This study addresses aspects of culture and politics at the court of the Northern Song emperor Huizong 徽宗 (1082–1135, r. 1100–1125) during the middle years of his reign, particularly around 1110. It describes and analyzes the complex relationship between imperial court politics and the ways in which the arts, such as painting and calligraphy, and "auspiciousness reporting" played crucial roles in determining the political fates of individuals in the imperial court. One particular relationship, between Huizong and his powerful grand councilor Cai Jing 蔡京 (1046–1126), is exceptionally revealing. Cai Jing was, in alternation, both a beneficiary and a victim of the vicissitudes of the court during an age in which climate change and a fatal disconnect between the emperor and his realm helped to seal the fate of the Northern Song dynasty. The common historical judgment on these two characters is that Emperor Huizong was an ineffectual aesthete who knew little of what was going on in his court or his empire. The emperor was manipulated constantly by self-serving, more experienced and able courtiers, such as his grand councilor Cai Jing, who used his influence for his own security and profit.1 This sterotyped portrait of the workings of the imperial court may be accurate in some respects, but it does not fully convey the complexity of the context and in some ways may even be misleading. This study joins other recent reappraisals of these two figures that challenge, or at least seek to complicate, the older paradigm.2 One way to reexamine the relationship between Huizong and Cai Jing is by considering the role that calligraphy and painting played as media through which the two found common interest. Both Huizong and Cai were connoisseurs and able practitioners of calligraphy and painting, and both seemed to have highly sophisticated knowledge, both historical and aesthetic, of these arts. Cai proved himself especially adept at using calligraphy and painting as a mode of communication between himself and the much younger emperor. Huizong, too, could participate in this game of signs, in which paintings and their attached colophons were used as a kind of secret language.3 An attendant stratagem in court communications was "auspiciousness" and "inauspiciousness" reporting and interpretation. Cai was an apt pupil of this Machiavellian practice: at first a victim of it, he later became an adept manipulator of auspiciousness reporting, using it viciously and effectively to maintain and further his position in court and also to marginalize his enemies. By examining these instances and their potent functions in determining court politics, we are provided with a singular portrait of a court where belief in the power of omens and signs in nature was endemic and was manipulated constantly by the political and moral interpretation of natural events such as the appearances of comets or sunspots or even uncommon weather phenomena. A central topic in this paper is the Cold Period, ca. 1100–1190s, a climatic event that had drastic consequences for the economy and environment of the late Northern Song. In a world where natural disasters were indicative of Heaven's displeasure with the imperial court, strange weather could be a menacing sign. Contrasts are drawn between the Cold Period and the so-called Medieval Warm Period (ca. 800–1000) that preceded it. Various issues emerge from the contrast: an increase in the number of snow-related themes in painting, for example, and shifting attitudes towards snow and snowfalls. Here I have chosen a single painting, Returning Boat on a Snowy River 雪江 歸棹圖 (Figs. 1–3), with its colophon by Cai Jing, as an illuminating text for reevaluating these issues.4 Cai Jing's colophon to Huizong's Returning Boat on a Snowy River (Fig. 4) gives an artist [Huizong], the title of the painting, and the date of the colophon [1110/3/1],5 and includes a poem referring to the painting (for translation see Appendix I).6 Huizong's painting creates an image of a peculiar world: a pure, remote, and inaccessible landscape firmly in the grip of winter. The silvery sky seems boundless and free of mist and clouds. Majestic mountains, precipitous cliffs, and calmly flowing rivers are complemented by the various undulating forms of...
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Strange Weather: Art, Politics, and Climate Change at the Court
of Northern Song Emperor Huizong
Huiping Pang
Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, Volume 39, 2009, pp. 1-41 (Article)
Published by The Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasty Studies
DOI: 10.1353/sys.0.0001
For additional information about this article
Access Provided by Stanford University at 05/02/10 6:54PM GMT
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sys/summary/v039/39.pang.html
Journal of Song-Yuan Studies ()
Strange Weather:
Art, Politics, and Climate Change
at the Court of Northern Song
Emperor Huizong
Huiping Pang* stanford university
This study addresses aspects of culture and politics at the court of the
Northern Song emperor Huizong 徽宗 (–, r. –) during the
middle years of his reign, particularly around . It describes and analyzes
the complex relationship between imperial court politics and the ways in
which the arts, such as painting and calligraphy, and "auspiciousness report-
ing" played crucial roles in determining the political fates of individuals in
the imperial court. One particular relationship, between Huizong and his
powerful grand councilor Cai Jing 蔡京 (–), is exceptionally revealing.
Cai Jing was, in alternation, both a beneciary and a victim of the vicissitudes
of the court during an age in which climate change and a fatal disconnect
between the emperor and his realm helped to seal the fate of the Northern
Song dynasty.
The common historical judgment on these two characters is that Emperor
Huizong was an ineffectual aesthete who knew little of what was going on in his
court or his empire. The emperor was manipulated constantly by self-serving,
more experienced and able courtiers, such as his grand councilor Cai Jing,
who used his inuence for his own security and prot.1 This sterotyped portrait
* I am very grateful for the assistance of Peter Sturman, Ronald Egan, Allan Langdale, Robert
Williams, and Joseph Chang. The Smithsonian Institution's Postdoctoral Fellowship supported
my research in –.
. Wang Cheng 王偁 (?–ca.) commented that "Cai Jing was by nature crafty and deceit-
ful." See Wang Cheng, Dongdu shilue 東都事略 [Resume of Events in the Eastern Capital]
(preface dated ; Taipei: Zhongyang tushuguan, ), .. The dynastic history classied
Cai as a "treacherous minister" 姦臣. See Tuo Tuo 脫脫 (–) et al., Songshi 宋史 [History
2 huiping pang
of the workings of the imperial court may be accurate in some respects, but
it does not fully convey the complexity of the context and in some ways may
even be misleading. This study joins other recent reappraisals of these two
gures that challenge, or at least seek to complicate, the older paradigm.2
One way to reexamine the relationship between Huizong and Cai Jing is
by considering the role that calligraphy and painting played as media through
which the two found common interest. Both Huizong and Cai were connois-
seurs and able practitioners of calligraphy and painting, and both seemed to
have highly sophisticated knowledge, both historical and aesthetic, of these
arts. Cai proved himself especially adept at using calligraphy and painting as
a mode of communication between himself and the much younger emperor.
Huizong, too, could participate in this game of signs, in which paintings and
their attached colophons were used as a kind of secret language.3
An attendant stratagem in court communications was "auspiciousness"
and "inauspiciousness" reporting and interpretation. Cai was an apt pupil of
of Song; hereafter SS] (; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ), .; Lü Zhong 呂中 (jinshi
s), Song dashiji jiangyi 宋大事記講義 (preface dated ; Siku quanshu [SKQS] ed.),
..
. See Patricia Ebrey, "Literati Culture and the Relationship between Huizong and Cai
Jing," Journal of Song-Yuan Studies (), ; Maggie Bickford, "Huizong's Paintings: Art and
the Art of Emperorship," in Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China: The Politics of
Culture and the Culture of Politics, ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Maggie Bickford (Cambridge
and London: Harvard University Asia Center, ), ; Ari Daniel Levine, "Terms of Estrange-
ment: Factional Discourse in the Early Huizong Reign," in Emperor Huizong and Late Northern
Song China, ; Charles Hartman, "A Textual History of Cai Jing's Biography in the Songshi,"
in Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, ; and Patricia Ebrey, Accumulating
Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong (Seattle and London: University of Washington
Press, ), –.
. Late in Huizong's reign, ca. –, thousands of auspicious paintings were commis-
sioned, executed by court painters, and signed by Huizong. Examples include Albums for the
Emperor's Perusal in the Xuanhe Period 宣和瑞覽冊 (e.g., Cranes of Good Omen on //,
Auspicious Dragon Rock, and Five-Colored Parakeet). See Peter Sturman, "Cranes above Kaifeng:
The Auspicious Image at the Court of Huizong," Ars Orientalis (), –; Ogawa Hiromitsu
小川裕充, "Auspicious Cranes, by Huizong," Bijutsushi ronsō (Tokyo: Tokyo University, ),
–; Masaaki Itakura 板倉聖哲, "Kōtei no manazashi shi: Kisō zuitsuru zu o megutte" 皇帝
の眼差し: 徽宗瑞鶴図をめぐって, Ajia Yūgaku アジア遊學 (), –; and Bickford,
"Huizong's Paintings," Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, . My purpose here is
to investigate the origins of these images and the astrological interpretations that were appended
to them. By examining the early-to-middle era of Huizong's regency ca. –, we are able to
see the beginnings of inauspicious versus auspicious interpretive practices, which were elucidated
by two combative political groups: the New and Old Policies factions.
3strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
this Machiavellian practice: at rst a victim of it, he later became an adept
manipulator of auspiciousness reporting, using it viciously and effectively to
maintain and further his position in court and also to marginalize his enemies.
By examining these instances and their potent functions in determining court
politics, we are provided with a singular portrait of a court where belief in the
power of omens and signs in nature was endemic and was manipulated con-
stantly by the political and moral interpretation of natural events such as the
appearances of comets or sunspots or even uncommon weather phenomena.
A central topic in this paper is the Cold Period, ca. –s, a climatic
event that had drastic consequences for the economy and environment of
the late Northern Song. In a world where natural disasters were indicative
of Heaven's displeasure with the imperial court, strange weather could be
a menacing sign. Contrasts are drawn between the Cold Period and the so-
called Medieval Warm Period (ca. –) that preceded it. Various issues
emerge from the contrast: an increase in the number of snow-related themes
in painting, for example, and shifting attitudes towards snow and snowfalls.
Here I have chosen a single painting, Returning Boat on a Snowy River 雪江
歸棹圖 (Figs. –), with its colophon by Cai Jing, as an illuminating text for
reevaluating these issues.4
Cai Jing's colophon to Huizong's Returning Boat on a Snowy River (Fig. )
gives an artist [Huizong], the title of the painting, and the date of the colophon
[//],5 and includes a poem referring to the painting (for translation see
. The painting, in the Beijing Palace Museum, is inscribed Xuejiang guizhou tu 雪江歸棹
圖 [Returning Boat on a Snowy River] in the upper right corner; "Produced by Xuanhe Palace"
宣和殿製 in the left margin with the cipher "The First Man Under Heaven" 天下一人 just
below. The painting is also impressed with eight imperial seals: Xuanhe 宣龢 , Zhenghe 政和 ,
Double Dragons Square Seal 雙龍方印, Xuanhe 宣和 , Daguan 大觀 , Imperial Writing 御
書, Zhenghe 政龢, and Seal of the Inner Treasury's Paintings and Calligraphy 內府圖書之
印. Whether the painting was rendered by Huizong's own hand or his ghostpainter is beyond
the scope of this article. My subject focuses on Cai Jing's colophon, his political situation, and
snow disasters. For a recent study of the ghostpainter problem and Huizong, see Xu Bangda 徐
邦達 , "Song Huizong Zhao Ji qinbihua yu daibi de kaobian" 宋徽宗趙佶親筆畫與代筆的考
辯, Gugong bowuyuan yuankan 故宮博物院院刊 (), –; Xu Bangda, Gushuhua wei'e
kaobian 古書畫偽訛考辨 [Studies in the authentication of ancient calligraphy and painting]
(Yangzhou: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, ), –; Maggie Bickford, "Emperor Huizong and
the Aesthetic of Agency," Archives of Asian Art (–), –; and Maggie Bickford,
"Huizong's Paintings," Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, –.
. For the sake of consistency, I will render dates here according to the Chinese lunar
calendar in the following form: "year/month/day." My reading of the date Jichun shuo 季春朔 ,
4 huiping pang
Appendix I).6 Huizong's painting creates an image of a peculiar world: a pure,
remote, and inaccessible landscape rmly in the grip of winter. The silvery sky
seems boundless and free of mist and clouds. Majestic mountains, precipitous
cliffs, and calmly owing rivers are complemented by the various undulating
forms of the valleys. The layered mountain range and the deep perspective
keep spectators segregated from the idealistic landscape, even though signs
of daily human activities—including shermen, travelers, boats, riverside
dwellings, and temple buildings—are all visible. The viewer is not invited to
enter this secluded, utopian snowscape, rather, it proffers an idyllic, distant
world, an intangible dream of nature (Fig. ).
In contrast to traditional shing paintings of the Northern Song dynasty,
such as Xu Daoning's 許道寧 (ca. –) Fishermen's Evening Song 漁舟
唱晚圖卷 (ca. ; Fig. ) and Wang Shen's 王詵 (ca. –ca. ) Light
Snow Over a Fishing Village 漁村小雪圖卷 (Fig. ), Huizong's painting
instead emphasizes a single, lonely sherman rowing the boat in the middle
of the river. Loneliness and longing seem to replace the rowdy laborers and
the clamor and camaraderie of the earlier paintings. The mood is thus entirely
different in Returning Boat on a Snowy River, strongly suggesting a different
which literally means the rst day of the third month of spring, as // is justied by the fact
that spring was considered to begin in January and end in March, a fact conrmed by at least
four Song dynasty sources: ) Li Tao 李燾 (–), Xu zizhi tongjian changbian 續資治通鑑
長編 [Comprehensive mirror for aid in government, continued; hereafter Changbian] (preface
dated ; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ), .: "(In ) 詔以常平錢穀給在京乞丐
人, 至季春止…候三月五住, 以雪寒故也;" ) SS, .: "宣和元年三月, 皇后親蠶. 即
延福宮行禮. 其儀: 季春之月, 太史擇日, 皇后親蠶;" ) Hu Hong 胡宏 (–), Huang-
wang daji 皇王大紀 (preface dated ; SKQS ed.) "三月季春" . (see Fig. ); ) Zhang Lu
張慮 (jinshi ), Yueling jie 月令解 (Congshu jicheng xubian 叢書集成續編 ed.; Taipei:
Xinwenfeng chubanshe, ), .: "季春之月: 季春者…正為三月." For earlier sources,
see Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (–), Liji zhengyi 禮記正義 (Shisanjing zhushu 十三經注疏 ed.;
Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ), .: "季春之月: 按三統曆云: 三月之節."
. Cai Jing's colophon has been admired through history. In Chen Yuanrui 陳元瑞
(active th century) carved Cai's colophon onto the Bohai cangzhen tie 渤海藏真帖 . The early
Qing commentator Wu Qizhen 吳其貞 (–ca. ) regarded this colophon as magnicent,
elegant, and undoubtedly as genuine as Cai's Letter to Jiefu 節夫帖 (ca. ). See Wu Qizhen,
Shuhua ji 書畫記 [Notes on Painting and Calligraphy] (preface dated ; Shenyang: Liaoning
jiaoyu chubanshe, ), ..Certainly, compared with Cai's calligraphy in Letter to Jiefu and
his colophons to Wang Ximeng's 王希孟 (–) A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains
千里江山圖 of , Xuanzong's 唐玄宗 (r. –) Ode to the Pied Wagtails 鶺鴒頌 of ,
and Listening to the Qin 聽琴圖, Cai's colophon to Returning Boat on a Snowy River presented
a typical example of Cai's distinguished calligraphy style.
Fig. Emperor Huizong's 徽宗 (r. –) painting, Returning Boat on a Snowy
River 雪江歸棹圖. Handscroll, . × . cm, ink on silk. Collection of the Palace
Museum, Beijing. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing.
6 huiping pang
Fig. Detail of Fig. , Returning
Boat on a Snowy River. Huizong's
inscription. Courtesy of the Palace
Museum, Beijing. Fig. Detail of Fig. , Returning
Boat on a Snowy River. Huizong's
signature. Courtesy of the Palace
Museum, Beijing.
Fig. Cai Jing's colophon to Returning Boat on a Snowy River. Handscroll, ink on
paper. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing.
Fig. Detail of Fig. , Returning Boat on a Snowy River. Courtesy of the Palace
Museum, Beijing.
Fig. Hu Hong 胡宏 (–), Huangwang daji 皇王大紀 (preface dated ;
SKQS ed.), ..
•
•
•
•
8 huiping pang
Fig. Detail of Wang Shen's 王詵 (ca. -ca. ), Light Snow Over a Fishing
Village 漁村小雪圖 . Handscroll, ink and color on silk, . × .cm. The Palace
Museum, Beijing. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing.
Fig. Detail of Xu Daoning's 許道寧 (ca. –) Fishermen's Evening Song 漁
舟唱晚圖卷 (ca. ). Handscroll, ink and slight color on silk, . × . cm.
Courtesy of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Purchase: Wil-
liam Rockhill Nelson Trust, –. Photograph by John Lamerton.
9strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
signication for 'the sherman' in this work. Further, while conventional
sherman paintings normally portray the cottages and huts of the common-
ers as quaint backdrops for their activity, Huizong's snowscape is decorated,
uniquely, with inviting buildings and a returning boat at the left side.
One of the ways that we might consider new readings of snowscapes in
this era, including this one, is to attempt to imagine how Northern Song
dynasty painters, patrons, and spectators may have understood the signica-
tion of winter itself. Interestingly, during the late Northern Song period, the
effects of winters were emphatically pronounced, and this was accompanied
by a dramatic increase in the proportion of winter-related scenes compared
to other seasonal subjects. The master painters of the late Northern Song
were particularly fond of depicting snowscapes, including the imperial-clan
painter Wang Shen (Fig. ), the literati ofcial Wang Gu 王穀 (ca. s), Li
Gongnian 李公年 (active ca. ), Liang Shimin 梁師閔 (early th century)
and other artists. According to the Xuanhe huapu [Painting catalogue of the
Xuanhe period] (Table ), among Yan Su's 燕肅 (–) landscape
paintings, are snowscapes.7 Of Xu Daoning's and Song Di's 宋迪 (ca.
–ca. ) works, % are snowscapes. Of Guo Xi's 郭熙 (ca. –ca.
), Wang Shen's, and Zhao Xiaoyin's 趙孝穎 (ca. ) landscapes, %
are snowscapes. And all the identiable paintings of Wang Gu and Zhao
Shitian 趙士腆 (ca. s) are winter scenes.8 Moreover, Northern Song
calligraphers such as Huang Tingjian 黃庭堅 (–) and Chen Guan
陳瓘 (–) recorded how cold it was in winter, in both their imagery
and their inscriptions.9 These artists came from various regions, differed in
religious preferences, and belonged to diverse social levels. Taken together,
. For Yan Su's case, see Xuanhe huapu 宣和畫譜 (Taipei: Shijie shuju, ), .–.
Titles of the paintings discussed here were clearly identied with the terms: spring 春, summer
夏, hot 熱, scorching 暑, fall 秋, winter 冬, snow 雪, or wintery 寒. See Table . I did not count
the painters if their painting samples were too small. For instance, Chen Yongzhi 陳用志 and
Qu Ding 屈鼎 only had one catalogued by the Xuanhe huapu.
. For Xu Daoning's case, see Xuanhe huapu, .–. For Song Di, see .; for Guo
Xi, see .; for Wang Shen, see .; for Zhao Xiaoyin, see .–; for Wang Gu, see
.; for Zhao Shitian, see ..
. For instance, Huang Tingjian, "Letter to Mingshu" 致明叔少府同年尺牘. Ink on paper,
. × .cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei. Chen Guan 陳瓘 (–), "Letter to Siji's
relative" 致思濟使君大夫十三姐縣君尺牘. Ink on paper, . × .cm. National Palace
Museum, Taipei. Huang's letter mentioned the "snowy cold" 雪寒, and Chen Guan's referred
to "severe cold in the mid-winter" 仲冬嚴寒.
10 huiping pang
their work suggests that climate change was a factor in the increased produc-
tion of snowscapes.
A period of exceptionally cold winters, extending almost a century, from
the late Northern Song to the early Southern Song, severely affected aspects
of China's ecology, economy, and environment. Low temperatures during
this era were all the more dramatic because the two preceding centuries had
been uncommonly warm. Based on the evidence of tree-ring variations and
other scientic measurements, paleometeorologists have been able to identify
an earlier period of relatively high temperatures, which they refer to as the
Medieval Warm Period.10 Snowfalls during the Warm Period were regarded
. See Zhu Kezhen 竺可楨, "Zhongguo jin wuqiannianlai qihou bianqian de chubu yan-
jiu" 中國近五千年來氣候變遷的初步研究 [A preliminary study on the climate uctuations
during the past years in China], Kaogu xuebao 考古學報 (), –; Xu Shenyi 徐勝
Table : Identiable seasons of paintings in Xuanhe huapu.
Painter Spring Summer Fall
Winter /
Snow Total
Five Dynasties
Zhao Gan (active –) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Dong Yuan (ca. –) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Ju Ran (act. after ) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Northern Song
Li Cheng (–) (.%) (.%) (.%) (.%)
Fan Kuan (active –) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Yan Su (–) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Xu Daoning (ca.–) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Cui Bai (active –) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Guo Xi (ca. –) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Song Di (ca. –) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Wang Shen (ca. –) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Wu Yuanyu (active s) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Wang Gu (%) (%) (%) (%)
Zhao Xiaoyin (ca. ) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Zhao Shitian (active s) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Zhao Shilei (active s) (%) (.%) (.%) (.%)
11strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
as "Auspicious Snows" and, in fact, emperors frequently assembled their
ministers to pray for snow or ordered landscape paintings on the theme of
Appreciating the Snowfalls.11
With the especially severe dip in temperatures around –, heavy
snowfalls and snow-related catastrophes caused conspicuous damage to crops
throughout the empire, initiating a crisis in agriculture, food supply, transporta-
tion, and, as a result, the social order.12 According to the Dongjing menghualu
一, Zhongguo lishishiqi qihou bianqian ziliao 中國歷史時期氣候變遷資料 (Taipei: National
Taiwan Normal University, ); Thomas J. Crowley et al., "How Warm was the Medieval
Warm?" Ambio . (), –; Jie Fei, "The Possible Climatic Impact in China of Iceland's
Eldgjá Eruption Inferred from Historical Sources," Climatic Change (), –; and
Zhang Quanming 張全明, "Lun beisong Kaifeng diqu qihou bianqian jiqi tedian" 論北宋
開封地區氣候變遷及其特點 [The Climate Changes in Kaifeng District in Northern Song
Dynasty], Shixue yuekan 史學月刊 (), .
. For instance, Emperor Li Yu 李煜 (–) ordered his court painters to depict land-
scapes like Appreciating the Snowfalls 賞雪圖 . See Guo Ruoxu 郭若虛 (late th c.), Tuhua
jianwenzhi 圖畫見聞誌 [Record of things seen and heard about painting] (preface dated ;
Taipei: Shijie shuju, ), .. Emperor Taizong 太宗 (r. –) on // wrote prose
prayers for snow. See SS, .. Emperor Zhenzong 真宗 (r. –) in told his min-
isters that auspicious snow signied that next year's rains would descend from the heavens in
abundance. See SS, ..
. Paleoclimate researchers have shown that the Cold Period (ca. –s), especially
around –, was a dramatic climatic event that had drastic consequences for the economy
and environment of the late Northern Song. See Zhang, J., Crowley T. J. et al., "Historical Climate
Records in China and Reconstruction of Past Climates," Journal of Climate (), –;
Lin P. N. et al., " Years of Climate Change in China: Ice-core δ¹⁸ O evidence," Annals of
Glaciology . (), –; James N. Galloway, Asian Change in the Context of Global Climate
Change: Impact of Natural and Anthropogenic Changes in Asia on Global Biogeochemical Cycles
(Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, ), ; Keith R. Briffa, "Seeing the Wood from
the Trees," Science . (), –; Y. T. Hong, "Response of Climate to Solar Forcing
Recorded in a -year δ¹⁸ O Time-series of Chinese Peat Cellulose," The Holocene . (),
–; Bao Yang, "Decadal Cimatic Variations Indicated by Dulan Tree-ring and Comparison with
Other Proxy Data in China of the Last Years," Chinese Geographical Science (),
–; Bao Yang, "General Characteristics of Temperature Variation in China during the Last
Two Millennia," Geophysical Research Letters (), ; Esper J. et al., " Years of Climatic
History for Western Central Asia Inferred from Tree-rings," The Holocene . (), –;
Y. T. Hong, "A -year Record of Changes in Drought and Precipitation in Northeastern China
Based on a δ¹3 C Time Series from Peat Cellulose," Earth and Planetary Science Letters (),
–; Esper J. et al., "Low-frequency Signals in Long Tree-ring Chronologies for Reconstruct-
ing Past Temperature Variability," Science (), –; Dorte Eide Paulsen, "Climate
Variability in Central China over the Last Years Revealed by High-resolution Stalagmite
Records," Quaternary Science Reviews (), –. See also Zhu Kezhen, "Zhongguo jin
12 huiping pang
[Glorious dreams of the eastern capital], during Huizong's reign, the winter
months in the capital, Kaifeng, were too cold to cultivate any vegetables.13 In
the tropical region of Fujian, millions of lychee fruit trees over ten counties
were frozen.14 By , the terrible snowstorms created a famine that turned
millions into refugees (Appendix II). In the end, the Cold Period was a major
contributing factor in the eventual collapse of the Northern Song (Figs. –;
Appendix III).15
If we look again at Returning Boat on a Snowy River and its colophon of
//, we note that the date corresponds exactly to the height of the Cold
Period and the disasters that it wrought. Coupled with what we know about
the stark realities of famine, crop failures, and social upheaval, it encourages
us to question whether, at this moment in history, it was possible to look at
a snowscape with the same disinterested connoisseurial appreciation as in
earlier times. Was the young emperor, who was especially fond of snowscapes,
wuqiannianlai qihou bianqian de chubu yanjiu," ; Wang Shaowu 王紹武, "Xiaobingqi qiho de
yanjiu" 小冰期氣候的研究, Quaternary Sciences (), –; Wang Shaowu, "Zhongguo
xiaobinqi de qihou" 中國小冰期的氣候, Quaternary Sciences (), ; Chang Quanming,
; and Li Yuanping 李遠平 et al., "Zhongguo xiaobinqi quyu qihou yanhua yanjiu" 中國小冰
期區域氣候演化研究 [Study on regional climate change during the Little Ice Age in China],
Wanxixueyuan xuebao 皖西學院學報 (), .
. Meng Yuanlao 孟元老, Dongjing menghua lu 東京夢華錄 (preface dated ; Beijing:
Zhonghua shuju, ), ..
. Chen Zhengming 陳正敏, Dunzhai xianlan 遁齋閒覽, in Pang Cheng 彭乘 (ca. ),
Moke huixi 墨客揮犀 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ), ..
. For instance, according to SS, ., in November , snow lay on the ground several
feet deep and it snowed for many nights without stopping. On the day of Jiachen, the Jurchen Jin
armies invaded Haozhou in heavy rains and snows. On the day of Yisi, it was horribly cold; the
armies shivered so badly they could not hold their weapons, and some collapsed from numbness.
The Emperor washed his feet in the imperial palace and prayed for sun. Two days later, woods and
trees were frozen. According to the next passage of SS, ., after several days, the Jin attacked
Song imperial gates Tongjin and Xuanhua, the Song military ofcer led thousands into battle;
while crossing the river, the ice broke, and ve hundred Song soldiers sank. For more details,
see Appendix III. Furthermore, modern scholars conrm the inuence of harsh climate on the
fall of Northern Song: paleoclimatologist Zhu Kezhen assumes that: "十二世紀初期, 中國氣
候加劇轉寒…(金侵遼, 宋南遷)," ; Liu Zhaomin 劉昭民, Zhongguo lishishang qihou zhi
bianqian 中國歷史上氣候之變遷 (Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, ), : "(此時 )氣候寒
旱, 飢荒亦極嚴重, 乃招致遼、金、西夏、交趾的相繼入侵. 宋室因而南遷." Also see
Zhou Baozhu 周寶珠, Songdai dongjing yanjiu 宋代東京研究 (Henan: Henan University Press,
), appendix ; and Cheng Suiying 程遂營, "Tangsong Kaifeng shengtai huanjing yanjiu"
唐宋開封生態環境研究 [A study on the climate and natural disasters of Kaifeng during the
Tang and Song dynasties], (Beijing: Zhongguo shehuikexue chubanshe, ).
13strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Fig. Temperature reconstruction by Western climatologists. Source: An excerpt from
Bao Yang et al., "General Characteristics of Temperature Variation in China during
the Last Two Millennia," Geophysical Research Letters . (), p. , gure .
Copyright American Geophysical Union. Reproduced/modied by permission
of American Geophysical Union.
Fig. Phenological temperature record from eastern China. Source: An excerpt
from Thomas J. Crowley et al., "How Warm was the Medieval Warm?" Ambio .
(), p. , gure . Copyright © () Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. From
AMBIO, by Crowley et al. Reprinted by permission of Allen Press Publishing Services.
aware that these picturesque images depicted a season that was destroying his
empire? If so, is it not possible that new readings of the snowscape might have
been engendered by the remarkable and tragic Cold Period?
In a passage of the colophon, Cai abruptly alters his tone, extolling Hui-
zong's paintings and praising their character as pure and lucid. The diversity
of the terrestrial and celestial hierarchies—including the seasons, the heavens,
the earth, and living things—are under the control of the emperor, who is
characterized as a divinity. No panic or tragedy can be found in this snowscape.
Cai sang the praises of his monarch while the subjects of the realm suffered
indescribable hardships. Bad news would not be appropriate in such a colo-
phon, of course, and it is possible to see this colophon as a disguise or denial
of the harsh realities that were pulling apart the economic and social fabric
of the Northern Song. But Cai's intentions, and the painting's connotation,
are more complex.
Phenological Temp. E. China
14 huiping pang
The ofcial title shown on Cai's colophon is unusual: "On //, Zhishi
from Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent 太師 and Duke of Chu 楚國公,
Your servant, Jing, humbly recorded". The term Zhishi 致仕 is used when an
ofcer was retired or relieved from a higher position. Cai's signature indicates
that before //, his honors and ofcial titles, "Grand Preceptor of the Heir
Apparent" and "Duke of Chu," were both removed. This subtle terminology
points to a particular moment in Cai's dramatic career.
Cai had served as a minister in charge of different departments during the
reigns of Emperor Shenzong 神宗 (r. –), Empress Dowager Gao
宣仁高太后 (regent –), Emperor Zhezong 哲 宗 (r. –,
personal rule –), Empress Dowager Xiang 欽聖向太后 (regent
/–), and Huizong. His political allegiance was to the reformist party
known as the New Faction, established by the grand councilor Wang Anshi
王安石 (–) during Emperor Shenzong's reign.16 Cai's young brother,
Cai Bian 蔡卞 (–), was Wang Anshi's son-in-law. Before Cai Jing
became grand councilor, during Shenzong's reign, the anti-reformist Su Shi
蘇軾 (–) attributed natural cataclysms to Heaven's annoyance with
the policies of the New Faction:
胡為水旱 How can there be no ood or drought?
吏則不德 The ofcials and their policies have no merit.
失政召災 When proper government is lost, disasters are
incurred.
莫知自刻 None of them know how to examine themselves.
雨則號晴 When it rains, they pray for clear skies.
旱則渴雪 When there is drought, they wish for snow.17
But heavenly signs were not the only grounds for recrimination. The anti-
reformists took advantage of social and natural upheavals as opportunities to
heap blame upon Wang Anshi. The autumn, winter, and spring seasons of
– were freezing cold and there then followed a severe drought during
whichitdid not rain from November to March of the following year. Starving
. Between and , a series of alternating coalition regimes, the New Faction (reform-
ists) and Old Faction (anti-reformists) fought bitterly with one another. For further discussions,
see Ari Daniel Levine, Divided by a Common Language: Factional Conict in Late Northern
Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, ); and Ebrey, Accumulating Culture,
–.
. Su Shi, Su Dongpo ji 蘇東坡集 [Complete works of Su Shi] (Shanghai: Shangwu yin-
shu guan, ), ..
15strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
refugees from the northeast lled the roads. Another anti-reformist, Zheng
Xia 鄭俠 (–), submitted an album of paintings depicting Portraits of
Refugees and Famines 流民圖 to Emperor Shenzong in order to imply that
Wang Anshi had upset the yinyang balance and incurred droughts.18 These
portraits of famines, victims, and beggars were apparently so disturbing that
Emperor Shenzong and two Empress Dowagers were upset by them. Wang
Anshi resigned in /. The events were a triumph for the anti-reformists.19
In / the appearance of a solar eclipse and its interpretation as "inaus-
picious" provided Chen Guan and the Yuanyou/Yuanfu Old Factions group
with an excuse to banish Cai Jing (/–/).20 When the empress dowager
Xiang died in /, Huizong, who was nineteen years old, began his personal
rule. In /, the fty-seven-year-old Cai was summoned to court and ap-
pointed Hanlin Academician Recipient of Edicts 學士丞旨. Demonstrating
uncommon acumen in the affairs of court power and displaying an exceptional
talent for manipulation and gaining inuence, Cai rapidly replaced his enemy
Han Zhongyan 韓忠彥 (–) as Assistant Councilor in /, replacing
Zeng Bu 曾布 (–) as Right Councilor in /,21 being elevated to
. Dongdu shilue, .–; Alfreda Murck, Poetry and Painting in Song China: The
Subtle Art of Dissent (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ), –.
. Song dazhaoling ji 宋大詔令集 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, ), .;
SS, .; Dongdu shilue, .–; Changbian, .; Xu Ziming 徐自明 (. ca.
–), Song zaifu biannianlu 宋宰輔編年錄 [hereafter Zaifu biannian] (ca. ; Beijing:
Zhonghua shuju, ), .; Ma Yongqing 馬永卿 (ca. ), Yuancheng yulu jie 元城語錄
解 (SKQS ed.,), juan shang, .
. For Chen Guan's denunciation, see Zhao Ruyu 趙汝愚 (–) ed., Songchao
zhuchen zouyi 宋朝諸臣奏議 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, ), .–; For
Chen Shixi's 陳師錫 memorial see Yang Zhongliang 楊仲良 (–), Xu zizhi tongjian
changbian jishi benmo 續資治通鑑長編記事本末 [hereafter Jishi benmo] (ca. ; Beijing:
Beijing tushuguan, ), .; For Zou Hao's 鄒浩 (–) denunciation, see Songchao
zhuchen zouyi, .. Cai Jing was banished to Taiyuan 太原府 (in /), Yongxing 永興軍
(in /), Jiangning 江寧府 (in /), Hangzhou 提舉杭州洞霄宮 (in /), Dingzhou
定州 (in /–/), and Daming 大名府, where he was exiled repeatedly between / and
/. See Jishi benmo, .–, .; Chen Jun 陳均 (ca. –after ), Huangchao
biannian gangmu beiyao 皇朝編年綱目備要 [hereafter Gangmu beiyao] (preface dated ;
Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ), ., –; Huang Yizhou 黃以周 (–) ed., Xu
zizhi tongjian changbian shibu 續資治通鑑長編拾補 [hereafter Changbian shibu] (preface
dated ; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, ), ., ., .–; Anon., Songshi quanwen xu
zizhi tongjian 宋史全文續資治通鑑 [hereafter SSQW:XZZTJ] (completed in the Southern
Song; Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, ), .; Dongdu shilue, .; SS, .; Zaifu
biannian, ., .; Changbian shibu, ..
. Cai was promoted to Assistant Director of the Left in the Department of State Affairs
16 huiping pang
Left Grand Councilor in /, and Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent
in /.22
In seasons of cold, Cai created new disaster relief agencies to provide
medicine, food, shelter, fuel and winter clothing for famine victims and
refugees.23 Given the powerful pressures that the cold and droughts placed
on the government and infrastructure, most reforms related to agriculture or
refugee relief were too costly to be feasible. Wang Anshi's New Policies were
aborted, but Cai's reforms did not completely succeed either.
While the environmental and nancial situations of the state worsened dur-
ing the Cold Period, Huizong became even more obsessed with omens.24 On
//, the anti-Cai partisans—Maozhu 毛注, Shi Gongbi 石公弼, Zhang
Ruming 張汝明, and Zhang Kegong 張克公—jointly produced documents
denouncing Cai.25 Suffering overwhelming denunciations from the anti-Cai
coalition, the radicals temporarily shook Huizong's condence in Cai, even
though the emperor was still fond of him. When Cai was dismissed as grand
councilor (on //) and demoted to a sinecure in the capital (Supervisor
尚書左丞 in /, and replaced Zeng Bu as Vice Director of the Right 尚書右僕射兼中
書侍郎 in /. See Gangmu beiyao, .; Jishi benmo, .; Dongdu shilue, .;
SSQW:XZZTJ, .; Zaifu biannian, ., .; SS, .; Song dashiji jiangyi, ..
. Jishi benmo, .; Dongdu shilue, .; Song dashiji jiangyi , .; Zaifu biannian,
.; SS, ..
. During the winter months, an additional ve wen 文 of cash per day was allotted to each
adult for fuel. In addition, Cai set up the Charity Clinics 安濟坊 in /, Peace and Relief
Hospitals 安濟院 in /, Rest and Recuperation Houses 將理院 in /, Poorhouse 居養
院 in /, Public Pharmacies 和劑局 in /, Paupers' Cemeteries 漏澤園 in /, and
Ever-normal Public Granaries 常平義倉 in /. See Gangmu beiyao, ., .; Dongdu
shilue, ., ; SS, .. For extensive discussions, see Hugh Scogin, "Poor Relief in
Northern Sung China," Oriens Extremus (), –; John Chaffee, "Huizong, Cai Jing,
and the Politics of Reform," in Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, , ; Asaf
Goldschmidt, "Huizong's Impact on Medicine and on Public Health," in Emperor Huizong and
Late Northern Song China, , –.
. An indication of Huizong's belief in heavenly omens can be seen in his edict, promulgated
in May , summoning all astronomers and astrologers to the capital, Kaifeng. See Li Zhi 李
埴 (Southern Song), Shichao gangyao 十朝綱要 (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, ), .: "大
觀元年五月壬寅…詔諸路有曉天文曆算之人, 令所在州給券, 發遣赴闕."
. For ministers' denunciations see SS, ., .; Gangmu beiyao, .–;
Shichao gangyao .–; SSQW:XZZTJ, .; Zaifu biannian, .; SS, .. On
// Chen Chaolao 陳朝老 accused Cai of Fourteen Criminal Acts. See SSQW:XZZTJ,
.; Jishi benmo, .; SS, .; Zaifu biannian, .; Hartman, "A Textual History
of Cai Jing's Biography in the Songshi," .
17strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
of Taiyi Temple 太一宮使), his monthly wage remained the same as when
he was grand councilor. Huizong switched Cai's honorary title from "Duke
of Wei" to "Duke of Chu," but permitted Cai's continued residence in the
capital with the title of "Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent."26
This long series of onslaughts from the anti-reformist ministers did not in
themselves crush Cai; rather, ironically, the startling astronomical events 天
變—or the interpretations of them—precipitated Cai's several downfalls.27 In
the beginning, Huizong did not have a specic religious preference for either
Buddhism or Daoism; Cai Jing, however, preferred Buddhism: 上嗣服之初,
於釋老好尚, 未有適莫. 魯公喜佛.28 This remarkable passage reminds us
that Huizong's interest in Daoism was not apparent during his early reign, nor
encouraged by Cai Jing, and that it is likely to have developed under the sway
of the anti-reformists at his court.29 Sunspots, solar eclipses, and an atypical
brilliance of Venus 太白晝見 were all interpreted by anti-reformists as portents
of catastrophe, symbolizing the current grand councilor's potential treason or
military revolt.30 A comet signied that a divinity was angry at the emperor or
his grand councilor and a catastrophe would ensue. For example, the emperor
could die, the dynasty could collapse, or the Northern 'alien' might invade.31
In , from January to March, a large comet appeared in the western skies
with its long tail trailing across the heavens. Huizong was deeply affected by
this astronomical revelation 徽宗震懼. On //, Cai was dismissed as
grand councilor and then sent away to Zhejiang province.32 His rival, Zhao
. Gangmu beiyao, .; Shichao gangyao, .; Dongdu shilue, .; SSQW: XZZTJ,
.; Song dashiji jiangyi, .; Zaifu biannian, .; Jishi benmo, .: "六月丁丑, 太
師、尚書左僕射兼門下侍郎、魏國公蔡京為太師、中太一宮使, 請給恩並依現任宰
相例."
. In the four instances in which Cai was dismissed, one resulted from the appearance of
a solar eclipse (/), two were instigated by the appearance of comets (/ and /), and
one from the phenomenon of sunspots (/).
. Jishi benmo, ..
. Daoist masters such as Liu Hunkang 劉混康 (–), Meng Yi 孟翊, Guo Tianxin
郭天信, and Lin Lingsu 林靈素 (–) were disliked by Cai Jing. It is interesting to note
that Cai Jing's enemies introduced Daoist masters to Huizong, encouraging Huizong to espouse
mystical Daoism. In the middle and later phases of his reign, Huizong was becoming more and
more prone to belief in omens, taking the advice of Daoist masters, astronomers, astrologers,
fortune tellers, and others processing paranormal prescience.
. SS, .–; SS, .: "日中黑子, 臣蔽主明."
. SS, ..
. The appearance of the large comet on // evoked a dramatic response from the
18 huiping pang
Tingzhi 趙挺之 (–), was immeditately appointed to replace him.33
In /, Huizong summoned all astronomers and astrologers to the capital,
Kaifeng, and these mystical wonder-workers became ever more inuential
in the empire's administration.34
Then, as if on cue, another comet appeared in the sky, which gave Cai's
enemies an additional "symbolic" natural phenomenon to exploit. Cai's main
rival, Zhang Shangying 張商英 (–), realized Huizong's two weak-
nesses: a belief in supernatural disasters and skepticism about his ministers.
Zhang colluded with the astrologer Guo Tianxin 郭天信, who served in the
Bureau of Astronomy and was doted on by Huizong, to interpret the astronomi-
cal phenomenon of sunspots in / as an inauspicious premonition which
expressed Heaven's disfavor with Cai.35 Guo Tianxin's exceptional reputation
(years before Guo had predicted Huizong's then unlikely ascension to the
throne) made his interpretations dangerous political weapons in the context of
an imperial court that was prone to belief in natural portents.36 Within a few
days, Guo denigrated Cai by informing Huizong that the sunspots appeared
or times. In /, Cai's ofcial title of Grand Councilor 尚書左僕射兼
門下侍郎 was abruptly annulled. On //, Cai's honorary titles—Grand
Preceptor of the Heir Apparent and Duke of Chu—were both revoked.37
court. On the day of Yisi, owing to the dire portent, Huizong ed the throne hall, promulgating an
imperial edict including an empire-wide amnesty and an order for the destruction of the Yuanyou
steles. On //, Cai was demoted to Area Commander Unequaled in Honor 開府儀同三司
and Supervisor of Taiyi Temple. In March, the comet disappeared. See Dongdu shilue, .,
.; Changbian shibu, .; Jishi benmo, .; Gangmu beiyao, .; SSQW:XZZTJ,
.; SS, ., .; Song dazhaoling ji, .; Zaifu biannian, .–; Fang Shao
方勺, Bozhai bian 泊宅編 (SKQS ed.), juan shang: "崇寧五年, 長星見, 蔡太師斥居浙西,
時事小變," .
. Zhao Tingzhi was promoted from "Grand Scholar of Guanwen Palace" to "Vice Right
Director of the Department of State Affairs" and "Vice Director of the Grand Council." See
Gangmu beiyao, .; Jishi benmo, .; Dongdu shilue, .; SSQW:XZZTJ, .;
SS, .; Zaifu biannian, .; Song dashiji jiangyi, .. See also Chaffee, "Huizong, Cai
Jing, and the Politics of Reform," .
. Shichao gangyao, ..
. SS, .: "(吳 )執中與商英皆由郭天信以進 ." SS, .: "(郭 )每託天文以撼
之, 且云: 日中有黑子. 帝甚懼, 言之不已, 京由是黜." For a similar text see Gangmu beiyao,
., .; Changbian shibu, .. See also Chaffee, "Huizong, Cai Jing, and the Politics
of Reform," .
. SS, .; SS, .: "有郭天信者, 以方技隸太史, 徽宗潛邸時, 嘗言當履
天位, 自是稍睠寵之."
. Jishi benmo, .; Gangmu beiyao, .; SS, ..
19strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Cai had a rough time during this period of disfavor, which corresponds to
the time in which Returning Boat on a Snowy River was painted. Between
/ and / his enemies increased the number of indictments against
him. In theory, he should have been exiled,38 but instead he threw himself
into the task of compiling and revising the imperial documentary "Veritable
Records of the Emperor Zhezong" as an excuse for lingering in the capital
and remaining close to the emperor.39 Later on, Huizong 'bestowed' a house
upon Cai in the South Garden 南園 of Suzhou prefecture, hinting that
Cai might be banished to remote Suzhou.40 On //, Huizong revealed
his skepticism (or was it a ploy?) about Cai in front of Cai's enemy, Zhang
Shangying.41 This 'dialogue' between Huizong and Zhang Shangying cast a
dark cloud over Cai's character and career. And, in a move that must have
been particularly galling to Cai, Huizong elevated Zhang to Vice Minister
of the Grand Council in the same month (in /).42 On //, when Cai
wrote the colophon for Huizong's painting Returning Boat on a Snowy River,
he was unable to defend himself and was under threat of being banished to a
remote prefecture. Seemingly, Cai could not escape the comet's shadow. In
this difcult time, he turned to two strategies: calligraphy and his own reports
of auspicious signs to counter the reports of inauspicious ones that had been
deployed against him so effectively.
. Gangmu beiyao, .; Xu Song 徐松 (–) et al., Songhuiyao jigao 宋會要輯
稿 [hereafter SHY] (Taipei: Shijie shuju, ), .
. The Chinese text reads: "(in /) 臺諫交論其惡, 遂致仕. 猶提舉修哲宗實錄, 改
封楚國, 朝朔望." Huizong allowed Cai the privilege of physical residence in the capital and
visiting him twice per month. See SS, .; SHY: yunli, –, ; Gangmu beiyao, .;
Jishi benmo, .; Shichao gangyao, .; SS, ..
. Zaifu biannian, .: "(徽宗 )賜(京)以蘇州南園 , (京 )尚無去意 ." For Cai's potential
exile and his poem 詔賜南園贈親黨, see Li E 厲鶚 (–) et al., Songshi jishi 宋詩紀事
(preface dated ; SKQS ed.), ..
. On //, "Huizong discussed with Zhang Shangying about Cai's misbehavior in
ruining the rules and laws... Huizong discerned Cai's cronyism in his appointing comrades as
ministers. Huizong further opined that, recently, the public morality has become degenerate.
Zhang proclaimed that nowadays this was truly a great threat. Huizong estimated that more
than thirty of Cai's faction had been purged. Zhang informed Huizong that a great number of
Cai's partisans still survived at the court." See Changbian shibu, .; Gangmu beiyao, .;
SSQW: XZZTJ, ..
. In /, Zhang Shangying was promoted from the Academician at the Zizheng Hall 資
政殿學士 to Vice Minister of the Grand Council 中書侍郎. See Zaifu biannian, .; SS,
..
20 huiping pang
The rst weapon in Cai's arsenal was his calligraphy.43 His marvelous
calligraphy was displayed on the paper currency of the Chongning era 崇寧
錢文,44 and his inscriptions on the Stele Register of the Yuanyou Faction 元
祐黨籍碑,45 the Stele Done by the Sage in the Daguan Period 大觀聖作之
碑, and Huizong's Eight Virtues Stele 八行碑 were engraved and circulated
throughout the empire.46 Cai's calligraphy provided him a powerful advan-
tage over his adversaries, whose writing paled beside Cai's virile characters.47
Under Huizong's commission, the Xuanhe shupu [Calligraphy catalogue of
the Xuanhe period] listed Huizong's imperial collections, including Cai's two
snow-themed poems 雪詩二 .48
Cai's colophon for Returning Boat on a Snowy River was written in his large
characters of running script. According to the Xuanhe shupu, "Cai Jing's run-
ning script is like a young aristocrat, full of spirit and brilliance, who reects
glory upon those around him."49 The Xuanhe shupu records admiration for
Cai's edicts and memorials, which were characterized by their detail, clarity,
and renement. When writing imperial edicts, Cai moved his brush promptly
and never had to do a second draft.50 This laudatory assessment and the high
proportion of Cai's work in Huizong's collection give us insight into why
. Even before /, Prince Duan (Huizong) adored Cai's calligraphy so much that he
spent , silvers for just two small round-fans. In , while Cai was banished to Hangzhou,
the young Huizong assigned the eunuch ofcial Tong Guan 童貫 (–) to collect cal-
ligraphy, paintings, and other rarities. Tong set up the Mingjin Bureau 明金局 in Hangzhou
and stayed there for several months. Cai capitalized on the opportunity, traveling with Tong day
and night and soliciting Tong to submit his fans and panels to Huizong as contributions, which
made a profound impression on Huizong. See SS, .; Dongdu shilue, .; Hartman,
"A Textual History of Cai Jing's Biography in the Songshi," .
. Zeng Minxing 曾敏行 (d. ), Duxing zazhi 獨醒雜志 (preface dated ; Shanghai:
Shanghai guji chubanshe, ), ..
. The second (/) and nal versions (/) of the "Stele Register of the Yuanyou Fac-
tion," which included Cai's rivals Zhang Shangying and Chen Guan, were made by Cai Jing
and circulated throughout the empire. See SS, ., .; Gangmu beiyao, .; Jishi
benmo, .; Zaifu biannian, .; Song dashiji jiangyi, ..
. SHY: chongru, .. See Ebrey, "Huizong's Stone Inscriptions," in Emperor Huizong and
the Late Northern Song, –. Chaffee, "Huizong, Cai Jing, and the Politics of Reform," .
Ebrey, Accumulating Culture, –.
. For example, Cai Jing's enemy Zeng Bu's calligraphy, Letter to Scholar Zhifu 致直夫
學士尺牘, and Zhang Shangying's calligraphy, Letter to Son-in-law 女夫帖.
. Xuanhe shupu 宣和書譜 (completed ca. ; Taipei: Shijie shuju, ), .–.
. Xuanhe shupu, ..
. Xuanhe shupu, .. See also Ebrey's translation, "Literati Culture," .
21strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Huizong was so devoted to Cai. Cai deftly advertised his political prestige
and cultural supremacy through inscriptions, colophons, and writings. Thus
we might understand, in , when Huizong asked Cai to write a colophon
for Returning Boat on a Snowy River, Cai composed the colophon with his
distinctive, bold, and impressive large running script. Masterful calligraphy
was a way to impress and persuade the emperor, who was an avid collector
and connoisseur of the art.
Using a counter-strategy adapted from his enemies, when auspicious signs
appeared—or, as often, were manufactured or invented—Cai immediately
drew Huizong's attention to them by congratulatory memorials. Cai varied
Wang Anshi's approach; instead of denying the astronomical variations, he
optimistically managed to convince Huizong that the signs were not inauspi-
cious, but, rather, auspicious omens.51 Through dichotomizing tropes of
inauspiciousness/auspiciousness and the eloquent counterfeiting of "auspi-
cious signs," Cai proved that in rhetoric and obsequiousness lay the path to
security. On //, the Song Grand Astrologer observed that ve planets
were aligned in the heavens (normally a portent of disaster).52 Cai transformed
the planetary conguration, interpreting it as an omen of great peace:
五星並行黃道… The Five Planets were all moving in
unison in the sky...
實為太平瑞應 an "Auspicious response" signifying
future great peace.
謹按《漢書志》 [Your servant] observes that according to
History of Han,
天下太平 When the empire reached great calm
and tranquility,
. On //, Cai intended to develop Wang Anshi's theory of ignoring the variations of
the stars 天變不足懼. See Wang Mingqing 王明清 (–after ), Huizhu houlu 揮麈後錄
(preface dated ; Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, ), ..
. Several years later, in , nine planets aligned, which, according to modern scientic
reports, was truly a catastrophe. Climatologists, writing as recently as , indicated that in ,
, , , , and , when nine planets aligned, temperatures dropped precipitously,
accompanied by severe snowstorms in the winters and severe droughts during the summers. See
Ren Zhengqiu 任振球, Xingxing yundong dui Zhongguo wuqiannianlai qihou bianqian de ying-
xiang 行星運動對中國五千年來氣候變遷的影響 (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, ); Chang
Quanming, "Lun Bei Song Kaifeng diqu qihou bianqian jiqi tedian," ; and Zhang Jianmin 張
建民, Zaihai lishi xue 災害歷史學 (Changsha: Hunan renmin chubanshe, ), .
22 huiping pang
則五星循度 The Five Planets were all integrated and
obeyed the rule.
宰臣蔡京等上表稱賀 [Your servant] grand councilor Cai Jing
and others submit congratulatory
memorials on the blessed event.53
Unabashed attery thus functioned as one of Cai's primary tools for assuag-
ing Huizong's anxiety about astronomical signs.54 Astronomical phenomena
became intermingled with political agendas. As we have seen, in /, Cai's
opponents, Zhao Tingzhi and more than anti-reformists, employed the
appearance of a comet as ammunition to dismiss Cai. But the knife proved
to cut both ways: after the comet vanished in /, Cai reported to Huizong
that it had portended nothing more than the death of an imperial horse 龍
驤當天變. Cai thereby tried to substitute the horse as a sort of scapegoat
for himself.55 In /, Cai was recalled and once again ascended to the
councillorship (Vice Left Director of the Department of State Affairs and
Vice Director of the Chancellery 尚書左僕射兼門下侍郎). Six days later,
Cai congratulated Huizong for the sign of the auspicious sweet dew falling
into the Emperor's Tripod.56 Triumphantly for Cai, one month later, Zhao
. SHY: ruiyi, –..
. Since the Han dynasty, the alignment of ve planets 五星聚 had been regarded as an
inauspicious augury of "dynasty changes." See Sima Qian 司馬遷 (ca. – ), Shiji 史
記 (Taipei: Dingwen shuju, ), ., .; Ban Gu 班固 ( –), Hanshu 漢書
(Taipei: Dingwen shuju, ), .; Fang Xuanling 房玄齡 (–), Jinshu 晉書 (Taipei:
Dingwen shuju, ), .; Shen Yue 沈約 (–), Songshu 宋書 (Taipei: Dingwen shuju,
), .; Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (–), Xin Tangshu 新唐書 (Taipei: Dingwen shuju,
), .; Gu Yanwu 顧炎武 (–), "Wuxing ju" 五星聚, in Rizhilu 日知錄 (pref-
ace dated ; SKQS ed.), .. For modern studies, see Wei Bing 韋兵, Xingzhan lifa yu
Songdai zhengzhi wenhua 星占曆法與宋代政治文化 (Ph.D. diss., Sichuan University, ),
–. At the beginning of theNorthern Song dynasty, on // and //, the ve planets
aligned to the Kui constellation 五星聚奎, which was interpreted as an auspicious sign because
Emperor Taizu 宋太祖 (r. –) replaced the Latter Zhou dynasty (–)and therefore
ascended to the throne (which is still an inauspicious sign for the previous dynasty). However,
for the late Northern Song, any signs related to "dynasty changes"—such as the alignment of
ve planets—actually should be regarded as an inauspicioussign that the Northern Song would
be replaced by a new, ascendant dynasty. See Zhang Peiyu 張培瑜, "Wuxing heju yu lishi jizai"
五星合聚與歷史記載, Renwen zazhi (), .
. Gangmu beiyao, .; SSQW:XZZTJ, ..
. Dongdu shilue, .; SS, ..
23strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Tingzhi was red (ve days later he died).57 In , the appearance of a solar
eclipse, interpreted as a bad omen, had caused Cai's exile; in /, when
another eclipse was about to occur, Cai led his clique to write congratulatory
memorials interpreting solar eclipses as auspicious symbols, thus turning the
usual comprehension of the phenomenon on its head 日有食之, 蔡京等以
不及所當食分, 率臣稱賀.58
Both Old Policies and New Policies adherents exploited Huizong's weak-
ness for superstition. Both parties also became fanatical about what might
be called 'pictorial wars'; that is, competitions of auspicious paintings.59 In
/, while the southern provinces were suffering from horric droughts,60
Cai's rival, Zhang Shangying, submitted a painting Auspicious Grain from
Yuanzhou 袁州瑞禾圖 to Huizong to commemorate a supposedly atypically
tall and heavily fruited grain.61 The painting was extensively criticized by Cai's
faction as embodying an "evil spirit" 媒孽 . 62 It is an interesting example of
how paintings could be used as dichotomizing political discourses to inuence
imperial politics.63 Auspiciousness became an effective weapon with which to
extol one's allies and denounce one's enemies, to promote and to proscribe. It
became a rhetorical game that imbued everything with secondary meanings.
If the tall grain stalk nds itself paralleled in both image and "auspicious"
reporting text, we might well consider how other paintings may have been
involved in the circulation of inuence through auspiciousness panegyrics.
Perhaps even a snowscape could have binary meanings and ancillary functions
in this rareed context.
. Gangmu beiyao, .; SS, .; SSQW: XZZTJ, .; Song dashiji jiangyi, ..
. SS, .. Cai interpreted the eclipse as an auspicious sign because it was not as complete
as the court astronomers had predicted.
. In Cai proclaimed that he had received auspicious reports from prefectures and
counties 京言天下郡國所上符瑞八十七所, 拜表稱賀. 自後言祥瑞及稱賀不可勝記. 不
復錄. 蔡京進太師. See Gangmu beiyao, ..
. Shichao gangyao, .: in "江淮大旱, 自六月至十月不雨."
. SSQW: XZZTJ, ..
. Gangmu beiyao, .; Changbian shibu, .; Gangmu beiyao, .; Zaifu bian-
nian, .; Jishi benmo, ., .
. Ari D. Levine noticed that during the years of –, sets of paired terms created
moralistic dichotomies that were used by reformists and anti-reformists alike in factional discourse,
so that terms such as loyal 忠 vs. treacherous 奸, righteous 正 vs. wicked 邪, were resistant to
alternations in ofcial ideology of the late Northern Song. See Levine, "Terms of Estrangement,"
, .
24 huiping pang
During the Medieval Warm Period, snow paintings could evoke pleasant
associations. Both Wang Wei's 王維 (–) snow paintings and the Snow-
scape mural painting of Chingling Liao imperial tomb (ca. ) represent
lyrical and blissful visual experiences.64 "Auspicious snow" was an omen of
a good harvest. Crops would become fully grown, ripen, and be gathered in
abundance.65 During the Cold Period, however, snow paintings were a way
to lament the distress of citizens. One ofcial painter portrayed a bitterly
cold landscape entitled Unbearable Cold River and Sky without Snows 江天
莫雪圖.66 The snowscape, for Guo Xi, is melancholy and apathetic, as if in
sleep. Similarly, Xuanhe shupu and Han Zhou's treatise proposed that wintry
mountains provoke feelings of depression and misery.67 Snow paintings often
conveyed 'inauspiciousness' since cold weather caused suffering for common
people.
Cai's colophon (one could call it a 'snow poem') for Huizong's snowscape
was composed in March, and shortly afterwards it became part of Huizong's
imperial collection. According to one of Cai's enemies, Chen Guan, Cai
misled Huizong about natural phenomena and disasters:
[Cai Jing] following Wang Anshi's statements, ignored the Heavenly reprimand.
He [Cai] misled the court, concealing natural disasters and unusual phenomena.
He frantically presented'auspicious reports'. Most exaggeratedly, he claimed
that the Decemberthunder was an 'auspicious thunder' and the March snow an
'auspicious snow.' Hesubmitted memorials to express congratulations, compos-
ing poems to extol myriad auspicious signs. His interpretations of astronomical
variations are even more ridiculous than childish things.
. Although none of Wang Wei's paintings have survived, we might still get a sense, to some
degree at least, of Wang Wei's snowscapes from their titles, which indicate lyrical and blissful
moods. For instance, the Xuanhe huapu records titles of Wang Wei's snow paintings such as
Appreciating the Snowy River 雪江勝賞圖二 or Poetic Painting of the Snowy River 雪江詩意
圖一. See Xuanhe huapu, ..
. Heavy snow could also signify the potential for blessing rains. See SHY: ruiyi, –.;
SS, ..
. Duxing zazhi, .: "東安一士人善畫, 其作江天莫雪 (圖)則不見雪 , 第狀其清朗
苦寒之態耳." The painter depicted landscape as bitterly cold but pure and bracing at the same
time.
. Guo Xi and Guo Si's 郭思 (d. ) treatise Linquan gaozhi 林泉高致 [Lofty Message
of Forests and Streams] (submitted to the court around ; SKQS ed.); Xuanhe shupu, .;
Han Zhou 韓拙 (. –), Shanshui chunquan ji 山水純全集 [Harmonious and complete
collection on landscape] (preface dated ; Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, ), .
25strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
災異不言, 而祥瑞轍書. 甚者, 臘月之雷指為瑞雷 , 三月之雪指為瑞雪 ,
拜表稱賀, 作詩詠替, 其視天變, 曾不若童稚之可侮.68
Chen Guan's antagonism towards Cai was submitted in /. Chen's
account is also a revealing and accurate record of Cai's frequent use of 'aus-
picious reports' to manipulate Huizong's attitudes and sway political policy.
Cai composed many snow-themed poems, two of which became part of
Huizong's imperial collection and were catalogued in the Xuanhe shupu. As
Chen Guan notes, Cai interpreted the March snow as an 'auspicious snow'
and composed 'snow poems' to praise it. So, the seemingly innocent poem
in the Returning Boat on a Snowy River colophon of very likely carried
a hidden signication of "auspiciousness." Yet "auspiciousness," as we have
seen, was not merely the banal cliché of "good luck" or "good fortune," which
characterizes most evaluations of the subject. "Auspiciousness" reporting
was a powerful tool in court politics, and the discursive skill with which one
could manipulate the interpretations of the signs of nature through poems
or paintings was a fundamental strategy for survival in this treacherous social
and political context. Snow paintings at Huizong's court could have many
polarized signications or various 'readings', not all of which were necessarily
mutually exclusive.
Huizong started to become anxious about the drought of –. 69 Cai was
also fretful, but perhaps for different reasons. At this time Cai had already lost
his position as grand councilor. His enemies, consistent with their strategies of
interpreting signs of nature as inauspicious indicators of Heaven's displeasure
with Cai, also, predictably, attributed both fatal winters and droughts to Cai's
deance of heaven. From / to the anti-reformists even criticized
Cai's expenditures for the relief agencies.70 Given Cai's role as the frequent
scapegoat for the disasters that gripped Huizong's realm, we might look back
at Returning Boat on a Snowy River and its colophon to reconsider their pos-
sible meanings. Cai's colophon reected his concerns (I have suggested the
metaphors at work in brackets):
. The passage then goes on: "Chen Guan accused Cai Jing of not fearing Heaven. Instead,
Cai deed heaven and took advantage of it." See SSQW: XZZTJ, ..
. During the periods of /–/ and /–/ there were droughts; one in the
south lasted many months. See Duxing zazhi, .; Gangmu beiyao, .; SSQW: XZZTJ,
.; Dongdu shilue, .; SS, ., .; Shichao gangyao, ..
. SHY: shihuo, .–.
26 huiping pang
天地四時之氣 In heaven and earth, the vital forces vary in
the four seasons.
不同萬物生天地間 Each bring various myriad creatures into the
cosmos,
隨所運 according to each one's fated course,
[氣候]炎涼 whether hot or cold [climate],
[星星]晦眀 dim or bright [astrology],
[莊稼]生息 fecund or moribund [fertility of crops or
failures],
[政治]榮枯 ourishing or decaying [political status].
飛走蠢動 The creatures that y, run, or slither are in
continuous
變化無方 transformation in ways no one can com-
pletely comprehend.
莫之能窮 Never to be exhausted.
Cai Jing sees eternity and cyclicality and laments the vagaries of a career
dependent on the portents of nature. He may be exiled now, but he may
yet return to ofce and the imperial court (Fig. ). While he languishes in
a political "winter," he longs for the "spring" when he may return to power.
He mentions the "fated course" and "transformations," and each of these
notions could well articulate Cai's feelings about what happened to him
(capricious comets and sunspots causing his downfall, blame for bad weather,
oods, and crop failures) and about what he hoped for, a transformation,
once again, into being at the center of inuence. Birth, death, rebirth: all
play a role in the cycles of personal fortune. At a low point in his career,
Cai projected his own political predicament through his colophon onto the
painting's imagery. Yet it was also a code that Huizong would have been able
to decipher. One question that we might consider is whether the painting
emitted a secret signal from Huizong to Cai, and that Cai's "reading" of the
painting, as expressed in the colophon, was an acknowledgement of that
message.
In another part of the colophon, Cai evokes a sublime landscape tinged
with loneliness.
水遠無波 Water in the distance shows no ripple,
天長一色 One color with the sky above.
27strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
群山皎潔 While mountains rise bright and clear,
行客蕭條 The traveler's heart is forlorn.
鼓棹中流 Rowing the boat in the middle of the ow,
片帆天際 a single sail dots the horizon.
雪江歸棹之意盡矣 This painting captures the essence of the
mood one feels upon seeing a boat on a
snowy river.
The "single sail" on a distant horizon is lonely enough, but key to the passage
is the line that reads: "The traveler's heart is forlorn." Did Cai see himself as a
traveler isolated from the imperial palace and the emperor? He did, especially
if we note one of the painting's most compelling gures: the minute, lone sh-
erman who oats on the still waters at the geographic center of the scroll. He
is turned towards the mountains but looks out at the spectator (Huizong, who
is both spectator and reader). Behind him are country villages, cottages, and
huts for peasants. In front of him, the hierarchical, towering mountains, layer
upon layer, are symbols of the diversity and complexity of the imperial political
Fig. Detail of Fig. , Returning Boat on a Snowy River. Courtesy of the Palace
Museum, Beijing.
28 huiping pang
bureaucracy.71 They loom impressively between the isolated sherman and
temple buildings which occupies the far left of the painting, segregating the
sherman from the destination. The inviting buildings—or a metaphor of
the imperial palace (Fig. )—is the still remote destination of the traveler: it
is a goal that Cai longs to reach but, at this juncture, he has no access to it.
No records tell us why Huizong depicted the sherman, or whether he in-
tended Cai as a specic "audience." However, to some degree, both Huizong's
painting and inscription for Returning Boat on a Snowy River, reect his pat-
tern of exiling, then recalling, Cai Jing. Huizong might simply have entitled
the work "Wintry Landscape" instead of creating a unique, more provocative
title that evoked return.72
As we have seen, Cai advanced his career from a low point and he endured
numerous political "winters" through his life 京起於逐臣 .73 By /,
when Huizong asked Cai to view the Returning Boat on a Snowy River, this
-year-old minister had been dismissed by Huizong three times (–/,
. Such metaphoric correlations between mountains and the political hierarchy were
commonplace in the theories of late Northern Song landscape painters. For instance, Guo
Si's Linquan gaozhi includes the following passage: "Fishing boats and tackles indicate the
purposes of men.... A great mountain is so stately that it becomes the master of multitudinous
others arranged about it in order.... Its appearance is that of an emperor sitting majestically in
audience to all his subjects, without signs of arrogance or haughtiness." For the translation, see
Shio Sakanishi, An Essay on Landscape Painting (London: J. Murray, ), , . For similar
Chinese texts, see Shanshui chunquan ji, . For further discussions, see Richard Vinograd,
"Structures of Signicance in Chinese Landscape Painting and Theory: Five Dynasties through
Northern Sung," paper for the Mountains and the Cultures of Landscape in China Conference
(U.C. Santa Barbara, January –, ), –; and Alfreda Murck, Poetry and Painting in Song
China, –.
. Before Huizong, the exiled scholar-ofcial Song Di created the painting, Sail Returns from
Distant Shore 遠浦帆歸圖, in reference to his political career and from his personal experience
of exile in /. See Alfreda Murck, "The Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang and the Northern Song
Culture of Exile," Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies (), –; Alfreda Murck, Poetry and
Painting in Song China, . To my knowledge, the painting title of Returning Boat on a Snowy
River or Xuejiang guizhou tu as well as related appellations such as Xuejiang guizhou tu 雪江
歸濯圖, Hanjiang guizhou tu 寒江歸棹圖, and Xuejiang duzhou tu 雪江獨棹圖, had never
been used. Both Ju Ran's 巨然 (active ca. –ca. ) Jiangshan guizhou tu 江山歸棹圖 (see
Xuanhe huapu, .) and Li Gongnian's Qiujiang guizhou tu 秋江歸棹圖 are not associated
with snowy winters (see Xuanhe huapu, .). Huizong was the rst one who created and
employed this new title and it was thus specic to this work.
. For Cai Jing's early experiences of –, see Dongdu shilue, .–; Zaifu
biannian, .–; SS, .–.
29strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
/–/; /–/). But each time Cai was recalled to the court after
a year or two of exile. Experiencing so many cycles of favor and disfavor, by
/ Cai would have been very sensitive to the insinuation of Huizong's
inscription.
If Huizong had expelled Cai because he truly disliked him, he would not
have presented him with a painting. Furthermore, surely, Huizong would not
normally have allowed a dismissed minister to write a colophon juxtaposed
with his own name. Huizong would not depict a forlorn traveler on a frigid
river longing to return to the palace (Fig. ), and imply that the cyclicality
of the four seasons might parallel the cycles of Cai's career, with the futher
implication that, as spring follows winter, so Cai Jing might expect to return.
Did Cai appropriately capture Huizong's intentions in this painting? Sig-
nicantly, in / Huizong had just given Cai a house in the South Garden
of Suzhou prefecture, a remote location where former exiled grand councilors
had been sent. This imperial 'gift' was one that Cai would have dreaded.
Generous though it may have been, it signaled an impending exile.74 Cai's
colophon in / responds to Huizong's painting with an unusual tone of
humility and solicitousness. According to two Song histories:
He [Huizong] repeatedly promoted and then demoted him [Cai Jing]; and he
[Huizong] selected those with whom Cai did not get along, such as Zhao Ting zhi,
Zhang Shangying... and one after the other appointed them as grand councilors
to keep him [Cai] in check.75
Although Huizong favored him [Cai] and made him councilor, Huizong never-
theless repeatedly promoted and then demoted him. Whenever Jing heard that
he was about to be dismissed, he would insist on an audience with Huizong,
kowtow and entreat and bemoan. 徽宗雖寵用之, 然亦屢起而屢僕. 京每聞
其將退, 必見徽宗, 叩頭求哀.76
Could the colophon be another example of entreaty? We might assume that,
Cai perceived Huizong's intentions correctly, and was on the alert for signs
of reconciliation.
. Gong Mingzhi's 龔明之 (ca. –) poem "South Garden" reads: "大觀末, 蔡京
罷相, 欲東還 , 詔以其(南)園賜之. 京即以詩贈親黨…" See Gong Mingzhi, Zhongwu jiwen
中吳紀聞 (preface dated ; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, ), .
. Jishi benmo, ..
. Dongdu shilue, .. For the translation see Hartman, "A Textual History of Cai Jing's
Biography in the Songshi," .
30 huiping pang
When we realize how Cai's colophon skillfully employed elegant calligraphy
as well as a humble tone, we might also want to consider whether Huizong
actually requested a colophon from Cai as a gesture to help cement their
personal relationship. When we sense that Cai wielded his cultural superiority
and artistic abilities to inuence and further his political prospects, we might
wonder whether, on //, Huizong used a secret pictorial language to offer
Cai an "artistic summons," or, at the very least, a pictorial reassurance.
Although Huizong seems to have communicated positive personal feel-
ings to Cai in this snowscape, the political realities of Huizong's court at
Fig. Detail of Fig. , Returning Boat on a Snowy River. Courtesy of the Palace
Museum, Beijing.
31strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
times demanded that his more public treatment of Cai be harsh. Huizong
was not purely an aesthete. Many of Huizong's paintings, calligraphic works,
and, generally, his artistic patronage and cultural activities, harbored subtle,
utilitarian political messages.77 In the years before , Huizong occasion-
ally called on Cai to add colophons or inscriptions to Huizong's work (or
Huizong's commissions). In this way, Huizong strengthened their private
friendship through artistic collaboration. After the second recallingof Cai
in /, Huizong fetedhim in /, establishing a memorial pavilion, the
Reunion of the Emperor andMinister 君臣慶會閣, which was celebrated,
and Huizong asked for Cai's poem. Afterwards, Huizong wrote a poem
to rhyme with Cai's.78 Furthermore, in / Huizong wrote long texts
for the main body of the Eight Virtues Stele, and invited Cai to inscribe
a title The Stele Done by the Sage in the Daguan Period on top of the stele,
signifying that the texts and calligraphy were produced by the emperor.79
When the collaborative stele was erected at schools throughout the country,
their personal bonds were thus publicly reinforced. The young Huizong en-
snared Cai in an intimate and highly articulate way through symbolic artistic
performances.
There were other occasions on which Huizong mollied his minister with
artistic gifts. In /, when Cai was suffering his banishment in Hangzhou,
Huizong dispatched Wang Fu 王黻 (–) to deliver boxes of tea and
medicine to Cai. Cai discovered that inside one of the boxes was hidden a
white jade ring cm in diameter. He immediately deciphered the rhetorical
trick. He packed his luggage and prepared for his recall to court, apprehend-
ing that the round shape of the ring 環 (huan) symbolized cyclicality and
. At the end of Huizong's Eight Virtues Stele, Cai wrote "Your servant Cai Jing inscribed
this stele by imperial order" 臣蔡京奉敕題額. For images of Cai's inscription see Wang Ping-
chuan 王平川, ed., Song Huizong shufa quanji 宋徽宗書法全集 (Beijing: Chaohua chubanshe,
), . See also Patricia Ebrey, Accumulating Culture, .
. The Chinese text reads: "三月己丑, (徽宗 )幸金明池 , 賜宰相蔡京等宴. 十月庚申,
和賜蔡京君臣慶會閣落成詩." See Jishi benmo, ..
. Gangmu beiyao, .; SSQW: XZZTJ, .. In / Cai inscribed Huizong's edict
of the "New Reforms of Eight Virtues and Eight Offenses" 八行八刑新政詔書. Later, when
Huizong's edict was engraved into the Eight Virtues Stele, Huizong asked Cai to inscribe a title
with six characters that reads: The Stele Done by the Sage in the Daguan Period on top of this
stele. Later many reproductions of this stele were widely copied and distributed throughout the
empire. At least copies survived in the Qing dynasty. See Ebrey, "Huizong's Stone Inscrip-
tions," ; Ebrey, Accumulating Culture, .
32 huiping pang
'permission'.80 The character form 環 is similar to 還 (which means "return").
Additionally, the ring (huan) is a homophone for "recall" 喚 (huan); the jade
ring 玉環 (yuhuan) is a homophone for 欲還 (yuhuan ). The jade ring used by
Huizong was a puzzle, a pun, even, which communicated in a subtle symbolic
language that Huizong knew Cai would comprehend. Indeed, Cai decoded
the signs correctly, and within two days, on // Huizong promulgated an
edict to recall Cai to the court, also giving him a luxurious house in the capi-
tal of Kaifeng, and promising to elevate him once again to his earlier titles.81
After receiving the jade ring, good fortune smiled on Cai. He returned to
the capital in /, meeting Huizong on //. He was awarded the Jade
Belt, the Golden Fish, and given a banquet in the Lecture Hall in /. 82 On
//, Huizong feted him in Taiqinglou library, even though two days earlier
peculiar 'inauspicious' sunspots had appeared, vanished, and reappeared.83
Cai Jing thus enjoyed his political "spring" upon his reinstatement. In
/, Huizong wrote out in his own hand an edict refuting earlier political
denigrations and accusations that had emanated from the anti-Cai faction.
Further, he welcomed Cai's rehabilitation with the following praise:
Cai Jing's loyalty is as strong as metal and stone, and he is devoted to bringing
security to the dynasty. For eight years he assisted me in governing, his virtues
were constant. Yet perverse people [Zhang Shangying and his factions] reviled
the upright one, hoping to injure him. They recklessly spread baseless gossip as
a way to trap him in unexpected disasters. I now see what was going on and can
clearly recognize the false accusations.
When a great minister stands in court, he should have condence in himself.
When a wise king plans his appointments, he should fear clever speech. Since
I know my heart is sincere, why should I worry about the backbiting of the
crowd?84
. Approximately, cun 寸 × . cm (per cun) = . cm. The white jade ring was cun in
diameter. See Lu You 陸遊 (–), Laoxuean biji 老學庵筆記 (preface dated ; Beijing:
Zhonghua shuju, ), ..
. Changbian shibu, .; Laoxuean biji, .; Gangmu beiyao, .; Jishi benmo,
.; SS, .; Dongdu shilue, .; SSQW: XZZTJ, .; Zaifu biannian, ..
. Changbian shibu, .; Jishi benmo, ..
. Gangmu beiyao, .; Zaifu biannian, .; Changbian shibu, .; SS, ..
. Jishi benmo, .; Song dazhaoling ji, .. For the translation, see Ebrey, "Literati
Culture," –.
33strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Soon thereafter, Cai was rehabilitated to Junior Preceptor of the Heir Apparent
太子少師 in /, Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent 太師 on //,85
and was ennobled with the highest title Duke of Lu 魯國公 in /.86 His
New Policies were resuscitated. Conversely, Cai's rival Zhang Shangying was
dismissed in / and exiled to malarial frontiers between / to .87 The
two men's careers and their alternating banishments and reinstatements are,
indeed, a strong indication of the volatility of Huizong's court at this time.
Even Song contemporaries made note of the alternations, comparing Cai's
and Zhang's careers to cyclical transformations: "Once Zhang Shangying
leaves (is banished), Cai Jing will return soon (be reinstated)."88
In the spring of //, Huizong gave Cai the gift of a spring landscape
scene entitled A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains 千里江山圖 (commis-
sioned by Huizong and executed by the court painter Wang Ximeng 王希孟,
–). The blue-and-green painting strongly conveys, in its spectacular
perspective, a positive and even celebratory attitude. The colophon identies
the month as April, which represents prosperity in the coming year. The seem-
ingly endless miles of rivers and mountains, ourishing trees, and gorgeous
palaces—all in vivid greens and blues indicative of its imperial provenance and
suggestive of the Immortals—propose to congratulate someone attaining his
peak. The work speaks in triple entendre through subject matter, composition,
and color symbolism. More directly, Huizong instructed Cai to compose a
colophon for the painting, and suggested the maxim: "Where there is a will,
there is a way" (Fig. ). Although far less concise, there are echoes in the
colophon for Returning Boat on a Snowy River, which seems to imply hope
during times of duress with assurances about the cyclical nature of fate. We
have in both cases instances of paintings and colophons, images and texts,
which are used to communicate messages about the fate of political gures
in Huizong's court.
. Gangmu beiyao, .; Changbian shibu, .; Jishi benmo, .; Dongdu shilue,
.; SS, .; Song dashiji jiangyi, ..
. Gangmu beiyao, .; Shichao gangyao, .; Dongdu shilue, .; SS, ..
. Changbian shibu, .; Gangmu beiyao, .; SSQW: XZZTJ, .; Zaifu bian-
nian, .; Dongdu shilue, .; Song dashiji jiangyi, ..
. Changbian shibu, .: "會上眷(張商英)亦衰 , 言者乞逐商英愈急, 不知商英
既去, 而蔡京復來矣." See also Gangmu beiyao, .; Dongdu shilue, .; Jishi benmo,
..
34 huiping pang
Fig. Cai Jing's colophon (dated to /) on Wang Ximeng's 王希孟 (–),
A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains 千里江山圖卷 . Handscroll, ink and colors
on silk, . × .cm. The Palace Museum, Beijing. Courtesy of the Palace Mu-
seum, Beijing.
35strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Appendix I:
Cai Jing's colophon to Returning Boat on a Snowy River
臣伏觀御製 Your servant humbly views Your Majesty's painting
《雪江歸棹 》entitled, "Returning Boat on a Snowy River."
水遠無波 Water in the distance shows no ripple,
天長一色 one color with the sky above.
羣山皎潔 While mountains rise bright and clear,
行客蕭條 the traveler's heart is forlorn.
鼓棹中流 Rowing the boat in the middle of the ow,
片帆天際 a single sail dots the horizon.
雪江歸棹之意
盡矣
This painting captures the essence of the mood one
feels upon seeing a boat on a snowy river.
天地四時之氣 In heaven and earth, the vital forces vary in the four
seasons.
不同萬物生天
地間
Each brings various myriad creatures into the cosmos,
隨所運炎涼、
晦眀
according to each one's fated course, whether hot or
cold,
生息、榮枯 dim or bright, fecund or moribund, ourishing or
decaying.
飛走蠢動 The creatures that y, run, or slither are in continuous
變化無方 transformation in ways no one can completely
comprehend.
莫之能窮 Never to be exhausted.
皇帝陛下以丹
青妙筆
Yet all are found under Your Majesty's miraculous
brush.
偹四時之景色 Four landscapes of the four seasons contain their
distinctive colors
究萬物之情態 and scenery, and detail the forms and feelings of the
於四圖之內 myriad creatures, omitting nothing.
葢神智與造化
等也
Indeed, your divine intelligence is on a par with the
creative powers of the cosmos.
36 huiping pang
大觀庚寅季
春朔
On the rst day of the third month of spring, Gengyin
year () of the Daguan era.
太師楚國公
致仕
Zhishi from Grand Preceptor of the Heir Apparent,
Duke of Chu.
臣京謹記 Your servant Jing reverently recorded.
37strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Appendix II:
Records of Natural Disasters, ca. 1109–1111
Year
Lunar
Month Records of Natural Disasters
May On the day of Wushen, there was massive hail and rain in the
capital. 五月戊申, 京師大雨雹 . a
May On the day of Wuchen, there was massive hail and rain. 五月
戊辰, 大雨雹.b
June On the day of Gengyin, rivers overowed in the state of Ji and
breach their dikes. 六月庚寅, 冀州河水溢 . c
October On the day of Wuzi, there were massive thundershowers of
hails, followed by rains. 十月戊子, 大雷雹而雨 . d
October Heavy thunder showers with earthquakes. 冬十月, 大雨震電.e
November 十一月甲子 , 詔: 東南諸路水災, 令監司、郡守悉心振救.
戊辰, 以淮甸旱, 飢民失業.f
December On the day of Xinmao, there was massive hail and rain. 十 二
月辛卯, 大雨雹.g
? In this year, refugees from Qin and Feng were starving, while
populations along the Yangzi and Huai Rivers and in Jing,
Zhe, and Fujian, were cruelly struck by a withering drought.
是歲, 江、淮、荊、浙、福建旱. 秦、鳳皆成饑.h
? Disease and infection spread over the southeastern provinces
大觀三年, 江東疫.i
March On the day of Gengzi, the government summoned the
starving. 三月庚子, 募饑民 . j
March One the day of Jiayin, the Emperor decreed that beggars and
refugees were to receive food. 甲寅, 敕所在振恤流民 . k
November Since this winter began, most of the time it was either overcast,
windy, hazy or snowy, followed by snowakes. 十一月十
五日, 宰臣何執中言: 臣等伏見涉冬以來, 率多陰晦,
風、霾、雪、霰繼作.l
a. SS, ..
b. SS, ..
c. SS, ..
d. SS, ..
e. Gangmu beiyao, ..
f. SS, ..
g. SS, ..
h. SS, ..
i. SS, ..
j. SS, ..
k. SS, ..
l. SHY: ruiyi, -.: "Auspicious."
38 huiping pang
Year
Lunar
Month Records of Natural Disasters
In this year, rivers overowed in the state of Kui. 是歲, 夔州
江水溢.m
Great famine in Liao territories. 遼境內大饑 . n
Winter Horrifying cold in winter. The snow lies one foot deep, the river
has frozen over, and the citrus trees have all died in the
frost. Next year they will be felled and used as fuel. 政和元
年冬大寒, 積雪尺餘, 河水盡冰, 凡橘皆凍死. 明年伐
而為薪取給焉.o
m. SS, ..
n. SSQW: XZZTJ, ..
o. Lu Youren 陸友仁 (. ca. s), Yanbei zazhi 研北雜誌 (preface dated ; SKQS
ed.), juan shang, .
39strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Appendix III:
The inuence of harsh climate on the fall of the Northern Song
Year
Lunar
Month Records of Snow Disasters
February On the day of Jiyou, trees froze. 二月己酉, 雨木冰.
Winter In the winter cold, people who collapsed were not being cared
for. Beggars were falling down and sleeping in the streets
beneath the imperial carriage. Everyone saw them, and the
people pitied them and lamented. 冬寒倒臥人更不收養,
乞丐人倒臥街衢輦轂之下, 十目所視, 人所嗟惻.
January On the fth day of January, at midnight, great winds blew
from the northwest, stirring up rocks and sand, until the
next day when they ceased. 正月望夜, 大風起西北有聲,
吹沙走石, 盡明日乃止.
January On the day Jiashen, there was heavy snow and wind. People
froze to death. The corpses were piled one atop of the
other. 正月甲申, 大風雪, 凍死者枕籍.
February On the day of Wushen, great winds came from the northeast,
carrying dust ying into the air. 二月戊申, 大風起東北,
揚塵翳空.
March On the day of Jisi, the great winds suddenly quit, suddenly
rushed, sounding like an angry call. 三月己巳, 夜五更,
大風乍緩乍急, 聲如叫怒.
April Heavy rain in the capital. Clear but bitterly cold. 四月, 京 師
大雨, 天氣清寒.
May-June During the days of Jiashen from May to June, horrible rain
storms destroyed the wheat elds. The summer following
was as cold as autumn. 自五月甲申至六月, 暴雨傷麥,
夏行秋令.
May On the day of Bingyin, it was tremendously cold. 五月丙寅,
寒甚.
October On the day of Yimao, trees froze. 十月乙卯, 雨木冰.
November Snow fell heavily on the day Renxu. The evening was dim
and gray. 壬戌, 是夕大雪暝晦.
November On the day of Dingmao, snow covered the ground as high as
one to two feet. 丁卯, 正是大雪, 並無蓋臥身上, 雪厚一
二尺, 饑則囁雪或潑雪, 取土中蔓菁根食之.
November Heavy snow, more than three feet thick. The skies were dim
and gray. 閏十一月, 大雪, 盈三尺不止. 天地晦冥, 或雪
未下時, 陰雲中有雪絲, 長數寸墮地.
40 huiping pang
Year
Lunar
Month Records of Snow Disasters
November On the day of Jiachen, the Jurchen Jin armies invaded Hao-
zhou in heavy rains and snows. 十一月甲辰, 大雨雪. 金
人陷亳州.
On the day of Yisi, it was horribly cold; the armies shivered
so badly that they could not hold their weapons, and some
collapsed from numbness. The Emperor washed his feet in
the imperial palace and prayed for sun. 已巳, 大寒, 士卒
噤戰不能執兵, 有僵僕者. 帝在禁中, 徒跣祈晴.
November On the day of Bingwu, trees froze. 閏月丙午, 雨木冰.
November On the day of Guisi, it was bitter cold. 閏月癸巳, 京師苦
寒…甲午, 時雨雪交作, 帝被甲登城.
November On the day of Jiayin, great wind came from the north, and
snow covered the ground as high as several feet deep for
many nights without stopping. 閏十一月甲寅, 大風起北
方, 雪作盈數尺, 連夜不止.
November On the day of Dinghai, strong winds hit houses and snapped
trees. 十一月丁亥, 大風發屋折木.
November On the day of Renzi, the Jin attacked Song imperial gates
Tongjin and Xuanhua, the Song military ofcer Fan Qiong
led thousands into battle; while crossing the river, the ice
broke, and ve hundred Song soldiers sank. 閏月壬子, 金
人攻通津、宣化門, 范瓊以千人出戰, 渡河冰裂, 沒者
五百餘人.
November During the days of Wuwu to Yimao, the snow fell continu-
ously. At night a white haze appeared in the Taiwei constel-
lation, later a comet appeared. 閏月戊午自乙卯, 雪不
止...夜有白氣出太微, 彗星見.
December On the day of Gengchen, there was massive hail and rain. 十
二月庚辰, 雨雹.
December The day before, the emperor had ordered that the timbers of
his razed palaces be sold to relieve the fuel shortage of the
populace. Now he ordered that people be permitted to take
the trees of Genyue and chop them up for rewood. 癸未,
大雪寒, 縱民伐紫筠館花木為薪.
January On the day of Jihai, the sky dim and gray, gusts of wind sud-
denly rose, from day to night, midst northwest clouds re
ashed, two zhang long, several feet wide, the people often
saw this. 正月己亥, 天氣昏曀, 狂風迅發, 竟日夜, 西北
陰雲中如有火光, 長二丈餘, 闊數尺, 民時時見之.
41strange weather: art, politics, and climate change
Year
Lunar
Month Records of Snow Disasters
January On the day of Gengxu, there was heavy wind and rain. 正月
庚戌, 大風雨.
January On the day of Dingyou, heavy snow and extreme cold. The
ice on the ground was as solid as a mirror and people
walking about could barely stay upright. 正月丁酉, 大雪,
天甚寒, 地冰如鏡, 行者不能定立. 丁酉, 雨木冰.
January On the day of Dingwei, great fog everywhere. 正月丁未, 大
霧四塞.
January On the day of Yimao, the imperial carriage was stuck in
Qingcheng where snow lay several feet deep. Many people
froze to death. 正月乙卯, 車駕在青城. 大雪數尺, 人多
凍死.
February On the day of Yiyou, strong winds snapped trees, and became
much stronger in the evening. 二月乙酉, 大風折木, 晚
尤甚.
March On the day of Jihai, there was great wind. 三月己亥, 大風.
April On the day of Gengshen, a great wind blew rocks and
snapped trees. The Jin sent Emperor Qinzong, the Em-
press, and the Crown Prince northward. 夏四月庚申朔,
大風吹石折木. 金人以帝及皇后、皇太子北歸.
April On the day of Xinyou, the north wind was much heavier than
ever before. Bitter cold. 四月辛酉, 北風益甚, 苦寒.
Short-term disasters such as clusters of droughts or cold spells, lasting for just a decade or two, can induce food shortages, famines, and violence and create waves of refugees. Climatically enforced migrations can affect complex societies and, in extreme cases, even topple established bureaucracies. But the measurement of indirect signals (proxies), which is limited by the multidecadal range of radiometric dating or by the poor distribution of the better-dated signals (such as series of tree-rings, lacustrine varves, ice-cores, etc.), is often insufficient to determine the extent to which such natural disasters were the causes of particular human events in history. The introduction of historical evidence, however, can change the resolution of such indirect reconstructions and enable a more balanced and comprehensive assessment. Such an approach indicates that intense cold and other short-term climatic changes were largely responsible for the collapse of the Liao dynasty in Mongolia and northern China.
-
![Lik Hang Tsui]()
This article explores the understudied issue of urban problems in pre-modern China and examines the responses to the negative impact of urban development on life in the populous city of Kaifeng in the Northern Song (960–1127). Although writers, painters, and historians have portrayed the capital city's splendor for centuries, various urban problems emerged as medieval China became a more urbanized society. This article investigates Ouyang Xiu's (1007–1072) accounts of how extreme weather conditions adversely affected the lives of Kaifeng residents. These experiences, which he discussed in letters and poems, are associated with longer trends that result in climatic anomalies and disasters in the city. Ouyang Xiu also complained about living costs and medical services in Kaifeng. These reflect the difficulties in maintaining good urban provisions and services in a city of this scale.
-
![Sabine Dabringhaus]()
PERSPECTIVES ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF CHINA - Volume 2 Special Issue - Sabine Dabringhaus
- Ming-Kin Chu
A millennium ago in Northern Song (960–1127) China, Emperor Huizong initiated the "Eight Virtues of Conduct" in order to recruit morally upright officials. In place of the candidates' skills in literary composition and understanding of the Confucian classics, this scheme adopted candidates' moral virtues as their major criterion of selection. This paper analyzes how this scheme was implemented. It also shows that the rejection of certain genuinely virtuous nominees and the recruitment of some candidates who had exhibited objectionable conduct somehow compromised the emperor's ideal. This analysis is followed by a discussion of the political and social implications of the scheme. Instead of perceiving this promotion channel as a means for Huizong and Chief Councilor Cai Jing to eliminate dissidents and install ideological conformity, the author argues that the scheme was an initiative of the emperor to counter the chief councilor's dominance and alleviate factional conflicts. The final section examines the extent to which this scheme facilitated social mobility in the Song dynasty.
-
![Bao Yang]()
- Achim Bräuning
- Kathleen R. Johnson
- Shi Yafeng
Three alternate China-wide temperature composites covering the last 2000 years were established by combining multiple paleoclimate proxy records obtained from ice cores, tree rings, lake sediments and historical documents. Five periods of temperature variation can be identified: a warm stage in AD 0–240, a cold interval between AD 240 and 800, a return to warm conditions from AD 800–1400, including the Medieval Warm Period between AD 800–1100, the cool Little Ice Age period between 1400–1920, and the present warm stage since 1920. Regional temperature variation is found during AD 800–1100, when warm conditions occurred in Eastern China and in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau and in AD 1150–1380, when the southern Tibetan Plateau experienced a warm interval. In contrast, evidence for cool conditions during the LIA is more consistent among the proxy records. The temperature reconstructions for China and the Northern Hemisphere show good agreement over the past millennium.
Previous studies have shown that the oxygen isotope ratio (&dgr;18O) of plant cellulose can serve as a sensitive proxy indicator of past climate, but its application has mainly been restricted to tree-rings. Here we present a 6000-year high-resolution&dgr;18O record of peat plant cellulose from northeastern China. The&dgr;18O variation is interpreted as reflecting changes in regional surface air temperature. The climate events inferred from the isotope data agree well with archaeological and historic evidence. The record shows a striking corre spondence of climate events to nearly all of the apparent solar activity changes characterized by the atmospheric radiocarbon in tree-rings over the past 6000 years. Spectral analysis of the&dgr;18O record reveals the periodicities of around 86, 93, 101, 110, 127, 132, 140, 155, 207, 245, 311, 590, 820 and 1046 years, which are similar to those detected in the solar excursions. We consider these observations as further evidence for a close relationship between solar activity and climate variations on timescales of decades to centuries. Our results also have implications for distinguishing between natural and anthropogenic contributions to future climate change.
Since 1987, ice cores have been drilled from the Dunde and Guliya ice caps on the Tibetan Plateau, western China. Here, the oxygen isotopic (δ18O) records for the last 1000 years from both these cores are compiled and compared. Using surface temperature observations since the mid-1960s from meteorological stations on the plateau and δ18O measured on precipitation collected contemporaneously, the empirical relationship: δ18O = 0.6 T s – 12 is established. δ18O appears to serve as a reasonable proxy for regional surface temperatures and a reasonable basis for reconstructing 1000a proxy temperature records from Dunde and Guliya. The reconstructed temperature histories for Dunde (on the eastern Tibetan Plateau) and Guliya (on the western Tibetan Plateau) show some centennial-scale similarities, but reveal quite different histories for higher-frequency variability over the last millennium. The ice-core δ18O histories from Dunde and Guliya are compared with a tree-ring index from western China and the dust-fall record from eastern China, but show no consistent relationship. The most prominent similarity between the reconstructed temperature histories for Dunde and Guliya is the marked warming of the last few decades. From the 1000a perspective provided be these ice-core records, the recent warming on Dunde is unique in its strength and persistence; however, the warming on Guliya (inferred from 18O enrichment) is more recent (since 1985) and not unprecedented. This recent warming over the Tibetan Plateau is evident in the limited meteorological records.
Nearly two-thirds of the world's population live in Asia, and many countries in that region are currently undergoing very rapid industrial, agricultural and economic development. The Framework Convention on Climate Change constrains developed countries with regard to their future emissions of greenhouse gases, but recognizes the special needs of developing countries. There is growing appreciation of the ways in which developing countries in the Asian region both contribute to global changes (by altering biogeochemical pathways and cycles) and are themselves affected by those changes. This volume uses the intellectual efforts and findings of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) community to provide the first integrated analysis of the interactions between global change and Asian change, giving particular attention to China's role. The book will be of interest to readers in a wide range of academic disciplines (natural sciences and socio-economic) and for those involved in national and international policy development relevant to global change.
-
![Yetang Hong]()
- Z. G. Wang
- H.B. Jiang
- H. D. Li
We report a new peat δ13C proxy record for humidity or precipitation based on C3 plants from northeastern China. The record reveals two times of significant climate shift and eight severe drought periods during the past 6000 years, all of which have the nature of widespread global occurrence. The variability of precipitation shows periodicities of around 70, 80, 90, 107, 110, 123, 134, 141, 162, 198, 205, 249, 278, 324, 389, 467, 584, 834 and 1060 years. The occurrence and persistent times of drought and periodicities of precipitation show good correspondence with solar variability. The remarkable correlations between peat δ13C, peat δ18O and atmospheric Δ14C suggest that on timescales of decades to centuries the changes in drought and precipitation are likely caused by variations of atmospheric circulation and atmosphere–ocean interactions in large-scale patterns that seem to be related to solar variability.
More than 200 000 ring-width measurements from 384 trees were obtained for 20 individual sites ranging from the lower to upper local timber-lines in the Northwest Karakorum of Pakistan and the Southern Tien Shan of Kirghizia. Samples were obtained predominantly from juniper species (Juniperus) and were analysed to reconstruct regional climatic variation patterns in Western Central Asia since ad 618. Site distri bution represents diverse ecological conditions (e.g., combinations of temperature and moisture stress) within the Karakorum and Tien Shan mountains, permitting both intra-montane and inter-montane comparisons of chronologies. Three different types of chronologies reflecting interannual-, decadal- and centennial-scale ring- width variations were calculated: a statistic skeleton-plotting technique was used to identify ring-width pointer years (interannual); a 101-year kernel filter was used to identify decadal-scale variations; and, for a subset of long-lived trees, the mean ring-width of the entire single series was used to identify centennial trends. After extracting and calibrating each of these three distinct wavelengths in ring-width variation, the results were combined into a comprehensive reconstruction reflecting primarily temperature fluctuations in Western Central Asia since ad 618. The nature and the temporally changing strength of the climatic signals of this reconstruction are discussed in detail. A maximum latewood density record of Pinus tienschanica from Central Tien Shan was used as a predictor series to calibrate and validate tree-ring-width variation. In so doing, we link our results to the circumpolar maximum latewood-density network (Briffa et al., 1998a; 1998b; Schweingruber and Briffa, 1996).
- K. R. Briffa
-
![Timothy John Osborn]()
Reconstructing past climates is important if we are to distinguish anthropogenic warming from natural variability in the climate system. Briffa and Osborn discuss a recent study by Mann et al. that has extended their Northern Hemisphere climatic reconstruction to A.D. 1000 and explain why there are large uncertainties in the reconstruction of medieval and earlier temperatures on large spatial scales. Thus, although the 20th century was almost certainly the warmest of the millennium, the amount of anthropogenic warming remains uncertain.
- Thomas J. Crowley
A frequent conclusion based on study of individual records from the so-called Medieval Warm Period (1000-1300 A.D.) is that the present warmth of the 20 th century is not unusual and therefore cannot be taken as an indication of forced climate change from greenhouse gas emissions. This conclusion is not supported by published composites of Northern Hemisphere climate change, but the conclusions of such syntheses are often either ignored or challenged. In this paper, we revisit the controversy by incorporating additional time series not used in earlier hemispheric compilations. Another difference is that the present reconstruction uses records that are only 900–1000 years long, thereby, avoiding the potential problem of uncertainties introduced by using different numbers of records at different times. Despite clear evidence for Medieval warmth greater than present in some individual records, the new hemispheric composite supports the principal conclusion of earlier hemispheric reconstructions and, furthermore, indicates that maximum Medieval warmth was restricted to two-three 20–30 year intervals, with composite values during these times being only comparable to the mid-20 th century warm time interval. Failure to substantiate hemispheric warmth greater than the present consistently occurs in composites because there are significant offsets in timing of warmth in different regions; ignoring these offsets can lead to serious errors concerning inferences about the magnitude of Medieval warmth and its relevance to interpretation of late 20 th century warming.
-
![Bao Yang]()
- Xing-cheng Kang
- Ya-feng Shi
Based on high-resolution tree-ring data from Dulan area of Qinghai Province, five spells have been divided: the warm period before 230's A. D., the cold period between 240's A. D. and 800's A. D., the significantly warm period between 810's A. D. and 1070's, i. e. "Medieval Warm Period", the cold period including the "Little Ice Age" 1420' – 1870's and the warming period since 1880's. All the eleven coldest or warmest decades and several great abrupt changes took place before the Middle Ages, indicating that climatic system operated in great instability during the period 150's – 1100's A. D., Comparison of the tree-ring data with other temperature proxy data from East China, Guliya ice core as well as the south of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau shows that such great climatic events as Eastern Han warm period between the beginning of the 1st century and the previous fifty years of the third century, the cold period covering the span of the Wei, the Jin, and the Southern and Northern dynasties, the well-known "Medieval Warm Period" as well as the "Little Ice Age" appeared in these series such as East China and Dulan area. Only the first two climatic events were recorded conspicuously in Guliya ice core while the "Medieval Warm Period" and "Little Ice Age" is far weaker. Also, the well-defined "Medieval Warm Period" didn't occurred in the south of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. The warming since the 20th century is the warmest in the last 2000 years Guliya ice core, the second in Dulan area and East China, but it scarcely seems pronounced in the eastern part of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.
Oxygen and carbon isotopic variations in the upper section of a stalagmite (SF-1) from Buddha Cave (33°40′N 109°05′E) dated by 230Th/234U 210Pb and lamination counting to a time resolution as fine as 1–3 years have recorded climate changes in central China for the last 1270 years. The changes include those corresponding to the Medieval Warm Period Little Ice Age and 20th-century warming lending support to the global extent of these events. The isotopic records also show cycles of 33, 22, 11, 9.6, and 7.2 years. The 33-year cycle could well represent the ∼35-year periodicity of climate fluctuations previously recognized in China and Europe. Cycles of 22, 11, and 9.6 years have often been associated with the Sunspot or lunar-orbit variations. The 7.2-year cycle was recently identified also in tree-ring records from an area close to Buddha Cave. These cycles suggest that external forcing (e.g. solar irradiance) may affect the summer monsoon over eastern China. The general consistency between the climate characteristics inferred from the stable isotope records of SF-1 and those from other proxy records underscores the value of stalagmites as recorders of paleoclimate.
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Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236706339_Strange_Weather_Art_Politics_and_Climate_Change_in_the_Middle_of_Emperor_Huizong%27s_Reign_r_1100-1125_Journal_of_Song-Yuan_Studies_39_2009_1-49
