Discussion and Comment

 

Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2018

 

Reexamining the Clan Affiliation and Origins of the Southern Han Imperial Family (Abstract)

 

Wang Chengwen

 

The clan affiliation and origin of the Southern Han imperial family have been important issues for scholars at home and abroad for the past century, but these viewpoints’ major evidence and reasons still merit discussion. The historical records’ statement that the Southern Han imperial family came from a northern clan is credible. The theories of “Tazi descendants(大食人后裔)” and “barbarian chieftain” of the Li and Liao of Lingnan put forward by Fujita Toyohachi and Kawahara Masahiro respectively are based mainly on their differing interpretations of the existing historical sources. These interpretations are rather farfetched and also reflect their basic understanding of the history of Lingnan in the Tang dynasty. The northern origin of the Southern Han imperial family and its relationship with the many northern families moving southward made the Southern Han distinctive among the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and also meant that it had an important and special place in the two thousand years of Lingnan history.