Item – Theses Canada

​
OCLC number
83788200
Author
Buttars, Ian Bailie,1946-
Title
The formation and demise of royal houses in the period of the Southern Dynasties : a history of the Xiao family during the Song, Southern Qi and Liang (and later Liang) Dynasties, 420-581.
Degree
Ph. D. -- University of Toronto, 1998
Publisher
Ottawa : National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, [2000]
Description
5 microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
This thesis is an exercise in exploring the official dynastic histories to reconstruct the history of the Xiao family during the period of the Southern Dynasties. It narrates the political events of the three dynasties in which the Xiaos were active, outlines the "normative" process of usurpation and presents the various instruments Of legitimation by which each dynastic founder justified his accession to the throne. Much of this material is presented in English for the first time. Though the members of the Xiao are recognized for their political and literary accomplishments, their rise to power originated in their military background and their fortuitous relationship to an earlier branch of the family which had married into a royal house (the Lius of the [little] Song dynasty). The Xiao family was unique in founding two dynasties (the Qi and Liang). This thesis suggests that by virtue of being outside the same mourning group, the founder of the second Xiao dynasty (Liang) was in technical conformity with Heaven's command regarding a "change of surname" when he destroyed the preceding Xiao dynasty (Qi). Members of the royal families never succeeded in developing a sense of themselves as part of a larger whole. Half-brother relationships and the practice of sending young sons to regional garrisons undermined a sense of cohesion. In addition, the existence of two conflicting rules of succession, one through the fine of the eldest and the other through the "most senior" surviving brother, unleashed centrifugal forces within the family itself. In the wake of the devastating rebellion of Hou Jing, the royal princes were unable to form a central rallying point for the loyalist cause. This destroyed their political prestige and brought the end of the Xiao family as a political force, though they were honoured as one of the great families of this period following reunification of the empire a few decades later.
ISBN
0612414124
9780612414129