INTEGRATION OF THE NORTHERN ETHNIC FRONTIERS IN TANG CHINA

ISSN： 2048-7827

Source： The Chinese Historical Review, Vol.19, Iss.1, 2012-05, pp. : 3-26

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Abstract

This article investigates how the Tang ruling elite tried to integrate nomadic and other ethnic frontier peoples into the multi-ethnic empire and how effective such efforts were. By examining and analyzing the court debate in 630 on how to resettle the submitting Turks, a set of rewards by the government for incorporating the ethnic elites into the Tang structure, and the “loose-rein area commands and prefectures,” the article argues that Emperor Taizong did not intend assimilation but incorporation of the non-Han into the military in order to build a multi-ethnic empire. Although the rewards aimed at assimilation, the policy also validated ethnic differences. The Tang ethnic inclusion efforts, on the one hand, enhanced the ethnic consciousness of the non-Han peoples and, on the other hand, served the Tang’s political, economic, and military purposes, resulting in a gradual transformation of the non-Han peoples who came to identity with the Tang.