The Influence of Personal Networks among Political Frictions—The Ban on Daoxue in the Chingyuan Period

The ban on Daoxue in the Ningzong reign was a key event influencing the political and academic developments in the late Southern Song. Modern historians studying this event usually focused on the famous figures’ actions among this event, and argued that there were two groups official with distinct standpoints. Through analyzing the geographic and academic backgrounds of these two groups, many historians confirmed the traditional stereotype: the ban on Daoxue was a serious political friction between pro-Daoxue and anti-Daoxue groups. However, the historical facts were more complicated than they argued, and my project tries to revise this concept by researching the personal networks of the officials involved in this event. Currently, some scholars have researched personal networks in the Song dynasty by using Chinese Biographical Database Project (CBDB). Different from relying on database system, I have studied thirty six officials who supported the ban on Daoxue through closely reading texts and exhausting related materials. By this way, I have pointed out the shortcomings of using digital database to study personal networks in the Southern Song. Thus, I plan to research five key officials who deeply involved in the ban on Daoxue: Ye Shi, Wu Lie, Jing Tang, Ni Si and Qin Xiangzu, and expect to improve our understandings on the supporters and rivals of the Daoxue group. Based on this project, moreover, I will cooperate with Prof. Hilde De Weerdt to review the functions and values of CBDB system.

Project ID:PE10507-0575
External Project ID:MOST105-2410-H182-008