A Change in Dynasties: Loyalism in Thirteenth Century China.

AuthorBuell, Paul D.

By Jennifer W. Jay. Studies on East Asia, 18. Bellingham, Wash.: Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1991. Pp. xiv + 309. $35.

The topic of loyalism at the time of change of dynasties has always fascinated Western historians of China, in part because of continuing Chinese interest in the topic, in part because of the light shed by the various manifestations of loyalism on the history of Chinese society, literature, and art, and upon regional history. Jennifer Jay's book, the most recent essay on the subject, treats one of the two best-known and best-documented loyalist movements in China history, that of the Sung loyalists who persisted almost into the Ming period, though they were much of the time largely ignored by a Mongol government whose interests focused on north China and in Central Asia, instead of the often recalcitrant south which it found difficult to understand. Jay's book is in two parts. Part one, comprising two chapters (pp. 1-60) is a general introduction to her topic along with a detailed account of the Sung resistance movement of 1276-79, culminating in the massive land-and-sea battle of Yaishan and its aftermath. The second part (chapters three to six, pp. 61-264) looks at Sung loyalism as an historical and hagiographical tradition and at what Jay sees as the three types of loyalism: the unrepentant loyalism-to-the-death of Wen Tianxiang and other voluntary and involuntary martyrs to the cause, i-min loyalism of those focused on the Yangtse, adjacent areas and points farther south, and what she calls "marginal loyalism," the loyalism of those who, while identifying with loyalist traditions, were often willing to make compromises with the new regime and its representatives. Chapter seven looks at how Sung loyalism changed over time and the traditions, often out of touch with reality, which grew up about it (including the rich folkloristic traditions associated with Jay's native Hong Kong). The book also includes appendices, respectively summarizing Songshi biographies of loyalists, loyalist figures in Chinese history by dynasties, the career of Wen Tianxiang, the members of his staff (mufu) and the regional associations of loyalists, as well as a full bibliography and index.

Jay's account, largely based upon her doctoral dissertation, prepared under Wang Gungwu's direction at Australian National University, is lucid, well written, and well conceived and is, in this reviewer's view, the best and...

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