Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:45:52.872Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - Foreigners, Spectacles, and Imperial Performance

Nero and Emperor Wu of the Han

from Part II - Performances of Power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2024

By
Zhou Yiqun
Edited by
Hans Beck  and
Griet Vankeerberghen
Hans Beck
Affiliation:
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
Griet Vankeerberghen
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Get access

Summary

Zhou Yiqun, in her chapter, draws attention to the performance of power by rulers who, having won military victories, bring the surrendered foreigners into their territories. Both Emperor Wu and Nero entertained foreign ruling groups with elaborate performances that included, in the case of Nero, the emperor himself taking the stage and, in the case of Emperor Wu, an attempt to show how his country was able to best foreigners at their own forms of entertainment. Both emperors were severely criticized by their contemporaries, either for being too militaristic (Emperor Wu) or for failing to uphold Rome’s military values (Nero). Through a careful analysis of these two emperors’ performances involving foreigners (through the eyes of their critics), Zhou Yiqun manages to draw out important contrasts between Western Han and imperial Rome. Like Tian Tian, Zhou notices, in the case of Han China, a strong focus toward material things and monetary cost. Zhou locates this both in Emperor Wu’s motivations to engage with foreigners and in the historians’ critiques of these engagements, and attributes it to a near total lack of appreciation for the cultural achievements of the foreign places surrounding Han China. Nero, on the other hand, seems driven by a desire to absorb some of the cultural values and practices of Parthia and Greece, two places that Rome has subdued, and is therefore willing to defy Rome’s behavioral codes.

Keywords

performance of powercultural ‘Others’foreign relations policyimperial rolecultural versus military valuesdisplay of superiority
Type
Chapter
Information
Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China , pp. 161 - 196
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, E. 2011. Valorizing the Barbarians: Enemy Speeches in Roman Historiography. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Alcock, S. E. 1994. “Nero at Play? The Emperor’s Grecian Odyssey.” In Elsner, J. and Masters, J., eds., Reflections of Nero: Culture, History, and Representation, 98–111. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Barrett, A. A., Fantham, E., and Yardley, J. C.. 2016. The Emperor Nero: A Guide to the Ancient Sources. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beard, M. 2007. The Roman Triumph. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brindley, E. F. 2015. Ancient China and the Yue: Perceptions and Identities on the Southern Frontier, c. 400 BCE–50 CE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brindley, E. F. 2021. “The Concept of ‘Educational Transformation’ and Its Relationship to Civilizing Missions in Early China.” Journal of Chinese History 5(1): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Champlin, E. 2003. Nero. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Weizhao 陳維昭. 2009. “Handai sanyue baixi yu Handai suyue yundong 漢代散樂、百戲與漢代俗樂運動.” Fudan xuebao 復旦學報 (Social Sciences ed.) 5: 70–8.Google Scholar
Chin, T. T. 2014. Savage Exchange: Han Imperialism, Chinese Literary Style, and the Economic Imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Di Cosmo, Nicola. 2002. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Cosmo, Nicola ed. 2009. Military Culture in Imperial China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Dio Cassius, . Roman History. Loeb Classical Library. Trans. E. Cary and H. B. Foster.Google Scholar
Edwards, C. 1994. “Beware of Imitations: Theatre and the Subversion of Imperial Identity.” In Elsner, J. and Masters, J., eds., Reflections of Nero: Culture, History, and Representation, 83–97. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Ford, R. B. 2020. Rome, China, and the Barbarians: Ethnographic Traditions and the Transformation of Empires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Futrell, A. 2006. The Roman Games: Historical Sources in Translation. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Griffin, M. 1984. Nero: The End of a Dynasty. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habberstad, L. 2017. Forming the Early Chinese Court: Rituals, Spaces, Roles. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Hanshu 漢書. 1962. Compiled by Ban Gu 班固 (32–92 CE). 100 juan (12 vols.). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Hao, Qin 郝勤, and Zhang, Jichen 張濟琛. 2019. “Qin Shihuangdi ling K9901 chutu juediyong ji tongding kao – jianlun Zhanguo Qin Han juedi baixi de yanbian 秦始皇帝陵K9901出土角抵俑及銅鼎考—兼論戰國秦漢角抵百戲的演變.” Tiyu kexue 體育科學 39(6): 28–35.Google Scholar
Hou Han shu 後漢書. 1965. Compiled by Fan Ye 范曄 (398–446 CE). 90 juan (12 vols.). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Hulsewé, A., and Loewe, M.. 1979. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage, 125 B.C.–A.D. 23. An Annotated Translation of Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Kern, M. 2003. “Western Han Aesthetics and the Genesis of the ‘Fu.’” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 63(2): 383–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kern, M. 2010a. “Tropes of Music and Poetry: From Wudi (r. 141–87 BCE) to ca 100 CE.” In Nylan, M. and Loewe, M., eds., China’s Early Empires, 480–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kern, M. 2010b. “Early Chinese Literature, Beginning Through Western Han.” In Chang, Kang-I Sun and Owen, S., eds., Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Vol. 1: To 1375, 1–115. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Knechtges, D., trans. 1982. Wen xuan or Selections of Refined Literature, Vol. One: Rhapsodies on Metropolises and Capitals. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Knechtges, D. 1990. “To Praise the Han: The Eastern Capital Fu of Pan Ku and His Contemporaries.” In Idema, W. and Zürcher, E., eds., Thought and Law in Qin and Han China: Studies Dedicated to Anthony Hulsewé on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, 118–39. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Knechtges, D. 1994. “The Emperor and Literature: Emperor Wu of the Han.” In Brandauer, F. P. and Huang, Chun-chieh, eds., Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China, 51–76. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Kyle, D. G. 2015. Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World, 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. E. 1999a. Writing and Authority in Early China. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. E. 1999b. “The Feng and Shan Sacrifices of Emperor Wu of Han.” In McDermott, J., ed., State and Court Ritual in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Li, Wai-yee. 2014. “Poetry and Diplomacy in the Zuozhuan.” Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture 1(1–2): 241–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Xiaoda 劉曉達. 2017. “Han Wudi shidai de Shanglinyuan yu ‘tianxia’ guan – yi Kunmingchi Jianzhanggong Taiyechi de kaizao wei lunshu zhongxin 漢武帝時代的上林苑與天下觀—以昆明池、建章宮、太液池的開鑿為論述中心.” Meishu xuebao 美術學報 3: 5–10.Google Scholar
Loewe, M. 1974a. “The Campaigns of Han Wu-ti.” In Kierman, F. A. and Fairbank, J. K., eds., Chinese Ways in Warfare, 67–122. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Loewe, M. 1974b. Crisis and Conflict in Han China, 104 B.C. to A.D. 9. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Morford, M. 1985. “Nero’s Patronage and Participation in Literature and the Arts.” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II 32(2): 2003–31.Google Scholar
Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens, M. 2008. “Imperial Aura and the Images of the Other in Han Art.” In Mutschler, F.-H. and Mittag, A., eds., Conceiving the Empire: China and Rome Compared, 299–317. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pliny the Elder, . Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Trans. H. Rackham, W. H. S. Jones, and De. E. Eichholz.Google Scholar
Plutarch, . Galba. In Lives, Vol. 11. Loeb Classical Library. Trans. B. Perrin.Google Scholar
Psarras, S.-K. 2003. “Han and Xiongnu: A Reexamination of Cultural and Political Relations (I).” Monumenta Serica 51: 55–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puett, M. 2002. To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Robinson, R. 2018. “Spectacular Power in the Early Han and Roman Empires.” Journal of World History 29(3): 343–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubiés, J.-P. 1994. “Nero in Tacitus and Nero in Tacitism: The Historian’s Craft.” In Elsner, J. and Masters, J., eds., Reflections of Nero: Culture, History, and Representation, 29–47. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Schaberg, D. 1999. “Travel, Geography, and the Imperial Imagination in Fifth-Century Athens and Han China.” Comparative Literature 51(2): 152–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaberg, D. 2001. A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Shiji 史記. 1982. Compiled by Sima Qian 司馬遷 (145?–86? BCE). 130 juan (10 vols.). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Suetonius, . Nero. In Lives of the Caesars, Book 6. Loeb Classical Library. Trans. J. C. Rolfe.Google Scholar
Tacitus, . Annals. Loeb Classical Library. Trans. J. Jackson.Google Scholar
Tian, Tian. 2015. “The Suburban Sacrifice Reforms and the Evolution of the Imperial Sacrifices.” In Nylan, M. and Vankeerberghen, G., eds., Chang’an 26 BCE: An Augustan Age in China, 263–91. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Tuplin, C. 1989. “The False Neros of the First Century.” In Deroux, C., ed., Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History, Vol. 5, 364–404. Brussels: Latomus.Google Scholar
Van Ess, H. 2013. “Emperor Wu of the Han and the First August Emperor of Qin in Sima Qian’s Shiji.” In Pines, Y., von Falkenhausen, L., Shelach, G., and Yates, R. D. S., eds., Birth of an Empire: The State of Qin Revisited, 239–57. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Vankeerberghen, G. 2001. The Huainanzi and Liu An’s Claim to Moral Authority. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Zijin 王子今. 2002. “Haixi huanren lailu kao” 海西幻人來路考. Zhongxi chushi erbian 中西初識二編, 199–213. Zhengzhou: Daxiang chubanshe.Google Scholar
Wu, Hung. 1995. Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Xin, Deyong 辛德勇. 2014. “Han Wudi wannian zhengzhi quxiang yu Sima Guang de chonggou 漢武帝晚年政治取向與司馬光的重構.” Qinghua daxue xuebao 清華大學學報 (Philosophy and Social Sciences ed.) 29(6): 5–51.Google Scholar
Yantie lun jiaozhu 鹽鐵論校注. 1958. Huan Kuan 桓寬. Annotated by Wang Liqi 王利器. Shanghai: Gudian wenxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhou, Yiqun. 2018. “The Values of the Book of Songs and the Virtues of Leaders.” In Mutschler, F.-H., The Homeric Epics and the Chinese Book of Songs: Foundational Texts Compared. 411–38. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×