| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 106.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Josephine Chiu-Duke. To Rebuild the Empire: Lu Chih's Confucian Pragmatist Approach to the Mid-T'ang Predicament. (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture.) Albany: State University of New York Press. 2000. Pp. xiii, 311.

Josephine Chiu-Duke's study begins with a biography of Lu Chih (754–805) and pays special attention to how such families as his had service traditions as bureaucratized aristocratic lineages. She traces Lu's political career from 780 to 795, culminating in his service as a "prime minister" to the T'ang emperor Te-tsung (r. 779–805). The T'ang dynasty had almost been extinguished during the An Lu-shan rebellion (755–763), and rebellions by military governors in the provinces during Te-tsung's reign further devastated the dynasty. Beleaguered by rebellious armies and pressed by declining resources, the emperor used some of Lu Chih's drafted proclamations both to stir loyalists and to win back many of those who had risen in opposition to the emperor's policies. Lu was usually cautious, but he clashed with the head of public revenue, P'ei Yen-ling, whom the emperor trusted to enhance much needed revenues. Lu urged the emperor to investigate P'ei's behavior, especially his harsh dealings with envoys from provincial military governors. The emperor thereupon demoted the troublesome chief minister and almost had Lu executed when it appeared that he might be leading a faction and intriguing with the army. About ten years later, a reformist group briefly gained ascendancy; they had the new emperor summon Lu back to the capital, but Lu died before he received this call to serve. Thus, the challenge to P'ei ended Lu's career. Just before that challenge, Lu had eloquently replied to those urging caution: "I have not betrayed the Son of Heaven on high and I have not betrayed what I have learned in this world; nothing else troubles me" (p. 61). Skillfully utilizing this quotation, Chiu-Duke turns to Lu's thought. . . .

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