For information on this source, see source 1.9.

In the passage below, Yang Xiong frames the Han empire’s greatness in terms of its ability to attract tribute from distant lands and even former adversaries by peaceful means based on the Confucian concept of “moral charisma.” Yang then avers, via dismissive and dehumanizing language about barbarians and a nod to Jia Juanzhi, that the Han has no need to pursue territorial expansion beyond the Central Lands.

The translation below is mine but has benefited from Michael Nylan’s complete translation of the Fayan. See Michael Nylan trans., Exemplary Figures/Fayan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013).

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The Han dynasty’s moral charisma (de) is truly great! From as far south as Huangzhi and as far west as Daxia, from the eastern barbarians (dongdi) to the Xiongnu in the north, all foreign peoples have come to present their prized products as tribute.¹ The Han dynasty’s moral charisma is truly great! Few ages have witnessed its like.

To have vast moral charisma, universally admired by distant peoples, is the best. To have awesome military power and send armies in every direction is not as good. To let the barbarians invade the Xia, wreaking havoc on the king’s subjects, and to exhaust the country and lose its armies in military defeats—that is the worst….

Someone said, “The boisterous northern barbarians (i.e., Xiongnu) are wearing our fine silk and our ornaments of gold and rhinoceros horn. Is this not like paying tribute (xiang) to them?” I said, “In the days of emperors Gao (r. 202–195 BCE), Wen (r. 180–157 BCE), and Wu, they were indeed like gods of war (i.e., formidable foes). But now they have prostrated themselves and come to submit as our vassals; they have become our northern defensive barrier. This makes them similar to the protective spirits in our ancestral temples and altars of soil and grain. How then can we not make offerings (xiang) to them?”²

To the west of the [White] Dragon Dunes and to the north of the great (Gobi) desert are the bird[-like] barbarians and beast[-like] barbarians (Yi).³ To burden the imperial armies with [establishing] commanderies [over them]—this the House of Han refuses to do. The abandonment of Zhuya commandery was Jia Juanzhi’s great contribution; if not for him, we would have exchanged the lives of clothed men for those of shelled and scaled creatures.⁴

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1. Daxia was the Han name for Bactria. Huangzhi was a distant country that presented a rhinoceros as tribute to the Han emperor in 2 CE. Historians generally identify it as the south Indian city of Kanchipuram (Kanchi). The Hanshu claims that Wang Mang, then serving as regent, used generous gifts to bribe the king of Huangzhi into sending the rhinoceros, so as to burnish his political prestige in preparation for usurping the imperial throne. The Fayan, written on the eve of Wang Mang’s usurpation in 9 CE, interprets the rhinoceros as evidence of the Han dynasty’s moral charisma, rather than Wang’s. One may read this as Yang Xiong subtly expressing disapproval of Wang’s political ambitions, though he cloaked himself in plausible deniability by comparing Wang favorably to two famously selfless and sagacious regents, Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou. ↩︎
2. This passage plays on two meanings of the word xiang 享: to pay tribute to a suzerain, and to make offerings to gods and spirits. Yang Xiong is using the alliance forged in 51 BCE between the Han and a Xiongnu leader, the Huhanye Chanyu, as more evidence of Han moral charisma. Apparently responding to complaints that the Han court’s generosity toward embassies from the Xiongnu is excessive and demeaning, Yang reasons that the costs saved by an end to warfare on the northern frontier make it worthwhile. ↩︎
3. “White Dragon Dunes” was the Han empire’s name for a desert area near modern Lop Nur, Xinjiang. ↩︎
4. For this allusion, see source 2.4. ↩︎