The Da Song xuanhe yishi is an anonymous fictionalized thirteenth-century narrative of Song emperor Huizong’s Xuanhe reign era (1119-1125), Song Jiang’s rebellion, Fang La’s rebellion, the Jurchen Jin invasion, and the founding of the Southern Song. It is based on older oral storytelling traditions (including some later incorporated into the novel Shuihu zhuan or Water Margin) and was published for a non-elite mass readership, presumably in the Southern Song prior to its conquest by the Mongols.

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[Translator’s note: The passage below appears at the beginning of the novel and lays out a qi-based theory of history to explain the disaster of north China’s conquest by the Jurchen. Unlike Hu Hong (see source 3.6), the Xuanhe yishi narrative lays the blame for the Jurchen invasion less on Wang Anshi’s reforms than on the extravagance and self-indulgence of Huizong, abetted by his corrupt chief minister Cai Jing (1047-1126).]

If we look closely at the two paths of order and chaos throughout history, we will find that they do not depart from the principle of yin and yang. The Central Lands and cosmic principle (tianli 天理) are both yang in kind. The barbarians (Yi-Di), inferior men (xiaoren), and human desires (renyu 人欲) are all yin in kind.¹ In times when yang and light are in the ascendant, the Central Lands are at peace, noble men (junzi) hold authority, and auspicious portents appear: in the heavens, these are sweet dew and bright clouds; on earth, they are sweet springs and lingzhi fungi. All people in the subcelestial realm enjoy an age of great peace and order. In times when yin and darkness are in the ascendant, the barbarians become strong and overbearing, inferior men gain power, and ominous portents appear: in the heavens, these are comets and solar eclipses; on earth, they are locust plagues and famines. All people in the subcelestial realm then suffer the misfortune of becoming refugees. And this yin and yang principle all has to do with whether one man, the emperor, has good or evil in his heart.

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[Translator’s note: This passage appears at the end of Part 2 of the novel. It comes at the end of a long paraphrase from a source identified as Lectures on the Xuanhe Era (Xuanhe jiangpian) by “Valedictorian Lü.” This was a work by Southern Song scholar Lü Zhong (fl. 1234–1264) otherwise known by the title Leibian huangchao dashiji jiangyi (Lectures on Important Events in Our August Dynasty’s History, Organized Topically). After passing the jinshi examinations at the top of his cohort in 1247, Lü Zhong worked as an instructor at a prefectural school. Soon afterwards, he published his lectures in two volumes, marketed commercially as reference works for teachers and prospective examination candidates. The author of Da Song xuanhe yishi has changed Lü Zhong’s language to make it more vernacular, and also introduced the concepts of yin and yang. Lü Zhong’s argument was that the Jurchens invaded the Song because it had already been barbarized internally by “barbaric inferior men,” “barbaric eunuchs” (a reference to Huizong’s favored eunuch Tong Guan), “barbaric troops” (meaning armies that had lost the will to fight), and “barbaric bandits” (the rebels led by Song Jiang and Fang La).]

Since antiquity, there has never been a state that had no inner barbarians and yet suffered calamity from [outer] barbarians. Inferior men and barbarians are both yin in kind. If there is the yin of inferior men within, that is enough to attract the yin of the barbarians. When frost descends, the bells of [Mount] Feng ring; when rain is coming, the bases of pillars get wet [with condensation].² Like attracts like; this is how principle (li) always works. During the Xuanhe era, even if there had been no calamity of the Jurchen [invasion], there would surely have been other calamities such as inferior men committing usurpation and regicide, or bandits claiming titles above their station.

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1. The dichotomy between cosmic principle and human desires is prominent in Neo-Confucian discourse, especially in Zhu Xi’s works, which emphasize that the only way to for human beings to preserve or illuminate cosmic principle in themselves is to purge themselves of their selfish and immoral desires. ↩︎
2. The Shanhai jing describes the nine bells of the mythical Mount Feng as ringing whenever frost descends. The Huananzi (see source 1.7) notes that wet bases of pillars are a way to predict rain. ↩︎