he said that as important as virtuosity in his work is what he calls a spirit of generosity. This is really captured by the image of an orchestra, says Miki, where virtuosity (in the form of the individual musicians) come together in a spirit of general equality (or as Yo Yo Ma says generosity) with the ultimate aim of mutual flourishing for all members.

**

Obviously, no one is really talking about how things actually may have been or not, for indeed, we have also seen the silk road used as a slogan for aggressive multinational corporations wanting to get a piece of the energy pie in that part of that world as well. But, in Japan-- at least-- the silk road has been overwhelmingly taken up as a symbol of mutual cooperation and co-flourishing which is viewed ultimately as a symbol for anti-"globalization" and world peace. 

What is most illuminating about this vision is that the opposite of globalization is not isolation. It is a more cooperative or mutually benefiting type of "two-way" exchange. And, as a two-way exchange, it would have less impact than current trade practives. (I have been reading about the way the cultural and trade practices of traditional societies along the silk road in the Himalaya which had remained basically intact for a thousand years of silk road history are becoming almost totally extinct over the past two decades for reasons related to empire, globalization, monoculturalization. For more see this post on Ladakh)

Japan, with its vibrant peace and ecology movements, has taken up these reflections of the silk road like perhaps no other people. (See this post). Having lived the past two decades through this silk road boom, I have been so impressed by both the approach of silk road history scholars (like those at Ryukoku University) as well as the surprisingly long term enthusiasm of the general public.

As Eiji Hattori once famously remarked: civilizations don't clash, ignorance does.

And so this unique commitment to an ideal of peace and mutual cooperation as seen in the romance of the stories we tell about the history of the silk road has always struck me as highly praiseworthy. To try and see the connections and our mutual co-dependence...

A friend remarked that he sometimes feels as if a new culture is being born. I wish I could agree with him. I guess I am too dark and gloomy for that. But, I will say this much: if a new culture is being born, I wonder if it isn't the one I sometimes feel blossoming right here in Japan at the grassroots level- where peace and ecoloogy is is so often spoken of in terms of inter-connectability, inter-dependence and dialogue.

**

Finally, I really recommend the Wisconsin public radio program (with Yo Yo Ma): East Meets West: the New Silk Road. Yo Yo Ma spoke about how important he believes it is for people to feel that they are a part of something bigger than just the practical concerns of their own lives. It reminded me of my friend Arsen's comment the other day concerning our conversation about Heidegger and "being online," when he remarked how hard he felt it was to find a spiritual or literary school in the busy-ness of our everyday practical lives (and how the Internet is so helpful in reaching out to form intellectual or spiritual communities). This all is, of course, very close to my own heart. To borrow my dear Caesar's words, I would always want to be the kind of person who isn't just sitting safely on the beach watching other people doing the swimming. Yes, it is a risk to get in the water-- you could even drown-- but, no matter what, I categorically agree with Caesar (and Yo Yo Ma) that one wants to live engaged and committed to something beyond just the practical. (Yes, Kierkegaard for President)

Japan's Silk Road Boom

 
While modern day Xian is often claimed to be the "terminus of the Silk Road," the Japanese rightly insist that the sands of the caravan routes really stopped at Nara. From Persian instruments and dances from Kucha to Buddhist scriptures brought by monks from China and Cambodia-- all this and more found its way to Japan during the 7th-8th century. And thanks to an almost obsessive antiquarianism, Japan today holds some of the most important and best preserved artistic treasures from that early period of Silk Road history.  And not just art objects, but believe it or not, Central Asian music and dances that originated during Tang Silk Road times still exist in Japan much as they were over 1000 years ago. Just like the perfectly preserved roman glass goblets that can be seen in Japanese museums today, the Japanese Imperial Household has preserved some of this music and dance for a millenium. (For more read this post on Kuchean Dancers and the Sogdian whirl).

Considering this thousand year-long fascination, it should come as no surprise that Japan still finds itself in the gripes of what is called its modern "Silk Road Boom." (For more on the Japanese approach to the Silk Road, see my post Silk Road Reflections). The general public for the past three decades just cannot seem to get enough of silk road history and there have been many large-scale, overwhelmingly popular documentaries, a seemingly unending stream of publications and countless museum exhibitions which draw large crowds. Of the museum exhibitions, the annual Shosoin Exhibition held in Nara is the most famous. This year marked the 61st annual exhibition and I wonder if it would pretty much take that long for a person going every year to see the collection in its entirity? For more on this exhibition, see my fellow Silk Road intriguer Jean's post on it for Kyoto Journal here.

1980s-1990s

NHK Special: The Silk Road. People say-- and wikipedia concurs-- that what really kicked off Japan's "silk road boom" was the legendary NHK video series: The Silk Road. Production began on the three-volume series in 1979. The first volume was a joint-production between NHK and China's CCTV-- the first-ever joint Sino-Japanese film production in history. The series was conceived immediately after diplomatic relations were restored between China and Japan in 1972. At that time the Chinese Premier Chou Enlai gave a press conference for Japanese reporters in which he challenged them to introduce China to the world. Not surprisingly, the theme of the Silk Road was brought forward and thus began the first-ever modern filming in Western China  by the outside world. It took some seven years of planning but in 1979 production was started which had the dual aim of both introducing China to the world, but more importantly to trace the way that Japan was itself connected to the rest of the world via Silk Road history.

The show remains a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. I mean, even 30 years ago, NHK is NHK: public television at its best. Of course, TV has come a long way in 30 years. Instead of digital high definition, the filming can be shakey at times and everything is obviously dated: from the famous 1970s opening song with its psychedelic shots of a 12 arm goddess moving to the rhythm of Kitaro's new age synthesizer to the journalist who heads out with a portable box-like audio recorder and microphone--it is from a different time and space!

China has changed a lot. In the filming, you see rural images that could have been taken a 1000 years ago. And, even in Xian, everyone is in gray Mao jackets and red caps, bicycles everywhere. Party officials ride through the crowded streets like hornets in their motorcycle side-cars. Its like those communist-era ballets that you see-- you can hardly believe your eyes.

I cannot locate the figures now, but the program had an astronomical budget and was funded almost entirely by NHK and included original research and many publications to accompany the series.

20% of the Japanese TV audience were said to have watched the series, which had very significant guest appearances by Shiba Ryotaro and Inoue Yasushi. There have been complaints about the English version that the content was "spotty" but the fact is the content was not spotty from a Japanese language point of view. I have not seen the program in English-- nor will I. The Japanese version is a masterpiece.

The first 12-volume series was so popular that the public demanded a second volume. And, so NHK went on alone (without their Chinese partners)-- all the way to Rome in 18 more volumes! This was filmed in 1983-4 and includes important filming of the Iraqi marshland people whose way of life have vanished.

For more, you can see my incomplete guide to the series: NHK The Silk Road Series/ NHK site here

--It was Kitaro's music for the Silk Road series that brought him international acclaim. Here it is!

**

Monkey. Like in China, the story Journey to the West 西遊記 is incredibly popular in Japan. A drama series based on the Chinese novel called Monkey was aired from 1978-9 and then a second series from 1979-80. The series was extremely popular. It's opening narration was especially impressive and this has retained for the later remakes of the series. Like Kitaro for NHK, the soundtrack for the series Monkey by the popular band Godiego was also a huge success-- especially popular were the songs Gandhara and Monkey Majik. 

The gorgeous Masako Natsume who played the starring role gained world-wide attention for this drama, as did Godiego and Monkey Majik. Watch music video Gandhara and Monkey Majik.

2000s

In 2000,Ikuo Hirayama created his monumental mural,  Series of Paintings of Western Regions in the Age of the Great Tang Dynasty in the Xuanzang Pavilion which stands behind Yakushi Temple in Nara. The Temple has been associated with the great Chinese Silk Road monk Xuanzang from its very beginnings in the 7th century, and Hirayama was asked to mark the millenium by making a series of paintings of the monk's journey on the pavilion walls. 

100 Year Anniversary of Otani Expedition. 2003 marked the (infamous?) Otani expedition to Central Asia. Along with the other "foreign devils on the silk road" like Aurel Stein, Sven Hedit, Pelliot and Von Le Coq, Kozui Otani led several archaelogical expeditions into Central Asia from which he brought back an astonishing amount of art works and important cultural properties. For more see my Post The Otani Mission. To mark the 100 year anniversary,a silk road symposium was held by Ryukoku University on silk road cultures and modern scientific research. the Mainichi Shinbum also had ran a very popular series of articles about the mission and the called 『阿弥陀が来た道―百年目の大谷探検隊』 ("The Road that Amida Traveled: 100 years since the Otani Mission"), which was then published as a book.

Saiyuki was re-made again in 2006 starring Shingo Katori. This series was the basis for the 2007 movie, also starring (you guessed it) Shingo. Movie trailer here and music here!

2005 New NHK Silk Road Special. In 2005, to celebrate NHK's 80th anniversary a New NHK Silk Road series was produced with the basic aim of re-visiting volume one of the original series to compare how much had changed in 25 years.

2007 NHK Special: The New Silk Road. A seven-part series, subtitled "Travels in Turbulent Lands," this latest edition was markedly different from the earlier series as it was mainly concerned with war and strife in Central Asia and the Arabia peninsula. Whereas the earlier documentaries were produced with the aim of showing common threads that bind the Japanese to other cultures as far away as Afganistan, this latest series was highlighting the tragic elements of more recent history.

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Important Digital Archiving work related to Silk Road:

2010 will mark the 1300 year anniversary of the founding of Nara, and to help mark the monumental ocassion, mayors from cities that are located along the Silk Road are being invited to visit.

The Centrality of Central Asia

-- for Paul

I wonder how many of you recall my post on Tyrian purple? I ended it with a question-- which I will copy here:

Something has been bothering me about the way the silk road is sometimes held up as a symbol of something worth emulating for today's times. We see, for example, scholars in Europe (UNESCO scholars) nostalgically discussing silk road exchanges as a "two way street" where, perhaps in contrast to monoculturalization or super-power monologues of today, silk road influence functioned more along the lines like true dialogue. (And, how much of this is being romanticized is not really the point as the interesting thing is not the historical accuracy, but rather what contemporary phenomenon it is being contrasted with).

In history books as well, there is a stress on the manner in which trade led the way for these exchanges. And, sometimes when I read, while I feel that there is an implied contrast at how things occur in today's world, I am left with questions.

Aren't international exchanges even today based on trade? Or has the financial world changed to such an extent that true two-way trade doesn't really exist any longer? But, we know that huge trade imbalances existed during Roman times. Pliny (I seem to recall) took pains to complain about Roman trade deficits with India. Purple silk was banned in part for this reason in ancient Rome (being reserved for the emperor). But, if it is not contemporary trade imbalances, what then is being implied?

Last month, Sam Crane had a post over at his place called Finance is Immoral, in which he wrote:

Decades ago, "finance" was generally understood as financing something other than finance itself; that is, stocks and bonds and money were tied to the production and circulation of goods and services, which were for the most part tangible, or "real" in economic parlance.  Beginning with at least the oil crisis of the 1970s, finance has been transformed, now stunningly overshadowing the "real" economy.   Left academics have coined the term "Financialization" to get at these changes.  How big has finance become?  That is a difficult question but think about this kind of statement (from the above linked Wikipedia page):

Thus, [in 2006] derivatives trading – mostly futures contracts on interest rates, foreign currencies, Treasury bonds, etc had reached a level of $1,200 trillion, $1.2 quadrillion, a year. By comparison, U.S. GDP in 2006 was $12.456 trillion.

     Indeed, this week "trillion" has become a common reference.  How big is the market in credit default swaps?  We hear reports in the tens of trillions.  Government action valued in the hundreds of billions seems puny by comparison.  Welcome to the world of financialization.

Sam asks, what would Mencius think? I think it's a good question.

**

I have finally gotten my hands on a book I've been wanting to read for several months now by Andre Gunder Frank, called The Centrality of Central Asia. The book remains an important work on both Central Asian history and on what is the more or less neglected field of "global history." The more I read about his life and his work, the more fascinated I become with Frank and this particular book is short but has all kinds of really interesting insights. And, being associated with the UNESCO scholars, he was for a time involved in UNESCO'S Silk Road Project.

One of Frank's main aims in the book is to bring out the way in which "trade both preceded and exceeded diplomacy;" so that the term "international trade" is probably unfortunate since it implies that international trade came into existence after nations did-- as some kind of trans-"national" trade. Frank says however, that in fact, ancient peoples-- with a few notable exceptions-- were organized along tribal loyalties with various shifting alliances which were not necessarily based on territory. And that even if the tribal groupings became organized within a larger empire, that people for the most part probably continued to associate along these more locally -based groupings. 

(Perhaps an ancient times a man from the Kingdom of Shu would in fact have considered himself not as a Chinese but a man from Shu? But in any case in Central Asia today, it is probably true that people identify themselves by their ethnic association rather than by their national/territorial identity).

Based on these smaller groupings, Frank says, people actively traded with one another, so that kingdoms, empires and nomadic groups (ethic associations) were much more symbiotic with each other than is apparent by reading modern history books. This is part of Frank's world system thesis (500 years or 5000?). And, it's true that it is always awe-inspiring to read about the way luxery items were traded up and down the silk road or around the Mediterrean, for example. Silks, horses, dyes, teas, slaves (particularly on the Western side), jade, pigments... and with these items came philosophies and religions. The amazingly speedy spread Islam in particular is associated with trade, but so too was Buddhism.

It almost seems ironic to be harkening back to this time so far back in history for its robust international trade and cosmopolitanism in our own age of globalization. If Frank is correct, humankind has been closely linked (symbiotically in some cases) for some 5000 years. Parag Khanna too holds up the silk road as one exemplery model for cosmopolitanism. He contrasts this with the strategic rivalry and international competition represented by the infamous Great Game, asking, what it's going to be for us in the future-- the silk road or another Great Game?

Frank gives numerous examples of the way the ancient civilazations were linked and the manner in which events during certain periods would have a ripple affect across the map. Here he quotes Beckwith on the Tang:

It is a curious fact that, unlike the proceeding and following centuries, the middle of the seventh and eighth centuries--specifically the period 742-755-- saw fundamental changes, usually signalled by successful political revolts, in every Eurasian empire. Most famous among them are the Carolignian, Abbasid, Uighur, Turkik, and the anti-Tang rebellions, each of which is rightly considered a watershed in the respective national histories. Significantly, they all seem to  have been intimately connected with Central Eurasia (1987)

And this leads to Frank's main point (as suggested by the title of the book) which is Central Asia has has a longtime central role in the history of the world, and that it remains--thanks to the massive amounts of oil and natural gas discovered there-- strategically key. Indeed, it sometimes feels as if all roads truly lead back to Oxiana.

So, these topics remain on my mind, and I still am not exactly sure how to approach them:
silk road trade versus contemporaray finance
silk road cosmopolitanism versus contemporary globalization
silk road international relations versus the Great Game

The Centrality of Central Asia (1992)/ Frank's website

A shining city upon a hill

  

Back in September, Sam Crane of the Useless Tree wrote an interesting post called, Can a Black Man be Chinese? which generated quite a lot of discussion. You can read the comments following his article for more, but in a nutshell, Sam questioned whether the expansion of China's economy would result in not only greater  globalization in China, but in a "culturalization" whereby, might not someday "a black person become Chinese?"

The question itself, I thought, had fatal problems, begging a lot of important questions-- not least of which is this: Does-- in fact-- globalization put forces in motion that lead inevitably to pluralistic societies?

I think we can look around the world and see that it it probably does not. Globalization can lead to various degrees of more flexible immigration policy and increased foreign labor (high-tech and special economic zones)-- but it has not--so far-- led to the birth of a gaggle of new pluralistic societies-- in the sense of say the US or Australia; New Zealand or Canada. Most developing, globalization countries seem to take different paths-- from highly restrained acceptance of foreign guest workers to out-right human rights violation disasters.

China, too, will most likely choose a course which will be markedly different from what Western observers might hope or expect--but that course will be unique to its history and cultural proclivities (with its own staggering domestic labor force, I doubt we'll be seeing any issues like that in Dubai, for example-- a place where more people probably ought to be looking).

Two things come to mind when I think about China and globalization.

One is that years ago, when I first came to Japan, I read in a guidebook what was probably a stupid piece of advice, and yet it has stuck with me all these years. That is, when Japanese go out into the world, they are shocked to see that other people actually live in ways very much like they do, while Americans going out into the world are shocked to see any place where people are doing things differently from them.

The above is obviously a huge exaggeration (the stuff one finds in guidebooks) But, then again, I do think there are many places, which I shall call the Old World countries, where people remain very conscious of the way in which their culture is unique and non-transferable; while there are other places, which I shall call New World countries, which are shaped by utopian, philosophical notions in which they see their way of life as having model-like qualities-- something to which all cultures could if they so desired strive toward; even in some cases, seeing the modern liberal democratic way as being the culmination of  enlightened development.

And herein lies the tension.

I am just finishing reading Parag Khanna's tour de force book, The Second World (NYT's review here), in which he makes the very crucial point that if the US wishes to continue playing a leadership role in the world, it might have to accept the fact that it is no longer the only game in town; and that, the world is no longer in a post-Cold War state of being whereby there are only two choices to choose from: our way or the highway.

Rather now, in what Khanna calls the geopolitical marketplace, up and coming developing countries, as well as other First World Countries for that matter, can "shop around" and choose to align themselves with one of several superpowers-- or better: align themselves with more than one at the same time- keeping things interesting.

According to Khanna, currently there are three superpowers that stand as empires: the US, the EU and China. So, for example, nowadays a "second world" country in Central Asia might wish to take on aspects of China's "communitarian" traditions (which stress collective welfare and stable, centralized government over over individual, political rights, etc.).

Khanna, in what is the most interesting (to me) aspect of the book, does not see this as a negative situation per se. Indeed, I had just finished Europe-based conservative Robert Kagan's latest book, in which-- Kagan basically painting a similar picture of the current state of the world, still sings the old post-Cold War song of an increased military vigilance in order to maintain hegemony (in order to avoid the old clash of civilizations thing).

In contrast-- a breath of fresh air really-- Khanna is calling for the US to embrace this new world and to perhaps, more like Europe, start thinking more globally itself.

And, that's the rub.

I am re-listening to Dreyfus' lectures on Kierkegaard (trying to get to the bottom of the Knight of Faith), and in the first lecture Dreyfus talks about Plato's play, the Meno, in which Socrates teaches a foreign-born slave how to solve the Pythagorean Therum. Greek civilization and the heights of its cultural achievements were in fact open to everyone (as long as they spoke Greek perhaps?) A slave yes, but even still participation in culture was open to him.

Contrast this, says Dreyfus, to the ancient Hebrews, where their culture was based on a covenent with God-- they were (at least at the start) the Chosen People. Conflicted by this dual heritage, perhaps there is a belief in the universality of our culture coupled with a desire to bring others into the Covenent. (I like to call it "sharing the good news").

Indeed-- and this is my second problem-- it could be said that our melting pot culture itself encourages not a true cultural pluralism but rather a melting of minority cultures into the dominant culture (the concern of anti-globalizationists). As I have written about many times in these pages, I keep seeing the "two-way" Silk Road being held up in European (UNESCO) publications as an alternative-style of internationalism. I pretty much said everything I wanted to say about the topic here. In my post, I held up Penang as an example of what I see as an old-world style cosmopolitanism, but another good example would be Ladakh.

You will recall that was where my pet peeve and I were headed out of Kashmir. Arriving in what still is one of the most most remote spots in India (which at that time had only been open to the westerners for less than 20 years and had only had electricity maybe 10 years) what surprised me most was its stunning cosmopolitanism. This is from my journal from 20 years ago:

At almost 12,000 feet, there are very few trees and everything is the same dusty shade of the mountains. Another Central Asian marketplace, the Leh Bazaar is jammed packed with stalls selling vegetables, live animals, jewelry, Tibetan arts and crafts and clothing. Walking around the bazaar, you just cannot believe how many different races of people found their way to this extremely remote Tibetan place on the Tibetan Plateau. Light-eyed Kashmiris, light-skinned Central Asians, dark haired Indians and Tibetans in their furs, tall hats and turquiose all walked the streets, shopping and enjoying the warm summer weather. Of course, in this remote region, downtown Leh might as well be downtown Manhattan.

Manhattan.

It really did remind me of New York too. The vibrant neighborhoods which for the most part are mutually-tolerant-- it wasn't a melting pot so much as a huge bazaar with two-way trade serving as the main conduit between people-- as Leh has existed right smack in the middle of the pilgrims paths and trade routes that crisscrossed the mountains on the roof of the world since the earliest days of the silk road.  

Khourosh says that to get beyond race and culture and believe in something bigger is ultimately "better"-- so that (in his example) to put being Singaporean above being Tamil or Chinese or Malay is somehow the more enlightened path. But if that just means we all become globalized (Americanized in Tokyo and Sinicized Kashgar) -- is that necessarily somehow better?) And what about those places which place a higher value on social and economic rights over individual liberty and free speech? As Khanna mentions, "Mencius argued that violating the right to food and material well-being is a greater crime than denying political rights." Aren't there other cultural priorities which also make sense?

Mutual tolerance and mutual benefit over ideology; dialog based on trade and culture are perhaps some of the ideas behind this recurrent interest in the silk road. (Indeed, even the Internet is called the New Silk Road).

Khanna too speaks of the Silk Road. In fact, he also sees two forces at work (particularly in Central Asia)-- which he says are the "two metaphors for the regions past as well as its future." These two forces are a Silk Road-style conduit of East-West globalization, as well as "a Great Game laboratory of unambiguous imperial competitition." And this is, I think, the choice before us: ideology and strategic competition or free-trade and mutual tolerance.

Michael over in the Opposite Side of China talks about how really tough it's become these recent years living as an American overseas.To wit, yesterday I received this email note from a friend in Kyoto in which he laments another accidental bombing in Afganistan:

昨日も、米軍がアフガニスタンで誤爆をしたとのことですが、アフガニスタンにしても、イラクにしても、相手の文化のことを理解せず、米国流が正義という考え方では憎悪の連鎖を生むだけですよね。そういう意味では新大統領には期待したいですが。。。

Yesterday there was another mistaken bombing on Afhangistan. In both Afganistan and Iraq, American-style justice which can be devoid of any understanding of other cultures, only breeds a cycle of hatred. For this reason, I am hopeful about the new President's election...

You know things are bad when your Japanese friends start saying stuff like that. As Michael says

I think it's safe to say that we've been exposed more frequently to the dislike/hatred of the United States that's grown over the last eight years during the disastrous Bush administration. I'm looking forward to at least four years of some pro-USA love! 

A little pro-US love.... now that would be refreshing. I'm still holding out for my EU passport, though.

**

Khanna's book is highly recommended.

And this too (by way of languagehat)-- which made me smile and reminded me of the unforgettable music in southern Africa-- so different from the jackhammers in Hongkong (with an ocassional songbird singing) or the air blowers in Los Angeles-- or even from the quiet of Japan... nonstop music.

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Finally, I added one final comment to Inside a Bronze Ding: Part 3

OK, back to work (this week-- hoping to pick up some tips! Here for pre-modern ways of walking in Japan)

Part 2: Al-Andalus

Part 2: The electrifying spread of Islam during its early phase was stunning. I am quite sure that I read recently that the port city of Canton in China already had a Mosque within the lifetime of the Prophet Mohamed himself, and within 50 years of his death, significant Muslim communities existed on three continents. Within a century after his death, a great Islamic dynasty stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the West all the way into the depths of Central Asia to the East. In terms of world history it was, to say the least, stunning.

Likened to having "spread like wildfire," I had always attributed this remarkable early spread of Islam to the revolutionary nature of the religion, which addressed grave social issues in a way that no other religion prior had. From a modern perspective Islam appears strikingly conservative, but in fact at its start it was revolutionary in its focus on bettering the lives of women and creating a kind of brotherhood of "People of the Book." In many places, we have descriptions of native inhabitants literally flinging open the city gates to let the incoming Muslim armies in. Why? Because they wanted to be liberated.

Indeed, the approaching Arab army was no more foreign to most of the natives of these places at the time than the people who were running the show there already. We are talking about the so-called decadent final days of the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires (and the Visigoths in Iberian Spain/Portugal). 

It will be remembered that it was the Umayyad Revolution in Persia which led to the overthrow of the Sassanian dynasty and eventual exile of our Prince Pirooz. 

Richard Foltz, in his book, (see Part 1) discusses some other practical reasons as well for the fast spread of early Islam, which I had never really considered before. First, no other religion-- not even Judaism-- favored business and trade as that of Islam. The Prophet Mohamed was himself a very successful businessman, after all. Inherent to the religion is a system of laws that govern fair trade and taxation-- and in a nutshell, it was financially advantageous to become a Muslim if you were doing business with the Muslim world. Not to get ahead of the story, but during the first Islamic Umayyad dynasty, so many Central Asians converted to Islam (to gain the major tax breaks the conversation allowed) that the Umayyad government, growing concerned that their government coffers were getting low, demanded more of a commitment to conversion-- in the form of circumcision!

For obvious reasons this led to revolutionary tendencies in local populations. Reformers and revolutionaries leveled two complaints against the Umayyads rulers in Damascus. One: they were living as decadently as the Byzantines whom they had displaced (Byzantine-style debauchery!). And two: that their form of Islamic rule had always remained too pro-Arab (not establishing the brotherhood of Islam/Protected Peoples of the Book as advertised) These gripes led to the eventual ousting of the Umayyads and establishment of the Abassid dynasty.

Interestingly, while the Abbassid revolution spread to all corners of the Muslim world of the time-- there was one large exception: the Iberian Peninsula. In a previous post, I wrote that:

Hattori sees three places which can be held up as points in history where we saw true "two way" intercultural dialog practiced on a large and institutionalized scale. Those places were, the Silk Road, Cordova Spain (al Andalus) and Byzantium.

Cordova Spain is an interesting case. I am listening to a BBC In Our Time program (first aired in 2002) on the topic of Muslim Spain which is  fascinating. The question being explored is this: Was this respect between religions that underpinned the stupendous cultural flowering of Islamic Spain fact or are we somehow idealizing the reality?

Starting the show, one of the experts tells us straight off (contrary to what they wiki article says) that the Berber invasion of Christian Visigoth Spain was done with absolutely no authority from Damascus! The ragtag army from North Africa just up and decided to invade the infidels! When the Islamic government back in Damascus heard of it they were displeased and called for the leader of the Berbers to come to Damascus at once.

The revolution, however, was already a done deed.

But how on earth did a small calvary of Berber soldiers overthrow the Arian Christian Visagoths (who after all were the people who had overthrown the Roman Empire)? Well, in a story that we hear again and again, the population basically welcomed them in with open arms. The Visagoths had imposed a feudal system on to the people who were suffering under their rule. One of the first things the Islamic army did was give the land back to the people who were actually working it and BBC expert and Christian theologian Martin Palmer tells us that this is the reason the Muslims were able to remain in power in Spain for an amazing 700 years. In addition to revolutionary theology there were very favorable tax breaks as well.

Tax breaks and revolution--

More than any other reason, however, was one of the characteristics of Muslim conquest was that local leaders were for the most part kept in place. So, that the Abassid dynasty centered in Baghdad was virtually run by Persians, so too in Iberian Spain local leaders were kept in power to run things. In general, that is because Arab populations of the time did not have organized social structures that could conveniently be put in place in the conquered lands.

More than the peasants, the Visigoths had alienated the Jewish population beyond repair. Having been reduced to almost slave status, the Jews were forbidden to practice their religion or to engage in trade of any kind (which reduced them to a state of servitude). So, when the Muslim army arrived, the Jewish population thought of them almost like a Messianic symbol. Working together, the Berber army would invade a city, only to turn the city over to the Jews so that they could continue their march West.

French philosophers (and your occasional Japanese) again and again urge us not to forget the pivotal role of the Abyssids in Baghdad (with great Persian influence)-- as well as the Muslim philosophers and scholars of al-Andalus-- had on the Renaissance that occurred in Europe not long after. From the East, the Arabs received the technical achievements of the Chinese and Indians, and from the West, they took the body of Western Classical culture. They then dedicated themselves to preserving and expanding this body of knowledge. It was philosophers like Averroes and Avicenna who kept the light of philosophy and mathematics, physics and medicine burning brightly in what was a great cauldron of intellectual activity centered around Baghdad.

It wasn't just the Muslim philosophers in Baghdad, however, that carried the great torch of science and philosophy during Europe's dark Ages, but there was a simultaneous cultural flowering going on in Muslim Spain under the Umayyads. This cultural flowering occurred both in the Islamic communities as well as the Jewish communities (as this period is known as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain.

In fact, for some reasons, the work accomplished by these Islamic and Jewish scholars filtered back into Europe by way of Iberia into France. In their discussion of this characterization of Moorish Spain as a Golden Age, it become apparent that rather than debating with each per se, the Muslim and Jewish philosophers were rather exploring ways to rectify religious thought (revelation/faith) with the rationalism (reason/discovery) of the Ancient Greeks. And it was this that would have such a profound impact on Europe, eventually giving rise to the Renaissance. 

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So, was Cordova unique? I highly recommend you listen to the BBC Radio Program (linked above) to find out!

In addition there is

BBC Radio In Our Time
Averroes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20061005.shtml

And, on relationship between religion (Judaism) and Philosophy (Aristotelean thought) see Wiki article on Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed

Part 1: The Lost Tribes of Israel (The Iranian Connection)

Anyone who wants to read up on the history of the Silk Road will immediately hear about Richard Foltz's Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the 15th Century. I bought the book when it was first published almost ten years ago. Such was the positive hype around the book that I have been saving it-- like someone might save a particularly good year of brandy or expensive bottle of champagne-- for just the right time.

This weekend, the right time at last presented itself. Cracking open the first pages of the book on the Shinkansen traveling West toward Mount Fuji, I must admit-- I immediately found the book absolutely fascinating. There are sadly few books that take in the span of the world's great religions from the perspective of the early period. Indeed, the religions we recognize today as Christianity, Buddhism or Judaism were quite different 1000 years ago....

And not only that, but considering that all the major religions of the world had their origins along the lands of the Silk Road-- where there was a stunning amount of inter-cultural exchange, it should come as no surprise to find out that there was much cross-fertilization of ideas, which would have a profound impact on the religions that have come down to us today.

The Silk Road was, after all, the great highway across the spine of Asia which saw not only a phenomenal exchange of goods, but a surprising exchange of ideas as well.

First, bear with me-- I am going to dive into a topic I don't know all that much about: early Judaism. I am, of course, going to avoid the topic of which is the world's oldest monotheistic religion too. On an old BBC In Our Time show devoted to Zoroastrianism, the panel had a good chuckle when the host, Melvyn Bragg, tried to bring up that question of what is the world's oldest extant religion. Let's just say they are both very, very old religions. And while both are still in existence, only Judaism remains one of the world's major religions.

King David, the beloved, not only ruled the ancient Kingdom of Israel (centered in Jerusalem) but he was so adept at the harp that he could calm the evil spirits of men. The harp is one of the world's most ancient instruments-- and Israel is one of the world's most ancient Kingdoms. We are talking of a time some 3000 years ago.

David's great Kingdom was crushed in two waves. The first came as a result of the Assyrians who ransacked the Northern part of the Kingdom in 722 (that is 722 BC!) and relocated all the inhabitants by force to other parts of the Assyrian Empire. The Southern Kingdom (Judah) somehow managed to survive intact for another century. However, in 587 BC the Babylonians arrived. Again, all the residents who survived the initial attack were forcibly relocated back to Mesopotamia (where they were put to work as slaves). 

This sorry state of affairs, however, wasn't too last long as Cyrus the Great (Otherwise known as Khurosh-e kabir) led his unstoppable Persian Empire army into Mesopotamia where he invaded Babylon and set all the Jewish slaves free, thereby ending the Babylonian captivity. Many of the freed Jewish slaves returned to their homeland. Many too stayed in Persia--thereby forming the origins of Iran's present-day Jewish communities (granted many now live in Los Angeles!)

Cyrus the Great (the real one) must have been in a very good mood indeed, for not only did he free the Jewish slaves, but he granted protection of their religion as well. Foltz in his book goes on to argue that the Jewish religion was heavily influenced by the Zoroastrianism of the Persians during this period. This happened both in communities that elected to stay in Babylonia as well as those which returned to their homeland (for all was in effect part of the great Persian Achaemenid Empire, which stretched from modern day Turkey in the West to the Indus River in the East).

Foltz in-- what to me-- was a surprising turn, goes on to describe the changes that the Jewish religion undertook during this period. In a nutshell, he says that the following concepts did not exist in Judaism prior to this period and their origins can be traced to Iranian sources(that is they all have Iranian/Zoroastrian origin). These are:

1) Eschatological concepts of coming Messiah/Savior, bodily resurrection, Last Judgment
2) Heaven/Paradise and Hell (punishment for the wicked)
3) Angels and Demons?devils
4) Numerology based on Number 7

To my knowledge, no one has refuted any of his claims, and this leads to the question, of course, what was Judaism without the above concepts?

Not surprisingly, the author since this work has turned increasingly to research into ancient Persia and came out with another book (which I would very much like to read next) called Spirituality in the Land of the Noble: How Iran Shaped the World's Religions.

This is exactly the kind of "borrowing" that Hattori wants us to think about in terms of our present situation. He wants us to remember a time when peoples and religions were *mutually* interconnected. Of course, Judaism forms the great base of Christianity, but Judaism itself was in all probability heavily influenced during its late period by Persian Zoroastrianism.

** 

I now want to go back to the first invasion of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC. That was when the residents of Israel were forcibly brought to the far Eastern reaches of the Assyrian empire-- to Khorason (modern day Eastern Iran and Afghanistan). The Israelite presence in Central Asia is thought to have begun at this time-- and as one of the great peoples of trade it is not out of the realm of possibility to imagine that they in fact did make it as far as China ("The Jews of Kaifeng").

These forcibly relocated prisoners of war were, of course, the lost Ten Tribes of Israel.

The story of the Lost Ten Tribes, based mainly on biblical sources, has intrigued people in much the same way as the Silk Road itself. To imagine these ten tribes of people, scattered to the four corners of the earth, well, you have to admit it captures the imagination. And, then when you hear who they are reputed to be, that is I think what really hooks you in. The Kashmiris? The Pahtuns? The Ethiopians? The Japanese? The Sakas? The Kurds? The Lemba Tribe (of South Africa)? The Jews of Kaifeng? The Irish (!)..... The list continues. I mean if you stop to think about it, these are all the people who themselves think they are somehow culturally or ethnically different from the people around them.

In my last post, I asked the question, Where would you live if you lived 1400 years ago? I think the answer to that question is simple. But what about 3000 years ago? Well, I know I where wouldn't have wanted to be. And that is in David's Kingdom!

And what of Babylon, was it really that bad?

**

Anyone who wants to read up on the history of the Silk Road will immediately hear about Richard Foltz's Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the 15th Century. I bought the book when it was first published almost ten years ago. Such was the positive hype around the book that I have been saving it-- like someone might save a particularly good year of brandy or expensive bottle of champagne-- for just the right time.

This weekend, the right time at last presented itself. Cracking open the first pages of the book on the Shinkansen traveling West toward Mount Fuji, I must admit-- I immediately found the book absolutely fascinating. There are sadly few books that take in the span of the world's great religions from the perspective of the early period. Indeed, the religions we recognize today as Christianity, Buddhism or Judaism were quite different 1000 years ago....

And not only that, but considering that all the major religions of the world had their origins along the lands of the Silk Road-- where there was a stunning amount of inter-cultural exchange, it should come as no surprise to find out that there was much cross-fertilization of ideas, which would have a profound impact on the religions that have come down to us today.

The Silk Road was, after all, the great highway across the spine of Asia which saw not only a phenomenal exchange of goods, but a surprising exchange of ideas as well.

First, bear with me-- I am going to dive into a topic I don't know all that much about: early Judaism. I am, of course, going to avoid the topic of which is the world's oldest monotheistic religion too. On an old BBC In Our Time show devoted to Zoroastrianism, the panel had a good chuckle when the host, Melvyn Bragg, tried to bring up that question of what is the world's oldest extant religion. Let's just say they are both very, very old religions. And while both are still in existence, only Judaism remains one of the world's major religions.

King David, the beloved, not only ruled the ancient Kingdom of Israel (centered in Jerusalem) but he was so adept at the harp that he could calm the evil spirits of men. The harp is one of the world's most ancient instruments-- and Israel is one of the world's most ancient Kingdoms. We are talking of a time some 3000 years ago.

David's great Kingdom was crushed in two waves. The first came as a result of the Assyrians who ransacked the Northern part of the Kingdom in 722 (that is 722 BC!) and relocated all the inhabitants by force to other parts of the Assyrian Empire. The Southern Kingdom (Judah) somehow managed to survive intact for another century. However, in 587 BC the Babylonians arrived. Again, all the residents who survived the initial attack were forcibly relocated back to Mesopotamia (where they were put to work as slaves). 

This sorry state of affairs, however, wasn't too last long as Cyrus the Great (Otherwise known as Khurosh-e kabir) led his unstoppable Persian Empire army into Mesopotamia where he invaded Babylon and set all the Jewish slaves free, thereby ending the Babylonian captivity. Many of the freed Jewish slaves returned to their homeland. Many too stayed in Persia--thereby forming the origins of Iran's present-day Jewish communities (granted many now live in Los Angeles!)

Cyrus the Great (the real one) must have been in a very good mood indeed, for not only did he free the Jewish slaves, but he granted protection of their religion as well. Foltz in his book goes on to argue that the Jewish religion was heavily influenced by the Zoroastrianism of the Persians during this period. This happened both in communities that elected to stay in Babylonia as well as those which returned to their homeland (for all was in effect part of the great Persian Achaemenid Empire, which stretched from modern day Turkey in the West to the Indus River in the East).

Foltz in-- what to me-- was a surprising turn, goes on to describe the changes that the Jewish religion undertook during this period. In a nutshell, he says that the following concepts did not exist in Judaism prior to this period and their origins can be traced to Iranian sources(that is they all have Iranian/Zoroastrian origin). These are:

1) Eschatological concepts of coming Messiah/Savior, bodily resurrection, Last Judgment
2) Heaven/Paradise and Hell (punishment for the wicked)
3) Angels and Demons?devils
4) Numerology based on Number 7

To my knowledge, no one has refuted any of his claims, and this leads to the question, of course, what was Judaism without the above concepts?

Not surprisingly, the author since this work has turned increasingly to research into ancient Persia and came out with another book (which I would very much like to read next) called Spirituality in the Land of the Noble: How Iran Shaped the World's Religions.

This is exactly the kind of "borrowing" that Hattori wants us to think about in terms of our present situation. He wants us to remember a time when peoples and religions were *mutually* interconnected. Of course, Judaism forms the great base of Christianity, but Judaism itself was in all probability heavily influenced during its late period by Persian Zoroastrianism.

** 

I now want to go back to the first invasion of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC. That was when the residents of Israel were forcibly brought to the far Eastern reaches of the Assyrian empire-- to Khorason (modern day Eastern Iran and Afghanistan). The Israelite presence in Central Asia is thought to have begun at this time-- and as one of the great peoples of trade it is not out of the realm of possibility to imagine that they in fact did make it as far as China ("The Jews of Kaifeng").

These forcibly relocated prisoners of war were, of course, the lost Ten Tribes of Israel.

The story of the Lost Ten Tribes, based mainly on biblical sources, has intrigued people in much the same way as the Silk Road itself. To imagine these ten tribes of people, scattered to the four corners of the earth, well, you have to admit it captures the imagination. And, then when you hear who they are reputed to be, that is I think what really hooks you in. The Kashmiris? The Pahtuns? The Ethiopians? The Japanese? The Sakas? The Kurds? The Lemba Tribe (of South Africa)? The Jews of Kaifeng? The Irish (!)..... The list continues. I mean if you stop to think about it, these are all the people who themselves think they are somehow culturally or ethnically different from the people around them.

In my last post, I asked the question, Where would you live if you lived 1400 years ago? I think the answer to that question is simple. But what about 3000 years ago? Well, I know I where wouldn't have wanted to be. And that is in David's Kingdom!

And what of Babylon, was it really that bad?

**

About Coming Alive in the Tang Dynasty

 

S. asks me, why my blog is named Tang Dynasty Times when, "so few of the posts have little to do with the name." The short answer, of course, is that many-- even if not most-- do in fact have much to do with the Tang dynasty. 

Years ago, at a time when I was reading book upon book of Song dynasty history- indeed my daytime thinking was almost entirely concerned with, perhaps obsessed with that period of time;  at night, especially just before falling asleep, it was bits of history and slices of culture from the Tang times that seemed to float in front of my eyes: Lady Yang  and her rainbow dance, Kuchan drums and the Sogdian whirl; heavenly fragrant incense clocks, detailed astronomy and highly accurate ancient calendars... Sometimes I think that all roads lead back to Ajanta. Mostly, though, I think they lead back to Tang times.

As I said, that was years ago...

Nowadays, I find myself drifting back again and again to the Tang dynasty for different reasons. There are two things I tend to like thinking about these days. Neither are anything I think I can solve-- in fact, I probably cannot even say anything intelligent or coherent about these matters. And yet, I find I like to think about them.

The first is concerned with a kind of multicultural internationalism as symbolized by the Silk Road of the Tang dynasty. I already wrote about this idea at length here. Of course, we are talking of a time over a thousand years ago, so no one can actually say what things were really like, and yet we have these very intriguing hints of a time when trade and cultural borrowings happened along a two-way street-- as oppossed to the one-way superhighway that ideas seem to move along nowadays; where even liberal democracy, in the words of my favorite Qing historian, is seen as something to be marketed and franchised.

In one sense, what I am pondering really comes down to not throwing away the baby with the bath water. I suppose you could call it a kind of Old World hesitation. I never thought the day would come, but in the past several years, megastores, Cosco and Starbucks have arrived even in my small corner of Japan.

Yes, it is the end of the world, and small shops and independent stores have most probably seen their fates sealed in their own blood. For people by necessity tend to choose the economically efficient, but is the economically efficient always the the high road? Huge amounts of "stuff," made mostly in China are shipped across the oceans and skies to fill big warehouses- and what is even in those coffee drinks anyway?

Old World style versions of internationalism and cosmopolitanism versus New World "globalization as Americanization"--I think you almost have to live abroad-- or at least read internationally--to understand just how much people around the world talk about this issue, and it can be as much about  American materialism ("the neon glow of KFC around nearly every corner") as Chinese communist-style culture-obliterating city-building; Stalinism in Eastern Europe, etc. Pax Roma, Pax Mongolica, Pax Americana...

In my own work, I am even seeing from the usually mild-mannered Japanese: "Why do we have to play by all American rules in business? American-style capitalism is not the only game in town." In particular, it is the stress on short-term quarterly earning dividends etc. that seems to irk the execs; or a scholar who wonders how much has been lost by the wholesale adotion of Western concepts to his field to the point that "anyone trying to work outside these concepts quite simply doesn't get funded or published" In this sense globalism is less about a sophisticated understanding and respect of other cultures as it is about the creation of one world with a shared culture made up of shared values. Many people are probably thinking, "well, that's a good thing, isn't it?"

On a different level, also at the same time connected to this idea of value pluralism (which is different from value relativism), I have found myself increasingly intrigued with our pre-conceived notions of history itself. I have already mentioned Chris Hedge's statements concerning the fallacy of "progress"-- or rather, to repeat S's summary of Hedges that material (technological and economic) progress without moral progress only raises the stakes (see this interview at salon for example). Which brings me to my man in England. Alan Saundars recently interviewed the British philosopher John Gray (who is so politically interesting you can hardly believe isn't French) on the June 28 edition of the Philospher's Zone. While I could not make any sense of his Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, still, with regard to my own project, I have enjoyed pondering his ideas concerning history.

For example:

But you can invert the beliefs, you can get rid of the beliefs but still have the patterns of thinking. You just emptied Christianity, if you like, of its transcendental content, and you're left with the same structure, so along one of these patterns, what is the idea of history as a kind of process of the sort I've described, which is continuous, enriched with potentially a kind of culmination, not necessarily a huge Utopian transformation, it can be more incremental, more slow, but most people I would say in the post-Christian societies of the West, inherit the idea that the world is moving towards, or can be made to move towards with collective human action, collective human endeavour and enterprise, a situation in which the whole world is, so to speak, unified by certain values and the whole world accepts perhaps a single word that may be based on science of something of that kind. And the whole world is in some ways better than it's ever been in the past. And indeed, I think for many people the meaning of their lives really depends on that belief. If you strip out that belief in progress, if you start thinking of the world in the way in which the ancient pre-Christian Europeans did, or the Buddhists and the Hindus or the Taoists of China do, many people think that's a kind of despair, I don't know how many times I've been told 'If I thought that John I wouldn't get up in the morning. And if I agreed with you, John, that history had no pattern of that kind, I wouldn't get up in the morning.' I said, 'Well stay in bed a bit longer, you might find a better reason for getting up.'

And that's a kind of example of the way in which a view of history which comes from Christianity, and which really doesn't have much sort of coherence, because after all, humanity is not an entity that can choose or act. We have international institutions like the United Nations and world trade organs, but humanity never does anything. Humanity is simply six or seven billion human beings each with their own dreams, hopes, projects, illusions, delusions, fantasies, beliefs, values, projects etc. Humanity doesn't do anything at all. And I expect the future of humanity or the human animal, the human species, to be in ethical and political respects, much like the past. There'll be new inventions, new knowledge, if there are any phenomena, new for humans at least, like global warming, it's happening now, it hasn't happened before in this way in human history or pre-history, but basically the future will be like the past, history will go on. Oddly enough, when I tell people like that, they say, 'You mean we're all doomed?' I say, initially I became rather puzzled by it, what I'm saying is that we carry on coping the way we did in the past.' 'Do you mean we're all doomed?'

Doomed to go on indeed!

Indirectly along these lines, I have found that having a second calendar inside my head (here, having the Tang dynasty as a kind of ground zero and there- at my other place-- framing everything in terms of the Chinese calendar) has been very renewing for me. I wanted to borrow a phrase that I just read in one of my favorite magazines, Kyoto Journal. John Einarsen is interviewing Tokyo photographer and artist, Yasu Suzuka. Toward the end of the interview, Suzuka says,

The entire Chinese calendar is inside my head. It is a means of deciding travel days and destinations related to the Chinese philosophy of yin yang. Simply put, although time has been decided to be "nine-to-five," I believe there's nothing wrong in making myself come alive in this other way. This is the world born of ancient Chinese philosophy, in which there is circulation in nature, and in which humans act in harmony with nature. You should not ignore your mind or body when it comes to deciding how and when to decide things.Since you are connected to the cosmos you must pay atention to your balance within it.

Choosing to come alive in a different way....

Did I answer your question, S? You know, the name I really wanted was already taken...

 

S. asks me, why my blog is named Tang Dynasty Times when, "so few of the posts have little to do with the name." The short answer, of course, is that many-- even if not most-- do in fact have much to do with the Tang dynasty. 

Years ago, at a time when I was reading book upon book of Song dynasty history- indeed my daytime thinking was almost entirely concerned with, perhaps obsessed with that period of time;  at night, especially just before falling asleep, it was bits of history and slices of culture from the Tang times that seemed to float in front of my eyes: Lady Yang  and her rainbow dance, Kuchan drums and the Sogdian whirl; heavenly fragrant incense clocks, detailed astronomy and highly accurate ancient calendars... Sometimes I think that all roads lead back to Ajanta. Mostly, though, I think they lead back to Tang times.

As I said, that was years ago...

Nowadays, I find myself drifting back again and again to the Tang dynasty for different reasons. There are two things I tend to like thinking about these days. Neither are anything I think I can solve-- in fact, I probably cannot even say anything intelligent or coherent about these matters. And yet, I find I like to think about them.

The first is concerned with a kind of multicultural internationalism as symbolized by the Silk Road of the Tang dynasty. I already wrote about this idea at length here. Of course, we are talking of a time over a thousand years ago, so no one can actually say what things were really like, and yet we have these very intriguing hints of a time when trade and cultural borrowings happened along a two-way street-- as oppossed to the one-way superhighway that ideas seem to move along nowadays; where even liberal democracy, in the words of my favorite Qing historian, is seen as something to be marketed and franchised.

In one sense, what I am pondering really comes down to not throwing away the baby with the bath water. I suppose you could call it a kind of Old World hesitation. I never thought the day would come, but in the past several years, megastores, Cosco and Starbucks have arrived even in my small corner of Japan.

Yes, it is the end of the world, and small shops and independent stores have most probably seen their fates sealed in their own blood. For people by necessity tend to choose the economically efficient, but is the economically efficient always the the high road? Huge amounts of "stuff," made mostly in China are shipped across the oceans and skies to fill big warehouses- and what is even in those coffee drinks anyway?

Old World style versions of internationalism and cosmopolitanism versus New World "globalization as Americanization"--I think you almost have to live abroad-- or at least read internationally--to understand just how much people around the world talk about this issue, and it can be as much about  American materialism ("the neon glow of KFC around nearly every corner") as Chinese communist-style culture-obliterating city-building; Stalinism in Eastern Europe, etc. Pax Roma, Pax Mongolica, Pax Americana...

In my own work, I am even seeing from the usually mild-mannered Japanese: "Why do we have to play by all American rules in business? American-style capitalism is not the only game in town." In particular, it is the stress on short-term quarterly earning dividends etc. that seems to irk the execs; or a scholar who wonders how much has been lost by the wholesale adotion of Western concepts to his field to the point that "anyone trying to work outside these concepts quite simply doesn't get funded or published" In this sense globalism is less about a sophisticated understanding and respect of other cultures as it is about the creation of one world with a shared culture made up of shared values. Many people are probably thinking, "well, that's a good thing, isn't it?"

On a different level, also at the same time connected to this idea of value pluralism (which is different from value relativism), I have found myself increasingly intrigued with our pre-conceived notions of history itself. I have already mentioned Chris Hedge's statements concerning the fallacy of "progress"-- or rather, to repeat S's summary of Hedges that material (technological and economic) progress without moral progress only raises the stakes (see this interview at salon for example). Which brings me to my man in England. Alan Saundars recently interviewed the British philosopher John Gray (who is so politically interesting you can hardly believe isn't French) on the June 28 edition of the Philospher's Zone. While I could not make any sense of his Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, still, with regard to my own project, I have enjoyed pondering his ideas concerning history.

For example:

But you can invert the beliefs, you can get rid of the beliefs but still have the patterns of thinking. You just emptied Christianity, if you like, of its transcendental content, and you're left with the same structure, so along one of these patterns, what is the idea of history as a kind of process of the sort I've described, which is continuous, enriched with potentially a kind of culmination, not necessarily a huge Utopian transformation, it can be more incremental, more slow, but most people I would say in the post-Christian societies of the West, inherit the idea that the world is moving towards, or can be made to move towards with collective human action, collective human endeavour and enterprise, a situation in which the whole world is, so to speak, unified by certain values and the whole world accepts perhaps a single word that may be based on science of something of that kind. And the whole world is in some ways better than it's ever been in the past. And indeed, I think for many people the meaning of their lives really depends on that belief. If you strip out that belief in progress, if you start thinking of the world in the way in which the ancient pre-Christian Europeans did, or the Buddhists and the Hindus or the Taoists of China do, many people think that's a kind of despair, I don't know how many times I've been told 'If I thought that John I wouldn't get up in the morning. And if I agreed with you, John, that history had no pattern of that kind, I wouldn't get up in the morning.' I said, 'Well stay in bed a bit longer, you might find a better reason for getting up.'

And that's a kind of example of the way in which a view of history which comes from Christianity, and which really doesn't have much sort of coherence, because after all, humanity is not an entity that can choose or act. We have international institutions like the United Nations and world trade organs, but humanity never does anything. Humanity is simply six or seven billion human beings each with their own dreams, hopes, projects, illusions, delusions, fantasies, beliefs, values, projects etc. Humanity doesn't do anything at all. And I expect the future of humanity or the human animal, the human species, to be in ethical and political respects, much like the past. There'll be new inventions, new knowledge, if there are any phenomena, new for humans at least, like global warming, it's happening now, it hasn't happened before in this way in human history or pre-history, but basically the future will be like the past, history will go on. Oddly enough, when I tell people like that, they say, 'You mean we're all doomed?' I say, initially I became rather puzzled by it, what I'm saying is that we carry on coping the way we did in the past.' 'Do you mean we're all doomed?'

Doomed to go on indeed!

Indirectly along these lines, I have found that having a second calendar inside my head (here, having the Tang dynasty as a kind of ground zero and there- at my other place-- framing everything in terms of the Chinese calendar) has been very renewing for me. I wanted to borrow a phrase that I just read in one of my favorite magazines, Kyoto Journal. John Einarsen is interviewing Tokyo photographer and artist, Yasu Suzuka. Toward the end of the interview, Suzuka says,

The entire Chinese calendar is inside my head. It is a means of deciding travel days and destinations related to the Chinese philosophy of yin yang. Simply put, although time has been decided to be "nine-to-five," I believe there's nothing wrong in making myself come alive in this other way. This is the world born of ancient Chinese philosophy, in which there is circulation in nature, and in which humans act in harmony with nature. You should not ignore your mind or body when it comes to deciding how and when to decide things.Since you are connected to the cosmos you must pay atention to your balance within it.

Choosing to come alive in a different way....

Did I answer your question, S? You know, the name I really wanted was already taken...