Franciscus Verellen
Daoist Redemption in Medieval China 2014-2019
Spanning eight centuries, this book examines the evolution of Daoist beliefs about human liability and redemption and outlines the procedures for rescuing an ill-starred destiny. The medieval record portrays a world engulfed by evil, where human existence was mortgaged from birth and burdened by increasing debts and obligations in this world and the next. From the second through the tenth century CE, Daoism emerged as a liturgical organization that engaged vigorously with Buddhism, transforming Chinese thinking about the causes of suffering, the nature of evil, and the aims of liberation. In the fifth century, elements of classical Daoism combined with Indian yoga to interiorize the quest for deliverance. The integrated liturgical order of the Tang encompassed a growing monastic community, lay society, and rituals on behalf of the state.
Franciscus Verellen, Imperiled Destinies: The Daoist Quest for Deliverance in Medieval China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center / Harvard University Press, 2019.
Franciscus Verellen Conjurer la destinée: rétribution et délivrance dans le taoïsme médiéval. Trans. Grégoire Espesset. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2021
Gao Pian and the Fall of the Tang 2018-2023
The fall of the Tang dynasty (618-907) ended a golden age of Chinese imperial power and civilizational splendor. Rising military and regional elites replaced a medieval aristocracy. Previously semi-autonomous provinces became independent kingdoms, former vassal states and protectorates claimed sovereignty. Announcing the dawn of an uncertain new order, a polycentric structure of power emerged that prevailed throughout the following Five Dynasties (907-960). This project traces the run-up to the Tang's final dissolution through the trajectory of one of its key pro-tagonists, the general and military governor Gao Pian (821-887). Narrating the fall from the vantage point of a leading actor offers a close-up view of the empire's territorial disintegration and day-to-day military, fiscal, and administrative unraveling. As the land became engulfed in civil war, pressures on its fron-tiers multiplied and deep internal fault lines opened. Government factionalism produced a cacophony of conflicting policies. In these conditions, the imperial court's confidence in the allegiance of provincial governors and vassal princes proved a costly miscalculation.
The Tang-Five Dynasties Transition in the Testimony of Du Guangting 2022-
The breakup of the Tang upended the balance of power prevailing in Asia for three centuries. In China, it confounded the doctrine of the divine mandate to rule and called into question the relationship between Daoism and the state. This project examines how China's indigenous religion envisaged the dynastic crisis and projected its future in the world to come. The Daoist hierarch Du Guangting (850-933), an attentive observer of contemporary society and a prolific writer, influentially articulated his coreligionists' response. Based on his personal experience straddling the Tang-Five Dynasties divide, Du's testimony juxtaposes apocalyptic chronicles of dislocation with mystical visions of transcendence, sacred history, and mythical geography. Taking refuge in Shu (Sichuan), the cradle of Daoism, Du assisted a local potentate in establishing the independent kingdom of Shu (907-65). Besides preserving and transmitting the legacy of medieval Daoism, Du introduced major innovations in book printing, literature, astronomy, and state ritual. In the emerging multipolar power structure of the Five Dynasties, Shu became a regional hub of cultural, economic, and technological development, prefiguring China's renaissance under the reunited Song (960-1127).
