Title

To Achieve Great Peace: Song Taizong to Zhenzong’s “Fengshan” Activities

Author

Chang, Wei-ling  

Genre

Article  

Pages

481-524  

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

Song Taizong, Song Zhenzong, Great Peace, fengshan  

Abstract

        This paper discusses the political process of the early Song 宋 era by analyzing the fengshan 封禪-related actvities of Song Taizong 宋太宗 and Song Zhenzong 宋真宗. In the tradition of Chinese political culture, fengshan cannot be separated from the idea of Great Peace 太平. There were four conditions that had to be fulfilled to achieve Great Peace: unity, lack of foreign invasions, lack of natural disasters, and auspicious signs from heaven. I go a step further and discuss how Taizong and Zhenzong regarded the dynasty’s distance from Great Peace, and also which methods they used to try to achieve it. Taizong tried many times to perform fengshan, but he had to give up because he could not satisfy the conditions for peace. Zhenzong, on the other hand, claimed the achievement of Great Peace, for he had broken away from the shadow of a short-lived dynasty.