This excerpt, from an undated short essay by the ninth-century Tang writer Sun Qiao (fl. 855-880), presents an interesting counterpoint to Du You’s claim (see source 2.13) that barbarians are uncivilizable and therefore not worth conquering. Sun suggests that a great empire like the Tang can civilize the barbarians without conquering them militarily, simply by inspiring imitation and providing opportunities for a Chinese-style education.

After the Tang opened up its civil service examinations to foreign candidates around 821, Silla produced the majority of such candidates, as well as the majority of foreign students in Chang’an. The Yunnan kingdom of Nanzhao did not send students or examination candidates to Chang’an; instead, its elite young men were sent to schools in the city of Chengdu to learn literacy and numeracy. But Sun Qiao’s paean to Chinese civilizing influence either underestimates or ignores the agency and self-interest of states like Silla and Nanzhao that sought to centralize and strengthen their governments by learning from the Tang. Moreover, Nanzhao’s relations with the Tang were not consistently peaceful, despite its openness to acquiring Chinese culture: Its army sacked Chengdu in 829, taking many prisoners including artisans and silk weavers.¹ Nanzhao’s ruler even declared himself an emperor in 859, openly rejecting Tang claims to superiority and suzerainty, and invaded Tang prefectures in Sichuan, Guangxi, and north Vietnam in the 860s and 870s.

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To the east of Qi (Shandong), who knows how many thousands of li across the great sea, lies the biggest country of the island barbarians, called Silla (Xinluo). To the south of Shu (Sichuan), past Kunming and seven to eight thousand li across uncultivated lands, lies the strongest country of the Man barbarians, called Nanzhao. These are both bird-like and beast-like peoples whose unintelligible languages sound like the screeching of shrikes. They dress in animal skins and are violent and fierce. It is difficult to transform their long-entrenched customs.

But since the Tang began ruling the subcelestial realm, the people of these two countries have all put Ru teachings first and come to resemble the Xia lands (zhu Xia) in civility and refinement. Among the great clans of Silla, some have even produced men who studied in our superior state and took the civil service examinations, winning fame alongside the sons of our ministers. They are using books to a previously unheard-of extent. They were born in distant seas or miasmic wastelands and knew only of archery and horsemanship, of warfare and hunting. What did they know of literary arts and Ru learning? But now they have changed their bestial hearts and understand ritual etiquette. They have stopped folding their robes to the left and now dress like we do.² Is this not due to the far-reaching wind of our emperors’ civilizing influence?

I have heard that wherever civilizing influence extends, even the trees and rocks and animals know how to turn to its moral charisma. Hence auspicious omens will appear, such as men with extraordinary talents and appearances. The two countries (Silla and Nanzhao) are auspicious omens, and such omens never occur singly. There will surely be more of their kind; surely, lands across the eastern sea and peoples that have never submitted will turn to our influence and be transformed!

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1. In another essay from ca. 855, Sun Qiao quotes a military commander on the Sichuan frontier blaming the sack of Chengdu on the fact that the entire Nanzhao elite had attended Chinese schools in that city and was familiar with the strategic geography of Sichuan. ↩︎
2. An allusion to Analects 14.17 (see source 1.3). ↩︎