State and Slavery in the Tang Empire
Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
History
First Advisor
Hansen, Valerie
Abstract
Slavery had a profound influence on societies that do not meet Finley’s definition of “slave societies,” such as Tang dynasty China (618-907). Legal institutions and moral discourse in Tang China emphasizes two broad categories, the free (Chinese liang 良; Japanese ryō; Korean yang, literally “good”) and the unfree debased (Ch. jian 賤; Jap. sen; K. chon, literally “debased”). This project examines the broader category of unfree people in Tang China with a special focus on the cross-regional slave trade and captivity among the Tang and its neighboring states. Comparing the practices of slave trade in the capital regions and three borderlands (the Korean peninsula, the Lingnan region in South China, and Dunhuang and Turfan in central Asia), it explains how the Tang state decided whom to enslave and why from 600 to 900. Drawing from an array of primary sources such as The Tang Code, the writings of Tang elites, epitaphs of the enslaved individuals, as well as documents excavated from modern-day Xinjiang, this research reconstructs the lived experience of enslaved individuals in middle-period China. The Tang Dynasty witnessed an important shift in attitudes towards slavery during the Tang dynasty. Before the 750s, there was a near-universal acceptance of the enslavement of foreigners and border peoples. By the end of the dynasty, many—including some of the most famous Tang-dynasty literati, such as Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 and Han Yu 韩愈—began to argue against slavery. They did so not through a radical denial of the existing social hierarchy, but by acknowledging some assimilated indigenes in Lingnan and commoners from Silla were no different from Chinese imperial subjects. And they believed the Tang state owed those assimilated people protection from enslavement.
Recommended Citation
Zhang, Zekun, "State and Slavery in the Tang Empire" (2024). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1392.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1392
