From: lix@thames.bu.edu (Xiaowen Li)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china,soc.culture.taiwan,soc.culture.hongkong
Subject: FWD for Mr. H. Anonymous - Learn from Geshu (9)
Date: 10 Nov 92 03:57:08 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.china
Organization: Boston University

This is again a forwarding.

==================================================
  Re: Learn from Geshu (IX)

Let's again pay a return visit to the following quote:

>   Let's have a KISS - Keep It Simple and Straightforward.  After much
>digression, what prevents you to give the year of Old Du's Chariot Ballad
>(Bing Che Xing) and when Geshu Han began to attack Tibetans?  Feel a bit
>uncomfortable or what?

In a previous response, I have pointed out that the author of the quote
above erred egregiously when he called the BingChe in the title of Du 
Fu's _BingCheXing_ a chariot.  It is a concern that my response may 
have contained too many details to qualify for a KISS certificate.   
As many readers may not be familiar with the 100 Years' War between 
the French-speaking kings and knights of England on one hand and the
French royal forces on the other, I think an exclusively Sinocentric
alternative response should be offered.  Voila:

Fang2 Guan3 (jade + officer) was a man of high distinction.  He was
a Confucian scholar par excellence, knowledgeable in the affairs of
the state.  His father, Fang2 Rong2, was prime minister to Wu Ze-tian,

Fang2 Guan3 was also a Tang aristocrat par excellence.  His clan, the
Fangs of Henan (i.e. Luoyang), originated from Xianbei, a typical clan
of XiongNu and XianBei descent, i,e. Dai4Bei3 Zi3Sun1.  NOTE: According 
to the foremost commentator of _ZiZhiTongJian_, DaiBeiZiSun(i.e., those 
with XiongNu and XianBei ancestries) accounted for from 60% to 70% of 
all prominent personalities in China from Sui and Tang times to the 
end of the Song dynasty (1279).

So when the son (Tang SuZong) of Tang Ming-Huang took over the throne 
(in LingWu) in the year 756 (ZhiDe yuan2 zai3) after An Lu-shan launched
his devastating revolt, Fang Guan became prime minister.  Under his
administration, only the elite got promoted and those of more modest 
social status were simply rejected.  At a time when the very survival of 
the Tang Dynasty was at stake, his policy was hardly conducive to a 
speedy recovery of Tang power.  His long-standing feud with another 
powerful aristocrat of XianBei descent, namely He4Lan2 Jin4Ming2, 
eventually led to his alienation of Tang SuZong and subsequent removal 
from power.  But Ci3Shi4Hou4Hua4, AnGuoBuTi.

In the year 756, Prime Minster Fang Guan personally led Tang forces
against the An Lu-shan troops near XianYang, near the present capital of 
Shan3Xi Province.  Two of the Emperor's Six Armies were committed.  The
learned aristocratic scholar-cum-statesman and a DaiBei ZiSun decided 
to apply the old Chariot Tactics of Spring-and-Autumn ("ChunQiu Che1Zhan4 
Zhi1 Fa3").  The descendant of master horsemen could not find any chariot 
to accommodate his strategy.  Being a man as brilliant as our latter-day 
learned "older chap", he improvised.  Oxen were used instead, and his 
"chariots", all 2000 of them,  were nothing but ox-drawn carts, with 
cavalry and infantry escort, according to ZiZhiTongJian, volume CCXIX.  
Their maneuverability was near zero.

The An Lu-shan troops used their own human voices as a weapon.  In the
face of a strong wind blowing from the enemy side, carrying additional 
energies (in the form of high decibels, ha, ha!) the poor oxen became
terrified.  When it became clear that the ox-chariots had become
stymied, the enemy troops set fire to them, causing pandemonium among
the soldiers and animals on the Imperial side.  About 40,000 of the
imperial troops died during this infamous Battle of Chen2Tao1Xie2.
Only several thousand others survived.  A real disaster.

Undaunted, Fang Guan again personally commanded and committed
one of the Emperors' other four armies.  Again, a total disaster.
Fang Guan was later relieved of his prime minister's portfolio,
assigned to be governor of BinZhou, and was unable to rise
again in high-stake imperial politics.   A  Tang poet later wrote:

	Si4 Wan4 Yi4 Jun1 Tong2 Ri4 Si3 .....

in memory of those who fell because of Fang Guan's misplaced
confidence in the chariot tactics developed and then discontinued
a full millennium ago.  

(To be continued)
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