Tsins

The Tsjinh (Shinasthana: 晉, tsjinh) was a polity located in modern-day Themiclesia that first arose during the Hexarchy and in 265 established its primacy over competing states. In canonical historiography, it is remembered as "first dynasty" of a unified Themiclesia, though later scholarship has considerably nuanced this assessment. The precise origins of the Tsjinh state are difficult to establish with certainty, though it is thought to have colonized Themiclesia in the 4th c. BCE and led some form of a clan-like organization until finally settling near where Kien-k'ang is today, then establishing a true state. During the Hexarchy, it engaged in military expansion and absorbed surrounding polities. The Treaty of Five Kings was agreed in 265 and established the Tsjinh king as the first of the five states, though Tsjinh as a state never grew to encompass the others. The eponymous dynasty was overthrown in 420 by Sungh.

History

Rise

The rise of the Tsjinh policy is shrouded in mystery. While there is a lengthy family tree that is attested on bronzes, the first historically significant ruler p′rjek-ga (辟胡) seems to have led the polity around the earlier part to the middle of the 3rd c. BCE. His ancestry can be established to about ten generations before himself with some certainty, but nothing other than their names are known; however, because these ancestors gave rise to what appears to be collateral branches of the clan, each of whom minted their bronzes that recover a shared ancestry, the family tree is seen as reliable in se, though of limited historical value. The Tsjinh are not the first in Themiclesia to keep official annals, and their early activity is primary recorded by other polities, whose annals have survived; these polities interact with Tsjinh through diplomacy, warfare, and marriage. In the region where the Tsjinh have settled down, various artifacts corroborate with annals to give a rudimentary outline of Tsjinh before the start of the Common Era.

P′rjek-ga ruled Tsjinh for about 30 years until his death c. 250 BCE, where the rulers of other states sent envoys to his funeral. His tumulus was found in 1977, 4 km south of Tubh County; excavation revealed a wealth of artifacts but few textual materials. After his reign, the Tsjinh polity regularly entered into alliances with other polities of Meng origin and attacked "barbarians". It is not known who the "barbarians" actually were, though some scholars believe they referred to Themiclesia's aboriginal population. This view is corroborated in the 50s, when evidence for non-Menghean settlements first appeared. Like many other Meng polities, the Tsjinh practiced human sacrifice, in both cultic and funerary contexts. The need to obtain victims may have driven a common desire for military action against the aboriginal cultures. The earliest Tsjinh documents hint that "persons" were amongst the spoils split between Tsjinh and its allies; these references may have been more overt as originally written but later were redacted for moralistic reasons.

It is likely that one of his brothers took over, as succession in Meng polities in Themiclesia at this time was overwhelmingly fratrilineal. After his brother's death, another one or two siblings took over, and the crown was passed to P′rjek-ga's eldest son. Then the ruling house of Tsjinh fell into civil war in 222 BCE, whether P′rjek-ga’s second eldest son should take the throne, or the eldest son of his next brother. The throne was taken by the second or third brother's eldest son. He soon died under suspicious circumstances, and the throne was seized by the third or fourth brother. Soon, the second or third brother's eldest son forced the ruler into exile and took the throne for himself. Due to the perceived illegitimacy, the royal house revolted against the usurper, provoking the Quarrel of Six Princes (六公子之亂, rjuk-kong-tsje′-tje-ronh), which took place around 182 BCE. A junior line (of unclear relationship) took the throne in 170 BCE and introduced a clearer succession system, the remnants of which can still be seen in Themiclesia today. In this new system, preference is given to descent rather than fraternity; only when a ruler has no heir at all would the crown pass to lateral lines.

After the Quarrel of Six Princes, clearer records begin to emerge about Tsjinh's activities. The earliest written records date to the 2nd c. BCE, as Tsjinh experience a period of rapid state-building. The Quarrel required contenders to the crown to enlist outside military and civil support, to court the support of surrounding polities, cadet branches of the house, and settler groups. Governmental functions once in the purview of the clan were instead entrusted to this new class of outside aristocrats. Once the Quarrel ended, the Tsjinh court was aflood with new bloodlines that posed a severe threat to the hereditary power of the successful lines of the royal house. Thus, power struggles were no longer occurring between branches of the royal family, but between them and new aristocrats. The need to communicate ideas may have been responsible for generating the earliest received literature created by the Tsjinh court.

Hexarchy

Main article: Hexarchy

As the Tsjinh experienced two decades of internal chaos, the international situation had significantly evolved. Through continuous alliances and common efforts to expel "barbarians" to the west, the states' spheres of influence were now adjoining. The relationship between Meng polities shifted from friendly to hostile. Teng to the south and Pjang to the east appear to have invaded Tsjinh during its disunity around 177 BCE, which may have provoked the cadets to rest their disputes temporarily. One of the princes appealed for assistance from Teng to be installed on the throne. Tsjinh mobilized 200 chariots and quagmired a larger invasion force, forcing an inconclusive withdrawal, but Pjang attacked in the following month, forcing Tsjinh to cede a settlement. Tsjinh's rule then promptly died. Going against their commitment to desist from further force, Pjang installed a puppet on Tsjinh's throne, but the puppet immediately tried to rally support for retribution on Pjang's interference. Pjang gathered another force to suppress his antics. Meanwhile, the prince at Teng persuaded the Teng ruler to invade Tsjinh at a point when the puppet ruler could not afford to spare troops to defend another front. Thus, in 175 BCE Pjang and Teng engaged in the Battle of Gar-ngwadh, giving Tsjinh needed time to recuperate. The war proved inconclusive, but the battle shocked the Meng diplomatic scene in Themiclesia, heralding a coming age of warfare by polities that had similar language, culture, and governments.

Treaty of Five Kings

Main article: Treaty of Five Kings

Government

Clan period

In the study of early Themiclesian state structures, historians frequently utilize comparisons with Menghean precedents and contemporaries, on the assumption that settlement in Themiclesia was done not by individuals but entire clans en masse, which were the functional units of political actors in early Menghean society. While some have voiced concerns about this approach, since the first Meng settlements in Themiclesia outdate the emergence of reliable records by several centuries, it remains nevertheless the dominant methodology in the field.

The earlier part of the Tsjinh polity is characterized as a clan-based government; opportunities and responsibilities were shared as a matter of course between different branches of the clan. The leader of the clan, appearing in the earliest inscriptions as kong (公), may have been selected not purely on a hereditary basis but with senior figures involved. Nevertheless, the word kong itself indicates a preference for seniority within the clan's power structure. Branches of the family may be assigned to colonize a new area, to extract or work a certain resource, or to perform a certain set of skilled tasks. It is assumed that these designations are hereditary. The leaders of these branches, the tsje′ (子) form the court of the clan leader, whose duty is best described as ensuring the cadet branches to carry out their tasks effectively and to share the fruits of their labour with the other branches of the clan. In the event of threat of force, the different branches of the clan marshalled in each other's defence.

The clan-based government appears to have functioned smoothly in a settlement of limited size and membership, but disputes occurred as the branches subdivided and created more settlements and encountered other clans active in the same areas. Those branches assigned to territorial occupation tended to diversify, whether out of inconvenience of distance or ambition, as much as their parent clans did and thus became self-sufficient, encourage their transformation into polities as well. In some cases, these new polities became completely independent, but in others they remained subordinate to their parent clan, fulfilling some sort of fixed obligation in exchange for recognition or common defence. Other, smaller clans active in the same region may have sought protection of the Tsjinh and performed some function as compensation.

Thus, by the end of the 3rd c. BCE, three groups were active in the Tsjinh court—the senior house (公族), the cadet houses (諸子族), and the outsiders (外族). Some historians dispute the validity of distinguishing the clan-proper from the cadet houses, noting the kong's position was based on the "affections of common heritage" rather than material superiority; however, others point out that in face of challenges by outsiders, the kong is seen to have maintained some sort of tangible authority. The prevailing opinion today is that allegiances and factions were fluid during this time, each branch of the clan seeking to expand its influence whether at the expense of others or by enlisting new material or human resources, while the kong attempted to maintain control over the competing branches through various measures.

The Tsjinh at the end of the 3rd c. BCE was evidently not very territorial and had few borders. While the Tsjinh fortified settlements, they defended territories beyond the fortifications only for reasons of economic production. Other clans were able to pass through the general area settled by the Tsjinh clan freely, or even settle amongst them while maintaining independence, as long as they did not threaten the incumbents' activities. This suggests that political power was primarily an interpersonal relationship, not one based on access to land in the feudal sense. This may have been a result of the sparsity of settlement and abundance of land in Themiclesia; a settlement could move to a new location with its belongings in tow, since at least some forms of production that were migratory. In references to the Tsjinh as a whole, they are consistently referred to tsjinh-njing "the Tsjihn people", which also implies that heritage alone was at least a component of political allegiance in this period.

Tsjinh state

The Quarrel of Six Princes deeply disrupted the balance of power between the senior line, the cadets, and the outsiders, all of which had been hereditary interests to that point. The need to prepare for civil and external war with Teng and Pjang forced Tsjinh leaders to rely increasingly on unaffiliated advisors to administer resources more efficiently. The end result of the Quarrel is the weakening of all of the six pretenders to the throne, allowing the senior house to acquire influence in each pretender's support base or to motivate their defection. This was justified, as appears from sparse records, on the grounds of pressure applied by outsider clans; however, this act of centralization also offended the cadet houses, who complained that the senior house had betrayed them. To compete with them, outsider houses formed an important alliance with the senior house, which came to define Tsjinh politics in the aftermath of the Quarrel.

Cognizant of the dangers of an overly-independent hereditary aristocracy, the senior house only recognized the local influences of outsider aristocrats as much as will lead them to lend their services and forces to counterbalance the cadets and to partake in the defence of Tsjinh interests. One measure taken was to limit the new aristocrats' ability to create new settlements and make themselves polities. These new aristocrats, of more limited ability, generally assented to these diminished terms and agreed to serve the senior house. In older historical works, this change is seen as the civic genesis of the Themiclesians, the state's breaching the confines of family ties, whereas previously it had been such a compelling force that it defined virtually all policies. In more recent analyses, scholars have reframed the decision to replace "ties of blood" with "ties of interest" as a change compelled by necessity, rather than a conscious decision to create public politics that transcended clan-based interests.

Despite the suppression of the cadet houses, they continued to have a strong influence in Tsjinh politics. The senior house's reaction to this was threefold, to claim lands before the cadets and outsiders could colonize them, to refrain from giving hereditary titles to new cadets, and to strengthen its own military power. Tsjinh's situation amongst the major states in Themiclesia is not unique, there being a general trend for the senior houses of each clan or state to sever ties of blood and liberalize politics for more effectual governance. Diverse solutions were explored to approached this problem. Some states, such as Teng, used military force to crush recalcitrant houses, at the risk of perpetuating rifts in society and appearing disunited before enemies. Tsjinh's policy was more moderate, balancing a patchwork of interests. This tradition of moderation seems to have become canonical in later history. Due to the major house's proactive colonization of land, population under its control, and thus economic strength, increased more rapidly than those under the cadets. By about 100 BCE, the major house had become hegemonic and accordingly appropriated the title "king" (王, gwjang) for itself. In terms of terminology, we see this phrase tsjinh-tai-prong (晉多邦), "the several Tsjinh settlements" singularized in foreign sources, suggesting that domestic politics had undergone some sort of unification.

The earlier practice of establishing cadet colonies effectively limited the size of the demesne land of the major house in earlier Tsjinh history. After this practice was abandoned in consequence of the Quarrel of Six Princes, there was considerable development in the administrative apparatus to make effective use state resources. This allowed the senior house to acquire a larger income and was intrumental in establishing its supremacy over others. The rise of a professional bureaucracy followed closely with the appearance of the first historical records and preserved prose compositions; some historians have described this as a democratization of political access, where rulers were willing to grant wealth and honour to the under-class for the provision of knowledgeable services.

During this period, the ultimate prize for an aspiring bureaucrat was titular aristocracy, which entitled the holder and descendants to a permanent monetary income. This form of aristocracy was distinct from the cadet and outsider houses, which could create branch houses and colonize more land, receiving political, military, and material support from them and thereby grow to rival the senior house. Titular aristocracy did not pose the same threat, since financial income could not multiply itself or be converted as easily to political and military power. Most importantly, it did not reduce the tax-base for the senior house or create potential opponents. Furthermore, since the senior house was the sole guarantor of the benefits that the title carried, it also encouraged the holder and his successors to support the senior house, to protect their continued income.

Though the Tsjinh had virtually stopped creating land-based titles, the number of financial ones multiplied as heritable rewards were culturally coveted. For bureaucrats who achieved this form of nobility, it alleviated them from governing settlements and allowed them to focus on their jobs. To a certain extent, the creation of permanent bonds of seems to have been preferred by the Tsjinh senior house as well. This added a fourth faction to the Tsjinh court and a novel dynamic to court life. Bureaucrats, who were prized across the states due to their ability to centralize administration and combat established aristocrats, became the subject of controversies stirred up mostly aristocrats. The cadet houses, who were out-competed by bureaucratic rule, openly circulated rumours that bureaucrats could not be trusted, instead asking for positions themselves arguing that only blood could guarantee loyalty. They pointed to historical situations two centuries ago when houses normally embroiled in infighting could unit against a common external enemy. Tsjinh politics was characterized by struggles between the factions in the 1st century BCE.

List of rulers

Inscriptional

Prjang′

Mjet

Krap

Krap

Prjang′

Prjang′

Prjang

Krap

?

Têng

Mjet

Mjet

Prjang′

Krap

Prjang′

Têng

′rjut

Prjang′

Mjet

Prjang′

Têng

Sjing

Krang

Kwrjei′

Têng

Sjing

Prjang′

Krap

P′rjek-ga

See also

• Themiclesia