Empire in Medieval Eastern Eurasia: Song China Among Equals

Contemporaneous with the changing geographies of the Byzantine Empire, a series of Chinese empires expanded and contracted through interactions with other peoples and states in Eastern Eurasia. Sandwiched between the expansive, cosmopolitan Tang (618-907) and Mongol (Yuan, 1279-1368) world empire, the Song (960-1279) seems an imperial anomaly because of its shrunken territorial reach and military weakness confronting powerful nomadic neighbors. Yet Song is regarded as fully within the dynastic line of Chinese empires, prompting reconsideration of the defining characteristics of “empire.” If “empire” is an archetype, then how might the Song, like the Byzantine, contribute to a redefinition of the archetype? How might we think differently about “empire” by identifying features of both the Song and Byzantine polities that made them cohere and function as imperial states rather than alternative political forms (kingdoms, nations, etc.)? J. Preiser-Kapeller (2021) has suggested that frontiers and networks are of equal significance to territorial extent as a spatial manifestation of empire in Byzantium, and H. de Weerdt (2015) has shown how communication networks fostered by bureaucratic elites helped to maintain empire in Song China. Drawing in part on these ideas, and reflecting on diachronic comparisons with the Tang and Mongol Yuan as well as synchronic comparison with the Byzantine, I will discuss how the Song experience of empire can contribute to a more expansive understanding of the multiple manifestations of empire and perhaps even a redefinition of the concept itself.