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The Frontier Capital: Datong Under the Northern Wei, 398-494 CE
Paperback
Ancient History GeneralChinese History
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Publisher: Independently Published
Pages: 358
Weight: 1.83
Height: 0.74 Width: 8.50 Depth: 11.00
Language: English
In 398 CE, on the windswept frontier between the Mongolian steppe and agricultural China, the nomadic Tuoba Xianbei people made a radical choice. Instead of conquering and occupying a traditional Chinese city, they built their own: Pingcheng, the City of Peace. For nearly a century, this metropolis served as the capital of their powerful Northern Wei dynasty.
History has often dismissed this period as a simple story of Sinicization-the process of barbarians inevitably becoming Chinese. The Frontier Capital reveals a far more complex and fascinating reality. Drawing on archaeological evidence from the city's ruins, a critical re-reading of court histories, and a deep analysis of its spectacular art, this book argues that Pingcheng was a laboratory for a new kind of empire.
Here, Tuoba rulers governed with a hybrid system that blended steppe clan politics with Chinese bureaucracy. They became fervent Buddhist monarchs, sponsoring the creation of the magnificent Yungang Grottoes-colossal Buddhas carved into cliffsides in a revolutionary style that fused Indian, Central Asian, and Chinese art. This was not assimilation. This was innovation.
The Frontier Capital is the definitive story of this forgotten city, a gripping investigation into how a frontier zone became a creative center that redefined the meaning of China and left a lasting legacy on all of East Asia.
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