Nanzhao came up as a footnote in an article I was reading about the Tang Dynasty in China, so now I'm really curious to hear what historians know about the short-lived kingdom based in Yunnan. How did governance work? How did it differ, culturally, from Tang China?
How did it differ, culturally, from Tang China?
Nanzhao was more of a Southeast Asian kingdom than a Chinese one, in loose cultural terms. Their language was likely a Lolo-Burmese variety.
There was previously a lot of debate about them being Tai, but the foundations of such claims were never very strong, and there's much better reason to think they spoke a Tibeto-Burman language, evidenced by such things as following a common TB patronymic naming system. A number of place names were potentially Tai, but this is also the case throughout largely Tibeto-Burman areas, so this alone isn't enough to suspect that the Nanzhao themselves were Tai, and anyway Nanzhao certainly had Tai neighbours. It's also argued that they were specifically Yi speakers (falls under Loloish, also still Tibeto-Burman) but I'm not sure that can be stated with complete certainty.
La Polla makes this point in his overview of Tibeto-Burman languages, and others make the claim that the Yi are the descendants of the Nanzhao rulers, and it's a fair position, but not one I myself am willing to take a stand on. See for example Harrell's Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China, who strongly takes this position. However, others argue that the Bai are the actual descendants of Nanzhao. I'm not touching either claim.
Culturally they would have been fairly different from the Tang. They were linguistically distinct as the ruling class, but Nanzhao also contained many many smaller tribes, upwards of 50 different groups. The Mán Shū lists 54, though how these relate to modern langauge groups is hard to say. Still, this is a very different linguistic and cultural makeup than what we're seeing in Chang'an at this time, which is much more of a unified Middle Chinese-speaking Sinitic culture, to the extent that even written records on the topic of the language are believed to have been intentionally inclusive.
That's not to say that Tang culture was entirely homogenous, but it's worth noting just how diverse Nanzhao was. People make the claim that the United States is somehow unique for being based not on some ethnic or linguistic grounds but rather some common values, or whatever. If so, it's not the first case of such a state; Nanzhao was likewise not based on any single common language or single homogenised culture. Granted, at the time, neither was Tibet exactly, though shared culture has clearly spread linking otherwise highly divergent linguistic and cultural groups. Nanzhao was formed through a unification of different groups, and its culture would have reflected this
By this point in time Tibeto-Burman and Sinitic languages and cultures had already spread quite far from each other. Even within Sinitic, you had the Tang speaking one language (Middle Chinese), another Chinese language spoken in Sichuan (Ba-Shu), another spoken in the Yangtze Delta (Jiangdong) and then another whole group spoken in the East and Southeast (Min, from which Hokkien/Hoklo came about). Chinese culture had long dominated the North, and while it was present in areas like Annam (now Vietnam), it had much less of an impact in Tai areas, and many Tibetoburman groups also differed. Of course, while they were culturally and linguistically distinct, they were still writing in Classical Chinese, and communicating extensively with the Tang throughout their short history.
As a protectorate of Tang from the beginning, it had plenty of Chinese both in official roles, but also as merchants and migrants. This connection to and preference for Chinese culture also typical throughout the history of the region and the reason we see even into the early 20th century the same happening with places like Korea in relation to Qing culture. However, also paralleled in Korea's cultural relation to the Qing in the late 19th century, a weakening Chinese state was seen as something less desirous to link to culturally, and Nanzhao's successes in war at this point brought them prestige to counter the influence of Tang.
I won't spend too much time on military, but the Nánzhào Tú Chuán offers a bit of insight on this topic. The king controlled the army but did not go to battle with his armies. He would have commanded from afar through others. He also retained a personal guard that was with him at all tiems. The Nanzhao military is described as consisting of a strong cavalry, horses having been important throughout the region to basically all the small powers in that region, as well as archers, and they were known for the quality of their swords. They received amrs, mostly crossbows, from the Tang ealry on in the relationship between the two powers. This was specifically to offer assistance for Nanzhao to defend against the Tibetans, at a point when Nanzhao was still actively allied with Tang, but when Tang was beginning to lose power over its vassals.
Nanzhao had close-linked formal relations with Tang, fortified through marriage between Nanzhao rulers and the Tang emperor's family. The emperor also bestowed upon Nanzhao rulers formal titles. Nanzhao rulers were expected to answer to the Tang emperor, and upon succeeding a previous Nanzhao rulers, the new king was required to go to the Tang capital to pay respects and effectively be approved. The relationship between Nanzhao and Tang was largely like any other tribute state relationship with the Tang at that time, and in many ways Tang controlled Nanzhao, at least early on.
However, near the end of the Tang, Nanzhao had become much more aggressive, conquering Pyu (parts of modern Myanmar) in 832, attacking Annam (now Vietnam), and threatening other Tang vassals, to include invasions into what is now Sichuan.
In 854 Nanzhao properly went to war with Tang, invading Tang-controlled Annam in 862 with the help of a number of anti-Tang Annamese. This was triggered by an anti-Tang rebellion in Annam at the time. Nanzhao took advantage of that. In truth Nanzhao wasn't in it to help the Annamese, and were themselves soon ousted a few years later by the Tang. One of the points that kept some of the Annamese loyal to the Tang was the desire to retain Tang cultural influences. At this point Annam was part of the Sinosphere, using Classical Chinese and taking direct cultural cues from Tang, and Annam had a considerable Chinese population at the time.
They were Buddhist, like the Tang, but not the same style as the Tang. Theirs has been described as being much more Indian influenced, forgoing some of the Sinification of Buddhism that happened in China. Significantly, they are sometimes credited with opening the doors to the transmission of Buddhism from India to China.
One interesting point about Nanzhao's history, as described/illustrated in the nanzhao tuzhuan 南詔圖傳, an illustrated scroll depicting the history of Nanzhao commissioned, is the presence of an active attempt to distance their reception of Buddhism from that of the Tang. According to the Nanzhao narrative, it was not Xuanzang that brought Buddhism to Nanzhao, but rather the Boddhisatva Avalokiteśvara. Regardless of the actual origins of Buddhism in the two states, it's certainly the case that Nanzhao Buddhism is much more Indian in style and practice.
...the short-lived kingdom based in Yunnan.
I think it's also important to point out that, while Nanzhao was no longer called Nanzhao after the 930s, we can still consider Dali, the kingdom that replaced it, to be Nanzhao in terms of cultural and linguistic aspects.
If there are other areas you'd like addressed, let me know. I'm trying to give a brief overview, but really this could take all day if I let it.
Sources available for specific points on request. Just let mw know which particular point, because most of this is spread out over a bunch of different sources.