"The Great Wall and Conceptualizations of the Border Under the Northern Song." by Nicolas Tackett

Reviewed by: "The Great Wall and Conceptualizations of the Border Under the Northern Song." by Nicolas Tackett Don J. Wyatt Nicolas Tackett, "The Great Wall and Conceptualizations of the Border Under the Northern Song." JSYS 38 (2008): 99–138. Despite beginning quite conventionally and largely with a survey of the seminal Western-language literature on the subject, the article with which Nicolas Tackett provides us under this quite modestly unassuming title, in the end, results in nothing less than a marvel of interconnectivity, unfolding amidst the designated historical backdrop of the Northern Song dynasty. Although it is destined to become discernible on multiple levels, Tackett gives initial expression to this interconnectivity through three stipulated principal goals. First among these goals is a critique of the landmark dual theses of Arthur Waldron, which consist of the unmediated physical discreteness of the Great Wall of Qin 秦 (221–206 bce) and that of Ming 明 (1368–1644), as well as the contention that only with the latter construction did it become perceived as the timeless cultural separator that we customarily assume it had been since much earlier times. While hardly denying the existence of its distinct versions depending on period, Tackett nonetheless seeks to counter Waldron's claim that there were essentially no consequential intermediary constructions of the Great Wall between Qin and Ming, as well as to argue for an accepted perception of it as a timeless cultural edifice by as early as Song times. Second, by focusing on the under-studied example of the Xi Xia 西夏 state (c. 982–1227) in order to debunk the notion, Tackett signals an intention to challenge the received hierarchical tributary paradigm, so prominently articulated by the late John King Fairbank, that always favored China in its relations with its neighbors. Third, rejecting it as exclusively a later product of post-Westphalian Europe or post-seventeenth century Eurasia, Tackett confidently claims to be able to make the case for incipiently "modern" approaches to border delineation as having emerged in China by the Song. Pursuing deft and provocatively thoughtful analysis, Tackett does in fact succeed in realizing these inestimable goals. Through the scrutiny of twelfth-century maps and comparable dili 地理 (geographical) texts, Tackett finds that substantial sections of the Great Wall—as it was reconstituted during the Song—coincided with remnants of not only the original Qin construction but also that of the Northern Qi 北齊 dynasty (550–577). Moreover, already by the Song, it is revealed as having been "integrated into a cosmographic model that combined empirical knowledge of the locations of mountain ranges and of zones of ecological change with commonly-held beliefs regarding the essential structure of the universe" (p. 136). Through his attention to [End Page 229] comparatively overlooked Song-Xi Xia relations, Tackett exposes us to the "practical bilateralism" that was as characteristic of their interactions as it was of those we readily accept as having obtained between the Song and the Liao 遼 (907–1125). Finally, through his consideration of the nature of its protracted armed clashes with these principal enemies, Tackett demonstrates that the Song regime's evolving conceptions of border linearization and territorial sovereignty were not merely present but construed as integral to its survival. However, the distinctiveness of Tackett's study lies in its status as a signpost of an expansive redirection in scholarship, one that is simultaneously bold and yet judicious, wherein revisionism is pursued always with a greater objective in mind than revisionism for its own sake. Don J. Wyatt Middlebury College Copyright © 2021 Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasties Studies

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