Sovereignty, Virtue, and Disaster Management

In Tang dynasty (618–907) China, early in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–56), a severe locust infestation undermined the young sovereign's political legitimacy. When anomalous insect-wrought disasters compromised seasonal agrarian rhythms of state, the stability of the dynasty was imperiled. Given the widespread belief in the idea of tianren ganying, the cosmic resonance of heaven and man, many in court and country understood the plague of locusts as a scourge visited on humankind by a censorious heaven. Thus for newly enthroned Xuanzong to prove that he possessed sufficient virtue, that he possessed the mettle to be Son of Heaven, it was imperative that he successfully manage the swelling tide of insects. A fierce court debate ensued over how best to handle this ecological crisis. The passive camp maintained that if Xuanzong cultivated virtue, the crisis might be resolved of its own accord. Alternatively, proponents of a proactive approach, namely chief minister Yao Chong, urged Xuanzong to wage an aggressive campaign of extermination. With a combination of powerful rhetoric to persuade opponents to follow his proactive course of action and well-devised pragmatic measures to exterminate the locusts, Yao Chong ultimately won the day and quelled the infestation. In the process of the vigorous debate, many epiphenomena are brought to light: the push and pull between central and local authority, growing tensions between Han Chinese and ethnic minority subjects in the cosmopolitan multiethnic state, and the ideological conflict between Confucianism and Buddhism

Agrarian society · Ancient history · Archaeology · Buddhism · China · Emperor · Geography · Heaven · Political science · Politics · Sovereignty · State (computer science · Virtue · Chinese history and philosophy · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · History · Law

• Beichuan's Tragedy

  Open Access•Marjaana Mäenpää•Modern Asian Studies•2018

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• The drought and locust plague of 942–944 AD in the Yellow River Basin, China

  Open Access•Jie Fei, Jie Zhou•Quaternary International•2016

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• China's changing disaster management regime

  Open Access•Lauri Paltemaa•China Information•2017

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• Ducks Arresting Locusts

  Yubin Shen•Osiris•2025

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• The Cambridge History of China

  Open Access•John King Fairbank, Denis Crispin Twitchett•The Cambridge History of China,…•1979

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• Flood Myths of Early China, The

  Mark Lewis, Mark Edward Lewis et al.•Flood Myths of Early China•2006

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• Cosmology and Political Culture in Early China

  Open Access•Aihe Wang•Cosmology and Political Culture…•2000

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• Buddhism in Chinese History

  Arthur F Wright, Hsio-Yen Shih et al.•Buddhism in Chinese History•1959

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• The Cultural Ecology of the Locust Cult in Traditional China

  SHIN-YI HSU•Annals of the Association of…•1969

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• Who Was Responsible for the Weather? Moral Meteorology in Late Imperial China

  Mark Elvin•Osiris•1998

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